Happy Birthday "Wartstein"

[Wartstein]

Belated Bday wishes Warstein!
Congrats!

Thank you! :)

[Wartstein]

Sorry I missed this! Happy Birthday Wartstein!!

Thanks a lot! :)

[Wartstein]

Well, that looks nice too! :)
And to be honest: I do less and less harder climbing too (except one or two times a week in the boulder gym, but that serves also as a general training for the upperbody instead of a fitness gym)
Hiking to remote places and do some easy, unroped free solo climbing is what I enjoy most these days.. :)

/ You are (still) not allowed (or don´t want to) hike during the pandemic where you live? :eek:

Free solo? Wow, you are one crazy fellow (in a good way)! Closest I've done to free solo climbing is just...bouldering some 5 meter high limestone river boulders here. Hahaha! Takes another level of guts and focus. :)

Unfortunately quarantine laws here are stricter so we all have to abide; local tourism is badly hit but many of us outdoor types are itching for the day when they finally relax quarantine laws and allow hiking, climbing and other outdoor activities.

"Free solo": I did not want to give the impression at all that I am one of those daredevil Alex Honnold-kind-of guys!! Rather the opposite, that I don´t do a lot of ROPED and sometimes still rather dangerous hard climbing anymore, but rather very easy - WAY below my limit - unroped/free solo climbing. I am talking about at max 5.5 in the US scale (4 in the UIAA and french scale) if I don´t know the climb beforehand!!

You know, imho driving a car in normal traffic is actually more "dangerous" than easy (!) free solo climbing:

Actually, physically, hitting something with high speed horizontally is much the same as hitting something with high speed vertically (the latter would be a fall).
But while we have "learned" to fear heights in the long human history (cause this kind of danger has always been a thing), we did not "learn" to fear speed (cause this has not been a thing for the longest time).
But in the effect and possible damage it can do to a human body, both are pretty much the same.

Now: As a matter of fact when driving a car there are a lot more factors one can´t control than it is in (again, easy!) free solo climbing: One has to trust that none of the drivers on the oncoming lane will make a mistake, one has to trust that a brake-system they perhaps don´t even know how it works does its job and so on..

To be clear: I am NOT saying that driving a car is "dangerous"! I am just saying that easy free solo climbing is not either or imho even less .

[Pancake]

Damm, how did I miss this?!
Happy birthday Gernot! (Yes, I am late).

[austrian_spyder_fan]

Thanks a lot, Markus! :)
Glad you joined the forum and represent our beautiful home-country here with me and some others! :)

Thank you Gernot, for this kind words.
I love Austria and also love to be here in this forum.

I wish all people whould be so hospitable, tolerant and helpful like the people here.

[Wartstein]

Damm, how did I miss this?!
Happy birthday Gernot! (Yes, I am late).

Well, yes, how could you miss this? When the announcement of my birthday is on the frontpage of every European newspaper year after year again? :p :p :p

Kidding aside: Thanks a lot Stefan!
And I just want you to know: The great knife you once made for and gifted to me is still well loved... and well used (see pic)