Farewell Magic Wood

We left Magic Wood to head back to France to catch our flight out of Paris. Unfortunately Magic Wood didn’t treat us well. We had one stretch of four or five days of sunshine and then it was back to rain, rain, and more rain. Magic Wood sits in a narrow valley with very sporadic weather patterns. It could be raining heavily in the valley but the sun could be shining two kilometers north. It was the worst month of weather I’ve ever seen for climbing, much worse than our time in Font. In retrospect we could have spent three good days climbing there and accomplished the same as what we did in a month. We had a few good days and the rest were spent either projecting something or huddling under the Tarp of Darkness, watching the rain fall. Magic Wood is a great place to meet people so we had plenty of people to spend the rainy days with. We made friends from Switzerland, France, Belgium, Romania, Russia, Austria, Italy, England, Poland, and Germany!

In the end we were much more fond of Ticino than Magic Wood, even ignoring the weather. We found the lines and the rock to be better in Ticino. Many of the ‘classics’ of magic wood don’t topout such as Supernova, Never Ending Story Parts 1 & 2, Sofa Surfer, Piranha, etc. Not to say those are all bad boulder problems but dropping off isn’t the same to me as topping out a boulder. I ended up projecting a long crimpy 8B called One Summer in Paradise. I did all the moves in 30 minutes so I was optimistic about sending it quickly. Four sessions later it didn’t happen! I climbed to the end where the crux lies 20+ times in conditions ranging from fair to raining and never had the energy to finish it.

We are excited to leave the continent tomorrow as we head south to South Africa. Our flight leaves Paris tomorrow at 11PM and after a layover in Johannesburg, we should touch down in Cape Town at 2PM Wednesday. After a three or four hour drive north, we will reach our new home for the winter just outside the Rocklands.