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 EnchantĂ©, 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 BĂ©rarde, 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)