Video: Pyssel in Västervik

A few weeks ago Jonathan and I took a weekend trip to Västervik.  Jonathan (aka Pyssel) had a pretty decent trip despite it being cut short by a trip to the hospital after I hurt my knee.  Needless to say my weekend was shitty but on a plus side the knee is starting to feel better and I'm feel good about being able to climb in Tennessee in November.  Anyways, here is a video of Pyssel slaying a few problems that weekend.
Hope you enjoy.


Swedish Bouldering: Pyssel in Västervik from Walker Kearney on Vimeo.

Västervik Video

Here is a little video from a weekend trip to Västervik.  Hope you enjoy.


Västervik Bouldering: Five Problems from Walker Kearney on Vimeo.

Tunablocket

Tunablocket is perhaps the best boulder in the Västervik area.  The compact red granite makes for great climbing and nearly every problem on the boulder is classic.  The only bad thing is that the boulder is 20 minutes from the next boulders (at least until closer ones are found).

Here are a couple pictures.

Mike on Roadaret.  

 Setting up for the crux slap of Itchy.

 Fredrik trying tall man beta

According to Raz (the man behind 95% of the development around Västervik) this arete to the right of King's Speech was undone.  If so I may have nabbed a sweet FA and if so I'm dubbing the problem King Louie.  It is a sweet addition to Tunablocket and I'm amazed it hasn't been done.

Back at it: Västervik

The weather in Sweden has been unnaturally good as the month of March set a record for sunshine and I have a hard time remembering the last time it rained.  Crazy.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to take full advantage of the weather due to injuries and a rare lack of motivation.  The injuries (elbow and hamstring) have certainly been a damper on motivation but as they get  better I find my motivation was remaining low.  The lack of psyche has been a bit disconcerting so last weekend I took a quick trip to Västervik to try to get out of my funk.  I think the trip worked as just knowing I was going to climb on some new problems got me jazzed and now several days after the trip I am still amped .  This return to my motivated self will certainly translate into the blog resuming it's semi-frequent posting.

Here are a couple pictures from Västervik.

 Mike working Nikita at Mommehål.  Västervik still has quite a bit of snow which was a bit limiting in which areas we visited.  Fortunately there are plenty of areas that were climbable and the temps were perfect

 Fredrik on Given to Fly.  This little gem sits off by itself but is still worth a quick visit if you're in the area.

 Given to Fly

Fredrik celebrates the send.  He had a mini-epic but pulled through in the end.

 Mike in steep country on Sourze at Marstrand

Primitive was one of those problems I figured I couldn't do.  Amazingly I stopped whining about being too short and just did it.  

Choose Your Own Adventure

Solstadström is one of  smaller areas but holds one of the best walls in the region.  During my brief visit there I started off by being shut down by the striking Awake the Unkind and totally discouraged when I realized that Le Pacte des Loups is impossible without a huge wingspan.  Fortunately I didn't throw in the towel as I found a sequence that works for people with normal stature.
There is a little confusion as to whether I did Le Pacte des Loups or Lilla Varg as I climb somewhere in the middle of the two climbs.  Whatever I did was sweet and comes recommended, I'll let other people worry about which problem I actually did (or was it an fa.....)

Le Pacte des Varg?

Daniel in Västervik

My friend Daniel has been hanging in Västervik for a few weeks and he grasiously showed Hammie and me around during our few days there.  It was great hanging with Daniel and I'm extremely greatful for his help with everything.  He had roughly a week to finish off his lengthy tick-list when we departed but he was climbing well so I'm confident he'll put a dent in it.

Hopefully Daniel maintains some of his climbing motivation when he returns to Gothenburg.  I've got lots of project to add to a new tick-list.

Here are a few pictures from Västervik

Daniel working Goofhead while Hammie hangs in the back.  Daniel humored Hammie during our trip by reading a an endless stream of books and being a jungle-gym.  He made quite an impression as Hammie asked about her "big friend" for several days after we left. 

 Daniel was very close to sending Goofhead and it sits high on his tick-list.  I'm confident it'll go down (maybe it already has)

 Daniel on Skullcandy, one of the few established problems in Forsby.  It's essentially committing to one big move that would be a lot easier if there wasn't potential for a bad fall.  

Of Wolf and Man took Daniel a little time to find the beta and went down easily the next day.  One less problem to worry about.

Västervik

Hammie and I recently returned from a 4 day bouldering trip to Västervik on Sweden's east coast.  Västervik has become one of Sweden's primary bouldering destinations due to one man, Stefan Rasmussen. Stefan has single-handedly developed the region by doing the actual work of finding, brushing and establishing climbs.  If not for Stefan there probably wouldn't be any "climbing" and locals would simply whine about how they have to drive elsewhere to boulder.  It is the same story everywhere you go as maybe 5 percent of climbers do 90 present of the development.  I just wish Stefan lived closer so I'd have more company on my own exploratory escapades.  But enough of my bitterness.

The trip to Västervik was primarily exploratory as I wanted to see all the areas in the region.  This would be a feat in itself as the small pockets of development are spread out and can require more than an hour of driving from Västervik.  I planned my days to see as many areas as possible and while I missed a couple solitary problems here and there I managed to hit all the major spots around Västervik.  The amount of rock in the region is impressive and while Stefan has been busy some amazing lines in established areas remain untouched.

Here are a couple pictures from Västervik and there will be more to come

Tunablocket is one of the best boulders around Västervik as it is covered with sweet independent lines.  The King's Speech (the problem in the picture) is amazing and my favorite problem of the trip.  I'd gladly go back to this block, which is totally isolated from any other climbing, just to try the steep test-piece on the back side.

V0 is the name of the area actually located in the town of Västervik.  It only consists of a few walls and boulders but has quite a few problems as the topos can look like connect the dots.  Life is Peachy (Erik is pictured on an attempt from the sit-start) was my favorite problem of the area but for the most part I was uninspired by V0 as the lines seemed lacking.  But the climbing was fun and for locals it doesn't get much closer.  

The amount of potential around Västervik is staggering.  A couple of Västervik's "worst" areas could be the best if people would just brush.  Forsby for example is a sizable boulder field but Stefan has only had time to establish a handful of the steeper lines.  There are plenty of striking lines of all difficulties and styles and a few super lines just sitting there.  During my afternoon there I managed to brush up several things and send two of them.  The picture shows me on one of the problems I put up (trickier than i thought) while Hammie works on cleaning a problem of her own.

The Green Wall is one of Västervik's newer area and consists of a long, steep wall next to a dirt road.  It contains mostly hardish problems coming out a small roof and I didn't get to this area until my fourth day as I hadn't been to psyched on the pictures I'd seen.  Perhaps it was the low expectations but I was pleasantly surprised as the problems climbed well and looked way better in person.  I recommend checking it out and even want to go back myself. 

More from Västervik to come

A couple gems in Västervik

Björnblocket is an amazing piece of rock.  The problems that climbs out the middle of the overhanging face is called The Hourglass is one of the best problems I've ever seen.  Here Dain tries The Office on Björnblocket's right arete

David and Goliath is on the right-side of the impressive Fallataket and one of the problems I'm jonesing to go back to.

Västervik

We are off to the USA for the month of September.  Looking forward to hanging with friends and family and hoping to climb tons.  I'll start updating the blog about our adventures in the USA but in the meantime there a few more pictures from Sweden I'd like to share.....

So I went to Västervik last weekend for a bouldering event/gathering.  I've wanted to check the place out for awhile and was psyched by what I saw.  During my two days there I collected enough projects to warrant several trips this fall and I haven't even seen half the areas.  My buddy Stefan Rasmussen is the primary developer of the area and has single-handedly turned the region into a bouldering destination.  I sure wish there where more folks like Stefan.  Here are a couple pictures.

Sammy sampling some of Västervik's bouldering

Fredrik gets horizontal

Magnus on a cool roof climb

Mr Västervik himself, Stefan, circuiting a sweet problem