Normal Service is resumed!

After a good few trips out culminating on a swift ascent of the Lotus, I was expecting to polish off yet more unfinished business over the last few days but rather than prolonging this perfect prep for swiss purple patch... it was back to the usual!

Sat 12th March

It was just a day trip on Sat and I picked Fish Head up from the Wirral en route to the majestic Orme.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves for a fair while, then Ru turned up along with the brothers log.

To sum up the session, I puntered up on the handswap bit on Broken Sam about 5 times then moved on to Pilgrim.

I sacked off all the heel sourcery I had been told about and just got my hands as far along as possible before dragging a right foot under the roof, cutting loose and doing a pull up. This kills most of the swing and you stab a right toe across, lock to a sloper and then lock deeper to get to the slot (all off the very greasy left crimpy pinch). After figuring out this new method, I managed to get across the arch a few times but had nothing left on Rockatrocity after the pockets. Small gains = long term victories I guess!

Dylog was looking beastly strong on the Greenheart and if he can keep getting down on a regular basis, I can see him getting it ticked off this year, which would be a fine effort!

Folog was mainly trying everything but mostly Trigger Cut, as was Ru trying to do laps and then link in the Halfway house start (which looks pretty desperate for someone of his height, good job he's an animal!)

Mon 14th March

Me and Sean made our way over to Anston to meet up with Mick and Tony and turned up fashionably late around 1pm instead of 11.30. Mick was busy getting the beastly pair of ned and dave on his white light variations to get some grade confirmations and making the Tenayas stick like glue to seemingly invisible heel hooks.

Tony got me and Sean to try out some of his Tenaya range as we warmed up over on Ebola buttress.

After doing some of the easier stuff, i did a quick retro flash of Alpha using the laceup Tenayas which felt pretty good if a little stiff compared to the Green Hornets that have been in use the last 2 weeks.

After Sean showed me the way on the start to Resonate (the low end 7C+ to the left of Ebola), I contrived to punter the last move about 15 times on the redpoint until the skin got too destroyed in the pockets and the left bicep gave up pulling! I got a full 3 fingers on the top hold but slid off not being able to hang on enough for a match, so hopefully it will go down next trip.

We moved over to Duke's buttress only to find it strangely wet from meltwater. Mick was a bit tired, so we called it a day and me and Sean decided to make a mad dash to Raven Tor.

We managed to get lost down the wrong roads and valley for about 30 minutes until we fluked our way there. A savage warmup on Too Hard for Mark Leach and then straight on to Ben's Roof. I had tried it a while ago with Ken and John M and had fell off trying to stab my left foot across on the flash. I got the crux moves done again through on to the sidewall and had a 2 minute rest. It was now fully dark, so Sean had to guide me with a headtorch. I got through all the bottom and into the kneebar ok, brushed the right hand dry and got the good crimp. I bumped the left hand up to another undercut and got a bicycle in and reached back for the thin slot. I got hold of it but only on the edge as an open crimp and not into the slot. It was absolute agony as I felt it pressing through my already thin tips and had to let go. I had one more redpoint in the dark and ran out of steam on the same move.

Instead of staying over we decided to make a trip to Llandudno and sleep in the van on Marine Drive. In a bid to get there in good time on clear roads, I was a bit over enthusiastic on the gas and we got pulled over on the M56 to be issued with a fine and 3 points, slightly devastating, I felt like a criminal!

By the time we had bought some beers and croissants for breakfast and parked up on the Marine Drive, the chippies were all closed, so we had to make do with a sketchy KFC meal.

Tues 15th March

We had a suprisingly good kip in White Beauty and had a lie in till about 10.30am. A coffee and civilised shit in Dudno were followed by the purchase of a very scal-chic Umbro England polo shirt for a flim... and we were ready for action!

We warmed up all alone and I got back on the redpoint on Broken Sam, only to fail around the wet handswap hold which was not only condensed out but in the rain too. The best go was about redpoint 4, where I swapped hands and got out to the right hand pinch only for my left hand to fire off the sloper claw.

By this time the cave was full of wads but the super beast of the day award had to go to Dobbin who dispatched Trigger Cut with consumate ease and did another lap for the cameras to make sure it were no fluke. ;)

I put a bit more time in on Pilgrim and even had a very unproductive play on Louis Armstrong which didn't last too long. Going to need to hit the gym and grow some biceps for this one.

Training for Swizzy pt 2

There hasn't been any 'training' to speak of, mainly climbing!

With the good weather carrying over from the previous week, we got out another couple of times.

Sat 5th March

Myself, Sean and Darren from the Hangar went to the S Lakes as it looked promisingly dry with a bit of cloud cover, which meant no furnace-like conditions on the Shelterstone Face.

We had a good warmup on the Red Wall and hit the main block.

I gave Darren a tour of some of the easier lines on there and warmed up for Wheelbarrow by climbing the Groove and the Pit problem start, although I found this hard! Sean pointed out that I put my right foot too far around, which was making it harder.

With a rest and this advice in mind, I put my heel much closer up to my hand and hey presto, the move felt much easier. I got past the crossunder and 1 arm unwind into the jug out right then climbed to the lip only for my right hand to fire off.

Sean then waltzed along it with a bit of a grunt to top out. I was suitably inspired and booted up once again. The start went well and before I knew it, I was topping out with energy to spare... which bodes well for Pacman!

Sadly my right shoulder felt quite heavy/clunky so I stopped immediately. The slightly violent nature of the slap move was obviously not ideal on a still dodgy shoulder.

Sean finally did Vitruvian Man and it was no longer a shit problem but 'the best 7C I've ever done'!

We then went over to Woodwell and showed Darren some more Gaskins test pieces and he got a few of the v3/4's in the bag before we packed up and headed the Hangar.

Mon 7th - Tues 8th March

I got the Hangar early only to find Ged bleary eyed making coffee and Hoppo asleep on the couch after a late night of setting.

Ged couldn't locate his car so we smuggled him to Wales in the van after Neil and Joe had said it was glorious sunshine in the pass.

This proved correct and after a brief coffee stop at V12, we went the Roadside and retro flashed the classics.

Moving down to Jerry's we found Rich Ames and friends having a session on the direct finish to Jerry's up some slopey looking gastons/pinches.

Sean got Bus Stop finished off after having puntered the top out last year and Ged worked on Jerry's. I did a lap of Bus Stop to stay warm and fell off the top of jerry's in a brain freeze moment. We then headed up to the Wavelength.

Ged flashed King of Drunks with the heavy beta and also Lordy Lordy!

Back down the hill and I rewarmed up on the Meadow Roof before tackling the Lotus. 5 times I made it to the fingerswap edge only to grease off in the slightly damp conditions.

It went dark and we went back to Beris, had a nice meal and a couple pints, then dropped Ged off at the roundabout.

Me and Hoppo spent a rather chilly night in the van in -6! I definitely need to get a warmer sleeping bag as I was in full thermals and a hoody by the morning.

A breakfast/shower/shit combo at Pete's set us up perfectly for another day in the Pass and we did a brief warmup before I once again dragged Sean up the hill back to the Lotus.

He lay down trying not to be sick and I got really psyched to finish things.

Redpoint number 1 looked like it would be it as I swapped hands on the edge and reached for the pinch out right only to have my foot pop. Devastating but progress!

Next go was looking sketchy as I barely switched hands but after getting out right and a bit of screaming it was done.

And so the week of crush came to an end.

I was relieved the shoulder was ok after tweaking it a bit at Trowbarrow and I'll probably have to avoid Pacman/Iron Man till it gets a bit stronger as the right hand slap is a bit of a no go.

A few rest days and theraband should do the trick this week and I'll maybe go try to finish off other business this Saturday.

Gearing up for Switzerland

It's been a great last couple of weeks in terms of getting outside on rock.

Training

After Lorenzo's visit to Liverpool I got really psyched for fingerboarding/campussing again as I could see how weak I was in comparison and that there was much work to do. The Hangar recently put up another 3 Beastmakers spaced apart like campus rungs and I've had a couple of sessions campussing up the 45-35-35's and the small crimps too which feels like a good strength builder having to lock them down and be accurate to the next. I'm finding the 2 finger sloping dishes quite comfortable again on front and middle 2 so I'll keep putting in a session or 2 a week on these exercises to get the fingers ready for boning down in Chironico.

Back to the rock...

After puntering up on the Terrace and worrying I was going to be massively weak on the forthcoming trip, I decided to get back on things I had failed on in the past.

It started off with a trip about a week ago to the Bowderstone with Sean. Everywhere was a bit grim in the mist/fog but the ladder face was salvageable with a lot of chalkballing/towels/chalk block pasting then fast climbing before grease offs.

I managed to finish off some good problems like Move Man, Ears of Perception, Inaudible Vaudeville and Picnic Sarcastic direct all in a couple of tries save for Inaudible which was fairly wet and felt nails even to pull on but got done with a bit of overpowering. Sean did Picnic sitter and I dropped the last move on a very wet Impropa Opera LH.

Tuesday 1st

Fast forward 1 week and we headed out on a gloriously sunny and cold Tuesday to Trowbarrow to try finish Wheelbarrow/Iron Man but it was like being in an Oven. It was tops off and sweating on the mats! I managed a desperate repeat of Vitruivan Man but we kept greasing off on the longer stuff. We went down the road to find shade and conditions were amazing at Woodwell middle.

I practiced the hardest 6a+ top out in the world (Not Bad Dave) then went to practice the bicyle move I use to slap up into the starting hold of the stand. As soon as I put a tiny bit of weight on the Right foot under the roof a massive chunk of rock crashed down on to the pad luckily missing my legs! The first thought was horror of wrecking a bit of a classic but fortunately The left handholds were all still there. I found a new foot dink on solid rock and could still do the move up past the lip. After 1 standard punter go with a foot pop. I rested up and got it done. Relief! Sean did well and fell off 2 hand moves from victory. He tried again but couldn't quite do the 6a+ (even in isolation! ;))

Wednesday 2nd

We planned a 2 day trip back to the Bowderstone to settle some old scores and sped North in White Beauty on another lovely day.

The plan was to wear offensively bright E9 pants and cause some destruction (of the climbing achievement variety).

We warmed up doing a great little dinosaur back arete opposite XXXX and continued on the Crack then Picnic stand.

I got psyched to try Inaudible sitter as the starting holds were pinchable without getting wet hands and proceeded to flash it with only 1 sketchy cut loose on the last move. The power seemed to be turned on as Sean cooly dispatched Inaudible Vaudeville and we moved pads under Impropa Opera.

Sean was trying the righthand start and I was over on the left, as we strangely found each others' starts most awkward.

After watching a video and altering my sequence, I no longer had to drop my right hand into the terrible sidepull/pinch and stab left hand again to the crimp you lock the last move off. A lovely crossover move and then a twist through to gain the same hold proved much better and after hitting the small intermediate, the last hold thankfully proved to be a jug. It felt piss!

We did some heavy maintenance on a couple of the holds which were still damp and Sean then climbed the right hand start. Not satisfied, we then swapped around and after a go or two managed to get up it from the other side.

Feeling on a roll I shifted the pads leftwards and decided to try the visually appealing line of Grand Opera.

The first go, I caught the groove hold and held on whilst trying to work out where to put my feet for about 10 seconds before sliding off the right hand.

After resting and chin stroking, I had a brainwave and pulled back on, catching the move, getting a high left heel near my chest and locking in to match the rail. I cut loose and got a foot back on the starting hold before stabbing out left and getting a good but very painful incut crimp before bouncing a right heel under my right hand and locking in again to gain a big pinch intermediate. I went again over my head to a chalky mess where it was nigh on impossible to distinguish where the hold was and I crimped whatever I could feel (which was truly terrible). I hung about not knowing what to do with my left foot and slapped to an ok looking left sidepull before sliding off.

That was as good as it got on Grand Opera as I felt a bit powered out upon reaching the same point a couple of goes later. I feel it is way harder than Impropa and am puzzled as to it being 7C in the new 7&8's list.. maybe Impropa is 7A+?

We finished off with Sean almost doing Picnic Direct, then I puntered up on wet holds on Coming up for Air before doing it 2nd go with a bit of drying. What a great flowing problem.

Thurs 3rd

We chose to make good use of our current form and the dry sunny weather and headed Cavewards.

There were a couple of geezers there when we arrived who had just got back from Spain not looking overly motivated for a shady polished cave and we warmed up with the whole place to ourselves.

I had bought a pair of 5.10 Hornet's the night before and thought I would wear them to warm up on old familiar circuit problems.

Rather than being a mere warming up shoe for the day, I kept them on all session as they were immensly comfortable and destroyed all in their path.

All the lip problems were ticked off before a lap of Rockatrocity and Cave Life short. The last time I was here, I had fell off the last move of Lou Ferrino direct without the pocket out right, just before getting multiple shoulder strains.

The 3 month break and rehab seemed to do the job as I got through to the rail on Lou F missing holds and cutting loose but feeling stronger than ever. I let go and let the blood come back to the fingers as it was pretty damn chilly.

A brief 3 minute rest and I crushed lou F sans pocket to the finish with a bit of a scream to get my fingers in that most hated of slots which brings so much joy!

As I moved over to work on the Pilgrim L->R arch moves, Sean puntered up Lou Ferrino, sliding out of the wet pocket out right.

After redrying it just before pulling on, he got it done for a bit of a nemesis tick. Team Crush was still on a roll :)

We stuck around a little longer giving some beta to a couple of guys from the Peak, Nick and Nick I think? (I have terrible memory retention for anything which isn't a sequence) who were over on a roadtrip for the week and they got some good classics in the bag before we left.

It was a good 3 day spree of action and the first time I've felt strong and uninjured on anything since last Ocotober. Hopefully we can get out a couple of times a week before the trip to Ticino and achieve something between us.

I'll aim to take a week off after the Climbing Hangar comp on the 18th March, to get a decent rest followed by some light volume sessions before the trip to keep the skin good.

I learnt from the last episode of injury and Holger/Pete Chadwick's advice, that you are most susceptible to picking up injuries when in a purple patch so fingers crossed the shoulders are almost mended!