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!