Bouldering, Beers and an absence of Blogs. A purely text post explaining my absence and what the next few months holds for me!

It has been many months since I have been able to post, but I will be back as soon as possible. Sore fingers, tired arms and the general busy busy of a European summer are to blame... think beers, biergartens and my fair share of hangovers.

My absence can be explained easily (I think).

For the past few months I have been chasing the dream of becoming a professional bouldering routesetter! So... Wah?

Bouldering is a specific form of climbing which originated as a form of training on small boulders and walls (hence the name bouldering). Outdoor and indoor, the sport is seeing a huge boom in recent years with bigger and more sophisticated gyms opening in pretty much every major city. Unlike most other forms of climbing, it is significantly more accessible to the average folk, for a few reasons. First and foremost, the maximum height of a gym wall is 4 metres (in europe; in Usa they can go up to 6 for some reason... Murca!). This means no ropes, no harnesses and no equipment stress. The gym is also super social as everyone is vying for walltime, while others watch and techniques, moves and betas (solutions) can be quickly shared.

See my post from a few months ago about it climbing at Boulderwelt

So, I moved from Australia 3 years ago without any idea of the sport, and now I am a routesetter at two of the best gyms in the world - Boulderwelt Ost, and Boulderwelt West. Boulderwelt Ost, in Munich's east is around 8 years old now and for a while was the biggest gym in the world. So I get to create climbing routes for people! This is Effing Cool because its like creating the physical mental problems for people to enjoy, love, hate, get frustrated at, learn from, figure out and most importantly climb.

It is the best job and from now on I will be posting more bouldering and climbing related content.

I will also be delving back into the folders and folders of photos and travel stories to continue my Mismatched Travel Diaries!

(And just quietly, I bought some recording equipment to start a podcast, or internet radio show. I know, I know, another podcast, but I love music, and want to share it with people, so for the next few months I will be recording and editing and figuring out the utterly tedious world of music rights. If not... maybe Ill do a pirate radio sorta thing.)

So for now, just let me get my shit together and Ill start throwing that shit at the wall, howaboutit!

Danedebeau