Back in Spain I was on my own. Well not really on my own as there are several million people living here. But I needed to sync with someone and I had a clear goal this time. I arrived in the late afternoon heat and started to get more worried about the hot=bad conditions than finding a friend who would not mind going climbing with me.
Everything turned out just the way it was supposed to. I just drove out to crags and found people. But for my specific goal I needed something more stable. So I picked up my buddy Eric and we drove out to gorges de la Dourbie, in France, after I finished climbing in Sant Llorens De Munt and l’Ariege. The route I wanted to finish was ”La guerre de Nerfs” which according to the ones who have done it deserves the grade 9a. Who am I to say anything about numbers, it’s just a great route that I wanted to do. The heat in Spain stayed behind and in France temps seemed to be perfect. Ok, so to make a long story short: as I knew that a friend of mine, who happens to be one of the best climbers I know had fallen 2 times at the top, I dialed the route better than any route before. And once I had fought through the first crux and taken the the good rest, I climbed like an emotional robot to the top.

the crux move, with the best foothold I found out for this was a footlock between 2 tufas.

Before going for this one I had a gig+a jam in France with my buddy Zaky Diarra and some amazing musicians from India. So to celebrate I drove straight back to Toulouse for more music. I went straight to the venue, and late as I was I just jumped straight on stage and started playing. Sometimes things just click. This was one of those days. Everything just felt so incredible that I had a hard time to be 100% present emotionally…or was I actually beyond present?

gig i St Girons, Ariege.

gig in Toulouse.

jam in Pibrac/Toulouse with Zaky Diarra from Mali and Sandip Chatterjee & Debojyoti Sanyal from Calcutta/India. True maestros and a honour to play with such great musicians.

It was time to leave the simple mountainlife for a week in the (big) city. I had some work to do and a change always feels fresh. But it’s always almost like a shock to first wake up in the Montserrat massive and later the same day be in trendy downtown Stockholm. And it was also good out of a training perspective to get some indoor training done as I had not touched plastic in ages… Well, at least I tried to tell myself it was good for me.

so this is how far a gymclimber will go to get some outdoor feeling: climb plastic in the open air. no comments…

training in ”the tunnel” at Klätterverket with the up-and-coming Matilda Söderlund. always very inspiring to see other fellow swedes being psyched!

rehearsing with m’allem Bothén and Moustapha for a gig: the 2nd of june at Moderna Muséet in Stockholm. Don’t miss this tribute to the legendary Don Cherry if you are around.

”Power to the people and the beats!” Taking over down town Stockholm at the Utopi Carneval.

Playing with Moustapha, Mariann and a guest on taman (talking drum) somewhere in the middle of nowhere. But good times nevertheless!

Now I’m back in Spain, soon ready to head over to France and finish some business. A+

We had to wait a fewdays before getting out of Rodellar. Fortunately the weather report was wrong and we could climb as never before. Finally we got help from a friend who brought us some gaz and we could hit the road again. After climbing for 4 days straight we thought it might be time for some rest. Rest in this case meant to climb the mega classic ”Fiesta de los bieceps” in Riglos. It’s an incerdible route, about 10 pitches, on overhanging conglomerate. The morning of the climb we woke up on a supermarket parkinglot in the city of Huesca, rain pounding heavily on the roof of the car. The weather report said more rain but we hoped it was wrong -it turned out to be even worse!

racking up in Riglos.

Anyway, how bad could it be as the route is all bolted? We set of and it ended up being an epic but incredible day of climbing as we experienced everything from sun to a hail and thunderstorm, rain etc..! This routes is one of the most unique ever and I recommend anybody with the level to do it -amazing!

Mad Max seconding in good style+on to of the route in the sun just before hell broke loose again.

After we took some final days in Margalef where the forecast looked the most promising for north east Spain. Now I’m of for a week in Sweden for some sponsorwork+an interview for a BIG project. Stay tuned…

Someone said it has not rained in Cataluya since last summer. Well, looks like a bit of unstable weather is finally here! We’ve kept an 24/7 eye on the norwegian weather site to know where to go next. The rain was supposed to arrive already the night when we drove to casa Sharma for a bbq. But it ended up being a great evening with loads of food, music & good friends.

Brett, Chris, Daila & the Lafouche family getting stuffed.

the next day Chris was going to Oliana to attempt a new route with Adam Ondra. Brett Lowell from Big Up Productions was there to catch the action. Here warming up on the back yard wall.
We decided to check out Camarasa, one of the ”oldest” crags in the area.

but before splitting up we had to take yet another group shot, here with Brett, Daila, Chris, Clo, Lafouche, Delphi, Max, Amanda, me and Chaxi. It’s funny how I’ve been coming here for the past 11 year’s and somehow somethings never seem to change. Some do…

Camarasa was cool for a day, pretty old-school. We went back to Prades/Montsant and hiked up to Racó de Misa. This must be one of the most beautiful places around. I had been on-sighting steadily but this came to an end here when I fell on the 6b part of a 8b+ as I choose the wrong pocket (all the chalk had been washed of by the rain at the top)… who said climbing was easy?

Next day we went to nearby Siurana. This place is maybe not my favourite but mythical and world class never the less. We also met up with some old friends from back home+the never-stopping Tony Arbones; the man of Siurana.

Amanda doing some old-school crankin’ in Siurana.

The team has narrowed down and it’s just me and Max left. We are stuck in Rodellar as we have run out of gas. We were also planning to climb the multi-pitch of ”Fiesta del Biceps” in Riglos but how to get out of here? And the forecast says more rain! Well, I guess there are worse places to be stuck in..?!

Someone would probably disagree but we found ourselves lucky with some unusually cool temps for being in the month of april in the south of France. We did a few days in ”le Tarn” and then moved to the nearby gorge: gorges de la Dourbie. I was here last fall to try a route and found it perfectly dry this time. And the conditions were perfect -it just felt so much better! But after a few days in the area with not so many routes to climb for the rest of our team, we had to move on. At least now I know I can do the route, just need to come back with a more patient belayer…

working, enjoying, pushing, suffering, living. I’ll be back -soon! photo: Sindre Gunleiksrud

Mad Max doing the best out of Dourbie, here climbing in la Verriére and Cantobre.

We moved on southewest towards Catalunya in Spain. And as my friends had never been in the area before we just had to stop by in Barcelona for some tapas. And as soon as that was done we went to Margalef. On the way out of BCN we realized we were lucky not going the opposite directions: there were just SO many going back to the big city after the easter vacation, they probably needed 3 hours for what would usually take 30 minutes..!
Margalef is without a doubt i fashion but most people had left after the long weekend. We jumped between sectors and I finished some great and/but agressive pocketpulling mayhem routes.

And as I wanted to show the team the best of Catalunya we also headed up to Terradets. This place still is one of my favoutites, 11 year’s after visiting it for the first time.
Ok, so we had done loads of climbing in the past but what about dancing? The team finally agreed on going to the techno club la Florida in the middle of nowhere, the village of Fraga. And it was well worth the drive!

After the night out we drove closer to BCN again as we needed to drop of an pic up people at the airport. We slept in Montserrat which is an incredible climbing area just outside Barcelona, with about 5000 routes! The day started with sun but later snow and thunderstorms! Me and Max were as high as possible among the surrealistic conglomerate domes of Montserrat (St Benet) when it finally stopped snowing. I found a beautiful and hard route, just hard enough to finish in an afternoon. And just next to it lived a man that we later found out was named Jordi Animal. What I’m trying to explain is that he live in a house/room digged into the mountainside. He served us te which was just what I needed to finish the route in the cold conditions. After the send we looked out over the clearing landscape: Barcelona, the ocean and there somewhere in the distance was the island of Mallorca…

with Jordi outside his house in Montserrat.

the amazing view from the top of Montserrat: Barcelona, the ocean. and Mallorca is supposed to be there somewhere in the ocean.

Now we are back on track with a slightly different crew and tonight we are going to have a BBQ at casa Sharma. I hope the rain stays away atleast tonight!

As this blog post is kind of delayed and many things has happened since last, it’s longer than usual. So, where was I?
Suddenly I realized that I didn’t have so much time left before the annual climbing pilgrimage to the south of Europe. There are always so many things to fix, like getting the car ready for the big road. But also catching up with friends and family. I was finishing my training cycle and confused as always about my shape, I guess I’ll just have to see how I feel when I get back on some hard routes. As I spent more time in Stockholm I tried to finish some more routes there. And as I’ve done most of them I started doing variations… I guess thats when you start calling it you local crag! On the westcoast I finally finished a really nice project at Smålinden -a future classic for sure.
I’ve been playing less much than ever so I tried to be creative and get some last gigs done -my last week home I had 4 of them in a row.

keeping music alive in Stockholm

doing what we used to do over 10 year’s ago: busking with my old friend Fredrik in Gothenburg.

and another old friend: professional storyteller Micke Öberg, and me doing the background music to one of his performances.

with trio TREQ -gnawa at Universeum, Gothenburg. this was, to say the least, an amazing concerthall!

and as always before leaving ”home”: jamming with TREQ -gnawa and friends at restaurant Bazar, downtown Gothenburg.

But then it was finally time to hit the road again. This time with long time friends Max and Gia. The car was supposed to be ready so we got on the road. 1 hour after leaving Gothenburg southbound, the car started to make an awful noise. We ended up with a epic car reparation in Halmstad which resulted in a 1 day delay…

me, Gia & Max doing the best out of autobahn.

Well back on the road the first stop was Paris and the bouldering mecca of Fontainebleau. I lost track of how many times I’ve been but is always nice to break up the trip here. And as usual we bumped into plenty of friends in the forest. And as it was Max and Gia’s first time around we had to do the touristic Paris tour. I’ll come back here on my way home for some more cultivated business.

the somehow unreal landscape of Fontainebleau…

meeting up with unexpected friends in Font, climbing some truly classic problems. We must’ve met more swedes than frenchies this time!

the team getting ready for a day in back in civilization: Paris.

Now we are in the south, Gorges Du Tarn (near Millau, France) to be exact. My 8th time here. And it still seems like I haven’t done all the routes here. Yet. And my hard project is just around the corner. But most of all it just feels so good to back on the rock-climbing-track in the south again!

this is what it’s all about!

It was hard to come back home, it felt as I really got sucked into the life in Morocco this time. But life continues wherever and Sweden isn’t such a bad place after all…only slightly different. And trainingwise this place has it’s obvious advantages. As I flew back to Stockholm I figured it was a good idea to stay and train and also pull of some sponsormeetings while in town. But also to keep the moroccan spirit alive and see my teacher Christer some more as he lives here.
Then I went back to Göteborg to take care of some other business and deliver all the presents to my family from Morocco. I also had a slideshow gig to attend. Spring also seemed to be in the air on the westcoast and we had a great day with some of my best friends climbing, sauna and dancing the night away…
Soon after I realized Stockholm was where I wanted to be and went back. Since I returned here we’ve had quite a few opportunities to climb on rock, music and good times in general. The 4 huge climbinggyms also gives you a treat. But after all, the oldes one (Klätterverket) I still think is the best for training (but has the worst music…) as the newer ones are massive but have a bit different approach -being more commercial. But this is not at all a bad thing as you can take a sauna after training!

out bouldering with Maja, Stefan and Daniel. It’s funny how we after all these years find the joy of climbing some obscure piece of boulder in freezing conditions… fortunately we also had some days climbing shirtless in the sun on some nice routes

doing a small gig with maestro for handicapped dancers. this is so close to the ”real thing” as it gets. these people are so genuine, spontaneous and happy I could keep playing for them all night.

it’s also a great time to catch up with old friends. above playing at a party (with mainly ”swedish folk music” people) with my former band member and friend Andreas. here we were sometimes 10 people playing different instruments (mainly violin) and everybody else were dancing old swedish folk dances. for me it’s always great to see that traditions live on, even in a ”modern” country like Sweden. Here it is difficult to find anything traditional in everyday life exept maybe x-mas..!
In the photo below me and my old friend Micke (who is a storyteller by profession) having a jam in his kitchen. this is what I hoped I could do every day after dinner!

2 weeks pass quick. Especially when you fill your days with your favorite people and activities. The last week didn’t contain too much climbing (trained desperately in the hotel room) but many other things that also is a big inspiration for all the climbing to come.
We only had a few days in Rabat to try say hello to all family members. Of course this is impossible as they are too many and you are expected to have lunch or dinner with all of them… good times though, planning to come back again this year.
We caught the the train to Marrakech and found us a hotel just near the Djema El Fna square in the old medina of Marrakech. From here we did trips out to friends, moulay Brahim’s sanctuary up in the Atlas mountains, Tamslohte (near moulay Abdellah Ben H´sain’s sanctuary) for a final ritual. And of course I had to buy a new guimbri (my 8th yo date)!

a music soiré at my friend Moustaphas place, here with m’allem Aziz and the great m’allem Abdellatif Sidi Amara.

trying not to loose all my power, desperately training in our hotel room. better than nothing, eh?

up in the Atlas mountain, moulay Brahim’s (a sufi and gnawa saint) sanctuary and the village that has been built around it. me and my teacher Christer Bothén (pictured here) did the the ritual round around the saint’s tomb.

how can I resist to get one more instrument when they are so good -and ridiculously cheap!

After some last great days in Morocco, with final being a last ritual in Tameslohte (where I totally ”lost it” dancing) it was time to catch the flight back to Sweden. Here the winter is still going strong and Morocco suddenly feels like a another planet, in another life…

After the relaxed times in Rabat, things were about to get hectic. After all these years renting cars all over the world, including several times in Morocco, I was faced with the most complicated car-renting-project ever… We finally got our ride and were on our way.

First stop was sidi Ali (outside Meknes), a place where people come from all over Morocco for the annual moussem/festival. This is also one of the places where gnawa masters gather to have rituals (lilas, lila=night) at this time. As I had never been there before it was a bit tricky to find it. Finally at the place things were as crazy as expected. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to describe the atmosphere at these events, it’s like a parallel world somehow. It’s got the feeling of how maybe the world was long time ago, yet now it only remains in a few places. To be hones I don’t really know what to say, it always blows my mind and I love it. For example my friend Anders got to experience, for the first time, how possessed people in trance were cutting them selves with knifes, letting blood drip down their faces and arms. Someone else burning himself with candles, people screaming and dancing, someone rolling around on the floor. And the music just hits the spot, my own trance was near (I’ll have several chances later this week fortunately!). But to sum up what gnawa is about, is very difficult. I’ve been trying hard for the past 10 year’s, barely scratching the surface…

m’allem Abdellrzaq Moustaqim (who is our neighbor in Rabat) leading the trance at this years moussem in sidi Ali.

After a cup of hot mint té with loads of sugar, we hit the road at 4 in the morning. As there where almost no sane places to sleep in sidi Ali, we went to the next village: moulay Idriss Zarhoun. This place is built around the tomb of the saint moulay Idriss himself. Just before I left Sweden my father told me that this saint actually was my grandfathers grandfather -I could not believe it! So of course I needed to see this for my self, do the ritual round around the tomb and pray.

After the healing rituals and prayers my heart felt light and we pressed on north. Next stop was the climbing area of Caiat near Chefchaouen. I had never been there before and only had tiny bit of beta for the place so I was really exited to arrive. And it was a beautiful place! The climbing was great and there is a huge potential for more routes. As with every place it also had it’s more negative sides but the overall experience was great. We squeezed all we could out of the relatively few climbing days we had but left satisfied, looks like I need to go back with some bolts though!

Chefchaouen

climbing the hardest route in Caiat to date, called ”Vajickovy”. I also finished a project (impossible to say if it was open or not) the same day around the same difficulty as this one. climbing in such a beautiful, quiet place with the nearby creek is unbeatable.

approaching the amazing sector ”Kefi Shop” , ready for tufas, kneebars and probably pumped forearms.

this route starts in someones home!

We started driving back to Rabat. The traffic in Morocco is sometimes crazy (as in dangerous) and you need to adapt to survive. In one crossing I missed a STOP sign and got pulled over by the police. I was supposed to fine 700 dirham, but after showing him some of my Youtube clips on his i-phone everything changed and he invited us for dinner instead!

back in town, trying to become civilized by getting a hair cut. the boys had a hard time sorting out my wild, out of hand, hair. Because it’s NOT time for dreadlocks again!

Now we are in Rabat, getting ready for more in Marrakech. The endless journey continues…

It’s alway a very special moment: to arrive in Morocco. Even though I’ve been coming here all my life and once every year for the past 12, it’s something exceptional about this place. As I consider this one of the places I call home, maybe this is reason why? Being on the road climbing and coming back here once a year is always something I look forward to a bit extra. And this time I travelled here with my old master Christer Bothén so spirits were high already on the airport in Stockholm.
In the past I try to time my trips here with Eid Miloud, the birthday of the prophet Muhammed (may peace be upon his soul) and the following moussem. Fore someone who is into gnawa music this is one of 2 times a year when there are many rituals, around certain saint tombs: sidi Ali (Meknes), moulay Brahim & moulay Abdellah Ben H´sain (Marrakech). But as I have a huge family here, I guess the main target is seeing them! And as I’m not exactly on vacation, I need to try to train as well as possible. We are also planning to check out a fairly newly developed climbing area near the village of Chefchaouen, called Caîat. And only having 2 weeks for all this, it’s sure to be an intense experience. As always!

with my cousins Abdellate, Nadja, Ehsen and my uncles wife Tahra, downtown Rabat.

the training ”Studio” at dar Belhaj in Rabat.

back climbing at ”Gentra d´Wadikem” (just outside Rabat, Morocco) 18 year’s later with my friend Vinränk and cousin Abdellate… it might not feel as mighty as back in -94 but it’s always great to stick to the root’s of climbing and sometimes have days like these.

only parts of the big Belhaj family, probably getting ready for another fest!