And the beat goes on

Following on from the previous week of devestational form, the sun was beaming yet again and all was well in the South Lakes...

S Lakes Sat 11th

On Saturday 11th a large posse descended upon G land.

It started off with me and Owen hooking up with Kev at the classy services on the M6 northbound (with an M&S and decent espresso!). We rocked up to Woodwell and happened upon a broken Dolph Lundgren lying spreadeagled across his mat tenderly holding what was left of his shoulders after a morning beating himself up on a fairly wet Kaizen. Mine and Kev's infectious enthusiasm to campus about on crimps led to a fairly inadequate warmup but I was psyched for the Art of Self Destruction so quickly set up camp underneath and started drying.

The grips were wet underneath but I was certainly prepared after raiding the airing cupboard at home and making off with a bag of towels. The vagrant Mills and his westie partner, sir Donnelly arrived eventually and this added psyche and artistic bent must have sparked some creative thoughts... After a couple of unsuccessful slaps at the top jug, I decided to try a mix of both styles, by taking the left toe-hook out and stepping the left foot up on to the flat edge whilst keeping the right foot on the back ledge. I sagged slightly then just pressed hard through the left foot while pulling into a wonderful arc like movement and floated seamlessly into the awaiting jug, perfect! It didn't feel too hard and I have no idea what the grade is... I'm not overly bothered as it is a great move and a S Lakes G classic!

The scene grew stronger as Andi and Nicki turned up and we all decided to move camp to Fairy Steps. Another car carrying Jamie and Cath joined on to the procession exiting the carpark and our 10 strong posse moved on. I wasn't too fussed about climbing much after ticking a longterm goal and was happy to eat, heckle, then eat some more. Matt continued his comeback by getting Aeon in the bag whislt Dolph disappeared up the hill to crush the sitter to Axiom in the midday sun. Bestia.

As people tired, we decided to change the scene again by moving over to Trowbarrow, where Tom and I got reaquainted with the puzzle that is Texas Hold 'em. It is a truly wonderful set of unobvious moves that requires power, brutality, uspidedown shenanigans, flexibility and conditions... most of which were lacking. I managed to ascend the V4 topout in isolation for the first time ever and thought this could well be the day after 5 fruitless sessions! It was not to be as I had a double grease off, resulting in a rather heavy horizontal landing and I had to tap out. This seemed to prove off-putting to Mills, and we joined the others around the block. Owen and Kev were looking at Vitruvian Man whilst Tom, Jamie and Andi played on Pit Problem. Being the twat I am, I booted up and retro flashed both of them, lapping up the boos and cat calls from the crowd! ;)

I failed to make any headway on Iron Man as I was totally spent.

S Lakes Mon 13th

To make the most of the wonderful Easter weekend a return to the S Lakes was in order. Whilst Owen sat under Aeon, Si, Tom and myself went to find some esoteric gems. We came across a couple of classic G sandbags. The V1 shut down the whole team until I unleashed overpower upon it and climbed it the v6 way. Feeling pathetic, we moved on a little further and foundThe Trick thanks to bushman Si's navigational prowess (I feel a leading role on 'I'm a gritstone punter, get me out of here!' could be on the cards). I declared the Trick to look piss in my usual overconfident lack of wisdom and failed to flash it. I decided to dispense with any form of trickery and just did a satisfying dyno to the jug which worked. The muddy topout proved tricksome but it was in the satch so to speak. I added the sitter in a couple of goes which is of truly questionable quality. Si did a controversial righthand version using jugs and Tom got some time in on the rock, obviously not ascending anything but looking strong in the process!

We got back over in time for us to shout O along an ascent of Aeon which is rapidly becoming a Merseyside posse warmup problem.

Everyone disappeared whilst me and Millso stayed behind for him to try Aeon. After Mike telling me I should flash the Aeon Prow, I brushed the holds, had a feel, then pulled on slapping out to the poor pinch on the apex and then building my feet up, I gave it all I had and unexpectedly had my fingers over the top only to fail to hold on. There went the flash and I could feel a great deal of pain in the right fingers. The amount of boning required on the sharp sidepull/crimp is horrifying. I made a decision to make sure I got it done and sacrificed my chances on Iron Man. I got it in about 5 attempts but split a tip quite deep in the process.


Sat 18th

Me and Matt went back yet again to Fairy Steps and met up with Paul Craven who was really nice to climb with. We gave him the numbers on things and watched him crush. Matt got close on the Aeon Reverse and I finally managed to get Aeon Crack at stiff V4! Remind me never to go to Yosemite to attempt anything other than bouldering. We had a look at Axiom and Walk Away in the ridiculous heat and then moved on to Trowbarrow.

I quickly worked out my definite sequence to Iron Man and climbed into the start of Vitruvian only to keep greasing off both holds as it was baking hot. Deciding to come away with at least 1 new problem for the day, I worked out a brilliant right heel hook requiring flexible hips to make the last move of Ned's problem static to the lip with the left hand and eliminating the swing :) With this in the bag, we bailed back to the Pool!


Tues 21st - Return to the Mwyn!

I was all psyched up for Trowbarrow yesterday only for owen to change the destination to the Gorge so we could meet up with Chessie Si. Walking down there brought back fond memories of climbing Under the Bridge last year. Once we were down by the entrance, we could see that it was in awesome condition and this triggered psyche mode.

We warmed up with some bad sequences on Firestarter to dismay Paul from the wall.. who escaped to do routes with Lee Proctor around the corner and me and O got down to business time.

Owen achieved first with a rapid 2nd ascent of Si's problem the Faith Healer. I managed to drop the last move on Sparks 3 times before getting angry, going topless and crushing it to pieces. Joyous! Problem 1 was in the bag and I went over to Be Ruthless to unleash the fury. I failed many times and eventually climbed the last section using 3 methods all of which I couldn't actually do when climbed into from the start. The frustration was palpable and then Owen had a bit of a breakthrough making the last move more accessible. With a decent rest and renewed vigour, I climbed all the way into this move, made it and then had a mind blank, dropped off in pain and called it quits. It will get done next session without any trouble at all and the sitter likewise.

It was great to go back to the Gorge and get back on these problems after both of us having improved quite significantly since last year. We may be back this weekend to finish off Be Ruthless and I can try and flash Faith Healer to wind up Si! :)