Rich vein of Form/Luck

Since getting Trigger Cut in the bag I have been managing to maintain what for me is good form. The trips have been plentiful and I feel that doing as Mike and Tony said (just get out climbing and forget training), has been the best bit of advice I have ever had (bar the Guru's training programme ;))

S Lakes
In the South Lakes I managed to tick off Vitruvian Man which I really had my heart set on and on a beautiful sunny day out with Matt we also met my climbing hero Johnny G and got Aeon in a session. I got fairly close in a few goes on Art of Self Destruction before it went too dark to see but know I can get this quickly if I get another chance this year.

Wales trip
A little more recently, I took advantage of the Easter break and went camping in Nant Peris for a few days, which in fact turned out to be one night camping, then 3 nights of relative luxury staying in the Vagabonds club hut and round Jamie's in Bangor.
My goal was to climb Jerry's Roof having never really bothered with it before, due to it looking like an epic endurance route. I felt terrible on day 1 so pottered around the Barrel and meadow boulders with Jamie and had a fairly good time. The next day was a long day of working out the best sequence but I felt really run down and decided to make Saturday an easy day of sleeping and reading...

The Vags had other plans and I was rudely awoken early doors and taken to Tremadog to crush some Severes. We did one severe and then they tried to sandbag me a bit on some E1 called Barbarian. It was great fun and I think I'll maybe get out and do a few more soon as it is quite relaxing.
We had a great communal meal in the evening and I managed to get 3rds before the pans were empty. Result. There was also a really nice slideshow afterwards with some ice and ropes, guns and polar bears...etc

I awoke Sunday feeling amazing and went up to the Cromlechs with J to warm up briefly before heading straight to Jerry's. I pulled on the start of the tourist tick feeling light and just seemingly floated across doing the crux static and then finishing off with relative ease. I was kind of surprised but a bit underwhelmed as it is not the original line. I had a bit of lunch and pulled on to the arete and just spanned straight across skipping the slopey shelf, the heel-toe cammed in and I could come straight across, up into the crux only to fall off from not resting properly.. Punter!
A decent rest later and I was back at the crux swinging about but held on just enough to get my feet back in contact. The slap to the arete felt sketchy but I fought my way to the finishing jugs and rocked out over the top after a bit of indecision. What a great line!

I had a trip to the Mill with Jamie the next day and felt terrible, so just did some core work and a bit of sloper deadhanging. With the weather crapping out I went back to the 'Pool a bit early and had a welcome rest day on Tuesday.

Return to Jerry's
I headed back the pass yesterday with Andi E, Sam D, Nicki and Stu in a packed car and we wasted an hour or so in Llanberis with Stu and Andi trying on several pair of shoes they had no intentions of purchasing, so I went off to use the toilet and buy some cakes and we eventually made it up into the pass for around 2 maybe.

We warmed up at the roadside face and after showing Sam the Sting we decided to see if we could pull off the deck on Arachnaphobia. We both managed to pull on and slap at a pinch but progress was halted here. V8 chinny reckon.

We were both psyched to try Mr Fantastic, so we headed over only to find about 20 people in the queue trying to get a ticket for Jerry's :o Sam being the polite and patient person he is kinda took over the scene giving beta out and greasing it all up! ;)

I went straight in for the redpoint from the left arete and somehow found myself matched on the bus stop holds and with the heel-toe lock still in! I worked it out and had my feet on only for my right foot to pop off the dink before I could make the throw out to the edge. I was fairly pumped but had finally climbed through the crux after 2 sessions. It is really high up on my longterm wishlist and it would be amazing to climb it this year. I feel capable but need to hit it with fresh arms and skin with everything going smoothly to stand a chance. Kook pointed out a link to us to have a go on reversing the Mr Fantastic crux from Bus Stop into Jerry's then finishing up JR. It was perfect for me being both shouldery and reachy and with a bit of screaming I managed to get it in the bag in about 10 mins or so. It is a nice link and definitely felt harder than Bus Stop or Jerry's Roof so probably bottom end 7C+.

We finished off with a little trip over to Caseg Fraith and I spent a few minutes losing a lot of skin and getting nowhere on 'Repeat after Me'. Utterly deserperate it seemed. It has M Adams written all over it being similar to Speedway but probably easier.
We played on some highball slabs above the Fraith and Andi managed to shave a bit of his chin off sliding down from high up. Shortly afterwards, I bottomed out into the swamp missing the mats on my go. I was quite relieved it was boggy or I'd probably have my ankles in casts by now!
On the way back to Beris, Sam finished off the link I had done earlier and we went for pizza and a pint which is absolutely amazing and highly recommended. Saw a few familiar faces in there including a still psyched Johnny Dawes who I was giving some pointers to on the steep stuff earlier. He had left his thermarest and nalgene bottle at the roof and I was kinda gutted to have to hand them back over (the offer of a free meal for picking it up came a bit late as we had just eaten!).

Looking ahead
Easter weekend is looming and Kev is coming up from Wales to stay at Owen's so we are all looking forward to plenty of trips out over the next few days. I'm resting up in the chateau d'Ivoire with some vino and chocolate in preparation. I'm keen to get back on Art Of Self Destruction (weather permitting) and I was made up for Owen finally achieving the feat after 4 years of battling with shit weather and seepage to get it sent! :)