On the Brink

Of many things

- In Hell (if it stays dry and stops condensing/seeping damn it!)
- Injury (as my middle finger on right hand is inflamed and swelled at the middle joint and above)
- Getting too psyched

Since my last post i have had a couple of fun days out:

Tues 27th July

Went to a certain cave... It was good as always but sadly it had been condensed all morning and P Rob was leaving in the scorching heat having just casually warmed down with Pilgrimage from the finish of R.A! Such an inspiration.

In Hell was immediately sacked being wet at the start, so I went for a heavy volume session doing laps of the lip problems and then trying to repeat Trigger Cut giving beta to Mike and Sean as well as the boys from Denbigh. Kept failing to hold the shotrail slap but I think it just needed to be a bit colder for me to feel more stable on the holds. Played on Halfway but was lacking the core, so moved on to Clyde.

Had a go of the drop in move to get both hands into Trigger cut but found it desperate still! Nowhere near holding anything. The start was feeling really easy though and I almost held the cross under move to the sharp jug/slot a few times. It was super greasy on the RH pinch so I was pinging off as I was trying to get a lock on the slot.

The session finished with a fitness training attempt on the Clever Beaver sitter into Beaver Cleaver and I felt miraculously fresh on the slap to the lip and the drop into the undercut. The rest felt easy and I think it might actually be 7b+ and not the 7c I had assumed in the past.

Wednesday 28th July

I headed over to Churnet with some cockney twat to meet up with some pikey from Stoke. (who claimed to be a scouser) and we got a thoroughly weak warmup at Cottaging rocks, a wonderful wall of pocketed sandstone. I felt utterly terrible from the 5 hour cave session of Tuesday but persevered.

After the intro we hit some esoteria, first stop The Duck Billed Platypus. I watched the other two have a flail attempt with low feet and then suggested the obvious heel/lock method. Ben wasn't sure, so I slid under the roof and then dispatched it with a wonderful right arm lock to a good crimp and then float a slap to a big sloping jug and campus to the top.

Ben showed us the Breathe problem to go and return to the duck (which he crushed with no witnesses ;)) and me and Dave got spanked on this alleged soft 7a standup! The sloper was truly minging in the humidity and then it began to rain so we bailed to Wright's rock.

We made Ben go uphill first and let him get soaked trousers in the heather whilst we tip toed up behind. It was horrid up top with a lot of humidity/rain and shit loads of flies! The other's stopped at Wright's Unconquerable whilst I ran across hoping to get away from the flies but they were even worse at Wright's rock main. I went back and tried the aforementioned with Ben only to find it desperate to use footholds in the roof after the footledge. Then it struck to just match the middle of the crack and dyno to the lip. After doing the move it was fine from the start and a lovely horizontal leg kick after hanging the juggy sloper on the lip! What a cool problem although a bit stiff for 7a?!

I finished off with a sketchy onsight of Rocket Ride, my fingers really hurt and the white flag was waved.

Sat 31st July

My RH middle finger was well massive in the morning and couldn't straighten or close fully but didn't seem to hurt when I gripped on my left arm in different positions so I thought I'd go give it a go anyway and I could always heckle from the director's chair (easycamp) if the hand didn't feel good.

The cave was in good nick apart from the pinch on R.A. being really wet. This was probably a good thing if I wasn't to explode my finger so i did a long slow warmup and then thought of something to try. Broken Heart has always been really hard for me with the heel-toe working about 1 in 20 attempts. Thankfully today, on the first go, it stuck easily, i got the undercut and snatched through the moves to arrive at the break quite pumped, I got a coupel moves into Lip Service and then fell off. Good warmup go!

A couple of goes later and I fell off after holding the diagonal fingerjug before the top jug. I had a word and then destroyed it! (thanks to Owen for pointing out some minor foot beta to do the last move). It still felt as hard as Lou F to me and is clearly not 7C unless they both are? To prove a point I had a 5 min rest then did a lap of Lou F! I felt good. Tried the moves on Ferrino sans pocket but the wet undercut made it a bit tricky today.

More monkeying around and I had refined the beta on Sam's finish (still using the handswap on Clever Beaver sloper but crucially a left toe hook to release my feet across and into the jump position to the block sidepull). With the new foot beta, I managed to just about haul my way up the last 2 moves feeling like I could have dropped off at any point. It was a nice fight and a good bonus to finish off the day... or was it.

I was pretty psyched so tried to do on the minute laps of every lip problem from a stand and got up about 8 of them before getting fully shut down on left wall low feeling a bit nauseous.

Sean had a good session getting Lip Service and Parisella's original ticked off as well as making massive progress on lou F with the lanky beta.

On to today and my right middle finger is very very big and tweaky, so I'll not risk it and have a few days off and do the hot and cold water baths I started off on last night.

It'd probably be wise to speak to the Donnelly but I feel a bit cheeky having already had a bad posture and trapped medial nerve in left arm assessment only the other day. It's hopefully nothing too serious as it didn't hurt to climb in open hand or half crimp positions but is tender on top and to the sides of the middle knuckle.

Need to be patient for it to heal and think of the bigger picture... even though I have a day off on Tuesday and conditions are looking good! :()