Climbing-Days in Innsbruck with Black Diamond

Climbing? Me? No way! I am a runner and I always preferred to have my feet on safe ground. I tried climbing a few times in the past, but it really wasn't a pleasure. Shoes were always too small ("That's just how they need to be for climbing", they always said to me), my hands became very rough and my arms were anyway too weak. But: I have many friends who incredibly love this sport and somehow I was always a bit jealous of their passion. As I got an invitation from Innsbruck tourism and Black Diamond to go to Innsbruck for some climbs I decided to give it another try. I mean, I had nothing to lose. ;) To prevent some of those bad feelings I prepared myself with some proper (arm-) workouts. (Nothing special: just push-ups, ugh!)
I arrived in Innsbruck around noon and after a few minutes in the amazing Hotel Adler, Johanna from Innsbruck Tourism and Sabine from Black Diamond came to pick us up. We went then to the KI, THE climbing hall of Innsbruck. The European Headquarter of Black Diamond is located right next to the hall, so first we had a short theoretical part, where Sabine presented the brand and its history. After this short insight Reinhard Scherer showed us the huge climbing hall (aka his 'baby'). And then it was finally our turn to climb. I was really surprised how much fun it was and with the time I developed an ambition that didn't allow me anymore to give up without reaching the highest point. Ok, I have to say that I only did quite easy routes, but I think I started to feel this climbing-passion. It was pretty cool to see and feel that I first did everything with force and with the time I started to use more and more tactical moves. The next day we went to Ehnbachklamm (a famous climbing-spot superclose to Innsbruck) and combining mountains and climbing felt much more like home to me. It was funny and somehow I felt comfortable from the very first moment on. Beside the climbing it was amazing to get teached how to safe others and to get to know all the necessary climber's know-how. Actually it was also good to have an excuse for some pauses from climbing. Those two days were pretty intense for my body: My arms shaked while I brushed my theet in the evening and I didn't know that I have so many (or little) muscles that can be sore. Luckily I brought my Mini-Blackroll to relax them a bit. On my last day in Innsbruck I got to see the biggest treasure of this city: the Nordkette! Those mountains and the city embody the amazing urban alpine lifestyle. As we were short in time we took the cablecar up to the top and Stephan Wiesner took some running pics from me in this stunning surrounding (I'll share them on Instagram). After three days in Innsbruck I leave this city with crazily positive feelings and I'm pretty sure I'll come back soon. Moreover I am so happy about the opportunity Black Diamond gave me and I am pretty sure I will continue climbing. Two days after I left Innsbruck I already went for some bouldering and I can highly imagine including bouldering and climbing into my weekly sports-routine. After all I would like to give a special THANK YOU to Sabine and Johanna for making these days so great, you really rocked!
As always all of you can send me a mail or a message on Instagram if you would like to have more detailed information about anything regarding my trip, Innsbruck or climbing in general. I'll give my best to help you out.;)