Long waited trip to sunny Spain has come and gone. It was quite different from any climbing trip I’ve been to. At the same time it was great! We were lucky to have incredible weather - no single drop of rain during all week, awesome company including two hyperactive 4-year-olds, and friendly people we’ve met.

Don't spill it on my mat!

Work trips to San Francisco are great. You meet loads of very smart people, talk to them, listen and try to absorb as much as you can to later google everything you do not know. I feel that I grow a lot during those days that I spend with my team in Twitter HQ.

No wonder why it's called Gold Wall

Past 11 days I spent on the other side of the pond. Coming this way is not that easy, so I’m trying to not sleep until the evening and doing all the works from a never-ending TODO list. One of them is the blog.

As I was not allowed to write any post about the ski-touring day at Mutteristock :), I will only add several pictures from a state-of-the-art “weekend warrior” outing. It was an awesome escape from London for just a couple of days and was totally worth it. Cannot be grateful enough to Martynas, Gedas, Saulė, Aras and all the others for making this happen! Huge thanks!!!

Sertig icefalls in the center

I always had troubles trying to understand why ice climbing is so tempting. Bunch of layers, thick mittens and metal tools make this activity look so dissuasive compared to t-shirtless bare hand climbing on a sunny rock of Spaniards. Also, getting cold, wet and damn scared contribute to all this irrationality.

Waterfalls in spring

I started the trip on the Christmas Eve at the Heathrow airport. Fortunately, there’s Skype, so I saw the Christmas tree at least through my phone screen. Sounds sad but this was a price to pay for the incredible holidays we had.

After the three flights during the night when you are supposed to hear the animals talking I was met at the Antalya airport by Martynas and the Peak Guesthouses camping lady with the car at 8am in the morning. 40min transfer to the camping and the rocks are 50m away. You can almost belay from your bungallow (only if you have an 80m rope as suggested to Frieder by some very smart girl).

Laura on Müren 7a+ or b

This whole summer was the least summerish I can recall for both of us. Martynas was doing his university project literally all the time, I was looking for a job and that included flying from place to place, interviewing, preparing for the interviews and coding the trial tasks.

Apart form several weekend outings such as a STRCamp festival, LampeTronas multi-sport competition, a trail running race around lake Asveja (both of which I may write about later) or a weekend near Baltic sea, there was not much fun we had this summer.

One week before the end of summer we still had some faith left that we’ll manage to touch some rock before starting studies (Martynas) or job (me) in the middle of September. One day we ran into Vilija while cycling home, had a small chat about how much we crave for some warm rock and bam! we have the flight tickets to Kos - an island just one hour ferry ride away from the climbing paradise in Kalymnos. 

Telendos - a small island with no roads or cars

I spent my last weekend in Switzerland bouldering in Magic Wood with Martynas and Povilas. It was an awesome weekend which made me reconsider the options of staying in this country again and again. However, for me bouldering is just one part of a package when choosing a place to live. So, I’ll see.

We started traditionally - leaving Friday after 7pm. All lucky Gleis 7 possessors understands the pros of that. Train, another train, post auto ordered by phone and we’re in the camping of Magic Wood which turns out to be kind of a parking space with toi-toi toilets :) On the other hand,  it’s not that bad, because well… what makes a place great is by a big part the people in it. And the people seemed cool enough - singing and laughing presumably after a good joint :)

The decision was pending for quite a while and now it is done - Vagabundos goes international! :) From now on we’ll blog in English. Sorry all moms and dads, it’s time to improve your English.

I spent the last three months at Hacker School in New York which implies long hours of programming and very little training (at least in my case). Furthermore, probably the first time (more likely second or third) I went to Brooklyn Boulders - a bouldering gym in New York -  I hurt my finger which is still not ok. So it is another reason of not climbing for such a long time. And the finger doctor is on my todo list. But for now - active rehabilitation :)

Now I am back in Zurich surrounded by always motivated friends which makes me want to start climbing and training again. Yesterday we went to Ponte Brolla near Locarno lake and did the first multi-pitch this year. For me it was quite difficult and I started regretting the days that I skipped training. In spite of that, the weather was very nice, the views very beautiful and the rock very … slabby :) At least the first part of the route.

Teatime

Priešingai negu pernai, šįmet Kalėdas sugebėjom švęsti Lietuvoj. Eglutę papuošėm, bet nupuošti taip ir nespėjom. Gruodžio 29d. anksti ryte jau susitikom visi šeši (Saulė, Gedas, Aistė, Povilas, Martynas ir aš) Vilniaus oro uoste. Tikslas - paliapioti Antalijoj ir atšvęsti Naujus Metus. Teko padirbėti talpinant, perkraurant, pasukčiaujant, bet šiaip taip į 20kg dviems žmonėms sutilpom. Kai kas sugebėjo pasiimti kalendorių, kai kas Kalėdinių žaisliukų, o kai kas ir plaukų džiovintuvą. Taip kad ne taip ir blogai.

Vakaras

Labai sunku statyti žadintuvą šeštadieniui 5:45. Dar sunkiau atsikelti. Bet mes didvyriškai keliamės, verdam makaronus, dedam daiktus, pilam arbatą į termosą, kišam kojas į Spantikus ir varom. Šiek tiek pikdžiugiškai paliekam savo buto draugą savaitgalį praleisti prie knygų :)

Apie 7:30 susitinkam su Gedu traukinių stoty ir už keleto minučių jau riedam link Graubünden’o - labai teisingo kantono tiems, kam patinka kalnai. Kelionė neprailgsta. Gedas išsitraukia savo sleep mask (maždaug tokią) ir ausų kištukus, bando miegoti, bet niekas jam neleidžia. Apie 10val. sėdam į autobusą link Sertig Sand. Už pusvalandžio jau matom ledus. Net iš tolo matosi pilna mažų žmogeliukių ant ledų. Ką darysi, teks dalintis.