Author Archives: Anak
3 World Cups in a Row
An overview of 3 competitions in July:
Chamonix (France)
Two exhausting qualification routes, a complicated semifinal and a final route in which both Janja and I reach the top. 2nd place (due to countback), so first podium of the 2016 season! Jain takes bronze.
1. Janja Garnbret (SLO)
2. Anak Verhoeven (BEL)
3. Jain Kim (KOR)
©Denis Timmermans
Villars (Switzerland)
This ski resort hosts a World Cup for the first time. I celebrate my 20th birthday on the day of the qualifications. The female climbers are somewhat confused during the observation of the semifinal route, but the moves feel quite logical after all. I’m glad I reach the finals again. 4 out of 8 finalists fall on the same boulder move in the finals. Countback again… a silver medal for me again. Same podium as in Chamonix. 🙂
Briançon (France)
Tied on the 1st place with Jain and Janja after the semifinal with all routes topped. And… a slip of my right hand in the final route. A very disappointing 8th place but a lot of encouraging words from other athletes, coaches from other teams, friends and family.
1. Janja Garnbret (SLO)
2. Jessica Pilz (AUT)
3. Magdalena Röck (AUT)
Some other things I’m thankful for:
– By ‘coincidence’ we had booked an apartment in Chamonix next to the house of ex-world champion Martina Čufar from Slovenia. So nice.
– A happy birthday song after my climb in Villars (thanks Christopher).
– While I was climbing, the DJ usually played the song Hallelujah. Although it’s not really a christian song, I’m glad that people are willing to recognize that I believe in Jesus. The song ‘Oh Happy day’ was played several times too. Great.
– Andrea Rojas is a climber from Ecuador who is studying in Italy at present and participates in Speed World Cups. I met her on the Youth World Championships 2013 in Canada and ever since we’ve been communicating an encouraging each other. It was great to meet her again in Chamonix and share the same apartment in Switzerland.
©Denis Timmermans
Bronx – 8c+
My climbing trip in Springtime 2016 ended with the send of Bronx in Orgon Canal.
It was not the first time I visited this crag in the south of France. 19 years before I had already discovered the place…
… and enjoyed myself while playing in the dust…
… while my parents showed me how to climb.
Some years later my activity became a little different. 😉
A video about my first ascent of Ma belle ma muse (in Romeyer) and Bronx (in Orgon) made by Seb Richard:
Ma belle ma muse – First ascent
On April 2nd I promised to give the full story of my first FA soon. Now, more than 3 months later, I only give you a short story of the 3-week rockclimbing trip I made in Springtime. I apologize for that and hope to become a more up-to-date climber in the future. 😉 So here it comes:
After the winter break and a few months of indoor training, I was looking forward to feeling rock again. Now the question was: where to go? Our French friend Seb Richard, suggested a project in Romeyer, a climbing spot in south-east France. It seemed like an exciting idea, so I decided to give it a chance. The first time I would try a never-climbed route…
It turned out to be a rather short, traversing, crimpy and skin-eating project which was not exactly my style, but… it felt possible. And after a process of working out the movements, memorizing all the holds and footholds, starting to do real attempts, making good progress, falling about 4 times at the last hard move just underneath the chain and deciding to do one more attempt before the day was over, I finally clipped the chain. Wow, my first First Ascent!
Pic by Seb Richard
Thanks to Jean-Elie for giving me his bèta even though he was very close to succeeding himself. He topped it right after me. Congrats! 🙂
Seb Richard was the passionate photographer next to me while I was doing attempts. Thanks for the pictures and videos!
And of course I don’t want to forget my parents who so lovingly support (and belay!) me whenever I need it.
And the grade? I personally thought it was a hard 8c+, perhaps an 8c+/9a. Some climbers suggested 9a, but I’m still not convinced that it is truly 9a. I’m looking forward to more sends and opinions about this route!
After this, the trip wasn’t over yet so I moved to Pierrot Beach near Pont-en-Royans to try another project. I was able to do all the moves of this route, but had to leave it due to bad weather. Rain, fog, a cold north wind, … I had 2 options left: going north (meaning home) or going further south. I chose the last one and went to Orgon Canal where I climbed Bronx.
A few more details:
Ma belle ma muse (grade to be confirmed) – 9 attempts – about 6 climbing days
Bronx (8c+) – 3 attempts – 2 climbing days
And some nice posts about my trip to France: Crush Crux – Siked! (in Dutch) – 8a.nu
Belgian Championship 2016
On March 16 I won the Belgian Lead Climbing Championship in Louvain-la-Neuve. Congrats to Celine and Laura for taking silver and bronze and to Marie and Charlène from youth B who became 3rd and 4th even though they were still too young to officially participate.
Thanks to the organizers for making it a nice and well-organized competition.
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- ©Jérôme Vervier
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- ©Jérôme Vervier
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- My mother and I – ©Jérôme Vervier
My first FA
On March 31 2016, I managed to climb a project named ‘Ma belle ma muse’ in Romeyer, a French village in the Drôme department. It is a fairly short, but intense route: some hard mouvements in a roof, followed by a traverse on crimps to the left and a long section of exhausting moves without a rest.
Since it was a first ascent, the grade is still to be confirmed. I think it is a hard 8c+.
Ma Belle Ma Muse, Romeyer, France
Thanks to Sébastien Richard for the photo and the movie, Quentin Chastagnier for the route, Jean-Elie for the bèta, my parents for the encouragements and the belaying and God for teaching me how to persevere.
Full story coming later.
World Cup in Kranj
The season is over! This competition in Slovenia marked the end of the international Lead season.
Unfortunately, it ended with a dissapointment for me.
On Saturday 14 November I topped my first qualification route. In the second one my heel slipped off a hold without friction. I was on a provisional 11th spot, enough for the semifinal later that evening.
After a little break in our appartment, my mother and I returned to the isolation zone for the next round. I knew I had put way too much pressure on myself during the qualifications, so before the start of the semifinal I decided to stop being fearful. I wanted to trust instead.
The first move of the women’s semifinal route scared many of us; it was a little jump. It couldn’t be extremely difficult, but surely it was risky enough to make you fall. This happened to Tjasa Kalan from Slovenia. I still don’t know the reason why routesetters set such traps…
I was relieved when I stuck this first move and while climbing I felt that the rest of the route was quite weird too. But since I had decided not to give up I tried to keep going even though the moves were strange. I finally ended up on a provisional 3rd place. I felt tired after such a long day, but very thankful for a good climb.
The next evening all finalists met again in the isolation for the last worldcup final of the year.
During my climb I had some difficulty with one of the first quickdraws. I finally managed to clip it from a higher position. Since this had cost me some power, I tried to recover in the middle of the route. When I reached the end of the overhang I wasn’t too tired and I wanted to climb on to the last vertical part of the wall.
I reached for a big yellow hold and realized that it was worse than I had expected. I replaced my feet and made a toehook with my right foot. Then I went for the next hold… and fell.
Maybe the toehook had prevented me from grabbing the hold high enough. I wasn’t sure. But anyway, it was a dissapointing way to end the season.
Thankfully, I was able to have peace with the situation despite the grief I felt.
Kranj 2015 (Flickr IFSC)
There have been very painful moments this season. I’ve had to cry several times, thinking of the weeks and months of preparation and of ‘what could have been possible’. But I know these kinds of moments shape a person’s character. I believe nothing in my life happens by chance.
As a human, I cannot look further than the present. But the Almighty God can. Only He knows what the future will bring. When I loose control, He is always in control. That is why I can trust Him. Even in the hard times. Even in the questions.
I’d like to thank my parents, friends, members of the club in Puurs and others who supported me throughout the season. And of course I want to thank my Savior, Jesus Christ.