team illig

team illig is a climbing team of friends who enjoy bouldering, climbing and a good cup of coffee. Enjoyment of the sport and the rock have our highest priority, not grades. We climb in national bouldering competitions, organize the competition in our local gym in The Hague and try to go out to climb on rock as often as we can. This site is dedicated to our exploits. team illig is very much a fan of: La Sportiva (www.lasportiva.com)

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Competition time!

Spoiler alert: we won at de Bouldermuur.

Tijs was drafted completely independently for another pair of shoes (we suspect a tax evasion scheme, ahum), but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do good in the Acompetition itself... He only lost to me by one flash!

And of course there was also climbing, check out other pictures by Yorick on the Facebook page of the Boulderkast by clicking here! Of course, we have a few prime shots here as well, after the click, enjoy!

And also we’re going into the business of glamour shots, just look at those smoldering eyes, I feel moist like a Karmeliet!

[teamillig]

We’re still here!

Although, to be perfectly honest, waaaaaaaay too quiet. We all know how it goes, busy with friends, family, work and the meaning of the universe. But we also still climb, and have loads of fun doing it!

This is going to be a sort of dump post of some adventures this year, as I don’t feel like writing a few separate ones ;)

We competed in Problematics in The Hague first, went to Stuntwerk in Cologne a few weeks back, pretty close after that was Stuntwerck in Leiden where nobody joined in, but I set for, and the weekend after that was Dust in Rotterdam, where we -almost- cleaned up the veteran’s category! Finally, I went to Font for two very cold but productive days :)

Enjoy the pictures!

No comment. I did get to say a lot of things, though...

Speaker for the finals. Next time I want a wireless mic!

Off to Germany!

Jesse and me trying to strike a pose at the same time in the problems for the Boulder Bundesliga. Very cool stuff!

Tijs enjoying the new Flathold Damage Control series, great holds!

We almost died in the parkour section...

So we went back to bouldering follwed by a great dinner!

And then Dust! While we weren’t up for the men’s or all-you-can-boulder categories, Nix and Barry did come in first and third in the veteran’s, well done!

And finally, during last weeks cold holiday, I decided to jet off to Font because it had been too long and the conditions wouldn’t be good for too long. Results: two afternoons of bouldering, 5 7A’s, snow and lots of fun!

In a few weeks we are going on a trip to Albarracin, the Easter and other assorted holidays are coming up, so we’ll try to post a little more regular again!

See you soon, in a crag or gym near or far, or right here on Illig!

[teamillig]

Bouldering in Morocco, we do it all!

Whieew! That’s a long long time ago. Not that nothing happened, but life and busy and lazy and everything combined. Sorry for that!

Tijs, Jesse and Rick went to Ouikameden (pronounced ouy-camden, apparently) and had a blast! Lucky for us they made a video as well, and I have to say that they’ve made the area look much better than any previous video I saw..

So go check it out, and enjoy!

[teamillig]

7A op je vijftigste? Natuurlijk!

We waren eigenlijk maar met een doel voor ogen naar fontainebleau: 7A voor Theo in zijn gelijknamige traverse, de rest is bijzaak.

De rest van de trip komt in een andere post ;)

De traverse begint lastig links onder de overhang, en wordt later makkelijk naar een mantel voordat het mossig wordt. Wel lang, en met de temperaturen die we hebben zijn gevoelloze vingers snel een probleem.

Een paar flashes van de jongere garde en een flinke stapel pads later kon er gewerkt worden. Steeds een stap dichterbij, tot een hartbrekende val vlak voor de verlossende rust.

Uiteindelijk? Kijk zelf maar:

We zijn ongelooflijk trots op onze Nestor, Abraham, Geestelijk Leider en Grote Vriend. 

Theo, gefeliciteerd!

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Look what we found!

We’re actually a bit ashamed of ourselves here, because some of these videos are about 4 months old. Nonetheless, enjoy these videos that Tijs shot in Font!

Fontainebleau - Le repos du Sphinx (7a)

Fontainebleau - Hibernatus (7a+)

Fontainebleau - Les Portugaises (6c)

Fontainebleau - Crapovsky (7a)

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Not only Nix went to Italy this summer, also Jesse went and managed to get a very nice video of this beauty of a boulder.

Enjoy L’Oscurita 7B+!

[teamillig]

Nix vertelt over zijn eerste 8A, i buoni cristiani della valle. Vorig jaar klom ik de 7b+ waarvan de 8a naar links uit traverseert. Dat was de laatste dag in val di Mello, dus toen was het doel gesteld. Ik heb voor deze zomer specifiek op lange boulders getraind, om meer inhoud te krijgen, hetgeen nodig is voor de ongeveer 17 passen. Dit jaar ben ik als eerste in de uitklim 7a gestapt, die nog best opletten is, met name in de zon. Daarna heb ik eindeloos het eerste gedeelte, de 7b+ en de aansluiting op de uitklim 7a geoefend (denk een sessie of 7), altijd in de ochtend omdat rond 12:00 de zon er in komt (30 graden in die periode). Dat oefenen was niet alleen essentieel om nog energie voor het tweede gedeelte op te brengen, maar ook omdat ik meestal alleen was en ik een pad of 4 nodig zou hebben (niet voor de hoogte maar voor de breedte van de boulder en de vervelende blokken precies waar je zou vallen). Daarbij viel de warmte niet mee, ik kon de begin pas, pinch op links, maar heel soms (terwijl dat juist vorig jaar zo snel lukte) waardoor ik na vele sessies echt begon te twijfelen, en te balen, want al die tijd in deze boulder is minder tijd in nieuwe boulders. In de 7e sessie drie keer op de een na laatste greep eruit... Mazzel, op de 8e sessie, voor het eerst koel weer, 19 graden. Heerlijk opwarmen in de inmiddels erg bekende boulders op het zelfde blok, de uitklim 7a, en de kant (di persi 7b), en toen was het snel raak! Wat gaaf is om te merken is hoe je uiteindelijk het moeilijkste stuk van de boulder zonder pad klimt, vertrouwen opgedaan in de vele pogingen. Is het 8a, ik heb geen idee. Maar super gaaf dat Michiel heb twee weken later klom ('s nachts met koplamp, bizarrr!), en aangeeft dat het echt een 8a is. Dat is gaaf: zo'n getal dat voor ons veel betekent, maar nog gaver is dat je jezelf kan verbazen!

[teamillig]

Glees-Blitz!

Tijs and Nix went to Glees on the lowdown yesterday, and boy did they deliver!

Tijs sent Es 7B+ and Nix also repeated The Egg, another classic at 7C!

Well done, guys!

In other news, we continued our sponsordeal with De Klimmuur, they’ll provide us with some white sending powder this year. Thanks!

[teamillig]

Review LaSportiva Genius&Futura

A few weeks ago I had the chance to test the much-hyped new LaSportiva Genius, as well as the Futura, which has been out for a while now. This was organized by Summit Outdoor, which is a great company and we had a good chat.

As you might know, I’ve been a big fan of the LaSportiva brand since forever, but I’ve tried to be as unbiased as possible.

First off, at Klimmuur Haarlem I tested the Genius as well as the new fluorescent orange/green traverse. This 80-mover never gets hard, but it’s great fun, climbs well and looks great!

About the shoe, it looks great! Very agressive, lots of black, very assymetric. The lacing system is on the inside of the middle, and after the initial adjusting it is easy to take the shoes off and put them back on again. I used my normal LaSpo size (41,5) and they fit like a glove. As always with the high-performance shoes, you have to take them off after a little while to prevent cramp.

They climb very intuitively, the feeling through the soles is superb. For less experienced climbers or at the end of a long session this might translate to a painful feeling, but that is the inherent drwaback of the NoEdge technology in my opinion. The heel felt a little bit clunky in comparison, but that might change with regular use. The placement was easy though, so it might also just be the newness of the shoe. All in all, I climbed on them for a whole session an was quite impressed. Only drawback is the price: 150 euros for a pair of climbing shoes is just too much for most people to invest.

A few days later I tested the blue Futura at, where else, Delfts Bleau. This shoe was described to me as a little less responsive than the genius, and I guess I agree. There is a little less feeling through the toes (but still more than with a lot of other shoes!), but this does give you a slightly more comfortable experience. The heel feels a little more responsive, because the rubber is a little thinner there. The velcro system adjusts well, but it still has the silly metal loops that are also the main point of critique in the Solution. In the Genius, the loops are made of a softer material, which ensures that you don’t cut through your lace-system.

The price for this shoe is the same as for the Genius, which I think is too high. It is a very comfortable shoe for what you can do with it (which is a lot, as a friend of mine also told me). I would recommend the Futuras for experienced boulderers who really want a topnotch-shoe with a lot of ‘feel’ for indoor, and would recommend the Genius for outdoor and competition climbers. For less experienced boulderers, as well as climbers, I would advise to go for a cheaper shoe. The Solution and especially the Python will remain my firm favourites, and for climbing I still believe that the Miura is immense value for money.

[teamillig]

Dust

I know, I know.. This one is long overdue. But since we had some nice videos and pictures, I decided to write a short post anyway!

We had a great time at Monk Eindhoven as always, enjoying the nice boulders (that were graded a bit lightly we felt) and having tricky Ricky coming in first in the ‘easier’ category.

Tijs in the big roof, with video!

Rick in his element: slabs. But even so, he also rocked some overhanging boulders!

Bart checking his score, trying to maximimze his points total

I needed an insane amount of tries in this problem, but got there in the end. I also managed to repeat this nice coordination problem for the camera:

[teamillig]

ValenFont ‘15

Fuck romance, we wanted to go bouldering!

The weather forecast wasn’t very good, but still two cars went. Tijs, Jesse, Ingmar and Leander on Thursday, Rick and I on Friday night.

Car one had good weather on friday, and they took some funny pics:

Working Kraken 7C

Pretty nice... weather. uhm, yeah. Moving on!

And then car two arrived. Saturday morning:

Boohoo :(

So we drank a lot of coffee, played some pool and made a new plan

Bouldering in Paris!

All in all, we had fun but a little too little sandstone to go around. Better luck next time!

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Naarmate onze boulder competitie vordert, beschijnen er steeds meer interessante variaties..

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Because the weather was not as good as we’d hoped, we choose an indoor destination for our mini-trip. Together with Joskito we went to Kei in Amersfoort, because we still wanted to go somewhere. We weren’t disappointed: good boulders, nice coffee and tasty local beer! Some extra material will be posted on the Facebook-page, so make sure to check that out as well!

Thnx to our hosts Joost and Sven, and we’ll be back for sure!

[teamillig]

Fontainebleau December

Saturday we went to check out Mont Ussy, a nice area with more boulders than we could shake our brush-stick at in one day. I'll be back for Gazoline for sure, especially because you can park about twenty metres from it :)

Sunday we climbed at Rocher de la Reine, a beautiful area on the top of a hill looking out over the forest. A very motivating view!

The summary: great company, great boulders, great food and lots of shenanigans! Here's a few pictures and two not-so-decent videos, enjoy!

It was there already, we swear!

No hands rest

La Gym Mène au Dépit 7A

Checking it out

A man doesn't go to drink coffee after climbing, coffee is integral part of the climbing.

—Wolfgang Güllich

Beautiful boulders

Forgot the name of this cool 7A

No injuries this time!

Lots of good food!

And finally, my ascent of a great 7A+, Le Dragon de Komodo, on my second try! Thanks to Jesse for managing to block the camera for most of it ;)

Next trip will probably be another assault on Es in Glees, and I'm going to Font for 5 days around New Year's. Happy Times!

[teamillig]

South Africa 2014

Just when we thought we didn't have something for you, we do! Captain grubber went to South Africa for a bit, and did some sport climbing (yikes!), hiking (pfff!) and also some bouldering. Not only in Rocklands, but also on a boulder found on the side of the road somewhere in the Cederberge.

on Bloukop, Montagu

I had a great time, and was able to boulder a 7A and a 7A+, thanks to an Atlantic front moving in on the last day in Rocklands. It was great to be back!

Free State landscape, this time no climbing in this unlikely place. Only these kind of things:

Afterwards, on to Montagu for my first roped climbs in a few years. Brilliant stuff!

BTW, this is not me. I was belaying ;)

Then it was on to the Cederberge, more beautiful vistas! And this:

And this:

And, naturally, this!

Great lines for the picking, everywhere you look. Literally!

And finally, Rocklands. View from the pass.

Wearing a sweater in the African summer? All in preparation for Kiesl 7A and Gegen die Wind 7A+

And just reward for topping these beautiful problems: the best sunset ever!

[teamillig]

Fontainebleau September

Just in time for the next trip! Tomorrow we're going again, and the forecast is looking good..

Here are a few pictures from our last trip, enjoy :)

The house we spent our weekend in. Nice and big!

Because this was a family weekend, the ABC looked a bit different from normal..

It was a bit too warm to do a lot of hard stuff, but we'll come back to this slopery edge!

And to this one as well, L'Angle Imparfait (7A+)

Roasted chestnuts with dinner!

Only to have rain in the morning (Jesse hid himself in the trunk, we're sure of it!)

So it was time to go back home for us.

Tijs and his family stayed a day longer..

And of course, Tijs had to have the last word and climb Yogi. Well Done!

[teamillig]

A Day of Bouldering at Essingen-Hohenfels

The first part in all new areas is looking bewildered trying to find  the problems

And after that, brushing them. This block had some great boulders like Shoot out and Virus

Sustenance is very important for hard sends

Like this 'probably around 7C dyno project'. Nothing more than scary. Fun though!

Skillzz

Happy in the topout

Focus before the send

The Kernspaltung block, with TNT and Kernfusion being sent a couple times

And finally, Lola repeating her first 6th grade boulder for the camera!