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.