Tuesday, August 21, 2018

This was 2018!

Well, an intense 2018 : traveling and climbing with old and new friends, making steady progress in climbing level, learning new techniques, practising and refining them, both in climbing and professionally :
  • FOSDEM
  • Config management Camp in Ghent
  • Climbing in Gorges du Tarn en Gorges de la Jonte with Vertical Thinking, including two multipitches (Le jardin enchanté, and diagonal du Gogol)
  • Climbing in Fontainebleau with Alex and Tom, doing lots of yellow, orange and blue routes in L'éléphant, Apremont and Roche aux sabots.
  • Climbing trip to Ettringen, practicing some trad techniques, first time climbing Basalt
  • Climbing trip with Vertical Thinking to Guillestre (Haut Val Durance), doing 2 nice multipitches (4-5 pitches including a 6a)
  • Climbing day with Koen and Wouter in Moha
  • Visiting Romania (Moldova and Transilvania region) with Eduard and Ecatarina : Lady's rock, Vatra Dornei, Dochia Caban and Toaca Peak, Transfagarasan, Sighisoara, Bran castel, Brasov, Iasi
  • Short citytrip in Vienna (during a 22h layover between two flights)
  • Multipitch climbing with Koen in Yvoir, also exploring Anhée
  • Climbing training working towards 6c.
  • Percona Live Europe in Frankfurt
  • Climbing trip to Siurana with Rouslan and Rat : leading my first 6b (redpoint), 6b+ toprope and projecting a 7a
  • Quick visit to Barcelona
  • Visiting 35C3 conference in Leipzig, another 4 days of infosec, IT, technology and science. First year as an 'angel', volunteering to help with some tasks at the conference. Unfortunately, bound to my hotel room due to illness for half of the conference. Luckily, all talks are recorded and streamed, so I could I could follow a few from my bed : https://media.ccc.de
  • Spending New Year's Eve in a doctor's office and looking for a pharmacy, due to earlier mentioned illness.

Plans for 2019 :
- more climbing : training for 6c/7a, fall-training to get more comfortable while leading, climbing trip to Buis-les-baronies in April, maybe a trip to Boulder, Colorado, possibly an alpine experience in the summer or a climbing trip in the US west coast in autumn
- continue Rock maintenance with Belgian Rebolting Team.
- find a new house, preferably with a small garden
- conferences : FOSDEM, Config Management  Camp, Percona Live (Austin, Texas), Percona Live Europe, 36C3
- first time Rock Werchter (Tool is coming)

Monday, January 01, 2018

Overview of 2017

Well, 2017 was exciting! A new job and a lot of climbing in Belgium, California and France : KVB4 training, crag maintenance weekends with BRT, trips to Fontainebleau and Freyr :

  • First BRT weekend of the year : exploration and first works in new climbing site in Spontin, some langlaufing on Sunday
  • FOSDEM 2017
  • Got selected for a sysadmin position at the ICT department of Ghent University
  • Joining BRT on Sunday for climbing in Freyr
  • More rock maintenance in Spontin, climbing a few routes in Pont-a-Lesse on Sunday
  • Climbing in Gorge du Tarn and Gorge de la Jonte with Vertical Thinking, leadclimbing up to 6a, finished a 6a+ toprope (Fuck the Curve, De Que Fas a Qui), 3 multipitches (Jardin Enchanté, Roc d'Aiguile, Le Bitard), discovered a nice and quiet climbing area at the end of the Jonte valley, called Pauparelle, close to Meyrueis, well equiped, 4 to 6a)
  • Introducing Alex and Tom to bouldering in Fontainebleau during a 4 day climbing trip.
  • Second trip to Fontainebleau with Alwyn, Pieter and Maene.
  • Started working as Linux System Administrator at the ICT department (DICT) of Ghent University
  • Icinga2 training in Amsterdam
  • Trip to Le Marche in Italy, visiting Rome and Milan on the way home by train.
  • KVB4 training in La Bérarde, learning basics of trad climbing, using mobile protection, (self) rescue techniques, a lot of knots (HMS and Alpine slipknot to the rescue!) and tips and tricks to avoid tricky situations when climbing in semi-alpine areas and how to get out of them.
  • Climbing trip to California, visiting Yosemite, Bishop and Joshua Tree, being fortunate to meet some nice people to climb with. It was a nice combination of comfortable sports climbing (Owens River Gorge), getting some experience in trad and crack climbing in Yosemite, and toproping harder crack climbing routes in J-Tree.
  • positive final evaluation for the trial period in my new Linux Sysadmin position
  • Visited 34C3, for the first time in Leipzig. Yet again an interesting 4 days of conference on IT, security, policy and science.

Plans for 2018 :
  • More crag maintenance with BRT and climbing (trad), maybe another climbing trip to California or multipitch climbing in France
  • Conferences : FOSDEM, 35C3
  • Pick up on contributing to Open Source again

Climbing in California 2017

From October 25th 2017 to November 9th 2017, I went to California on a climbing trip. The goal was to build experience in trad and crack climbing and explore some climbing areas :

Yosemite

Day 1 : Glacier Point Apron

With Patricia

  • Harry Daley (5.8, 2 pitches)

Day 2 : Swan Slab 

With Rhea and Dan :
  • Oak Tree Flake (5.6) : trad lead
  • Grant's Crack (5.9)
  • Lena's Lieback (5.9)
  • Claude's delight (5.7)
With Rhea :
  • Unnamed Crack (5.9) * : first trad lead while placing gear
  • Unnamed Crack (5.7) *
* Swan Slab, route E (5.7) and F (5.9) in Super Topo Yosemite Valley Free climbs (p. 96)

Bishop

Day 1 : Owens river Gorge (Central Gorge)

With Spence and Sierra, bolted routes

Warm Up wall

Great Wall of China - Left

  • Enter the dragon (5.8)
  • China Doll (5.8)

Day 2 : Owens river Gorge (Upper Gorge)

With Spence and Sierra, bolted routes

Upper Elbow Room

  • For Patricia (5.7)
  • Frank (5.9)
  • Stella (5.8) : very fun!

Joshua Tree

Day 1 : IRS wall

With Patricia and Dave

  • Tax Man (5.10a)
  • Bloody Tax Break (5.10b)

Day 2 : Hemingway Buttress

With Patricia and Dave

  • Poodles are people too (5.10b)