Fifoxtasy's Blog

Pictures around the world trip

2011-04-13T05:05:00.001+02:00

Yangshuo

2010-08-28T13:15:00.000+02:00

We finally uploaded some pictures from our trip to China & Hong Kong. Check out the Picasa Album China Hong Kong.
We spent almost our entire time in China in the Guangxi province. After a few days in Nanning a big city, where we didn't see a single foreigner for days, we went on to Yangshuo one of the more touristy places in China. As Yangshuo is the best (at least the most popular) place in China for climbing we decided to make it our home for the coming three weeks. We enjoyed great climbing in a beautiful karst landscape, made friends, enjoyed great food, but also experienced a flood in the area, weeks of rain and we didn't see the sun once in 2 weeks.
Hong Kong was a very interesting experience where you can spend 20 min just to get across the street, because you have to walk around the corner get into a building cross the skybridge into another building get down again out of the building through a subway and so on...

After super humid China and super busy Hong Kong we decided to hit the beach next, so we are finally going to Thailand!!

Chinese Censorship

2010-07-15T21:01:00.000+02:00

Short: Chinese censorship sucks.

Long: Due to Chinese internet censorship we could not access any blogspot.com/ domain. Which of course means that my blog is censored in China which means I could neither view nor update it. That sucks, no they suck, the Chinese government sucks. They don't give a shit about freedom of speech. If somebody could voice his opinion - just block the whole site. Blogs are bad for Chinese people, block them! Facebook is bad for Chinese people, block it! Websites where you can post pictures (picasaweb, etc), bad! block 'em! Wikipedia site about the People's Republic of China very bad! Chinese citizens could learn the truth about their government, block it!

and while we're at it: just in case they didn't block anything: everybody using a computer in an internet cafe is required to show his ID so all his activity can be traced.

Now they should have everything covered. Except for knowledgeable geeks how use a VPN or a proxy.

Apart from the totalitarian regime that controls China and executes more people than the rest of the world put together every year (thousands every year and guess what they don't tell anybody how many and who they kill. I wonder why...) we had a great time in China. It's a beautiful country with extremely friendly people.

We spent quite some time in Yangshuo, Guangxi province which has great climbing. And then went to China's beacon of freedom: Hong Kong. A cool place where the people still live their freedoms but which will probably be made completely a part of China in a few decades. For now it runs under "one country, two systems" which gives them a lot of autonomy.

Around the World Trip

2010-06-02T12:23:00.002+02:00

It has been more than two years since my last post, which of course is due to my life being completely boring during that period of time ;) Well now I'm up to something interesting again: a trip around the world.
After finishing my studies Alexandra and I left to travel the world for an entire year. We started a month ago with a flight to Bangkok, we initially intended to travel to Cambodia overland, but in the end we booked another flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We did this in order to avoid the trouble caused by the Red Shirts in Thailand.
We stayed in Cambodia for more than a week and had a very good but extremely hot start. It was the hottest time of the year, just before the rainy season started. Extremely hot and humid and almost no difference between night and day! Incredible, we spent the whole day sweating and running from one place to another hoping for it to be cooler never resting always running (not literally!) from the heat, then when night fell in we thought it would finally cool down, but it didn't.
Cambodia is a interesting country with very nice people who have a shocking recent history: From 1975 to 1979 Cambodia was ruled by Pol Pot an the Khmer Rouge. A frightening regime that enslaved the whole country to work in the rice fields and killed more than a quarter of the country's population in only three years. Lots of them were killed and buried in mass graves all over the Cambodia, but even more died of starvation and hard work.
We also visited the Angkor area, which is one of the biggest ruins on the planet. In its heyday it was the biggest pre-industrial city in the world home to roughly one million inhabitants. Beautiful and fascinating.

Then we took a boat down the Mekong to Vietnam. Much cooler here. Traveled south to north in Vietnam. Currently we reside on Cat Ba an Island at the Ha Long Bay, a beautiful place were we climbed the first routes on our trip and the first place where we stay a bit longer, settle down a bit. Our backpacks are quite big and heavy because of all the climbing gear that we brought along - it feels good to put it to use so we didn't carry it around in vain.

Shortly we will be heading further north to Sapa where we plan to cross the boarder to China, which was not part of our original plan. But the opportunity arose and that's the whole beauty of our travel experience - we are free to go where we want to, whenever we want to.

Update: We posted some pictures on my flickr account. Here is a link to the set Cambodia & Vietnam

Stuff

2008-02-24T23:21:00.008+01:00

It's been a very long time since my last post. Sorry. Lots of my friends stopped posting as well, what's going on? Erik? Adrien? Dani? Romain? Andi? Come on!

Today I sent my first 7b in Ötztal / Tumpen !!! Very proud. 40m tiny hold madness. very techincal. My style I guess.

I've been bouldering in the Zillertal at the Sundergrund, a magical place. Especially on that day - Snow all over the place. On the boulders all around them, really pretty. O and how gorgeous the granit boulders are, those shapes...
I learned something there: Flip-Flops are quite handy in the snow (you don't mind if they get wet)

Sundergrund

Lately I was climbing a lot, it was just too warm for skiing (for my taste at least)
but earlier this year I did some great skiing in austria: Saalbach & Nordkette (Innsbruck)

Adrien and Anna, from Grenoble and Sweden, came to visit me, which was really nice. It felt so lovely to talk french again. They stayed almost 2 weeks so I had the time to show them some of the best climbing spots in Tirol and we went skiing in very good conditions - lots of powder! Definitely the best days this winter. We also met Joaquín from Spain who stayed in Grenoble last year as well.

Saalbach 2008-02

Zillertal / Fürstein 2008-02-14

Schleier Wasserfall 2008-02-08

Adrien and I did a wonderful multi pitch in the Zillertal at the Taufenkopf, got the dust off our protection

Taufenkopf 2008-02-16

last and surely not least, I've been struck by love. More about that another day. too tired now it's already 05:00

Dschungelbuch

2007-11-29T01:37:00.000+01:00

War heut mit Tom und Denise im Dschungelbuch, war voll geil. So fein in der Sonne, überhaupt nicht kalt, obwohl es eigentlich nur so um die 5°C gehabt hat. War jetzt echt schon länger nicht mehr draußen Klettern, dem entsprechend hats mir auch getaugt! Ist schon was ganz anderes als in der Halle.
Link betreffend der Bedrohung des Klettergebiets durch den Steinbruch: Rettet das Dschungelbuch

Dschungelbuch 2007-11-28

Nachher waren wir dann noch im Kino und haben uns Free Rainer angeschaut. Hat mir gut gefallen, kann ich euch empfehlen. Geht darum wie die Medien uns manipulieren wollen, ein paar kommen drauf und zetteln ihre kleine persönliche Revolution an.

UPDATE: War heut schon wieder im Dschungelbuch! So geil! Diesmal war ich mit dem Marco.

summer 07

2007-10-29T12:26:00.001+01:00

I told you that after my trip to pakistan I climbed in Italy and I was about to leave to France. So what did I really end up doing with the rest of my summer?

Arco 2007-08

Well my plan worked out quite good. I went back to Grenoble and climbed with Cyrille and Dave in Céüse. Then I did an amazing multi pitch route in Omblèze with Dave. After that I went to Chateauvert with Dave, we climbed a couple of days there and did a multi pitch in the Gorges de Verdon; Luna Bong - a classic.

Céüse 2007-08

Omblèze, Hirondelle des Faubourg 2007-09-04

Luna Bong, Verdon 2007-09-08

Dave went back to his new home, Grenoble, while continued to go further south. I went to Adrien's place in Nice. Adrien was training for the World Cup in free diving. Free diving means breath-hold underwater diving with various activities, in the competitions they try to go as deep as possible. So I joined him twice. It was amazing to watch him and his friend Guillaume train they go so deep and make it look so easy. Vision was really good so I could see them descent for quite a bit but nevertheless they disappeared into the darkness. I kept looking down, waiting for them to reappear, for ages it seemed to me. I was far from holding my breath long enough to watch, while I simply floated on the surface. They went to over 50m without fins, whereas I was struggling to get to 13m with the cable.
Interesting sport. It was not holding my breath that was limiting me to go deeper, which would have expected, but it got hard to equalize and bear the pressure on my lungs. It's really hard to explain. As you go deeper the air in your lungs gets compressed, you can feel that in a bizarre way. You feel the your chest getting squeezed and get stressed out, which makes things even worse. Everybody told me to relax, surprisingly that worked. You have to avoid getting tensed, stay calm and relax all your muscles, closing your eyes helps as well.

Well of course that wasn't all we did in Nice, we also went climbing (you ought to be surprised here!). We've been to the Gorge de Blavet, Col sur Loup, Gorges du Loup, and Baou de Saint-Jeannet. I did my first 7a flash there, odly enough on my sixth consecutive day of climbing.

Gorges du Loup 2007-09-15

Baou de Saint-Jeannet 2007-09-10

After that I went to Spain, I stopped by chez Fanny in Avignon, checked out that lovely town by night with her and moved on to Andorra, where I wanted to do some shopping (climbing equipment of course) but ended up not buying a single thing. Interesting country though, they got a very special architectural style there. And every house in a town looks alike, very homogene. One town especially cought my attention as all the houses had flowerpots in front of every single window they also had huge flowerpots in the street and everywhere the same red flower. Sadly I've no clue wich kind, but it was very pretty.
In Spain, well in Huesca to be precise, I met Willy, Clari, Dani, Javi again and got to know some of their friends. We did some bouldering, climbed in Rodellar and another small crag, have to ask the guys for the name again. Great climbing but not as much as I would have wanted to. We had to chill and hang around. Did my first 7a Onsight in Rodellar. Nice!

Rodellar 2007-09

I stayed there for a week and then I went back to Grenoble. I climbed at la Balme de Yenne with Pierre-Alain. The weather was bad so I went south again with Clarisse and Dave. We climbed in Orpierre and the Calanques, where poor Clarisse dislocated her shoulder. Dave's photos here.

Went back home, just in time to start my courses at the university in Innsbruck.
I really had a great time.

Topo Khaplu, Pakistan

2007-10-04T20:02:00.001+02:00

Je me suis évanoui! is the name of a route Romain Girault and I established in Khaplu (Kghaplu), Baltisan, Pakistan. It was the first time I did a first ascent of a route - a real adventure. Moreover the route was quite difficult, we gave it a 6b and there were to aided moves A1 that I couldn't free climb. If I would have had the choice I wouldn't have chosen a route that difficult for my first establishment, but hey that's the catch you don't know what to expect - you stand in front of about 300 meters of rock that has never been climbed before, you got no information at all. I'm glad everything worked out in the end, wasn't a walk in the park.

I lead all the pitches in traditional style, meaning that I used friends and stoppers to protect the route, no bolts 'n spits.
For more details and info: Link to the Topo

Topo Pakistan

Plans for the rest of summer 07

2007-08-24T11:34:00.000+02:00

Hey everybody!

Sorry, still didn't find the time to write about my trip to Pakistan. Romain posted quite a bit on his blog, so if you know French check it out.

So what did I do since I came back? Well, I spent a couple of days in Grenoble, climbed a bit. Threw all my stuff into my car and moved to Salzburg, Austria. Threw all my stuff into my parents house (they were very delighted to see so many bags and shit lying around everywhere). Spent some time with my family, which I haven't seen in a long time. Climbed a bit in Salzburg.
Threw all my stuff in the car moved it to Innsbruck, where I could move into my old apartment - so lucky, that made things so much easier. Climbed a bit in Innsbruck.
Went back to Salzburg, had to give away my car, because it didn't pass the technical inspection. Too rusty - repairing it would be too expensive. Apparently nobody wants to buy it in Austria, so it's probably going to be sold to russia.
Got a new car !! (well, :-P new to me) Big up for my parents for helping me out :D
Went to Arco, Lago di Garda, Italy to meet Erik the Viking and Petra Catalina. (By the way thanks to the Belgian for recommending me the Monty Python movie. Good one! How did your marriage go? Best wishes to you three!). Climbed a bit in Arco. Got to know Stefano and Alberto, two nice guys from Arco, climbed with them.
Next stop was Graz, where I climbed with Judith, Georg and Natti.
Now I'm back in Innsbruck, preparing my trip to France and Spain. Going to go to Céüze tomorrow, then Nice and around southern France.
On 18 September I'll be in Rodellar, Spain - climbing with Willy, Dani and probably some more Spaniards.
End of September I gotta go back to Innsbruck. That leaves me about 5 weeks of traveling around and climbing.

I would have loved to go to Norway to climb with Erik the Viking there, but the flights are quite expensive. It's got to be another time.
The Frankenjura with Jana and Ludwig will be postponed to a long weekend in fall, looking forward to it.

Those are my plans for now - if you wonna join me somewhere, give me shout (well maybe calling or mailing is better). If you're somewhere not too far let me know maybe I'll stop by...
Try calling me on my French cell phone first, then the Austrian number, it is more likely that i got the French SIM card in my phone.

Islamabad

2007-07-26T13:38:00.001+02:00

Got back to Islamabad today, which leaves me 2 days to recover and visit the town. I just weighed myself and was shocked to learn that, after 2 weeks of trekking and severe diarrhoea, I lost 8 kilos.

Everything went fine and I enjoyed myself very much. Sorry, but I don't have the time to tell stories right now. I'm going to write up a report with Sylvain when we get back to Grenoble and put some photos online.

Greets!

photos of me, how boring is that?

2007-06-21T15:03:00.000+02:00

By request I added a photo album with pictures of me. I threw in some random pics; some are older, some are newer, some are funny...
enjoy

Chamonix, envers des aiguilles

2007-06-18T16:08:00.000+02:00

J'ai passé un weekend génial à Chamonix avec Jordi et Mariana - nous sommes aussi connu comme "la cordée international". On a vraiment eu la chance avec le météo, il faisait beau tous le weekend et quand nous sommes partis il a commencé de pleuvoir. On et monté au refuge envers des aiguilles samedi matin et a midi on a attaqué une grande voie de 350m en terrain d'aventure. C'était magnifique: le meilleur granit, les fissure, les coincements, les écailles, les dalles, les friends, les coinceurs, les hex (chez nous ils ont un surnom rigolo: cloche de vache)... Incroyable. Le deuxième jour, pareil! encore une voie magnifique qu'on n'a pas fini, parce qu'on ne voulait pas rater la dernière funiculaire.
C'était le meilleur truc que je pourrais faire pour tester tous mon nouveaux matos que je viens de recevoir. Tout as bien marché! C'était parfait.

Voila les photos:

Envers des Aiguilles 2007-06

J'étais déjà la-bas en septembre 2006 avec Heidi et Pierre. voila les photos, ils sont sur picasaweb dépuis longtemps:

Envers Des Aiguilles, Chamonix 2006-09-24

Plans for summer 07

2007-06-11T12:41:00.000+02:00

Well well... My plans for this summer:

Stay in Grenoble until the end of June
go directly to Pakistan for some mountaineering
come back end of July
move to Innsbruck
spend some time at home, Salzburg
climb all over Europe (we'll see about that)

Pakistan: Trek and climbing in the very north, Karakoram, with Pierre, Sylvain and Romain.

Climb all over Europe: I'll start classes in October, so I'll be free in August and September. I thought about traveling with friends in Europe. No precise plans were made, I don't know where I'll go nor with whom. If you want to come along, please let me now!
I dreamed about Norway/Sweden, Germany (Frankenjura), France, Spain... I'm open to suggestions

Calanques & Châteauvert con los españoles

2007-06-08T11:20:00.000+02:00

He pasado un fin de semana genial con Diego, Guille, Willy, Dani, Luis, Clara, Heidi, Pierre-Alain y Irina! Todos nos fuimos a Châteauvert para escalar, increíble, me encanta este sitio! La organización era muy española ;), era una maravilla que hemos comido algo caliente. Que difícil es despertar los españoles, bueno especialmente Willy! Además realicé que mi hermano Felix es muy español ;o) A ver los fotos:

Châteauvert 2007-05

Después cogimos los carros (no son coches tío) para ir a los Calanques al lado de Mairseilla. PSYCHOBLOQUE!! (Deep water free soloing) Es todo que digo. PSYCHOBLOQUE!!!!
Muy chido! Así se dice 'puta madre' en México, pinches españoles ;o)
Los fotos: (ya faltan las fotos de los otros...)

Calanques 2007-05

Dani started writing a blog as well! Check it out

Mont Aiguille

2007-05-28T23:26:00.000+02:00

Erik wrote a funny post on his blog about our trip to the Mont Aiguille!
Check it out

Châteauvert Video

2007-05-11T15:51:00.000+02:00

I uploaded another video to YouTube. This time Dani captured me on camera when I red pointed my most overhanging route so far. David belayed me and did an amazing job in instructing and motivating me throughout the route. It's a 6c+ called Tintinguette in Châteauvert. A fantastic route! It starts off with some pretty hard moves, very technical, with a difficult dead-point into a two finger pocket. Then I take a short rest and get into the most powerful move. A very long move in the roof, where I have to get further and further right on a bad hold, till it finally gets good enough to continue. Then straight up into the hole in the ceiling where I jam my knee, to take a rest before the final moves. I love the hole, feels so great when you know you've done the hardest moves and can take a rest with your feet in there and you hanging out of that orifice. After a short rest I get out of the hole, only a few moves to go...

Fifoxtasy on YouTube!

2007-05-09T00:50:00.000+02:00

I uploaded my first video to YouTube!

It's a video about me trying to climb a 7a in "La Balme de Yenne". Dani belaying me. Willy as cameraman. JB and Willy motivating me with lots of "Allez!" and "Geht scho". Willy pretending to motivate me some more in German LOL!

Châteauvert

2007-05-05T17:11:00.000+02:00

It's been a while since I put the Châteauvert pictures online, but I forgot to write something about it. Well it's one of the best crags I've ever been to, that's for sure! Dani and I went there from Grenoble and met David and Dodo who came all the way from Austria just to climb there. We wanted to leave Grenoble at 18:00, Dani told me he'll pick me up, but in the end he was 4 hours late. I know, I'm always late as well, but he's even worse ;-) but there is another thing I have to add: He is spanish, I should have known. lol don't take me too serious on this one :D

UPDATE: I added the photos Dani took to the album

Châteauvert 2007-04

Another great climbing spot Pierre-Alain showed me is La Balme de Yenne. Not to far from Grenoble and overhanging, you can even climb there when it rains. Here are some photos

La Balme de Yenne 2007-04-24

Photos of Pont de Vence:

Pont de Vence 2007-04-21

And Pictures of Les Saillants de Gua:

Les Saillants de Gua 2007-04-17

Glésy

2007-04-05T12:07:00.000+02:00

War vorgestern in Glésy klettern, das wahrscheinlich landschaftlich schönste Klettergebiet in der Umgebung von Grenoble. Muss unbedingt nochmal dort hin wenn es richtig heiß ist, dann werde ich mich zur Erfrischung unter die Wasserfälle stellen, ein schönes Platzl zum Grillen wäre auch da... Leider ist der Fels ein bisschen brüchig, aber trotzdem ganz interessant zum Klettern.

Glésy 2007-04-03

Rasiert habe ich mich inzwischen auch! Vielen dank für eure Votes, wer noch nicht abgestimmt hat, kann das natürlich noch nachholen um mir seine Meinung zu sagen.

zaches büdl

2007-04-04T00:20:00.000+02:00

INNSBRUCK
Hohe Berge. Starke Stadt.

Gebts euch des! Gefunden ab ich das Poster im Krankenhaus von Grenoble, das hängt dort einfach so ungeniert herum. Volle zach. Vor allem der Spruch ist ein Wahnsinn.

Should I shave?

2007-03-26T22:39:00.000+02:00

Hey everybody!

I got a fun thing for you to do today! Since I didn't shave for a long time and some people (Philippe!) keep buggin' me about it, I wanted to know what the rest of you think. Please vote in the poll i created! If you feel like I didn't provide the right answer for you please let me know or leave a comment on this blog entry.
Update: I Shaved. You can still vote to let me know your opinion, if you like.

La Grave - La Meije

2007-03-24T23:32:00.000+01:00

de wochn is jo wirkli nu amoi da winta zruck kemman, obwoi ea heia soweso ned wirkli do wor. i heddats ned globd. engstöd wor i a übahaupt nima drof, i wor scho mea of kraxln un so... najo, jez is ma fost a bisal schwa gfoin mi zu motivian. oba i woa don om mitwoch doch nu obn in 7 laux zum powdern, foi geil woas. sicht wor ned so, jez hob i a kane fotos gmocht, najo filächt wor i a so geil ofn pulva dos i ned dron denkt hob.

heid wor i mid ana menge leid (Verena, Karin, Pierre, Erik, Petra, Alex and Hokun) in La Grave. do hobens nua ane gondel und an tellalift, präparian tuans nua a klans pistal nebn am tellalift. auffigean tuats of 3550 - heads so scho amoi gonz guad o.
oba eigentli woan mi ned so wirkli begoastad, wei s do ned gnuag gschneid ghobt hod und scho ois zaspuat woa. jezad wor de easte obfoart tsiemli müsom. don homma scho zuam schimpfn ongfongen - wia teia des is, wia weid wegga vo grenoble, wos dea schne fia a schas is un dos do fü zfü leid son. don homma oba godseidonk nu wos gseng wosn tog im endefekt gret hod. os hod scho zach osgschod un mia hobn ned gwisst wia ma do hi kummt oda obs don ibahaupts god. zum glik worn i un de verena stua (+ motiwiad) gnuag dos mas probiad hom, a one de ondan (wor e bessa a so wei es wor ned lächt). sin hoid au da hintasetn fo unsam projekt auffi un hom ghofft dos ma de richtige schoatn findn domid ma of de ondane setn kemman un dos des ibahaupt forbor is, wei so gonz sicha woan mia uns do ned. najo noch am klan hadscha fo ana hoibn stund oda so (3500m gspiast scho) worma durtn. do homma don e glei gseng dos des scho iagendwia gen wead. beim eastn stickal (traveasn) deafats hoid ned foin, don kummt a foi da stale hong, iba de rondspoitn afn gletscha un do gats don e dohin, nua doafst hoid ned zweid zua de spoitn zuawi. Glacier du Rateau hod des ghassn, fois wen intaresiat. weis so sche wor hommas klorarweis nu a zwoats moi gmocht! desmoi mid da karin undn pierre. wia gsogt, des hod echt an tog gret, sunst warad i scho gschaid entaischt gwesn vo La Grave.

La Grave 2007-03-24

Die Vermessung der Welt

2007-03-20T15:37:00.000+01:00

Lese gerade das Buch "die Vermessung der Welt" von Daniel Kehlmann. Gefällt mir bis jetzt ganz gut, und heute bin ich auf einen Satz gestoßen den ich hier zitieren will.

".., ob je ein Tag kommen würde, an dem Menschen miteinander umgehen könnten, ohne zu lügen."

Der Protagonist denkt oft darüber nach, wie die Welt in der Zukunft sein werde. Seine Gedanken sind sehr bestimmt, lassen keinen Raum für Zweifel, dadurch wirkt der Zweifel im oben stehenden noch stärker.

Update: Artikel zum Thema Lügen auf ORF.at

Update: Hab das Buch inzwischen fertig gelesen, kann es weiterempfehlen. Humorvoll und intelligent. Nett zu lesen, aber irgendwie fehlt der Höhepunkt. Dem Leben der beiden Hauptfiguren sind abwechselnd Kapitel gewidmet, also erwartet man eine Art Höhepunkt zu dem Zeitpunkt an dem sie sich begegnen. Dieser bleibt jedoch aus, es plätschert weiter nett dahin wie bisher, nicht schlecht, aber auch nicht spektakulär. Außerdem fehlt ein Ende, nein das stimmt nicht, es ist schon da, nur sind dann nach dem Ende noch ein paar Seiten angehängt, die förmlich nach einer Fortsetzung schreien (muss, meiner Meinung nach, nicht sein).

Visitor Map

2007-03-15T23:26:00.000+01:00

Hey folks check my new visitor map. Go ahead and add yourself to the map!

Grenoble

2007-03-15T21:13:00.000+01:00

I know this is long overdue, but finally I uploaded some *normal* photos. Which means no sport involved. Unbelievable but true.

Bastille Grenoble

Some pictures I took at the Bastille with Basti and Mikka.

View from my Appartment in Grenoble

Encore un peut du ski

2007-03-15T15:38:00.000+01:00

Voila les photos de mes dernières sorties de ski.

Les 7 Laux 2007-01-25

Les Deux Alpes 2007-02-15

ça va vous surprendre, mais la neige était bonne!
Par contre la semaine dernière c'était vraiment nulle, j'ai même pas pris des photos...

En fait si on compte mes sortie cette année, je pense que c'était le pire ans de toute ma vie. C'est dommage qu'il n'y avait pas des bonnes conditions, j'aurais eu le temps de faire beaucoup plus de ski en France. Mais vu les conditions pourri, je n'ai pas eu envie. L'année prochain je ne vais plus être là et je voulais vraiment voir beaucoup de stations ici.

2007-03-15T14:45:00.000+01:00

Hey everybody! First of all: Thanks everybody for actually reading my blog! Yesterday I talked to Pierre-Alain, who asked me how I liked the Gorges de Verdon. I was surprised and asked him how he knew about that - "I read it on your blog" he responded. :-) Makes me happy to hear people are reading this. Thanks.
Secondly: Sorry for not writing anything for a long time, it's not like nothing happened I was just too lazy to blog; and of course not having an internet connection at home is a good excuse ;-)

Well, right after my last post I went to the Gorges de Verdon, with Jordi, Joaquín and LLuc. Three Catalans (not Spanish!), who only spoke Catalan to each other. Catalan is a language which is kind of between Spanish and French, so I did understand more than I expected and more the they expected me to understand I guess. It was fun listening to them, in some conversations I didn't understand anything, in others I understood everything (well, at least I had that impression).

We didn't share the pictures we took yet, but as soon as we do I'm going to upload them to my picasa site. (and put the link here)

got internet

2007-03-03T07:16:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I finally got an internet connection in my home after waiting for over a month for the new provider to start working.
Right now I'm waiting for Jordi to pick me up to go to the "Gorges De Verdon"! That's going to be so awsome! I'm going to write some more when I get back, in the meantime you could take a look at the pictures I took last time when I was there.

Un WE en belledonne

2007-01-20T23:00:00.000+01:00

Les 13 Janvier, nous sommes partis avec Romain, Sylvain et Heidi faire un couloir facile qui mène à la pointe du sifflet. Cette sortie a été l'occasion pour nous de sortir pour la première fois de l'année les piolets, crampons et tout l'attirail du parfait petit alpiniste. On craignait un peu les difficultés pour la montée mais celle ci s'est passée sans encombre, nous n'avons même pas sorti la corde. En revanche, la descente sur l'arête Nord fut beaucoup plus intéressant. Philipp nous a montré tout son talent en posage de protections ( un peu trop à mon gout vu qu'il commencait à faire froid). Le soir, Mélanie, Nicolas, Laurent, Isaac et Manu nous ont rejoint au refuge (Habert d'Aiguebelle) ou nous avons mangé une grosse fondue, joué au poker et au Yam's. Le Heidi, Romain, Laurent, Mélanie et Philipp sont partis pour faire une arrête Sud, cependant les autres sont descendus. C'était la premiere fois que j'ai grimpe avec des chaussures de montagne et ca m'a étonné que ça marche bien. On a passé tout la journée au plein soleil, on n'est pas arrivé au sommet, mais c'était jolie quand même. La crux était spécial ;) On a grimpé à plus que 2000m en T-shirt, les températures sont la folie.

Sylvain et Philipp

Alpes d'Huez and Deux Alpes

2007-01-06T16:06:00.000+01:00

Alpes d'Huez 2006-12-27

Deux Alpes 2007-01-03

Added two skiing trips to my photo album. Alpes d'Heuz and Deux Alpes. I broke my snowboard on Thursday, which really sucks. Not repairable; RIP. I'll need to get a new one, if want to go snowboarding this season...

I updated all my previous posts and replaced the pictures with direct links to the whole photo albums. Should be much nicer to navigate for you now :)

Bitte unterschreibt die Unterschriftensammlung zur Rettung des Dschungelbuchs.

Pic du Pin

2006-12-31T15:23:00.000+01:00

Pic de Pin 2006-12-30

Yesterday I wanted to climb the Pic de Pin with Sylvain and Romain, but unfortunately we didn't have the time to finish the route. It didn't really matter if we reached the summit or not, it was a nice hike and a beautiful climb. Sylvain and I really have to get good shoes; waterproof, warm and with a stiff sole. We'll see next year (which starts tonight!) Happy new year to everybody!
We're gonna have a big party at Heidi's place tonight à la Tronche, with a nice view of Grenoble. Whohoo

Uncyclopedia

2006-12-26T01:25:00.000+01:00

The picture on the right was taken by me in the toilet at the hospital in the 'trouble de mouvement' unit. Where I worked the last five weeks.

Y'all know wikipedia, but how about uncyclopedia? It's the humoristic counterpart to the original. Just get onto the main site and start to read about something, anything...
It's hilarious!

Happy Christmas and a merry new year, and so on and so forth.

redneck

2006-12-23T22:51:00.000+01:00

lol I just translated my page into redneck, with the redneck translator
here the direct link to my translated blog

doesn't really work that great, but it's fun to try once

Trois Pucelles below freezing point

2006-12-13T19:55:00.000+01:00

Les Trois Pucelles 2006-12-13

Well, one day after my last post this might sound like I did this just for the pictures... Anyway(s), today I did a multi pitch at the Trois Pucelles. A marvelous climbing site next to Grenoble. You can check out the pictures I took at my webalbum; you might also want to have a look at the the older pictures (I have been there before), that way you can see this crag from two different perspectives.
The route we chose was real nice, but it was so damn cold! There were icicles in the route! Snow everywhere and not the slightest sign of melting. The sun helped a bit, but when she was gone. My fingers got so cold, I couldn't feel anything. When I touched the rock or the metal of my quick draws there was no difference in temperature.
Well, in the end we made it too the summit, got back to the car with the last rays of light, where a snack awaited us... It was a great day.

Victor

2006-12-12T15:25:00.000+01:00

Cats

Tenemos un nuevo gato! Se llama Victor, es muy joven, solamente tiene 4 meses. Es muy bonito y totalmente plateado, bueno, hay otros que dicen que es gris... ¿Que piensas tu? Puse más fotos de nuestros gatos en mi webalbum, que monos son! Los primeros días eran horribles por Victor porque Chausette no lo dejaba hacer nada. Claro, hasta que él ha venido, era la reina del apartamento; tiene que mostrarlo. Además Chausette es más grande y más fuerte. Por fin ella ha aceptado que ahora Victor vive aquí también. Ahora están jugando todo el tiempo, tengo miedo que vayan a destruir el apartamento. ;)

Les Deux Alpes

2006-12-12T14:47:00.000+01:00

Les deux Alpes 2006-12-10

This week-end I finally went skiing, but due to the lack of snow, we had to go to Les Deux Alpes, a glacier. I don't like glaciers that much, because they tend to be quite flat and because of the crevasses... But it was a really nice beginning for this season. We even found some powder to leave our traces in! Indeed a great first day of skiing.
I added some pictures to my webalbum. It's been a long time that I uploaded images, but somehow I didn't take that many pictures recently. I guess because I didn't do that much new stuff, which would be worth capturing. Don't get me wrong, I did shiploads of climbing, but no multi pitches, which are way more photogenic.

8ième Nuit de Reggae

2006-11-26T15:03:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I've been to a big concert at the Summum in Grenoble - 8ième Nuit de Reggae
featuring JEHRO / ADMIRAL T / GLADIATORS / ANTHONY B
Jehro (pop) really sucked, I can't understand what he was doing at the reggae night. way to mainstream, an insult.
Admiral T (french dancehall) wasn't that bad, but the sound was. not even my French friends could understand a word he was saying.
Gladiators (reggae) great! but again they had to ask the engineer at least 5 times to get the singers and background singers volume right. but they were the only ones who insisted until it was right.
Anthony B (dancehall) was good too, but again his mike was way too low, he was really hard to understand. he did make a good show though.

by the way thanks for stopping by, I already had 300 visitors! But on the other hand you only left very few (7) comments...

Wetter

2006-11-20T17:01:00.000+01:00

Jetzt ist es endlich mal kalt geworden in Grenoble. Jetzt sind zumindest mal die Bergspitzen in der Ferne weiß; bin doch schon ganz heiß aufs Schifahren, nochdazu haben daheim in Österreich schon die ersten Schigebiete aufgemacht.
Bis zum Samstag den 18.11 war es noch so warm das ich beim Klettern den ganzen Tag nur in Badehose rumgelaufen bin und mitten in der Nacht mir beim Radfahren im T-Shirt nicht zu kalt war.
Echt verrückt; werde jetzt mal ganz klassisch auf den Zug aufspringen und dem Hype entsprechend sagen: Global Warming lässt grüssen. wobei ich in diesem falle zugeben muss: I believe the hype.

Miranda

2006-11-18T13:06:00.002+01:00

Did you ask yourself: "How the fuck does he stay on line in all those instant messenger protocols shown in his contact information?"

Well here is the answer: Miranda IM
quite handy, innit?

you can get the same thing with Trillian, but i prefer Miranda because its simpler.

Why Fifoxtasy?

2006-11-18T13:06:00.001+01:00

People keep asking me again and again, I think I told the story a thousand times now. ;) It's about time I write it down here so everyone knows.
Well, I think it was Magdalena 'Magdi' Jahn who had the idea to call me Fifö which derives from the first letters of my first and my last name. Somehow Fifö became Fifo, I don't really know why or how but I think it was Thomas 'Tomtom' Bleier who came up with it. Maybe it should be written Phifo, I don't know why but I never considered it, only Michael 'Mikka' Schmied does :)

Okay, so some friends in Salzburg call me Fifo, but why Fifoxtasy???

Hold on I'm getting to that. Be patient.
There's another thing I gotta tell y'all who don't know yet: I don't drink any alcohol (no not even wine [for the French]). And I don't do any drugs (not even Marijuana). Maybe I'll tell you why in another post, but this will get too long if I don't get back to the original subject now.

Alright you don't drink, but why Fifoxtasy?

One night I was going out in Salzburg, I can only recall Tomtom being there with me. I can't remember what I did, but I suppose I laughed a lot, smiled constantly and danced like a madman, as usual. When somebody I got to know that night found out I didn't drink, he didn't believe me, so he asked Tomtom: "Is it true that he didn't drink anything?" Tomtom confirmed. "If he didn't drink, what did he take???" "Fifoxtasy." replied Thomas. "Ahh okay, I understand..." And off he went, pretending to know what Fifoxtasy is.

Yea, but why Fifoxtasy?

Seriously? I just told you that...

Une vipère !

2006-11-16T20:33:00.000+01:00

Hier j'étais aux Lames, un secteur vachement jolie à côté de Grenoble. C'est tellement proche, on peut y aller en vélo. Quand on est y arrivé il faut monté encore plus à pied. C'est où j'ai rencontré un serpent orange et marron, avec une tête triangulaire. En faite j'ai mis mon pied en haut, par-ce que c'était raide. Il y avait un peu du terre qui a glissé et sûr la terre surfant la serpent. Juste à côté de ma chaussure ça a arrêté. J'ai pensé que je vais pas bougé et l'ai laissé passer, mais le serpent a vu que c'est très confortable et chaud sous mon pantalon. Donc il a décidé de monté dans la jambe de mon pantalon! Vous pouvez imaginer que je n'étais pas d'accord. Le reptile a disparu dans mon pantalon, j'ai du réagir! Donc j'ai fait des mouvements avec mon pied, que j'avais appris dans mon nouveaux stage en neurologie d'un patient qui a parkinson. Enfin il est tombé et s'est enfui. J'étais un peu choqué, surprenant n'est-ce pas? En plus j'étais tout seul.
Quand j'ai raconté l'histoire aux autres, ils m'ont dit que c'était un vipère et qu'il sont venimeux. Je crois que j'ai eu de la chance..

Intruducing my brother and my mom to climbing

2006-10-30T00:47:00.000+01:00

St. Pancrasse 2006-10-28

Bastille 2006-10-29

I spent an awesome weekend with my mother and my brother in Grenoble. It felt great to be with my family again. As promised long ago, I went climbing with my brother in St. Paincrasse (le Luisset), my mother came along to read a book and watch us climb. I eventually convinced her to try it too. I think they really liked it, because later that day when I asked them what they want to do the next day, my mother said: "I wouldn't mind to go climbing tomorrow again." Very diplomatic, but I got the message. My brother and I didn't "mind" either - it was settled - we went climbing to the Bastille (Failaise du Père Gras). You'll find pictures from both crags in my foto album. I'm particularly proud of my mum, I mean, how many mums out there would go climbing with you? My brother, Felix, basically kicks ass in any sport he does, so it didn't surprise me that he made a lot of progress in those two days. It's been great spending some time with my family, too bad my father couldn't come.

More Climbing

2006-10-23T18:56:00.000+02:00

Aiguilles de Benevise, Strapazon et Perrillat 2006-10-16

Mont Aiguille, ''Les Diables'' & Pilier Sud 2006-10-15

I added some beautiful photos to my web album (link on the right). Pierre, Heidi and I spent the last week-end climbing the Mont Aiguille and Les Aiguilles de Benevise.
Mont Aiguille looks really impressive, but I wouldn't really recommend it to you, because the rock is quite fragile.
I liked Les Aiguilles de Benevise much better, check out the pictures! It was a perfect day: gorgeous landscape, late autumn sunlight, red & yellow trees, great climbing with good friends.

I just realized that all the pictures in my web album are climbing photos, it kind of reflects the current focus in my life, but nevertheless I feel like I have to upload something as well.

This week-end I did something I didn't do that much yet since I moved to France: I partied hard!
Really enjoyed dancing all night at a soirée d'internes at the hospital. To give you a picture: (mentally, I didn't have my camera with me...) a big hall, lots of people who work in the hospital, free drinks for everybody (but me of course lol), loud music (which wasn't that bad, actually), loads of people dancing... I really enjoyed myself dancing all night, got home at 07:00 -> didn't climb that hard the next day ;-)

Verdon

2006-10-11T16:24:00.000+02:00

Verdon 2006-10-08

des wochenend wor i wida kraxln mitn dave, dea jez om hoamweg vo da atlantikküstn
wor. mia woan in da Verdonschlucht, hobn zwa wundaschene rutn gmocht. echt wödklasse dea fös, de kletterei un de londschoft. lings om foto siagts de schlucht.
sowos fo a schene zit homma ghobt. do muas i dringendst wida hi

i hob jez mei easchte station im kronknhos ogschlossn, jez bin i of dea kinda, gfoid ma bessa ois de interne wo i voahea wor. is anfoch persönlicha. un de kinda san super, gestern hod ana neben mia kotzt wia nua wos, und nocher wia wida ois ofpuzd wor frogt a mi wiso ea reian hod miassn wia ea si den löffl gonz noch hintn in mund gstekt hod...

Philippe

2006-10-02T22:58:00.000+02:00

Je vous presente: Philippe, mon coloc.
This is Philippe, my flatmate here in Grenoble. He is French, works night shifts in a hotel and plans to open a restaurant, which will serve mainly soup, end of this year.
He's a fun guy and he helps me a lot to improve my French. Philippe doesn't really speak any other languages so we have to talk French all the time, which is great, and he really takes the time to explain all the words I don't know yet.

We inhabit a small apartment in the Quartier Saint Bruno, which is not too far from the center. It's a great hood actually: vivid, buildings aren't too tall, lots of parks - just n-i-c-e!

But we're not alone! Let's start with the cat called Chaussette, she got that name, which means sock, because of her paws - they are all white, makes it look like she's wearing socks...
Another cohabitant, Sumo, is a little gerbil, who is quite huge compared to his species average and therefore qualified for the name Sumo. I can hear him right now eating his cage, he does that a lot lately, plastic must be really yummy!
Last and probably least there are some fish in a bowl, which names I'm not going to mention... (because I forget 'em lol)

avatar

2006-10-02T20:01:00.000+02:00

Elke asked me, if that picture on the upper right (in the about me box) was me. Well it is, Basti took it in 2005 in Saalbach. What a great day! I photoshopped (crop + exposure filter) it a bit, looks cool doesn't it?

First slightly interesting post

2006-09-28T16:17:00.000+02:00

Grenoble

In July I moved from Innsbruck to Grenoble, where I'll stay till June, maybe even a little longer.
What's the reason for my stay in Grenoble? Well back in Innsbruck I decided to make use of a student exchange program called ERASMUS, because I wanted to live in a foreign country, learn the language, make experience... I looked at the partner universities Innsbruck had to offer and almost settled for Barcelona or Madrid, but then something came to my mind: if I'm going to stay there, how am I going to survive a winter without skiing? I took close look at the other universities and found out that Grenoble is in the French alps. As soon as I got that information, it was decided.
Grenoble is perfect for me, the mountains are so close, just like in Innsbruck, it's funny how important that got to me.
The picture shows Grenoble and was - of course - taking while climbing (at Les Trois Pucelles).
In August I did a French language course at the university, which was called "semi-intensif" which means only 2 hours a day :) (well it was also a lot cheaper than the intensif course). Anyway, I had plenty of time for climbing. Then in September university began, still got enough time for climbing, but what about the rest of my life? Dunno, is there anything else to it?

First Post

2006-09-27T23:28:00.000+02:00

Mkay...

This post is just kicking this whole thing off. I'm not yet familiar with all this blogging stuff, but I hope I'll figure it out soon.

Erik, a Norwegian i got to know in Grenoble, told me he started a blog to let all the people at home know what's going on in his life. I liked the idea and decided to try this myself too.

Well we'll see how this develops...
Philipp Förster