Looking back and then ahead

I'll firstly recap what's been going on this week in the murky world of Merseyside climbing....

Sat 25th Apr

A strong car carrying such luminaries as McShane, Farley and to a lesser extent myself, headed off to the sunny S Lakes. As tempting as it was to get dropped off at Trowbarrow, I was keen to check out what Warton Pinnacle had to offer (apart from the epic walk-in).

Upon arriving we were pleased to see dry rock and set to work warming up on these supposed V1 highballs that all felt around HVS 6b! I thoroughly enjoyed shaking like a shitting dog up nearly all of these minor classics much to the mirth of Benedict!

Once the messing was over with, I quickly got to work crushing the kneebar hanging crack thing that is the finish for both Poison and E-Fix. Deciding I would likely deck on an attempted reversal, I opted to shake my way to the top utilising some old skool jamming technique.

Matty D rocked up and joined in the farcical sandbagging and once we felt ready to turn on the power I managed to drag myself up Debaser by the skin of my teeth via a couple of cut loose dynos where I didn't quite catch the holds but held on grimly to avoid a trip to Lancaster A&E.
I expected Matt to follow me up but then I remembered static crimping beasts don't jump and we joined O on Poison.

After about an hour of arsing around we had all fallen off towards the finish and Owen with the kneebar going in, devestating! The conditions were a bit on the tropical side of humid with frequent rain showers and then dead heat to follow... causing my complexion to change from red faced to yellow to a disturbing green before I gave up and just feasted on the mat.

Sun 26th

After a decent night of sleep, I was feeling much better and after a brief trip into town to purchase a thoroughly strong t-shirt, me and Si went to the majestic Pex Hill with Dave. It was great to be back on Pisa Wall just standing on ledges and bearing down on wonderful crimps and 3 finger stacks :)

The warming up was brief and me and dave got the mats spread out underneath Monoblock. The flash attempt was a surprise as I got stood up in the break using the anti-beta but progress was then severly halted using this methodology. After Dave managed to piece things together in his head we realised it was right foot up and not left :P

With this knowledge I got stood up every time and then matched on the high holds. A further go and I had managed to get stood up on a nubbin roughly 1ft above the break and pulled down hard to see how much height I had. I was locked in on straight legs but the pocket/slot seemed far away.. I had a glance down and realised a missed dyno would result in decking out so duly bailed. With the pads adjusted, it wasn't long before I made it back to the same move and this time a rockover slap resulted in a 2 inch miss and a decent bit of airtime.

Attempts were being hindered somewhat by rapscalions throwing stones across the quarry and walking across the top on some sort of rotational shift and combined with more rain showers we sacked it off as it went dark, opting for a swift pint at the Unicorn Inn!

I couldn't believe that I had managed to get stood up, let alone slapping at the pocket as it is not exactly a style of climbing I am well versed in, having trained or climbed primarily in the cave and indoor walls. It is a massive goal and a local testpiece with a bit of history and would be a joy to climb to complete the big 3 on Lady Jane Wall.

Tues 28th

The weather all day was truly horrific but unperturbed, we made the journey to Pantymwyn and lo and behold it was bone dry with good temps! Amazing.

The warmup felt great and I quickly dispatched Be Ruthless first attempt of the session. The sitter took a couple more attempts after dropping the last move twice but once I had it, there was more of a sense of completion. This seemed to get Owen and Chessie Si a bit more psyched and they both crushed the standup within 15 mins of one another.

Andy made what was definitely the most on-off ascent of a problem ever as he cut loose and swung about on Firestarter about 5 times grabbing non holds, compressing nothingness and grasping the top with a bit of a scream and a lot of shaking. Good effort beast!

I briefly tried the moves on the Yellow Finish to Sparks and couldn't really work it out so turned attention to Thug Mentality. After figuring out the finish I pulled on for a redpoint and managed to get through to the 2nd to last move before pumping out and failure. Owen pointed out a better heel placement and after a 10 min rest I shook my way across to get it on the next try giving myself a bit of a calf strain in the process from pulling on that final jug.

We had a small celebratory meal in the Loggerheads pub afterwards and I must say the Sea Bass was divine.

Looking ahead

I posted a list of problems last November that were my wishlist to get done at some stage in 2009/10 and with the recent spate of form and decent weather I have made great headway:

1. Jerry's Roof (The pass) yyfy
2. Lou Ferrino (cave) yyfy
3. Trigger Cut (cave) yyfy
4. Jess's Roof (Almscliff)
5. Fallen Idol (roche)
6. Lizard King (The pass) yyfy
7. Be Ruthless (pantymwyn) yyfy
8. Sparks (pantymwyn) yyfy
9. Hurricane (curbar)
10. Pit of Hell (cave)

I would have been made up to get half of them done so to get 6 before the end of April has been great on a personal level. It has really helped climbing with people I look up to as inspirations and the Merseyside scene is pretty damn good at the moment with a lot of mutual support and encouragement going on to get things done. I'd like to say thanks to O and Si for the massive amount of lifts & psyche and the free wine & accomodation respectively! ;)

Looking back at this list, I have definitely changed my goals for 09 to be a bit more ambitious but hopefully still attainable. I'll now try and focus on getting:

1. Monoblock (Pex Hill)
2. Mr Fantastic (Jerry's Roof)
3. Halfway House (Cave)
4. Iron Man (Trowbarrow)
5. Texas Hold em (trowbarrow)

I feel fairly confident apart from number 5 which is gradually turning into a lifetime goal! :o

p.s. Will try and pad this out with a few photos when Si or Andy gets them online!