Summer has started

It's been a while since I last posted mostly due to nothing of note being sent or worked on. The up and down weather and lack of any holiday plan this summer has caused a drop off in psyche in combination with taking on a new part time job in retail.

I have been quite busy with driving lessons and have also started to train indoors again in some sort of rough pattern (working through strength, into power, into some endurance is the aim) to help make the most of my erratic working hours.

I'll quickly summarise what I've been up to over the last month!

Mid May

Had a short solo trip into N Wales camping in the pass and working on Mr Fantastic, managing to sort out the crux drop down match without having to resort to heel-toe anti beta. I climbed from the start through this a few times only to fail on the snatch to the edge on Bus Stop. I am quite tired by this point so obviously have a lack of endurance at the moment which will undoubtedly be needed in order to get this done anytime soon! It's the same as with Halfway house and needs addressing (hence starting training again instead of puntering about ticking 7a-b's!)

30th May - Angel Bay
I had a good day out at Angel Bay with Si and Andy F, where we had originally aimed at going the hills but turned off early in the face of multiple ridiculous roadworks and queues!

Andy ran about like a kid in a sweet shop as he does ticking most of the things up to V6 but refusing to try the ultra classic Chaos Emerald Crack! Shame. Si was going fairly well too and after a good while I managed to work out the crux move on Papa Big Punch and got it sent not long after. It was good fortune to be here at last when the pebbles were low enough to climb everything! I forgot to mention I was properly hungover and trying to avoid being sick again, so swerved Manc Dogs in favour of sunbathing and getting back home earlier so we could watch some of the FA cup Final in the pub :) Good work Chelski!

Early June

The Merseyside posse had a wonderful 4 day trip to the Lake District.

Day 1 - Honister/Bowderstone

We started off in the Honister Pass which was boiling but good fun on the main roadside block. A few of us went up to the high boulder and got spanked for a good hour on Occam's Razor and Ian's Lip. After needing a change of scenery we gave The Bowderstone a quick flyby visit on the first evening and found it was in terribly greasy condition. I was happy to get power pinch and statstick done as well as make rapid progress on Improper Opera (it probably would have gone down in a few goes if it wasn't for temps/grease/end of the day!)


Day 2 St Bees
It was fantastic, with clear skies and searing heat, we managed to sneak in and out of the shade to get things done including the classics like Headbanger, Undercooke, Hueco Crack, Yellow Desert...etc and Si took some time out from his impersonations of Robson Green's Extreme Fishing to make an against all odds ascent of Hueco Crack, great effort :D
I was hoping to tick everything I tried but got utterly shut down on Clash of the Titans which felt either very conditions dependant (i.e. not in 25 degrees and direct sun all day) or a bit harsh if compared with anything else there.

The highlights were defintely topping out Yellow Desert Scream (after declaring to Ben it looked flashable and taking about 10 attempts to get the first move ^^) followed by the immense BBQ afterwards (including a wonderful Mackerel caught by Robson Huthwaite ;)). Kate's lemon drizzle cake for pudding was divine! Some people got swimming in and cut their feet to shreds on the muscle shells but I was too busy on trying to tick the crag and make inroads into my 20 7A's and above goal for the trip.


Day 3 Gillercombe
The 3rd day was back into the hills and up the Honister Pass yet again. We missioned across the fells and eventually found the Gillercombe boulders. Ian's arete looked very good but was in the sun and very sharp, so we just got it done from standing! Day 3 skin wasn't having any of it... so we played it safe and climbed out the rest of the block (I was quite psyched to flash the only ascent of 'The World's Hardest V3' which was indeed a bit spicy!)

The highball Awesome arete was as good as it looked. Cave direct was a nice short burly challenge which had quite a few ascents. Poor Man's Caution was fairly steady but Zero Kelvin was cause for the most entertainment after I used the extremely suspect flake which moved about 2 inches backwards before I managed to slap up with my lefthand and unweight it. Ben declared it to be safe as houses and after jumping on and climbing up... he leaned back to step high, it ripped clean off and Ben avec block came hurtling down to Earth to scare the shit out of everyone! Owen's mate Pete from Eskdale came up with a safe method using heels and technique and Ben got it straight after using the old sequence as well as the new secure hold left behind from his destruction. :)

In the evening we all piled into Ben's car (as I forgot to mention the nightmare of O's breaking down on Tuesday night! We used a car ferry system with Ben doing two long journeys up the Honister Pass on day 3 and back again... What a leg end) and headed into Cock in Mouth. We located a good looking Indian and had a sit in meal which was very good if a little expensive. It obviously paled in comparison with the mighty Noor of Aigburth but it weren't half bad.

Day 4 - Warton
O managed to get some shiny gold things to fix his car and we cruised back down the M6 towards Liverpool stopping off at Warton on the way back. As the team bemoaned their varying states of tiredness/aches I felt amazing and felt like crushing! The warmup was brief and after about 30 mins I had managed to get E Fix in the bag. Result. It felt easier than Poison to me as the first move was piss compared to how hard it looked and it's less moves as well!
We moved over to the middle Pinnacle and got the flash on Totally Focussed and the sitter (cheers to ben for the heavy beta!). Just to the left we enjoyed the easier lines of which the arete and Beastmaster were fucking brilliant for easy lines! We repeated them in trainees and then eliminating holds as you should ;) The highlight was me and Ben heckling Smooth Pete on the font 4 arete causing him to get confused, downclimb a move, climb up, stop and then fall off with pump! Mighty fine heckling.

Mid June

June 13th - Clogwyn Y Tarw
Last weekend a strong team of hommes ventured up to Ogwen and found it to be warm as hell (after carrying up my thermals and a coat). Having not been here before, it was quite exciting and the warmup circuit was good with Raging Bull being a great traverse line. Ben managed to add a fairly desperate and bunched sitter into El Gringo 29 which Tony Gaskins swiftly repeated! (Tony is a beast from Awful Walls Liverpool who has only been outside about twice and has sickening strength and fingers already, he will be scary when he can use the lower half of his body! ;))

We moved on to The Thief and this got dispatched via the sloper and straight to the break by myself, it's such a nice move! We worked out pretty much every way of failing on the sitter but came away with a decent sequence by the end of it and moved over to Red Sky Wall. I got the flash on this also and then the sitter straight away. It is a wonderful sequence of techy moves on nice edges and then odd layaway pockets to a commiting final move.
Down the hill and Owen tore The Punk a new arse from standing as myself and Jamie flailed on it for a good half hour losing a ton of skin in the process. In a moment of desperation I went round the corner to see what Tony had nearly broke his legs on, 'Here Comes Cadi' which looked quite funky. A heavy dab lost the flash but on the 2nd attempt, I managed to get the big hold right and then do a good 5+ second 1 arm lock off into a 1 armer and then get my foot back on as I screamed down the valley. The top out was on grim suspect looking rock but the moves underneath made it worthwhile!

June 16th - Warton
Last night, myself, Si, O and Smooth Pete returned to Warton so Pete and O could get closure on the various Debaser lines. O got the left hand link done and totally pathed it static on each move. Pete was a bit out of sorts and somehow didn't get Debaser done but he should next time.

I had gone with the intention of trying the 8a linkup traverse into Efix called Ebanezer Good but it was boiling and I couldn't be arsed so thought I'd have a look at Voodoo People again after having 1 pull on when with Ben last time. I tried Ben's method once more and failed nearly face planting the block so decided to try using the awkward looking deep mono closer in. I got the right toe on the lip and reached into the mono, finding it went in real deep. This let me crank and get my weight up and over that right foot and after pressing like a bastard to get stood up, it was done!
The sitter took 2 more goes and my right hand was in a fair amount of tweaky pain badness but the wave of relief knowing I don't have to try this harsh sandbag ever again made up for it :D
Decided to stop straight away after that, so as not to inflame the hand anymore and it feels a lot better today already. I might hit the weights in a bit but more likely will sit off and watch some psyche material...