Today we were supposed to go climbing outdoors, I really wanted to check out an area called Kronthal in the Alsace region of France. Its only a three hour drive from Brussels and has tons of good, hard routes to play on, so naturally I was very excited. But right as we were steping out the door, my mom dropped the key to the garage in the elevator, right into that little gap between the elevator and the wall. We searched for an hour but couldnt find it anywhere, and since it was our only garage key, we couldnt get to the car. Hence the trip being cancelled.
So instead, because I had nothing better to do, I decided to go to a local youth boudering comp that one of the gyms was hosting. They set around 50 boulders and whoever climbed the most would win. Me and my friend Raph both climbed all the problems, but since I had less falls I ended up winning. The problems weren't too hard, the hardest being maybe V9, but they were very well set and fun to climb.
Speaking of routesetting, I want to emphasize a point that Ive been making lately - Routesetters are a lot better in Europe then they are in the US. They have more training, better style, and put a lot more effort into creating quality problems. I can honestly say that I enjoyed every boulder I did today, something I very rarely think after a comp in the US. Of course this is just my opinion, many others would probably disagree. There are good and bad setters everywhere, but from my experience, the ratio of good to bad is much much higher over here.
