Yesterday morning I get an email from Macau tempting me to go bouldering in Sintra.  My plan was to have a solo night session on O Mito, listen to music and try the moves, but I succumbed and went bouldering IN THE DAYTIME!!!!!

Very strange to boulder in the day   The Sun illuminates the holds so differently than the headlamp

So, though it had rained hail a few hours before and was still intermittently raining, I went to Sintra.  I wanted to go to O Mito and see how I felt on what would be the 2nd day trying the sit start and so I did, and was forced to warm-up on overhanging crimps because the only jug was completely soaked.  Trying to be wise, warm-up carefully to not get injured, I eventually found myself trying the start moves again.  Macau arrived at the end of the warm-up, gave me his beta, and snapped photos as I tried to unlock the hard moves.  All photos by Ricardo “Macau” Alves, check out his website!

Trying my beta…

Trying Macau’s beta

I made some good progress, felt stronger on the heinous crimps.  The first move on my beta is slightly harder than Macau’s but may set me up better for the following moves, whereas Macau’s first move is easier but then…  both sequences feel hard!!  Can’t wait to get back on it, hopefully tomorrow!!

Then we went to another boulder which we had seen a few days ago.  I had refrained from trying it because it looked intimidating.  Beautiful and intimidating.  My good friend Max Z. over at Czarclimbing came up with a set of indicators to evaluate how “good” a problem is, how many stars does it earn.  I’d give this problem a high star grade.  Macau had cleaned the top a little, on toprope, and so we were going to see how it fared today.  Just as we were finishing drying the two-finger start hold and contemplating the moves Pena and Rasta arrived!  The more the merrier!

Pena and I gave it very good burns while Macau snapped away and Rasta cheered us on.  Photos below:

Macau and I were discussing: The rock in Sintra hasn’t been sculpted in the same way as most bouldering places I have visited.  Hueco or Hound Ears, Little Rock City, Horse Pens or Bishop generally have obvious lines: a line of crimps or huecos or slopers or dihedral.  The line tends to be there, staring you in the face.  Whereas in Sintra the rock oftentimes resembles a sculpture more than an obvious “line”, they are more artistic lines instead of gym-climbs.  This boulder we were on yesterday is like that.  It has two pockets to start and God knows how they got there because other than those two pockets the rock is smooth.  Instead of climbing a “line” on the boulder you’re climbing the shape of the whole boulder.

We saw one more line on a neighboring boulder, another beautifully sculpted piece or rock with no evident sequence but definitely calling for attention.  Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be good enough to go and try that new line!

And if I thought that the bouldering scene in Sintra was expanding and that I had plenty of projects… well, yesterday evening that was pushed out to another level.  At 2pm I met up with Pena and Rasta, Goncalo and Teresa, Philippe and another climber whose name I forget now at the Pedra Amarela (Yellow Stone) sector.  I had been there before, 8 years ago actually, when the area was completely overgrown with bushes and trees and when I was still taking my baby steps in climbing.  It is amazing how one’s view of a location can change with time.

Similarly to the other sectors in Sintra, Pedra Amarela is completely different.  The rock is a distinctly different color, the typical formations are distinctly different and the setting is different; by setting I mean the landscape, the environment.  I found myself again amazed at the diversity of this “small” mountain called Sintra.

Tapada sector is covered in trees and bushes and rock.  The feeling is of things close together, not cramped but covered, surrounded.  The rock in Tapada generally feels soft on the fingers (actually: read softer if you are not accustomed to Sintra… soft is not applicable to any rock here).

Pedra Amarela is more in the opposite direction, the view extends forever, hills with scattered boulders, in the distance you can see the ocean, the beaches, the city of Cascais and Lisbon.  The rock has a beautiful clean look, a pale yellow color which changes intensely as the day progresses, often forming tall slabs and rounded aretes.  A beautiful place for watching the sunset and for watching the stars.

…and for climbing too!!

Rasta on a nice slab problem (so many nice slabs in Pedra Amarela), foto by Teresa:

Goncalo on Doo Bop, foto by Teresa:

Myself on Doo Bop, foto by Teresa:

Phillipe on a nice line, foto by Teresa:

Pena on Estrela Decadente, foto by Teresa:

With good effort I managed to send both Doo Bop (7b) and Estrela Decadente (7a+ which I consider as hard as Doo Bop 7b).  Best news was that my ankle was not 100% but it was good enough to not bother me throughout the day!  and I feelt the bouldering form/motivation coming back after such a great night session.  Climbing with a bunch of happy motivated friends is the best way to get my spirits up, and it is my experience that most of the climbers here in Portugal are more motivated for the problem than they are motivated for their ego so the sessions end up being fun and we all try hard.

Two days later I was back in Sintra for another night session, this time at the Mecca area where my main project lies: O Mito (The Myth).  The picture below was taken at the end of September, on the 21st, when I first tried this line.  This is an overhanging crimp problem with shouldery moves, the stand start goes at 7a+ and the sit has seen two ascents: one by Leo and one by Andre.  Macau has worked this line for several months and got painfully close to sending (and taking the FA) before Leo did it, they both said 8a (V11).  Then Andre Neres got the second ascent and lowered the grade to V10.  Andre has been the rising mutant in Portuguese climbing for a few years now.  He progressed very quickly but then dropped out for some time and returned with a girlfriend and a baby girl; his return to climbing has seen the same progress as before and he has been crushing the hardest routes in Portugal, up to 5.14b, fast.  He doesn’t show up much in the bouldering world but when he does he normally sends several projects in a day.  On the day he sent O Mito sit he also sent a 10-year project in Sintra (graded it 7b …….) and a project Nico Favresse and I had been trying for about 4 days (grading it 7b+).

Photo by Macau

I was feeling super light that night and I very quickly sent the stand start which got me very motivated to work the moves on the sit.  After some figuring out I settled on a sequence which differs from both methods used by Macau, Leo and Andre but which suits me better and I started giving it burns.  The moves are still beyond my ability but feel very reachable!  We then moved on and scoped out some other climbs but nothing good enough to make me stop thinking about O Mito…

So, yesterday night I returned.  This time on a solo session in Sintra.  I took my pads to O Mito and spent a good hour methodically working the moves and listening to music.  Made some good progress but the link-up did not occur yet.  But it will.  To end the night I went to another sector to try the hardest line there called Eduardo Maos de Strappal (Edward Strappal Hands) rated 7b+.  This is a really nice overhanging compression problem on slopers, completely the opposite of O Mito.  The holds felt huge after working on crimps for an hour and compression moves are my favorite so I sent it quickly.  I started working on the sit start too which goes at 7c (V9) but couldn’t figure out how to do one of the moves… and then it started drizzling.

Here are two links to nice videos of climbing in Sintra made by a spanish climber called Dani, Macau does the sit to Eduardo Maos de Strappal at the very end of the second movie, enjoy:

Since I arrived back in Portugal I have been bouldering bouldering bouldering.  This was expected because that is what I have always felt most comfortable doing and because for the past 7.5 years (since leaving Portugal to study in the US) that is what I have been doing.  However, somewhere in those last years something shifted.

When I started climbing it was always rope climbing, sport climbing, not bouldering.  I only took to bouldering after several months of sport climbing.  Those first months were great, I went to the crags with my brother or with Jonas and messed around on easy climbs, rarely eyeing anything more difficult than 6b.  Then I began to become familiarized with the climbing community and started to go to a newly opened climbing wall; a miniature thing in a miniature spot.  That was when the addiction really started.  I got addicted to being capable of doing a harder move, a trickier move; of inventing problems that were fun and involved intricate sequences.  I got so addicted that I managed to convince the owners to give me a key and I would go there alone and try hard on this 2.5×2.5×2.5 meter room.  I didn’t apply it to outdoor bouldering, only on a couple of occassions but I found that that was too hard still, but applying that to the rope climbing I noticed that I quickly progressed through the grades… however, it was all about grades for me at the time.  Not to show off to others but it was the grade that I was trying for.  The grade, the hard moves, and the fear of falling were the three most present things on every trip.

Skip forward 8 years, 8 years of bouldering and growing up, and somewhere in the end of those 8 years of sobering I found myself enjoying rope climbing in a new way.

Yesterday I went back to the premier (though recently rivaled) climbing spot in central Portugal: Fenda.  My heart was overjoyed to be back there and it was so refreshing to see it full of new eager climbers.  At the moment rope climbing for me has become a bliss trip.  I tie in and start to feel so much happiness, then I begin the route and do the first 10 moves and notice that I still have 30 more to go, or 40, and it feels so good.  It has become like reading a good book, but so much better because the interaction is fully somatic, full-body, not cerebral.  It’s like my body got so saturated of doing 3-7 move boulder problems that now it is in bliss to go on a long trip.  Like a sprinter who has been told he can leave the indoor track and go for a long jog on the beach.

Other than that bliss there is the challenge.  The challenge in climbing has, for me, become less and less about the grade and more and more about my inner fears.  In bouldering I have enjoyed going alone more often because I am frequently self-conscious and can get in a rut if the people I’m climbing with are not easy-going, if they are too serious (of course, all judgements on my part).  In rope climbing it is the fear of falling, the fear of trying.  Yesterday I felt that as I eyed the hardest route I had sent 8 years ago.  It had been the next step in my progression and those steps were coming fast; it wasn’t like I was established on any grade, I just wanted to go further, growing higher not wider.  It was a 5.12b/c and I was feeling the little voice telling me not to get on it.  So I did.  I said fuck it, said it was time for a new pattern and put the shoes on and went on it.  I gave it what I had and got through the bouldery crux section, climbing well, and fell after hanging after the crux looking for the correct sequence.  Then made it to the top, and came down happy as ever (and pumped as ever).

For the final route I decided to try an new 5.12b/c, a long route, knowing that this was too early to go into a 40+ move route at the end of the day.  I gave it a go and had to hang about 5 times; it wasn’t even a question of fear of falling but just that the forearms got overpumped and lost and strength and I had to wait a few minutes between attempts in order to do 5 more moves.  I finally made it to the top, lowered, and belayed a friend on it who showed me all the moves.  I decided I’d give it another go before leaving so after a good 20-30 minute rest and as the sun went down I got back on the route.  Somewhere about the 7th move I sunk into myself, got out of my head, noticed where I was, what I was doing, and my body relaxed.  I stopped gripping as hard, started breathing easier, moving more openly and the thought crossed my mind that with good technique I might send the route.  So I climbed smart, took good rests, stayed relaxed and lo-and-behold I got to the very last 2 moves with fatigued forearms.  Giving it all I had I stabbed for the holds in the last moves and made it to the anchors!

Before flying to Portugal I made a long tick-list of the routes I wanted to do, yesterday the first one got scratched off.  So much more than a name and a number… I’m really really looking forward to experiencing the other climbs, getting to know their stories, and doing it in the company of good friends as was the case yesterday!!!

A short but important p.s.

The word Fenda, in Portuguese, means a crevice.  This climbing area is located very close to the beach but from the beach you can only see the rising mountain side, not the climbing wall because the wall is located in a crevice.  There are several sectors in this area and most of the routes are overhanging. The routes are made of limestone rock in tones of orange to black and the holds are very varied: tufas, crimps, pockets, slopers…  The Fenda has been a climbing spot for about 2 decades now and despite this long time it has few greasy/polished routes since the climbing community has not been very numerous … Climbing is possible year-round; summer time you belay the climber as he/she drips sweat into your eyes, winter time is perhaps the most recommended as the holds are less greasy and the overhanging rock allows for climbing even during rain.

I’m really grateful to those who bolted these routes a long time ago and to those who have kept them in good conditions by replacing bolts and anchors.  This is definitely an excellent spot for climbing!

Went to the mountain of Sintra again, super psyched, riding high from the recent great sends!  I decided to start aiming my sights higher, as high as Sintra goes actually: Mito 8a (V11).  I looked at this problem with Macau about three weeks ago, soon after I had arrived; it looked awesome and felt very tough but I felt it to be within my reach.  That’s what a project is.

So I went over to the Mecca, feeling great, the wind in my face, the temps felt great.  I walked over to the warm-up area and set down my things.  Chalked up and did laps on an excellent V2 or something.  And it was about then that things started to feel a little off.  I tried some lines I had previously done and was greasing off them.  What was going on?  And then I noticed that I was sweating.  The temperature had shot up and the humidity was ridiculous for Sintra.  What was going on?  The rock felt like soap.  I kept trying the lines, super frustrated, feeling like a shitty climber.  Arghhh…  Each time I fell the morale got lower and lower.  This is one of the downsides of going climbing alone, when things are going bad there is no-one to joke with, to lighten up the mood.

I packed up my stuff after finally repeating a line I had flashed three weeks ago and doing a traverse line I hand’t tried.  Upon topping out I noticed the large raincoulds in the distance and realized that the humidity and temps were because of the front coming in.

I headed back to the car.  Sitting in the car I planned on leaving Sintra and going back home, or going to the beach… but it didn’t make sense to be here now and to leave…  Sure it was frustrating but that was climbing..  I can’t expect to have rad 7c days every single time.  It was a challenge.  I just felt off.  Thinking of Jonathan Livingston Seagull I drove the car to the Mito parking, removed the crash pads, packed the bags again and hiked the 10 minutes there.

The rock looked just as beautiful as I remembered, even more so.  My fingers were in pain when I touched the rock, the moves felt impossible and the rock felt greasy.  With a more understanding mentality/outlook I spent the next hour working some of the moves, failing relentlessly but persisting.

The sun went down and I headed back to the car feeling some satisfaction.  I’m glad I didn’t leave right away.

Four days spread out over 3 years; two days 3 years ago and 2 more since arriving at the beginning of September.  That is how long it has taken to do the last move of this problem.  3 years ago I tried it and quickly made it to the last move, a long dynamic move with the left hand from a crimp to a high sloper.  The second day on I met up with Filipe and we both worked on the climb, he sent and I fell a couple of times on the same last move before it got dark and people left… I was on a short visit to Portugal and the next day I flew back to the US.

Today I met up with Nico Favresse and with Rances Rodriguez and after a nice little warm-up we went to check out this climb.  Second try and I was back to falling from the last move.  But this time the mood was different.  No-one was eager to leave, sunset had come and the headlamps were out, and there was a lot of psych going around.  I fell two or three more times then I stuck the move only to fall matching the sloper.  Super amped I added one more element of motivation by putting La Roux’s “Going in for the kill” on the little sound system.  With little rest and much motivation I sent and let out an immense yell of satisfaction!!

Soooo Goood!!

What a climb!  5 stars!  The first 7c (V9) in Portugal and such a beautiful line!  Tall, unique (not an eliminate), excellent sequence of moves…  SO PSYCHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was the fifth day trying the problem and I was still stumped on the same move, a slap with the left hand from a good crimp to a good but far pocket which juan can’t see because it is around the corner, the slap always caused my body to barndoor immensely.  It was the only move that I couldn’t do.  I figured out the last move, a left-hand dyno from the pocket to a good sloper with the right hand on some terrible divets which you have to crimp or bear down on, the setting up for the dyno would be tough though…

It was 9:00 pm and I was alone in the Sintra mountains.  There was a crescent moon.  The air had a faint breeze.  It was quiet and too warm to be bouldering on granite slopers.  Like many other boulder problems here this one had only seen one ascent, by the abominable Macau.  Similarly to what I have been doing for the past few weeks–bouldering alone–Macau has been exploring and sending in Sintra but for many years.  He graded this climb 7b+,  It was my fifth day on and I was getting sceptical.

After lying on the crash pads with my headlamp off, enjoying the forest soudns, I put the shoes back on, switched the headlamp on and decided to see if a proper sit-start was possible.  The way this problem had been sent and tried by other climbed was get a right hand crimp, to crouch down and place a right heel hook, then place the left hand on a side pull, lift the left foot off the ground and do a left hand deadpoint to a good crimp.  Needless to say it was an awkward start.

The sit start looked improbable but I had nothing better to do, I soon found out that improbable was really only its appearance.  The rock revealed a very nice and natural sequence leading up to the previous start, adding two excellent moves.

Having figured out the new start I managed to climb the problem in two parts and was again left wondering how to do that one middle move.  I examined the whole boulder again, like a chess problem, convinced that it was possible to do and that I just needed to figure it out, to observe it until something clicked.  Then it clicked!  A new foothold, a different body position unlocked a new way of going for the pocket while keeping the body locked close to the rock.  Then I would release the foot and have to hold a less violent barndoor.  It was now close to 10pm, my fingers were raw and close to bleeding and I was super psyched to try this new sequence!  I gave it three good goes but with the low start I was getting to the hard moves without enough juice.  I had to call it a night.

Today was the sixth and last time I had to work on this climb.  The warm up was lame, my body felt great but my skin hadn’t fully recovered and I imagined I would only have a few goes before it might bleed; I found myself resisting doing any effort on the warm up problems in order to save skin and so instead of wasting time I went straight to the boulder.

I brushed the holds and felt them.  The temperature felt warm but the holds felt ok.  I was feeling more and more motivated it was hard to contain the psyche.  I just wanted to get on the climb and do it.  Its a feeling that I have when I know that the climb has now fallen into the possible side of reality.  I can see it happening but it hasn’t happened.  Just possible.  And a part of me told me to relax or I would rush the moves, to contain the motivation… I already had the shoes on and my fingers chalked up but I sad and tried to calm myself down.  After about a minute I got worried that I would calm down too much and begin to be putting off the climbing, hesitating; I told myself I would give it a few burns just to help me warm up and maintain the adrenaline flowing.

I got set up, did the first two moves and hit the left hand crimp slightly off, crimped down and continued, put the right heel on and locked off the left arm, the bad sloper was right there so I reached statically to it with my right hand and my healing fingers told me the hold was exactly on, I locked the body in and reached for the pocket, then tightened the core and slowly released the feet, the hands stayed on!  I adjusted the feet with the right heel on the hard-to-see foothold, felt ok, moved right hand to the miniature grooves and tried to bear down on them, I’m at the dyno, I know this is just a test run, a warm up but I’m here now and it would really suck if I fell from here.  Raised the right foot and fired for the sloper, and hit it!  I remembered Macau saying he still fell a few times after hitting the sloper, and this was my first time here on link, I got the right foot up high and stabbed right hand to a high groove which turned out to be a very positive hold!  Yes!  Climbed up, turned around, gave a good yell and sat at the top of the boulder laughing.  So psyched.  This was supposed to have been the test run, do I have to go again?

Grades are all subjective, I’m giving it a 7c (V9).  It is an excellent climb, highly recommended.

Not sure what I’ll try next though.  I really enjoy climbing with other people but recently I’ve been bouldering alone and noticing an added depth to the experience.  It’s just me, no-one to complain to or climb hard for or receive psyche from… no spotter on the sketchier moves.  I’m finding it to be a very good learning experience when I go bouldering alone.  You’re doing it only for yourself when you’re alone.  So, I look forward to days when other people show up and to days when no-one else comes.

And now a link to the Zeitgeist movie (note, no climbing in this movie):

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It’s 4:40pm and I’ll be going to Sintra again tonight, not sure which blocs to go to but I’ll be going somewhere.

Two days ago I met up with Rasta at the Mecca and we repeated some of the nice easier blocs there.  I really like the lines that already exist there.  I figured out the correct foot placement and sent Megalito 7b; the first day on it I had gotten stumped on one move which I kept trying the way Macau told me to and my foot kept cutting.  The lesson is to always try to do the bloc the way it feels/looks right for you, then listen to what others say and try their beta, I could have saved a lot of skin!

Then Rasta and I eyed a new bloc which was uncovered due to the epic deforestation that has been going on in the name of fire prevention.

We looked at it and both found some possible lines.  Rasta cleaned up the left side/arete of this bloc and I cleaned the right side of the roof.  With headlamps we both sent Rasta’s line and dubbed it Transilvania 6c; we were hesitating between A Morte do Vampiro (the death of the vampire) or O Crepusculo do Vampiro (the sunset of the vampire) because the if we were to fall and roll off the pad we would be staked to death by the sharp wooden spears caused by the deforestation.  Then we went to look at the other line and had a good laugh.  I titled this post “just enough to dream” because there are just enough hold there to dream of doing this problem.  Good start feet on the back wall, a small yet solid undercling crimp on the roof, a small one/one.5 finger divet for the right hand on the bulge, and just one hold for the right foot.  Just enough holds…  We couldn’t even budge on any of the starting moves but there is something there.  8a? 8a+? 8a++?  Someday this is going to be a solid Sintra 7b+!!!

For some reason wordpress was crashing when I tried to post two days ago… I’ve already written and lost this post 3 times because of that! Well, besides pictures, the main news today is that two days ago I felt strong after a two-day rest by the beach and I crushed a classic 7b+ (V8) in Sintra called O Karma da Serra!! It was my third day trying this climb.

On the first day I figured out some beta which seemed to work really well but my fingers weren’t ready for the sharp rock.

The second day my beta simply was not working anymore so I spent most of the time figuring out new beta and ended up using the method everybody else trying it uses; I gave it two or three good burns with that method but my shoe kept pulling off my foot on the second-to-last move which is heavy on the left heel.

This third day I quickly found myself at the same situation, I tried taping the shoe on tighter but it wasn’t working, then I decided to try a different shoe which has a looser heel and, counterintuitively, it worked. The extra give in the heel actually allowed the shoe to adjust to the rock whereas with the other shoes once the heel opened slightly the shoe would come off. So I fell once on the very last bump move off a crimp, got super adrenalized, put on La Roux’s “Going in for the Kill” and sent it! Feeling super pumped I drove over to A Tapada to try Zeitgeist, another 7b+ that was close, but got shut down. It was my 4th day on it and I still haven’t figureda way to do the slap move; my body just swings violently out everytime I try that move… Oh well – projects projects projects!

And here are some photos taken by Macau:

Trying to open a new line.

O Dia da Besta 7b

Grande Canhao? 6c+? (so many names I get confused)

Megalito 7b

O Mito stand 7a+

O Mito

Macau sent his usual email informing about 10 people that there would be another night-bouldering session last night, other than himself the only fanatics to show up were Isabel Boavida and I.

The meeting place was Lagoa Azul, another gorgeous place in Sintra.

Last night we went to two more new (for me) sectors: A Mecca e o Mito and these were the best thus far.  The boulders were really sweet!  It was like a little Hueco Tanks.  Good texture to the rock, nice lines, tall boulders, good landings…  Sintra has grown!

Macau setting up to try a project in the Mecca sector.

Quality bouldering at The Mecca sector.

The Mito area really has one main bloc, the Mito bloc.  This bloc was discovered over a decade ago by the elite boulderers back then but it was discarded at the time because of its difficulty and then it was lost.  Literally, it was lost for many years, it was found by chance and the rapidly growing foliage in Sintra made it so that it was extremely difficult to find again.  Only two years ago was it rediscovered with the help of GoogleEarth and a lot of persistence.

Two problems are on this bloc: the Mito sit start which weighs in at 8a (V11) and the stand start which is a powerful 7a+ (v5).

O Mito

Macau on the sit start of O Mito

We ended the night session at an early 11:30pm under a perfectly clear and starry sky.  I was definitely feeling much better on the rock and had an excellent session at The Mecca, sending several boulders in the 7a/+ range in a few goes.  My skin, though, is suffering, the fingertips feel pretty beat up so I’m planning on taking a full 2 days rest!!  …  let’s see if I can manage to stay away that long!  Autumn is coming soon and with it the cooler temperatures which will make bouldering that much better, so I will definitely be back to work on O Mito!