As a part of the “internet” generation in 2004 the websiteIcelimbing.nl opened a new world for me the world of Mixed and Ice climbing.
I bought some crappy ice tools through the internet and sold them again before they ever seen any Ice..
Early 2005 I climbed my first mixed route with home made Fruitboots and DMM Predators with modifications to update them to the “latest standard”.
Well climbing… I was too scared to make any real move but the fig4 picture looked cool :) .
With the experience of being scared on the rock I went home to train in the garden.
My 9 year old brother was willing to give me a belay :)
Lukcy me for my 18th birthday I got some proper Ice tools: BD Fusions. These had to be tested unfortunately for the trees in the neighborhood there was not a lot of (vertical) ice in my flat country.
Early 2006 Wouter Meijs was willing to take the newbe. I climbed my first mixed in the alps.
And here I was February at my first Ice climbing Worldcup !
With the little experience I didn’t do much good but I was having a great time and learning to climb in a competition environment was something totally new for me.
I didn’t finished last :D
From this point on I started training I wanted to become a Professional Ice climber; meaning training and more training to win aWorldcup.
Saas Fee Worldcup 2007 a whole lot of Ice climbing at the time.
–> 2013
With 7 years of training, experience and putting every spare penny into Ice climbing I won my first worldcup in Saas Fee.
2014, After 8 years the Dutch Ice climbing team is me and Marianne. For the last 4 years we are putting a lot off effort in the Ice climbing together. We really want to bring the sport to the next level. And how cool would it be as the Netherlands is major part of it… Marianne (and me) are organizing the National Drytool event for the last 3 years and with success last years edition brought over a 100 (ice) Climbers.
We tried looking for younger climbers with potential and interest but the market in the Netherlands seems rather small. We really want to pass on our experience and skills to create a wider platform of ice climbers. This way it might become possible for them what seems impossible for us.
Thats getting the Dutch Ice climbing team to a professional level. Meaning a team that is properly trained, has all the possibilities and funds to focus on performing well on the world cup and not worry about having the right gear or not being able to pay the climbing gym.
Of course its possible to peform good on a world cup being a student/having a part time job but recovering behind your desk at work stressing about some stupid report instead of having a recovery training guided by your coach makes all the difference between being on the stage or just next to it.
So this year writing my thesis, no time to make any money there was no change for me going to Korea and Romania.
But I have to be honest I didn’t feel like scraping my last pennies together like any other year and live on dry bread just to climb a competition; I was not going to win anyway. Knowing that the training was not what it should be to out perform the competition.
Saas Fee being really close and my winning world cup from 2013 seemed a reasonable option to go anyway.
But some how I managed to penetrate my leg with my speed tool in qualification. Goodbye worldcup…
I still tried to drag myself up the lead wall later that day but according to my fellow competitor I was a discrase for the Iceclimbing community climbing with only one leg without any style or elegance ;) .
Marianne climbed really well and was standing in between 8 well payed climbers in the final and became 7th.
So now I’m home can’t really walk with the 5 cm deep hole in my right leg and have to recover 3 weeks.
All the time to think what is supposed to change too make Ice climbing professional in the Netherlands. The UIAA is trying to make Ice climbing fully Olympic. The official Olympic status of Ice climbing in the Netherlands is just as clear as the marijuana policy…
Loads of Ideas but always the same stumbling stones: a lack of funds :( …
So where do we find: The official Supporter of Dutch Ice climbing team ?
From 2006 to a “Professional”?
As a part of the “internet” generation in 2004 the website Icelimbing.nl opened a new world for me the world of Mixed and Ice climbing.
I bought some crappy ice tools through the internet and sold them again before they ever seen any Ice..
Early 2005 I climbed my first mixed route with home made Fruitboots and DMM Predators with modifications to update them to the “latest standard”.
Well climbing… I was too scared to make any real move but the fig4 picture looked cool :) .
With the experience of being scared on the rock I went home to train in the garden.
My 9 year old brother was willing to give me a belay :)
Lukcy me for my 18th birthday I got some proper Ice tools: BD Fusions. These had to be tested unfortunately for the trees in the neighborhood there was not a lot of (vertical) ice in my flat country.
Early 2006 Wouter Meijs was willing to take the newbe. I climbed my first mixed in the alps.
And here I was February at my first Ice climbing Worldcup !
Valle Di Daone together with the Dutch ice climbing team.
With the little experience I didn’t do much good but I was having a great time and learning to climb in a competition environment was something totally new for me.
I didn’t finished last :D
From this point on I started training I wanted to become a Professional Ice climber; meaning training and more training to win aWorldcup.
Saas Fee Worldcup 2007 a whole lot of Ice climbing at the time.
–> 2013
With 7 years of training, experience and putting every spare penny into Ice climbing I won my first worldcup in Saas Fee.
2014, After 8 years the Dutch Ice climbing team is me and Marianne. For the last 4 years we are putting a lot off effort in the Ice climbing together. We really want to bring the sport to the next level. And how cool would it be as the Netherlands is major part of it… Marianne (and me) are organizing the National Drytool event for the last 3 years and with success last years edition brought over a 100 (ice) Climbers.
We tried looking for younger climbers with potential and interest but the market in the Netherlands seems rather small. We really want to pass on our experience and skills to create a wider platform of ice climbers. This way it might become possible for them what seems impossible for us.
Thats getting the Dutch Ice climbing team to a professional level. Meaning a team that is properly trained, has all the possibilities and funds to focus on performing well on the world cup and not worry about having the right gear or not being able to pay the climbing gym.
Of course its possible to peform good on a world cup being a student/having a part time job but recovering behind your desk at work stressing about some stupid report instead of having a recovery training guided by your coach makes all the difference between being on the stage or just next to it.
So this year writing my thesis, no time to make any money there was no change for me going to Korea and Romania.
But I have to be honest I didn’t feel like scraping my last pennies together like any other year and live on dry bread just to climb a competition; I was not going to win anyway. Knowing that the training was not what it should be to out perform the competition.
Saas Fee being really close and my winning world cup from 2013 seemed a reasonable option to go anyway.
But some how I managed to penetrate my leg with my speed tool in qualification. Goodbye worldcup…
I still tried to drag myself up the lead wall later that day but according to my fellow competitor I was a discrase for the Iceclimbing community climbing with only one leg without any style or elegance ;) .
Marianne climbed really well and was standing in between 8 well payed climbers in the final and became 7th.
So now I’m home can’t really walk with the 5 cm deep hole in my right leg and have to recover 3 weeks.
All the time to think what is supposed to change too make Ice climbing professional in the Netherlands. The UIAA is trying to make Ice climbing fully Olympic. The official Olympic status of Ice climbing in the Netherlands is just as clear as the marijuana policy…
Loads of Ideas but always the same stumbling stones: a lack of funds :( …
So where do we find: The official Supporter of Dutch Ice climbing team ?
More in Dutch : Marianne’s Blog
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