2013 Magic Wood Summer bouldering trip

Karen,Manolo and Carl  went this summer to a bouldering trip in Switserland.
Ignace prefers lead climbing so he decided to go again to Rodellar in Spain with friends Koen Baeckeland and many others .

Here's the You tube video that Manolo made  about his bouldering in the Magic wood.

It was hot in whole Europe but bouldering in this pace was still possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszsEj7FyEw&feature=share

First 8B redpoint - Zona zero Siurana Spain for Ignace

Ignace went to Siurana in Spain with Koen Baekelandt .On Valentines day 14 Feb 2013 he has sent us a message that he had redpointed his first 8B Zona zero.

European championship Gemozac France

Today was the first European Youth Lead climbing championship in Gemzac France. We watched it on the live streaming this evening and we saw a very strong Belgian Team.
Loïc Timmermans (Male A) was very strong. He topped his qualification routes and climbed to the highest hold in the finals. He is the first Belgian European youth champion !!
Anak Verhoeven (Female A) was also very strong. She topped her two qualifications routes and also the finals. Jessica Pilz and Ana Tiripa also topped the final route. Anak Verhoeven needed more time to climb to the top and so she finished third place.Jessica is European champion Female A.
Chloé Caulier (9th Female A) ,Emilie Guerit ( 10th Female Juniors) and Sébastien Berthe (10th Juniors Male)made it also to the finals.
Ignace still suffering from the removal of 2 wisdom teeth couldn't train well for this competition and finished on a 20th place.

Other belgian climbers that participated :
See IFSC website for official results !

Nicolas Vancayzeele 16th Male A
Céline Cuypers 19th Female B
Nicolas Collin 22th Male B
Maëlys Gillart 28th Female B
Margot Verhaegen 3Oth Female A
Koen Baekelandt 33th Male A
Liam Thijs 33th Male B
Joke Pierssens 33th Female B
Cedric Binst 35th Male A
Julie Elseviers 35th Female A
William Frimout 36th Male A

Video Belgian Team TAB France

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.

EYC Voirion France 9 June 2012

The youth Belgian Team is at EYC Lead climbing competition in Voiron France.
You can follow the competition on Live Streaming. http://www.eyc-voiron.com/
Qualification females  starts at 14 h and Finals at 19.15 Hr.
Update : Anak Verhoeven won  and Loïc Timmermans  was second due to the speed rule . Celine Cuypers made it to the finals and finished 10th. Maëlys Gillard just missed the finals with her 11th. Koen Baekeland finished 29 place.

Video Finals Female Youth Boulder competition Grindelwald

Here's the video of the female climbers .We did not stay for the men's finals so I have no  video of the men's finals.

Video Belgian Team B boulder Grindelwald Switserland

European Youth Boulder competition Grindelwald

The first of two European Boulder competitions in 2012  took place in Grindelwald Switzerland on 2-3 june 2012. Grindelwald is the place close to the famous Eiger North Face. Manolo participated together with Chloe Caulier,Dawn Claeijs,Maëlys  Gillard en Tim Goossens. We also had 2 team coaches Tijl Smitz and Jerome De Boeck. Carl and Thibaud Caulier (father of Chloe) were the two dedicated fans of the Belgian Boulder team. 


Compared to last year we saw more climbers participating at these European boulder competition.At least 145 climbers of a lot of different European countries, also Israel participated. It was a very well organized competition with cool boulder problems that are  different from the ones we are used to climb in Belgium and Netherlands. Alll had to climb 8 boulders in 1.5 hours with a maximum of 5 try's for each boulder.


Manolo had a good start with topping his first two boulders flash. The other boulder were too hard for him to top although he was sometimes very close.He only topped 2 boulders and had 7 bonus holds. He finished on 23 th place in Youth B male.


Chloe Caulier (Girls A)was now our only hope to have  a Belgian climber in the finals. She started with a lot of confidence but could only top 3 boulders and missed the finals as she finished on 7 the place. Only the first 6 of each category go to the finals.


For Tim Goossens it was his first European competition. He had a nervous start but tried hard and was able to top 2 boulders  and finished on 24th place (Boys A).


Dawn and Maëlys also new in the Eureopean boulder competition both in Category B girls finished on 21 and 20th place.


Also our Dutch friends Daan Groskamp, Teun Keusters, Tim Reuser and Tabitna Buma  climbed hard but didn't make it to the finals.


Update : Pictures from Thibaud Caulier on : Picturetown

European Youth climbing Edinburg Schotland

Ignace went with the Belgian Youth Lead climbing team to the European youth  climbing competition in Edinburgh Schotland . He climbed both qualification routes and finished on a 14 place in category Juniors Male. In his category Sebastien Berthe made it to the finals and finished on a 7th place.

Superwoman Anak Verhoeven (Female A) climbed  strong and won in her category.
Another superstar Loïc Timmermans (Male A) finished on 3place .
Celine Cuypers (Female B)  showed she  can climb very hard  by climbing to the top in her 2 qualifications routes and finishing on a 3th place in the finals . Great start for her !
Chloe Caulier (Female A)   made it to the finals and took 5th place !

See complete results on :
http://www.ifsc-climbing.org

Results of the Belgian Team 

	Female	Male
Youth B :	03. Céline Cuypers 15. Maëlys Gillart 21. Verhaeren Margot	16. Liam Thijs 18. Simon Lorenzi 21. Nicolas Collin 24. Antoine Matheys
Youth A :	01. Verhoeven Anak 05. Chloé Caulier 18. Julie Elseviers	03. Loïc Timmermans 12. Nicolas Vancayzeele 24. Cédric Binst 25. Koen Bakelandt 26.William Frimout
Junior :	11. Emilie Guérit	07. Sébastien Berthe 14. Ignace Debreyne

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 Ignace at Spartacus Survival run

Belgian Lead&Speed championship 2012

Ignace participated at the 2012 Belgian Lead&Speed championship 2012 on saterday 5 May 2012 in climbing gym Entre Ciel et Terre in Louvain-La-Neuve. He climbed two qualifications lead routes but was not able to qualify for the Lead Finals with his 16 place out of 29 male climbers . In speed competition he was in the finals and finished on a 7th place.
No surprises in Lead competition as Loïc Timmermans (Men) and Mathilde Brumagne (Women) became Belgian champions in Lead. In speed Lis Jurgen(Men)  was the fastest together with Anak Verhoeven (Women).

Complete results on :  http://www.belclimb.net

Ignace at Spartacus survival run Antwerp

Ignace participated at the first Spartacus run in Antwerp on 1 May 2012. No climbing but  10 kilometers survival run with 14 obstacles . 3000 people  and Ignace ran as hard as he could and finished on a fantastic 27 place !
He really loved this hard race and would recommend it to every body.At the finish he got his medal from the mother  of Artoer Aghajanyan. Artoer Aghajanyan died during the  Antwerp Iron man race last summer  and this Spartacus race was in memorial for him.See spartacus website for complete results and pictures : Spartacus race

YBC Arlon 2012

Saterday 28 April 2012 Manolo and Ignace went to the third Youth boulder circuit competition in Arlon. Manolo won this competition in category B male  by bouldering 36 of the 40 boulders. Liam Thys was already overall winner Male B as he won 2 of the 3 competitions. Manolo took second place. Ignace was third in Juniors Male .Thomas Salakenos won in Arlon for Juniors Male category.He topped all boulders !  Cédric Binst climbed hard and was second in Male A category but was already overall winner in Cat A male. Chloé Caulier won in Female A .
Complete results on  http://ybc.belclimb.net/
6 climbers of each category  are now qualified for  the Belgian Youth Boulder Championship in boulder gym Bleau on Sunday 13 May 2012.

Video La Baleine Targasonne Ignace

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

Video Manolo La Baleine 7A Targasonne

Video of Manolo bouldering  classic 7A boulder La Baleine Targasonne France

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 , ...

Climbing trip Claret - Saint Bauzille - Aubais

After our boulder climbing trip in Targasonne we planned to meet and climb with our friends Dirk,Katja,Iris ,Long Tom,Alec,Tom,Meggy,acid Tom, Chrisje and Stella  in the area between Cevennes and Camargue . On the way the weather was sunny that we decided to stop at the beach near Cap Agde.

Tom rented a beautiful villa  http://villa-bellevie.fr/   in Corconne. We were with 15 people in this villa that can house 20 people. We had everything we needed : a swimming pool,3 bathrooms, spacy bedrooms, a dishwasher, a wash and dry machine, an oven, a lot of cooking gear, WIFI connection, a pool table, a ping pong table, a soccer table ,TV, barbecue, a garden, a well equipped kitchen, a large terrace, 2 bicycles,….  For an incredible price of 840 €/week  !

First climbing day we went to Saint Bauzille. Ignace climbed a 6c Pollo and 7b Le sacre du printemps onsight and redpointed the 8a Petite grenouille adhesive  . Manolo climbed an 7a en 7b .All enjoyed this climbing as rock and weather  was excellent  .

Second day we went to Claret. Ignace onsighted Hoegaarden 6c and redpointed 7b le bal du sueur .He also tried Macao 8a and 8b Biotop but needed more time and Beta. We also met our friend Gert and his family in Claret. In the evening they joined us for swimming in the pool and dinner. We had a nice evening .

The weather forecast for our third day was rain in the afternoon. Carl, Karen , Manolo and Alec decided to check out a small boulder area in Aubais. Here we found  a small cave were you can boulder in overhangs . We found an online topo (http://jptrouillas.free.fr/Pages%20Guilhem/esca_aubais.html) in French  that explained the moves of the  boulders but we still had a hard time figuring out which holds were the right one.  You could  also find a Via Ferrata and easy climbing routes for beginners. The others went for a walk or relaxed at the villa.

Fourth day we went back to Saint Bauzille. It was a sunny day and all climbed very well. Dirk climbed his 50^th 7b Nicaragua Vencera. Alec flashed  7a En toute innocence.Karen,Katja and Chris climbed 6b Surviwal and 6b+ Mangeur de Lune top rope. Manolo climbed his first 7c Caravanserail. He almost flashed it but needed a second go to finish the job.Ignace flashed 7c Caravanserai and worked a lot in 8a+ Du ciment plein les bottes .In the evening we celebrated the good results with champaign and pizza.

Day five we went back to Claret. The weather was cloudy .Ideal for climbing hard routes but rather cold to belay. Ignace was only 3 meters from flashing  7c+ Makossa . In the second attempt he had to fight hard to top this route. He found it an amazing route. The most beautiful route he had climbed now in Claret. Manolo flashed 7b Travail de Glandes .

Last day we went back to Saint Bauzille. Carl onsighted Abras Cadabras 7a  and redpointed Starting bloc 7a+ in a second go. Ignace and Manolo flashed Starting bloc 7a+. Tom,Manolo and Ignace worked in La Véritable histoire de Victor H. 7a+ a route with very small holds and very technical and also worked in Du ciment pleine les bottes 8a+ . They were tired from their third climbing day in a row and  need to come back another time to finish the job. The others had fun climbing routes in sectors ecole,Leda atomic and Cryptogame.

We drove back on saterday very early in the morning 6.15 pm and had no traffic jams and  arrived 10 hours later at our  home in Schelle (Antwerp).

We need to thank Katja for giving us every morning at 7.30 Hr Yoga lessons.

 We enjoyed the climbing trip with our friends and made new friends.

Information :

*Nearest climbing shop  is Le Yéti http://www.le-yeti.net/ in Jacou, 13 Rue Louis Breguet or Decathlon in Nimes.

* Biological food shop ; Satoriz http://www.satoriz.fr/content.php?page=magasins&mgxml=NIM#map   115, avenue des Français Libres 30900 Nîmes