Niños con ... Chapter 2

After a one hour conversation of Mason and me speaking little spanish and Alberto (our guide) speaking spanish mixed with native language we fixed one guide and five porters. Those little natives where welcome to carry some bags on the three day hike trough the hot, open savana and the dense, dark jungle.

One step after the other, to reach one goal.

January 30th we left Yunek with a group of ten people hiking on the short dry grass of the savana with each a bag of 30-35 kg. Soon after we left we had to cross a river with hollowed tree trunks, excually really nice canoos. From then on hiking started for real. Passing rivers and strips of jungle we hiked all along the big and famous Akopan Tepuy. Most of the hike was flat, but the sun made it sweaty and hard to breath.

During the hike and in the evening we shared food with the Pemón Indians. They could taste our morning poridge and evening rice with chickensoup out of plastic bags. They seemed to like it a lot, like we liked there food. The dish we got served came straight out of nature; sardines from the river next to camp, the best sweet bananas we ever ate and a delicious plantane soup. It was really special to see how those people lived togheter and did there daily things to survive.

Three days long we hiked towards the impressive yet unclimbed wall. The third day was the shortest but really intense. Like you will see on the pictures we walked the steep jungle slope on the left side of the wall. Here the machete came handy, every then meters we marked a three to find our way back 20 days later without a guide. This hike was hard and such a releave when we arrived at the base of the wall where the porters left us.

Picture above: Alberto our guide!

We search our way through even more dense jungle to the other side of the wall, here the machete really served well as we where the first humans going through this part of the jungle. We aimed for an open rocky space out of the jungle. This spot was the perfect dry basecamp we needed (we thought). After one day of throwing blocks arround we had a bedroom, kitchen and storage place. 'The Oasis' basecamp of our trip was made!

From the moment we arrived at the wall it took us only short time to find the line we wanted to climb. This line climbed up directly behind the waterfall 'Salto Tuyuren' who bursted from the top of the wall and turned into a river 500 meters below and 100 meters from the base of the wall. Our line climbed the steepest of the wall an past two massive roofs. Looking up from the base all of us were so amazed by this monstrous beast leaning over us. This wall was intimidating, non of us had ever seen a thing like this. The wall is big, amazingly steep, looked like hard climbing and good rock quality. There was one thing that scared us a little, the gear! Where we going to be able to climb everything with our gear or not?

You'll see, things are only getting better!

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Niños... Chapter One!

Jungle, monkeys, machete, steep wall, airy climbing, amazing line, 500meters, basic food, dulche de leche, Indians and way more! One month of adventure and climbing, a new line, a new bigwall! I'll tell you the story of the 'Kids with Guns' in the middle of the Venezuelan jungle climbing on an amazingly steep bigwall on Amuri Tepui.

On our way and preparing.

On the 25th of January I met up in Caracas with the Jungle team: George Ullrich(UK), Sam Farnsworth (UK) and Mason Earle (USA). We all new what our goal was and from the start it felt unreal but exiting. We made our way to Ciudad Bolivar where we stayed in the 'Posada' of our German touroporator Hans (not real name). Even while Hans was drunk every single moment of the day he still managed to arranged all our flights and our accomodation. Looking back at it he gave us a lot of services but not everything was always as clear and easy with him. But what do you want with a German who exists 80 % out of alcohol!

The Posada is a nice place where you can stay safely in a tent or in a hut. There is a little selfservice bar and a possibility to order food every time of the day. The Posada is a little far from Ciudad Bolivar itself so we always had to be driven arround with one of Hans's drivers.
We stayed for 3 days in this Posada while we prepared our gear and especially the food for four persons for one month.
This was my first expedition and a new experience from the start. It is hard to buy food for one month providing all food supplements without going bad. It took us some hours of shopping, putting a lot of energy searching for proteins, vitamins, fat and sugar that is light and stays good for a long time. When we organised the food at the Posada we discoverd that the amount of food we bought might have been enough for 2 persons for one month. We ended up going back to the store twice to make sure our ration would be enough to survive the jungle without eating roots and fish.

After 3 days swimming in a pool, drinking coke out of a big glass bottle and baking in the sun the luxuary was done. We took our 390 kg of gear and food togheter and jumped on a cessna to reach our goal.
OK, it wasn't that easy. We left the Posada at 6 am without even knowing if our cessna would airborn because of the bad weather. After we dropped our bags at the scale, we got the bad news that our bags were to heavy and there was no other option then getting a second plane. In about 10 minutes the team decided to do it. We had been dreaming of this moment for a long time so nothing could stop us.
Two hours later we were flying in a small old cessna with ducktaped interior at 800 meters above the jungle of Canaima National Park (the size of Belgium). I can say that this was an exciting moment.

Dropped off in a world of silence.

"This is weird" I said to George. "Where the fuck are we?" still amazed off what was hapening. But it wasn't only me who felt like dreaming, the whole team was a little disoriented in life .

The plane landed on a gravel runway and came to a stop easely. When we got out of the plane our welcome by the Pemón Indians was not as expected. A group of little Indians approched the cessna really fast, when they got closer we soon realised they where carrying a human body...
This all scared us at first but quick we saw it was a pregnant girl who was going to have a baby soon. Our plane immidiatly left us with the pregnant lady in the back towards an hospital in Santa Elena.

Maybe you can sense the situation now. Four tall white boys standing without bags or anything between the little huts of some Natives surrounded by savana and jungle. We waited for one hour until our second plane with all the gear arrived. What a releave. Now the Natives fast approached us and helped unloading the plane showing how strong their little legs are with the big haulbags on their back. They guided us to one of the huts where we could stay for the night.

From the next morning the hard work started. You'll see in the next chapter!

Hasta luego Belgas, Gringos y mas blancos en la nieve!

More pictures of this chapter will come!

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Update

We recieved a short message from Siebe. Everything is ok with him, and soon a new blogspost will arrive!

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New experiences are coming!

Hellow everybody!

A lot of people know where I am right now but still for the ones that don't know. Yesterday morning at 8am my flight from Brussels towards Madrid left nice on time after I said goodby for the third time for a long while (4 months) to everybody at home. From Madrid I flew straight towards Venezuela, Caracas, where my trip is starting.

After my last trip in the US for seven months I've been in Belgium for about 5 months. Those 5 months where some months with lots of movement. After I had found a place to live I started working for Greenpeace Belgium. This was a really interesting job, I learned a lot of it. While working I tried to climb and train a lot for this expedition in Venezuela. In the mean time I also spent lots of time with my girlfriend what was really great. The last month at home I didn't work any more and I prepared for this trip.

The 5th of january I got some bad news. Jorn, my good friend and trainer for 6 years died of his brain tumor after he was sick for about 2 years. This is hard and I've a hard time putting words on this los of an amazing individual in my life! Jorn had a really special meaning in my life, he learned me everything just until who I am right now and even where I am. It's because of him I'm here and everything I'll do and I'll climb the rest of my life is with Jorn. With this blogpost I will start a new way of travelling and climbing for myself and especially for Jorn.

About this trip:

This trip is starting where I am right now, Venezuela! This evening 3 friends of mine are arriving here in Caracas. Those friends are going to be my climbing team for the next month: Mason Kinloch Earl (USA), Sam Farnsworth (UK) and George Ullrich (UK). Our expedition is bringing us towards the Tepuy mountains in Canaima. The Tepuy Mountains are known for the biggest waterfall in the world who is storming down one big Tepuy of 1000 meters high, Salto del Angel. A Tepuy mountain is a sandstone mountain with a flat top, also called Table Mountain. The only natural way up this kind of mountains is climbing steep vertical or even overhanging Big Walls.

So now you know what I'm doing in this country. Our expedition is going towards a Tepuy of 600 meters. The special thing about this wall is that it isn't vertical, it's overhanging! (Overhanging 35 degrees like we heard, not sure.) Another big challange is the jungle, we have to walk some days through the jungle to get to the base of the wall. Once we're there the climbing can begin and we're planing to open a new line in this 600 meter overhanging wall! I'm not going to say more then this about this project.

After this expedition I'll go south towards Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there I'll go to Tuzgle and Bariloche. Maybe more areas but that part of the trip is still unclear. One thing I know, it's going to be amazing! I return the 25th of may, not as long as my past trip but still long enough.

Now I'm in the hotel waiting for my friends. It's really hot here, I think it might be almost 30 degrees Celcius. I went outside just for about 20 minutes and I think I'm already burned a little!

The people are amazing here, everybody is really friendly. People start talking to each other really fast and I feel good around most of them. Just arriving in Caracas was a little scary but not as bad as I expected. If you think about what you're saying and doing there is not much that can happen. The best thing I did to prepare for this trip is following Spanish class at CLT Leuven the last five months. I love speaking Spanish! (the little Spanish I know.)

I'm so psyched for this expedition and I will keep you up to date when I can! In the jungle we don't have internet so a next blogpost shall be in a month or a little longer I think. Maybe I can write something in two days in Ciudad Bolivar. I'm exited to go and get my friends at the airport this evening.

This following small text is for Jorn!

"In 2004 verscheen er plotseling een man in de klimzaal.

“Siebe, stop eens met snoepen en eet minstens 5 stukken fruit per dag en drink 2 liter water.” Dat was de stem van Jorn.

Ik was 13 jaar niet altijd gehoorzaam maar volgde zonder twijfel jouw goede raad op.

Sinds die dag kwam jij in mijn leven en zal nooit meer verdwijnen.

Jorn, je hebt in jouw leven een weg afgelegd waarvan velen in mijn omgeving niets weten. Maar wat iedereen wel weet, is dat deze weg heeft gezorgd voor een prachtig mens.

Jorn , je was geïnteresseerd en nieuwsgierig. Je stapte de klimwereld binnen en werkte je onmiddellijk op naar een waardevolle trainer en vriend van velen. Je had een doel voor ogen en nam dit uiterst serieus. Je trainde mij en vele anderen, las enorm veel trainingsboeken, reed duizenden kilometers door het land en verder voor specifieke trainingen en competities. Kortom, je gaf je volledig voor anderen, je gaf en gaf nog veel meer.

Jorn, ik kon voor alles bij jou terecht.

Je begeleide me in het klimmen, in het trainen, in het leren accepteren, in het studeren, in het omgaan met verdriet en tegenslag , in het omgaan met pijn en ongeluk en in het lliefhebben en omgaan met mensen. De boodschap die je me steeds gaf was dromen en doorzetten om deze dromen te bereiken.

Jorn je leerde me gedurende 7 belangrijke jaren in mijn leven alles tot wie ik nu ben. Van al die kracht en energie die jij had, gaf jij zoveel aan mij door. Jij gaf me kracht, ervaringen, energie en hopen geluk.

Jorn, ik wil je bedanken voor alles wat je voor me betekende. Om je te bedanken zal ik alles wat je me leerde verder zetten en alles wat ik doe zal ik doen met jouw waarden en jouw inzet.

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New Climbing Blog layout!

On my last trip in the US my blog had a lot of views from all over the world so I decided to write everything in English. You can also notice an amazing change in this blog and the layout of it. My blog coordinator Herman Desmet made it more practical with more options but still as easy as the last version of the blog.
New things are the map where you can find all the places I’ve been, my realizations for people who are interested, the most popular post and some media. To have a better overview of the news, the home page shows only the first couple of sentences of the post. To read more you can click on the post.

I want to thank Herman Desmet for his nice work! Now my blog is ready for the next project!

Enjoy!

Siebe Vanhee

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Finding a way!

What to do when you’re a motivated climber in Belgium? I’m still searching for the solution, but I’m close.

Now I’m about three months and a half back in Belgium and this blog post will be more optimistic as the last one! I’m living in a little house with another climber near Leuven. I’m working for Greenpeace and doing some route setting in climbing gyms to earn some money for my next project, I’ll need it!
In the mean while I’m training a little in gym and climbing as much as I can outside; Freyr, Ettringen and Pfalz. To train more specifically for my next project I go running a little and try to go to trad-climbing areas.

Last week I’ve been three days in Freyr (Belgium’s famous vertical sport climbing crag) and three days in the Pfalz (Trad climbing in Germany).
Freyr is some good grey limestone sport climbing. But still I couldn’t leave my cams home! I heard that Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll and Mich Zaman climbed ’13 Boulevard du Vol’, 8a on cams so I had to give it a try to! Togheter with Klaas Willems I went to Freyr with a bigger backpack as usual. It didn’t took me to much try’s, after one try searching for the good cam placements in this quite solid limestone I did the only 8a traditional route in Freyr. Funky! "2 bovenste foto's: Bram Lambrechts"

After that good start of a little week trip, Klaas and I left towards the Pfalz, Germany. The Pfalz is a big climbing area with lots of little crags apart from each other. The sandstone towers or walls are mostly about 40 – 50 meters high. There is a lot of trad-climbing but also some sport. The trad-climbing there is not so hard but really beautiful. If you’ve never climbed trad on sandstone, this is a really nice place to learn it! The atmosphere of the fall with the beautiful trees and the red – brownish sandstone is amazing. After three days of climbing there the humidity was pretty high so we decided to go back towards Freyr!

Our fifth day climbing in a row happened on the small edges in Freyr! Again a beautiful fall day showed us some nice and peaceful nature! Even at the end of November the main wall can be to hot in the sun. But still I decided to try an old project back again: ‘Schwarzenegger’, the classic 8a in Freyr. I was really surprised when I did it first try of the day while hanging the quickdraws. Hanging those quickdraws is no problem compared to searching a while where to place witch size of cam!

Schwarzenegger: "Foto Werner Van Steen - Alpitec/Petzl Benelux"

That same day we returned back home where I rested a day and went running. The next day I returned again towards Freyr to do some more vertical edgy sport climbing. This time I brought my girlfriend with me who started to climb one month ago! Nice! Because of the nice Sunday a lot of Belgium climbers were hanging around on this amazing limestone wall. So the good atmosphere was already there. It was a misty and a little bit humid day in Freyr but we couldn’t complain much.
Again I did some good performances, really unexpected. I climbed ‘Banegger’, 8a on sight, although the first part of it because the second part I already climbed with Schwarzenegger. This was really amazing, I love the technical art of Freyr! When I came down from Banegger I looked at ‘Bayou Minou’, 8a+, the same start as Banegger but another end. When I came down I rested a little and did it first go! I was so surprised, I’m sure it was the good atmosphere and vibes of a nice November Sunday in Freyr.

So this is my way of combining climbing and real life for the moment! It works pretty well!
The 24th of January I’m leaving for an amazing project far away again! I’m still not going to say what it will be!

Keep on rocking and find a way!

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Reality

Almost two weeks back in Belgium! I felt lost in reality, back in this materialistic world. I had a hard time adjusting to this way of living here, harder then when I arrived in the States. I could only see negative things about the life back here. Soon I realized that this was according to the good life I had in the US. One of the biggest reasons why I had such a hard time coming back is because of the lack of structure in my life right now. I arrived back in Belgium without goal, without future plans but with experience! After two weeks of adjusting (seeing friends) and planning the future I found kind of a plan.

So right now I will start working and following evening school Spanish for about 5 months and then I’ll go on a trip again. I don’t know where yet but it will be some Big Wall climbing.

I did not feel ready to study yet. I feel that I need to take my time to find a subject in my life besides climbing where I’m really interested in. If I was going to study right now, I know it would be just because of the society who’s pushing it to follow the regular pattern. I will study, but only when I feel motivated and when I found an interesting subject.

In those next few months I will be working and still climbing! My condition is amazing right now and I don’t want to lose it. I’ll make a couple of trips to Peak District (England), Etringen (Germany) and more. And of course I will be hanging in the Belgian local crack Freyr to do some hard face sportclimbing!

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