Nordic Breath

Tag: climbing

  • Climbing with children

    Climbing with children

    Just outside Paris you find one of the top bouldering areas in the world – perfect for grown ups – and perfect for children.

    – Watch me, mama!

    Ella (6) is 2 meters over the ground, no rope, on a boulder in France. Mum has her hands in the air and is ready to catch her child falling. On the ground lies two pads, «crash pads» in case Ella falls all the way down.

    The family is 50 km south east of Paris, outside the town of Fontainebleau. There you find the grand holiday castle of the French kings, among sand dunes – and thousands of boulders in all forms and shapes. Many of them is 2-5 meters high, and therefore perfect for playful climbers without ropes.

    The parisian elite discovered this in the late 1800s, and had picnics in the sand and climbed on the rocks. That gave both lesiure and a sens of hight in the otherwise very flat landskape.

    Now the area is world known for climbing without ropes – or «bouldering» as one calles this earlier obscure sport. Now it is maybe the biggest sector of the climbing field.

    The word «bouldering» is probably derived from the word for a big rock; boulder.

    The flat, sandy landscape is otherwise perfect for this activity, because you land on a soft or at least flat ground. Earlier one only used a door mat for keeping the climbing shoes clean for sand. In the late 90s thicker pads became more and more common. Nowadays big «crashpads» is a common sight in the woods of Fontainebleau, and on all bouldering areas in the rest of the world.

    The risk of injury is low, and the most common case is a wrinkled ankle, which of course can be painful enough. All and all bouldering in Fontainebleau is a very safe – and fun – activity.

    The forest offers over 10 000 boulder «problems», so even those who live there must be pretty active to reach over it all.

    Todays situation is great for family and children. A lot of easy problems is developed, also special areas for children.
    That means mother and father can climb while the child is in the carrier, since the ground is flat. When the child learns to walk it can tumble around in the sand. When it is a bit older it also can try climbing on the small rocks. When it is 4-5 years old it can try the higher boulders. And so on.

    Ellas mother is travelling with several families with children. They have rented a place through Gites de France, where houses is out for rent in nice locations throughout the Fontainbleau forest area.

    – Come on Ella, you can do it!
    Ella tries a problem and her best friend Hedvig (6) watches and chairs her. They are in the same kindergarten together, and climbes indoors once a week back home.

    Ella reaches the top of the boulder, and Hedvig climbs after.

    – We are the princesses of the rock, you are the queen and I am the princess!
    Both are so happy and ride the sharp edge on the top. It is 4 meters down and daddy is a bit nervous. Then they slide 2 meters down and do the 2-meter jump to the ground. They both have a natural angle to hight and climbing, as most kids have.

    – Do you want to go back here, we ask.
    – Yes, they both answer.

    The mothers are also in to that.

    – This is the perfect easter, and we will order a house also next year.

    And as a little tip at the end; the flight down is easy. Most capitals has direct flights to Paris (Orly), an hour by car away, and if you order in a good time in advance you get the flight for a good price.

    For bouldering, you need:

    IMG_7511_cropjust_lowrez IMG_7521_cropjust_lowrez IMG_7527_crop_lowrez IMG_7539_crop_lowrez IMG_7578_crop_lowrez IMG_7623_just_crop_lowrez IMG_7638_crop_lowrez

  • Kilian Journet on setting goals

    Kilian Journet on setting goals

    One of the worlds best mountain runners is the spaniard Kilian Journet. He has won most competitions thats worth winning when it comes to long ditances in the mountains.

    Now he lives in Romsdalen in Norway and enjoys the mountains there. Before that he sat out to run to the summits of his favourite mountains; Mount Blanc traverse (4810 m), Matterhorn (4478 m), Elbrouz (5642 m), Aconcagua (6962 m) and Mount Everest (8848 m).

    He finished all of them. On the way he needed a moral guidance, which he put up in 10 statements, which follows here in a shorter version. We think most of us has a lot to learn from these points.

    1. Nobody told us who to be. Nobody told us to embark on this journey. Nobody told us it would be easy. Someone said that we are what we dream. If we don’t dream, we die.

    We will fight for our dreams and we will follow our passions, because we believe that the meaning of life lies not in following others’ footsteps, but in finding our own path to what we love. And, despite any difficulties, we learn from each misstep and press on.

    2. We will follow the instinct that takes us toward the unknown.

    Taking risks is not like making a bet; it’s evolving and it’s changing each one of us. Being free is being ourselves, making our own decisions, not following anyone. It’s choosing: choosing to have a family, choosing a job, choosing a peak. On the mountain, we are the ones who trace our own path, the ones who decide whether we take this path or that one, whether we climb this peak or that one. Sometimes we do it and sometimes we don’t, but it’s up to us to make our own path where there is none.

    3. We won’t look at the obstacles we’ve overcome, but the ones ahead.

    We should learn from our past without living in it; we should use the experience, respect, and fear that we’ve lived in order to build a solid future. The past isn’t the life that we should let define us. We will live each instant from the present, always looking at what lies ahead of us.

    4. It’s not about being the fastest, strongest, or biggest. It’s about being ourselves.

    Human beings have shown that, with technology, we are capable of doing just about anything. But does that really matter? We need to learn to live with less, with only what we need to be fully human, the most integrated with the environment, with nature. Our power is in our feet, our legs, our bodies, and our minds.

    5. We aren’t just runners, alpinists, or skiers. We aren’t just athletes. We are people.

    Shared emotions don’t add up; they multiply. A summit isn’t a geographic point, a date, and a time. Each summit is a warehouse of memories and emotions. It’s the people who accompanied us and those who waited for us at the bottom. We are all the people that we love and admire, those who go with us without ever being there.

    6. We aren’t sure we’ll do it, but we are sure that we’ll find happiness.

    Failure is not trying. Failure is not enjoying every step. Failure is not feeling. There will be thorns in the path, there’ll be pain, and there’ll be objectives that lie far off in the distance, but none of that is failure—not if we let the journey be what fills us up, even if we don’t make it to the top.

    7. Simplicity is key.

    We’re going to the mountain without aid, without assistance, without external help. We’re going humbly, without seeking to best the mountain because we know it will always be stronger, and we will go as far as it lets us. We’ll learn to live with the mountain, the very rocks themselves, the plants, and the ice—whatever lies underneath the surface, whatever was there before us and will continue on there after us.

    8. We’ll go in silence.

    We will make sure our journey goes unnoticed, that each trek leaves nothing more than our footprints that the wind will eventually erase. We carry our authentic selves within us, and it’s only in silence that we can begin to explore ourselves.

    9. We’ll go with integrity.

    There’s no helping hand to intervene when we’re in danger on the mountain, and there’s nobody to congratulate us each time we achieve what we set out to do. We can’t abandon the path because there is no path. Because hypocrisy doesn’t exist on the mountain. Because the mountain is simply the mountain. For better or for worse, we are all responsible for our own actions.

    10. We’re always searching for something—is it life?

    What is the meaning of any venture, of any journey, of life? Is it to achieve goals or make progress toward them? Is it to reach the horizon or discover the landscape we cross as we walk toward it? Is life the medal at the end of a race or the emotions and feelings that we keep inside as we go? We are forged in dreams and emotions.

    He also wrote a book about the project given out on Velopress.com.