Nothing much going down!

It has been a fairly uneventful last few weeks since the excellent trip to Bude in October.

I've left my part time job in Cotswolds for what will hopefully prove a more enjoyable one working for the new V12 shop in the Liverpool climbing Wall. It should be good to finally have a decent outlet for crushing apparel and equipment without having to make a mission over to Beris!

I've finally got my driving theory test out the way too after having turned up fully psyched only to have forgotten the paper counterpart and told I'd lost £30 and had to rebook it and pay a further £20 if I couldn't find the bit of paper! Luckily it was found and the test was fairly easy when I got in there.

It will be a grim few weeks of having to actually work a lot to afford finishing off the lessons required and getting the practical done, which will no doubt prove tougher than the multiple choice touchscreen.

I've had a few nice trips out on the grit getting some good problems like the Keel, Underhand and Brass Monkeys all ticked off in a session each (having played on them in the past). I don't think I have developed any grit feel as such, just an aptitude for overpowering steep things! I was probably most psyched to tick off an old nemesis from last year in Syrett's Roof which used to feel desperate, then was suddenly piss when I tried it in non greasy conditions :)

This leaves 1 true grit nemesis problem left in the shape of T Crack! I feel I am ok in arm strength/campus wise and generally climb 90% of the time in roofs so really can't understand the problem with this. It's been well over a year since I went on it, so hopefully the next visit will bear fruit and I can get over the road to Robin Hood's for Ben's Wall which looks good and definitely doable.


The cave has been a bit hit and miss over the last month, Cave Life went down really easily from the flake and the wobbly jug but I kept puntering it up with my feet and hands on left wall, so switched attentions back to Pit of Hell. First go back on this and I was yet again dropping the finishing slot.... then gradually going backwards again by not getting the flake right off the pockets and greasing off the wet 3rd pocket and undercut which seems to have developed a permanent river down it.

Today myself and 6 other keen Merseysiders went down on John's advice via Doylo's beta and it was a fairly bad call as after the first hour of climbing around the wet bits it all started to condense out as we were consumed inside a maelstrom of shit!

Thankfully... out of these dark moments comes a beam of radiant light, where I managed to climb from the In Life start all the way across the arch only to miss the toe catch on left wall and fall off! I'd never made it to matched on the wobbly jug before from the In Hell/Life start, so this was kind of a major breakthrough (all the sweeter for having to do it on slippery holds!).

The weather is looking really bad for the next week, so I'm going to put the time in indoors, working some power endurance in the crypt roof, so I'm ready to crush Cave Life/Pit of Hell and then In Life/In Hell will be on.

Coastal shenanigans

I've just returned from a short trip away to the Culm Coast with my hero and mentor Dolph Lundgren and his long time spotter and stick fetcher supreme, Vixen.

We initially intended a trip north of the border to Torridon but with the horrendous looking blue sheet of epic rain, we had the luxury to change course to Bude, due to the wonders of a camper van which negates the need to worry about accomodation :)

Day 1
We headed down to Northcott which was a 5 minute walk from where we were staying and made a beeline for Red Quinnie. Mike had done this before but struggled to remember quite what he did for a short time. I pulled on and tried my hardest to flash it and made decent progress until the cut loose at the lip. He sprung into action and dispatched shortly after and I realised the error of my ways, changing to a solution and making the heel stay in to get it in a couple more goes.

We headed back towards the van and climbed the wonderful pinch problem which took me more attempts than Red Quinnie much to Mike's amusement!

The next stop was Hartland Quay which had a bit more of an interesting approach scramble. We went to the Carnage wall and had a chill for a few mins. Conditions were perfect and after we both did Carnage quickly, we had a play on Supercede, Tom's new problem to the right of Carnage. After working out the moves, Dolph destroyed it in 2 goes, although he looked like he was about to come off the last couple of moves to my utter terror! I struggled to get the crossover with the left hand and feeling lethargic, decided to go and check out Ache Ball.

We sped across and saw that the tide was coming in fast. I got psyched and had a few goes managing to do the moves in bits. Mike bailed with Vixen over the rocks as the sea closed in. I gave myself a short rest and knew I would only have 1 go today or face having to swim. It was smooth until the jump at the end and my heel came off a bit early and i missed. I pulled back on and climbed it from 1 move down and knew it would be done next time.

Day 2
Day 2 was a day of great vengeance. We headed straight to Hartland again, warming up on some fantastic problems in the Trench area. I went over to Ache Ball and we were shocked to see other people climbing! I managed to punter the start a couple of times before crushing it into the ground. It felt pretty easy but really suited my style of steep, decent holds, some heel work and a bit of dynamics.

The next stop was across the Quay and down a sketchy slab of rock using a fisherman's line. We had a good look around and came to the conclusion that Hartland roof really was this underwhelming looking roof above a bulge! I got some fuel while Mike tried the moves. I put my shoes on and flashed both the roof and what we think is Brutal Spoon next to it. The moves are quite nice through the steepness and very similar to the climbing at Breck Road on the majestic Orme. We don't have a clue how they were ever graded 7c+ and 7b+ respectively but assume either holds have improved or Si Young was a midget!

We went back to finish in the Carnage area and Mike got Corridors of power first go. I struggled on the start and after tiring myself out working it out, proceeded to drop it 2 moves from the end. I felt destroyed and my arms hurt so we got out of there as the sea gave us little time for error yet again.

Day 3

With the good forecast proving to be a big fat LIE, we stayed local and went back to Northcott Mouth. On a tip off from Tom, we found a well hidden line called J Lo which climbs amazingly. Needless to say Mike crushed and I had another epic on it. Luckily the tide was out and the rain heavy so I had time to rest and eventually got to the top!

The weather cleared up and we headed over to check out the project left of Red Quinnie. I lay on the mat feeling near to death with bicep tendonitus style pain in both arms. Dolph battled the wet and seeping rock to force a line through this section of roof and made a nice power scream on the cut loose on my recommencation all captured in glorious 1 megapixel cameraphone quality! I obviously got psyched and made rapid progress on the problem only to grease off the very temperamental hold twice in a row.

Mike pottered about climbing lots of good looking lines in a corridor whilst I continued my mental breakdown and furious drying antics under this low roof. As the tide came creeping up at us once more, I was facing a 3rd end of day shutdown in a row on a problem I should have climbed a couple of hours earlier! I pulled on feeling tired and clearly not rested but had the moves fairly dialled in by now and got to the crux which I cruised through it only for a foot to pop... I lost count of the screams but somehow held on whilst my feet failed to get back in contact until I eventually controlled it and shook my way to the top almost dropping the last 4-5 moves. Epic.

Once again it was an emergency scramble as the sea engulfed the Red Quinnie roof and another steep plod to destroy the legs.

It was a great way to end the trip, climbing the hardest problem in the worst conditions, aching all over and almost delirious with fatigue! I was inspired yet again by Mike's ability to work something out and dispatch it within a go or 2 (something I clearly need to get the knack of).

If anyone reads this, I highly recommend a visit down to the Culm area as the rock is amazing, with a disproportionately high number of classics for such a small climbing area.

I have zero photos and the 1 short video on my camera but am unsure how to get them off without a cable.

Swiss recollections and Cave Season

Swiss Recollections

Having waited an eternity to get the photos of the Switzerland trip that myself, Andi and Mark went on, I had lost the desire to post about it but the photos are now finally up on facebook for all to enjoy.

To summarise the trip it was a good laugh with fantastic weather until the penultimate day and a lot of problems were ticked. I wanted to spend the time climbing as a group, willing each other on, so not much time was given to projecting during the 10 days.

Highlights included warming up on day 1 with a few flashes of 7's before doing Hohenrausch in a couple of goes (having had a bit of a whitey on the flash attempt staring at the top)! What a great sequence of moves with a bit of commitment needed at the end.

I was made up to get Supernova finished off in a couple of short sessions having tried it With lore a couple of years ago. I got Jack the Chipper done on the same day after taking some performance enhancing pro plus and Coolpresso!

Other notable problems were Man of Cow, Foo Fighter and Goldfisch that all went down in 2-3 tries and the amazing Blown Away! It has to be the best 7B I have ever climbed and worth the trip alone.

I would have been content to just tick 7's with a few 7C's but on the 2nd to last day, rain forced us down to the Bruno block and I couldn't get on Cote de Seshuan due to rivers of water running down it. In the grim rain I headed around the corner and saw a group of people trying Never Ending Story part 2. I had tried the first move the day before for 5 minutes in the dark and almost held it...

3 campus attempts were all it took to hold and lock down that high edge and with a wave of energy I crushed the fuck out of it all the way to the finish screaming more out of suprise than any feelings of difficulty or fatigue.

It was a great way to end the trip for me as the last day was a washout where I played on Astronautfieber, Nothing Changes and NES pt1 doing all the moves on the latter 2 in a matter of minutes. Fatigue and general wetness prevented linking them and I kind of regretted not having tried harder problems earlier in the trip (as I had decided not to gamble and just get a lot of classic 7's done incase the weather turned).

Mark did well in the Woods considering he hasn't really bouldered much back home in the UK and he almost punched way above his highest grades doing the hard part of Fliegen Erlabut only to fall off on the technical ledge pulling ;)

Andi had a bit of a slow start but began to tick over towards the tail end of the trip getting Red Roses done after puntering it up hard for a couple of earlier sessions. He ticked through a fair few 7's and I'm sure he'll be getting into the harder 7's when the next opportunity arises.

Back from the trip I now know that I could have climbed at least a few more problems in the 8's and I regrettably didn't even pull on to Octopussy fearing failure. Next time will be different and weather permitting... I will get to work on these great problems and send them into space :)

Cave Season

Conditions at the moment are starting to get better as temps drop and the skies stay dry over the Orme. Unfortunately I have been unable to get to the cave since getting back from holiday due to a heavy workload on Tuesdays. This will change next month and hopefully the month of Power endurance training will start to take effect on Pit of Hell and Halfway House. These problems are high up on the wishlist along with Mr Fantastic and are all very doable in 2 halves. I am hoping doing 20-25 move circuits in the crypt roof will help and that I haven't lost too much strength in the meantime by neglecting the 45 board.

Slack...

On the blogging. Indeed.

I've lately been suffering from a lack of motivation to post anything on my blog as I feel there is no point if nothing is being achieved and prefer to pour my time into other things such as training and reading (as well as finally getting around to sorting out learning to drive!)

It is only 14 days from now that myself, Mark and Andi will be heading over to Magic Wood for a 2 week jaunt of endless crushing and big numbers... maybe with Tom but I won't hold my breath ;)

After the trip to the Lakes in June, it has been a quiet time, just training for 2 weeks indoors and then getting down to the Cave quite regularly twice or more a week working on things I feel I should be able to do but never seem to finish off.

I've managed to punter up the finish on Pit of Hell and Broken Heart recently (conditions have been far from ideal with wet holds and muggy weather but I feel I should be capable of these problems where there are no real hard moves involved.

I decided I am lacking in the endurance department so have been climbing a lot of the endurance 7B and above problems at the end of sessions once I have battered myself to deep fatigue and hopefully these laps of long 20+ move problems will have some crossover benefit to the long hard problems I have been working on.

I'll quickly sum up what's been going on over the last month and a bit;

Early July

Managed to get the cave a lot, dropping Pit of Hell finish a couple of times, started working on Crucial Times. Crucial Times hurt a lot as well as the pull off the ground being nails. I at least highlighted a clear weakness in being unable to pull off undercuts and thin sidepulls above my head! Managed a good new problem (the ss to Clever Cleaver) and had a look at We've a Beaver but it was wet and greasy. I suppose the good thing is that I can still lap Rockatrocity with ease thankfully!

Mid July

Kev and Liam made an epic drive up to the cave for the day to meet up with myself, O and Pete and we had a good session. I was massively impressed by Liam's beastly levels of strength and the ease in which he could lock holds down, he got me to try the footless finish of Lou Ferrino that is given 8A+ in the guide but seems a bit soft at the grade? i managed all the moves bar the drop down match before you pull into the finish slot (the big iron cross span across from pocket to pocket felt ok every time). We got psyched for Broken Heart and Liam was managing to crush the backhand method in a super bunched position. There is no way I'll do it this way so I tried for ages to get the heel-toe method to work to no avail.

Kev was getting good links on RA once I showed him a switch in foot position for the move to the flake and will probably have it in the bag next time he comes up.

A few days later and I had my first trip to Rubicon with Mark and Andi where we met up with psyched Sam who never stops talking ^^. I had just managed to do Kudos before he arrived which felt nails. With some beta I got a couple other things and tried the Press but kept greasing off after locking to the edge. We hit the Tor after and I got a couple of old nemesis' from my last trip about 2 years ago in Rattle and Hump start and undercut to crimp. Sam gave beta on Right of Ben's Roof and I fell off the last move on the flash much to my dismay!

Tues 21st July
Me and a gang of yoofs from Liverpool had a short roadtrip to Wales where we spent Tuesday in the cave all day for an epic 8 hour session where there was quite a bit of wetness so tried Clyde and got straight through to the cross under move with feet high up in the roof. I never managed to make the move but was getting closer to it every go slowing down the move and feel it will go with less grease. Shauna amazed me by being able to span the move to the greasy pinch having a massive reach disadvantage and got a good flash of Lip Service.

Sean repeated Clever Beaver and Mark put some time in on Pillar start as he tried to get accustomed to the less steep side of the cave. (I find most things on left wall desperate compared with pulling through a roof)

I finally managed 1 new problem at the end of the session getting an ascent of Beaver Cleaver Direct after finally working out the feet positions to catch the lip and stay on :)

We had an entertaining night of bivi'ing in Shit infinity where after about 5 cans of strongbow I claimed a headtorch ascent of Organ Grinder without being able to see my feet or where I was dynoing to!

Wednesday 22nd July
We had a massive breakfast in Llandudno's Weatherspoons and were dismayed by the locals already on their 4th pints at 10am in this grim seaside theatre!

Back to the cave and I was in a great amount of pain, so dosed up on painkillers and worked on Clyde again and Halfway briefly with Ben Pritch. I felt terrible so decided to try and wake my body up and did a lap of RA followed by a lap of Lou F from 2 moves in. This sprung me into life and Jim showed me the foot lock on Broken Heart. After a few goes it finally stuck and flowed until a couple moves from the end of Bust Lip only for me to power out and fail! Gutting.

Thursday 23rd July
The team was feeling a bit wrecked so after a brief play on Bellpig (A career nemesis), we drove to Beris where I purchased some Boreal Blades much to the mirth of the young sponsored heros I was with. We got a shower in Pete's, then attempted to put Mark's 6 man £30 Fisher Price tent up in the pass in ridiculously strong winds which shut us down! We bailed to Pizza and a Pint night which was, as always, amazing. The weather looked dodge, so we sacked it home to Liverpool then set out to Raven Tor on Thursday. Mike and Sean got shut down on what we thought was a 7a warmup route that had at least a v8/9 boulder start?! So then they did Little extra which looked ok. I warmed up on the direct start a few times then went over to Ben's Roof and crushed the problem right of Ben's 2nd go after dropping the finish hold on the first attempt of the day (Cheers to Sam for the heavy beta last week!). The skies opened and we went to Stockport wall where I continued to break myself by climbing every problem bar 3 in the session.

Sunday 26th July
2 days of pain coming down off the heavy ibuprofen doses and we went to check out the Depot. I have to say it is the best indoor climbing facility I have ever been to and the problem setting was very good. We warmed up crushing almost the entire yellow circuit and the Blades were working nicely! After a long lunch break we felt like we could move again and after warming up on a couple purples... went to work on the black circuit (You get a months pass if you crush them all in a session I believe?). I scoped out a crimpy board style one and managed to flash it much to my suprise. The one opposite up an arete with compression and heels looked most suited and this too went down first go. On a roll I moved right and saw another involving a slappy start followed by pinches and heels. After the first 2 moves I knew it was in the bag and got the top without much effort! After this it was downhill as the far end prow towards the new area shut me down hard along with the black through the barrel roof. I managed the one opposite the entrance after many goes where you cross over your head with a heel on the starting block (dropping the last move twice before finally dispatching).

We were shown the new giant roof as well as Ned and Dan's woody and they looked absolutely amazing for training. We stopped off on the way home to have a look at City Bloc which didn't really inspire me in the same way but the setting looked good. Sugden wasn't in which was a shame as it would have been good to see how he is getting on.

The next 2 weeks
I think it's a bit too late to do any beneficial training for the Magic Wood trip, so I'll focus on eating well and drinking less in the build up as well as getting in plenty of mileage and resting properly. I have ordered the all important stove top espresso maker today and a giant tub of protein powder to aid multiple days on :)

If I can get any photos off Mark from our recent days out, I'll get them up on here, to make this less of a ball ache to read!

Summer has started

It's been a while since I last posted mostly due to nothing of note being sent or worked on. The up and down weather and lack of any holiday plan this summer has caused a drop off in psyche in combination with taking on a new part time job in retail.

I have been quite busy with driving lessons and have also started to train indoors again in some sort of rough pattern (working through strength, into power, into some endurance is the aim) to help make the most of my erratic working hours.

I'll quickly summarise what I've been up to over the last month!

Mid May

Had a short solo trip into N Wales camping in the pass and working on Mr Fantastic, managing to sort out the crux drop down match without having to resort to heel-toe anti beta. I climbed from the start through this a few times only to fail on the snatch to the edge on Bus Stop. I am quite tired by this point so obviously have a lack of endurance at the moment which will undoubtedly be needed in order to get this done anytime soon! It's the same as with Halfway house and needs addressing (hence starting training again instead of puntering about ticking 7a-b's!)

30th May - Angel Bay
I had a good day out at Angel Bay with Si and Andy F, where we had originally aimed at going the hills but turned off early in the face of multiple ridiculous roadworks and queues!

Andy ran about like a kid in a sweet shop as he does ticking most of the things up to V6 but refusing to try the ultra classic Chaos Emerald Crack! Shame. Si was going fairly well too and after a good while I managed to work out the crux move on Papa Big Punch and got it sent not long after. It was good fortune to be here at last when the pebbles were low enough to climb everything! I forgot to mention I was properly hungover and trying to avoid being sick again, so swerved Manc Dogs in favour of sunbathing and getting back home earlier so we could watch some of the FA cup Final in the pub :) Good work Chelski!

Early June

The Merseyside posse had a wonderful 4 day trip to the Lake District.

Day 1 - Honister/Bowderstone

We started off in the Honister Pass which was boiling but good fun on the main roadside block. A few of us went up to the high boulder and got spanked for a good hour on Occam's Razor and Ian's Lip. After needing a change of scenery we gave The Bowderstone a quick flyby visit on the first evening and found it was in terribly greasy condition. I was happy to get power pinch and statstick done as well as make rapid progress on Improper Opera (it probably would have gone down in a few goes if it wasn't for temps/grease/end of the day!)


Day 2 St Bees
It was fantastic, with clear skies and searing heat, we managed to sneak in and out of the shade to get things done including the classics like Headbanger, Undercooke, Hueco Crack, Yellow Desert...etc and Si took some time out from his impersonations of Robson Green's Extreme Fishing to make an against all odds ascent of Hueco Crack, great effort :D
I was hoping to tick everything I tried but got utterly shut down on Clash of the Titans which felt either very conditions dependant (i.e. not in 25 degrees and direct sun all day) or a bit harsh if compared with anything else there.

The highlights were defintely topping out Yellow Desert Scream (after declaring to Ben it looked flashable and taking about 10 attempts to get the first move ^^) followed by the immense BBQ afterwards (including a wonderful Mackerel caught by Robson Huthwaite ;)). Kate's lemon drizzle cake for pudding was divine! Some people got swimming in and cut their feet to shreds on the muscle shells but I was too busy on trying to tick the crag and make inroads into my 20 7A's and above goal for the trip.


Day 3 Gillercombe
The 3rd day was back into the hills and up the Honister Pass yet again. We missioned across the fells and eventually found the Gillercombe boulders. Ian's arete looked very good but was in the sun and very sharp, so we just got it done from standing! Day 3 skin wasn't having any of it... so we played it safe and climbed out the rest of the block (I was quite psyched to flash the only ascent of 'The World's Hardest V3' which was indeed a bit spicy!)

The highball Awesome arete was as good as it looked. Cave direct was a nice short burly challenge which had quite a few ascents. Poor Man's Caution was fairly steady but Zero Kelvin was cause for the most entertainment after I used the extremely suspect flake which moved about 2 inches backwards before I managed to slap up with my lefthand and unweight it. Ben declared it to be safe as houses and after jumping on and climbing up... he leaned back to step high, it ripped clean off and Ben avec block came hurtling down to Earth to scare the shit out of everyone! Owen's mate Pete from Eskdale came up with a safe method using heels and technique and Ben got it straight after using the old sequence as well as the new secure hold left behind from his destruction. :)

In the evening we all piled into Ben's car (as I forgot to mention the nightmare of O's breaking down on Tuesday night! We used a car ferry system with Ben doing two long journeys up the Honister Pass on day 3 and back again... What a leg end) and headed into Cock in Mouth. We located a good looking Indian and had a sit in meal which was very good if a little expensive. It obviously paled in comparison with the mighty Noor of Aigburth but it weren't half bad.

Day 4 - Warton
O managed to get some shiny gold things to fix his car and we cruised back down the M6 towards Liverpool stopping off at Warton on the way back. As the team bemoaned their varying states of tiredness/aches I felt amazing and felt like crushing! The warmup was brief and after about 30 mins I had managed to get E Fix in the bag. Result. It felt easier than Poison to me as the first move was piss compared to how hard it looked and it's less moves as well!
We moved over to the middle Pinnacle and got the flash on Totally Focussed and the sitter (cheers to ben for the heavy beta!). Just to the left we enjoyed the easier lines of which the arete and Beastmaster were fucking brilliant for easy lines! We repeated them in trainees and then eliminating holds as you should ;) The highlight was me and Ben heckling Smooth Pete on the font 4 arete causing him to get confused, downclimb a move, climb up, stop and then fall off with pump! Mighty fine heckling.

Mid June

June 13th - Clogwyn Y Tarw
Last weekend a strong team of hommes ventured up to Ogwen and found it to be warm as hell (after carrying up my thermals and a coat). Having not been here before, it was quite exciting and the warmup circuit was good with Raging Bull being a great traverse line. Ben managed to add a fairly desperate and bunched sitter into El Gringo 29 which Tony Gaskins swiftly repeated! (Tony is a beast from Awful Walls Liverpool who has only been outside about twice and has sickening strength and fingers already, he will be scary when he can use the lower half of his body! ;))

We moved on to The Thief and this got dispatched via the sloper and straight to the break by myself, it's such a nice move! We worked out pretty much every way of failing on the sitter but came away with a decent sequence by the end of it and moved over to Red Sky Wall. I got the flash on this also and then the sitter straight away. It is a wonderful sequence of techy moves on nice edges and then odd layaway pockets to a commiting final move.
Down the hill and Owen tore The Punk a new arse from standing as myself and Jamie flailed on it for a good half hour losing a ton of skin in the process. In a moment of desperation I went round the corner to see what Tony had nearly broke his legs on, 'Here Comes Cadi' which looked quite funky. A heavy dab lost the flash but on the 2nd attempt, I managed to get the big hold right and then do a good 5+ second 1 arm lock off into a 1 armer and then get my foot back on as I screamed down the valley. The top out was on grim suspect looking rock but the moves underneath made it worthwhile!

June 16th - Warton
Last night, myself, Si, O and Smooth Pete returned to Warton so Pete and O could get closure on the various Debaser lines. O got the left hand link done and totally pathed it static on each move. Pete was a bit out of sorts and somehow didn't get Debaser done but he should next time.

I had gone with the intention of trying the 8a linkup traverse into Efix called Ebanezer Good but it was boiling and I couldn't be arsed so thought I'd have a look at Voodoo People again after having 1 pull on when with Ben last time. I tried Ben's method once more and failed nearly face planting the block so decided to try using the awkward looking deep mono closer in. I got the right toe on the lip and reached into the mono, finding it went in real deep. This let me crank and get my weight up and over that right foot and after pressing like a bastard to get stood up, it was done!
The sitter took 2 more goes and my right hand was in a fair amount of tweaky pain badness but the wave of relief knowing I don't have to try this harsh sandbag ever again made up for it :D
Decided to stop straight away after that, so as not to inflame the hand anymore and it feels a lot better today already. I might hit the weights in a bit but more likely will sit off and watch some psyche material...

Good times

Saturday 2nd

Me and Owen returned to Warton along with smooth Pete D and there was no messing about this time with a rapid crush of Poison (after failing twice and moaning about general weakness for half an hour ;)) Owen wasn't having his best day ever but Pete was going well and almost climbed Debaser on a couple of tries, which definitely looks a stiffer proposition for gentlemen of less blessed stature.

Whilst O and Pete worked away I played with the dog for a couple hours whilst grazing my way through a veritable feast I had prepared at the Ivory that even surpassed M&S's finest service station selections!

We hit the cafe and fueled up on caffeine and cake, followed by the highlight of the day managing to have a shit in an actual toilet and not deep in the undergrowth of the S Lakes! With this loss of several pounds we headed straight to Trowbarrow and did a bit of running about mixed with some star jumps to try and wake up again.

I thought I was on for the Iron Man twice only to grease off the holds with everything in place for the slap right and quickly changed plans, heading around back and failing 3 times whilst my fingers crept over the top lip on Texas hold em. We had to shoot and I was yet again left feeling shut down and demoralised by going to the stone late in the day.

Monday 4th

We awoke to grim skies and blanket rain but with assurances from the ever positive Si, we managed to rouse Matt from his post party time coma and I jumped in the Blue Motion for the ride over to the Gorge.

A couple of attempts on Holger's ridiculously long traverse weren't getting much further than the finish of Thug Mentality/start of Mental extension so I decided to finally try and flash Chessie Si's Faith Healer problem to the left of Be Ruthless. I had been trying to put it off for the last few visits citing fatigue and such but now was the time...

I chalked up, pulled on and after hitting the grim fingerstack, I messed about with my feet for a while, only to cross over and cut loose, freestyle the moves and then I was in position for the last move crux. I gave it a good throw but failed to get the top of the hold, pinching it with all my weakness until it could no longer be pinched... plummeting downward to land on the mats dejected.

A couple more tries and it was done but it didn't half hurt the skin. We bailed not long after and I don't really care much for returning anytime soon!

Saturday 9th

Me, O and Stu hit the Cave and it was great to be back after what felt like an age. Stu's mate Toby and his strong crew from Sheffield were there keen on becoming involved with the majestic cave and all her trickery. I had intended to rock up and crush Halfway house and then go eat donuts all day on the pier but after a few attempts I realised I was going to get the shut down as the humidity rose steadily during the cloud cover and rain spells.

Opting to make the most of it I threw myself into trying to climb everything in 2 halves and pull on to other things to give beta to those in trouble! It proved a good workout and I felt on the verge of passing out or vomiting several times. A good beating was being delivered upon me and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had a random urge to try Pit of Hell again after a long time away from it and to my amazement I managed to get the wobbly jug first try and then continue into RA... Score! I didn't shake out and just tried to blast through only to fail miserably when matched on the pockets sizing up the flake. If only I had been rested and not been a muppet.

That kind of finished me off and we took a trip down to the pier, discovering on the way that we only had enough money for 6 donuts and 1 espresso between the 3 of us. So we had 2 each and a rough 3rd of an espresso utilising each angle of the cup's rim to avoid the bad aids :P

We finished off with a nice session on the box retroing some stuff and amazingly I managed to get Chocolate Wall first go.. I don't know how but it just happened and didn't feel too bad apart from the desperate match and scream to get the jug and match tentatively! I was massively impressed by Alex from Sheff getting 10+ new problems of 7A and above in his first cave/box session! Machine.

Sunday 10th

I was quite excited to check out a new place being developed by Andy Popp and Ben F for the new Merseyside/Cheshire guide that is in the pipeline, as I had been told of wondrous technical walls, aretes and ribs with a lack of holds and a grading system that would make the Step Wall and Crypt appear very much Swiss!

The plans were changed and I ended up at Pex with Ben not expecting it to be dry, but lo and behold it was pretty mint.

We warmed up on Pisa Wall with Ben shaking his head at my highly unorthodox versions of certain problems ;) I could not contain my psyche for very long and we were straight over to Lady Jane padding up the landing under Monoblock. I had a couple of decent attempts standing up and slapping at the good slot but didn't really feel like I could give 100% until we had a couple more mats. Then Dave, Si and Stu rocked up with the goods.

I kept getting high up to the same move every time getting my fingers in or below or above and not quite timing it. We wandered around a bit getting people to try other things and I was made up for Stu finally getting Hart's Arete done after plenty of sessions! Effort. It is still Si's ultimate nemesis and not really suited to a man of his flexibility and stumpy handedness ;)

Dave climbed Philarmonic which looked great... only for me to call him out for illegal hold useage which was swiftly confirmed by a a member of the Pex Hill Ethics Commitee (Ben)! He was a bit irked but manfully stepped up and reclimbed it topping out in an acceptable manner, although it looked a tad harsh at the supposed v4 grade!

I had almost given up for the day with thin skin and a few cuts from greasing off violently on the high RH crimp but as the sky went dark and a breeze picked up I got pysched for another try. The first go resulted in an early off balance failure due to being a bit too keen to get the crush on. I rechalked and felt really calm knowing it could go.

The moves felt easy as I just stood up hardly even using the thin rh sidepull. The lh crimp felt huge up high as did the 2 finger rh one. I did the necessary foot faggotry to stand up above the break and then lunged at the slot up and left getting it perfectly in the middle and calling upon the power of auto crimp I stayed in! There was no question of finishing at the break as I pressed then pressed again straight through to the break skipping the intermediate. The top break was pretty dusty and I regretted having no chalkbag. I shook my way along into the beehive and made a fairly scary backhand into the suspect flake up high standing up in the hive and making use of the tree branch on offer over the grassy top.

I've never felt so happy to do a problem and was shaking with adrenaline for a good minute after. Something I didn't really expect to be capable of had gone down in relatively no time and all from just having a positive approach and state of mind that has been key to this years progress.

I'm quite keen to go back now to finish off the other comparatively easier lines on the Lady Jane Wall, where plenty more brilliant lines and spicy top outs await.

Looking back and then ahead

I'll firstly recap what's been going on this week in the murky world of Merseyside climbing....

Sat 25th Apr

A strong car carrying such luminaries as McShane, Farley and to a lesser extent myself, headed off to the sunny S Lakes. As tempting as it was to get dropped off at Trowbarrow, I was keen to check out what Warton Pinnacle had to offer (apart from the epic walk-in).

Upon arriving we were pleased to see dry rock and set to work warming up on these supposed V1 highballs that all felt around HVS 6b! I thoroughly enjoyed shaking like a shitting dog up nearly all of these minor classics much to the mirth of Benedict!

Once the messing was over with, I quickly got to work crushing the kneebar hanging crack thing that is the finish for both Poison and E-Fix. Deciding I would likely deck on an attempted reversal, I opted to shake my way to the top utilising some old skool jamming technique.

Matty D rocked up and joined in the farcical sandbagging and once we felt ready to turn on the power I managed to drag myself up Debaser by the skin of my teeth via a couple of cut loose dynos where I didn't quite catch the holds but held on grimly to avoid a trip to Lancaster A&E.
I expected Matt to follow me up but then I remembered static crimping beasts don't jump and we joined O on Poison.

After about an hour of arsing around we had all fallen off towards the finish and Owen with the kneebar going in, devestating! The conditions were a bit on the tropical side of humid with frequent rain showers and then dead heat to follow... causing my complexion to change from red faced to yellow to a disturbing green before I gave up and just feasted on the mat.

Sun 26th

After a decent night of sleep, I was feeling much better and after a brief trip into town to purchase a thoroughly strong t-shirt, me and Si went to the majestic Pex Hill with Dave. It was great to be back on Pisa Wall just standing on ledges and bearing down on wonderful crimps and 3 finger stacks :)

The warming up was brief and me and dave got the mats spread out underneath Monoblock. The flash attempt was a surprise as I got stood up in the break using the anti-beta but progress was then severly halted using this methodology. After Dave managed to piece things together in his head we realised it was right foot up and not left :P

With this knowledge I got stood up every time and then matched on the high holds. A further go and I had managed to get stood up on a nubbin roughly 1ft above the break and pulled down hard to see how much height I had. I was locked in on straight legs but the pocket/slot seemed far away.. I had a glance down and realised a missed dyno would result in decking out so duly bailed. With the pads adjusted, it wasn't long before I made it back to the same move and this time a rockover slap resulted in a 2 inch miss and a decent bit of airtime.

Attempts were being hindered somewhat by rapscalions throwing stones across the quarry and walking across the top on some sort of rotational shift and combined with more rain showers we sacked it off as it went dark, opting for a swift pint at the Unicorn Inn!

I couldn't believe that I had managed to get stood up, let alone slapping at the pocket as it is not exactly a style of climbing I am well versed in, having trained or climbed primarily in the cave and indoor walls. It is a massive goal and a local testpiece with a bit of history and would be a joy to climb to complete the big 3 on Lady Jane Wall.

Tues 28th

The weather all day was truly horrific but unperturbed, we made the journey to Pantymwyn and lo and behold it was bone dry with good temps! Amazing.

The warmup felt great and I quickly dispatched Be Ruthless first attempt of the session. The sitter took a couple more attempts after dropping the last move twice but once I had it, there was more of a sense of completion. This seemed to get Owen and Chessie Si a bit more psyched and they both crushed the standup within 15 mins of one another.

Andy made what was definitely the most on-off ascent of a problem ever as he cut loose and swung about on Firestarter about 5 times grabbing non holds, compressing nothingness and grasping the top with a bit of a scream and a lot of shaking. Good effort beast!

I briefly tried the moves on the Yellow Finish to Sparks and couldn't really work it out so turned attention to Thug Mentality. After figuring out the finish I pulled on for a redpoint and managed to get through to the 2nd to last move before pumping out and failure. Owen pointed out a better heel placement and after a 10 min rest I shook my way across to get it on the next try giving myself a bit of a calf strain in the process from pulling on that final jug.

We had a small celebratory meal in the Loggerheads pub afterwards and I must say the Sea Bass was divine.

Looking ahead

I posted a list of problems last November that were my wishlist to get done at some stage in 2009/10 and with the recent spate of form and decent weather I have made great headway:

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

I would have been made up to get half of them done so to get 6 before the end of April has been great on a personal level. It has really helped climbing with people I look up to as inspirations and the Merseyside scene is pretty damn good at the moment with a lot of mutual support and encouragement going on to get things done. I'd like to say thanks to O and Si for the massive amount of lifts & psyche and the free wine & accomodation respectively! ;)

Looking back at this list, I have definitely changed my goals for 09 to be a bit more ambitious but hopefully still attainable. I'll now try and focus on getting:

1. Monoblock (Pex Hill)
2. Mr Fantastic (Jerry's Roof)
3. Halfway House (Cave)
4. Iron Man (Trowbarrow)
5. Texas Hold em (trowbarrow)

I feel fairly confident apart from number 5 which is gradually turning into a lifetime goal! :o

p.s. Will try and pad this out with a few photos when Si or Andy gets them online!

And the beat goes on

Following on from the previous week of devestational form, the sun was beaming yet again and all was well in the South Lakes...

S Lakes Sat 11th

On Saturday 11th a large posse descended upon G land.

It started off with me and Owen hooking up with Kev at the classy services on the M6 northbound (with an M&S and decent espresso!). We rocked up to Woodwell and happened upon a broken Dolph Lundgren lying spreadeagled across his mat tenderly holding what was left of his shoulders after a morning beating himself up on a fairly wet Kaizen. Mine and Kev's infectious enthusiasm to campus about on crimps led to a fairly inadequate warmup but I was psyched for the Art of Self Destruction so quickly set up camp underneath and started drying.

The grips were wet underneath but I was certainly prepared after raiding the airing cupboard at home and making off with a bag of towels. The vagrant Mills and his westie partner, sir Donnelly arrived eventually and this added psyche and artistic bent must have sparked some creative thoughts... After a couple of unsuccessful slaps at the top jug, I decided to try a mix of both styles, by taking the left toe-hook out and stepping the left foot up on to the flat edge whilst keeping the right foot on the back ledge. I sagged slightly then just pressed hard through the left foot while pulling into a wonderful arc like movement and floated seamlessly into the awaiting jug, perfect! It didn't feel too hard and I have no idea what the grade is... I'm not overly bothered as it is a great move and a S Lakes G classic!

The scene grew stronger as Andi and Nicki turned up and we all decided to move camp to Fairy Steps. Another car carrying Jamie and Cath joined on to the procession exiting the carpark and our 10 strong posse moved on. I wasn't too fussed about climbing much after ticking a longterm goal and was happy to eat, heckle, then eat some more. Matt continued his comeback by getting Aeon in the bag whislt Dolph disappeared up the hill to crush the sitter to Axiom in the midday sun. Bestia.

As people tired, we decided to change the scene again by moving over to Trowbarrow, where Tom and I got reaquainted with the puzzle that is Texas Hold 'em. It is a truly wonderful set of unobvious moves that requires power, brutality, uspidedown shenanigans, flexibility and conditions... most of which were lacking. I managed to ascend the V4 topout in isolation for the first time ever and thought this could well be the day after 5 fruitless sessions! It was not to be as I had a double grease off, resulting in a rather heavy horizontal landing and I had to tap out. This seemed to prove off-putting to Mills, and we joined the others around the block. Owen and Kev were looking at Vitruvian Man whilst Tom, Jamie and Andi played on Pit Problem. Being the twat I am, I booted up and retro flashed both of them, lapping up the boos and cat calls from the crowd! ;)

I failed to make any headway on Iron Man as I was totally spent.

S Lakes Mon 13th

To make the most of the wonderful Easter weekend a return to the S Lakes was in order. Whilst Owen sat under Aeon, Si, Tom and myself went to find some esoteric gems. We came across a couple of classic G sandbags. The V1 shut down the whole team until I unleashed overpower upon it and climbed it the v6 way. Feeling pathetic, we moved on a little further and foundThe Trick thanks to bushman Si's navigational prowess (I feel a leading role on 'I'm a gritstone punter, get me out of here!' could be on the cards). I declared the Trick to look piss in my usual overconfident lack of wisdom and failed to flash it. I decided to dispense with any form of trickery and just did a satisfying dyno to the jug which worked. The muddy topout proved tricksome but it was in the satch so to speak. I added the sitter in a couple of goes which is of truly questionable quality. Si did a controversial righthand version using jugs and Tom got some time in on the rock, obviously not ascending anything but looking strong in the process!

We got back over in time for us to shout O along an ascent of Aeon which is rapidly becoming a Merseyside posse warmup problem.

Everyone disappeared whilst me and Millso stayed behind for him to try Aeon. After Mike telling me I should flash the Aeon Prow, I brushed the holds, had a feel, then pulled on slapping out to the poor pinch on the apex and then building my feet up, I gave it all I had and unexpectedly had my fingers over the top only to fail to hold on. There went the flash and I could feel a great deal of pain in the right fingers. The amount of boning required on the sharp sidepull/crimp is horrifying. I made a decision to make sure I got it done and sacrificed my chances on Iron Man. I got it in about 5 attempts but split a tip quite deep in the process.


Sat 18th

Me and Matt went back yet again to Fairy Steps and met up with Paul Craven who was really nice to climb with. We gave him the numbers on things and watched him crush. Matt got close on the Aeon Reverse and I finally managed to get Aeon Crack at stiff V4! Remind me never to go to Yosemite to attempt anything other than bouldering. We had a look at Axiom and Walk Away in the ridiculous heat and then moved on to Trowbarrow.

I quickly worked out my definite sequence to Iron Man and climbed into the start of Vitruvian only to keep greasing off both holds as it was baking hot. Deciding to come away with at least 1 new problem for the day, I worked out a brilliant right heel hook requiring flexible hips to make the last move of Ned's problem static to the lip with the left hand and eliminating the swing :) With this in the bag, we bailed back to the Pool!


Tues 21st - Return to the Mwyn!

I was all psyched up for Trowbarrow yesterday only for owen to change the destination to the Gorge so we could meet up with Chessie Si. Walking down there brought back fond memories of climbing Under the Bridge last year. Once we were down by the entrance, we could see that it was in awesome condition and this triggered psyche mode.

We warmed up with some bad sequences on Firestarter to dismay Paul from the wall.. who escaped to do routes with Lee Proctor around the corner and me and O got down to business time.

Owen achieved first with a rapid 2nd ascent of Si's problem the Faith Healer. I managed to drop the last move on Sparks 3 times before getting angry, going topless and crushing it to pieces. Joyous! Problem 1 was in the bag and I went over to Be Ruthless to unleash the fury. I failed many times and eventually climbed the last section using 3 methods all of which I couldn't actually do when climbed into from the start. The frustration was palpable and then Owen had a bit of a breakthrough making the last move more accessible. With a decent rest and renewed vigour, I climbed all the way into this move, made it and then had a mind blank, dropped off in pain and called it quits. It will get done next session without any trouble at all and the sitter likewise.

It was great to go back to the Gorge and get back on these problems after both of us having improved quite significantly since last year. We may be back this weekend to finish off Be Ruthless and I can try and flash Faith Healer to wind up Si! :)

Rich vein of Form/Luck

Since getting Trigger Cut in the bag I have been managing to maintain what for me is good form. The trips have been plentiful and I feel that doing as Mike and Tony said (just get out climbing and forget training), has been the best bit of advice I have ever had (bar the Guru's training programme ;))

S Lakes
In the South Lakes I managed to tick off Vitruvian Man which I really had my heart set on and on a beautiful sunny day out with Matt we also met my climbing hero Johnny G and got Aeon in a session. I got fairly close in a few goes on Art of Self Destruction before it went too dark to see but know I can get this quickly if I get another chance this year.

Wales trip
A little more recently, I took advantage of the Easter break and went camping in Nant Peris for a few days, which in fact turned out to be one night camping, then 3 nights of relative luxury staying in the Vagabonds club hut and round Jamie's in Bangor.
My goal was to climb Jerry's Roof having never really bothered with it before, due to it looking like an epic endurance route. I felt terrible on day 1 so pottered around the Barrel and meadow boulders with Jamie and had a fairly good time. The next day was a long day of working out the best sequence but I felt really run down and decided to make Saturday an easy day of sleeping and reading...

The Vags had other plans and I was rudely awoken early doors and taken to Tremadog to crush some Severes. We did one severe and then they tried to sandbag me a bit on some E1 called Barbarian. It was great fun and I think I'll maybe get out and do a few more soon as it is quite relaxing.
We had a great communal meal in the evening and I managed to get 3rds before the pans were empty. Result. There was also a really nice slideshow afterwards with some ice and ropes, guns and polar bears...etc

I awoke Sunday feeling amazing and went up to the Cromlechs with J to warm up briefly before heading straight to Jerry's. I pulled on the start of the tourist tick feeling light and just seemingly floated across doing the crux static and then finishing off with relative ease. I was kind of surprised but a bit underwhelmed as it is not the original line. I had a bit of lunch and pulled on to the arete and just spanned straight across skipping the slopey shelf, the heel-toe cammed in and I could come straight across, up into the crux only to fall off from not resting properly.. Punter!
A decent rest later and I was back at the crux swinging about but held on just enough to get my feet back in contact. The slap to the arete felt sketchy but I fought my way to the finishing jugs and rocked out over the top after a bit of indecision. What a great line!

I had a trip to the Mill with Jamie the next day and felt terrible, so just did some core work and a bit of sloper deadhanging. With the weather crapping out I went back to the 'Pool a bit early and had a welcome rest day on Tuesday.

Return to Jerry's
I headed back the pass yesterday with Andi E, Sam D, Nicki and Stu in a packed car and we wasted an hour or so in Llanberis with Stu and Andi trying on several pair of shoes they had no intentions of purchasing, so I went off to use the toilet and buy some cakes and we eventually made it up into the pass for around 2 maybe.

We warmed up at the roadside face and after showing Sam the Sting we decided to see if we could pull off the deck on Arachnaphobia. We both managed to pull on and slap at a pinch but progress was halted here. V8 chinny reckon.

We were both psyched to try Mr Fantastic, so we headed over only to find about 20 people in the queue trying to get a ticket for Jerry's :o Sam being the polite and patient person he is kinda took over the scene giving beta out and greasing it all up! ;)

I went straight in for the redpoint from the left arete and somehow found myself matched on the bus stop holds and with the heel-toe lock still in! I worked it out and had my feet on only for my right foot to pop off the dink before I could make the throw out to the edge. I was fairly pumped but had finally climbed through the crux after 2 sessions. It is really high up on my longterm wishlist and it would be amazing to climb it this year. I feel capable but need to hit it with fresh arms and skin with everything going smoothly to stand a chance. Kook pointed out a link to us to have a go on reversing the Mr Fantastic crux from Bus Stop into Jerry's then finishing up JR. It was perfect for me being both shouldery and reachy and with a bit of screaming I managed to get it in the bag in about 10 mins or so. It is a nice link and definitely felt harder than Bus Stop or Jerry's Roof so probably bottom end 7C+.

We finished off with a little trip over to Caseg Fraith and I spent a few minutes losing a lot of skin and getting nowhere on 'Repeat after Me'. Utterly deserperate it seemed. It has M Adams written all over it being similar to Speedway but probably easier.
We played on some highball slabs above the Fraith and Andi managed to shave a bit of his chin off sliding down from high up. Shortly afterwards, I bottomed out into the swamp missing the mats on my go. I was quite relieved it was boggy or I'd probably have my ankles in casts by now!
On the way back to Beris, Sam finished off the link I had done earlier and we went for pizza and a pint which is absolutely amazing and highly recommended. Saw a few familiar faces in there including a still psyched Johnny Dawes who I was giving some pointers to on the steep stuff earlier. He had left his thermarest and nalgene bottle at the roof and I was kinda gutted to have to hand them back over (the offer of a free meal for picking it up came a bit late as we had just eaten!).

Looking ahead
Easter weekend is looming and Kev is coming up from Wales to stay at Owen's so we are all looking forward to plenty of trips out over the next few days. I'm resting up in the chateau d'Ivoire with some vino and chocolate in preparation. I'm keen to get back on Art Of Self Destruction (weather permitting) and I was made up for Owen finally achieving the feat after 4 years of battling with shit weather and seepage to get it sent! :)

Lots of action

It has been great weather for the last week or so and plenty of trips outside:

Sat 14th - Brimham

An early start for Owen, Ben and myself (team strong)... led to us arriving a lot earlier than team chong (Si, Paul, Hitman) who were still relaxing in Mersyside as we were entering the ghetto of Harrogate.

Upon arrival I was most impressed with the warmup problems of Pommel, Black Dog arete..etc and swiftly ticked a nice contrived line from sitting in a pit and shortly after added the classic lie down start.. what a stellar line trying to avoid the wedged block and holds out right! :P Jokes aside it climbed very well and we moved on to the grim anchor problem. Owen pointed out the grip sequence and I dispatched without losing too much skin on the top!

An epic trek across the moors landed us under Crimpy Roof and I was obviously instantly psyched for some overhanging crimp action. The Crimpy Roof 7b/+ looked ripe for the flash treatment but upon latching the edge of the jug on top my right hand greased violently off the crimp and it was bloodshed. A lot of wiping and taping, ensured I was able to get it done 2nd go and we turned attention to Dave Cowls 'To me to You' which looked fantastic. Owen figured out most of the moves including a nice burly campus compression to campus slap finish!
I Figured out my non-6ft 5inch frame beta and put it in the memory banks for a further visit as today was aimed at volume (I have enough projects on the Lime!).

A steady stream of venues were visited such as the Jokers Wall and No Red Tape with the amazing rockover problem being the highlight. As we got drained, a quick visit to Titfield Thundferbolt was in order, I had neither the skin nor the energy but hoped to glimpse some beta off a local. Someone was stood under it but refused to pull on for all the 10 minutes we were there...strange but at least Ben quickly got Whisky Galore using some camp rockover-thumb press-standing on your feet-style climbing ;)

After a quick brew at the tourist cafe, we popped over to the Niche and found the Hitman in his hustling routine making the desperate appear trivial. Me and O obviously went straight for the dyno as it looked immense and doable. Owen got a lot closer to holding the swing than myself and I think with fresh arms and skin we will get it done in short time, really cool jump to an aesthetic pinchy shelf! I went over to try Fantasy League as a warm down and after getting up on both aretes with a right heel on, I hit the energy wall and slid down on to the mats into a heap and gave up the game. Hitman got a bit closer but popped off as he slapped high up into the scrittly sandy arete. It's a nice problem but could probably do with being a bit less chossy.

Sunday 15th - Ogwen hit

I went out with a strong team of Yoofs from Merseyside as well as Fatneck who was making it 2 days out climbing in a row for the first time in ageeeees. We started off at the Caseg Fraith and I got stuck into the retro flash of the crag only to fail miserably on Boneyard and Skunk X. I felt likle shit from Saturday still and had horrificly poor skin, so decided to hike up to Animal Magnetism and see if it was worth the while. After a hideous treck, we arrived at the roof and were psyched with what we saw. Me and Dan started working out what to do whilst the others got on the stuff round the back (a very nice couple of problems). I managed to climb the problem from the pinch and first RH hold to the finish first try but when I rested and tried it from the pull-on I was dismayed by my total inability to move to the pinch without collapsing in a heap. It felt like my body positioning and strength were totally pathetic. Wondered whether the first LH hold had maybe gotten smaller and left it.

We had a tea break then headed over to the Milestone area where with 8 pads and 3 spotters I managed to shake my way up Monkey See arete, what a fucking amazing line with a high crux! Just Saturn left to do now for the trio of highballs (which incidently looks way harder than just 1 grade above the others?). We moved over to Marilyn Monroe area and after failing on the campus method on Einstein, I remembered hearing of a feet first ascent. A couple of goes and it was done! What a brilliant and unique style of problem. I would recommend it to anyone long of leg and strong of toe :)

The Pit boulder saw the others having a play and little Mike going into crush mode to get the Pit Start and his 2nd v5 of the day and outdoors... strong!

Tuesday 17th - Cave Time

On the way to the cave I was moaning to O and Pete about how shit I felt and that I might try and lay the nemesis of Left Wall Low to rest and maybe try the sitter to the Beavers.

After a pit stop and a lot of caffeine and chocolate i was firing on all cylinders and did my new regime of a bit of running and theraband before pulling on some big grips. The arms felt in good condition although the skin was still sore from the weekend. I pulled on to Trigger Cut and cruised through to the slap to the rail and almost held it. Good shit. Next try I held the rail for the first time ever and managed to get through to the very last move only to kick my feet against the wall in several places and run too low on energy to grab the last jug. devestation!

I had a banana, some water and had a word with myself, got back up there and then overslapped jabbing my fingers into the rock above the jug to fail again. I was beginning to well and truly punter it up from a winning position.... determined not to make it another Rockatrocity type siege, I unleashed the fury and was more solid than ever on the next try, gaining the 2nd to last hold for the 3rd time in a row. I was about to try and get a right heel on ( what the fuck!) when I heard Owen shouting for me to campus... the words slowly filtered through and I took my feet out, swung my hips left and back right again to stick the hardest jug to jug 1ft campus move I have ever done screaming to hold on. YYFY!

I staggered about for a while waiting for the adrenaline to fade away and enjoyed a small feast on my mat whilst watching smooth Pete crush Left Wall to make it a 2 out of 3 Team Merseyside projecting success. We only had Owen left to get Left Wall High done for the high fives, but he somehow managed to fall off the very last move as we willed him to just dyno 2 handed to the jug ledge at the end. He will get it done next time for sure and I am now psyched at the prospect of yet another new project... Halfway House appeals as well as Beaver Cleaver Direct (which I had a short play on late into the darkness) and Crucial Times as an ambitious one.

The lamplight session ended with my now traditional failure on Left Wall Low to the amusement of all present. I'll get it some day...maybe

Portland trip and a return to the Orme

I've had a great last couple of weeks that began the weekend before last with me sitting at home with my hand in a bucket of ice on Thursday speaking to O about being unsure as to whether to go with him and Mike to Portland! After a brief chat I decided to go along for the craic and to maybe take some photos.

Friday 20th
The weather in Portland was fantastic when we drove down to the isle and after dropping the gear at the plush bunkhouse (a former masonic lodge that had power showers en suite in every room!) we headed the New Cuttings and Mike obviously dispatched Guy Fawkes in horrendous conditions. I was getting the full shutdown with the tweaky wrist injury trying to warm up on hard v5/6's but seemed to get on ok with Stomping with Bez direct start, apart from greasing all over the crimps when spanning out right to the rib. Mike was doing ok but fighting conditions on the woeful line of LH crimps on My Chemical Romance and decided to leave it till the next day. We realised after we packed up and crawled up the small hill/terrace that we couldn't see more than 30ft as we had been climbing in a heavy mist..nice

Saturday 21st
The next day dawned sunny and hot, tops off weather on the boulderfield was the action and what a pleasant surprise. I didn't even know there was a boulderfield when I agreed to go down (assuming it was just vertical wall climbing) and was relieved to get on some compression and non tweaky slopers! The problems are of the highest quality with many hidden gems dotted around. We were impressed by Lightning Strike and Liquid Sunshine in particular. There was so much to get on, everyone managed to tick over 20 problems and felt destroyed by the end. Mike obviously still had some gas left in the tank as he went up to the Crag and got MCR crushed in a few attempts! Machine.

Sunday 22nd
Sunday was a more slow paced day with a return to the boulderfield and an aching team finding the warmup hard going. I was chuffed to get the flash on Hope Slide, what a fantastic couple of moves and definitely worth the near bushwack to the Jungle boulder. After that we hit the Cavity Search Roof and after some vision on the shared start I quickly got the 3 main lines and we went over to tick the tank block. After that it was straight to find a hidden gem in Collo Della Terra, i offereed to go first instead of sharking the beta and did a dynamic right hand finish on the flash which was ok but maybe not the problem! After realising I had just dfone the V6 RH line, I got back on it and got the flash on the main event snatching out left to a series of rough but positive crimps and a lovely bit of Right heel action allows access to the big slopey jug up and right on the arete. What a problem to finish on :)
We finished the weekend with an amazing Cream Tea and a long drive back up North. I'll definitely be going back to get on the meatier problems when not hampered with injury.

Return to the Awful
On returning I felt pretty broken so had 3 days off and then a short session on Thursday to see how the hand was (pretty bad still!). By Friday night I was about to sack the Orme with Matt but decided to go and maybe try left wall traverse as I could probably handle that and have never got round to really trying it.

Saturday 28th
When we got there, the amazingly sticky feeling of the cave told me it would be too good an opportunity to waste and we ran up to Clutch and back, then up the hill above the cave and back down. A thorough theraband routine and warmup ensued for at least 20 minutes and I felt amazing.

Decided to have a warmup go on Lou Ferrino in the warmup shoes and without brushing anything and I suddenly found myself with my Left hand in the last pocket and right hand going over to the finish slot only to shake off sapped of energy and with a bit of a flash pump! Shit, should I have tried harder? Had I wasted the chance of the day! A couple more goes didn't go down so well as we tried to get a little video..etc but I can't seem to climb anything when I know it's being filmed so asked for nothing to be videod. Sam Hamer arrived and had a really good go using some west sequence that looked so unefficient and powerful that it got me psyched to try a bit harder and I flowed through the next try feeling about 125% stronger! The press out to the pocket just happened, my feet cut loose but got put straight back on and I sketched my way to the match and let out a little shout of sheer relief and joy.

It's been great to get Lou done without resorting to any real training other than getting out climbing a lot and resting loads! It shows that I can get up things when things conspire to go right like avoiding getting injured and the weather being ok. I can't wait to get back and start playing on Trigger Cut and get the main 3 things I wanted to do done in there :)

Roll on March!

Good Temps and Progress on one Front!

Sunday 1st Feb

Well it has been freezing cold the last 2 weeks. Me, O and Mike decided to make the most of good temps and a -10 windchill to get out in the pass and Ogwen recently, for a day of circuiting and cleaning up some old bugbears/nemesi'.

The day started off with a short hike down the road and a river crossing that saw Owen up to his ankles in freezing cold river water within 3 minutes of leaving the car... harsh but funny!

We warmed up on the dash block and made quick flashes of the supposed v6 dash traverse (maybe 4 at a push!), I was testing out some new 5.10 5X's and was most impressed with how comfortable they felt after only breaking them in at the wall a couple days beforehand. We warmed up further on Fear of a Slopey Planet and before sending it for the first time, O managed to jump off the block straight through some frozen turf and down into the mud to coat his Dragons in a nice layer of brown insulation! The man has consistency ;)

Over to an embarassing long term project of mine (on a par with Foam Party before it was recently vanquished), and Mike managed an impressive onsight of Boysen's Roof SS utilising his massive wingspan to reach a good RH hold from sitting. I had tried this sticking hands in crack only for about 3 sessions and had no success, as soon as I tried this other method I nearly got the retro flash but failed high up on easy ground with a foot pop. I put the Solutions on and got it next go.

We went over the road to Jerry's Wall and I finally managed the standup (got shut down when I came up here last year on a solo mission). I think the confidence of having a spotter and not being able to feel the sharpness of what I was crimping were big factors! The sitter was in the bag shortly after, before we became hypothermic (we had to keep rotating the person who stood on the pad to prevent it blowing away down the pass, with one person cowering behind the boulder to thaw out again!)

After a short trip into Beris for Owen to buy dry socks and some hot food, we made a short drive to Ogwen and up to Gallt Yr Ogof. I was keen for smackhead and quickly became dismayed at its difficulty at v8. Mike pointed out a quality dyno to the right (which is the standup to Smackhead RH). It took a while to work out what hand to go with and I eventually held on going lefthand to top of the block in a full cut loose... what an amazing move.

As me and Owen cowered out of the wind next to Smackhead, we heard an almighty scream as Mike celebrated topping out Sway On with no witnesses! ;) Owen was getting close to the dyno but soon had to leave as Hoobie had been vomiting from the sheer cold and had begun to dig himself a grave to crawl into and die in! I managed to do Smackhead in 2 halves twice but kept struggling to link the right foot step through into last move. I can't wait to go back and finish it off as it is a great set of moves.

Saturday 7th Feb

Back to my favourite venue on Earth and I was once again reaquainted with the current bane of my climbing existence in Lou Ferrino. Thankfully it was a better session than last time. First go and I was matched on the ramp pressing out to the first drilled pocket when my I stabbed high with my hand above and missed it! The next 2 attempts reached the same stage but were a bit sloppy with a couple cut loose moments and having to readjust on several holds. I was just happy to be feeling strong and locked into the problem again at last, as I could repeatedly link it in 2 overlaps. The cave soon got too busy for my liking and I hated the feeling of being watched by 20+ people waiting for me to fail and get out of their way!

Me and O escaped to the box and were soon joined by Ted who is a thoroughly nice guy and helped point out some problems to go at including Jack Daniels Connection which took me a fair few goes to work out how to hold the RH as you throw/lock to the shield hold. It did succumb to persistence and I was chuffed to have finally done a new problem at the pillbox... they only get harder from here on in! D:

Ted looked in great form crushing the sitter to Last Rites with complete ease and not long after he linked Jack Daniels into Aint no Party... a mighty fine spell of crimping!

Sunday 8th Feb

To cap off a prouctive weekend, I met up with Dave, Holger and Pete Chadwick at the Venue we are building in Liverpool. I posted a few photos a while back of the current board which was very small and obviously limited training wise.

Well... we finally got things moving again after Pete and Holger sorted out a load of wood to build some framework and the 4 of us got a whole new board put up by the afternoon. It is another thing of beauty, not quite as wide as the Dispensary board but the same in height and without a kickboard to utilise its full length and make the climbing start as soon as you pull on! :) I think it is roughly 12ft wide by 13ft high and somewhere between 45 and 50 degrees. All we need now is a ton of holds and bolts.

I'm off down there today to start crafting some wooden ones to save on the expenditure!