SUMMIT '08

Last weekend, the Flemish Klim- & Bergsportfederatie (Climbing & Mountaineering Federation) held its first big annual fair, called SUMMIT'08 to promote its activities in the field of mountain sports (in dutch: stagebeurs)
All trainings, educations and expeditions were introduced to the audience, people were able to subscribe also, clubs presented themselves and workshops were given.
Next to that, there was also an active part, with a mountainbike tour, an adventure circuit and at least 3 different indoor climbing walls! There was a boulder wall, a simulation of artificial climbing, and.... an iceclimbing/drytool wall.

I was asked to cooperate for that last one, so together with partners in climb Gerrit and Geert, and a bunch of workers from BVLB, we built a slightly overhanging 6.5 meter high wooden wall from scratch on saturday, created 2 routes on it with wooden "holds" saturday night, and belayed and let people try climbing with axes on sunday. Those who brought their boots or who were lucky enough to fit in one of the few pairs of boots we had with us, could also try climbing with crampons.

Plenty of people passed by to try, and of course we hadn't made the two little routes too difficult (but there was a nasty "missing" foothold in one of them - grin) so everybody with a little bit of climbing experience was able to top and ring the cow bell I had found on my parents attic.

Next to that there was of course the opportunity of seeing back a lot of people, meeting new people, and "networking" in common. I got a nice tip of where to sleep in Canada, and guess what, C1sc0 had booked a couple of nights in that very spot the day before! Speaking of coincidence...

Another part of the fair was an exhibition about the history of Belgian climbing & mountaineering. Due to the fact I was "on duty" I didn't have time to visit this exhibition extensively, but I briefly walked through. Most of it I had already seen a couple of years ago on another fair.
But it was very interesting indeed! Those of you who know a little about Belgian history, or have been climbing in the Alps, might have heard of Ernest Solvay, a Belgian industrial who sponsored the Solvay bivouak on Matterhorn, or our fromer king Albert I (grandfather of Albert II) who gave his name to the Refuge Albert Premier in France, and died in a climbing accident in Marche-les-Dames, near Namur in Belgium. Also his son king Leopold III was a good climber, well known in the Dolomites.
Don't be afraid, I'm not going to write down Belgian climbing history(link in Dutch) here! But holding the Kings Ice Axe was a strange experience indeed (it was behind glass at the exhibition, but yeah... the day before... :-) ) and to my pleasant surprise, one of my photographs -about iceclimbing- was used at the exhibition too.

If anyone's interested, I can do a next post about how we set up our iceclimbing wall, with some more pictures.

Opening Klimax II

Yesterday I attended the official opening of Klimax II, a new part of the indoor climbing complex in Breendonk, not so far from where I live. I had the honour(?) of listening to a couple of speeches, amongst others by our Flemish sports minister Bert Anciaux, and our rather new Flemish Minister-president Kris Peeters.

Of course those speeches are not the reason you go to ceremonies like this. It's a good opportunity to meet people and learn the latest news about what's going on behind the screens. Of course this happens during the drink afterwards, but also while we were waiting for our Minister-president, who was about one hour late...
Klimax II is the first big climbing hall in Belgium that has lead climbing by default, as toproping is standard in Belgian indoor climbing. It's also not completely indoors, two sides are open, which allows a lot of spectators watching competitions, the first of which will be the World Cup within a couple of weeks.

September 8 was also the day the new Flemish climbing federation KBF (Klim- & Bergsport Federatie) should have been founded. For those not knowing: so far we had two federations here, history would take us to far if I had to explain all of this, and the main reason they didn't get together earlier, is people sticking to their position of power at both sides, blocking everything.
Also now I heard one big club is trying to block the process because they want more power in the new federation.

Why do I bother to write about this political topic?
A couple of years ago I was president of the smaller one of those two federations, and I spent a lot of energy to get to a fusion. So although I am not at all involved anymore in the actual process, I still care. And I will still be glad if one day will show all my energy spent on it, will not have been wasted.

But maybe the most interesting thing I heard yesterday is about ice climbing. I learned there is a waterfall in Belgium that freezes over regularly. I made the guy who told me promise to call me when it does next time, to go climb it with him. I hope he does!