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AlivebyTea

@alivebytea

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Student of Zen and Tea. Trying to get up boulders and finding the Zen in that as well. Dad of two lovely human beings.

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A moment of pause, brewed differently. Steep Sessions: Tea × Ceremony 🫖✨
🗓 Saturday 21 Nov | 18:30–20:30
Curated specialty teas, stillness, and guided meditation. An intimate space to slow down and reset before the night unfolds. No experience needed.

Staying for the music? Our TEA × MUSIC session kicks off right after at 21:00 in the same space.

🍵 Ceremony: 18:30–20:30
🎵 Music session: 21:00–01:00
📍 @plugincity, Leidingstraat 17A, Eindhoven

🎟 Separate tickets live on Eventbrite (very limited spots)

🔗 Link in bio
📷 @olekalle taken in Plug In City by @alivebytea

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6 days ago

4,5 climbing days in Zillertal! Coming here with the whole family I did not have many expectations. And I learn to have less anyway 🤗.

Did get surprised by the amount I could do with a light-hearted spirit. Started out with doing more volume on easier things. Than slowly, to my surprise, a more limit project almost came together. Made it literally to the last move and the mantle of an 8A trarversing line, but at the end of the week I was just not fresh enough to recover at the final jug 🤣.

Here is a list of the things I did manage. Looking at it I do see I can improve my flash game 😆. Although climbing patiently is harder with the kids around as well (but also fun) 😊.

7C - Kuadreck und Buttamilch (not sure about the name, but confident in the grade 😆)
7B+ - Kuadreck kurz
7B+ - Come stai sd
7B - Come stai
7B - Mangal
7B - Mantl
7B - Push a fire
7B - Fangidifigidi (2nd go)
7A+ - Quality Street (flash)
7A+ - Distance Direct
7A+ - Push up
7A+ - Under the Quality
7A+ - Space Shuttle
7A+ - Undertaker
7A - Hart wie Stein(i) - Variante
7A - Entschärft
7A - Superpressung
7A - Schloss Mentlberg
7A - Distance (2nd go) by @alivebytea

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2 months ago

My second, time-poor session in horrific heat and humidity on this beautiful boulder.

After warming up, I knew I only had two hours before I had to pick up the family from the steam train ride I’d dropped them off at half an hour earlier.

I worked out some more beta, ripped through a few unsuccessful but well-rested burns, and slowly felt the pressure building. That was followed by a spree of increasingly desperate attempts where I stopped taking proper rests.
Despite the fatigue, I found new beta (moving the heel over to a 20 mm crimp) and suddenly made it past the crux move. Slightly surprised, I gathered myself and continued into the final six easy moves.

Four moves later, with feet that might still slip thanks to mediocre footwork and slightly too-worn shoes, I set up for the last “droppable” move: a small, slopey crimp at the top-out.

I looked up and realized the sun was sitting directly above the hold at the worst possible angle imaginable.

One moment of “f*ck.” Then: “Come on. Focus. Finish it.”

I made the move and stuck it.

But thrown slightly off by the curveball, I reached over the edge in mild panic, going for the final jug. I almost managed to fall off the one truly “non-droppable” move… but somehow made it to the top.

Perfect.

Time to pack up and head for the steam train.

--------‐------------

Der Hexer — 7C

Perhaps the highest-quality boulder I’ve done within day-trip driving distance, at any grade.
Thanks @gleesbouldering

Followed by a family sauna session at one of those wonderfully family-friendly German saunas 😉 by @alivebytea

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4 months ago

Ready for evening tea... by @alivebytea

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4 months ago

Evening Gong Fu tea session with an utterly stunning and mouth watering wild Anxi Tieguanyin from Master Chen Lianggu.

Back from a trip with @globalteahut in 2018. Put most of it aside for aging. But kept one little jar available for drinking "now".

Fond memories came back of walking through a forest of Tieguanyin tea trees way taller than myself... 🌱 by @alivebytea

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4 months ago

40 year old lens... 100 year teapot... 400 year old teacup... by @alivebytea

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5 months ago

Sometimes, in my life as a parent of two little ones... I just need a f*cking break.

In this period of my life, there is hardly anything more nourishing than going on a solo mini road trip in my old beaten-down car. Crashpads and gear in the trunk, podcast on. Cruising the two-hour drive to the nearest rocks. Most often @Avalonia.

Taking my time to patiently hike up the hill towards some lines that inspire me. Either trying hard at my limit, or making many moves on easier lines that form building blocks towards more lofty goals.

Figuring out moves, body positions, minute details. How to grab each part of a hold with each separate finger. Trying. Trying hard, obsessively. Then trying really, really hard. Until my skin and body are wrecked, and my brain is relaxed.

Then slowly packing my gear back up in a system I know better than my kitchen drawer. Descending the hill back to my rusty car. This is when the best part of the journey often starts.

Wrecked, emptied, and often satisfied, I turn on my personal playlist of love songs at loud volume. Not the kind of cheesy love songs that only sing about romantic love. But love songs with a capital L, songs that muse about a more universal kind of love, once listened to carefully. It’s as if, by emptying myself completely through climbing, I make room to be filled with love again on the way home.

Sometimes, in my life as a parent of two little ones... I just need a f*cking break.
So that I return home again with a revived capacity to actually LOVE those, once again sweet, little ones.

“I am not the one who loves
It’s love that seizes me”
— Leonard Cohen by @alivebytea

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5 months ago

A little excerpt from bouldering as a dad of young kids:

It was the third day on, and I was wrecked. Tired from lack of sleep, from carrying crashpads, my backpack, and my equally exhausted four-year-old, covered in chickenpox blisters and draped around my neck.

I had just managed to squeeze out a 7A variation on a beautiful, slightly overhanging face, using whatever was left of my sleep-deprived body. I decided to keep going and try the more technical 7A+ exit left. Mostly because I was too lazy to move the pads, the bag, and the child to another boulder. But also because I wanted to confront one of my weaknesses.

The crux revolved around a tiny, polished, slippery foothold.

I kept struggling to find the right tension through my right foot while trying to place my left foot far out left for a flag. My right foot pinged off several times as I attempted the cross-through move into a high sidepull, cross-throughs being another weakness of mine.

All the while, my son sat quietly on a sit-start pad, tired, sniffling every two seconds, watching.

After a few tries, perhaps sensing the futility of my efforts, he suddenly sat upright and said:

“Daddy, put your foot higher.”

I looked over, slightly surprised. But with no better ideas of my own, I figured it deserved consideration.

High up, around the level of the right-hand sidepull I kept failing to control, I noticed a slopey but usable feature for my left foot. It gave me enough stability to catch the sidepull properly and dynamically rotate left into a shouldery double gaston position.
It worked.

A few attempts later, I topped out the problem from the start.

Turns out my son was right.

-------

Not an easy weekend, to say the least 😅
For future reference: other than flailing on some potential projects, I did manage a few quick ascents of the following lines in the midst of everything:

- Le Presse-Papiers (assis) 7A+
- C'est Assis mais C'est Tassé / Cavernicole, 7A+
- Danger Majeur (Assis), 7A
- Graviton, 7A by @alivebytea

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5 months ago

Static version of one of the more dynamic mini MB benchmarks in the 7A+/7B range I have tried so far😅🤣.

Bunny's Contact!, 7B/V8 , 40° MoonBoard, Mini MoonBoard 2025 setup, set by badbunny. - @moonclimbing #moonboard #moonclimbing #moonboardchallenge #trainhardclimbharder by @alivebytea

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6 months ago

Öltanker Extended 8A+ FA - (A variation on Ölpresse)

The original idea behind what most people now know as Ölpresse was to stay low in the exit and continue the hand-height line all the way through. This finish is noticeably harder, but probably not a different grade than Ölpresse. That may be one of the reasons why the FA of Ölpresse was done the way it was, where the line in the final section starts to blur a bit and higher holds than hand-height were used.

What I do know is that this original vision from Daniel and others was completed at least once before by Patrick Heinrich and named Öltanker. Everyone who has repeated it seems to agree that it doesn’t really add to the grade, except perhaps making it feel like a more solid 8A.

Feeling somewhat frustrated by the unclear definition of Ölpresse (and understanding why not everyone shares the same interpretation), I felt inspired to breathe new life into the original idea. Realizing that people might not be very motivated to repeat a harder variation with the same grade attached to it, I thought it would be interesting to see whether an extension would be possible, similar to the easier variation of Ölkrisse, starting further back around the corner. IMO, adding this extension does bump the grade to (soft) 8A+. But curious to hear from others in the future.

I think the definition of this line is quite clear:

Start at the jug around the corner, just like with Ölkrisse, and climb your way around the corner. As soon as you begin engaging with the corner (most likely with your left hand), stick strictly to the hand-height line of Ölpresse/Öltanker and follow it all the way to the final jug.

Thanks to Daniel for the development and the vision!!! And thanks as well to @patclimbing and @raphael.mirbeth for developing many hard lines in the past in Avalonia, and giving me inside info into the history of this line and many others! by @alivebytea

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8 months ago

Today I came home after dinner time. Leo was not yet sleeping. So I layed next to him in the bed and gave him a hug and said: “I missed you, Leo.”

Leo: “Why?”

Me: “Because you’re sweet.”

Leo: “I miss Grandma Annette.”

Me: “Why?”

Leo: “Because she is sweet.”

Me: “Grandma Annette is in our hearts.”

Leo in a confident tone: “I know that.”

I often struggle to find Zen in parenting to be honest. But at least during the few moments of silence that followed... it wasn't hard to find. by @alivebytea

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10 months ago

Les Adolescents du Paradise Directe - 8A

FA of an extension of Les Enfants Du Paradise Directe. Starts in Silnia until the start of Les Enfants, than the same elimination rules apply as for Les Enfants.

IMO Les Enfants is 7C+, maybe not even soft. The intro is only about 6B+ for this one perhaps, but because Les Enfants gets progressively harder with almost every move till the end, and the starts tires you out a bit anyway... I do think it deserves the grade (although soft perhaps).

Was able to do the regular easily towards the end of the warm up, but putting together the full line needed additional tactics (micro-beta, breathing, pacing, relaxation/tension) that starts to be needed for me at lines of this level or beyond.

Harder than California Love and maybe even Ölpresse? Similair or harder than some other 8A lines I have tried recently in Albarracin and Magicwood...

For any questions, feel free to get in touch! by @alivebytea

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10 months ago