Glassy grips/Soft core

Today was the 4th session on Louis Armstrong this year and as with the previous one around 3 weeks ago, it was pretty much abject failure.

To my utter amazement, the first left hand undercut was dry for the first time this year. This led to being able to climb through from the start to slapping the lip 5 times but with a core resembling a bowl of poorly set jelly, I was nowhere near to holding the move.

For the 2nd session in a row, I didn't even do the crux move to finish link, which had become doable every session for the last 10 or more (sometimes 2-3 times in a row).

Although the undercut was finally dry, the rock was so cold, it was glassy and made the feet slide about a bit as well as making skin feel damp from the contrast in temperature between lime and skin. Poor excuses no doubt, but it definitely felt like a few degrees warmer would make things easier (especially being able to rest longer and keep blood in feet and fingers!).

If I'm going to get near to an ascent, I'll have to stop messing around indoors climbing problems and do some core work again... as it has been a long time and it was definitely found to be wanting today.

In better news

Laura and I are getting closer to organising our wedding venue and reception for this summer and it should be amazing if the weather helps out a bit!

I was chuffed that Si agreed to be the best man for the occasion and we all had a great time down on the Lleyn last weekend for Si's birthday bash, with lots of new problems ticked as well as the odd cheeky F.A.

I'm looking forward to getting Si over for some days out scaling and fishing on the coast as well as the other Merseyside lids, once they've finished exploring the esoteria of dubious quality to be found in Lancashire.

Lacking in inspiration

Much like this blog, my mind has been lacking in inspiration for the last few weeks.

I've been working all of the hours under the sun (or lack of) in Llanberis as it's the busiest time of the year for us. The one week of perfect cold and sunny weather passed by outside as I was in every day until after 6 and the motivation to get out with lamps into the hills in the dark was lacking!

This has led to being a bit knackered, not helped by the dog waking me up barking around 4.30-5.30am most days, and I've managed to pick up a grim cold which currently lingers at just over a week.

A rare day out

I attempted to get outside a last Sunday with Paul and Matty D. The warm ups on roadside face felt ok but then I got utterly spanked by the Sting and ripped a fingertip wide open. A bit of taping to stem the tide and we headed over to Gallt yr Ogof.

Split fingertip aside, I got back on problems I thought should go down with 6 years more climbing under the belt (and a bit of improvement in strength/movement skills) but every single problem on this boulder is still hideously desperate! I failed miserably on regeneration and smackhead, so didn't even bother looking at Sway On. (Paul later linked a video which helped lift the gloom of abject failure, showing I was starting on the wrong holds/in the wrong place, making them harder than necessary, so I'll return again in 6 years time)

Indoor stasis

Although getting outside has been a bit tougher, I've managed to retain a tiny bit of motivation for indoors, as the setting down at the Indy wall is excellent. Although I don't feel like I have gotten any stronger, the lure of not getting too far behind in the aggregate and trying to hang on to the coat-tails of Pete Robins and Ducko has kept me going back and trying hard to drag my out of shape withered corpse up some of the harder stuff.

I'll hopefully post about amazing days out on the next blog and be a bit less depressive. I had a laugh with Matt the other day about moving closer to decent climbing and sacking off climbing, much like in his Sheffield days, but it won't come to that... There is still some unfinished business in a certain polished limestone cave :)

Post Summer Scaling Adventures

I've managed to get outside a couple of times in the last 2 weeks just before the turd weather arrived.

Crafnant

Mills & Jack @ Chez Hudssion

A couple of weekends ago, Millso and 8c Jee were over in N Wales, so we got together and hit up Crafnant along with O and Alec.

We were blessed with dry weather and grips, with the lightest of breezes making it bearable and friction-filled-fun!

We started off climbing out of a dank hole, which featured a funky right hand dish and pop to sloper move, then moved over to Grasswind, where Jee and I managed to scramble our way up to the top. The face on go again move is really good.

Some lanky ginge topping out Asswind

After this, it was a short hop, contouring across the sketchy slope to arrive at the main boulder.

Return of The Upton Crimp!

Jee managed a rapid ascent of Wonderwall and I bailed off the top-out after a scream of fearful desperation in failing to turn my right palm as the sun beat down on the slippery top! I slid off into the hands of ace spotter/groper T Mills esq. and survived.

Whilst taking a long rest and waiting for the sun to go behind the hills, Jee did a tour of the boulder ticking off Riley's, Cruella and Special K before departing with Ruby.

O, Alec and Tom all made good progress on Cruella but had to give in with sore skin and dodgy knees/joints. I managed to drag my arse up Wonderwall next go, after a 30 min rest and no rewarm up, which was savage on the fingers and I felt wrecked on the top! We were a right old bunch of semi injured semi veterans.


Maes Newyddion

Louis Start

I was blessed with a dry day off work last Friday and managed to sneak up Maes Newyddion late morning, making the now very familiar treck up the winding road to arrive out of breath as always.

I was determined to crush Grey House into atoms and not have to face that walk again and set about warming up on budha roof until I could feel the blood return to my fingertips from pulling on the sharpness.

To cut a long story short I had lots of shit attempts, then 3 good ones on the house, swinging out and back in only to fall off and finally clung on after about 15 attempts... miraculously without splitting any fingers open (just a hole in my right palm from the top!).

The undercut resting station

I thought it might be 8A after my previous visit but slightly better conditions made it feel more like stout 7C+. I think Buddha Roof in comparison may only be hard 7C but who knows?

I sadly didn't get any footage as I have been a bit lazy in not searching for my dodgy old predator vision camcorder since moving over to Wales. I'll make sure to dust it off and start recording Louis sessions in case I fluke it. I've put some pics up on here so you can see my sneaky weak mans methods!

Comps

Spicy Times

With the inclement weather arriving, I've had a go at the Indy and Beacon winter comps. The setting at both has been good and doing this amount of volume (30-40 problems a session) should be good fitness training for when it stops raining and I can get outside. I've got 1 problem left to do at each but don't fancy I'll finish the Blue 8A/+ at the Indy unless the weather stays shit and I'm forced indoors!







Some House View Pics

I've just realised there has been a lack of new house photos on the blog so far. So here are the views from our living room/kitchen/balcony areas :)

The Conwy Estuary and a distant West Shore

Looking out over the river and into the hills

A sunny back garden!

Conwy Castle from the kitchen window :)

A great summer

Little Lamb near Aber Falls

Since I last posted back in April, Laura and myself were fortunate enough to move into the house we were waiting on and have been doing little bits and pieces to it since to try and make it feel like our own home.


The never ending summer of June/July meant lots of time spent in the garden and sneaky sessions down the Orme and occasionally into the hills. A lot of ice cream has been eaten and the only time I had to go indoors was to pop back over to Liverpool for the BOSS comps which went ok considering I'm old and decrepit. I was very grateful to Pete staying in South Africa long enough for me to turn up and look strong in a weakened field! ;)

Tricky hanging Arete at Cae Du

Commuting to Llanberis from Glan Conwy isn't as bad as I expected (due to zero traffic and motorways, it is a nice chilled start to the day), and I got in a few decent after work sessions which culminated in finally clawing my way up Diesel Power. I thought Corridors of power, the most in vogue 8A in N Wales would go down in similar fashion but it merely resulted in split tips and holes in my palms! I'm hoping to finish it off this weekend as the weather has picked up over the last 2 days and the temps are slowly dropping.

There can be only one (1KG egg)

I've had a dabble on Louis a few times but need to get on it when it's colder to stand a chance as I tend to slide around on the undercuts too much at the moment, making the setup not ideal for the crux. Oh to be strong!

9/10/14
Updated with some pics! :)

Giant Egg & Belgian beer, the diet of champions

Dolphins off the coast @ Cae Du

A lovely day out to Bodnant Gardens with Laura

North Wales boyo

There has been a fair bit of upheaval since my last post in early January.

I've moved over to North Wales with Laura as we were both offered full time work and thought it would be a good change of scene, being closer to the sea, hills and fresh air!

We are currently living above the veterinary surgery awaiting a completion date on a house we made an offer for way back in early Feb. Sadly, the finishing line still isn't in sight due to the chain of pensioners not being in any hurry to move or respond to their solicitors information requests.

Fingers crossed that it won't be too much longer as there is only so long that you can function with the use of a microwave and takeaways alone!

In other news, my left knee is healing up really well. Thanks to Laura pushing me a bit; A combination of ignoring the tame physio rehab and doing more intensive exercise (more advanced than the pensioners handout I was given) as well as cycling on the turbo trainer has seen it strengthen well and regain a good range of motion.

I've been back on rock several times over the last week in the pass, maes Newyddion, Craig y llyn and of course the hallowed cave.

I was still a bit wary of cranking hard on the left knee during the first few sessions back on rock... but after doing the finish section of Louis last Week, I gave the heel move at the start a go and to my utter relief everything was perfectly fine. If anything, it felt easier than before the injury and I'll hopefully be able to make use of the marginal strength gains from the couple of months deadhanging, pull-ups and campussing.

Aside from the climbing goal for this year being back on track, it has been an amazing season to be a Liverpool fan and I pray that we can finish it off with a long awaited premiership title!

A Liverpool title and a 3rd victory for Woolton wanderers in the UKB fantasy football league would put the icing on the cake after a successful knee rehab and relocation to N Wales :D

Inspired

I'm currently sat on the couch after a gourmet meal at the ivory, enjoying a rather delectable 04 Rioja that Laura's parents got me for Christmas. I was saving bottles such as this for performance related prizes in 2014 but seeing as I currently have no idea whether I will be able to function near to 100% in the next few months, I thought what the hell!

I have spannered my left knee and to cut a long story short, the x-ray was clear and it is still swelled and not functioning 3 weeks later. The MRI I got a referral for today won't be until 25th Feb (the week after fish heads stag do in Font).

I had a look at going private today and got the eye watering quote of 3.2 grand. Not the kind of money I can fritter away on bionic knee operations!

Rather than becoming demotivated I have found being crocked a great motivator for getting down to the wall 4-5 times a week and doing intensive amounts of pull-ups, chin-ups, weighted hangs, 1 arm hangs, pressups..etc and I'm starting to see some gains already: I.e. Getting bigger if not necessarily better at climbing! The new goal by Font is to tip the scales at 73kg+ and not have the appearance of a skinny fingered, malnourished, hollow eyed aspirational crusher!

Watching World's strongest man always gets me more motivated than watching most climbing media and I have had a few sessions back down the gym too, obviously having to steer well clear of the deadlift and squat but getting back into the pressing exercises and the lat pull downs.

Sadly I am never going to be 6"8 and 180kg, so I'll have to stick with the climbing for now.

You can keep Sharma and Ondra and marvel at Brian Shaw crushing a 442.5kg deadlift:

Testing the waters

With the dreaded feeling of Sunday's Louis session being a big fluke, I returned to the cave via new Bizzle picking up Monsieur psyche and Hatch of Hatchatrocity fame up along the way.

We got there for a casual 2.15pm and warmed up feeling a bit shoddy whilst Hatch went in search of some big game hunting atop of the Orme.

I did the post crux to finish feeling sketchy as anything but it took only a mere 3 attempts to stick the crux again and climb to the finish.

I then set about just going for the redpoints but something would always go a tiny bit wrong, mostly matching the left undercut poorly, which meant a lot of energy sapping adjustments before I could position the feet and make an attempt at the crux slap to the lip.

I had 5 tries always hitting the lip but not having the beans to keep my right foot on. A brief rest and then the litmus test of seeing if the crux still felt possible with some fatigue. To my relief, I managed to catch it 2nd go and get to the finish yet again.

I went for a final attempt to see if I could go one better than last time, but I had ran out of steam and had to concede defeat for the day. It felt hard on the back and arms and I clearly could have done with more than 1 day of rest since my last session on it.

Mike managed to look really weak on hatchatrocity and ferrino, then with a bit of goading, he joined me on Louis and absolutely rinsed the start getting a French blow in on the 2nd move before getting confused with the crux, which he realised would involve some dynamic effort on his part.

We left just as the light faded and went back to the Hangar to join Matty D, Youngy and Laura in trying the black comp set from Friday. I was completely spent after managing 28.5 of them.

Looking forwards...

I had a brief chat with Dan and he agreed it would be a good tactic to try and link matching in to the undercuts, through the crux and to the finish, rather going for the redpoint every time, as I can do it fine in separate halves but have yet to stick the crux from the start.

Regardless of if I succeed or not this year, I am feeling a massive surge of motivation just at the right time and I know for sure, that I am capable of climbing something difficult at long last. Time to knuckle down and put the effort in and not accept underachievement... aka climbing for joy! In the words of a wise man, "success is temporary, failure is forever".