Lucia 2008 in Stockholm

_MAL4843, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I just returned from my first trip back to Stockholm since moving to Züruch two months ago. I was in town on business for a couple of days, teaching a TWS course for IBM. I extended my stay to include the weekend and Monday so that I could spend a bit more time in my old home and visit with friends.

Friday night I went the Klättercentret’s fifth anniversary party. The evening began with a bouldering competition. I enjoyed it very much, especially when I surprised myself by completing not one, but 4 black-graded problems—and this after months without any regular climbing to speak of! After the competition, the climbing came to an end and the real party began. Thai food and beer were served, and later in the evening we toasted to KC’s success with Champagne. Around one o’clock in the morning, a bunch of brave men took turns leaping from the central tower to try to grab a trapeze hanging at eye level about two meters out from the platform. I managed to grab the trapeze with one sweaty hand; but did not manage to hold on. The guy after me was the first one to nail it. It’s not easy to jump straight off a platform fifteen meters up in the air, even if one does have a rope to catch one’s fall! A live band consisting of several fellow climbers provided entertainment throughout the evening, and I saw so many of my old friends there. Being back at KC was bittersweet. I really miss the place. In the evening, I caught a ride from Helena back to her place. She was kind enough to let me crash at her apartment for the weekend.

On Saturday, I had dinner with Shahyar and Farzhaneh, the couple who are leasing my apartment in Bergshamra. Farzhaneh is an excellent cook, and prepared seveal tasty Persian specialities. In return, I helped get their internet connection up and running.

Later in the evening I met Lotta on Gamla Stan. We went to the Lucia concert at Storkyrkan. It wasn’t as good this year as in years past, but I still enjoyed the concert very much. This time of year, and Lucia in particular, will always remind me of my first visit to Stockholm in December of 1999. After the concert, Lotta and I had cake and coffee in the cellar of Chokladkoppen, a hip and cozy little café on Järntorget located in a building that must be at least five hundred years old.

Saturday night after the concert, I joined Helena and went to O’Leary’s in Sundbyberg, where Salsaakademien was throwing a Christmas party. I had an absolute blast at the party, dancing with so many of my friends from the Stockholm salsa scene. It felt just like old times, and everyone seemed glad to see me. Some of the best dances of the evening were with the ever-lovely Alexandra. The Sacuye gang delivered some great dance performances too, including one by Ibi and Marina that left me with a bewildered grin on my face for the next ten minutes. Those two have talent!

Sunday morning I met a couple of friends for brunch at Café String, and in the afternoon I went to Karbin for a bit more climbing. There, saw Emma and Bobo, and I made two new friends, Michaela and Alex.

Monday morning before my flight back to Zürich, I met Åsa downtown at the main train station. After a quick coffee, we took a walk in the brillinant morning sunshine. It was cold and windy, but we endured the cold with ease, soaking in the light and warmth of the sun. We walked down to Stadshuset and to the edge of Lake Mälaren.

I’ve lived several months now in Zürich, and I am finally beginning to feel like it is a place I might someday call home. However, Stockholm is stil home, and this trip was reassuring, if a bit bittersweet. It’s nice to know that the city and friends that I know and love are just a few hours away, and ready to welcome me again any time I choose to visit.

Thermography

Paula-visual-infrared-h.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Last week I had an opportunity to play with an infrared camera. Ayse, who works at FLIR Systems, was kind enough to bring one of the testing units from her office to Klättercentret, where we did some bouldering and took photos of one another.

The camera we used was a P640. This camera’s lenses are not made of normal silicate glass; they’re made of an oxide of the element Germanium. They are silver in appearance and are opaque to visible light. The camera is sensitive in the long-wavelength (8–15 µm) infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Warm objects emit IR radiation in this range, with a wavelength inversely proportional to their temperature. What you see is a picture of the heat being emitted from the body. For this reason, photography in this range of the EM spectrum is often referred to as thermography. 

In the photo composite above, you can see Paula’s profile in both visible and long-wavelength infrared light. The visible light photograph was taken with my D300. I’ve posted many more thermographs from the evening to a new Infrared photo set. All of the photos from that evening, including visible light photos, can be viewed here.

Fun climbing at KC

_MAL5597.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Last night I completed a fun 7a+ on the tall wall at Klättercentret—the first 7-graded route I’ve done on that wall! The photo here is of another 7 that I’m working on. I took a wrong turn on this attempt though, and ended up having to lean on the rope a bit later in the route. Next time, I'll do the whole thing in one go. Thanks to Ayse for taking the photo!

Oh baby!

_MAL8275.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Friday night I joined Isabelle and Patrik for a bit of climbing at KC. I had bouldered there for a few hours the night before, so I didn't expect great accomplishments this night. Even so, I completed a white-graded problem that I'd never seen before. It's probably only the fourth white problem I've completed. Yay!

Here, Karthik climbs a black-graded problem that involves a big leap at the end. Well, it involves a leap for him. I can pretty much do it statically. I think I did well this night because I warmed up properly, starting on the blue and red problems and only proceeding to the black and white ones after the first half hour or so.

A bit of bouldering instead of salsa

_MAL6041.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Wednesday night is normally the night that I have my salsa lessons at SalsaAkademien. However, this week there are no lessons, so I had to find something else to do—preferably something equally strenuous. I decided to get a bit more climbing in before Friday’s boulder open competition at Karbin. I generally prefer to take a break from climbing the day before a competition, but climbing on Wednesday before a competition on Friday seems okay.

I climbed last night too, so I wasn't expecting much. Even so, with a bit of perseverance and a bit of advice from others, I managed to make some progress, including conquering this fun problem of yellow and purple colored holds. The trick is to match feet and flag with the right foot just after the first move up to the edge. Maybe that’s obvious to some, but it wasn’t obvious to me until Peter suggested it and I actually tried it. Thanks, Peter!

Here are seventeen photos from the evening.

Climbing with Diana et al

_MAL5072.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Last week on the way to a customer meeting I sat across from a cute girl on the subway. I noticed that she had Pearl Izumi shoes and a JanSport backpack, so I figured she must be an American. We struck up a conversation an exchanged email addresses just before the train arrived in T-Centralen. A few days later, she joined me for a bit of climbing at Klättercentret.

Diana's from Boulder, Colorado, and went to school in Oregon. These are two of my favorite places, so I knew she and I would get along. Diana insisted that she hadn't climbed at all since September, but I found that hard to believe ’cause she did so well. For me, the climbing was much better than on Tuesday. I managed to climb a 6b+ on the tall wall start-to-finish without stopping.

After climbing toprope for a while, we bouldered a bit with Matt, Lisa, Anna and Johan. Diana took all of the photos of me. She's got mad cam skillz, I'm tellin’ ya. Here are nineteen photos from the climbing session.

Back to bouldering

_MAL4784.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

After few weeks away from climbing, I returned to Klättercentret last night for a bit of bouldering. I invited Kalle along, and he brought a couple of his friends too. I met Kalle through Emelie while skiing at Kittelfjäll over the weekend. Lisa H. was there, as well as Anna J. and several other friends. Jens from the ski trip was there too, and I learned today that he also knows Johanna, a girl I often see climbing at Karbin (and occasionally dancing salsa at La Isla too).

Well this night was not a spectacular one for climbing. My strength had been sapped by three days of skiing, not to mention three weeks of not climbing. It's now Thursday—two days since the bouldering of which I write—and my forearms are still sore. Oh well, at least I had fun. I saw Libby there and realize to my surprise that she’s from Australia. For some reason, I had just assumed she was Swedish. Her boyfriend Jerk was there too, and I got several good photos of him, including the one above.

I was too tired to remember to ask someone to take any photos of me. And besides, I wasn't climbing very well. Next time. I'm planning to go climbing tomorrow evening too. Here are a bunch of photos from Tuesday night’s climbing session.

In the groove

_MAL1372.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Now it’s beginning to feel like climbing again. After a couple of months in Austin, I had lost a bit of my strength. I’m proud to say that I’m now almost back to where I was before my trip to the States. It helped too, no doubt, that I got a full night’s sleep last night. Alex had been trying his usual annoying tricks, meowing and clawing papers in order to keep me awake an get attention. But last night I had finally had enough, so I locked him in the kitchen.

This black problem that had vexed me for weeks, and that I first managed to solve with Rami’s advice last week, was actually quite easy tonight. It’s amazing what a good night of sleep can do.

I climbed tonight with Elin, her sister and her sister's boyfriend. It was nice to see them. They usually only climb at Karbin, which is a bit out of the way for me.

Oh, and guess what? On my way into KC tonight, I bumped into Helena, a girl I met on the slopes at Kittelfjäll a few weeks ago. Apparently, everyone is a climber in this city these days.

Here are all the photos from tonight. By the way, these are the first photos I’ve taken with my new D300, which arrived yesterday. It’s amazing, and represents a bigger improvement over the D200 than I had expected. I’ll have more to say on this topic once I’ve had more time to play with the new camera.

Saturday afternoon at KC

_MAL6797.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Saturday I biked to KC for a bit of climbing with Emma & Henrik. I brought my 70-200mm lens and had fun capturing some photos from the top of the tall wall there. Photos taken from above the climber are often the most interesting, because the face and hands — usually the most interesting parts of the photo — are clearly visible.

I also saw Miranda’s sister Josefin there. I imagine Miranda and Kalle are back in Lund now, resuming their studies this week.

After climbing with Emma and Henrik on the tall wall, we all did a bit of bouldering. It was then that I ran into Stefan & Anja, two regulars from Karbin. They're both excellent climbers, and it was fun just to watch them and to see how they approach each problem.

Speaking of Karbin, the results from boulder open #60 have been posted. I finished 16 out of 40 problems, placing 23rd out of 50 participants. Not bad, but I'll have to get back in shape if I'm going to place in the top 10 again. Actually, I think the problems must have been harder than usual this time around. Dan S. completed just 26 problems, and he’s a lot better than I am.

After bouldering for a while, I joined Daniela, Robban, Kjell & Maja for a bit of Thai take-out food. I hadn’t eaten a proper lunch, so the meal was tasty and welcome.

Here are the 14 photos from the evening.

Thursday evening at KC

_MAL6659.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Thursday after work I took my first spin on my new winter tires, and made it safely to Klättercentret without slipping so much as one centimeter on the snow and ice. I met Emma and Henrik there, as well as my new friend Anna whom I met at Karbin at the boulder open a couple of weeks ago, and lots of other friends I had not seen since October.

I wasn't really feeling in top form, but even so, I somehow managed to complete a couple of quite tricky black-graded bouldering problems. I also started on one on the upstairs bouldering wall that is quite vexing. It'll probably take a while for me to tackle that one.

Emma kindly took some photos of me doing this fun problem of pink-colored holds. There are twenty-seven photos from the evening.

Climbing with Miranda and friends

_MAL4417.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Tuesday evening I went to Klättercentret for a bit of bouldering. It was the first time for me to see Matt & Lisa since returning to Sweden. Lisa and I an planning to thrown a combined party for our birthdays sometime soon. Our birthdays were in November, but the party probably won’t happen until mid-January at the earliest. Stay tuned.

The bouldering problems were a lot of fun. I conquered a few that I had tried last week but hadn’t managed to finish then. Pierre gave me some good tips on several tricky problems, and I think I’ll be able to complete a couple of them next time.

Miranda & Kalle were there. They’re up from Lund for the holidays. I gave Miranda the climbing gear I’d brought her from the U.S. and she seemed pleased. She said she plans to put it to good use when she goes climbing in Spain in a couple of weeks. I’m jealous!

Here are the nine photos I posted.

Miranda’s sister Josefin was there too, and she took lots of photos with her camera. She posted them to Facebook, if you want to see them.

Bouldering at KC

_MAL9724.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours bouldering at Klättercentret. I wasn't really in top form, but I had a good time anyway. My usual Tuesday & Thursday climbing routine has been thrown off recently. This week, it's more of the same. I'm going dancing most Tuesday nights at Gröna Lund, where the friendly folks from Stockholm Salsa Dance have arranged salsa dance evenings. And Friday, there's a boulder open competition at Karbin, so I don't want to climb the day before that. So this week, it'll be climbing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in addition to the climbing on Sunday.

Here are all 46 photos from Sunday's bouldering.

Fun climbing at KC Tuesday

_MAL4479.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Last night's climbing at Klättercentret was fun. Not much to say about it. Just take a look at the photos.

Easy & fun climbing @ KC

_MAL3536.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I met Daniela around 17.15 for a bit of climbing at Klättercentret tonight. We climbed four or five routes before Daniela left to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean film. I had a chocolate muffin and a cup of coffe and then resumed climbing when Matt & Lisa showed up.

Paula and I climbed a few more routes and I managed to do a bit of bouldering, but mostly I tried to take it easy. My plan was to save my strength for tomorrow's boulder open competition at Karbin. I don't know if I stuck to the plan. I climbed a few routes that were pretty demanding on the ole' forearms. I guess we'll see tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the competition.

Tonight I actually brought my big f/2.8 70-200 mm lens with me, and was able to get some photos that woud be hard to capture with another lens. It's nice to have this lens every once in a while, but damn it's heavy. In this photo, a new climbing friend named Emma climbs a fun route up the tall wall. She also conquered the route of black-colored grips in the corner there — that one is so much fun!

Enjoy the best 35 photos from tonights climbing!

A bit of bouldering @ KC

_MAL3388.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Tonight‘s climbing was short but sweet. I got in about an hour and a half of bouldering, mostly sticking to problems I knew I could do without too much trouble. I did one cool traverse along an overhang on the downstairs bouldering wall. That was fun.

Zindy, Anna and Lisa were there, along with lots of other friendly folks. I got some decent photos of Zindy climbing the tall wall. She did great even though she hasn't been climbing toprope routes in a while. Here are the 14 photos from tonight.

I plan to climb a bit on Thursday, but not much. I want to save my strength for the Boulder Open competition at Karbin on Friday.

Another first

_MAL2478.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Last night I finally conquered this fun bouldering problem on the downstairs wall at Klättercenret. I had tried to do it on my past three visits to KC, but had not succeeded until last night. The problem consists of just crimpy grips so it requires a lot of hand strength. It's the first white-graded bouldering problem I've done. There are four basic grades of bouldering problem at most of the climbing gyms in Stockholm:
blue — easy
red — intemediate
black — difficult
white — very difficult

Of course there are still some red- and black-graded problems that I have trouble with. It just depends on the problem.

I saw several friendly faces at KC, including Anna, Zindy, Marie, and Lisa. An English fellow named Ian was also there. I had him met there before once or twice, and we climbed together for a while — he's really good.

Here are the 54 photos from the evening.

Fun bouldering Thursday night

_MAL1814.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I did my usual Thursday climbing at Klättercentret last night and took 27 photos. Here, Jessica attempts a fun & tricky problem on the downstairs bouldering wall. This is the first white-graded bouldering problem I've attempted. It's crimpy (it consists mostly small grips that are held with just the fingertips) and pumpy (it requires lots of arm strength, in part because it's an overhang). I think I just might be able to tackle this one when I return to KC tonight.

A bit of climbing.

_MAL1099.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I have been doing a lot of climbing lately. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I climbed indoors at Klättercentret. Friday evening, Linda H. and I climbed some tricky routes at KC. We both managed to make our way up a very challenging 7a-graded route on the left side of the tall climbing wall. That was the first time I had attempted a 7a. A bit later, I struggled up a 7b too. Yay!

Anna F. took this great photo of me tackling a red-graded bouldering problem on Saturday afternoon. After Anna left for work, I tried the tricky 7a from the day before. With Kjell's help and encouragement, I did it again, even more smoothly and quickly than the first time.

We took 50 photos in all on Saturday. Take a look!

Climbing with the girls

_MAL7447, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Tonight at Klättercentret, there were lots of women! Anna brought her gang of girlfriends including Zindy and Yvonne. Zindy's boyfriend Jon came too, and soon Matt & Lisa also showed up.

Tonight's climb was a step forward for me. I successfully completed a tricky black bouldering problem that I'd been eyeing for a few weeks. I made some progress on three other problems, all of them quite difficult ones.

I also saw Sigrid and Hannah climbing there later in the evening. I have posted 75 photos from the night's climbing session. Enjoy!

Climbing at KC tonight

_MAL7210, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I met Lisa at Klättercentret for some climbing tonight. We did walls first and then did a bit of bouldering. I climbed a really new 6c route of black grips on far right-hand side of the tall wall. It required some strength, but it required even more technical ability and balance. Tricky and fun. I didn't manage to do it all in one go though — I had to rest a few times on the way up.

When at the top of a different route (a 6b of yellow grips), I pointed my camera down and caught this excellent photo of a fellow climber on the adjacent rope.

I saw Linda there too, and captured a few photos of her doing two fun problems on the bouldering walls downstairs. I have posted 21 photos from the evening.