2010

Was pretty much the year of injuries!

The year started off pretty quietly with a few days out on the grit ticking some memorable problems like Bens Groove, Ju Ju Club, Matts Roof..etc and March brought a nice chilled trip to font with Mark and Michael.

I managed to break a grade boundary in font dragging my arse up a 7C in font which was a good mental breakthrough.

I then suffered multiple left arm/bicep/elbow pains through the early stages of the year and went off to Font again with low expectations only to have a great trip pathing Aerodynamite, Biceps Mou, Onde de Choc, Arabesque and the brilliant Sale Gosse.

I thought a good vein of form would be ahead but the arm pains soon returned and 1 good day at Anston Stones was the only memorable day out throughout the rest of the spring and summer.

I traded in the arm pains for a finger injury at the end of July which lingered for a month and a relaxing trip to Dartmoor seemed to help get things moving again just doing a lot of volume and visiting some great little venues such as Combeshead Tor.

The injury was still there and my finger swelled up all the time. Mark also picked up a finger injury not long after, so we changed plans from magic wood to font and it turned out to be a good shout as we got lots more done.

Despite the heat I slayed the long term nemesis of Berezina with a subtle adjustment and ticked plenty more classics such as Ange Naif, Bleaus Art, Marginal Droit, Modulor...etc

After getting back from the trip, the injuries seemed to subside and I finally started to get some problems finished off which were long overdue.

In Hell was finally realised and I had broken a grade boundary for the 4th year running even if its a pretty soft one! Cave Life went down a week later and Oppotrocity soon after. I was feeling strong but lacking a bit of fitness, so In Life evaded me falling off on Left Wall a couple of times.

I thought it was still on for the year, when I had that rather bad day out a couple of Saturdays ago, as the wobbly block was ripped from the roof of the cave and I injured my rotator cuff to write off the remainder of 2010!

I guess it has definitely been a year of ups and downs and one can only pray that 2011 features less injury and more success! I think the font 8B pipedream is a bit out of reach until I rebuild my body, get stronger, fitter and spend time on hard problems to build up some momentum and a performance pyramid.

For now the script is to keep therabanding, do some Cardio and try to not eat all the pies! I'm hoping to touch resin within the next 2 weeks if it continues to heal at the current rate. Keeping the years long term plans in mind, I'll definitely be nursing it with the utmost care as Lorenzo commented! I hope to become as big a beast on the elastic as Walter and Doris below...

I wish anyone bothering to read through this tripe has a great Christmas weekend and I'll see you all out next year (provided you are visiting the cave ;))

Triple dismay

This Saturday two terrible events coincided as the wobbly block got pulled out of the roof down the cave as we were over in Leeds at the comp. This means my close efforts on finishing In Life are down the pan for now but for more than this reason alone...

To compound this news which travelled to us post haste via Andy... I put in a rather poor effort in the Depot comp finishing about 11th and injuring my left shoulder in an attempt to climb two problems which may have got me into the final.

I was on the last move of the red on the barrel wall pressing my left arm out to get my left foot up high under it in order to cross to the finishing hold, when I felt/heard a disturbing crunching sound. I let go instantly and then tentatively moved my arm around thankful it was still moving ok in all directions.

I decided to try the yellow to the right and got to pressing out the last move on that too but my left arm was really hurting and I had to admit defeat.

48 hours later and I have a very weak shoulder. I can lift my arm straight in front but not very well to the side where I get halfway and the pain becomes too much. it hurts if I run and sneeze, so all in all a bit worrying!

The timing could have been worse if I had an imminent trip but I won't be able to make use of the new van I'm getting on Wednesday for a good while yet :(

Hopefully Super Physio Matty D can give me some sound advice this week and I can begin the slow process of rehab. Not had this injury before so totally unsure of when it will be back at full range of motion/strength. A winter of walking and slabs could be on the cards!

Out the game...

The Underground hustler

It was a most busy day today as myself, Matt and Sean joined another 15 or so people in matting out most of parisellas and spending a large portion of the day training/failing!

There was however one boy, fuelled by a £9 chippie takeout and plenty of coca cola from the night before, barely awake from 4 hours of sleep... ready to step up to the plate.

Sean dispatched Pit of Hell without breaking a sweat and then breezed along Broken Heart before almost making it a triple takedown with a good attempt on Lou F.

As for myself and Matt...

Matt was still coming through the other side of Friday nights party which went well into Saturday morning/afternoon and it was impressive he made it out the car and on to the rock.

If there is one type of climbing totally not his style then it would be slopey compression with heels/toehooks so he did well tackling it head on working cave life/lou F and then broken heart. It'd be scary to see him combine stronger arms/compression with his legendary fingers of steel and unleash it on the world!

I had an ok session managing to get both hands on to left wall from In Life start only to collapse in a heap as my left arm had nothing left. (I was locked in the press off the arch trying to regrip the wide left pinch on left wall for about 5 seconds or more and couldn't feel it, so just attempted the right hand cross under anyway and failed upon grabbing it).

The next redpoint ended with my hands sliding off the two slopers trying to get feet on so I tapped out and started trying Lou F sans pocket/Full Circle and Greenheart. Didn't quite get the undercut pinch on LFSP and managed to do Full circle to the finish from a move in but the first move is by far the crux, so hopefully I can fluke this sometime soon!

There is the possiblity of a couple trips this week coming, so hopefully I can get another little tick in the lifetime quest to tick the book.

Winter wanderings

With all this white shit taking a firm grip of the Eastern edges and the S Lakes being particularly sketchy, we have been continuing our visits to the majestic Orme that rarely ceases to give a productive session.

Thursday 25th Nov

Myself, Sean, Mark and Joe hit the Orme and it was suprisingly warmer than Monday's session. A lot of stuff was wet so the warmup was a bit trickier this time, with Rockatrocity being problem number 2 or 3! I did Cave Life short and was then ready to get on Oppotrocity again. The shoulders needed a couple of stretches over to the 2nd pocket to get warm and as soon as I got the backhand to the flake I took it down. Not sure if it's 8a but it's harder than RA and quite well suited being shouldery moves involving lots of foot clamping/toe hooking.

I managed to fall off with a foot on left wall from the start of In Life a couple of times then tried the arch moves in the opposite direction to keep warm. I wasn't getting very far on this, so decided to just try something harder again!

So I got on Louis Armstrong...

I couldn't work out the first move but got close going right hand out to a small sloping edge and tried to drop in the left hand clamping the feet in various positions. The crux slap felt impossible without just stepping on to the ground as the foot position didn't feel at all obvious (from getting home later I realised both Danny and nacho step their right foot out wide and use the hips a lot to generate some momentum) I could do the drop in match on the undercuts and climbed the problem to the finish from holding the slap out position (doing the left hand drop in and then to the finish). It was good fun to do some new moves and now that I know how fierce the first and crux move are, I can try and do some training before the next visit. If I can do it within the next 3 years I'll be happy! Maybe it can be done in less time if I really want it enough to train specifically?

I 'warmed down' trying the Greenheart connection from the Lou F press off the ramp and managed to do the undercut match twice in near darkness, with the right foot staying on becoming very low percentage! I nearly got across to the break only to fire out the gopping fingerjug on BH. Keen to put more time in on this section next year once other business is taken care of.

We got back to the wall in the evening and instead of a relaxing cuppa, we got stuck in and had a further 2 hour climb on the 45 board getting burned off by Shauna. She was looking scarily strong and crushing moves I was struggling to do. I'll have to get back on them when fresh and see how much work needs doing!

Thursday 2nd Dec

The forecast was grim for a lot of the North and East, so we went up high and into the icy winds on top of the Little Orme to seek out classic Welsh desperation. We were not to be disappointed with the fairly hardcore buttress of Caveman.

No number of starjumps, sprints or hand gripper exercise could summon blood to my extremeties, so I gave up and booted up into a super tight pair of freezing dragons (which were my comfy shoe for the day).

We did what we thought was Floppy's reach, realised it went right then did the proper version, which features quite a nice move through a pinch.

The next warmup problem was Patch's problem, a v6 that felt a little stiff for the grade where you cross to a lovely 3 finger pocket, then lock miles to deadpoint a dish and try and cram 3 fingers in to this, get the right toe on a smear, grab a sidepull, then slap to victory. It took about 2 or 3 goes to work out the foot positioning and I did it with a big drop knee that would have dismayed Dave 'Face on climbing' Pinnington!

We got shutdown on the 2 v7's to the right, so just moved over to Caveman.

After all of us struggling on the start moves, John pulled it out the bag and repeated it. I was ready to give up after getting shut down by the frostnip taking hold of my feet but manned up, went for a run around the top and the blood came back!

After just about latching the first move to the backhand, I locked with all that I had and grasped the sidepull, then sketched to the finish which was all captured in glorious technicolour.

Hoppo looked like he might die if we didn't leave, so we escaped out the wind and drove to Tremeirchion.

Photo courtesy of Chris Doyle

I'd never been to Tremeirchion before and the magnificent wave of high quality lime looked amazing from the layby. It was like a little bit of swiss surrounded by blanket white snow. The uphill approach was nowhere near as arduous as the one to Caveman but was fairly hard-going up the steep hill wading through knee deep snow.

The re-warm up was on a cool v5 to the left which started low on big jugs and bust up to sidepulls/pinches and laybacked some good holds to a highish finish.

I struggled to see the holds at first on 36 chambers but after John had pointed them out and given me a bit of a sequence, I gave it a very psyched crush attempt. Crossing over to the pinch involved boning a sharp index finger crimp and then tensioning past it until it became more positive as I stuck my right foot across and locked it in. I managed to feel in balance for a second and locked to the right hand crimp which was thankfully positive. The left toe was bumped up and I slapped up to what I thought was the sloper only to go too far high and left and slid off. I jumped up and down to get a view from the floor and realised going slightly right was key so had a rest and tried again.

The 2nd go started like the first, getting through the pinch and snatching the crimp. I popped to the sloper and this time it was miles better. I realised the drop in was now the crux and squeezed juice from the rock as I grabbed it with my left cutting loose and holding on with a bit of a scream! I got the toe on to where John had pointed out and set up for the high jug edge... made a throw upwards with my right and dragged over the edge of it back down to the mats! Devastated.

Sadly, that was as good as it got with arms and skin all failing at the same time as the sharp right start hold took its toll and the pinch felt glassier as temps dropped. Definitely one I will be back for as well as the aesthetic looking grooveline to the right.

Another Nemesis in the bag

It has been a good week since the previous Roche abbey visit. I've managed to get in 3 campus sessions and a lot of core work + climbing on the 45 board.

I'm starting to notice an improvement in body tension from the last few weeks of climbing on a board again and striving to avoid using drop knees/toe hooks/heels..etc

The weakest links at the moment are definitely my creaky fingers and slightly strained left bicep (which is fine when climbing). I had a short beastmaker session on Friday morning and it definitely felt on the edge, so I cut it short and just did more corewoirk instead.

Sunday 21st Nov

We were going to head to the South Lakes and myself and Sean got very excited for Wheelbarrow and Iron Man only for Owen to change the plan to Rotherham. I was partially worried about another shutdown on Ebola and the South Lakes meant avoiding the issue, which was why it was quite appealing.

It was a good venue for Mark and little Hoppo as they hadn't been before so there were some good 7a-7b ticks to be had. We met Tony at the carpark and walked in to the wave area which was drier than we were expecting.

A brief warmup included getting Twenty Four Point Nine done first try today which is a nice sloper traverse into the finish of Alpha at around 7b. Then it was back to Ebola. It was a bit wetter than last weekends session, so I wasn't too hopeful of success.

I worked out how to do the finish and changed both my foot and hand sequence yet again on the bottom section due to a lot of the footholds being wet and to avoid using the wet crimp out right before the pinch.

Fast forward about 2-3 hours later and I finally puntered my way up to holding the swing off the crossover without spinning off. The crimps at the finish were wet but I managed to get the heel on and crossover to the finish of Resonate and then cross under to match praying for my hand not to fire off.

It's such a great problem with each move being unique and hard enough to make it a fight to the end. It would be nice to find it in perfect dry conditions just to enjoy it a little more!

We moved on to Roche Abbey to finish off and myself and Owen had a play on Fallen Idol ss. The pull on was ok and I could get the right hand crimp well only to slide off it trying to match due to the rock getting very damp. The stand up still felt desperate but conditions were far from good. This nemesis will have to wait till next time.

Monday 22nd Nov

Me and Mark hit Tesco early doors and picked up a Christmas double deal on the Krispy Kremes (so we got 24 for £12!). We then picked up Sean and got over to the Wirral to Mike's for about 10.45. We tried to ring but got no answer so knocked on the door to be informed by his mum that he was still asleep! We remarkably got away with Mike onboard at 11 and headed into Llandudno to get a coffee and hit the Orme which was covered in beautiful rays of sun (which seemed to disappear 5 minutes after we arrived).

I did my bit of cardio for the year by running up to Clutch to see if the holds were dry, shake my head, then run back down the hill almost out of breath! A circuit of Star jumps, theraband and Gripp ball were up next and then a painfully cold warmup (for the feet) which kept going white every few minutes.

There were a few wet patches so the warmup was a bit shorter today consisting of a bit of shuffling then Lipstick RH, clever beaver, lip service and a failed attempt on rockatrocity in baggy moccasyms.

I thought I would see how far things had regressed and padded out In Life start. It was quite suprising to get through the start and across the arch with both feet swinging about, in a vain attempt to get them on the sidewall. Even though it was fairly cold, the two slopers didn't feel great and I was sliding about on them on the next redpoint, so decided to leave it for today.

Sean managed to get Cave Life Short done using another new sequence somewhere inbetween my own and Owen's which looked quite steady but a bit more shoulder intensive.

I watched Sorle do Oppotrocity and soaked up the beta. Something short and hard was quite appealing, so I quickly did all the moves in about 1-2 goes and had a rest. First go I fell off coming through to backhanding the flake as I didn't pull hard enough on the left arm.

Next go was surreal as I floated to the end of the problem feeling strong until the very last moment when my right arm failed to keep locked in the last pocket and my hand dragged out of the finish slot. I wasn't expecting to get that far and relaxed a bit too much on the end.

It was a bit dismaying to be doing all the hard climbing yet again and then failing on the easy finishing move on yet another problem!

I guess 8a in a session wasn't to be as I dropped the last move another 2 times and then gave up as it got too dark to see the footholds after 4pm!

Mark managed to crush Lipstick RH first attempt and then Lipstick in about 4 goes in the dark and we bailed back to the pool tucking into the Krispy Kremes and then a chicken bake from Costco before more Krispy Kremes!

I think the next 2 days are going to spent stretching and detoxing from the previous week of doughnuts/red wine/pizza..etc and hopefully I can get Oppotrocity in the bag on Thursday, before getting back on In Life.

Here's a little video for some inspiration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whj9G0xhYNU

:)

Intensive

Sums up yesterdays session at Anston Stones, where I basically climbed all out for about 5 hours or longer without stopping to eat or drink, trying to beat moves into submission and see if I could be close to actually getting an ascent of anything.

It was the usual scenario with a brief warmup and a couple new 7a's. Then straight to work on the stuff that should go down in a session but somehow never quite happens.

I tried in vain to get beta off Owen for Alpha but there wasn't any forthcoming so I pulled on, went wrong handed first move and failed to get the crimp out left. Next go I went straight to it off the pull on and the problem went down this go. Rookie!

Back to my long time nemesis of Ebola and unsuprisingly, I had to work out every move again as it had been a long time since I tried it. I got thoroughly knackered working out where to have my feet for every move and almost got lucky climbing through and catching the crossover move only to fire off two damp holds whilst my legs swung back in.

I had another brief go but didn't get the small pinch and moved on.

Black Crow was the next thing that caught the eye and I got out to the two holds near the lip with my feet set on the first attempt, only for the left hand to fire off soaking wet. This was the same case on two further attempts despite futile drying attempts inbetween.

I did the moves on Dark Art apart from 1 (the only hard one), then continued my beta workout left of Bullet on some reachy eliminate line inside the arete. This was proving a bit hard, so I decided to just try something even harder and got on Revolver.

I wasn't expecting much but managed to get all of the moves apart from the crux slap over in about 1 or 2 attemps on each. The body tension fight to keep feet on the back and get them across was proving a bit hard after 5 hours of horizontal shutdowns but I was glad to have had marginal success on them.

I awoke feeling completely ruined today... so I assume it was a good workout! There is the possibility of a return journey on Thursday if John gets the day off and I think the plan is for a Sunday trip also, which means a chance to have closure on Ebola. Hopefully Black Crow will have a drier LH hold and more progress can be made on Revolver and Dark Art.

Knackered

I've recently been doing 100% of my climbing indoors and slowly upping the number of sessions per week to see how my weak carcass handles it before trying to up the intensity/difficulty.

Saturday 6th Nov

I had a great weekend down in Cardiff with Owen visiting his family and watching Wales take on a sprightly Australia side who had a terrible pack but were fantastic to watch on the attack!

My choice for MoM definitely goes to the Mexican assassin who was lightning, full of trickery and nearly scored an amazing solo try from just over halfway.


In action!

We went out for a lovely Japanese meal in the evening and had a good nights sleep ready to destroy Dinas Rock in the morning.

Sunday 7th Nov

The drive through the valleys was beautiful with a cold chill in the air and the sun rising up, slowly bringing some warmth to the day.

The rock at Dinas looked nice and solid with some good lines but sadly, every single problem we had in mind to try was suffering from heavy seepage from the cracks up above, so any effort to dry holds became futile.

Kev and Liam showed us where things went and we had a coffee break to see if the sun would be able to help out. We got back about 45 mins later and it was getting no better due to clouds coming over, so headed to Boulders in Cardiff instead.

There was a mini comp on, so we joined in for the day and really enjoyed the circuit of 30 comp problems. The whites were all easy and very well set as were most of the blacks bar a couple.

I was having major greasy skin problems on a couple of the harder ones 28, 29 and 30, so had a break and pottered about on some off circuit stuff. I managed to get 29 using toe hook, skipping two holds and a massive span compression to the volume. I walked my hands up the edge and held the swing to get both hands on top of the finishing hold in control.

Problem 30 had spat me off earlier on in the session on my 1 attempt. So I wasn't expecting to get much further after 4 hours in there. With the heaters now on full blast above the bouldering area and the strict tops off policy it was truly tropical but I managed to get through the bottom really easily and then snatch the finishing hold by going left hand over the top and holding the flag position before matching, a great problem.

We had to leave soon after so I didn't get back on to 28, which would have been ok save for greasing violently off earlier on. The vertical wall black 24 was nails and i'd love to see how its done.

Monday 8th Nov

Myself, Mark, Sean and Sam headed over to the Depot to have a try of the new comp wall area and the British team training black circuit problems.

I felt pretty battered from yesterday but managed to slowly warm up without having the usual shooting pains in both arms I used to get from 2 days on. The stop off at Asda to eat Southern Fried chicken from the hot counter was a bad shout and I felt a bit ill trying to climb! The thing I like most about the depot is the cold temperature compared to other walls, which means it suffers far less from grease issues.

To sum it up, the new comp wall is a good angle and the blacks were fierce. After getting a bit of a shut down, me and Sean just went around and tried to do the yellows instead which were good fun if you stayed away from the crimpy horrors.

I think by the end of our 5~ hour session I had climbed at least another 40-50 problems after the 40 the day before. Thats more than I did in 3 trips to font this year compressed into two sessions!

Tuesday 9th Nov

On the Monday drive back from Leeds, we had been informed that the new bouldering section at Liverpool was open, so agreed to have an afternoon rock scaling session on Tuesday.

As it turned out, I had a session with Dave and Jay as Sean was too busy playing Black Ops or sleeping. The new barrel roof is very good indeed and the problems up to v6 were nice and reasonable. Then suddenly the Black V7 was about 5 grades harder than any of the 6s. Either that or 3rd day on had taken its toll. I struggled to do more than 4 moves of what is an 8 move problem so moved on to the white and green. I got to the last move on the flash of the white but couldn't figure out how to get the last hold. I imagine it was set to put your foot inside your hand and lock in with your knee above your ear?! I eventually managed this after climbing 3 moves in to it but not from the start. The green was ok in 2 halves but I was way too gone to link it in 1.

I've felt pitifully weak in the Depot and Liverpool over the last 2 days so hopefully it is just the body getting accustomed to multiple sessions back to back, as V7 shouldn't be an issue but seemed to be the living end.

I'll probably fit another session this week, then rest up for Sunday where weather permitting, we will get out on grit and get schooled by Dolph!

Motivated

After Sunday's board session I was super psyched today for some Peak Grit action but when we awoke it was dark/gim and the forecast was for bad weather sweeping across West to East by 12. The plans were changed and I met Dave down the wall a little later on.

I was keen for another session on the 45 to see if i could be a little less of a punter today and remembering to bring some Dragons in and sack off the solutions was a great idea! I could do a few moves on screwons and my feet occasionly remained in contact with the board.

I didn't really have a structure to the session other than make a few things up and then attempt linking them once I had the moves down with timed rests of about 3 mins between each attempt.

My skin was nowhere near as bad as on Sunday so I could spend more than a second on things before exploding off. It was good for Dave to notice my susceptibility to unconsciously dropping knees or twisting on the board, so I did attempt to climb as open as possible on most things today and I noticed a little improvement.

I also littered the board with a few more 2 finger pockets and stood aghast as the Pinn cruised around the board like a silver maned Iker Pou! I don't know if magaluf is quite ready for this tempest!

Anyway I guess I haven't written anything related to the title of this post.. so in essence i am psyched to be on the 45 board again without my fingers screaming/swelling or hurting too much. My shoulder stopped aching today too which was nice and I may have another session tomorrow seeing as all trips to the cave are off!

I don't think the board climbing is going to relate to things I'm working in the cave but it may give me the extra bit of strength & body tension necessary to slay some old nemesis' this winter such as T crack and Brad Pitt and with any luck some short testpieces in switzerland and font at the end of the year.

As the light fades

It seems nonsensical to have projects anywhere other than the cave.

I'm super excited for Wednesday to see if I can get a third cave 8A/+ 3 weeks running but things will no doubt become trickier having no more daylight hours redpoints.

It's been a fairly lazy week since last Weds. I had a couple of rest days in a row and woke up with a weird shoulder niggle on the right on Saturday morning. I decided to theraband in the shop and had a light session on the stepped wall of justice in the evening, projecting the red and salmon v7's on the far right (they seem a bit poor value after 3 sessions working and no tick!).

It was feeling mildly better yesterday so I had a session on the 45 whilst watching the Pinnmeister seemingly attempt to snap all of his fingers doing pocket style ladder training on the campus board. No doubt he will rock up to the Laboratory and make a mockery of these foreign grades!

With regards to the board session, it went ok but I was having a super greasy skin session where I could literally pull on then fire off any hold at random. It was fairly productive highlighting again my weaknesses on any angle between a roof and a slab.

I definitely need to work on:

- Feet/body positioning
- Climbing more open
- pinch strength
- contact strength
- locking holds down
- getting less sweaty skin
- wear dragons/teams/v10's and not solutions that are too tight and rounded on the toe

I'll try and get a couple of sessions a week in on the board as I think my general redpoint fitness for longer problems is ok... but I'm definitely lacking in the basic strength department.

Keeping the ball rolling

I'm currently enjoying a couple days of paid rest in the shop after another good cave session on Wednesday eve.

The goal of the day was Cave Life full and after a good warmup, I managed to fall off the sloper on left wall crossing under with my right hand on the first redpoint.

The second go didn't go to well as I didn't rest long enough and fell of the pinch on left wall.

After a good 20 minutes and a bit of deadhanging, I managed to glide serenely through to the kneebar rest and milked this for about half a minute... or maybe a bit longer, then the rest felt easy as I was a lot less pumped than I expected to be. I must have gained some fitness somewhere from those hundreds of laps of In Hell to the last move!

I tried In Life ater another prolonged rest and got to both feet on left wall but didn't have the beans to get my left hand over.

I made the most of the next hour and a half of lamplight to get the end of Lou Ferrino wired without using the pocket out right. It's a lovely dynamic move to the undercut pinch and some nice compression to get into the pocket with RH, then finish as or R.A. I did give it a redpoint too but had nothing left going to the undercut pinch of RA from the start.

Injury avoidance permitting, I'll hopefully get both In Life and Ferrino sans pocket ticked off in the next few visits and can concentrate on doing something hard. I might dabble on Full Circle as I feel the need to do some challenging moves instead of more epic P.E links.

The week ahead

I've got a 3 day window off work from Monday till Wednesday so will endeavour to get out and scale some rocks. If I can't find anyone keen, I may train it to the cave on Monday and go with Owen again on Wednesday. It's hard to resist the weather proof allure of my limestone mistress when things are going well.

The following weekend, I've managed to get on board a trip with Owen to Cardif to watch Wales destroy the Aussies on Saturday. This is followed by a first ever trip to Dinas, which I am totally psyched about. It'll be a good opportunity for Kev and Liam to dismay me and realise how weak I am on bloc problems :)

Destruction

Yesterday marked the end of a mini epic siege as I closed the deal on In Hell.

Redpoint 1: I cruised through to the end feeling fresh only for a foot pop, as the ramp had got randomnly wet!

Redpoint 2: Same as the first go, things went well, caught the flake perfectly and got through to the finish, hit the finish slot and managed to crimp something, I lazily put the left heel under to clamp for the match and slid off after about a 1 second match. I was dismayed and knew it wasn't in control. Fish Head told me straight to get back down in the dirt and do it again!

Redpoint 3: I didn't rest long enough and fought my way through to the finish catching all of the holds badly and having to readjust everything. Powered out going over to the pinch

Redpoint 4: After a long 30 min rest and a 2 min re-warmup I felt terrible and thought I had burnt myself out. Eventually I got blood back in the hands and felt okish if a bit light headed. As soon as I pulled on and got through the first moves it felt good. Everything fell into place and I went into autopilot to the finish, hitting the finish slot badly but then clawing my hand into it and the good bit for the first time ever! This time I placed the heel under the roof properly and matched for an acceptable time.

I had to run out of the cave and let out a scream of joy. It was a massive high of satisfaction and relief at ending the siege.

It's strange that it went down in 2 sessions after being injured and away from the cave for nearly 3 months, seeing as I was a lot fitter at the start of the year and probably stronger. A victory for perseverance. All the effort and shut downs were most definitely worth it for that brief moment of joy.

Hopefully I can keep on a bit of a roll now and get a couple more lines ticked off in the cave before heading to Switzerland/Font and trying something a bit shorter!

Font Roundup

I was going to do this later with some pics but got bored, so will give a little summary and add some photos later.

After the first 3 days of efforts we had a rest day as everyone was suffering.

Fri 17th

After trying an early morning hit on Fourmis Rouges, I was shut down greasing off the previous sessions high point attempting to get my right foot on somewhere near my groin greasing backwards off the left sloper/right rail. The sun was up fairly early and i didn't feel warmed up at all. Big Boss also shut me down cold, so I went down the hill and managed to tick off the right eit to Bleau's Art - Tina, Hier kommt die Sahne, which is a great compression problem.

On the recommendation of Ben Farley we visited Bois Rond and Drei Zinnen in the evening ticking off some great problems, the best of which was probably La Bombe Humaine or Pantoum.

Sat 18th

Isatis was on the menu with it being another warm and sunny day. We warmed up around the Surprises area and headed over to l'Arrache Coeur. I had watched some videos so had an idea of what was required and on the first attempt, was on the last 2 crimps walking my feet around for about 15 seconds or so until I greased off backwards! What was to come was not really expected as I failed to find the knee bar for a good few attempts and scraped a lot of skin off my leg in the process! The kneebar padding idea came only when it was a little late and I was to suffer with a seeping leg wound for the next few days.

The best attempt was fingers on the top but not curled around and I gave in as my skin got too thin trying to bone on the greasy crimps. We also saw team 5.10.wad walk past with the imp sized enzo leading the way (he later crushed an 8B in this heat!)

I ticked off a few consolation problems on the flash such as abdolobotamy (which felt hard) and Surplomb Feuillete which was very good + the esoteric crack dyno la ou finit la Raie des Fesses from a low start.

Sun 19th

We had planned a rest day but me and Mike got too keen to climb again, so we ventured out to Buthiers for a short session. We flashed through all of the essentials until all the 6's were done then walked over to Magic Bus.

With a good nights sleep under their belts it proved a short visit as Sean then Mike both walked up it in fine style. On to the Partage bloc.

The two lines were truly inspiring and I got psyched for trying attention chef D'Ouevre. After padding out a fairly bombproof landing zone, the boots were on and I made my way up through some nice Gaston finger locks/layaways. There was a brief foot pop out of a small pocket but I managed to hold on and fight through to the end. A very good problem.

The last trip of the night was a rematch on a non wet Lady Big Claques which unsurprisingly felt a lot easier this time and I got up it on the first attempt. Another classic 7a.

Mike got close but kept forgetting his sequences and it then became a bit too dark to see anything.

Mon 20th

Apremont was the not so wise choice, as the sun was high in the sky early on and beating down in what was probably the hottest day of the trip.

I lounged about in the shade with Hoppo eating as the others warmed up. It was too hot in the Ju Jitsu area so we went up to Science Friction which was still in the shade. I set up the camera and watched with much mirth as Mike, Sean and Mark all tackled this desperate piece of choss.

Sean did a controversial left hand version which is about 5b but the main event eluded him. Mike basically got set to grab the top and lost balance a couple of times and Mark nearly lost the will to live!

Sensing a need for some achieving, I took them over to Fleur de Rhum and mentioned that 'even Millso did this one', so they knew it required nothing more than some boning and pulling with minimal footwork!

It was also in the shade which helped a lot and one by one they all took it down including a random Norwegian guy built like a tank who had come with us up from the Science Friction area. You could see the fear in Mike Psyche as he spotted miles below this gargantuan man praying for him not to come hurtling down.

We moved around the block to look at Hercules. Me and Sean got absolutely spanked for quite a while until Mike psyche had the vision and using his new sequence, we just about got across for this most desperate of 7a ticks.

We had a brief look at Egoiste but it was super sweaty and nobody could hold on to the arete, so we bailed further across to have a quick go on Marginal Droite. I got to the last move on the flash psyche then greased off backwards in what were terribly humid conditions. The rock had retained the days heat and there was zero wind. With another 2 poor efforts, I finally unleashed the overcrimp and crimped every single greasy sloper into submission in an act which would surely have horrified (if not suprprised) Huthwaite from our earlier grit days out!

Tues 21st

Me and Sean took a rest day and followed the others around Cuisiniere. I pointed them at problems to try and they didn't get on too well, so I scoured the memory banks and remembered Bizarre Bizarre. After really struggling on the first 2 attempts, Mark called upon the power of Noor and campussed his way up some non holds inbetween the big ones and was on top in a flash. Mike struggled with the guppy, so had a go on Karma instead which ended at the first hold :D

We then went over to Petit Paradis to have a look at Fat Woman and after working a sequence or two, Mike managed an ascent as it went very dark. Mark struggled with the greasy lip this time and had to admit defeat.

Weds 22nd

Feeling stronger than 10 bulls, me and Hoppo decided today was the day to start achieving. We managed to get out the campsite before 9.30am and hit Cuvier hard. As we warmed up in the Marie Rose area, we came across an odd couple, one of whom looked like a body building penguin from Hull and the other a bit like a balding rings gymnast. They seemed quite friendly so we spent the morning in their company getting the lowdown.

As it was already boiling hot aka 25 degrees, it was now or never. We went to the Carnage bloc and padded it out, beat it with some towels and started the final attempts. On my first go on Berezina, I finally got matched on the slimps, had a bit of a brain freeze and went left hand again to a terrible slopey nothing and peeled off. Sean had a couple of goes on Carnage warming into the moves and I failed to match again for about 5 attempts.

Mark then pointed out that my left foot wasn't flagging to the correct place. Upon this small detail, great success was achieved as I got the match and then shook my way through the font 5 top out as directed by Lee. It was really nice to get this classic ticked in this heat after the shutdown in March and April.

Clearly inspired, Sean then dispatched Carnage in the most static fashion I have seen.

We then bailed to Milly for Lunch as the heat rose to 26.

Not finished for the day, we went to Sablons and I was made up to get Modulor done and then Jokari droite. An epic shutdown occured on the 7a+ arete uphill and we called it a day.

Thurs 23rd

The last day was spent at 95.2 in baking conditions but we sought out the shade and were once again rewarded.

After trying Ange naif righthand (7a+?!) and never getting closer than blind slaps around the lip, we decided to try the harder original version. I must say it was a surprise to flash it, and it felt about 7a! I thought the dyno looked a fair bit trickier having watched Neil on it in one of his videos, so tried this next and stuck it first try also! I've never done a 7c dyno but plenty of 7a+ to 7b's that felt harder than this. I then rounded off the stupid jumping with the superb double dyno Jafesse Connexion Airline to the left.

Mike psyche then destroyed the original Naif after doing some negative touches to the top and we moved around the corner.

I fought through the greasy heat and got Jete Michaud, then Bloc a Bertrand ticked off and we went to Rudeboy. Mike did Duel dans la lune and we worked out the direct version pieds dans la lune only for a massive thunder shower to put an end to it.

After another lunch stop in Milly, we checked out a steep cave in Elephant after Scott had recommended it as a wet weather venue. The book didn't really give us a clue about what went where so we just did laps on the brilliant tufa line to the lip and then attempted the left exit believing this to be a stout 7a+ called Equivogue (turns out it is 7b+). We aped about doing some bathangs wishing we had the core of Steve McClure and went back the campsite.

Summary

Team Rich&Mark = 82 points
Team Sean&Mike = 32 points

Schooling over till next time ;)

3 Days on

Hello from the forest.

The team are currently still in bed after a brutal 3 days of slab shutdowns and power failures on numerous font classics.

Seeing as we need a rest day I'll do a quick recap of whats been going on...

Mon 13th

We got to Maisonbleau around 10.30am feeling a bit white after no sleep since 7am on Sunday morning and immediately went and crashed out, managing about 3 hours sleep before the psyche to climb got too high.

Buthiers was the venue of choice being just down the road and we warmed up over at Tennis area. I quickly sandbagged Sean and Mike by doing a lap of Marmelade (a terriblly sandy piece of choss) and laughed as they flailed. I went back on to try get it on film and got shutdown too! haha.

Myself and Sean were really keen for Nemesis as it looked piss on bleau.info so we padded it out and then received a lesson for about 30 minutes until we had to wave the white flag ashamed of our efforts (we felt too short and are both 6"2!).

We headed over to the Piscince area and got on with some classic easier lines from the essentials guide and then padded out Lady Big Claques. The flash was going well until a violent grease off and me and Mike got no higher than on our first goes! Ben Farley is a wad.

Deciding we were just too strong for this shit we bailed over to the grotty roof of Magic Bus and I managed to almost get the flash only to scrape a pad hitting the break. It was in the bag 2nd try and I willed on Sean, Mike and Mark to get another ascent but sadly it was almost pitch black and we were all fatigued.

Tues 14th

Rejuvinated from a good nights sleep, we headed to Petit Bois and wandered around trying to find some non green warmups. They were to be found just uphill from La Baleine and were all really good mantle topouts that left your elbows begging for mercy!

We retreated down the hill and got Big Jim padded out. I filmed as the others all got to the last move but didn't commit to the slap. I got bored of heckling, so booted up and got the retro flash, then another lap to get it on film.

They declared it tweaky... and I quote from Sean Hoppo "I didn't come to climb this pex hill shit!".

We went over to La Baleine and everyone agreed it was a stunning line. After dropping the rail on go number 1, Sean suggested a higher right foot and hey presto, next go it was done, for what I think is one of my top 5 problems in font.

Mike psyche came the closest to another ascent but it didn't quite happen.

We then hit Elephant as it stays light a little later than most venues.

We all did Lepreaux and le Voie Michaud and I managed Lepreaux Direct after realising the big sidepull wasn't in.

I recalled Barre Fixe looking nice and steep as well as soft for 7b+, so ran over there and got a bit of a left hand tweak form trying to crank on a mono. I changed sequence and got to the slap to the jug and found this hard, so had to refine once more. It went down 3rd go using some twisty moves and a bit of a girly scream to the jug.

With the moon fully out, me and Mark found Le Coeur and I booted up in the dark. I pulled on and crossed over to get the heart, matched it and scrambled my feet up on to smears to stab into the hanging seam. I campussed over with my left and then mauled the top not being able to see any footholds! A victory flash for blind thuggery.

Wed 15th

Feeling a bit wrecked from the first 2 days, we had a slower start, mincing around carrefour and buying some fly team shoes in Decathlon. New Feel shoes could be the greatest bargain of all time for a mere 9 euros per pair! I'll get a photo uploaded in due course. T Mills would approve.

We warmed up at Cuvier and then watched in disbelief as Mike almost flashed Marie Rose only to punter the 2nd to last move. He then watched me cruise up it in fine style and dispatched it with ease. Sean followed and Mark was havingtrouble with his dodgy fingers on the left crimp/pinch high up, so opted to leave it for now.

We headed over to do Red 35 and thought it would be in the off piste 6a and above guide but turns out it is 5+ even though it took 100% effort to get up.

I decided to find a 7a that the team could ascend and goaded them round the corner into trying Pif Paf, a fun looking double dyno to two slopers and an easy top out.

Lady luck was on our side and after myself and sean scrambled up it, Mike psyche (the most undynamic man in climbing) levitated serenely up to the slopers and cruised the top. It was left for Mark to complete the team ascent and after a couple of hairy moments, he was stood atop but paying the price with a couple of bloody tips :()

It was a bit warm at Cuvier so we headed down the path to Bleau's Art to find it in the shade and in prime condition. I patted chalk on to the wonderful curving grips and then booted, chalked and flashed it to my amazement.

Mike then got his crush on and walked up it on about his 3rd try. The others were resting and saving skin, so we headed up to have a look at the Big 4. I put pads underneath Watchtower and chalked up but upon feeling the right hand pull on hold, I decided a split tip was not ideal on day 3 of 12, so shifted over to have a quick go on Fourmis Rouges to see if it was realistic.

It felt a bit weird and off balance on the first 2 goes, but on go number 3 I managed to get up the crackline and jump out to the top left pinch. I started to get my right foot on the smear to rock in to the top but both hands pinged off with grease and a lack of energy. I only had another go and was powering out matching before the jump to the pinch, so we called it a day and went home for beer and an excellent chilli.

Apologies for the lack of pictures as we have no cable to get them off the camera and on to the laptop. There is a fair bit of footage so far, so hopefully we can climb something of note and make it an entertaining watch!

Gearing up for font Trip #3

After the recent misery of injury troubles I'm not quite out of the woods yet but have managed to climb 4 days on in Dartmoor without pain and only minor swelling that went away after a day.

The trip!

Friday 27th August

Myself and Mark left my house at the unearthly hour of 6am and sped, via the Wirral to a sunny Dartmoor (partaking in some mid morning pastry eating on the way).

We spent the half day at Bonehill in blazing heat and took a while to get accustomed to balancing/open handing everything and avoiding slapping or pulling!

The best of the problems were a wall to the right of the Wave and the very good almost highball Rippled wall.

Saturday 28th

We hit up Easdon rocks on the recommendation of O and on first appearance it was all a bit underwhelming after fighting up through mud and gauze.

While Bex and Mark decided not to bother, I got psyched and did some of the warmups. The rock was a bit scrittly and the top outs dirty but the climbing was ok. The highlights were a V3 sitter from a flake into a traverse on large shelves and wonderful chickenhead features and Easdon Crack.

Easdon Arete was the line of the crag but I got shut down on the move to the small ball feature. I couldn't believe it was 7a+ but discovered I should have bounced my left foot up once the heel was in place. I'd love to try this when it's a bit colder.

The second crag of the day was Hound Tor. A bit poor problem wise I thought but Prowed and the stand to Alan Smith were worthwhile. I thought the sitter would be pretty straight forward but struggled to pull on for more than a couple of seconds and couldn't move either my left or right hand towards the next hold! I didn't try for long not wanting to injure the right middle again.

Sunday 29th

The best day of the trip was definitely the visit to Combeshead Tor. The walk in was long but very picturesque with some points of interest such as some abbey ruins and very nice views up at the top. There was a nice wild and isolated vibe up at the boulders, with just a few sheep and the wild horses for company.

I would definitely recommend a visit if you are in the area and after an easy circuit of quality problems. Sharp arete, The easy cracks on the Hanging Flakes boulder, Hanging Groove, Hanging Flakes, The Sloper problem and the dyno from undercuts were all very good.

Monday 30th

We finished off our Dartmoor trip with a visit to Saddle Tor in what turned out to be the most boiling day of the trip. The others were feeling a bit lethargic after 3 days of skin grating circuit training. So I once again got the psyche on and warmed up with some solo's and the great Bjorn again. This was followed by some scary aretes and a cool board style 7a+ eliminate to the right of Bjorn. I got fully shut down on Dancing Queen and Foal's Chopper sliding off what I think were the holds?! It all felt desperate in the full sun.

We moved downhill to the Hidden traverse area and did a team ascent of the traverse with the sketchy topout adding to the entertainment.

The best problem was definitely the wonderful Rich's Tick, that involved an easy span, some body tension and a lovely bit of grit style wrestling to conquer the hanging lip.

The trip was rounded off with a trip into Widecombe to enjoy an amazing cream tea before we headed back to Liverpool in what seemed a never ending traffic jam... although I did enjoy the stop off at Burger King to purchase a fine Aberdeen Angus & Bacon cheeseburger.

Saturday 4th September

After coming out the other side of a 4 day trip of easy volume, I felt ready to test the waters further and went with a large scouse contingent to Newbiggin in the South Lakes.

It was a beautiful setting if a bit lowball. After a brief warmup of 3 move wonders, I managed to bag a fast ascent of Slap arete and repeated it using a total of 3 methods whilst Hoppo flailed and declared it shit!

We moved to the Fridge which felt like climbing out of a phone box without touching the sides. This featured a really nice first move and good body tension compression afterwards. I just about flashed it and then watched Hoppo do a controversial heel toe lock version ;) Owen, Andy and Chessie Si all followed with equally fast repeats.

The main event of the day for me was the wonderful Ingleborough Wall. After flapping about like a dying seal, Ben F showed the way with a double inverted palm footless mantle of death, getting his belly on and then slapping to the distant break. He added the sit next go and declared it Castle Hill 6C+/7A (reaffirming my gut feeling that I should never venture here!).

After a bit of a battle I eventually got it done from standing. A brief 5 min rest and I was lay prone on top once again, only for my left palm to ping off... I fired off the lip scraping all the way to land in a heap of pads with a girly scream.

The heckles of the rabble were all that were necessary to fire up the psyche and it was dispatched next go with a desperate lunge for the top break as both hands came off and I balanced perilously.

We moved on to Dalton to go find Umbongo. The 500m walk turned out to be more like 1.5k but what we found was not too bad. Ben walked up it. I tried a spoony method and had to swap to ben's method to get it next try as did Sean. Owen and Chessie weren't feeling the love and opted to abuse.

Fully schooled in the South Lakes rules. We then did 5 methods between the 3 of us to ensure at least 1 tick that Greg couldn't call us on!

It was a good day out and my finger isn't too bad today. Hopefully pushing it a little each time will get it back to full fitness by the end of my font trip and I can look forward to getting back in the cave without fearing popping or tearing.

What to do

Well I've not really been up to much save for continuing the weights/core/pressups sessions and tentative climbing sessions...

Tuesday 17th

I had a trip out to the Roaches/Ramshaw which consisted of walking around wet boulders with Davos Deeros providing the tour in the mist and rain. We soon gave up and made a trip to Awful Walls Stoke.

The centre was quite nice and I basically stuck to easy circuits downstairs before moving on to some jug hauling upstairs. The highlight of the day was hot chocolate Muffin and Ice Cream afterwards! The finger was ok the next day, encouraging.

Thursday 19th

I hit up Woodwell and Warton with O, Sean and Sam. I stuck to soloing the highball v0-v2 routes whilst the others played on the steep stuff.

Sean had a great day climbing his first 7c+ with an impressively smooth ascent of Goode Poison and then to my surprise he totally crushed E-Fix on the flash. One to watch!

Owen should have climbed E-Fix but had trouble converting the moves into a tick and we moved over to Woodwell

I gave Hoppo the beta for AOSD and then went off to scare myself on more highball vo-v4's along the path to the right of Tom's roof.

Sunday 22nd

I had a short session after work on the step wall repeating the easy shit up to blues then flashing a black v5/6 which had big slopey holds bar 1 RH crimp. I felt ok after and moved upstairs to do some beastmakering minus the RH middle, followed by core/pullups/pressups.

I woke up this morning and my finger feels really shit again and inflamed, almost as bad as after that cave session about 3 weeks ago which was when I last really climbed. It's frustrating beyond belief and I don't know whether to sack off doing any climbing until the 13th Sep and just do Yellow circuits for 2 weeks. I've already paid for accomodation in Dartmoor next weekend, so will probably end up filming and drinking for 4 days. I don't know what the best thing to do is apart from rest now as I've tried gradual stress rather than completely stopping and it hasn't shown any sign of improving.

I've read One Move too many and come to the conclusion it could be any number of things! Tendovaginitis/sheath tears/small fracture/Synovial fluid overload...etc

I might try and go the doctor's tomorrow but fear I will just get a generic 'rest and ibuprofen' answer.

WWLD

I've been on a bit of a low for the last couple of weeks patiently waiting for my dodgy finger to sort itself out so I can begin rehab climbing without reprecussions. It has been assessed by the ever helpful Matt Donnelly and he says the extensor hood + some other bits below have been antagonised greatly by my actions!

I was going to head out today with Owen, Sam and Sean to the S Lakes to try my hand at some V0-V2's at Woodwell middle as well as getting some footage of the others but the rainy start and my finger still not feeling good when closed put paid to this.

I was about to make another cup of tea and read a book, when I was suddenly hit with a massive motivation to return to climbing stronger and in better shape than ever before and sort out my posture/shoulders/elbows at the same time... No more moping around!

I put the powerbar in place, got the weights out as well as 2 large novels and got to work...

Thought a good training circuit would do wonders if I can keep it up 3-4 days a week while I wait to be able to bear down.

Started off with weights:
3 sets of 10 side raises; 3 sets of 10 front raises; 3 sets of 12 curl into shoulder press; 3 sets of 12 bicep curls; 3 sets of 12 bent over rows (on each arm for all)

Then moved on to a Pressup/pullup/leg raises circuit:
- utilising the 2 novels with fingers over the edge to avoid pressing on my dodgy finger I was able to do deep pressups pain free!
- Did 15 pressups/15 pullups/15 leg raises then 12/8/6/4/2 without stopping and then collapsed feeling slightly sick

I'm so out of shape that gains will be easily had, which is further motivation to now stick with this. It would be nice to get rid of the ill looking hunchback physique and draw inspiration from the great man:



Inspired by Louey I enjoyed a fantastic lunch and then began to read Tolstoy's War and peace in the back garden as the sun shone through the clouds and it turned from sketchy rain to really quite pleasant. I had a snooze on the reclining garden chair and when I awoke there was only one thing on my mind...

I hit up a filter coffee and watched Between the trees and was massively inspired once again by the sheer beastliness of Ty and decided 1 session a day is pitiful. I grabbed my shoes & chalkbag and made the 1hr 15 bus and walk journey to the wall to have a great beastmaker & pullup bar session, managing to get a good workout without having to use the finger of doom!

A request to Maisonbleau for a weeks booking in late September has just been sent, so hopefully it's still available and font trip #3 will be ON!

On the Brink

Of many things

- In Hell (if it stays dry and stops condensing/seeping damn it!)
- Injury (as my middle finger on right hand is inflamed and swelled at the middle joint and above)
- Getting too psyched

Since my last post i have had a couple of fun days out:

Tues 27th July

Went to a certain cave... It was good as always but sadly it had been condensed all morning and P Rob was leaving in the scorching heat having just casually warmed down with Pilgrimage from the finish of R.A! Such an inspiration.

In Hell was immediately sacked being wet at the start, so I went for a heavy volume session doing laps of the lip problems and then trying to repeat Trigger Cut giving beta to Mike and Sean as well as the boys from Denbigh. Kept failing to hold the shotrail slap but I think it just needed to be a bit colder for me to feel more stable on the holds. Played on Halfway but was lacking the core, so moved on to Clyde.

Had a go of the drop in move to get both hands into Trigger cut but found it desperate still! Nowhere near holding anything. The start was feeling really easy though and I almost held the cross under move to the sharp jug/slot a few times. It was super greasy on the RH pinch so I was pinging off as I was trying to get a lock on the slot.

The session finished with a fitness training attempt on the Clever Beaver sitter into Beaver Cleaver and I felt miraculously fresh on the slap to the lip and the drop into the undercut. The rest felt easy and I think it might actually be 7b+ and not the 7c I had assumed in the past.

Wednesday 28th July

I headed over to Churnet with some cockney twat to meet up with some pikey from Stoke. (who claimed to be a scouser) and we got a thoroughly weak warmup at Cottaging rocks, a wonderful wall of pocketed sandstone. I felt utterly terrible from the 5 hour cave session of Tuesday but persevered.

After the intro we hit some esoteria, first stop The Duck Billed Platypus. I watched the other two have a flail attempt with low feet and then suggested the obvious heel/lock method. Ben wasn't sure, so I slid under the roof and then dispatched it with a wonderful right arm lock to a good crimp and then float a slap to a big sloping jug and campus to the top.

Ben showed us the Breathe problem to go and return to the duck (which he crushed with no witnesses ;)) and me and Dave got spanked on this alleged soft 7a standup! The sloper was truly minging in the humidity and then it began to rain so we bailed to Wright's rock.

We made Ben go uphill first and let him get soaked trousers in the heather whilst we tip toed up behind. It was horrid up top with a lot of humidity/rain and shit loads of flies! The other's stopped at Wright's Unconquerable whilst I ran across hoping to get away from the flies but they were even worse at Wright's rock main. I went back and tried the aforementioned with Ben only to find it desperate to use footholds in the roof after the footledge. Then it struck to just match the middle of the crack and dyno to the lip. After doing the move it was fine from the start and a lovely horizontal leg kick after hanging the juggy sloper on the lip! What a cool problem although a bit stiff for 7a?!

I finished off with a sketchy onsight of Rocket Ride, my fingers really hurt and the white flag was waved.

Sat 31st July

My RH middle finger was well massive in the morning and couldn't straighten or close fully but didn't seem to hurt when I gripped on my left arm in different positions so I thought I'd go give it a go anyway and I could always heckle from the director's chair (easycamp) if the hand didn't feel good.

The cave was in good nick apart from the pinch on R.A. being really wet. This was probably a good thing if I wasn't to explode my finger so i did a long slow warmup and then thought of something to try. Broken Heart has always been really hard for me with the heel-toe working about 1 in 20 attempts. Thankfully today, on the first go, it stuck easily, i got the undercut and snatched through the moves to arrive at the break quite pumped, I got a coupel moves into Lip Service and then fell off. Good warmup go!

A couple of goes later and I fell off after holding the diagonal fingerjug before the top jug. I had a word and then destroyed it! (thanks to Owen for pointing out some minor foot beta to do the last move). It still felt as hard as Lou F to me and is clearly not 7C unless they both are? To prove a point I had a 5 min rest then did a lap of Lou F! I felt good. Tried the moves on Ferrino sans pocket but the wet undercut made it a bit tricky today.

More monkeying around and I had refined the beta on Sam's finish (still using the handswap on Clever Beaver sloper but crucially a left toe hook to release my feet across and into the jump position to the block sidepull). With the new foot beta, I managed to just about haul my way up the last 2 moves feeling like I could have dropped off at any point. It was a nice fight and a good bonus to finish off the day... or was it.

I was pretty psyched so tried to do on the minute laps of every lip problem from a stand and got up about 8 of them before getting fully shut down on left wall low feeling a bit nauseous.

Sean had a good session getting Lip Service and Parisella's original ticked off as well as making massive progress on lou F with the lanky beta.

On to today and my right middle finger is very very big and tweaky, so I'll not risk it and have a few days off and do the hot and cold water baths I started off on last night.

It'd probably be wise to speak to the Donnelly but I feel a bit cheeky having already had a bad posture and trapped medial nerve in left arm assessment only the other day. It's hopefully nothing too serious as it didn't hurt to climb in open hand or half crimp positions but is tender on top and to the sides of the middle knuckle.

Need to be patient for it to heal and think of the bigger picture... even though I have a day off on Tuesday and conditions are looking good! :()

Inspiration and goal setting

After last summer's trip to Magic Wood with Andy and Mark I got back home really excited to push on a bit and get strong/start climbing harder.

I look at 8a.nu and see other people climbing multiple 8th grade problems as if they are nothing! I wonder how to get to this level of ability, to get things done in short time and wish for this to happen to my climbing!

The problem is training hard enough/knowing what specifically to train and still getting things ticked whilst attempting to head up the exponentially steep hill called grade progression.

I've had a pretty poor year so far and managed maybe 1 problem I consider 'hard' (for me at least). Injuries have been commonplace and I don't even feel like I have trained enough to improve. My only level of benchmarking is doing laps of things in the cave and getting closer on my year goal of font 8a+.

I had probably my best session in a long time on Tuesday dropping the last hold on In Hell 3 times in a row and once not being able to hang the slot long enough to match. I don't know whether I am actually improving or just super conditioned to this set of moves. I fear becoming a one trick pony and getting shut down hard in Magic Wood come September. I feel like I don't deserve to get things done if I aren't cranking out laps on the 50 deg board and sweating/fingerboarding till failure..etc but I seem to break down and require a lot of rest if I attempt this.

I think I read somewhere on fit club from Simon questioning if the best policy is to beat things into submission or take time off and rest/regroup. I am always unsure of this. Should I just train hard and treat outdoor days leading up to a trip as active rest days and ignore feeling weak and not getting things done hoping to hit peak strength come trip time. Or should I always take double rest days and try climbing all out 99% of the time??

Anyway, I apologise for the above incoherent ramblings.

I watched Core again last night and really enjoyed watching the Italian bouldering which brought back good memories from the brief trip to Sassofortino and Amiata that me and Tom enjoyed a couple years ago. It's a beautifully made film and I appreciate how he has used the shorts of Shawn Rabatou to give some structure to the film as he picks the different items out of the claw machine representative of the segments. I know a lot of people aren't fans of the Fryburger's methods but I enjoyed this as much as Pure, which I put on straight afterward to watch the Swiss bouldering.

With renewed enthusiasm, the swiss hitlist was re-wrote and I think if I can get a couple of 8th grade problems (chiefly Octopussy and Astronautenfieber) done I would be made up. I'd love to get something like Jack's broken heart, Electric Boogie or Voigas done but am scared to set goals too high and waste energy failing when I would have more chance on something easier. I guess the best way to look at it, is that it's all training for the cave anyway ;)

Roped shenanigans and the Ondra Show

I've felt pretty uninspired of late, so not felt an urge to post an update on things.

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I had read a couple of books (9 out of 10..etc) and got motivated to try something new that I was crap at, so bought the various paraphernalia required to sport climb and got involved.

26th&27th June

A couple of weeks back, I had a great trip to Yorkshire with Dave Pin, Holger, Fiona and Aefe. We spent a day at Yew Cogar which was a fantastic piece of rock featuring wonderful tufa features and routes that were not too long to be doable without resting on a rope!

The highlight was definitely puntering my way up Cruisin for a Bruisin on about the 4th redpoint of the day screaming for the last couple of moves as the I caught the holds the wrong way and generally fought like I have never had to before. It all looked a bit pathetic after Dave had cruised it and then done a casual lap of the 7C to the left.



The walkout looked epic as we set off back up the massive hill but with heads down and stomping, it didn't end us.

On the way to the free camping spot we dropped in at what appeared to be a nice, quiet village pub. Holger had his reservations after popping his head in through the front door but Dave insisted that "you never get a bad pint in Yorkshire".

We tentatively entered the front door and walked up to what appeared to be a bar/reception desk with a peculiar looking man behind it. Dave erred in asking whether it was a pub to which the landlord replied "do you think it looks like a pub?". He then said he had some ales and we asked what he had;

Barman: "well what do you want"
Dave: "Well what have you got"
Barman: "Well what do you want"
A perplexed Dave: "Well that kind of depends on what you have got?!"

We noticed a lack of taps on the bar and the guy insisted he had a barrel of Timothy Taylors under the counter but asked that we don't watch while he prepares them.



We laugh nervously and try and look elsewhere as Holger sneaks outside clearly ill at ease. The guy sprays the pints into the glasses direct from the barrel using a hose and then asks "how much would a round like this cost in Liverpool?". Dave replies "£3.50 and 2 bags of crisps". The guy seems to have no idea of prices, so we hand him a tenner and shift uneasily past the stuffed fox and back outside.

The pint's were clearly not TT's and were a pretty potent homebrew that had no doubt been maturing in that barrel for many a year!

We hit Kilnsey the next day and I managed to get up a few more things such as Sidekick, Nerve Ending and after Dave had cleaned it up and crushed it, I failed on the end of Fit of Peak.

We then went to a pub with a big screen along with Pete Robins and Rach who we met at Kilnsey earlier and watched as Holger's home nation made us look like schoolboys. it was quite funny to watch Holger cheer each goal and then sink back down into his chair as the locals looked to be ready to lynch the imposter!



29th June

I returned to Kilnsey with Hoppo, The Pinnmeister, John M and Holger feeling a bit weak in comparison.

The warm up was a few pullups down the far end of the crag and a lucky first redpoint ascent of Fit of Peak for my goal of the year of sport 7b+ (soft 7c YYFY?!). Hoppo should have done it but didn't quite manage, so we moved leftwards and I got on Comedy. The flash attempt was over a bit abruptly when I rather lazily put the right toehook in under the big undercuts and didn't really place it, so I span off when reaching for the holds near the 2nd clip.

With this amazing attempt out of the way, I managed to get up to the cigar move on the 2nd try and run out of gas. Short rest, then piss the move and get to the top ok. No hard moves but strangely it felt hard to me!

I had a couple more goes but fell off that same move both times after clipping the 4th. It should hopefully go down next visit and I may have even developed the fitness to do an extra move by then.

3rd&4th July

I went with the Hoppo family scal and Youngy to go and watch the biggest beast in the world (+ others). We managed to do fairly well getting free camping and the Hoppo's even better by sneaking in to the event through various rivers/bushes without paying in. I figured it better to just pay the £5 entry and not feel paranoid all day about being ejected!

The qualifiers went well for the Brits and 7 made it through to the semi's. Me, Youngy and Sean were torn between watching the Kilian/Ondra show and watching the women's problem 5 with the crowd pleasing splits move finale!

The Semi final was good to watch and Ondra didn't dissapoint... his gangly frame, long neck, crazy hair and awkward appearance were everything we had hoped to see and then he totally destroyed everything.

We whooped with delight as he let out a magnificent ostrich like power scream and booked his place in the final. Kilian was anything but on form. He struggled and declared the problems shit before walking off a couple of them with over a minute still left on the clock. I had been hoping to watch the final face off but it wasn't to be.

During the interval, I was persuaded to enter into the dyno comp which all seemed a bit pointless seeing as Skyler had turned up but it turned out to be quite fun and I was amazed at how far away the hold is when pulling on to the start! I made it through to about the last 6 at 2.45 (thanks to Lily for lending the chalk) and couldn't imagine how to get the extra 40cm of jump! We then watched him crush a casual 2.80 with a dodgy arm to take home his cheque which I imagine barely covered the flight back home.

The final was the ondra show as he dispatched the first 3 problems with ease. The only blip came on the final problem as the crowd went a bit quiet after 2 failed attempts. He sorted the move and cruised to the top to secure another victory and we went wild :D

last week

Inspired by the events of the weekend, I had a couple of indoor bouldering sessions on Monday and Wednesday. Monday was a quick crush of the new step wall set flashing all but 2 and then getting them on lock down. The arm felt a bit sore the next day so I didn't risk the routes with Matt and Tom and chose to sink some beers whilst watching the first WC semi.

I went to Rockover Climbing with Sean and Mike psyche on Weds and was really impressed by the new centre. The comp wall was nice and wide with plenty of light and no risk of kids running past underneath!

Sadly, The power was well and truly not on as I got spanked on most of the comp wall ascending maybe 6 out of 15 I tried. i think it's a combination of the crazy humidity on those crimps, weak arms and a lack of technique but it has let me know what needs working on before Switzerland in September. When we moved over to the steep roof corner things were a lot better as I could climb the green and yellows again with it being more cave/crypt-like in style! Note to self: Stick to roofs as walls and barrel walls are desperate.

I worked all weekend and enjoyed a diet of pizza, burgers, beer and more beer watching the 3rd place play off and the final which was a bit flat. Really glad to have watched Spain win after the Dutch played a rather cynical game and gutted how I dropped away in the UKB fantasy football league falling from a solid top 2 place a couple weeks ago to 6th... I will never disregard Diego Forlorn ever again!

(Cheers to Dave Pinnington photography for the above images!)