First 8c by Gudmund Grønhaug (43)

Gudmund Grønhaug has done the FA of Blodspor 8c in Ekne, which he bolted eleven years ago. Ekne is located two hours south of Flatanger and there are some 130 routes at the spot (topo), half of which were bolted or had FAs by the Norweigian. Five years ago, Adam Ondra tried the vertical route and said it might be an 8c and since then the 43-year-old has gone all in. Adam had been invited to Flatanger by Gudmund, who was one of the pioneers of the giant cave. "Due to rheumatic chronic pain in the knees, hips shoulders, and worst of all, the low back, I need to train something everyday. 3 years ago a mix of events gave me inspiration to train harder and more structured. My book (climbing injuries) was almost finished, we were due to leave the area and move south and I had a lot of pain. I found the inspiration for everyday structured training in this project and the prospect of being able to get out of bed and make breakfast for me and the kids without having to sit down and have a break at least once due to pain. The last two winters I found a method of combining training to reduce pain with performance enhancing training without spending to much time training. “Luckilly” my pain gives me no time to rest and stop training so I train something almost every day. Obviously this pays of! I now have less pain, fever extreme pain periodes and a new (possible) personal high point concerning climbing grades."