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!