Getting Reaquainted

It seemed like an age since I had last ventured to the Cave but having a day off and the offer of an early lift off Mark was too good to refuse!

I've climbed solely indoors of late after returning from Switzerland, working on indoor circuiting and doing a lot of core exercises from the T Randall 20 min floor + 5 min bar routine.

It was nice and peaceful when we arrived and the sun was making it rather pleasant to warm up. There was just one other guy there who had been biviing up on top of the hill and climbing multiple days on in the cave (good effort!).

As part of the regular warmup circuit, I was relieved to find R.A. still steady!

The goal for the day was to see how far back I had gone on In Life after having fell from left wall around November last year.

On the first try, I was amazed to find myself with left hand on the not so wobbly jug/crimp and matching in on to a rather good edge facing the wrong way. As I took out my right toe hook, I went flying off leftwards into the dirt unable to control the swing! I thought it may just be rustiness, so I tried the toe hook removal once more and the same thing happened even though I squeezed as hard as I could. Were all those months of effort now a waste?!

A bit disturbed I went and sat in the sun for a bit in the directors chair and had a chill.

A banana and a moment of inspiration as I recalled a video of Danny going right hand up to the start of R.A. instead of my old left-left again method.

I went back down and climbed through from the back this time getting my left hand on the bottom of the glued jug and getting the splits/right toe hook on. I twisted over and got the top bit with my right hand and rotated right underneath it, feeling a lot more in balance. I relaxed then removed the right toe dragging it into the roof and it killed the swing enough to hold on. I slapped up to catch the intermediate with my right then put my right toe back on and went again for the R.A. start only to slide just off the edge of it.

After a bit of rest I managed to work out about 3 different foot positions for going again to the start of R.A. and tried them all after climbing from the In Life start but kept on just failing on that same move after having powered out a bit earlier than usual.

Instead of being a bit disheartened at going this far back on the full link, I was quite motivated by doing some new moves and knowing I'll definitely be able to get through it next session when fresh and get on to those lovely slopers over the other side of the arch. It's also quite good in that it should remain 8A+ and not get the downgrade, now that it's a fair bit harder to get through. I'm sure the fitness will return in there so the strong period lasts 3 hours instead of 1 and a half and the core work I have been doing should also help for getting the feet across on to left wall when that time comes again.

Looking to this weekend... I'm desperate to get back to the cave asap to put the time in on In Life but being part of the local Climbing Hangar Team probably means I need to show up and enter the Best Of the West comp (seems a bit pointless when half the British Team are coming to win the money but I guess it can be a steep learning curve!)