Marianne entered the competition tout a bloc and i was her “cheer leader” for 2 days. After tout a bloc we where going to climb whit my family. My little brothers never lead climbed anything so now was the time to learn them what climbing is about. A little movie for up-date edited by Marianne.
It was a struggle to leave the Netherlands. I had to fix my van: new rear bearings new Vuseeballs .But finally we left the 10th. The first stop was Baume les Dame for some sport climbing. After a warming up I climbed a nice 6c through a little cave. To find out the 6a after that was really shitty. After a nice swim we drove on to breakdown the car on a Sunday.. After some phone calls we where picked up by “depannage” during the football match Holland Spain..
So the next day the garage took a look at my little van around 2 in the afternoon. They managed to make the oil leak even worse.. But fixed the rear axle and oil leak in the end. So around 19:00 we where back on the road.After a 100 km test drive we stopped and took some sleep.
So on Tuesday we finally arrived in Ailifroide to go out and climb the Fissure de Ailefroide to warm up.
Again a long weekend working for me but next weekend Climbing 
.
Last days it was chaos in the City because of Le Grande Depart of the Tour de France.
The complete city was closed down from east to west. Realy nice because i live south of Rotterdam and work at Heigtspecialists on the Euromast in the City center….
Because of the Tour we also had to wear a nice yellow bannana shirt. Witch looks great wile Abseiling from the euromast.
Photo: Dennis van Hoek Thijs on the rail
So after a season of climbing with the Ion its time for a new rope.
The Ion worked really good for the last 9 months. It was my first “skinny” rope. It took a bit to get used to it.
But now I’m sure a light rope works great. The Nano is even more skinny only 9.2 mm.
Perfect for onsight en hard redpoint attempts.
And the nice bright Orange will be really good for ice and granite pictures.
Photo: Dennis van Hoek
Only one more week of studies and than its time to go out!
The plan is to aim for Ailefroide and along the way we will stop in Cham and a lot of sportsclimbing areas.
To get strong for the longer projects in Ailefroide. Lets hope my van makes it through the summer.
Dibona, Photo: Matthew Buckle
