MICHELE CAMINATI interview

[9b]

Michele Caminati on Khéops, 8b (Fontainebleau)
Ph: Michele Caminati 


Questions:

1- which is Your strongest passion: maths, phisics, or bouldering ?

2- is there something in bouldering similar of what You find in maths and phisics ?

3- which is the value of the millimetrical hands and feet positioning in bouldering ?

4- what rock teach You ?

5- I see You are a " traveller climber ": how much is important to travel for Your climbing ?

6- did You know many foreigner climbers in Your climbing travels ? How was Your feeling with them, their culture and languages ?

7- how much is important for You and Your climbing practicing foreigner languages ?

(photo from vamosbicho2 )

8- You spent lot of time in the forest of Fontainebleau, even by Yourself: how is Your feeling with nature, with Yourself alone in the nature and with Your climbing friends ?

9- which are the most important skills for bouldering ?

10- how much is, in percentage, power in bouldering ? Power of mind ? Technical skills ?

11- how do You suggest to train to have some good bouldering results ?

12- do You think bouldering is more dangerous for the fingers, compared to climbing with rope ?

13- how do You warm up before bouldering ?

Ph. Caminati

 

14- just bouldering or climbing with rope too ? Why ?

15- which is the most important action in bouldering: just try, find "la metode" or do the boulder to the top ?

16- how much is important the result, the performance, reach the top ?

17- some climbers grade the boulders, some other no: which is Your opinion about it ?

18- which is the best boulder You saw and/or climbed ? (If/when You like, as all other "9b climbers", You can upload here photos, videos ... thanks in advance !) ?

19- what do You think about 9b site effort to let climbers partecipating in this climbers' "journalism" experiment ?

At the end, just a personal question ... :
20- which camper do You suggest me to buy to have a good quality/price ratio ? Do You think is a good idea to trasform a Renault trafic ? ;-)


Grazie mille Michele.

Ciao.

[9b]

Michele send me by email his following answers (enjoy !):


1- which is Your strongest passion: maths, phisics, or bouldering ?
Try to guess ! :-)

2- is there something in bouldering similar of what You find in maths and phisics ?
The search of the “solution” to a particular problem, being it a sequence on the rock, a theorem to prove or a theory to explain physical phenomena, all you need is patience and study…

3- which is the value of the millimetrical hands and feet positioning in bouldering ?
Usually the harder is the boulder, the higher is that value, the longer is the studying and the greatest is the enjoyment!

4- what does rock teach You ?
That there is no end to imagination and you can always find new movements and positions you won’t have even thought about before! But it also teaches me that nature is fragile and we all have to respect our places and our rock if we want to continue living this sport in the future as we know it now...

5- I see You are a " traveller climber ": how much is important to travel for Your climbing ?
I think that travelling is one of the most important thing in the activity of every climber, it makes you visit new places, rocks, people and cultures... Like everyone I try to dedicate it as much time as possible, and I wish I had more and more... it’s never enough isn’t it???

6- did You know many foreigner climbers in Your climbing travels ? How was Your feeling with them, their culture and languages ?
Mainly Europeans, and we all speak English... I’ve also been in the US two times for a month, but it’s too little to really understand a culture... Maybe I know better France, we have pretty similar cultures but I really appreciate their idea of “Public State” and the care they have of public property, which we lack here in Italy.

7- how much is important for You and Your climbing practicing foreigner languages ?
English is essential... and I want to learn French better too.

8- You spent lot of time in the forest of Fontainebleau, even by Yourself: how is Your feeling with nature, with Yourself alone in the nature and with Your climbing friends ?
Peace. I find nature quite relaxing, and especially the forest of Fontainebleau... bouldering alone is the best if it’s that what you are searching. I think that when you are with friends you tend to care more to people and less to ambience, that’s obvious!


9- which are the most important skills for bouldering ?
Power! and a good mixture of technique and dynamism... but the most important of all is passion.

10- how much is, in percentage, power in bouldering ? Power of mind ? Technical skills ?
Power is nothing without control! :-)) So you also need a good technique and especially a very strong mind if you want to succeed and to keep on improving yourself. There’s no percentage...

11- how do You suggest to train to have some good bouldering results ?
Do boulder.. A LOT! Train on boulders in the gym (to get really fit) go to climb on blocks with different rocks as much as you can and ...of course lose some weight if you need to...

12- do You think bouldering is more dangerous for the fingers, compared to climbing with rope ?
I find more dangerous climbing on routes full of pockets, I get injured quite easily on pockets because I really seldom train on them (bouldering is almost crimps, slopers and pinches...). I think if you take gradual and regular training, and have a good warm up session you won’t have great problems. The key is paying great attention if you are trying to do more than what your fingers are ready to do.

13- how do You warm up before bouldering ?
I just try to warm up fingers slowly climbing on slabs or vertical walls with the help of my feet... then I usually do some tractions or something physical to warm up shoulders and big muscles. If you do some stretching first you will feel much more fluent in your moves!

14- just bouldering or climbing with rope too ? Why ?
At the moment I prefer bouldering... it’s simple and it’s easy: just put two pads in the car and you’re free to go, even alone. But in the future who knows?

15- which is the most important action in bouldering: just try, find "la metode" or do the boulder to the top ?
Finding methods, sequences and new lines is the real creative aspect of bouldering, but sometimes it requires a lot of time, efforts, patience and study. That’s why opening a new difficult line is much harder than just repeating! But sometimes trying a quick “guided” repetition of a famous problem could be fun and stimulating, especially on vacation. The help of other people or just a video of the sequence is really helpful. It can make you compare immediately with real difficulty, and understand better your limits.

16- how much is important the result, the performance, reach the top ?
Zero. What is important is your own personal enjoyment. The result and the performance is sometimes a little gift that rewards your efforts and makes you feel happy. But it’s just a personal thing, I don’t think it should have a universal value.

17- some climbers grade the boulders, some other no: which is Your opinion about it ?
Grading is always difficult: I think a grade gains a certain and “objective” value only if you have enough repetitions or opinions about it. Before it must be considered just a personal suggestion. We all have to be really honest about our performances when we suggest a grade, there can be many factors: your personal shape in that moment, morphology, climate, temperature, friction... some people prefer just to skip this, and I understand, it’s a risky job... sometimes you really do not even have an opinion! But in that case we must not give space to speculations, and wait for someone who thinks to have an opinion about it. Anyway what is the first thing you look at in a piece of climb? It’s grade or it’s beauty? I think it’s time to concentrate on beauty and stop with stupid talking about who is “the strongest” or what is “the hardest”, for that there are always competitions...

18- which is the best boulder You saw and/or climbed ? (If/when You like, as all other "9b climbers", You can upload here photos, videos ... thanks in advance !) ?

I just don’t say anything.... except the fact that I could not climb it till the top because at the time I was still recovering from a broken ankle. But I will come back...

19- what do You think about 9b site effort to let climbers partecipating in this climbers' "journalism" experiment ?
It’s an interesting project... let’s see how it develops... with the help of everyone who is interested!

At the end, just a personal question ... :
20- which camper do You suggest me to buy to have a good quality/price ratio ? Do You think is a good idea to trasform a Renault trafic ? ;-)
MMM... you should look for some used one in Germany, they are way ahead in the market of small vehicles... Anyway… I’ve seen pretty marvellous bricolage done on a Trafic!


Thank You Michele !

[9b]

Find more photos like this on world CLIMBERS party at 9b novebi.ning.com

[Michele Caminati]

21 - per quanto tempo hai lavorato Il Signore degli Anelli?
Da quando ci ho messo le mani per la prima volta alla sera in cui l’ho finalmente chiuso sono passati più di cinque anni …

22 - perché hai scelto proprio quel blocco? Ha qualcosa di speciale per te o è "solamente" un bel blocco?
Ovviamente è un blocco in un area (Ceriola) vicino a casa mia. Non lo ho nemmeno trovato o pulito io per la prima volta, però appena lo ho visto me ne sono subito innamorato, era un progetto troppo logico ed evidente! Poi è stato il primo blocco “duro” che ho liberato, mi ha richiesto molto tempo e mi ha dato molta soddisfazione. E’ stato bello tornarci su per liberare la partenza da seduti a distanza di anni!

23 - hai già provato Dream Time? Hai intenzione di provarlo?
Dreamtime?? mai provato …. ;-)) Si, ovviamente ci sono stato sotto un bel po’ di tempo … e mi sentivo proprio vicino, però ora se chiudono la strada mi sa che non me la sentirò più di fare due viaggi da solo per portare su i crash …

24 - quale sarà il tuo prossimo obiettivo?
E chi lo sa! Di blocchi in cantiere che mi piacerebbe fare ce ne sono molti e in molti posti diversi …. vediamo quale sarà il primo che si stufa e mi lascia passare!

25 - Cosa vorresti che ti fosse chiesto riguardo alla tua vita in verticale (e non)?
Ma … a volte quando torno da un viaggio mi piacerebbe che mi fosse semplicemente chiesto se mi è piaciuto il posto e se mi sono divertito, invece che un resoconto dettagliato di quello che ho “realizzato”.

[9b]