Well it has been freezing cold the last 2 weeks. Me, O and Mike decided to make the most of good temps and a -10 windchill to get out in the pass and Ogwen recently, for a day of circuiting and cleaning up some old bugbears/nemesi'.
The day started off with a short hike down the road and a river crossing that saw Owen up to his ankles in freezing cold river water within 3 minutes of leaving the car... harsh but funny!
We warmed up on the dash block and made quick flashes of the supposed v6 dash traverse (maybe 4 at a push!), I was testing out some new 5.10 5X's and was most impressed with how comfortable they felt after only breaking them in at the wall a couple days beforehand. We warmed up further on Fear of a Slopey Planet and before sending it for the first time, O managed to jump off the block straight through some frozen turf and down into the mud to coat his Dragons in a nice layer of brown insulation! The man has consistency ;)
Over to an embarassing long term project of mine (on a par with Foam Party before it was recently vanquished), and Mike managed an impressive onsight of Boysen's Roof SS utilising his massive wingspan to reach a good RH hold from sitting. I had tried this sticking hands in crack only for about 3 sessions and had no success, as soon as I tried this other method I nearly got the retro flash but failed high up on easy ground with a foot pop. I put the Solutions on and got it next go.
We went over the road to Jerry's Wall and I finally managed the standup (got shut down when I came up here last year on a solo mission). I think the confidence of having a spotter and not being able to feel the sharpness of what I was crimping were big factors! The sitter was in the bag shortly after, before we became hypothermic (we had to keep rotating the person who stood on the pad to prevent it blowing away down the pass, with one person cowering behind the boulder to thaw out again!)
After a short trip into Beris for Owen to buy dry socks and some hot food, we made a short drive to Ogwen and up to Gallt Yr Ogof. I was keen for smackhead and quickly became dismayed at its difficulty at v8. Mike pointed out a quality dyno to the right (which is the standup to Smackhead RH). It took a while to work out what hand to go with and I eventually held on going lefthand to top of the block in a full cut loose... what an amazing move.
As me and Owen cowered out of the wind next to Smackhead, we heard an almighty scream as Mike celebrated topping out Sway On with no witnesses! ;) Owen was getting close to the dyno but soon had to leave as Hoobie had been vomiting from the sheer cold and had begun to dig himself a grave to crawl into and die in! I managed to do Smackhead in 2 halves twice but kept struggling to link the right foot step through into last move. I can't wait to go back and finish it off as it is a great set of moves.
Saturday 7th Feb
Back to my favourite venue on Earth and I was once again reaquainted with the current bane of my climbing existence in Lou Ferrino. Thankfully it was a better session than last time. First go and I was matched on the ramp pressing out to the first drilled pocket when my I stabbed high with my hand above and missed it! The next 2 attempts reached the same stage but were a bit sloppy with a couple cut loose moments and having to readjust on several holds. I was just happy to be feeling strong and locked into the problem again at last, as I could repeatedly link it in 2 overlaps. The cave soon got too busy for my liking and I hated the feeling of being watched by 20+ people waiting for me to fail and get out of their way!
Me and O escaped to the box and were soon joined by Ted who is a thoroughly nice guy and helped point out some problems to go at including Jack Daniels Connection which took me a fair few goes to work out how to hold the RH as you throw/lock to the shield hold. It did succumb to persistence and I was chuffed to have finally done a new problem at the pillbox... they only get harder from here on in! D:
Ted looked in great form crushing the sitter to Last Rites with complete ease and not long after he linked Jack Daniels into Aint no Party... a mighty fine spell of crimping!
Sunday 8th Feb
To cap off a prouctive weekend, I met up with Dave, Holger and Pete Chadwick at the Venue we are building in Liverpool. I posted a few photos a while back of the current board which was very small and obviously limited training wise.
Well... we finally got things moving again after Pete and Holger sorted out a load of wood to build some framework and the 4 of us got a whole new board put up by the afternoon. It is another thing of beauty, not quite as wide as the Dispensary board but the same in height and without a kickboard to utilise its full length and make the climbing start as soon as you pull on! :) I think it is roughly 12ft wide by 13ft high and somewhere between 45 and 50 degrees. All we need now is a ton of holds and bolts.
I'm off down there today to start crafting some wooden ones to save on the expenditure!
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