Inspiration and goal setting

After last summer's trip to Magic Wood with Andy and Mark I got back home really excited to push on a bit and get strong/start climbing harder.

I look at 8a.nu and see other people climbing multiple 8th grade problems as if they are nothing! I wonder how to get to this level of ability, to get things done in short time and wish for this to happen to my climbing!

The problem is training hard enough/knowing what specifically to train and still getting things ticked whilst attempting to head up the exponentially steep hill called grade progression.

I've had a pretty poor year so far and managed maybe 1 problem I consider 'hard' (for me at least). Injuries have been commonplace and I don't even feel like I have trained enough to improve. My only level of benchmarking is doing laps of things in the cave and getting closer on my year goal of font 8a+.

I had probably my best session in a long time on Tuesday dropping the last hold on In Hell 3 times in a row and once not being able to hang the slot long enough to match. I don't know whether I am actually improving or just super conditioned to this set of moves. I fear becoming a one trick pony and getting shut down hard in Magic Wood come September. I feel like I don't deserve to get things done if I aren't cranking out laps on the 50 deg board and sweating/fingerboarding till failure..etc but I seem to break down and require a lot of rest if I attempt this.

I think I read somewhere on fit club from Simon questioning if the best policy is to beat things into submission or take time off and rest/regroup. I am always unsure of this. Should I just train hard and treat outdoor days leading up to a trip as active rest days and ignore feeling weak and not getting things done hoping to hit peak strength come trip time. Or should I always take double rest days and try climbing all out 99% of the time??

Anyway, I apologise for the above incoherent ramblings.

I watched Core again last night and really enjoyed watching the Italian bouldering which brought back good memories from the brief trip to Sassofortino and Amiata that me and Tom enjoyed a couple years ago. It's a beautifully made film and I appreciate how he has used the shorts of Shawn Rabatou to give some structure to the film as he picks the different items out of the claw machine representative of the segments. I know a lot of people aren't fans of the Fryburger's methods but I enjoyed this as much as Pure, which I put on straight afterward to watch the Swiss bouldering.

With renewed enthusiasm, the swiss hitlist was re-wrote and I think if I can get a couple of 8th grade problems (chiefly Octopussy and Astronautenfieber) done I would be made up. I'd love to get something like Jack's broken heart, Electric Boogie or Voigas done but am scared to set goals too high and waste energy failing when I would have more chance on something easier. I guess the best way to look at it, is that it's all training for the cave anyway ;)

Roped shenanigans and the Ondra Show

I've felt pretty uninspired of late, so not felt an urge to post an update on things.

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I had read a couple of books (9 out of 10..etc) and got motivated to try something new that I was crap at, so bought the various paraphernalia required to sport climb and got involved.

26th&27th June

A couple of weeks back, I had a great trip to Yorkshire with Dave Pin, Holger, Fiona and Aefe. We spent a day at Yew Cogar which was a fantastic piece of rock featuring wonderful tufa features and routes that were not too long to be doable without resting on a rope!

The highlight was definitely puntering my way up Cruisin for a Bruisin on about the 4th redpoint of the day screaming for the last couple of moves as the I caught the holds the wrong way and generally fought like I have never had to before. It all looked a bit pathetic after Dave had cruised it and then done a casual lap of the 7C to the left.



The walkout looked epic as we set off back up the massive hill but with heads down and stomping, it didn't end us.

On the way to the free camping spot we dropped in at what appeared to be a nice, quiet village pub. Holger had his reservations after popping his head in through the front door but Dave insisted that "you never get a bad pint in Yorkshire".

We tentatively entered the front door and walked up to what appeared to be a bar/reception desk with a peculiar looking man behind it. Dave erred in asking whether it was a pub to which the landlord replied "do you think it looks like a pub?". He then said he had some ales and we asked what he had;

Barman: "well what do you want"
Dave: "Well what have you got"
Barman: "Well what do you want"
A perplexed Dave: "Well that kind of depends on what you have got?!"

We noticed a lack of taps on the bar and the guy insisted he had a barrel of Timothy Taylors under the counter but asked that we don't watch while he prepares them.



We laugh nervously and try and look elsewhere as Holger sneaks outside clearly ill at ease. The guy sprays the pints into the glasses direct from the barrel using a hose and then asks "how much would a round like this cost in Liverpool?". Dave replies "£3.50 and 2 bags of crisps". The guy seems to have no idea of prices, so we hand him a tenner and shift uneasily past the stuffed fox and back outside.

The pint's were clearly not TT's and were a pretty potent homebrew that had no doubt been maturing in that barrel for many a year!

We hit Kilnsey the next day and I managed to get up a few more things such as Sidekick, Nerve Ending and after Dave had cleaned it up and crushed it, I failed on the end of Fit of Peak.

We then went to a pub with a big screen along with Pete Robins and Rach who we met at Kilnsey earlier and watched as Holger's home nation made us look like schoolboys. it was quite funny to watch Holger cheer each goal and then sink back down into his chair as the locals looked to be ready to lynch the imposter!



29th June

I returned to Kilnsey with Hoppo, The Pinnmeister, John M and Holger feeling a bit weak in comparison.

The warm up was a few pullups down the far end of the crag and a lucky first redpoint ascent of Fit of Peak for my goal of the year of sport 7b+ (soft 7c YYFY?!). Hoppo should have done it but didn't quite manage, so we moved leftwards and I got on Comedy. The flash attempt was over a bit abruptly when I rather lazily put the right toehook in under the big undercuts and didn't really place it, so I span off when reaching for the holds near the 2nd clip.

With this amazing attempt out of the way, I managed to get up to the cigar move on the 2nd try and run out of gas. Short rest, then piss the move and get to the top ok. No hard moves but strangely it felt hard to me!

I had a couple more goes but fell off that same move both times after clipping the 4th. It should hopefully go down next visit and I may have even developed the fitness to do an extra move by then.

3rd&4th July

I went with the Hoppo family scal and Youngy to go and watch the biggest beast in the world (+ others). We managed to do fairly well getting free camping and the Hoppo's even better by sneaking in to the event through various rivers/bushes without paying in. I figured it better to just pay the £5 entry and not feel paranoid all day about being ejected!

The qualifiers went well for the Brits and 7 made it through to the semi's. Me, Youngy and Sean were torn between watching the Kilian/Ondra show and watching the women's problem 5 with the crowd pleasing splits move finale!

The Semi final was good to watch and Ondra didn't dissapoint... his gangly frame, long neck, crazy hair and awkward appearance were everything we had hoped to see and then he totally destroyed everything.

We whooped with delight as he let out a magnificent ostrich like power scream and booked his place in the final. Kilian was anything but on form. He struggled and declared the problems shit before walking off a couple of them with over a minute still left on the clock. I had been hoping to watch the final face off but it wasn't to be.

During the interval, I was persuaded to enter into the dyno comp which all seemed a bit pointless seeing as Skyler had turned up but it turned out to be quite fun and I was amazed at how far away the hold is when pulling on to the start! I made it through to about the last 6 at 2.45 (thanks to Lily for lending the chalk) and couldn't imagine how to get the extra 40cm of jump! We then watched him crush a casual 2.80 with a dodgy arm to take home his cheque which I imagine barely covered the flight back home.

The final was the ondra show as he dispatched the first 3 problems with ease. The only blip came on the final problem as the crowd went a bit quiet after 2 failed attempts. He sorted the move and cruised to the top to secure another victory and we went wild :D

last week

Inspired by the events of the weekend, I had a couple of indoor bouldering sessions on Monday and Wednesday. Monday was a quick crush of the new step wall set flashing all but 2 and then getting them on lock down. The arm felt a bit sore the next day so I didn't risk the routes with Matt and Tom and chose to sink some beers whilst watching the first WC semi.

I went to Rockover Climbing with Sean and Mike psyche on Weds and was really impressed by the new centre. The comp wall was nice and wide with plenty of light and no risk of kids running past underneath!

Sadly, The power was well and truly not on as I got spanked on most of the comp wall ascending maybe 6 out of 15 I tried. i think it's a combination of the crazy humidity on those crimps, weak arms and a lack of technique but it has let me know what needs working on before Switzerland in September. When we moved over to the steep roof corner things were a lot better as I could climb the green and yellows again with it being more cave/crypt-like in style! Note to self: Stick to roofs as walls and barrel walls are desperate.

I worked all weekend and enjoyed a diet of pizza, burgers, beer and more beer watching the 3rd place play off and the final which was a bit flat. Really glad to have watched Spain win after the Dutch played a rather cynical game and gutted how I dropped away in the UKB fantasy football league falling from a solid top 2 place a couple weeks ago to 6th... I will never disregard Diego Forlorn ever again!

(Cheers to Dave Pinnington photography for the above images!)

On the Mend!

After some sage advice from the ukb forums and a chat to Pete Chadwick on the phone, I have nursed the left arm of weakness towards the road of recovery.

I basically did no climbing at all for 6 days whilst performing light weight exercises in work sat on my arse. These are all aimed at fixing the small tissue/tendons that support the major muscle groups in the arm which have apparently grown strong (a debatable point!) whilst the small bits have been on holiday, meaning imbalance and pain.

Anyway...

I tentatively arranged an outdoor rock climbing trip with my good friend Benedict and met him in a leafy Hartford village on Tuesday afternoon. The strong boys were heading to the cave but I couldn't quite face it just yet and it would probably set me back again in terms of recovering fully. The venue of choice was Harmer's Wood as I figured it was going to be relatively easy on the arms and a good finger workout as well as a test of footwork!

Upon arrival I was really impressed with the stand-out aretes and highball walls, all with nice flat landings in a fairly open plan space that felt quite peaceful.

A local guy turned up who was part of the local village team who had been working on making the area easy to access and family friendly. I just followed Ben around climbing almost everything and offering grades for each one (that somehow amazingly matched what himself and Andy had agreed on).

There were some really brilliant climbs from F5+ to F7B with the classics being The highball rib line, Queen of Hearts, Harmadillo and Baby Bloc.

At the end of our 3 hour session my fingers were truly destroyed and my toes ached as I found wearing super tight, thin 5.10 projects and standing on small edges made the toes work overtime.

The climbing was fantastic and very similar to Pex in places but a much nicer venue overall in terms of landings, lack of litter and no scallies (save for Ben and Chezzie Si).

I didn't manage one of Ben's harder lines and didn't get on the line left of Baby Bloc, so will most likely be going back again Tuesday next week to finish these off. It was nice to be climbing pain free again and should be good to go in the cave/s lakes again after Tuesday assuming all goes well.

Here is a local lady who turned up clearly psyched for some hardcore sandstone crimping:

June already

...And nothing of note achieved. I've been mainly working in the shop lately and nursing yet another left arm injury, so after an unproductive session at Pantymwyn belaying John up Grand Canyon, I took a couple days out and then spent the rest of the week carefully fingerboarding and seeing where I was. The result was weak in the fingers and unable to 1 arm deadhang!

After the last fingerboard session being pain free, I decided to test out the level of injury on the rock as myself, O, Pete and Si drove through torrential rain to a misty but dryish Llanberis pass. We warmed up around the roadside and I managed to just about beat the pump to crush Cave Route and Roadside Basic which both felt desperate!

Luckily the arm didn't seem to suffer other than a mega pump, so after a break to stare bemused at a large bus load of Polish tourists who ran about the boulders taking photographs of cloud and drizzle, I had a play on Diesel Power.

Despite having seen Mike climb it in about 20 mins last month, Owen didn't remember any beta at all, so I just got on with failing on every move for a good hour. I skipped past the first move as I didn't know the rules about where you start and also couldn't figure out where to put feet for most of the moves! By the end of this rather poor showing I had managed about 3 hand moves. It was quite condensed on the rock with the low clouds but I am in dire need of some foot beta and body tension.

After a bit of lunch I went over to spot Pete and Andy on Bus Stop. Pete managed to crush the first 2 moves but was struggling on the finish. I did it from a move in to try remember things for him and then decided to try something on Mr Fantastic that Dobbin had posted on his blog a while back. When bringing the left hand across to match on the Bus Stop holds, I kept my left foot pasted on the ledge and then brought the right foot across and pressed it into the roof just above the LF. This allowed me to easily take my left foot off and place it on the good spike and then bring the right foot down on to the polished dink and do the first move on Bus Stop (totally removing the desperate leg swing I had previously been fighting with!) . To try and keep things positive, it was shoes back in the bag and down to Pete's Eats for cake and a coffee.

Really struggling with motivation at the moment with being injured and weak most of the time and unable to train as it results in aggravating the left arm. This means when I get out, I'm generally pretty crap and feel like I'm going backwards from last year as opposed to improving.

I might take a big break during World Cup time and hopefully this will clear up lingering injuries so I can start training afresh after. News of a new dedicated bouldering wall opening in Liverpool is fantastic and it can't come soon enough!

The turning point

Having recently had a bit of time to spare, I read 9 out of 10 climbers by Dave Macleod cover to cover as well as 'How to climb 3 grades harder' by Mick Ward. One thing was glaringly obvious. I am pathetically unfit in terms of climbing more than 10 moves and have poor recovery.

To improve, I really need to get some fitness and figured the best way to work on a glaring weakness is to attack it head on.

Being a bit jaded and demotivated recently on bouldering days out, it is probably as good a time as any to mix things up, so I purchased a harness last week and today a rope seeing as I haven't owned one for a few years. Stage 1 complete!

I did one day out at Llanymynfach last year and managed to drag my way up a 6b+, 7a and soft 7b fully pumped on every one of them at the chains!

Wednesday I'm off to Kilnsey to start stage 2 and to see if I can find a 7b+ to climb. Getting the top of anything will be a major bonus and I'll no doubt feel uber weak watching John M, Dave P and Smooth Pete crushing all over the place!

Bank Holiday weekend

I managed to get a 3 day vacation from the fully stressful job and went to probably my 2 favourite venues in the uk...

Friday 30th April

Me, O, Smooth P and the Hoob decided on the safe bet of the Cave due to the sketchy weather.

The warmup was going well with parisella's original, Bust Lip and Clever Beaver all done and I decided a brief lap of Lip Service was in order before going for the Broken Heart RP. I got out to the lip and was moving my right hand to the fingerjug when my left hand pinged off and I was sent hurtling downward. A loud slam and much cheek rubbing later and I could thankfully still move about with a bit of a limp (although weighting the right bum cheek was a no no).

I puntered up Broken Heart a couple times (I still find this fully desperate for a soft 7C+ but I think its more of a mental thing as its just a distraction from what i really want to get done and hence doesn't receive the effort it probably requires) and sacked it for In Hell.

First go and I was really struggling to get through the first moves. It was pretty warm, so the liquid chalk was broken out and try number 2 resulted in a power out at the move to the flake off the 2 pockets on R.A. A bit of a breather and I managed another go through to the same move but something was lacking (maybe caused by training the previous week and not resting as much).

In Hell was sacked off due to weakness and I moved on to try get some consolation ticks with the marvellous Dust Kick High going down. Ring of Fire High ended in failure at the crimps and attention moved towards the right lip of the cave. A bit of beta off Bobbins ensured Beaver Cleaver became more like 80% instead of 40% so I tried the sitter and failed after all the hard climbing due to a cut loose draining every last ounce of energy.

Smooth Pete got to the last slot on R.A. from the start going over for the pinch and Owen managed to get Clever Cleaver from the break, narrowly missing out on the full sitter.

Sun 2nd May

Me and O headed East into the tempest but the skies thankfully cleared a little as we reached Anston Stones. Mike arrived shortly after and we did a crag inspection. My 2 goals for the day of Ebola and Alpha were wet so this made things a bit more simple. A brief and inadequate warmup was followed by a desperately pumpy flash of Beta Blocker and a strong failure to do the first move of the sitter due to wetness.

As I worked the moves on Bullet again, trying to remember where to toehook to catch the fingerslot, Mike mauled his way up Dark Art and pretty much everything else including Magnum Eliminate, a massively morpho line to the left of Bullet.

After he had recrushed Bullet, I knew where to put the feet and it went down quickly! O should have sent but got drawn into trying the lefthand line.

After tea and scones we headed off past an absolutely stunning roof that isn't currently topo'd on the limestone cowboys gallery and I scoped out a summer project which takes in a lot of ground through a roof via some wonderful holds and big moves off a lot of foot clamps and body tension (In to the light)

We had a look at the Seaman staines area and most lines looked pretty full on (and maybe undergraded)

Then we arrived at Mecca. The Duke's buttress is definitely my favourite section of rock in the UK up there with the Zoo York/Ben's Groove area/Shelterstone and the Cave!

We worked some moves and the friction was prime due to a cold breeze coming through the tunnel. I managed to get Red Duke fired off fairly fast which left plenty of energy to try Filthy Duke. Owen worked the moves with me and after failing a couple times on the last hard move up to a right hand deadpoint... I finally got it (after barely catching the first move and captured on a phone with an embarassing scream to hold on to the RP crux).

Owen made some good redpoints on a RH link into Filthy from the Dark Lady start and it looks a great one to come back for as well as Duke's Peril which looks amazing if a tad scary.

Fontainepoo Part Deux

After a week of nursing various niggles and a brief unadvisable last minute woody session...I returned with a large group of Scousers (as well as some token Beasts from Lancashire and Rotherham) to the magical forest of Fontainebleau.

Sun 11th April

We arrived at our wonderful gite in Chailly-en-Biere late afternoon and decided to hit Cuvier hard, with it being a joyous 3 minute drive away.

We warmed up on the start of the Red Circuit which featured some truly fantastic problems like Red 1 and Trou de Simon, as well as a desperate 5+ blue that took me about 4 attempts.

I made a beeline for Biceps Mou Roof and put on my fresh out the box 5.10 Projects that were a last minute impulse buy at work on Saturday. They felt super tight but had that broken in feel straight away.

I think my left arm must have recovered as I could now do the first move static that evaded me a couple weeks back. The rest fell into place and after greasing off the RH sidepull a few times, I locked it out static to the slopey shoulder and snatched my way up to the top.

As this went on Becki happened to piss up Picon Biere for her first forest 7a and then added the sitter for her first 7a+.

Dolph crushed Hypotheuse in about 2 goes and then Infidele and was trying the sitter to the latter.

As Dolph, Owen and Pete went on the deserted Carnage block I decided to run over to Aerodynamite. I met a guy called Raul there who was in Magic Wood last summer and happened to be the previous owner of Johnny the Dog. I had my first go and utilised Davey P's heel beta which made everything utter piss all of a sudden and I was stood up in the pocket only to slap with the wrong hand and slide backwards. Raul then crushed it and after a brief rest I got up it on the 2nd try. It was nice to get something done that had kicked my arse hard a couple years back!

We finished off on the Carnage block where Dolph then walked up Berezina, did the link into Carnage and then greased off the sitter repeatedly as it went really humid. I was getting shut down on the match on Berezina so went round back and tried La Balance. First go was good and as I brought my right hand up to the high sloper the left pinged off. Further goes finished much the same as it got harder to hang on to greasy holds. One to come back for.

Mon 12th

We hit up Apremont and warmed up just down from the Ju Jitsu block. I went off on a personal quest straight to Onde De Choc, brushed the holds, booted up and then did it first try. It felt about a million times better than last trip due to not being in the baking sun.

I got on Fil a Tordre to show Dolph how desperate it was and he agreed as I got spanked for the 3rd session on this 7a?!

There was plenty of action at Egoiste with several ascents and some near misses from not 1 but 2 people dropping off the top out.

A couple of people did Clin D'Oeil and Mark got up Hyperplomb after an epic to get over the bulge. I did a cool problem above this called Hueco Depart which was steep and spanny and we moved over to the other side of Central.

Owen flashed Faux contact and I did likewise just about. We then worked on the direct Full Contact and after about 5 or 6 different methods for the 2nd move, gave up and went and got a consolation problem of Happy Boulder. As most people tired of the climbing, myself, O and Mike went off to check out Crazy Horse at Apremont Ouest.

We got there and met some French guy who wanted to see beta before trying it. Me and O worked on 2 very different sequences and it eventaully succumbed to my left kneebar, right heel on rail sequence to get up and right again to the top holds. I thought the start was really brutal to get up and left in the crack to a decent pinch/sidepull but ok after this. The French guy then tried to copy but got a shut down after beta whoring for the previous 15 minutes!

I had a brief play on Sitting Bull but didn't fancy the topout, so bailed to meet everyone back at the carpark.

Tues 13th

I took a rest day feeling a bit battered from the previous days and followed Dolph around to try and get some actual climbing ascents on film, as the curse of the camera had worked to great effect on the first 2 days!

Me and Mark rocked up to meet the others at Imothep after briefly chatting to Neil H at the carpark and getting some directions. I had only been there a minute or 2 and shouted out the match beta for the penultimate moves, got the camera on and just caught him cruising it with ease.

The Beast of Rotherham also managed to see off Controle Technique after an almighty battle with blind alleys and the all day on-off showers that kept it nice and damp.

Owen climbed Renconnetre Plafonique with Andy capturing his girly screams of "be good..BE GOOD!" as he slapped blindly over the top to the mirth of many.

We had an amazing Chilli in the evening that Ste rustled up and I consumed my 3rd bottle of red in 3 days to keep up the strong drinking ethic.

Weds 14th

The rest day seemed to do the trick and I came out fighting with a brief warmup on some red's and Graviton and then to try Sale Gosse with my newly aquired right foot beta from vimeo. I pulled on to the first move with the mono and sidepull and sat over my right leg flagging deep, went for the left bi-doight splay and greased off. The holds received a good pounding with a towel and I used some liquid chalk. Another false start and my arms were finally warm. The first move was stuck and then the 2nd barely. I was having to adjust a lot on both holds as I got my left toe up into the pocket. I rotated and remembered to bounce the right foot up to a dish hold. All of a sudden everything felt instantly better and I could launch left hand up for the top. A moment of weightlessness and the right foot was still on... as was the left hand! I quickly matched and scrambled up in a Bradbury style to dispatch yet another nemesis.

The rest of the morning consisted of eating and heckling in equal measure. Si got agonisingly close to Graviton using the heel behind flake method. Fish head horribly overpowered it with his floundering beached whale technique and then made amends with a much smoother ascent of Jet Set.

The rabble headed over to Cul de Chien and found only a handful of French kids at Le Toit de cul de Chien.

I convinced Mark to go first and he got through to the lip hold only for his feet to cut early and he lost grip on the outswing. I went up next with the heckling of Owen whistling Z cars as he recorded it. Not to be distracted I got up to the RH mono to find it was actually a 2 finger jug. The left heel clamped on the polish, as the right foot flagged wide and I locked it out to the lip to find another fingerbucket, gained the jug over the lip and then campussed the next moves before a casual rockover (ignoring cries to french blow incase anything popped and made the flash safe).

Me and Dolph moved over to Le Autre Toit with Ste and Fish head along taking photos. He put the pressure on me by saying Arabesque is ok with beta as he flashed it with Andy Jennings shouting the numbers out. Time had taken its toll as he was unable to remember much and I spent about 15 minutes puntering it up. A kneebar pad was brought out to avoid my left leg getting wrecked and then it all clicked into place for Mike about keeping the left leg in for some extra hand moves. A good rest and I got through the steepness and stood up with my left foot on the Eclipse RH hold and right heel on the pocket shaking out the pump, before a wonderul rockover & mantle to the top!

I got down and had a good whitey before announcing I may as well have a little look at Eclipse as climbing hard tomorrow was a write-off.

5 minutes later and the moves were all done with the last move being a superb crossover/barndoor latch off a lovely pinch/sidepull. I was psyched and got through the roof only to find it hard to get the left toe just right. Dolph couldn't sit still watching a relative punter do all the moves fairly fast and warmed up trying the first moves.

Fast forward to about an hour later and I was lying on the ground feeling dizzy after having greased off or powered out on the last move about 5 or 6 times. Dolph hadn't faired much better having also dropped it with his fingertips at the hold. We eventually had to give in as it was too greasy and we were both battered.

We finished off at Gasthaus Unterslag where he made the terrifying leap and I bottled it. We both got up a great little quarried slab/arete called Dernier Angle just downhill and then got a lift back to the gite for an amazing all you can eat pizza night courtesy of Chef Fatneck.

Thu 15th

I chose to gamble on having another day off to fluke good conditions and send hard on Friday. We went early doors to Franchard Cuisiniere to the Karma area.

Mike made rapid progress on Karma hitting the 2nd right hand hold and then flicking his left heel up but kept sliding off the right hand due to bad temps and sunlight (as well as not being rested due to the Eclipse saga!)

Owen, Andy and Ste all got Bizarre Bizarre done from a sitter and we moved over to Magnifique which saw ascents from Kev, Pete and Ste also. Owen bailed off the top and aggravated his dodgy knee and lost the will to try again.

A bit of lunch and then over to Beatlejuice. It looked ok until people got on it and by the end of the session only Mike and Kev had got it done, commenting that it wasn't any easier than Jerry's Roof ...only 4 grades less!?

Ste got up Excalibur Direct to the left and we finished off up at Hale Bopp where several suitors got nowhere near the top and goaded me to get on it but I remained resolute to save skin for Friday.

Fri 16th

We awoke to the hottest day of the week by far and I was a bit gutted as we waited around for the Gite owner to pick up the keys and give us back the deposit.

We went for the most secure option of Cuvier with the cars full of belongings. I did a shocking 10 minute warmup and got straight on a very quiet Berezina. I did some pullups on the first holds and then got stuck in.

About 20 attempts and no matches later, I was defeated with a sore right arm from attempting to lock on a sloper of butter whilst bringing the left hand through to the good hold. As it got mad busy, we ran away to Cuvier Est.

Everyone ran around getting some mileage in and trying Festin de Piere.

Si did Duroxmanie which was really nice to see after his recent illnesses, injuries..etc. We did a couple more classics like the direct to Duroxmanie and me and Mike did the sandbag of Basses Frequences using various 7b sequences on this supposed 7a as well as a little gritlike arete downhill to the left in the Holly. I had a few goes on Michel Ange sticking the first move and getting a foot up inside but then feeling close to destroying my shoulder as I tried to lean into it, so sacked it off and dosed up on ibuprofen!

We bailed at about 3.30 to avoid the Paris rush hour and said goodbye to Kev and Luke who are over till next Tuesday. I hope the weather cools down a bit for them or it will need to be 6am starts to get up anything slopey.