A new year.

I decided to be fashionably late with this years first blog (due to the fact there has been nothing of note to report). I had a couple of good trips to font at the end of 2011 whilst staying at The House which Andy and Roo have done a good job with. The first trip was with mark, psyche, Peter, Shauna, James, Alex and Chris but unfortunately we experienced very damp and humid conditions which made for a frustrating few days out (especially so for Chris who was hobbling around after an altercation on a parisian ring road).

Despite the shit conditions it was nice to finish off some old nemesis' in the form of eclipse and l'arrache coeur and also a brilliant and slightly worrying highball in Cuvier, the name of which escapes me!

The second trip over there was more enjoyable as it was just me and Laura and we had the whole gite to ourselves with it being mid December, where the weather is a bit of a lottery. It did prove to be overcast, damp and a bit showery but we still climbed for 4 days out of 5, the best day being the one which looked the least promising, -1 degrees but absolutely perfect!

The highlights of trip 2 were Laura walking up duroxmanie before a Huthwaite style top out and a rapid spotter less ascent of some 6c+ slab with 1 little pad far below. I finally found friction and got 2 of the big 4 with the big boss in a couple of tries this trip and likewise fourmis rouges which felt like climbing with Velcro on my hands! Fantastic stuff.

Instead of my usual early trip abroad to go climbing, I am currently across the world in Melbourne staying at an old friends. It has been a bit of a winter break from climbing with a couple of trips to the local wall in a whole month. I've enjoyed going swimming quite a few times in 50m pools which were a bit of a killer, right down to the 15m one in the apartment I am in. I've not swam regularly since I was in a team at the age of 10 and I think it is something I could get into doing again of a morning.

I'm here for 1 more day before visiting holger in the blue mountains for the last few days of my trip and hopefully we will get out on some real rock , so I can wake the corpse up from this binge of beer, cocktails, coffee and many bbq's.

I am looking forward to getting back and seeing Laura again and cracking on with this years goals of unfinished business. Then it is time to get strong as hell for Louis Armstrong. I am sure Lore's visit will give me the necessary inspiration :)

Anticipation off the scale!

It's less than 24 hours until we will be heading down the motorway en route to the magical world of fontaineberry. The anticipation of climbing on cold, crisp and dry wonderful sloping grips is high!

I had a couple of days out this week to tune up, with a trip to the Roaches on Monday and a cave session yesterday.

Monday 14th

I headed over to the Roaches with Pete and Tom from the Hangar. The skies were grey when we arrived but crucially the green looking rock was bone dry. We pottered around the lower tier boulders and I enjoyed repeating the classics with the only downside being scraping my face up the wall getting a bit too close in on the undercuts dyno! It was dispached a couple goes later and I got stretch and mantle first try of the day, what an ace problem.

After doing the Ascent of Man start, we popped up the steps and I got the guys to do the brilliant Joe's Arete. Some geezer was on the block behind doing the cool looking Nadin's traverse, I whored the beta then flashed it. Pete got real close but kept losing it just before the right flake sidepulls.

We wandered up over the hill on a bit of a mision but found our way to Staffs Flyer. I'd wanted to get up here for so long with it being one of the classic peak roof problems. The ground was proper gopping, but we fashioned a rock patio of sorts and I layed down a survival bag upon which, the PoD pad was sacrificed! It looked like it could be spicy for 6b but after pulling on and crossing to the good crimp, I found I could build my feet high and lock static to the hold over the lip, I matched this then cut my feet and campussed up to the top. What a splendid problem!

Tom got it shortly after with a more dynamic sequence and I did the arete on the block to the right, another good problem.

It was getting very grim in the cold mist, so we returned to the Joe's arete area and I did the flakes and nose problems on the big block. I felt too tired to try Higginsons's roof traverse, so opted to go look at Mean Ol' Bastard. I found the pull on weird and then it was really hard to get my foot in the hole after getting the gaston. As soon as I realised I could lock into it and match the opposing gaston the problem went down in 2 goes. I briefly tried Apocalypse now but couldn't reach the top, it felt ridiculous for 7a+ so we bailed to the pub and had a well earned pint!

Being the idiot I am, I joined in a max intensity 'trying problems beyond your limit' session at the Hangar and found a few spicy pink problems to work on over the next couple of sessions. We finished off with 10 mins of core thanks to Laura's request and I went Ma Hoppo's for an amazing curry.

Friday 17th

Me, Laura and J headed over for a late session at the cave and found it to be fairly busy with strong Dan (a recently arrived local who has moved over from Leeds) there trying Louis Armstrong and looking pretty strong on those undercuts as well as Rich, Duncan and Alex (whom i mistook for Bertie from Beris in my fatigued state!).

I felt shattered warming up on right wall traverse but after a few more problems things felt better. My first go on Pilgrim was ok just failing to get my foot across to the spike. I rested up and then watched Laura almost crush the Right wall reverse into bust lip, falling off going into the last sidepull before the finishing jug!

Go 2 on Pilgrim was an improvement, getting to two pockets and throwing for the flake on R.A. I hoped I could get a bit further today than last session as it now felt steady to there but I was lacking a bit of endurance/strength maybe.

After a proper rest, go number 3 felt much better, I cruised through to the pockets without any mishaps and had something left going for the flake. Sadly I caught it terribly with two fingertips but clung on with a scream, I got my right foot through and left across into the first pocket, I matched the flake block and tried bumping my left hand on properly. My fingers were killing being half on-half off so I just threw out to the sidepull anyway and held on, I stepped my left foot through but the pain on the left fingers was too great and I had to let go.

It was a bit gutting to drop it there as I was quite confident of getting to the last move if I caught the flake but I forgot how much it hurts to not get it properly. It was marked progress from my last session on it, so hopefully it will go soon.

We finished the day off with another Hangar session going around the circuit set for the military comp on Wednesday and the recovery meal of Large fries with large lamb&chicken kebab from the Nile was immense! It will no doubt help me put on a layer of fat to survive a chilly font trip.

It would be nice to get a few things ticked off this trip as I feel in decent shape and have few injuries to speak of. The video camera shutter is currently not opening but hopefully this can be remedied with a stick to hold it open and we can get enough footage to make a short film of all our puntering :)

A rare day of success!

Cave in the afternoon

On a whim, I decided to go to the cave Friday day time before the Stoke bouldering competition even though the forecast was for humidity, rain and no wind.

My psyche clearly rubbed off on Laura who decided to come along for moral support after finishing uni early.

We found the cave quite greasy but fairly busy with a small group of die hard locals and visitors playing on various things.

After warming up slowly I had a decent first go on In Life getting to the two slopers and taking my feet off very easily totally killing any swing but locking off too hard and not being able to rotate my feet round! I hung this position for several seconds before letting go bemused.

After a couple of close attempts Laura managed to get into the high sidepull and then to the glorious high finishing jug on Bust Lip for her first non slab/vert 7A+ tick! It was great to see her trying hard and being seemingly unaware of the possibility of a foot lock staying in above head height should she have failed to grasp the sidepull :)

The second redpoint on In Life saw me grasp the pinch on Left wall but then fall trying to go through to the fingerjug with the holds not feeling very dry. I feared the worst so had a longer rest than usual and fanned air on to them as well as chalk.

Laura tried to get Parisella's original done but couldn't quite hold the foot swing from releasing the heel-toe. Her efforts inspired me to pull my finger out and on the 3rd redpoint I managed to fall into the fingerjug screaming and slap out to the sloper. I scrambled across to the low flake almost falling at every move as my fingers unravelled and arms lost all feeling but thankfully the sanctity of the kneebar rest came just in time!

I didn't hang about too long and got the job done not feeling too bad on the end section and letting out a sigh of relief that I wouldn't have to crawl into the dirt any longer! Joy.

The sending spree gathered momentum and shortly after, Ducko breezed across Rockatrocity making the end look piss and not suffering the fate of many others on that horrid last hand move :)

Comp in the evening

We went directly from the cave to Stoke wall to see Youngy and have a play at the winter bouldering league. I always love going to new indoor walls almost as much as new outdoor venues as change is always a good thing and keeps things interesting.

After feeling pretty heavy on the warm ups I gradually got into things and had managed to flash 21/25 by about 8.30. With an hour left to try the last 4 I had to start resting for long periods of time just to summon the energy to pull on and make more than a couple of moves! I clawed my way to a couple of the bonus holds but fell off a couple I am sure would have been flashed had it not been such a long double day session.

The atmosphere at the comp was really nice and the locals friendly. There was a good bit of banter with the fellow comp hustlers from Stockport and even though I had puntered up at the end, I managed to sneak victory by about 10 points from one of the Stockport crew.

Needless to say after a victory beer, I slept like a corpse!

Build up to font

After my physio sessions and a lot of fairly boring but ultimately back rewarding exercise, I have managed to rebuild my creaking carcass into something approaching a climbing adoni... healthy human being.

OUTSIDE

There have been many visits out on the grit and a welcome return to cave sieging which has been a lot less frequent than in the previous 2 years.

A need to try and broaden my skill base and volume of climbing on different rock has been suggested by others, so I have been giving it a crack and thoroughly enjoyed it so far, even if the warm weather and my recovering back has meant staying away from hard climbing.

I have had a great few days out in the Peak and Yorkshire with the best being a trip to the Cliff after finding midgies and grease at Caley. Andi E put together a good little clip with a classic soundtrack and some nice imagery from home:

http://vimeo.com/31219796

Back in the Cave I've gotten back to the same point as I had just before the wobbly block was pulled out of the roof, falling off with both hands on Left Wall on In Life.

Hopefully it will go soon when temps drop ever so slightly and strength endurance improves!

INSIDE

It has been a fun start to the winter bouldering rounds and I've done ok so far in the Hangar and Awesome Walls ones coming provisionally 2nd in one and 1st in the other. Admittedly the strength of the fields is quite low so the real challenge will be doing well in the first round of the NIBL in a couple weeks time.

There is also a coaching session coming up this weekend with Nige Callendar so I'm hoping to pick up some tips and see what can be improved upon the most to help achieve my goals both immediate and in the future.

FONT

My current mantra is not to push too hard before we head off to font on the 18th November for a week of *fingers crossed* cold and dry weather. It should be both inspiring and dismaying watching Web Parsons/Puccio/Coxsey and Garden warming up on personal projects but I'm just looking forward to being there and getting some classics done. Amazingly, I haven't written up a detailed list of problems for a change... and I'll see how going with the flow works out when we get there.

Physio trip

After having a horrible re-occurance of my back spasm whilst serving a customer on Sunday, I made the effort to get Tuesday evening off and I went to see the recently installed Tuesday night physio Hannah down at the Hangar. Luckily she was able to help me out with some stretching/ROM exercises focussing on getting my lower back working again and then strengthened.

I've been given homework to do 3-4 times daily to help speed up the process and have also purchased a rather fetching hot water bottle from the evil Tesco empire to help warm the old lower back up before I do any gentle stretching. I road tested it before whilst driving to the Hangar this afternoon and it was pretty damn amazing!

Hopefully with careful dedication to these specific exercises, things will be on the mend by next Tuesday and I can maybe have my upper back looked at which was been dodgy (bit of a locked up and tender bruised feeling either side of my spine) for the last 2 months. She didn't want to touch that for now as the lower back isn't yet strong enough for my upper back to receive some un-knotting, it is unsuprisingly a bit of a mess from years of training and never having anything done to ease it up!

I then have a 5 day window from Thursday till Monday to get out and do some rock scaling with my good friend mr Skyner Weeks. We are both quite keen to do a bit of grit volume at the moment so we will probably hit both the Peak and Yorkshire. There are lots of high classics I am keen on but these will likely have to be postponed till normal back strength/mobility is restored. Fingers crossed for a cold and dry October :)

You know you're getting old when...

You hike uphill for 20 mins, warm up at the crag on some easy solo's and then pull your back whilst pulling on the loops of your sending shoes!

It seems I only blog about injuries and rehab these days and sure to form after vastly improving on the shoulder front, my lower back went yesterday in the most frustrating of ways. Right at the start of the session after driving up there solo and hauling 4 pads up to Warton.

Monday 26th

I went up to the South lakes with Mike and Sam on a Woodwell mission. Sadly it was pretty minging at O'ert Road and Tom's roof but pulling on with a towel and skipping holds allowed us to warm up on Angel Deelite. Mike did it after a bit of trouble with the top section and Sam didn't quite manage it. I worked on the Flying Finish going rightwards from the flat jug but couldn't work it out. I tried spanning across the lip but it felt wrong and then attempted it using the undercut on Backhand Roof, a left heel to hand and then throwing wildly over the top for a distant hold but kept spinning off with the angle feeling weird.

We moved over to Tom's and there wasn't much dry for Mike and Sam to try but I hadn't attempted the Footless Marathon before today, so thought it would be a fun thing to do, which wasn't quite true as it was sharp and wet but I got through it and just about held on to the last big slap for the flash.

We headed to where we knew would be dry and the Shelterstone face didn't let us down. Mike and Sam took turns trying the Pit Problem and I almost did The Buccaneer in a couple of tries only to hold the swing and then fall off matching the lip. About 45 mins of sweating off, swearing and nearly giving up ... I managed to hold the swing again and made no mistakes on the 4b top out!

Thursday 29th

After a trip up to Warton the day before with Laura and J Railton. I headed back up the M6 on my billy no mates in White Beauty. Rather than leave Ebenezer Goode till another time with yesterday's afternoon heat being draining, I got there a little earlier before the sun could come around on to the buttress.

As you may have read at the beginning of this post, I hauled up several mats and arrived feeling good. A few Solo's and a strained back later. I was prone on the mat trying to stretch it out and it didn't feel too bad immediately, just a bit stiff. I was a bit angry at the prospect of the petrol cost and pad hauling being all for nothing, so did the clever thing and got on my project anyway to show it who's boss!

It wasn't looking good 2 goes later as I felt a bit achey and had fired off the lip dish twice. The next go I somehow scraped through panting and grunting to the sidepull at the end but couldnt summon the energy to get the kneebar in and slid off. I knew it would go in colder temps and the sun was starting to shine on the hold so I swore a bit, brushed the holds and gave it my all.

I battled through to the same position and managed to get the kneebar in just as my fingers were uncurling from the painful handswap hold. I shook like a shitting dog laybacking the crack without being able to feel much through the pump and was mightily relieved to reach the break and lean into the corner to take a 2 minute rest before topping out!

I hobbled back down gingerly and dragged myself and pads back down the hill feeling every single step shooting up my back.

The drive home was uncomfortable and I could barely move when arriving back in Merseyside!

I wisely dosed up on various creams and pills and went to a BBQ at a friends where copious amounts of red wine and food seemed to ease the pain. It was a lot better this morning once I got moving and had a hot shower but has started to feel bad in the shop bending up and down to get shoes for customers!

A cocktail of Naproxen, Diclofenac, Ibuprofen gel and Paracetemol should hopefully help... I can't wait to see the physio next Tuesday!

Some welcome News

The reason for being a little quiet of late is down to another shoulder injury!

Fortunately it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as the ones that I had to fix for 2-3 months at the end of last year/start of this.

I spent a few days resting and then got straight on to the usual routine of assisted movement, stretching and then gradual strengthening with the theraband whilst trying not to get too down about all the oh so near projects that would have to wait a bit longer than anticipated.

Looking at my activity diary, it was quite clear I had been overloading a bit in terms of climbing/weights at the gym but I am pretty certain I caused it during the comp on the grim corner mantle presses. I quite enjoy comps now and again but this is about the 3rd time I've picked up an injury in the last year directly from comp style pressing.

Once fixed, it's tempting to pack it in and stick to climbing on more basic stuff which doesn't involve contortionism, relates more directly to what I want to do outside and is less likely to cause further anguish!

Rehab Day 1

After about 8 days of rest/theraband I had a great day out in Wales with Laura and a poorly Dexter the dog who nearly spewed all over the floor in V12! We started off at RAC bumping into Shauna and Skyner Weeks.

It was the ideal place to do a bit of volume as well as ticking off guidebook gaps in my lifelong quest to tick the North Wales Bouldering guide (Sadly minus roadrunner cave!).

The highlight was managing to drag my unfit corpse across the Pump Traverse sans cracks at the mighty grade of 7a. Laura flashed a load of the easy minor classics and we drove over to the pass.

Rather than get bored on the roadside face, I suggested we go check out the highball stuff at Pont Y Cromlech where I had ticked off the Seam and a quality V2 a few years back.

Laura made a casual flash of The Seam and then flashed all of the other stuf up to V3. I ticked off the up lines apart from the high and scary V4(E2?) rounded arete, where I found myself stood up on the undercut and unable to reach the hanging crack high up. The fall trajectory would have been super sketchy with the 3 small pads, so I bailed off left and saved it for a big balls day!

We finished off at the roadside where we met Rich and Bertie and Laura agonisingly dropped the top of Johnny's problem from the sitter several times, before we went to Pizza and a Pint which seems to have an exponential price creep of late!

Indoor Rock Scaling and Cake!

Since that day out I've just been circuiting indoors at the Hangar and only tested the creaking joints on some slightly harder stuff yesterday, including winning a brownie for getting the first ascent of the grim vertical traverse (problem 21) on the blue 4-6 circuit.



Next week brings 3 days off work and hopefully a chance to get out on some real stones if I can find a willing crew to share the petty costs! I'm really keen to go try and finish off XXXX at the Bowderstone and Ferrino with no pockets in the cave but they could both prove a tad ambitious/burly in terms of rehab problems!

Ater all this chatting shit, I re-read the title of this blog and realised I didn't actually expand upon it!

The welcome news (with my usual situation of a new injury being just around the next pressy corner) is that the Hangar has drafted in a physio who will be down there every Tuesday evening to help cure us of our ailments and hopefully put us on the road to normal human posture! I am obviously excited by this and looking forward to getting a sports massage having had a perma stiff back for quite some time. It may be £20 well spent which would otherwise be splashed out on 2 bottles of red from my current local shop of choice.