Caley
It looked well dark from the road but on my insistence, we headed up the hill to find Blockbuster pretty primo save for the topout slab foothold which was easily towelled.
A variety of interesting eliminates on the roof just below the block were contrived and we decided to finish the warmup on Blockbuster itself.
Things started badly with a lot of failure to grasp holds and then finding it desperate to move with the left foot up. We slowly got into it and before long both had a preferred sequence, me jumping off the grim pocket fingerlock to the crimp and Dave utilising the pinches (both to jump off for left hand and catch with right hand.
I thought I may get away with carrying an injury on my left arm (had to stop after a 20 min session warming up indoors on Monday yet again with massive pains down my arm), but after 1 decent go of catching the crimp, foot on, left hand into sidepull crimp and the mother of all power screams... I dropped the high flakeline and with the failure came a lot of pain in the left arm compounded by blood letting through the back of the fingers!
Emery had turned up in the meantime and found my failures hilarious. Fortunately he didn't nip in for a quick lap to make it a truly awful experience ;) Dave P, merseyside's current strongest man of the moment basically made it look like a path several minutes later. It was indeed a great effort.
Almscliff
We stopped off for some pies at the farmshop and headed up t'Cliff to meet Steve again as he warmed up on the Keel. I went over to Patta's arete dosed up on Ibuprofen for something more crimpy and less army. My total butter skin made it impossible to make any progress, as I continually greased on the holds in minus 2 winds?! Attention switched to the dyno thing to the right which went down once I got rid of my flat shoes and smeared with the Teams which worked right away, strange.
Back over to the Keel area and I noticed the fairly good looking line that took the Cherry Falls crimp with the left and bust out to the sidepull before going for the top break. Go 1 ended in going for the wrong part of the sidepull too low down. Go 2 was a stretched out slap at the top break and thankfully go 3 was a casual lap to the top just in time before my left index tore in half!
I Stopped while ahead as the arm started to feel a bit achey again and watched Steve try the Real Keel. Got a couple snaps and then went up top to spot Dave on Stu's left only to come into some fierce ice winds of death. Bail was the first thought that sprung to mind... but undetered I sprinted over and gave Dave the beast the tiny bit of encouragement he needed. He sketched his way to the top looking slightly less steady than on Blockbuster (no photos as the spot was preferred!) Great to see another 7b+ crushfest during the week.
Another pint in the Hunters was most welcome, with the open fire bringing us back to life and able to feel various limbs again.
Going to have to take 4-5 days off and really let this left arm recover as I don't fancy turning it into a long term niggle where I'd be holding back in font or having to do slabs for 8 days till my toes bled.
No comments:
Post a Comment