December
23rd 2010
the cancelation agreement is signed, my last day working for
Siemens after 10 years. Our gear
is sorted and the touring
bicycle is ready to go. There's is still a bit of work for the new edition of the climbing guide for Frankenjura to do and in mid-February we want to cycle from Erlangen (Germany) to
Japan.
The days after Christmas see me running around drawing topos of new
routes and cliffs in Frankenjura despite cold weather and deep
snow. On a very
cold day my feet become numb at -15°C, despite heavy
mountain boots, warm socks and gaiters. The feel comes back two hours
later in a warm supermarket.
January 12th 2011
on an easy walk around Vilanova de Meia on the south side of the Pyrenees the Achilles tendon
in my right heel starts hurting. During the following two weeks the
pain gets worse. Walking, cycling and climbing are almost impossible.
Diagnosis: achillodynia. In the next two and a half months I visit
several doctors, go to physiotherapy and spend most of the time at home
behind the computer, without much change.
The
cycling trip we had been planning for so long, gets postponed more and
more.
In early April I find a doctor in Nuremberg, who mobilises my thoracic
spine, starts a functional neural therapy and recommends consulting
another dentist. The pain is much better within days and 6 weeks later
I carefully start climbing again.
Debbie is back working for Siemens in her old job on a 4 months
contract and I start working on an iPhone App of the Frankenjura
guidebook. A longer cycling trip is out of question, so we buy a used
VW campervan and start a climbing trip to Norway.
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A long day's drive takes us through Denmark and via the Great Belt and
Öresundbridges to
Gothenburg in Sweden. There are many cliffs around here, but
the climbing guide is out of print (2011) and nobody can tell us, when
the next edition is coming out. Fuel is a lot cheaper in Sweden, so we
fill up before the border and head to Norway the same evening.
In 2011 the Norwegian Boltefund has brought out an excellent
guidebook called "Climb Norway" with 35 sport climbing areas between Kristiansand and Nordkapp. The
guidebook can be ordered from Oslo Sportslager. We are looking
for cliffs with bolted routes between 6a and 7c and the approach should
not be longer than 10 minutes.
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