A Westie Day and the end of 08

The last week of '08 has been a good one, with multiple trips outside in great weather with a variety of characters from Merseyside and further afield from exotic places such as Derby, Rotherham and The Valleys of South Wales!

Friday 26th

Trip 1 was a strange Boxing Day morning out to Craig Y Longridge with The Mills and Donnelly, quite a strong crimping team to let loose on such a venue. As we approached the village we noticed the speed cameras had been wrapped up in christmas paper with a fancy bow on top, most quaint! We did a few laps of some random country roads until Matt had some sort of clarity of mind and remembered where to go!

On arrival, it was cold as anything, I decided to drink coffee whilst Matt and Tom started doing shuttle runs along the crag in a synchronised effort. This spurred me into action and I managed a lap there and back before being out of breath... strong start (I really will have to address this cardio issue next year)

The warmup was frantic and powerful, doing big moves between lots of juggy crimps and then moving on to the real action. It took about 6 goes to do the first hard warmup problem of the Gauntlet, a reet sandbag at V5. Big Marine got a quick crush using 2 different methods and then Fertile Delta got the flash treatment, nice. We contrived a sequence for the sitter and myself or Matt really should have finished it off when going for the 2nd to last move into the gaston but the sun was making everything a little greasy.

We finished shortly after failing to reach the first hold on some jump problem (we tried stacking 4 pads and still failed to make this Olympian reach!). Maybe some form of NBA 40inch standing jumps would have been of use?!

On the way back we were accosted by Longridge's finest local ladies dressed as Disney characters, with a charity bucket in 1 hand and a pint in the other, classy! We quickly slung a fake £1 coin into said bucket (that we had aquired from the Mersey Tunnel toll) and sped down the road just catching the sound of shocked cries behind us, of having been tricked by a car of strong scouse crushers.
Around the corner, there were many more of these charity collectors diving into the road trying to halt our escape to Merseyside and Matt pulled off some fine manouevers to aid us in getting the hell out of this strange place.

Sunday 28th

On Sunday, I returned to my nemesis venue of the plantation with Hitman and Mark the Builder. The goal was to achieve something of note and it didn't take long! There was another rapid warmup on the pebble ticking off some fine eliminates and then having a full on whitey on the far left arete next to the rampline, that gets 6b/+ but feels like certain death if you were to barn door off! We moved up to Green Traverse as I wanted practice in the dark arts of topping out. The Green slap got dispatched in 2 goes and then the direct mantle round the corner (where the Full Green starts from) took a much greater effort... 6b!?! My shoulders were pretty gammy after that one but I felt ready to tackle Twister once again.

First attempt it got cruised to the topout ledge and once again much failure to get that belly over! I slid down on to the pads to the disbelief of the Hitman and laughter from little Hoppo. I threw the toys out the proverbial pram, got psyched and then crushed it to pieces next try. A wave of relief was the result and we could move on to greater things.

Brass Monkeys was in great nick and first attempt saw me past the crux swing, heel on and hand hovering over the jug on the lip when everything popped and I felt way too tired to try again. Try I did... but no success with much bloodshed and 2 split tips!
We ran up the hill to check out Help The Young and the psyche was instantly back. it took a couple goes to make the first move to the edge but after that it was steady to the end, with ascents from myself, Hitman and Si. What a stunning line. It climbs as good as it looks and went straight into my top 5 favourite grit problems.

With light fading, we headed to Satin and Pressure Drop with about 12 pads. I said it looked piss, so had the honour of going first to show what not to do! Luckily I had found Si's right foot Gallileo (that he had lost on Tuesday) on the anvil as you leave the car park, which happened to make a perfect pair with my only current flat shoe. I did some weird sequence going left foot over the lip instead of right and boning so hard on those crimps that a minor slip would have resulted in much pain and skin loss. Thankfully everything stuck and I found myself grasping the break and shuffling off to the side almost feeling like a grit technician but knowing deep down that no delicate footwork was really involved!

Tuesday 30th

A large crowd of us headed to Cratcliffe yesterday morn to meet up with Mike from Rotherham and Kev from The Valleys (Not Pembroke! ;)). High on the agenda was either Jerrys Traverse or T crack - two problems that had evaded many attempts on my last few visits. After the warmup on the top boulders the arms felt ready for action, so I made the decision to get on that traverse and lay it to rest. First go, my hand was on the jug at the end and then a heavy foot dab brought things to a halt. There was blood everywhere on the rock, holds, my pants, chalk...etc but the psyche was on. After a quick heckle over at the egg, I returned and swiftly dispatched opting for the far left hand exit which felt fantastic... finally.

Down in the woods we had a quick team ascent of Brain Dead arete, a very aesthetic line with good holds and steady moves all the way.

The team moved on to Rowtor expecting a quiet scene and it was rammed with many fellow punters and what seemed to be some sort of dog owners collective. After a brief walk around, I got sucked into just trying Quine as it seemed perfectly suited with a large shoulder press and a drop knee, with a bit of a pop at the end to a good hold (provided you caught it perfectly). The first couple of goes were promising, almost managing to do it totally static to the lip but just falling short by an inch or 2. There were about 5 different ticks on the lip to make it a bit more confusing than it already was and after thinking I had it sussed I began trying about 3 or 4 different methods resulting in equal failure. It eventually got too dark to continue and the left shoulder had long since given up the press, so we headed back home to Merseyside, Rotherham and South Wales tired but hopefully grateful of another fine day of weather!

2008 Was a good year for myself in terms of getting outside and having a wonderful trip to Italy with such nice hospitable people like Lore, Val, Roberto, Geovanni and Sabrina looking after us! I think the turning point (in terms of my climbing) has to be returning from Italy destitute and getting a training program off the guru which helped to see me through a good month and a half of indoor climbing and work. The gains made were clear to see when I returned outdoors in October and ticked off many old nemesis problems amongst new ones and broke through more grade boundaries than in the previous 2 years.

I can't wait for 2009 and getting stuck into my hitlist of 10 problems before recommencing the Guru's fine programme when the weather inevitably craps out around January/February. I hope everyone out there is as eager as me to get off to a good start in the new year and make the most of current conditions!

Stanage..or Burbage...Burbage or Stanage

Well in the end we went for Stanage seeing as the hills were entirely blanketed in a fine mist of minging proportions. It was looking like the Works might become a likelihood as opposed to a fallback option as we approached the Plantation.

On arriving we hung around hoping for someone else to go up first and return with news of conditions, to avoid a fruitless walk-in but alas the only other people in the car park sacked it to Cratcliff, so we padded up and commited to the epic.

The rock was surprisingly dryish with just a few places feeling a little slippery but on the whole decent. Being a regular gritstone technician I had come well equipped with 3 pairs of toe down boots, perfect for the cave but maybe not my current predicament... So after a brief warm up I failed to repeat Deliverance and decided to get on everything that overhung in someway and didn't involve luck based padding up slabs!

First up was Captain Hook that felt ok until I smashed my shin in the roof trying to do a wide leg clamp and I sacked it over to Twister on the back of the Pebble. Mike came over and helped me work out the moves as he hadn't done it in a while. After working the sequence and latching the top to the left of the boss I proceeded to thrash about like a dying seal and with the heckles of a 15 strong crowd willing me downwards I slid off on to the mats below.
It took another 3 attempts to redpoint the top out and after resting I couldn't link it again, feeling a bit battered and more keen to get over to Brass Monkeys.

Me, O and Mike went over and had it padded out enough, to not feel like broken limbs were a likely outcome if you were to fly off backwards. It took a short while to work out how to hold the swing and get over the lip. The bottom section was ok but it took a while to stop trying a variety of poor ideas and just clamp hard on the right heel instead of draping it, in order to free the hand and top out scarily. I must have spent at least a minute stood on the arete working out which bit of green moss and lichen to sketch up on! Having done it in 2 halves it just remained to link it but I was just feeling a full on body shutdown and decided to wait for a stronger day.

We ended the day up near Silk willing ben up but he was sketching about on the smeary left foot rockover crux. Me, O and Dave had a go on the 'cortomaltese' of Stanage with Help the Aged, what a terrible line! It really capped off a day of trying and failing on mostly obscure a-technical problems.

It was a bit of a weird day really, nice to be out with some mates, but left feeling underwhelmed by the plantation yet again. I think the best policy is go warmup, crush your project and get out of there to save skin and sanity.

A New Era of Injury

Is about to commence on Merseyside!

Early days and lots of potential (space).

The art of Rest

I've probably had the most rested week of rest weeks in a long time and it was with trepidation that I went out to North Wales with O yesterday to meet up with Kev from Pembroke.

I recall previous days out after a 3 day rest where I felt heavy, lethergic and generally unable to wake myself up from the relative hibernation-esque period of rest. A bitter wind was making life hard at the RAC, which was our warmup venue of choice and it was not long before we just sacked it to the pass to meet Kev at the roadside. We decided to make the warmup walk into Lizard King a bit more of an epic by strapping multiple pads together, with the intention of creating an unmissable landing surface incase things were to go awry!

A brief warmup by doing the slap to lip and topping out, I was ready to go. I managed to stick the first move with power to spare and cruised through to the lip only to have my feet pop off when I had my hand right on it! I was relieved it felt so effortless but a bit nervous about possibly wasting my limited energy reserves on my first go by gripping a bit too hard.

Owen quickly warmed into the first moves and also got the top out sorted (as he had never previously bothered). Kev was having a bit of a reach related nightmare in figuring out the reach to the lip seeing as he had roughly 12" of deficit in the lank department (ah well... short people are generally way strong to compensate ;))

After a quick walk about and a bit of banana, I went for attempt 2, and failed to do the first move, I had a quick gripe about trying to wake my body up.. pulled on again and dispatched! It flowed, the moves felt fantastic and the top out was glorious, probably the best problem I've done this year in one of the nicest locations.

I rewarded myself with a bit of coffee then took photos and encouraged the others to get it sent. Owen didn't take long in cruising it with ease 15 mins or so later. Kev worked out how to make the lip move and I'm sure he'll get the whole problem quite fast given a proper session on it.

We moved down to Jerry's roof and had a quick play on the main event, linking the moves but feeling a bit heavy and mentally drained in general from all the walking! The roof looked ok but felt a bit like grabbing on to bars of soap, so we made another epic mission up to Wavelength to meet up with the Pembroke crew and ended the day pottering about as the sky quickly turned dark. A great day out.

This coming week may see a Tuesday return to the Cave and I will hopefully recommence battle with Lou F if I feel up to it. I reckon O should do well on Left Wall High seepage permitting.

Small Gains

Saturday

It has been a fairly steady last week since I last posted. Trips to North Wales have been avoided with the rather poor weather and obviously being close to a couple of things I wanted to get done this year has made this doubly frustrating. This was remedied to some extent by a full weekend outside giving a couple of friends the tour of Roche Abbey and it's glorious low 7's circuit where I managed to warm up getting the retro flash of everything whilst saving energy for something I wanted to try!

When the action moved to the main buttress, I had by far my best attempts on Fallen Idol sliding off the sloper with a full 4 digits on it, sadly it wasn't to be as my skin thinned rapidly as well as the crimps greasing up something awful in short time. I know it is pretty much in the bag if I can get back with good skin and temps (but a bit of interim training on fingers and explosive pulling wouldn't hurt!)

Sunday

Sunday saw a change of temps and medium, where we transferred our pulling skills to the technical horror shows of Earl Crag. I swore not long ago, to never return to this venue where 2 previous visits had shut me down completely, with my less than insulated body unable to cope with the savage micro climate.

It was (as expected) absoultely numbing with a bitter cross-wind keeping temps low! Determined not to be defeated I crushed the warmups including some 6C+'s I thought felt about 6A! A good start, so I moved straight to Underpants, having only seen it on Stick It I was quite suprised to get stood up on both footholds and slapping at the rail within a couple of goes. I thought I had it at least twice but my hand just kept losing contact. I wasn't too bothered as I had no agenda other than to try some good looking lines and destroy Australia Roof (V4?) which had somehow shut me down on 2 consecutive visits!

We moved across to Desert Island Arete and I managed to get stood up around the left arete with left hand on the rail and right hand moving up to the sidepull when my left foot popped and I fell off losing the flash. Gutting. My mate Rich nipped in for a quick beta flash and I flailed about failing to regain my high point.

After 10 mins I couldn't handle the rest periods which involved shivering with chattering teeth in a bitter wind of icy death. We moved swiftly on to the far left and up to Sloping Beauty. I recalled trying this a long time ago and matching the slopers only to fail miserably on moving in any direction other than down. Well two goes later and I was topping it out after an amazing swing to the left and Earl Crag suddenly didn't seem such a harsh place to be! Rich had a few goes but gave up and then he got interested in Hanging Groove around the corner which I pointed out was the biggest sandbag I had ever done (on a par with Paul's Bulge in the pass). He spent a confusing 15 minutes getting the full shutdown whilst I was in hysterics eating my posh sandwiches (stolen from the Ivory).

On the return to the main crag I got Desert Island in the satch in 1 go, noticing a subtle change in my left hand once I had the right hand on the arete allowed me to pull around easily and get established on the left hand rail. What a great problem.

We moved back to an old nemesis of Grape Nut, I quickly got up to the gaston and the left foot on the smeary edge. I locked in and felt totally solid reaching up with the left hand to a good rail when my right hand exploded off and I flew back narrowly missing the rock with my head! Slightly perturbed I chalked up and tried again only to have my left foot pop every time I had my fingers on the rail. I got a bit angry and sacked it off to go try some new things.

Rich worked out Ron's Slab quite fast then flashed Ron's Arete with ease making a mockery of his year out from bouldering! (Hatton is still my grit hero) I noticed over yonder a small roof and it reminded me of unfinished business...

Booted up and less than psyched I pulled on and swiftly reached the lip, got some beta off Dave to throw a left footlock in and suddenly it all made sense with the reaches through obviously piss instead of desperate snatching off toe presses. I surmounted the top and wondered what the hell I had been doing but glad I didn't have to go back on this piece of choss again!

To round off the day we had a play on Andy Brown's Wall and after a lack of success in getting the high right sidepull a local pointed out a crafty bit of foot beta, next go I was slapping at the top of the wall! Skin was wearing very thin, so we headed off for a pint and I am quite psyched to return knowing Underpants and Andy Browns are definitely achievable given good weather and skin.

Tuesday

Today was a well chilled rest day after having worked and trained yesterday all day making it quite a taxing 3 days in a row! We had a guest around for dinner and my mum made a superb beef bournignon with copious amounts of onion and red wine with vegetables and potatoes as trimmings. This was followed by a fantastic lemon merangue by my sis, which went down quite well! During the second course I was rudely interrupted by a certain Ghost Face Miller on the phone who had some good news about a possible training facility in the pool. It sounds more than promising and I'm going to go check it out tomorrow with him in the afternoon.

Reading dobbin's blog today I could totally relate to the person climbing in a small pond of fish at the local wall... climbing seemingly well by dispatching everything with ease but being generally pathetically weak in the grand scheme of things! This new training venue will hopefully be the dawning of a new era of training on things I can't do without an epic struggle and a lot of time investment, as opposed to the auto pilot mode I can fall into at the local wall. Dispensary mk2 here we come?

Projecting

It's been a great week of working one day, crushing the next with 2 fairly successful days out in Wales. After making the list of problems I most wanted to do, I had a great training session flashing old board problems and also completing all my set problems in 1 whirlwind session 22 flashed and the last on the 3rd attempt.

I went with Tom and Owen up to check out Lizard King on Wednesday and it is one of the most aesthetic looking lines I have seen in the UK and certainly Wales! A 30 degree overhanging board of fairly good crimps and long lock moves... Perfect! It took a while to warm into it and after about 2 hours I had worked out my preferred sequence for the starting 2 moves. (A long press and shoulder lock on the right arm to the poorer of the 3 holds and then a high step and lock on the left arm to get the good right hand crimp). I dabbled with Owen's dynamic right hand first method but couldn't get to grips with it and the snatching was not doing my skin any favours!

Pic courtesy of Dave from UKB showing Cofe on Lizard King (illustrates the way Owen was doing the first move to the rail).

After resting and sticking the first move totally static, I crushed the problem till the last tricky move of gaining the sloper on the lip and totally powered out! I was a bit gutted but also happy as I know it will go next time I am up there as the top out is a trivial rockover.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful and I rested my skin as much as possible in anticipation of the return trip to Lizard King. This time just me and Owen went but turned the car around when through the last tunnel before Llanberis as there was just a wall of grey everywhere. The skies turned blue as we reached the Orme and there was a good breeze. The cave was in near perfect condition!

We both felt a bit lethergic warming up but after a brief warm up I got on Lou Ferrino and managed to get straight to the press to the first of the 2 pockets before falling off with the flash pump.

Owen did Flake start fast and then worked out all the moves of left wall high in about an hour, linking it in 3 large overlaps.


Dave on Lou F, from September time

3 more laps to the same move and I was feeling knackered, so with no expectations I pulled on and pathed it to the press out to the last slot and pulled on my right toe too hard.. pulling my left hand out of the last pocket and Failure! Oh well, next time I guess.

Chester Si and Jamie turned up a bit later on and after sharing some small bits of beta with Si he nearly crushed Lou Ferrino, just failing when getting the crimp before the last pocket. He has put quite a bit of time in to LF and it will be great to see him get it done soon as he deserves it.

So in summary, quite a good week even though nothing was achieved... minor breakthroughs and close calls have given me sufficient confidence that with a couple days rest, I can get LF done Tuesday evening (If it hasn't all seeped through by then). If it has then there is always the gorge where another of the 10 wishlist problems can get worked into submission.

Lists and Focus!

I have had a fairly relaxed time over the last couple of weeks pottering about different venues ticking off volume, rather than attempting to push myself too hard! I think this is a good thing... where I am relaxed and not fearing failure or a lack of progression in my climbing. Whilst in this semi-rehab stage, my mind wandered to what I would like to get done over the next couple of months and for 2009!

I am unsure as to whether font/albaraccin is a good call for next February and Easter, as all of the problems I am inspired to climb due to aesthetics/basic style of moves/rock type/location are all in Switzerland! The plan may be to climb a lot more in the UK (mainly Wales/Lakes) and save up for 1 big trip to Swiss as opposed to lots of shorter jaunts where projecting becomes harder to do with weather, time and more importantly skin restrictions.

To help focus on this idea of localised climbing and a big trip to Switzerland I made a bit of a top 10 wishlist of problems that I feel may be possible with enough training and injury avoidance!

For the UK:

1. Jerry's Roof (The pass)
2. Lou Ferrino (cave)
3. Trigger Cut (cave)
4. Jess's Roof (Almscliff)
5. Fallen Idol (roche)
6. Lizard King (The pass)
7. Be Ruthless (pantymwyn)
8. Sparks (pantymwyn)
9. Hurricane (curbar)
10. Pit of Hell (cave)

Abroad:

1. Vitruvian Man (chironico)
2. Super Nova (magic)
3. Piranja (magic)
4. Cote de Seshuan (magic)
5. Never ending story pt2 (magic)
6. Hoenrausch (magic)
7. Muttertag (magic)
8. Octopussy (magic)
9. Doctor Crimp (chironico)
10. Birds (chironico)

Just reading the lists gets me psyched enough to rest and train hard. Hopefully I can get a couple of the UK ones done before the year is out, to give me a head start for next years ambitious goals.

For now, I will go to tkmaxx and purchase some horribly strong crushing attire in strikingly garish colours, then off to the wall to train.

Rad and Syked

Well it was a good last week, with a trip to the Lakes taking in an interesting lecture by the king of skye Dave Graham anda couple of days outdoors to the Langdale and Kentmere boulders. Nothing hard got crushed but I really enjoyed the relaxed circuiting. The rain put paid to any Bowderstone action and a bit of indoor crushing as well as slacklining made up the rest of the trip.

A day after coming back, I went the cave with Dave not expecting too much and after a brief warmup (about 5 minutes) I pulled on to my current nemesis (the low start into Rock Atrocity from the wobbly block) and crushed it into the ground first try of the day. It felt good.

Feeling pretty psyched at breaking through this mental barrier, I got back on Lou Ferrino (which was pretty wet) and after doing the 4th move a few times in a row (a move I used to really struggle on), I linked it all the way to the finish from said move. I wasn't really expecting this, so psyched out my mind, I rested whilst towelling and brushing a a ton of chalk into the 2nd LH sidepull at the start. Pulling on to it as fast as possible I flowed through but dropped the 4th move as said hold had already covered my hand in water and my left hand blew off! :( I know it won't be long till we meet again!

Today was a bit of an interesting one. Me and Dave went ov er to the Peak with the aim of getting on Brad Pitt but we arrived to blustery wet conditions with bouts of sunshine being rudely interrupted by minor rainstorms and high winds. Perfect conditions :S. We briefly warmed up on the Deliverance block and Dave swiftly despatched Deliverance infront of some American wads being given the tour by mr Pickles. I tried to re-repeat it as well but using the short mans High right foot method but it wasn't to be, so determined to do a new problem and not fail on old ones I went over and tried to flash the Green Traverse. It was going ok till I puntered the middle section trying to smear instead of campussing all the way and had to go back to the start to get it 2nd go :(

We went over to Brad and it was miraculously dry. We got the full shutdown but got to witness Pint Sized American beast Matt Segal flash it with ease! The rain came in again to end our play and we sacked it to Hathersage for a coffee. With the weather breaking yet again...we headed to Burbage, got shutdown on the Terrace, I showed Dave the Remergence block and he agreed with me that it was a highly overrated and uninspiring piece of rock!

To end the day we went back to Stanage so Dave could meet up with Ry and Katy. We watched Ry and Dave Graham trying the Ace in pretty crap conditions (covering the holds with taped bits of paper to keep the rain off), and then headed over to the storm which was wet. British weather sucks and I still loathe gritstone climbing.

Knowing that next week holds a full week of work, I really hope I can get back to the cave sometime this weekend and get back on LF... it would be great to surpass this years goals again!

Recent goings on

After my last post almost a month ago bemoaning injuries and the like, this one will be a bit more upbeat!

I've well and truly got over the weird finger niggles and been busy with regular trips outside, almost exclusively to the cave. I don't know what it is that draws me there (apart from the search for numbers), but I enjoy the rock, the moves, the feeling of getting a good workout and also the motivation brought about by failure to send! I always come away in an almost comatose trance like state with the body in full shutdown, knowing I need to train harder, put more effort in and rest properly before returning. I enjoy the need to focus on problems, isolating weaknesses and working on them, to the detriment of other things I could be doing such as clipping bolts or out circuiting classic easier problems well within my capabilities.

I have no short term plans other than a trip to the Lakes to visit someone I have become close to and care a lot about, who has sadly just moved away to uni recently. The good thing is that she is equally psyched to go and see a Dave Graham lecture in Ambleside and get out bouldering around the Lakes... the bowderstone will be getting a visit for sure! I'd love nothing more than to find some form of employment up in the Lakes, making more use of my outdoor qualifications and spending more time with her.

Today I will rest and hypotrophise for Saturday, then enjoy Sunday's rest before I kickstart the guru's plan next week. Back to basics...pass me the weightbelt

Dark Clouds Gathering

Well... it has been an utterly miserable last few weeks with one period of horrific weather after another and little chance to get out and enjoy the fruits of the training labour!

I've been mostly spending my time devising new 4 move problems on steep planks of plywood and in the murky depths of the crypt, some 15+ move monstrosities have been created in order to stem the boredom.

Last weekend brought some light relief with a daytrip out to some chossy Peak Lime and watching Owen get agonisingly close on his project there. I wasn't really feeling the vibe or awake for that matter and proceeded to eat a carrier bag worth of food, washed down with a can of some grim chocolate "Power Up" drink from Trafford Centre services.

Just as we were all fading, a strong barrel shaped team appeared through the undergrowth! Crushers Sugden and Gibson had been out on the lash but were clearly keen to show the keen youths how it was done. Tom almost flashed the crag but his fingers of steel were denied by some fine beta hustling by madams! Gibson was momentarily spotted putting on his boots but the moment passed in a flash and he was soon atop of a rock with rolly in hand, with the black down jacket doing nothing to mask his penguin like physique!

The evening do at Sheffield's darling socialite was a grand occasion with great BBQ food and plenty of beer. I was enraptured by an amusing conversation between Rhyn and Owen about the Bob Graham round of 43 peaks in 24 hours. Owen reckons he will give it a go, so Rhyn has offered somewhere to stay as well as a pacer..this I cannot wait to see!

Back at the wall of Awfulness things haven't been going to (The Guru's) plan with me managing to crush my hand by climbing (with added weight) in the crypt. The fact that the swelling was triggered when lead belaying for an ungrateful urchin, only compounded my misery. Hot and cold treatments and a visit to the Liverpool A&E have left me none the wiser apart from being told I should rest for 10 days minimum and then see if it still hurts. The temptation to train my opposite arm into a mutant limb of embarassing power, has a certain appeal when the olympics coverage will be coming to an end this weekend!

I will possibly post a photo montage of swollen finger shots over the next 10 days and jazz it up a bit with flames and lightning...etc

Scraping by and staying motivated

I've had a pretty uneventful last few weeks since we were at the Orme for Chezzie Si's birthday.

I am still trying to recover financially after returning from Italy and paying 2 months of overdue rent and bills..which has meant a lot of time spent at awful walls climbing centre slaving away for 3 weeks straight just to clear my negative bank balance and buy enough food to get back to something approaching a normal diet! (I had been living off beans and economy weetabix for a week, before pay day came).

I have resigned myself to not getting a summer holiday this year and am focussing my attention on saving up enough money to go to font again in October with the Liverpool crowd. To co-incide with this situation, the guru's training plan could not have been timed any better, so I began last Sunday with basic strength tests and Monday on the actual training. It is based on a 9 week cycle and largely indoors which will fit in well with my need to work a lot at the wall.

The highlights of the week were definitely my rest days sitting off with Stu (our new squatter) and eating steaks and cakes all day long to try and overload on calories and put a bit of fat back on after the awful week of near starvation that preceded this week! I also watched First ascent and thought it was brilliant (apart from Timmy O'Neill), getting me psyched to move over to Squamish or Yosemite for a few months to try some hard wall and crack climbs. I am most definitely green with envy of Esther at work going over to the States for a few weeks!

For now though I look forward to more sessions on the fingerboard and 45 board and will continue to stick religiously to the guru's plans. I am intrigued to see what it may do to my climbing by the end of it (and more importantly if I will be in crushing mode come font time).

A Minor Success

Last weekend I went to the Orme for Chester Si's birthday climbing trip.

On Saturday morning we travelled to Parisella's Cave and Rock Atrocity finally got crushed in 3 attempts. A celebratory meal of coffee and doughnuts on the pier shortly followed. It was truly immense! After that, we spent a chilled afternoon in Split Infinity and went to watch the Holland v Russia match in the Heights in Llanberis, it was full of blurts and scallies but at least the football was good!

Due to the horrific weather storms, we managed to sort out a bunkhouse in Nant Peris for £10 a night so we at least got a decent nights sleep and dreamt of dry weather in the mountains. When we awoke it was looking heavy again in the pass, with low grey cloud and very strong winds, so we sacked it again to the Orme and it was a beautiful thing, bathed in light with a nice breeze.

Split infinity got another visitation with Ben trying Organ Grinder and me and Si working Bell Pig (oh how frustrating catching the sidepull is..) before we ventured up to Norman's Wisdom to try out the problems up there. Ardvaark and Norman Direct were really good at 7A and 7A/+ but Snout (7B+/C) proved a bit trickier and I'll need to go back after not climbing 5 days on, to see if it feels any more amenable.

Back in the 'Pool

Well it's been a whirlwind tour of Italy over the last 2 weeks and although the weather was largely wet, it meant that me and Tom got to visit a lot of places including non-climbing related historical sites of interest and fantastic cuisine.

We spent a good few days in Florence hanging out with the 'Guru' Roberto, who gave us a great tour of the city as well as the climbing gym. Lorenzo's other friends Sabrina and Geovanni from Project O, took us out in the evenings for meals and drinks and we were both really grateful for them helping us to get out at night and see some nice spots around the city.

Upon leaving Florence, we travelled to Siena, the town in which Lore grew up in and spent a day wandering around getting lost and discovering all of the City bit by bit until hooking up with Lore and Valentina for another great meal in the evening. This was followed by a bizaare Irish folk music evening that was at an open air venue near to a University building (I think?). I loved Florence as a city but the calm feeling I got wandering around Siena was much more preferable and I think it's a beautiful place to visit. There is a strong medieval vibe to Siena thanks to the architecture and narrow streets.The Central square is visually fantastic, with an amusing Polish clown keeping the general public entertained, with some classic tricks on unknowning passers by!

After a couple of days in Siena, we went back to Follonica and had a small meal to prepare for the next day of crushing. The weather forecast was grim but the sun was shining brightly above as we set off in Lore's van of psyche to Mount Amiata. As we ascended up the slopes of the Mountain we soon realised it was going to be a complete washout yet again, so we drove over the mountain whilst Lore pointed out the many undeveloped boulders up in the woods (some looked stunning). We hooked up with a couple of Cheech and Chong lookalikes who were meant to be providing us with the key to an elitist hardcore training board hidden in Amiata but alas they were too mashed to remember where it was. Luckily, another guy 20 minutes drive away had one that worked and we released the pent up rage and psyche on these steep boards of ply.

A few hours later and we were thoroughly beasted, returning back to Bruno's restaurant and dining on fine seafood once again whilst he looked on admiringly at our ability to crush all of the food with ease! The last day was spent swimming and sunbathing near the pool and before we knew it we were on the train back to Pisa. The journey was not quite over as we realised there were no more trains to the Aeroporto, so we ventured into Pisa Central and happened upon a cabbie who relayed the bad news about the airport being closed until 5am. We bought some beers from the bar and headed off towards the airport on foot, not looking forward to a night of dossing in front of the Airport doors... but our luck was about to change! We bumped into a couple of Students fom Pisa and they said we could crash round theirs on the floor until 5ish but before we got any sleep, Martina and Petra gave us the tour of Pisa City and the notorious tower that is a lot more piccolo than I was expecting! The street art was really good, so I have posted many images on a facebook gallery, with just the 1 large picture on here. We managed about one hour of sleep before having to get up and head to the Airport and then it was followed by a stress free flight back to sunny Merseyside.

The trip has been fantastic and I am really grateful to Lore and Valentina for letting us stay so long in their several homes dotted around the West Coast of Italy! The climbing was great fun when we managed to get outside and the indoor sessions with Lore and the Guru were amazing for the psyche and future training plans. I'd like to thank Sabrina and Geovanni for the cool t-shirt and hospitality whilst we were in Florence and also the Austrian girls for saving us spending a night sleeping on the streets! Adopo.

Bouldering, bouldering, bouldering

Saturday - Amiatta

After the great meal we had a good our first taste of the bouldering. Lore took us to a very beautiful location called Amiatta, where the climbing is powerful and short with the sharpest rock I have ever pulled down on. After a tour of the routes (which looked amazing), we went down the hill and did a circuit of great warm up problems before heading back to the van and driving to the real action!

In the second location, we got some fantastic wall and arete climbs and I managed to get a possible new problem sent from a sit start via some very sharp holds and long reaches (maybe a little bit morpho ;)) and we had comedy scenes with Tom heel hooking his shoe off and me attempting to put it back on whilst he clung to the rock for the flash!

Down the hill, we all sent some hard problems on a hueco style roof before Lore took us to one of the best pieces of rock i have seen abroad, which contains 3 main lines a 7B+, 7c and his 8a roof problem which was beyond impressive and certainly very hard for the grade seeing as every move was nails! Lore was pulling down hard and was looking strong on his 8a+/b project line (the first of the Mohicans direct).

Sunday - Sasso

The next day, we were taken to an even more special place, Sassofortino which was totally serene, with scattered blocks hidden deep in the woods with the rock very similar to Magic Woods. After another warmup we went to the Lourdes roof and I was amazed at how pure the line was, utterly stunning to look at and the moves were fantastic. I managed to just about get up the easiest of the lines on the roof with a fight to top out and Lore also crushed Lourdes to the finish on the retro flash! Mightily impressive as his wrist was giving him quite a bit of pain. I was really psyched for Lourdes but wanted to go and check out Spigolo calibani that Keith had recommended to tom to go and try.

The line of Spigolo is beautiful and what was even better were the superb moves all the way to the top, it had everything, with heels, compression, crimping and jumping with an airy finish onto a damp slabby top! We worked the moves on it and quickly linked most of it but sadly the air was really humid and the rock greasy as anything I have encountered. I managed to do it in 2 overlapping halves but on the final attempt at linking I had to give in to bad skin and pain, with every finger on my left hand covered in tape to avoid going through more tips than the 2 I did on day 1. Giving up on this we spotted Tom on an even sharper problem to the right that also had a really nice line and great crimpy moves but thin skin and agony won the battle and we had to concede defeat.

In the evening, we went swimming in the outdoor pool and it was slightly cold. We did a few laps and I nearly died from the cardio! The meal afterwards was really nice with some pizza and local cheeses, ham and honey brought over by Lore and Valetina's friends. Good times!

Sleep, Surf, Seafood

We've been here 2 days and it has been fucking Ottimo! Sleeping in till midday and then living a life of decadence and relaxation.

After a hardcore power session on Lore's board of justice, the psyche is high for the trips to Amiata and/or sassofortino.

I've never known such hospitality and have enjoyed attempting to learn Italian along with Tom, with the help of Valentina, whilst Lore is at work busy reading the Bible (aka North Wales Bouldering!).

Today was a rest day, so we went to the beach and started to work on our sun-tans as well as hacky sack skills before Magic Wood. After a couple of cans we thougt we had best burn the extra calories off and hiked back to the Villa. Twenty minutes later Lore rocked up and we were travelling back to la Spiaggia, armed with sickeningly strong shorts and a board adorned in the colours of the best football team in Europe!

I had never surfed before and Tom had about 4 sessions of experience, so we did not hold high expectations. The sea was nice and not too aggressive, whilst being far from placid. After becoming acclimatised to the 'fucking freddo' temperature of the Sea we got fully stuck in, with both of us managing to stand for more than a second or so and catching some sort of wave (with some expert coaching from Lore the resident Guru!). My horrendous cardio system was fully overloaded and whilst getting stood up was not too bad, the art of not swallowing gallons of Sea water may take some time to master.

We finished off with a team photo adorned in garish Primark shorts and made haste to the best restaurant I have ever been to. Lore was pretty much related to everone we met and the service and food was simply amazing. Octopus in Humous, mussels and espresso mussels (miniature with a very strong taste). followed by a platter of every fish in the Mediterranean with 3 bottles of locally sourced wine. Just as we thought it was over, they bring in 3 incredible deserts and some imported vintage Scottish whisky! I think this meal would have cost about a months wages for me back in Britain and I think me and Tom both felt privileged to be so welcome here.

Tonight we will sleep well for sure.

Great Weekend away

Well I've just had one of the best weekends away in a while over in North Wales from Friday till Monday.

Friday

Me and Rog set off from the pool on Friday morning and popped down to Gogarth. I'd never experienced sea cliff climbing before or even used twin ropes, so it could have been a baptism of fire at Castel Helen, but mercifully the weather was great and the sea calm. We mutilated 2 VS routes Pel and Lighthouse direct with some interesting offline route finding by Rog and some tricky elimnate style climbing by myself, thinking certain holds couldn't possibly be in! Rog somehow managed to drop a set of my small wires into the nether and said he might have to hand his MIA back in for that show of ineptitude!
It was a great day out, and we rounded it off by popping into the pass to meet Christine, Rog and her went off to Carrag Wastad to do some route and I puntered about at the Cromlechs ticking off easy gaps in the problems list in the back.

Saturday

I managed to hitch a lift up to the pass from Nant peris campsite and met up with Ben and the Shire Horse at the Roadside. We did a good warmup circuit where I flashed a new V7 James Pond RH and then went over the road and did some brilliant easy highballs on Pont Y Gromlech including the Seam which was classic. Continuing on we went over and did NASA and then uphill to the Lizard King block, which looks stunning. I got the beta off Ben and tried to flash Emyr's Arete the V7 on the right and blew off the sharp left sidepull when going for a small positive edge, nasty! I chalked up and got it done next go, cool problem. Ben then did the scary and rarely clean line of Envy V6 about 80ft to the right.
Ben had to get off to soem party, so me and Si missioned down the hill over to Jerry's Roof and I decided to try Bus stop again as I was feeling quite good the last 2 sessions on it. It was well windy so Si stood on the edge of the pad and I pulled on, I stuck the first move perfectly and then just kinda flowed through the rest topping out with ease! My first font 7C and hopefully not the last! I almost feel ready to try some of Lorenzo's brutal problems in Italy in the next 2 weeks, but probably need to do a bit more training. It was nice that it felt like a path when sent which means I am hopefully capable of climbing harder this year, we will see!
I celebrated with a nice fry up at Pete's Eats and then got dropped off at Llyn Peris Lake by Si to check out Fish Skin Wall (one of the finest V7's in the pass). It took a phone call to Ben to get a location and a few minutes later I was stood beneath this fine looking wall full of edges and layaways. It took about 20 minutes to work out what I was doing and when it did go down it felt like the polar opposite of what I had done that day, technique, balance and footwork.

Sunday

The weather was looking grim but I headed back up to the boulders on the bus and went to Jerrys Roof again, managed to get Bus Stop again first try of the day then put my mat under Jerry's Roof. Sadly the wind ripped my pad from under the roof and sent it about 100ft down the road! I gave chase and went off to the roadside to seek shelter. James Pond roof was still dry underneath so I worked the sit start and got it in a few goes at about V8ish, worthwhile! Bored of this venue, I checked out Fear of a Slopey Planet down at Ettws and got it in a few tries once I corrected my appauling top out sequence. Tried Boysen's Roof Sitter and got thoroughly shut down for a second session! I need to get some beta on this nemesis.

Monday

On the wind down day, it was blowing a storm again so me, Dave and Si H met up around the Sleep Deprivation roof and worked some of the links. I finally got Sleep light sent avoiding the rock by sacking off the use of pads and pulling a front lever over the lip. With this in the bag and psyche rising again, I got on the Roof crack that I had always avoided for some reason. It got done in 2 halves fairly quickly and then got sent about 20 mins later. Me, Roger and Kris went back to Beris and had a coffee before we had to head back to Liverpool and start packing for Italy!

I am so psyched for the trip with Tom to visit Lorenzo and can't wait to get fat on red wine, pizza, pasta, surfing and sunbathing! (+ maybe some crushing? YES.)

Limestone season

With the recent heatwaves, me and Tom have been getting out on the hallowed lime as much as possible and enjoying the near crushing that each session seems to be bringing. I can't wait till it all starts clicking and things get sent, but in the meantime much strength is being gained from repeated redpoint attempts on Rock Atrocity and Bus Stop for myself and the former for Tom.



The Bank holiday weekend began well with a trip to the Cave. I had a best ever session on Attrocity getting to the final pinch 5 times and dropping the finishing slot 2 times! The problem is starting to feel easy until that elusive final move. We finished off the day with a chilled session at Pigeons Cave boulders.

Monday was good with a trip to The Wavelength where I managed a few new problems; Gav's Sitter, Boysen's Groove sitter and a desperate sandbag V4 called Paul's Bulge on the back of the Grooves boulder! The weather was scorching and we all got nicely burnt/tanned.

During the week it was back to indoors to earn some money for Italy in a couple weeks time. I sneaked in a 2nd routes session of the month and despite my pathetic endurance managed to onsight a 7a, onsight another 7a till the last move and did a 7b with 2 falls. Thats 3 routes sessions in roughly 2 years and I think this time I'll have to try keep it up for a month or so to see if I can reap the benefits of extra gas in the tank when back in the Cave.

In the last 3 days I've enjoyed a trip out to Angel Bay with Si, Ben and Andy where I intended to just rest and take photos but got psyched and swiftly dispatched Mussel Bound and after a lot of drying, chalking and cursing... Spectrum via wet holds and a big campus, it was a productive active rest day.

Yesterday was a late start in the pass with Dave and Tom to warm up and crush under Jerry's roof. We met the Cattells there for a warmup and a play on the Sleep Deprivation roof eliminates. The heat and humidity were crazy so not much got done, including watching Danny nearly pass out trying to pull on to Arachnophobia... surely the hardest V8 in the world?



We walked down the road and Dave had a play on Jerry's roof whilst I got my sequence wired for Bus Stop, bar the first move, topping it out twice from the 2nd move. About 20 people suddenly arrived and started jumping all over the problems so we sacked it down to pete's Eats and had a chill.
We drove back up about 8.30 and it was nicely empty. The lanterns got fired up and crushing commenced, warming up on some footless moves before Dave got real close on Jerry's falling off the last hard move. He will get it soon for sure when he can see where his feet are going! I managed to finally work out where to put my feet on Bus Stop and crushed the first move a few times before linking it to the lip and losing my tension through tiredness but I have now done it comfortably in 2 halves and fatigued. I can't wait to return and finally climb something hard that I know I am capable of.

Weak Week

After getting back from font I decided I probably needed a rest. So I took 2 days off after about 10 on and felt pretty good with new thick tips and everything!

I had a good campus session on the Mills' board then another strong session in the crypt on my V7 green = outdoor V10ish (Harder than Sparks with more moves and 3 cruxes instead of 2, the hardest being 2nd to last move). Enjoying this feeling of stength I took another 2 rest days and went to the wall on Sunday afternoon...

I was testing out a new weight belt that Tom got me as a bargain birthday gift and circuited the new step wall up to the V5's without too much hassle. I removed the belt to crush the harder lines but to my dismay I managed to get 5 flappers across several joints on both hands from some scrittly shitty holds that were a bit sharper than I expected! Devestated, I had to tape up 4 fingers and had a really poor session (not being able to send 5 of my own problems).

I went the wall on Monday afternoon and decided to make up for Sunday's bad session by working 2 of the problems I couldn't do from the day before and got 1 of them first go. I failed on the last move of the other due to it being another dynamic move with more flapper potential if not caught perfectly...so I backed off and felt defeated, although slightly more satisfied than the previous day.

I hate my hands, whenever the arms feel great (i.e. most of the time) my skin is falling apart either on the tips or the joints and I seem to be forever climbing on tape and glue.

I had a mixed return to Pantymwyn last night with Si H. With an unexpectedly large crew down there, we had to queue for problems! I warmed up and felt like a sack of shit but thought I would just try and get the moves of Sparks into the system again. I couldn't believe how bad the left heel-toe felt to get the dish over the lip and how hard the last move was again! I only managed the heeltoe move once in about 8 attempts and failed to do the last move. The rest wasn't too bad but I just didn't feel good on it at all. It all felt like a path till the last move when I was there a month ago (failing on the last move from the start 3 times in a row).

I sacked off Sparks in the end and put it down to the amount of tape covering my hands as well as lethargy and a greasy dish over the lip but I might have lost some power too from all that technique based climbing I have been doing!

Afterwards, me and Chester Si got on Mental extension and it got crushed in about 3 goes. Considering how shit I felt it was nice to get something positive from the day and I'm keen for Thug mentality as another problem for next time.

I really need my hands to repair as soon as possible so I can climb tapeless, so it looks like I'll have to just do some arm work on a bar, lots of core and maybe some deadhanging on small edges to feel like I'm not slacking off. Today's deadhang/pressup/core session at the wall was good and I'll probably rest a couple days now incase there is a chance of getting out on the hallowed lime this weekend.

Font 08

I've just had a great last few weeks in Sheffield and fontainebleau so I'll try and break it down a little into manageable parts!

March 21st-->25th (Merseyside & Sheffield)

We had a good day out at the Breck with Mike where he bouldered out overhanging wall direct at 7B+/7C, In the Jungle Direct 7B and some other line on the left at about 7A (all highball with 3 pads and a ropew to the side to get down!). I flashed In the Jungle Direct on a top rope but didn't try the highball as I wanted to keep my legs intact for font! I had a play about on the Haston Dyno on top rope and can confirm the moves are amazing and that the final dyno is nails - definitely felt like 7B+/7C on it's own as I couldn't stick it.

We were in Sheffield from the Saturday till Wednesday and had a day out at Stanage on the Sunday where I got Deliverance done and then Mike made the most amazingly static ascent of The Ace (8B) the day before he got married to Debs. It was great to be there and witness it from a couple of metres away.

On Monday me and Tom went to Crag Y with the ex nicest man in climbing and showed him the problems and he crushed everything in his path save the sitter into Fallen Idol and Speedway. He got all the moves into the standup wired on FI and am sure he will get it sent on his return! The wedding recepti0on in the evening for Mike and Debs was a nice event with good food and lots of familiar faces from Merseyside and Hull.

26th March -> 5th April (Fontainebleau)


This was my 3rd trip to font and I came to crush a couple of old nemesis from last year, try some new projects and get as many new 7's as possible for our 'friendly' competition versus team Hull. It was me and Mills against the combined decades worth of experience of Gibson and Jennings and it proved to be a lot closer in the end than anyone would probably have expected with Hull winning 50 - 40 in overall points (7A=1pt, 7A+=2pts, 7B=3pts..etc). Next time should be different as father time catches up with the ageing Hull pensioners!


The highlight of the trip was getting Carnage done as I had tried it last trip in October and struggled to make the first move (dropping across into the crimp from the non jump start). I had a few good efforts on it at the end of day 1 and returned to send on day 7 in about 4 attempts. I also tried a new problem in Salle Gosse and surprised myself in slapping the top after about 5 goes (from the low left hand mono start). I can't wait to return to try it later this year as it felt surprisingly steady for a forest 7C.


It was good to see other people sending new problems too with Tom pathing Fleur de Rhum static at Apremont, Ben getting Aerodynamite on his last day and Scott crushing Infidel on the last evening as it went dark.

I also managed to momentarily drag myself away from the hunt for new 7's to try a classic problem in Duroxmanie and can say it is the finest problem I have ever done in the 6's.

At the end of the 10 day trip I had managed 27 7A and above new problems and had a great time in doing so. My only regret was splitting a tip 3 days before we went on the Storm at Stanage and then another 2 tips 2 days into the trip on sharp things I should have avoided with my imfamously poor skin! I think next time I'll swerve anything grit related or sharp before we go on trips abroad.

I think font will have to wait till October now and I'll be saving for trips to Italy and Switzerland in the meantime to try out new venues. Time to get training again.

So close yet so far

It's been a while since I updated my blog so here is a general roundup from the last few weeks...

After returning from Charente I had a great weekend spent in North Wales and Pex Hill with conditions being very cold and dry. I ticked an old nemesis in King of Drunks and then did the superior right hand version, both were brilliant. I started to work Wavelength with Dave but whilst getting some good photos for him, his hands slipped off the greasy edge and he smashed his arm into the encroaching boulder, causing much pain! We had to cut the day short but not before I did that grim but fun dyno from the crimp and mono to the top (hellraiser V5 or something?).



The next day at Pex was superb and I managed to get Catalepsy done in about 5 goes, after dropping the jug on the flash attempt :( (I kind of agree with Ben and think it may only be V6 after all). The highlight of the day was Mike crushing Monoblock for the 5th ascent, making it look like a path!



The entire week was amazing, so we spent another session at Pex on the Tuesday and I had one of my best sessions ever climbing North and Southwest Overhang from standing and as it got very dark and cold, the sit start into North West that felt easily the hardest thing I've done in the UK. Lamplight sessions are definitely the way to go for good climbing conditions in Merseyside.



The weather kind of deteriorated after that and I got some hours in at the wall to help save for Mike's stag weekend and the font trip in March.

Last week marked a welcome return to the cave and current bane/addiction/mental barrier in my climbing. I went with Si and Tom late in the day and we warmed up in Split as we still had some daylight. As the darkness descended rapidly, we fired up the lanterns and got stuck into the warmups (Beaver righthand and some other unnamed V4). I retro flashed them all and felt great, had a rest and went over to Rock Attrocity. I practiced the finish from the pocket 3 times in a row and it felt easy. After brushing it all and drying a couple of the footholds, I pulled on and completely cruised through to the pocket. I still felt strong but as soon as I reach up for the pinch before the final hold I seem to hit a complete wall and all energy leaves me in an instant. This was about the 8th time I've been at the same point and it doesn't seem to be getting any easier, maybe I need to get here more than once every 2 months?
I feel way stronger than at the end of 07 when I was getting to the same point and can only put my failure down to lack of mental focus and/or power endurance. I don't know whether to keep going at it and see if it just happens or to start training power endurance circuits indoors. (I was starting to do this once a week before our board got suddenly closed! :()
I'm half looking forward to watching Tom's video of me on the problem, but not sure whether it will help me get psyched again or depressed about the last move. Maybe it's time to start trying some other problems in there?

Mike's stag weekend was a great laugh and the image of Dave's post-paintball injuries will stay with me for a long time as a reminder to never run out infront of 20 people solo! He looked in agony all of Sunday when a few of us went to Crag Y for a relaxed session. I felt like shite and just about managed to send a 7A and 7A+, but there are 2 problems that have me very motivated to go back in the form of a horizontal 6 inch roof dyno (bullet) and a sit start problem beginning with a fantastic long move off a mono to a crimpy sloper and then hard deadpointing to a pocket (the vision).

Today I'm back at home visiting my mum and making up for missing Mother's Day. I have a nice card that I made myself and a present which should help me avoid being disowned and banned from future family events!

Mike's Stag Trip

I've just about recovered enough to make a post after spending a week of brutal pulling on monos in Fred Rouhlings old stomping grounds!

We flew to Limoges from Liverpool last Sunday and stayed over at Owen's dads place (a lovely big farm in the rolling hills of SW France). Every day was freezing cold in the morning turning to a pleasant heat in the afternoons with not a cloud in the sky all week!

The places we visited were L'arche, Cothiers, Champignon, Le Mur, Fontaine, La Voute and Face Nord. Nobody really knew what to expect and we got a rude awakening when we realised it was 90% monos in steep waves and roofs! The first day nearly ended in heatstroke for most of us as we had clearly picked an unsuitable exposed crag like L'Arche (although the views were nice!). Mike and I crushed a 7B+ called Monospace that had lovely locks between monos and stereos.. tweaky.


Cothiers had much more variety with slabs, walls, roofs and aretes involving 'normal' holds as well as the obligatory monos. Everyone got on well with this venue and the highlight for me was working a stunning roof problem called Apogee that came out of the bottom of a cave in a fine corner seam with lots of big moves to pockets and drop knees, bridging upside down..etc with the crux move right at the end! Mike tried it too and mooted 7C+ but alas it did not get sent with the baking heat getting worse. Dave was making good progress on an 8a roof fingerlocking crack called Geode that was also very aesthetic in nature.



The other venues were all close together with the Champignon and La Mur areas being by far the most popular. The Champignon is a fantastic free standing mushroom shaped pillar with lots of powerful dynamic problems between pockets, monos and slopers. Right next to it was the wall of Le Mur, a fantastic wave, not as steep as L'Arche but enough to make the climbing powerful and long. It featured some amazing giant hueco problems and slopey rockovers to yet more monos!

The last place we visisted was Face Nord, a shady venue with lots of hard problems and an apparent lack of traffic in recent years. I managed to end the trip on a personal high getting 2 more 7B+'s and Mike sent some sickening dyno from a shallow mono and thin backhand in a roof dynoing horizontally through a roof to a small bucket far over the lip. It goes at 8A but could well be harder, judging by the amount of effort and pain tolerance it seemed to take him!

I would definitely go back sometime as I found the style of climbing really challenging as well as suiting my style of pulling hard on small limestone holds with big moves thrown in. Can't wait to get back the Cave and Jerry's Roof now to try and utilise some of this training.

Au Revoir!

Si's Birthday

Just about recovered from the weekend!

We had a great time in Wales with trips to the RAC, Porth Ysgo and the Cromlech boulders, with a lot of people climbing really well.



I managed to work out a good sequence on Howling Hound at Ysgo (something I had tried and failed on, on my previous trip) and it went quite easily! It saw a fast repeat by quite a few of us! The weather was a bit sweaty but manageable and it was nice to go back and retro flash Fast Cars, Jaw Breaker...etc as well as Jets to Brazil, a quality problem next to Jaw Breaker.



Still have nemesis problems of Foam Party (any variation!) and Popcorn party which I may never try again, the pain is horrendous :(


With skin getting spanked I took it easy for the rest of the day and we all went back to Aberdaron for Fish and Chips then beers at the pub and the bunkhouse which was an extortionate £15 a night for B&B (self service cereal and milk!)

Sunday was a chilled day at the RAC followed by a good time at the Cromlechs. Mike was crushing everything as usual and it was good to see someone send Bus Stop so I could get some top out beta! Finding the second and third moves fine, just had no feel/energy for the first move which feels desperate at the moment. Looking forwards to getting back on it asap and getting it wired from the second move to topping out. Then it's work out the best way of doing the first move. I'm torn now between working on this or Rockattrocity...oh to live in N Wales!

Tuesday Night

I had a really nice day yesterday, 'working' at the wall and eating well, as well as doing a bit of hold cleaning/chatting to customers!

I later went into town and bought some shiny new trainers and a long sleeved top in the sale, which will be ideal in the cool temps in Wales this weekend.

After satisfying my shopping needs, i went the Dispensary with Ricky Hatton and we crushed a lot of moves! Once warmed up I got on my power endurance circuit and having only been able to add 3 moves on to a single lap last time (x5), I crushed 2 linked laps +3 moves! Roughly 29 moves and about Route 7c/+ in intensity :D I don't know where the hell this came from, as I pathed the rest of the laps with shorter rests than last week.

So... the time has come to move on to the harder circuit now and see how I fare in the coming week. Hopefully a month of steep circuits and continued fingerboard/footless bouldering will get me in prime condition for when the cave dries out.

Feeling good today and will probably do some weights followed by a power session at the board on Thursday. Then its rest up on Friday for a weekend of Porth Ysgo & Ogwen :)

Rain

Well it's been a pretty uninspiring last couple of weeks with horrendous weather and much wishful yearning for dry rock and trips abroad. I haven't been outside for almost 2 weeks and have been mostly messing about indoors doing some general bouldering and not psyched for much at all.

I got fed up of going to walls and sorted myself a new key for the Dispensary (a training venue we built around March 07'. I hadn't used it in about 6 months or so, maybe longer, so wasn't expecting too much in terms of performance. I was quite happy to get a good 2-3 hour session out of it including 5 complete laps of a 14 move circuit that felt like it really did some good!


The hallowed board

I think my biggest failing last year and on my current project in the Cave is clearly power endurance and early fatigue on days out, where i will be quite limited in terms of decent attempts at problems or just in terms of recovery rates and volume. I think 1-2 sessions per week working on my PE over the next 4 weeks should hopefully give me a good boost and rest my tendons from always trying crimpy 3-4 move problems at or beyond my limit!

Round at Tom's yesterday, I also rigged up a pulley system and had a good assisted 1 arm deadhang workout on small edges which seems to combine well with pressups and core work.

I'm quite looking forwards to training hard this coming week before Si's birthday trip to Wales and also Mike's stag week away in France in early February. Hopefully the gains will come relatively fast from trying something different for a change and the weather will play ball for once! :)

p.s. With not much else to do, i popped into town to spend some Waterstones vouchers and came across a book by Katie Brown (she of X games/Pilgrimage fame) called "Vertical World" which features lengthy interviews with well known US climbers. It's quite inspiring to read with lots of history, opinions and many good photographs, so I'll look forward to reading the rest of it this week!

08 off to a flying start

It's good to start 08 injury free and psyched for my goals!

I was really looking forwards to a trip to font with The Bear, but rain put a stop to it and i went with Si and Tom to stay over with uncle Andy for 3 days of shitstone ledge shuffling!

Wednesday was great as we went to Crag Y and crushed some quality 7A-7B's, Si got real close on a highish 7A that he will undoubtedly tick next time we go.















Thursday was a bit mad with heavy snow covering the Peaks, and we trekked over to the Plantation to find about 3 salvageable problems. While the others played about on the Green Traverse, I ate all my food and took some photos! The food woke me up a bit and I ventured over to try Brad Pitt with Rich.



The top holds were wet but all the start and ramp were boners with great friction, so we cleaned off the top holds and let that psycho Rich run across the ice-topped boulders to get a mat in place. Spent about an hour on it and me and Rich could both get into the rail, but matching comfortably proved a bit hard! Fatigued quite fast on it, so in the end we went off to try Deliverance which was also snow topped and had bad ice and water problems on all the footholds! Gave it a few goes anyway and got very close even without being able to use the left foot at all, so quite looking forward to getting back there soon.



Since then, I haven't done much save work all weekend at Awful Walls to earn some $. Felt good on the fingerboard yesterday, and had a lazy day today. Tomorrow is looking bad, so me and the Hitman are heading the Cave and i can hopefully get stuck back into Rock Attrocity! Hopefully all those mince pies haven't affected things too much.