Another Nemesis in the bag

It has been a good week since the previous Roche abbey visit. I've managed to get in 3 campus sessions and a lot of core work + climbing on the 45 board.

I'm starting to notice an improvement in body tension from the last few weeks of climbing on a board again and striving to avoid using drop knees/toe hooks/heels..etc

The weakest links at the moment are definitely my creaky fingers and slightly strained left bicep (which is fine when climbing). I had a short beastmaker session on Friday morning and it definitely felt on the edge, so I cut it short and just did more corewoirk instead.

Sunday 21st Nov

We were going to head to the South Lakes and myself and Sean got very excited for Wheelbarrow and Iron Man only for Owen to change the plan to Rotherham. I was partially worried about another shutdown on Ebola and the South Lakes meant avoiding the issue, which was why it was quite appealing.

It was a good venue for Mark and little Hoppo as they hadn't been before so there were some good 7a-7b ticks to be had. We met Tony at the carpark and walked in to the wave area which was drier than we were expecting.

A brief warmup included getting Twenty Four Point Nine done first try today which is a nice sloper traverse into the finish of Alpha at around 7b. Then it was back to Ebola. It was a bit wetter than last weekends session, so I wasn't too hopeful of success.

I worked out how to do the finish and changed both my foot and hand sequence yet again on the bottom section due to a lot of the footholds being wet and to avoid using the wet crimp out right before the pinch.

Fast forward about 2-3 hours later and I finally puntered my way up to holding the swing off the crossover without spinning off. The crimps at the finish were wet but I managed to get the heel on and crossover to the finish of Resonate and then cross under to match praying for my hand not to fire off.

It's such a great problem with each move being unique and hard enough to make it a fight to the end. It would be nice to find it in perfect dry conditions just to enjoy it a little more!

We moved on to Roche Abbey to finish off and myself and Owen had a play on Fallen Idol ss. The pull on was ok and I could get the right hand crimp well only to slide off it trying to match due to the rock getting very damp. The stand up still felt desperate but conditions were far from good. This nemesis will have to wait till next time.

Monday 22nd Nov

Me and Mark hit Tesco early doors and picked up a Christmas double deal on the Krispy Kremes (so we got 24 for £12!). We then picked up Sean and got over to the Wirral to Mike's for about 10.45. We tried to ring but got no answer so knocked on the door to be informed by his mum that he was still asleep! We remarkably got away with Mike onboard at 11 and headed into Llandudno to get a coffee and hit the Orme which was covered in beautiful rays of sun (which seemed to disappear 5 minutes after we arrived).

I did my bit of cardio for the year by running up to Clutch to see if the holds were dry, shake my head, then run back down the hill almost out of breath! A circuit of Star jumps, theraband and Gripp ball were up next and then a painfully cold warmup (for the feet) which kept going white every few minutes.

There were a few wet patches so the warmup was a bit shorter today consisting of a bit of shuffling then Lipstick RH, clever beaver, lip service and a failed attempt on rockatrocity in baggy moccasyms.

I thought I would see how far things had regressed and padded out In Life start. It was quite suprising to get through the start and across the arch with both feet swinging about, in a vain attempt to get them on the sidewall. Even though it was fairly cold, the two slopers didn't feel great and I was sliding about on them on the next redpoint, so decided to leave it for today.

Sean managed to get Cave Life Short done using another new sequence somewhere inbetween my own and Owen's which looked quite steady but a bit more shoulder intensive.

I watched Sorle do Oppotrocity and soaked up the beta. Something short and hard was quite appealing, so I quickly did all the moves in about 1-2 goes and had a rest. First go I fell off coming through to backhanding the flake as I didn't pull hard enough on the left arm.

Next go was surreal as I floated to the end of the problem feeling strong until the very last moment when my right arm failed to keep locked in the last pocket and my hand dragged out of the finish slot. I wasn't expecting to get that far and relaxed a bit too much on the end.

It was a bit dismaying to be doing all the hard climbing yet again and then failing on the easy finishing move on yet another problem!

I guess 8a in a session wasn't to be as I dropped the last move another 2 times and then gave up as it got too dark to see the footholds after 4pm!

Mark managed to crush Lipstick RH first attempt and then Lipstick in about 4 goes in the dark and we bailed back to the pool tucking into the Krispy Kremes and then a chicken bake from Costco before more Krispy Kremes!

I think the next 2 days are going to spent stretching and detoxing from the previous week of doughnuts/red wine/pizza..etc and hopefully I can get Oppotrocity in the bag on Thursday, before getting back on In Life.

Here's a little video for some inspiration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whj9G0xhYNU

:)