Norlandsguld-The Rematch

I made a video awhile back that showed Lina and Prairie battling with the classic boulder problem Norlandsguld (here's the old vid). Both of them walked away pretty battered and vowed to return for some payback. The rematch happened last summer but I never got around to doing anything with the footage until now. Hope you enjoy.


Norlandsguld part 2 from Walker Kearney on Vimeo.

Tuffing it Out

On Saturday Tompa, John, Peter and myself went to check out some boulders I had found in the fall. While there are worthy things to climb the driving snow, wet top-outs and freezing temps limited climbing to a couple moves on an arete. I put my shoes on for maybe 10 seconds before taking them off and pulling on my poopy pants. Damn Swedish Weather. We'll have to go back when more climbing is permitted.

Tompa showing Herculean motivation in spite of poor conditions

The Dumps

The Swedish weather has been anything but good. Hoping for an opportunity to climb I incessantly check weather forecasts and try to find some other obsessive type to brush snow in hopes that something will be dry. By the time things are climbable I will have lost whatever strength I gained from my time in the States and I'll be back to whining about something else. There's always something.
In the meantime here are a couple pics from a fairytale land where the weather is always good and you can climb whenever you want. OK, I'll stop whining and go play in the snow.

Gary on Shake 'n' Bake

Loaded Direct

Dan on Power of Silence

Full-Service

The incredibly beautiful Feather

Lost and Found

This last weekend Peter, Jon from Stockholm (aka Bruno), and I braved the cold and headed to Orust. Peter and Jon played on the Nick Cave Roof (congrats to Jon on Henry Lee and the 2nd ascent of Stagger Lee) and I tried to stick to my policy of establishing at least one new problem every time I'm in an area still under development. I went searching for something without icicles dangling from it and found myself struggling to grapple out of a hole. The cave eventually became Lost and Found (sitdown is still undone) but the best send of the day was retrieving my sock from the dark recesses of the boulder pile. It required more skill than I could muster and I eventually had to rely on Jon's long arms and superior spelunking ability to free my sock and save my toes from frost bite. Thanks Jon

Going head-first for the runaway sock

Beta intensive

Jon tries the sitdown to Lost and Found

Peter on Lost and Found

Moe's Valley Vid

Back in Sweden. The weather here is actually quite ok. A bit on the cold side but at least it's not raining. I'll head out somewhere this weekend as I'm aching to get on rock.
Here's a vid from the 4 days we were in Moe's Valley. I didn't get much footage there but enough to throw a little something together. Better than nothing I guess.
Hope you enjoy.



Moe's Valley Bouldering from Walker Kearney on Vimeo.

Heading Home

My family drove me to the El Paso airport and after getting hopped up on coffee I waved goodby to family, freedom and sunshine. It feels good going home to Sweden as 9 weeks is a long time to be away from Lina. On the down side I'm leaving Hueco Tanks just around the time I was starting to climb well. My Scottish friend Gary arrived a week before I flew out and he tends to motivate me as I dispatched a couple old projects (Full Service and The Feather) and was feeling better than ever on others. Hopefully I'll come back in good shape next season.
The forecast in Sweden looked grim but with Spring just around the corner I'll be back on rock in no time. Hope my Swedish friends are ready to be drug outside.
It'll be good to be home.
I'll try to update the blog with some vids from the trip as not everything was stolen and I got more footage after the robbery.

The fam getting louder than usual with the help of caffine

Getting Tanked

I've been splitting my time between hanging with friends and family in Las Cruces and climbing in the Tanks. Despite the perfect weather I'm feeling ready to go home to Lina. Sappy, I know.
I've managed to deal with most of the losses from the robbery. My eldest sister happened to have a camera she wasn't using much and has allowed me to borrow it to continue documenting things.
Here's even more pics from the Tanks.

Prairie enjoying some unique features on Dean's Journey

Try on old project, Power of Silence

Chris showing off his pseudo-euro-undies. So hot.