Been quiet on my blog lately.Sorry for that. Been busy with…climbing. A competition in Arnhem (5th, quite okay but should have been better) and last weekend I was involved in family business with Dennis’ family (which was quite nice actually) and of course…climbing. This time another area in Germany, not Ettringen but Ibbenbüren was our …

This weekend not just Ettringen climbing, but something more. I was invited by the Dutch climbing federation (NKBV) to help with the course for trad-climbing instructors. So not just climbing, but teaching climbing as well this weekend. And when it’s about something more then just teaching how to belay it’s fun! The group was motivated …

One of my interests is geology. Actually I’m more then just interested in the subject. I get ‘hyper’ when I talk about volcanism, and the Earth’s activity underground. Last year I was in Iceland at the time of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. This year I’m not living in Iceland anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t …

Climbing routes on bolts or climbing routes on trad gear is a difficult ethical issue in climbing. In some countries people only tend to climb on bolts, in some it’s mixed (some area’s are bolted others are clean) and in some trad is the only way to climb. Climbing trad or bolts involves not just …

After a week of climbing in Elbsandstein (Germany) and a hit&run to the annual Petzl meeting in Belgium I needed a ‘day off’. I woke up at 5 yesterday and was home again around 2-ish in the night. Long day… So, updated my vegetable garden with maïs, carrots and other seeds and little plants, did …

It’s sunny, warm and I wanted to pick up an ‘old’ hobby. Running. I used to run 5 days a week next to all my other activities. But, since I live in the Netherlands again, I got a bit lazy. No dog to accompany me, no forest to run some trails. So I decided to …

Today, May 4. is a special day. War memorial day. My grandparents are the key to this day. I consider them to be the ones that actually made it possible for me to live my life as it is. 2 Minutes of silence. Today May 4. is the day to remind the ones who are …

Our mini-holiday was so relaxed… So just made a relaxed video clip. Most of the times we don’t call our climbing trips ‘holiday’ as alpine/ice climbing is just hard work and at the time that we’re home again we need restdays. But this time our climbing trip had other ‘key words’: sun, nature and fairly …

Easter, hot weather, actually warmest Easter ever measured in the Netherlands. So, where do you go? South? Chamonix? East? Ettringen? Freyr? Pfalz? We had no idea, wanted to go for something new, something different. Dennis’ was once told that Götenborg had amazing climbing. So, the car already packed with iceaxes, crampons, chalk, bikini and trad …