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.