European Boulder TAB Argentière France

Manolo and Ignace wen to the  European bouldering contest Tout à Bloc (TAB) on 25-26 July 2012. They were motivated . Together they  had trained hard. They  also decided to watch their food  and didn't eat  any french fries, cakes, breads, chocolates, desserts, ... . It was not a diet because they ate  other foods such as fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, potatoes, ...  they could  eat a lot but in the end they  felt it was still mentally difficult but had the character to persevere. We left with the whole family on Saturday, July 21, 2012 to Argentière-la Bessée in France. A journey of about 1000 km .

We brought  our crash pads  and  went on Sunday bouldering in Ailefroide. We climbed  some 6c boulders and  tried some 7a's  but Manolo had to stop soon because all the skin of his fingers was gone and he even had blood injury on one  finger.

Manolo felt strong and had decided to stop  participating at  European boulder competitions if he wasn't in the top 20. All competitors had to climb 8 boulders in maximum 5 attempts.
Manolo topped  4 boulders in 7 attempts and  placed  15 ° of  26 participants in the boys category B.   Liam Thijs climbed the same four boulders  but needed   1 try more and he ended on a 17 ° position.
Ignace managed to top 2 boulders and finished on a 16° place.

All other Belgian participants did their best to climb these  boulders opened by the legendary Jacky Godoffe. Chloe Caulier climbed four boulders Flash and stranded on an 8 ° place  and just  missed the finals.

Results of Belgian team:

            8. Chloé Caulier    (Female  A)

            15. Manolo Debreyne (Male B)

            16. Ignace Debreyne (Male Juniors)

            17. Liam Thijs           (Male  B)

            21. Maëlys Gillart  (Female B)

            24. Dawn Claeijs   (Female B)

            26. Cedric Binst   (Male  A)

            27. Tim Goossens  (Male A)

Complete results on :

http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?page_name=resultservice&comp=1426&cat=ICC_MBJ

 Saturday, Manolo also participated in the Micro TAB. A local open bouldering contest for youth up to 15 Years.He climbed 22 of the 25 boulders and finished on  2nd place Male B category .The French Boys Luke Mesnard B was first. He was also third on the European boulder competition  and clearly  stronger than Manolo. Nils Lemière finished first in category Benjamins.He topped all his boulders.
His brother Floris Lemière took 11°place.

Video Belgian Boulder championship Youth B Male

Belgian boulder championship 2012

Sunday 13 May 2012 “Mother’s Day” in Belgium, was the Belgian Youth Boulder competition

in boulder gym Bleau in  Gent.  All competitors (6 per category) that were selected for the finals wanted to top 4 boulders in less than 4 minutes per boulder. It was a very exciting competition. Good boulders that made it a thriller until the last boulder was climbed. 

Ignace (Cat. Juniors Male) topped the first two boulders. The third boulder was very difficult. In his last try Ignace found the sequence to top this boulder. He was the only one to top this hard boulder. So after 3 boulders Ignace was on first place. The last boulder wasn’t so hard because a lot of climbers were able to top it so he had a good chance to succeed although he had already given a lot of effort in the 3th boulder.  Ignace tried as hard as he could to top the 4the but was unable to top and become Belgian champion. He saw his dream vanish as the 4 minutes ticked away and was frustrated because he was so close! The best climber that needed the least attempts to top 3 boulders was Lukas Geukens and he became Belgian Champion .Ignace became second and Antoine Kaufman third.

In Cat A male it was also a thriller until the last boulder .Cedric Binst and Nicolas Van Cayzeele climbed the first 3 boulders on sight. The fourth boulder was too hard for both of them but Cédric was able to hold the intermediate bonus hold at his first try and Nicolas needed one try more. Cédric Binst became for the first time Belgian Boulder Champion. Carl still remembers Cedric told him he wanted to become a Belgian champion when he gave training to Cedric in climbing gym Blok on the old location a lot of years ago. Now Cedric's dream came true!  Nicolas took silver medal and Koen Baekeland took the bronze medal.

Manolo (Cat. B Male) climbed as high Liam Thys in the first 3 boulders. So also here the last boulder would decide who would win. Manolo topped this last boulder on sight.  Manolo was the only one in his category to top this boulder and became Belgian Boulder champion. Liam took second place and Simon Lorenzi took third place.

See complete results  on : 

http://www.climb2climb.be/images/site/articles_news/2012/2012-05/millet_ybc_2012.pdf

Video La Baleine Targasonne Ignace

Big brother also topped La Baleine 7A boulder in Targasonne with method for long people

Graviton Boulder gym Sittard NL

Yesterday evening we went to the opening of the new boulder gym Graviton in Sittard. Our Dutch friend Tim Vander Sleen made his dream come true : opening a boulder gym . He did it together with Michel Haerens ,his family and a lot of other people.
Today 21 April and sunday  22 April 2012 you can climb  for free. So hurry up to check out this new boulder gym : http://www.gravitonbouldergym.nl/
We really liked this large  new boulder gym with new rough holds , a very large bar , comfortable relax area, excellent coffee, Kids climbing area, two iPads on the table in the relax area  for surfing on the web , ...

Bouldering Targasonne France

Sunday  1 April 2012 we left our home at 4.30 am for our 12 hours , 1200 km trip from Schelle (Antwerp,Belgium)  to the French Pyreneen . No traffic jams !  

Some people really love this place and other climbers  came here didn’t like it and drove the same day back to Fontainebleau.

We  rented a bungalow on camping “La Griole “ http://www.camping-la-griole.com/  in Targasonne (405 € /week for 4 persons). A nice  camping site with a comfortable bungalow with shower, kitchen, toilet and refrigerator, the owners aren’t anymore the Dutch people that were  mentioned in the guide book but they are now very nice French people . No bar , restaurant or bread  on the camping but you can still buy the  guidebook “Le chaos de Targasonne “ by Fred Bertin  and rent a crash pad for 5€/day. Another guidebook for Targasonne and other cliffs in the neighberhoud is “Pyrenees Rock “ by Andreas & Katrin Motzet. A bakery is only 2 min driving from the camping towards Egat at the Supermarket “Super U”. No WIFI on the camping but you can find WIFI the bar in this supermarket “Super U”. We liked the camping site because  the boulders   are just  a few meters away .In the evening we already searched for the boulders in sector Chapeau but did not climb.

Monday 2 April 2012 we first went  for food and then went bouldering to Sector Dieux païens, Taz and Carrière. We climbed as long as we could because they predicted rain on Tuesday.

Ignace and Manolo :

7A traverse Rieh la moerte 45-47 (Sector Taz )

6C Ticket tacc (Secteur Carriere)

Ignace

 7B  traverse 45-48 Rieh la moerte. Same start as 7A but goes 5 meters further.

6C Accarian troubadour 6C (Secteur Carriere).Ignace and Manolo climbed Ticket tacc 6C

Tuesday 3 April 2012 we woke up  the sun was shining so hurried up to go bouldering at sector Baleine . Ignace and Manolo tried the classic 7A boulder La Baleine. Ignace topped it and Manolo was very close because he could do the hard moves without the traverse. Some people told  it is the 7A but in the guide book is mentioned DA (Départ Assis = Sit start) so the start is more to the right of the boulder. We found it  really hard to find  the line you have to climb. You can’t know from the guidebook but we saw it on You tube video so we know for sure how it goes. Ignace also climbed “Pute éffraction 7A+” a boulder with moves in a crack. When it started raining we climbed in a cave .Manolo worked out the moves in boulder “J’veut une yenne 7B” and Ignace and Carl climbed “La Taupe 6B+”  a hard move from the sit start deep in the cave at the red arrow . At 15.00 we stopped because of heavy rainfall and went for a visit of the village Font Romeu. A touristic village with shops ,bars and restaurants. It is also famous   for his excellent sports facility’s at high altitude and you can see a enormous Solar panel power  plant.

Wednesday 4 april 2012

It rained all night and in the morning it was still raining. So we went for a tourist trip. We went to the village Mont Louis .Walked around in the city but did not visit the castle or Solar oven. In stead we went for a natural sulfur bath in village Lllo (www.lesbainsdello.com). Nice in and ouside baths at 37°C and sauna for relaxing. We enjoyed it. We paid 38 € for 4 persons.

 Thursday 5 April 2012

Sunshine in the morning so we woke up early and climbed as much as our skin could bear.In the afternoon no more sunshine and cold temperatures. Manolo climbed his first 7B boulder J’ veut une yenne.He worked on it on Tuesday but would give this boulder a  7B a soft rating. Ignace also climbed this boulder . They both also climbed 7A+ Love cold and 7A+ Pleasure dome. Manolo also climbed the classic 7A La Baleine . An excellent bouldering day .In the evening Carl and Karen drunk champaign and we all ate Biological  Ice cream.

Friday 6 April 2012

Again sunshine so although we were tired we were again motivated to boulder a last day. We went to sector Dolmen . Manolo climbed his first 7C Katalan Psycho. Ignace also climbed this 7C that they both found very soft .  In the afternoon it  started to rain again  and even to  snow with temperatures around zero degrees.

 We do need to mention that although it rained  a lot the boulders dried  up very fast so we had no problems to boulder when it didn't rain. We only had 1 day out of 5 that we could not climb because it rained whole day. You can find hard boulders and easy boulder next to each other so tis place is  ideally to climb with the whole  family.We really liked this bouldering spot and would recommend it. 

Ignace and Manolo both second place on YBC Blok Hoboken

Saterday 17 maart 2012,on Karen’s birthday  Ignace and Manolo participated at the Youth boulder circuit competition at climbing gym “Klimzaal Blok “ at Hoboken – Belgium.

 Manolo had to climb 40 boulders in 2.5 hours. He climbed 29 of the 40 boulders .He tried the hard boulders too long without success and ended up with not enough time to climb some of the easier boulders. Liam Thijs won with 34 of 40 boulders  in Male category B (1998-1997) and Manolo was second .

 Ignace had less boulders to climb only 30  and  an hour longer 3.5 hours. He managed to top 27 of the 30 boulders . Antoine Kaufman climbed 29 boulders and won in Male juniors category (1994-1993). Cedric Binst won his first boulder competition in category A (1995-1996 ) now that Loïc Timmermans  was not participating.

See complete results on YBC website : http://www.climb2climb.be

Ignace at finals "hard moves " competition Wuppertal Germany

Ignace participated at the "Hard moves" qualification in boulder gym City Lizard in Sint Niklaas during onths January and February 2012 .He topped 52 of the 60 boulders. He was qualified and went this saterday 3 March 2012  to the finals in Wuppertal Germany .Here 20 teams , each team consists of 7 boys and 3 girls, came together to compete . Ignace went together with Chloé,Gina,Nathalie,Jan,Stanley,Yannick,Reyn,Bram and Pavel and tried to climb 40  boulders. We had only 2 girls so  Gina also decided to climb to help the team to have more boulders.
 The competition just started and Stanley the best climber of the team hurted his feet when coming down from a boulder.Jan the owner of City Lizard took his place. All climbed 5 hours as  hard as they could .Ignace liked these boulders  a lot. Jan,Reyn,Yannick and Pavel all climb 34 boulders of 40  to the top.Ignace climbed 30 boulders,Chloé climbed 28 boulders,... the whole team  together  climbed 260 boulders. Only 5 teams went to the superfinal . The team of City Lizard finished on 9th place .
Ignace did not stay to watch the superfinals because he needed to train next day for the Youth Belgian Lead championship at Klimax Puurs on 10 March 2012.
We heard it was an incredible experience .More then 700 spectators watched the super finals .The team of Wuppertal won again we think.
Ignace loved this competion . It was an incredible  experience for him.
See http://www.hard-moves.de/en/  for more information about this competition.

Open Blok 2012 Seniors

Sunday 5 Februari 2012 .After Manolo on saturday it was now Ignace turn to climb some hard moves.Ignace climb hard and just missed the finals.He had the same amount of points as number 6 but one try more and only 6 climbers were allowed to climb the finals So he had to watch in stead of climb but he was satisfied with his result. He finished on  7 th place and could'nt top 4 boulders of the 40 .Good job.
Jerome De Boeck climbed all three fianl boulders onsight and won the competition.
Chloé Caulier won the Female competition and second was Magali Hayen.
More results hopefully soon on www.klimzaalblok.be or www.belclimb.net or www.climb2climb.be

Manolo wins Open Blok 2012 Youth Boulder competittion

On Friday we had 4 cm snow in Belgium and because of this snow also a lot of traffic jams .
Saturday 4 Februari 2012 Manolo participated at the Open Blok bouldering competition in boulder gym Blok in Hoboken.50 new boulders were opened. Manolo topped all green,yellow,blue ,red and grey coloured boulders and one very hard black route. He had 1605 points after 5 hours bouldering. He won the Youth competition. Liam Thijs was second and Rob De Naeyer third.

Selection 1 Boulder Blok Hoboken

Saterday 15 October was the first selection boulder competition at bouldergym Klimzaal Blok Hoboken.
Ignace climbed 5 of the 12 boulder problems and finished on 16 place.Above  a video of Cedric Binst watch till the crazy end !
Complete results

Video Banana Joe Tumpen Austria

While Ignace was climbing on plastic holds in Imst during the Youth World Lead competition August 2011, Manolo and Carl checked out the bouldering spot Tumpen nearby Imst. Manolo climbed his first 7A Boulder  White traverse.Here is the video of Banana Joe 6c+.

Youth Boulder competition Munchen Germany 17 September 2011

One week after the first Youth Boulder competition in Merano Italy a small delegation of Belgian climbers went to the second Youth Boulder competition in München Germany. The weekend of 17-18 September 2011 also started the “octoberfesten” in Munich and that is why the room rates were very high in München. The Belgian climbers Federation KBF and CAB decided not to go because of this. Ignace, Manolo and Carl were very lucky that they could borrow the camper from family Timmermans. We had our first experience in a mobile home and we really enjoyed it. Thank you Family Timmermans! Cedric Binst got sick the day before we left and missed this competition.

Saturday 17 September 2011 was the qualifications. 12 boulders for each category were made under the supervision of the French legendary climber Jacky Godoffe of France. He made some creative boulders that were hard to figure out : one boulder you had to run up the wall to jump to a module, one you had to run to a module on the opposite wall turn around and jump to two small holds an a module …… Very creative and special boulders that were fun to climb.

Chloé Caulier (Female B) started first and climbed 7 tops. Two of the boulders she climbed without using the edges of the wall while other female climbers used them. Later on in the Male B category these edges were not anymore allowed. She only needed one top more to make it to the finals. She finished on a 9th place, an excellent result! Manolo (Male B) climbed to the top of 4 boulders and ended on a 22th place .Ignace climbed one boulder in Merano and now was able to top 3 boulders, so a good improvement for him. Ignace (Male A) ended on 21th place. Sebastien Berthe (Male Juniors) climbed 3 boulders and finished on 17th place. Jonathan Berthe (Male A) climbed to the top of 2 boulders and finished 25th. Also the Dutch Team: Daan Groskamp (Male B 10th), Tom Hendricks (Male A 25th), Teun Keusters (Male A 14th) and Tim Reuser (13th) climbed hard but did not make it to the finals.
We had no Belgian/Dutch climbers in the Finale so we drove back home to go to work and school on time on Monday.

First European Youth Boulder competition Merano Italy 10-11 September 2011

A small delegation of Young Belgian climbers: Manolo and Ignace Debreyne, Cedric Binst and Chloé Caulier decided to go to the first European Boulder competition in Merano Italy. There was no support except inscription from the Belgian Federations KBF and CAB so their parents supported these motivated climbers.

 All had to travel 11-13 hours by car to go to this event. Manolo and Ignace camped on the camping site Merano in the middle of the town. This camping has a small campground for tents and excellent sanitary. From this campground it was only 10 minutes walking to the Outdoor Competition Climbing wall. This Wall was mounted at the entrance of the Thermae of Merano with a beautiful view on the surroundings mountains The Thermae of Merano is a health resort with indoor and outdoor baths ,sauna, .. Very impressive, large, modern architecture really worth a visit.

Saturday 10 September 2011 was the qualification for the finals on Sunday. 12 boulder routes to climb flash in 1 ½ hours with maximum 5 attempts. Every category climbed separately and if there were more than 30 climbers in one category then the climbing time was extended. The 6 best climbers could climb on Sunday in the finals where you had 4 on sight boulders to climb in 4+ minutes per boulder . Chloé (Female Youth B) climbed first and was able to top 8 boulders and ended on an 11 place. It was Manolo’s (Youth Male B) first International competition and he was able to top 4 boulders. Cedric and Ignace (Youth A Male ) climbed in the afternoon when temperatures climbed up to more than 30°C. Most of the boulders were too hard for them in these temperatures. Cedric topped 2 and Ignace 1 boulder route. All Belgian climbers had problems doing Dyno’s .Only Cedric managed to climb one dyno .

 Our Dutch climbing friends Daan Groskamp, Teun Ceusters, Tim Reuser and Tom Hendriks climbed also hard but also for them there was no place in the finals. Afterwards Ignace, Manolo and Carl enjoyed going to the baths of the Thermae of Merano. There was no Belgian climber in the finals so we decided to drive home on Sunday so all could go to work or school on Monday.
The Dutch team went bouldering in the Zillertal in Austria to prepare themselves for the next European Boulder contest on 17-18 September in Münich Germany. It was a very good organized competition in a lovely scenery .The boulders were very nice moves with challenges like dyno ’s , small holds ,balancing moves, power throws,…

 Complete results on :
http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?page_name=resultservice&comp=1356&cat=ICC_MBB

Belgian Youth Boulder competition

Saterday 14 May 2011 was the first Belgian Youth Boulder championship in Bouldergym Blok .

This competition is more stressfull then youth Boulder circuit competitions.Here you have 2 minutes to read the boulder and after that you have 4 minutes to climb it.

Manolo (Youth B) had a hard time climbing the first boulder but topped it at the end of his 4 minutes.Boulder 2 and 3 were too hard for him and boulder 4 was topped by him and by everyone first try.Nicolas Van Cayzele was the only one who topped 3 boulders and is Belgian Champion Boulder 2011. 2° place Vincent Van Habost and third Lorenzi Simone.Manolo was 4°.

Ignace (Youth A) climbed as hard as he could but did not top any boulder.Loic Timmermans topped 3 of the 4 boulders and is Belgian Champion Boulder 2011. Lukas Geukens 2° place and 3° Jonathan Berthe.Ignace 6° place.

Other Belgian champions are Chloé Caulier (Female Youth B),Sebastien Berthe(Juniors male).

Some pictures on : Picassa

Complete resulst on : http://ybc.belclimb.net/

YOUTH BOULDER BLEAU 2011

Saterday 19 February 2011 Manolo and Ignace went to the Youth Boulder competition at Boulder gym Bleau in Ghent (Belgium).This year the climbers received a personal scorecard that you had to give to the jury before you tried the boulder.When you top the boulder the jury puts a stamp on your card.This is an improvement compared to last year because you can check your results. If you loose however your scorecard you have no record of your boulders done and so no points.

Manolo climbed in the morning from 10.00 Hr to 12.30 Hr.This bouldercompetition is very popular for young climbers.

A boulder competition is usually a lot of fun. How can you make it not fun ?

You invite a lot of people so you have a long waiting time at each boulder and put some pressure by limiting the climbing time .This is what happened in the morning with Youth C and B.Too much people,long waiting time and too much stres by the limited time.In the morning they only have 2.5 hours to try to climb the 30 boulders.In the afternoon Youth A and Juniors have 3.5 hours , less climbers and almost no waiting time.

Manolo climb what he could and was able to top 26 Boulders.He finished on a 3° place Youth Male B.Nicolas Van Cayzeele 1° and Vincent Van Habost 2°.

Ignace was lucky and climbed in the afternoon.He climbed hard and had fun.He finished on a 2° place.Loïc Timmermans won and Jonathan Berthe was 3° in Youth Male A.

Tim Reuser (Youth Male Juniors ) from the Netherlands was the only who topped all 30 Boulders! Good job !

Boulder competition Den Greep Mortsel 2011

Sunday 13 Feb 2011 Manolo and Ignace participated at the Boulder competition in Bouldergym Den Greep ,Mortsel Belgium.
The bouldergym climbing surface was expanded compared to last year.
A lot of climbers in a small climbing gym gives a lot of waiting and dangerous landings on people .

Ignace had been sick on wednesday and was not in great shape.He had to climb in Adults category. He climbed as good as possible and finished on 6th place in category Men Male.
In this category 2 climbers from Holland were in top 3 Wessel Pijnenburg (1°)and Michiel Hennevelt(3°).Yannick Marchand from City Lizard finished 2° place.

Manolo climbed again in the category -16 years.He climbed well and finished on a 4th place.Loïc Timmermans won and Cédric Binst finished second.

Complete results on this site : Den Greep Mortsel Boulder 2011

Belgian Boulder 2010 Manche 1 Bleau

Ignace did not go to the EYS climbing competition in Kranj this year because it is expensive to go with the Belgian Team . He also looses two days of school for only 2 qualifications routes .

He preferred to go to the Belgian Boulder competition in Bleau Ghent.

There he had fun bouldering hard routes in a relaxed atmosphere and topped 7 of the 12 boulders and finished on a 10th place.

We were surprised to see that most of the male competitors climbed with the Team Five Ten shoes.

Complete results : http://www.climb2climb.be/images/site/articles_news/2010/2010-11/bbc2010_manche1.pdf

Pictures of the competition on Picassa :

http://picasaweb.google.com/THEREDMONKEYS/BelgianBoulderBleau2010#

Anak won her second EYS competition in Kranj. She is getting really strong !

Peter Belien 2010

Saterday 13 November 2010 was a rainy day in Belgium.

We all went to the indoor bouldercompetition Peter Beliën in Hasselt.

Ignace and Manolo climbed for 7 hours .

They both had fun on the 30 boulders.

It was a relaxed atmosphere where young and old climb together.

Ignace climbed to the top of 25 boulders and finished on 19th place.

Manolo climbed like an adult and finished 39th of 88 male adults.

Our Dutch friends Tim and Niels Van der Sleen also competed for fun.

We did not watch the finals because Ignace and Manolo were too tired.

Complete results on http://www.peterbelienmemorial.be/

or www.climb2climb.be

Fontainebleau 31 Oct - 1 Nov 2010

We went for 2 days to Fontainebleau from Sunday 31 oct to 1 nov 2010.

We had excellent conditions and had lots of fun bouldering in this magical forest.

Ignace was in good shape and pushed his personal limits every day .

We went the first day to Beauvais and second day to L'élephant.

Ignace climbed his first

7B boulder : La Barre fixe direct

He also did :

En vie d'ange 7A

Le nègre en chemise 7A+

La traversee de la barre fixe 6c+

La voie michaud 6c

Le toit du loup 6b

La limonite 6b

and lots of other fun boulders.

Manolo did his first 6a Boulders

Le Lépreux 6a

Les bosselettes du Lépreux

and lots of other fun boulders