Anticipation off the scale!

It's less than 24 hours until we will be heading down the motorway en route to the magical world of fontaineberry. The anticipation of climbing on cold, crisp and dry wonderful sloping grips is high!

I had a couple of days out this week to tune up, with a trip to the Roaches on Monday and a cave session yesterday.

Monday 14th

I headed over to the Roaches with Pete and Tom from the Hangar. The skies were grey when we arrived but crucially the green looking rock was bone dry. We pottered around the lower tier boulders and I enjoyed repeating the classics with the only downside being scraping my face up the wall getting a bit too close in on the undercuts dyno! It was dispached a couple goes later and I got stretch and mantle first try of the day, what an ace problem.

After doing the Ascent of Man start, we popped up the steps and I got the guys to do the brilliant Joe's Arete. Some geezer was on the block behind doing the cool looking Nadin's traverse, I whored the beta then flashed it. Pete got real close but kept losing it just before the right flake sidepulls.

We wandered up over the hill on a bit of a mision but found our way to Staffs Flyer. I'd wanted to get up here for so long with it being one of the classic peak roof problems. The ground was proper gopping, but we fashioned a rock patio of sorts and I layed down a survival bag upon which, the PoD pad was sacrificed! It looked like it could be spicy for 6b but after pulling on and crossing to the good crimp, I found I could build my feet high and lock static to the hold over the lip, I matched this then cut my feet and campussed up to the top. What a splendid problem!

Tom got it shortly after with a more dynamic sequence and I did the arete on the block to the right, another good problem.

It was getting very grim in the cold mist, so we returned to the Joe's arete area and I did the flakes and nose problems on the big block. I felt too tired to try Higginsons's roof traverse, so opted to go look at Mean Ol' Bastard. I found the pull on weird and then it was really hard to get my foot in the hole after getting the gaston. As soon as I realised I could lock into it and match the opposing gaston the problem went down in 2 goes. I briefly tried Apocalypse now but couldn't reach the top, it felt ridiculous for 7a+ so we bailed to the pub and had a well earned pint!

Being the idiot I am, I joined in a max intensity 'trying problems beyond your limit' session at the Hangar and found a few spicy pink problems to work on over the next couple of sessions. We finished off with 10 mins of core thanks to Laura's request and I went Ma Hoppo's for an amazing curry.

Friday 17th

Me, Laura and J headed over for a late session at the cave and found it to be fairly busy with strong Dan (a recently arrived local who has moved over from Leeds) there trying Louis Armstrong and looking pretty strong on those undercuts as well as Rich, Duncan and Alex (whom i mistook for Bertie from Beris in my fatigued state!).

I felt shattered warming up on right wall traverse but after a few more problems things felt better. My first go on Pilgrim was ok just failing to get my foot across to the spike. I rested up and then watched Laura almost crush the Right wall reverse into bust lip, falling off going into the last sidepull before the finishing jug!

Go 2 on Pilgrim was an improvement, getting to two pockets and throwing for the flake on R.A. I hoped I could get a bit further today than last session as it now felt steady to there but I was lacking a bit of endurance/strength maybe.

After a proper rest, go number 3 felt much better, I cruised through to the pockets without any mishaps and had something left going for the flake. Sadly I caught it terribly with two fingertips but clung on with a scream, I got my right foot through and left across into the first pocket, I matched the flake block and tried bumping my left hand on properly. My fingers were killing being half on-half off so I just threw out to the sidepull anyway and held on, I stepped my left foot through but the pain on the left fingers was too great and I had to let go.

It was a bit gutting to drop it there as I was quite confident of getting to the last move if I caught the flake but I forgot how much it hurts to not get it properly. It was marked progress from my last session on it, so hopefully it will go soon.

We finished the day off with another Hangar session going around the circuit set for the military comp on Wednesday and the recovery meal of Large fries with large lamb&chicken kebab from the Nile was immense! It will no doubt help me put on a layer of fat to survive a chilly font trip.

It would be nice to get a few things ticked off this trip as I feel in decent shape and have few injuries to speak of. The video camera shutter is currently not opening but hopefully this can be remedied with a stick to hold it open and we can get enough footage to make a short film of all our puntering :)

A rare day of success!

Cave in the afternoon

On a whim, I decided to go to the cave Friday day time before the Stoke bouldering competition even though the forecast was for humidity, rain and no wind.

My psyche clearly rubbed off on Laura who decided to come along for moral support after finishing uni early.

We found the cave quite greasy but fairly busy with a small group of die hard locals and visitors playing on various things.

After warming up slowly I had a decent first go on In Life getting to the two slopers and taking my feet off very easily totally killing any swing but locking off too hard and not being able to rotate my feet round! I hung this position for several seconds before letting go bemused.

After a couple of close attempts Laura managed to get into the high sidepull and then to the glorious high finishing jug on Bust Lip for her first non slab/vert 7A+ tick! It was great to see her trying hard and being seemingly unaware of the possibility of a foot lock staying in above head height should she have failed to grasp the sidepull :)

The second redpoint on In Life saw me grasp the pinch on Left wall but then fall trying to go through to the fingerjug with the holds not feeling very dry. I feared the worst so had a longer rest than usual and fanned air on to them as well as chalk.

Laura tried to get Parisella's original done but couldn't quite hold the foot swing from releasing the heel-toe. Her efforts inspired me to pull my finger out and on the 3rd redpoint I managed to fall into the fingerjug screaming and slap out to the sloper. I scrambled across to the low flake almost falling at every move as my fingers unravelled and arms lost all feeling but thankfully the sanctity of the kneebar rest came just in time!

I didn't hang about too long and got the job done not feeling too bad on the end section and letting out a sigh of relief that I wouldn't have to crawl into the dirt any longer! Joy.

The sending spree gathered momentum and shortly after, Ducko breezed across Rockatrocity making the end look piss and not suffering the fate of many others on that horrid last hand move :)

Comp in the evening

We went directly from the cave to Stoke wall to see Youngy and have a play at the winter bouldering league. I always love going to new indoor walls almost as much as new outdoor venues as change is always a good thing and keeps things interesting.

After feeling pretty heavy on the warm ups I gradually got into things and had managed to flash 21/25 by about 8.30. With an hour left to try the last 4 I had to start resting for long periods of time just to summon the energy to pull on and make more than a couple of moves! I clawed my way to a couple of the bonus holds but fell off a couple I am sure would have been flashed had it not been such a long double day session.

The atmosphere at the comp was really nice and the locals friendly. There was a good bit of banter with the fellow comp hustlers from Stockport and even though I had puntered up at the end, I managed to sneak victory by about 10 points from one of the Stockport crew.

Needless to say after a victory beer, I slept like a corpse!

Build up to font

After my physio sessions and a lot of fairly boring but ultimately back rewarding exercise, I have managed to rebuild my creaking carcass into something approaching a climbing adoni... healthy human being.

OUTSIDE

There have been many visits out on the grit and a welcome return to cave sieging which has been a lot less frequent than in the previous 2 years.

A need to try and broaden my skill base and volume of climbing on different rock has been suggested by others, so I have been giving it a crack and thoroughly enjoyed it so far, even if the warm weather and my recovering back has meant staying away from hard climbing.

I have had a great few days out in the Peak and Yorkshire with the best being a trip to the Cliff after finding midgies and grease at Caley. Andi E put together a good little clip with a classic soundtrack and some nice imagery from home:

http://vimeo.com/31219796

Back in the Cave I've gotten back to the same point as I had just before the wobbly block was pulled out of the roof, falling off with both hands on Left Wall on In Life.

Hopefully it will go soon when temps drop ever so slightly and strength endurance improves!

INSIDE

It has been a fun start to the winter bouldering rounds and I've done ok so far in the Hangar and Awesome Walls ones coming provisionally 2nd in one and 1st in the other. Admittedly the strength of the fields is quite low so the real challenge will be doing well in the first round of the NIBL in a couple weeks time.

There is also a coaching session coming up this weekend with Nige Callendar so I'm hoping to pick up some tips and see what can be improved upon the most to help achieve my goals both immediate and in the future.

FONT

My current mantra is not to push too hard before we head off to font on the 18th November for a week of *fingers crossed* cold and dry weather. It should be both inspiring and dismaying watching Web Parsons/Puccio/Coxsey and Garden warming up on personal projects but I'm just looking forward to being there and getting some classics done. Amazingly, I haven't written up a detailed list of problems for a change... and I'll see how going with the flow works out when we get there.

Physio trip

After having a horrible re-occurance of my back spasm whilst serving a customer on Sunday, I made the effort to get Tuesday evening off and I went to see the recently installed Tuesday night physio Hannah down at the Hangar. Luckily she was able to help me out with some stretching/ROM exercises focussing on getting my lower back working again and then strengthened.

I've been given homework to do 3-4 times daily to help speed up the process and have also purchased a rather fetching hot water bottle from the evil Tesco empire to help warm the old lower back up before I do any gentle stretching. I road tested it before whilst driving to the Hangar this afternoon and it was pretty damn amazing!

Hopefully with careful dedication to these specific exercises, things will be on the mend by next Tuesday and I can maybe have my upper back looked at which was been dodgy (bit of a locked up and tender bruised feeling either side of my spine) for the last 2 months. She didn't want to touch that for now as the lower back isn't yet strong enough for my upper back to receive some un-knotting, it is unsuprisingly a bit of a mess from years of training and never having anything done to ease it up!

I then have a 5 day window from Thursday till Monday to get out and do some rock scaling with my good friend mr Skyner Weeks. We are both quite keen to do a bit of grit volume at the moment so we will probably hit both the Peak and Yorkshire. There are lots of high classics I am keen on but these will likely have to be postponed till normal back strength/mobility is restored. Fingers crossed for a cold and dry October :)

You know you're getting old when...

You hike uphill for 20 mins, warm up at the crag on some easy solo's and then pull your back whilst pulling on the loops of your sending shoes!

It seems I only blog about injuries and rehab these days and sure to form after vastly improving on the shoulder front, my lower back went yesterday in the most frustrating of ways. Right at the start of the session after driving up there solo and hauling 4 pads up to Warton.

Monday 26th

I went up to the South lakes with Mike and Sam on a Woodwell mission. Sadly it was pretty minging at O'ert Road and Tom's roof but pulling on with a towel and skipping holds allowed us to warm up on Angel Deelite. Mike did it after a bit of trouble with the top section and Sam didn't quite manage it. I worked on the Flying Finish going rightwards from the flat jug but couldn't work it out. I tried spanning across the lip but it felt wrong and then attempted it using the undercut on Backhand Roof, a left heel to hand and then throwing wildly over the top for a distant hold but kept spinning off with the angle feeling weird.

We moved over to Tom's and there wasn't much dry for Mike and Sam to try but I hadn't attempted the Footless Marathon before today, so thought it would be a fun thing to do, which wasn't quite true as it was sharp and wet but I got through it and just about held on to the last big slap for the flash.

We headed to where we knew would be dry and the Shelterstone face didn't let us down. Mike and Sam took turns trying the Pit Problem and I almost did The Buccaneer in a couple of tries only to hold the swing and then fall off matching the lip. About 45 mins of sweating off, swearing and nearly giving up ... I managed to hold the swing again and made no mistakes on the 4b top out!

Thursday 29th

After a trip up to Warton the day before with Laura and J Railton. I headed back up the M6 on my billy no mates in White Beauty. Rather than leave Ebenezer Goode till another time with yesterday's afternoon heat being draining, I got there a little earlier before the sun could come around on to the buttress.

As you may have read at the beginning of this post, I hauled up several mats and arrived feeling good. A few Solo's and a strained back later. I was prone on the mat trying to stretch it out and it didn't feel too bad immediately, just a bit stiff. I was a bit angry at the prospect of the petrol cost and pad hauling being all for nothing, so did the clever thing and got on my project anyway to show it who's boss!

It wasn't looking good 2 goes later as I felt a bit achey and had fired off the lip dish twice. The next go I somehow scraped through panting and grunting to the sidepull at the end but couldnt summon the energy to get the kneebar in and slid off. I knew it would go in colder temps and the sun was starting to shine on the hold so I swore a bit, brushed the holds and gave it my all.

I battled through to the same position and managed to get the kneebar in just as my fingers were uncurling from the painful handswap hold. I shook like a shitting dog laybacking the crack without being able to feel much through the pump and was mightily relieved to reach the break and lean into the corner to take a 2 minute rest before topping out!

I hobbled back down gingerly and dragged myself and pads back down the hill feeling every single step shooting up my back.

The drive home was uncomfortable and I could barely move when arriving back in Merseyside!

I wisely dosed up on various creams and pills and went to a BBQ at a friends where copious amounts of red wine and food seemed to ease the pain. It was a lot better this morning once I got moving and had a hot shower but has started to feel bad in the shop bending up and down to get shoes for customers!

A cocktail of Naproxen, Diclofenac, Ibuprofen gel and Paracetemol should hopefully help... I can't wait to see the physio next Tuesday!

Some welcome News

The reason for being a little quiet of late is down to another shoulder injury!

Fortunately it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as the ones that I had to fix for 2-3 months at the end of last year/start of this.

I spent a few days resting and then got straight on to the usual routine of assisted movement, stretching and then gradual strengthening with the theraband whilst trying not to get too down about all the oh so near projects that would have to wait a bit longer than anticipated.

Looking at my activity diary, it was quite clear I had been overloading a bit in terms of climbing/weights at the gym but I am pretty certain I caused it during the comp on the grim corner mantle presses. I quite enjoy comps now and again but this is about the 3rd time I've picked up an injury in the last year directly from comp style pressing.

Once fixed, it's tempting to pack it in and stick to climbing on more basic stuff which doesn't involve contortionism, relates more directly to what I want to do outside and is less likely to cause further anguish!

Rehab Day 1

After about 8 days of rest/theraband I had a great day out in Wales with Laura and a poorly Dexter the dog who nearly spewed all over the floor in V12! We started off at RAC bumping into Shauna and Skyner Weeks.

It was the ideal place to do a bit of volume as well as ticking off guidebook gaps in my lifelong quest to tick the North Wales Bouldering guide (Sadly minus roadrunner cave!).

The highlight was managing to drag my unfit corpse across the Pump Traverse sans cracks at the mighty grade of 7a. Laura flashed a load of the easy minor classics and we drove over to the pass.

Rather than get bored on the roadside face, I suggested we go check out the highball stuff at Pont Y Cromlech where I had ticked off the Seam and a quality V2 a few years back.

Laura made a casual flash of The Seam and then flashed all of the other stuf up to V3. I ticked off the up lines apart from the high and scary V4(E2?) rounded arete, where I found myself stood up on the undercut and unable to reach the hanging crack high up. The fall trajectory would have been super sketchy with the 3 small pads, so I bailed off left and saved it for a big balls day!

We finished off at the roadside where we met Rich and Bertie and Laura agonisingly dropped the top of Johnny's problem from the sitter several times, before we went to Pizza and a Pint which seems to have an exponential price creep of late!

Indoor Rock Scaling and Cake!

Since that day out I've just been circuiting indoors at the Hangar and only tested the creaking joints on some slightly harder stuff yesterday, including winning a brownie for getting the first ascent of the grim vertical traverse (problem 21) on the blue 4-6 circuit.



Next week brings 3 days off work and hopefully a chance to get out on some real stones if I can find a willing crew to share the petty costs! I'm really keen to go try and finish off XXXX at the Bowderstone and Ferrino with no pockets in the cave but they could both prove a tad ambitious/burly in terms of rehab problems!

Ater all this chatting shit, I re-read the title of this blog and realised I didn't actually expand upon it!

The welcome news (with my usual situation of a new injury being just around the next pressy corner) is that the Hangar has drafted in a physio who will be down there every Tuesday evening to help cure us of our ailments and hopefully put us on the road to normal human posture! I am obviously excited by this and looking forward to getting a sports massage having had a perma stiff back for quite some time. It may be £20 well spent which would otherwise be splashed out on 2 bottles of red from my current local shop of choice.

Lakes Trip and The Hangar Comp

It's been a busy couple of weeks since I last bothered to post, maybe longer?!

On the August Bank Holiday weekend, I took a break from weights training to embark on a learning to climb again trip with Laura, Mark, the Hoppo crew and two strong geezers from Stockport.

Fri 26th

Wales looked well dodgy as did venues further south, so we headed north to St Bees. Without having booked anything, we eventually found a quiet campsite about 20 minutes drive from St Bees village that had plenty of space as well as a very unique bathroom/shower setup built into quaint sheds about the size of kids playhouses.

Friday was spent at St Bees South and having never been before, we opted to walk along the coastline and check out area A en-route to the better stuff. It looked pretty poor, so we went straight across to the Kraken area.

After a warmup on some great technical walls, we moved over and all climbed the missing corner block which featured big pockets and a great kneebar move. The Kraken could wait no longer and after watching Michael have an attempted pull on, I patted some chalk on the holds and flashed the normal version, before he swiftly followed. Mark then cruised along it after getting untangled from his long legs underneath the rock. I climbed the Kraken LH straight after which shared the same start and then a nice delicate rockover left onto and up the slab.

We moved round the corner and I flashed the sitter to Black Hole using a very sketchy high left heel to get to the good pocket. Michael repeated this by simply campussing about 4 moves in a row!

We decided to get off early and get an ice cream, when I realised I hadn't tried Killer Bee. The others sighed, so I threw down 2 pads and had a great flash attempt pulling on, getting a left knee scum and slapping up again LH only to overshoot the small crimp and slide over it. I wasn't to be denied and on the 2nd go I caught the crimp and then slapped through to the top. It's a great couple of moves but probably a bit on the soft side?

Sat 27th

The day dawned beautifully sunny and we made an early start over to St Bees North via Morrisons.

After getting lost looking for the easy route down so as not to make Ma Hoppo flip her lid... Ian found the path and we all rushed down and across the boulders, which took a bit of time but was preferable to the death descents.

We warmed up around the Apiary area with the lids making short work of Headbanger. Despite it being in the shade, myself, James, Tom and Michael all got shut down on Clash of the Titans. This must be the hardest 7A+ I have ever tried bar the infamous one at Franchard Sablons. As that is the 3rd time I've been and left empty handed.

Thoroughly warmed up, myself, James and Tom all got up Chipper's Wall but only after sacrificing a pad to the water pond to the left to avoid twisted ankles.

James crushed the grim mono crossover problem of Dan's around the corner Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and I did the direct on the left. We then both tried and failed spectacularly on Power of RAA but felt it might be a tad easier not in direct sun and +20deg heat. My best effort was getting up the layback bit and left hand on the very thin scoop gaston trying to move my feet up and right on to poor smears. Keen to go back for this.

Everyone shifted down to Fisherman's as Ma Hoppo sunbathed and Ian did a spot of fishing.

A few of us flashed the basic jump and campus problem of Parky 93 and James did the very tricky arete problem. Laura crushed the dirty crimp problems on the wall around the corner and I got Fruits de Mer ticked in a couple of goes from a hanging start eliminating the block underneath but unsure if this is the correct method?

As the sun disappeared and a massive wall of rain headed towards us, we knew it was time to bail.

I got a bit of running beta off Tom and after a couple of warm up goes, I got hold of the crimps on Lateral Mindset and made the massive slap up to the sloping ledge above. It was great to do such an amazingly unlikely problem which I had written off as not possible a few years ago.

Me and Mark cajoled Laura into having another go on Fishermans dyno after a slight tantrum/hissy fit had shocked us a bit! :P Luckily she persevered and managed to make the heel stay on long enough to grab the high jugs and it was in the bag.

Unfortunately as we topped out at the lighthouse area, the Wall of rain caught up with us and we were drenched from head to toe by the time we reached the farm!

Another night of good food and plenty of ale in the pub made up for this :)

Sun 28th

The weather was about to turn so we headed across the Lakes for a brew and cake in Keswick before heading down Borrowdale to the mighty Bowderstone.

Most of the guys hadn't been so I gave a bit of a tour and managed to upset some others who were already there who left shortly after our arrival. I guess they were expecting solitude on a bank hol?

There was a lot of attempting but not much achieving as we kept getting spells of rain soaking the lip holds on a few things.

Laura managed a great 2nd go ascent of The Crack Direct and Youngy likewise. James ticked through everything I showed him including Impropa Opera 2nd go and managed to drop the last move of Grand Opera on the flash purely down to wet holds!

We both got Slapstick done the dyno way which was also has a great crossunder move after sticking the initial sloper.

As the weather got worse, we stopped climbing and then had our overdue BBQ under cover after being denied it at St Bees. We finished off the day in the pub down the road and camped overnight hoping for better weather.

Mon 29th

James and Tom had to get off early, so the 4 remaining decided to have one more quick session at the Stone.

After a hard 4th-day-on warmup, Michael got agonisingly close to Impropa, dropping the last hold a few times.

A guy from down South was trying the low left sitter into Phantom and gave me a great piece of beta for the last move on Grand Opera. With this new knowledge of dropping the left foot off to make the last move, I managed it in a couple of goes. Another down in the quest to tick the Operas!

I had a long rest and then tried my main aim on the Stone, XXXX. I quickly worked out where to put the feet for the moves and then had a couple of good goes at linking the whole thing. I had 1 good attempt with fingers on the lip but not quite enough to hang on and bump! The goes got gradually worse slapping further away from this high point but I was getting into this slap move every go. Hopefully I can get a trip back up there sooner rather than later if the shocking weather abates.

Me and Michael got back to Liverpool still motivated and after a subway, crushed a load of the new pink v6-11 set that Shauna and Ged had been setting before total collapse occured.

End of Summer Hangar Comp

After Mike psyche couldn't turn up due to work commitments, I was installed as the favourite to win, which is never a good thing!

On turning up in the afternoon, my nerves were made all the worse by seeing Nathan Phillips had turned up and been entered into the mens to make it more competitive in the U18's.

I made sure to use some tactics learned on previous comps. I went round and checked out the problems and then warmed up fast on some intermediate ones and got the big pumpy roof out the way early on as to avoid failure later.

I got on the greasy sloping horrors earlier than usual before they got too grim and managed to get through to 26/30 flashes by 5.30. The last 4 all looked hard so I chose the one I thought looked the most basic and flashable! I'd seen Nathan come off it earlier as well as James the beast so knew it could be tricky. I opted to swap Velcros for Dragons and it paid off as everything felt precise and I hit the holds perfectly to setup for the crux. I jumped over off the small crimp and caught the middle of the pinch, twisting into the move and making the hold better. I let out a bit of a scream and managed to just hold on before jumping over again to the top hold.

I knew I was in with a chance of doing well now and had 3 left to go. I watched Nath dispatch the desperate looking groove into dyno problem which nobody else had got close to. I tried it shortly after and after getting bunched into a ridiculously small space, I made a pitiful attempt to grab the hold on the face before flying past.

I knew I wouldn't get up it this way and thought Nath would surely crush the other one I had done next go. Luckily for me he fell off twice more meaning a max of 1 point if he got it in 4+ goes. I decided to try something a bit different and got back on the groove start. I wound up and made a massive backwards leap towards the face hold and got all fingertips on the edge of the hold before continuing backwards and nearly into the assembled crowd.

A short rest and I knew it had to go down if I was to get near to winning. This time I managed to generate a bit more power from the chicken legs and got right on it, holding the violent outswing and then campussing up to the next rail. I got a high foot and then just about made the slap over the top lip to match a relieved man.

I got absolutely shut down on the hard slab managing to get hold of the penultimate hold but not move my feet any further. Nathan got super close hitting the top hold but not sticking it a couple of times and I was grateful Ged had put such a shit hold on!

The last problem was a steep roof with a lot of burl, toe hooks, greasy slopers and endurance. Nobody got close on their 3 point scoring goes. I took a half hour rest and then went back to try and just get a single point incase it was necessary and dropped the very last hold. I was knackered but had still won by a slim 3 point margin!

In the women's event, Becky from our comp team came in 1st, followed by Laura who was having a bit of an off day :(

In the Juniors, Hoppo had tied with Sheepy and they had to do a horrific timed climb off on the orange linkup. Hoppo had no chance as he is a stocky chest and Sheepy is a whippet-like route climber and he won by a comfortable 10+ seconds.

Mon 5th Sep

Myself, Hoppo, Mike psyche and Millso went to the cave.

Conditions weren't too bad and we met Dan Turner in there along with a non ginger Freeman brother!

He had just done Cave Life and was currently having fits trying to do Pit of Hell, finding Rockatrocity a bit hard going, with a grasp for sequences as bad as Mills and Mike.

I greased off on Cave Life Short and knew this wouldn't be a good day to try In Life, so switched attention to trying some moves. I quickly did the sequence for Ferrino sans pockets from the rail on Lou F and was suddenly full of psyche realising I could now do the end every go from the pinch and rail.

I had 4 redpoints and managed to latch the penultimate sloper hold before the finish slot but not quite good enough to move off. It's definitely a realistic goal for next visit conditions permitting.

We met Doyle (who had plenty of filth to spout!) and Tommy who decided to get off and do some more routes rather than join the pebblewrestlers.

We got back to the Hangar for 7pm and I ate 5 chickenwings and a bag of potato wedges from the ASDA hot counter, before embarking on a very poor comp style session on the yellows followed by core which nearly ended me.

Branching Out

After a semi successful trip to Switzerland bagging a couple of 8A's and a few 7C/+ it has been a bit of a mundane return to climbing back in the UK.

A mixture of heat and rain has killed the psyche for hard bouldering and I have found my interest waning of late.

I've had no regular pattern of training or climbing outdoors and it really has been all a bit of an effort. I've not been to team training for a few weeks and just pottered indoors and out achieving nothing harder than 7B since getting back over a month ago, the highlight being Rigpa over at a sweltering Nescliffe.

Rather than battle through shit conditions I decided to be lazy and have enjoyed several games of golf with Mark at Allerton and Fiddler's Ferry, trying to regain some old skills and put to use the slight extra bulk gained through bouldering the last 5 years or so in hitting the ball an extra 30 yards per club!

As well as the golf, I've been out fishing a couple of times with the esteemed TC Mills over on the barren shores of New Brighton. I was promised epic catches of Ray but so far we have managed a few whiting and a plaice (and thankfully no blanks so far :))

I have to say I'm highly excited about the new premiership season kicking off and seeing how Liverpool get on with so many new underwhelming signings. The psyche is high too, to try and usurp Ian Thomas at number 1 in the UKB league after him beating me down into 2nd place for the last 2 seasons!

As well as the golf/fishing/football I went down to a proper back street weights gym in Garston with Hoppo and had a great time this morning trying to see how many machines we could max out. I managed to max out 4 then we had a good free weights session followed by some weighted pullups and boxing. I felt destroyed after and am keen to make it a regular feature 1-2 times a week to help with overall strength conditioning whilst the weather is turd and for £3 a session it's way cheaper than most activities.

On a more climbing related note...

I went to the cave for the first time in ages on Monday and had a half decent return getting to cutting loose on the slopers on In Life before slowly sliding off them and then nearly climbing Left Wall high at the end of our 5 hour session after never being close ever! I hate that shuffle so much but figured if I get it wired it opens up High Life and In Heaven for later in the year once In Life is put to bed!

I'm nowhere near strong enough to link Louis Armstrong after being so slack of late but am keen to get back on it later in the year once I've tested out a weights&strength training phase to feel stronger on the undercuts!

Overload!

It's been another busy week of trips and comps as I gear up towards Magic Wood on Saturday.

Fri 10th June

Me and Laura went up to Thorn Crag for an evening session as the weather turned from sketchy to beautiful afternoon sun.

The walk in was a bit epic and easily took the 30 mins predicted in the topo but I did manage it in a oner without having to sit down, which was the first goal of the day achieved but not before a well camoflaged grouse had flewn out of a bush about half a metre from me and made me shit my pants!

We warmed up at the pathside boulders and despite being a bit sweaty we both managed to flash the aretes and the classic groove of Burnt Heather. Around on the side and I sketched my way up both and for my next trick and fix my sink on the flash. Both are undoubtedly a bit easier if your not a midget.

Laura got really close on 'and for my next trick' but was struggling to switch hands to launch for the top. She had a rest from it and we went over to look at Bad Moon Rising. It was a great looking line with a bit of a suspect flake to pull on with and plenty of potential blocks to land on!

After having a quick look at the 7a to the right and getting completely shut down I moved the pads leftwards to Bad Moon Rising and got the psyche on. First try and I got up to the high right hand sloper eyeing up the massive left hand pinch but couldn't quite figure how to connect it without an obvious left heel hook in sight. Before I could make a decision, the hand fired off and I was back on the mats but not down the hillside.

A bit more chalking and then back to the same spot, I just got a high right toe, swung the left foot back and then used the ninja leg flick to launch left and snatch the massive pinch and squeeze together with a bit of a grunt and legs flailing everywhere. The top out was a bit spicier than expected but no knees were brought into action.

Laura didn't quite fancy it, so we moved back down to the pathside boulders and she had another good go on 'for my next trick', hitting the lip of the top but not getting enough on it and the next go brought 2 split tips and no joy!

As we hadn't got there till about 6pm, we moved on rapidly to the Seaview area. I dispensed with a warmup and got straight on the Mothership Reconnection asking for a couple of photos as a spot wouldn't be necessary. Well this proved to be wrong as when I was reaching left hand to the top, the right hand fired off and I sailed past the only pad and landed on my right arse cheek on the edge of the block with all of my weight! Thankful not to break any bones, I had a minute to get my breath back and then got up it without any troubles after chalking it up a bit more. Such a good problem and worth the walk alone.

We finished off circuiting the easier problems around the block as Laura terrified me with some not so steady topping out skills and we watched the sun go down out in the direction of the sea.

Papa John's pizza and getting to sleep at 1.30 strangely proved to be ideal preparation for the next day.

Sat 11th June

After waking up feeling like a bit comatose... a shower, porridge and coffee woke me up a treat and I rushed over to the Hangar as she went off for family duties.

Me, psyche and Little Hoppo hit the road and rocked up at City Bloc in record time as the roads were quite clear.

We entered the Open comp which was 40 qualifiers to try and be one of 4 finalists for the evenings event.

After getting beaten by both of my team mates in the previous couple of comps after massive underachievement, I had a score to settle and started off well. I ticked through the first 32 problems not feeling the affects of the previous evenings climbing and a late night too much until disaster struck and I puntered off a yellow on a vertical wall featuring a really shit greasy volume. I managed to hold on to it 2nd go but knew it could be a costly mistake. I didn't expect to feature anywhere today and the lack of pressure probably helped as I flashed the first 3 greens I tried and then came to the last two. I almost stuck the double dyno one out to the lip but couldn't quite manage to hold the swing back in. I would have expected to get this within 3 tries so was a bit disappointed. I was too out of steam on the last green on the woody and powered out on the salmon in the roof after a good 2nd try. I was so spent, I didn't even try the last salmon on the sloping crimps and just handed in the card to go for a sleep upstairs.

When they announced the finalists, I missed out on being joint 4th by 3 points (the ones I dropped on that yellow) so came in 7th as 3 people shared 4th place. I didn't get beaten by any punters, so that was a relief but could have done better.

Mon 13th June

This day proved to be fantastic in terms of endurance.

Myself, the esteemed T Mills, Irish Pete, Mike psyche and Motormouth Sam all hit the Cave to make the most of the sunny weather.

I got reacquainted on the warmups and managed to repeat Beaver Cleaver Direct 2nd go after Sam started to have a play on it. I used his new hand beta which was cross handed and going off the good bit instead of the shit Pinch I had used previously. This felt way easier than a couple years ago, so I got on the sitter straight away with a new tick seemingly guaranteed.

About 45 mins of failure to hold the lip and I was getting a bit disheartened so decided to try something else.

Sam stuck with that, whilst Mills got involved with Rockatrocity and Psyche was on Broken Heart. Pete managed to drop the end of Parisella's original a few times including some spicy falls but no broken bones.

I decided to try Louis Armstrong as I hadn't been on it for a while and wanted to see if it felt any nearer to realistic than last time.

I had a couple of really good slaps to the lip, dragging my feet a bit on the mats but much closer to holding than previously, slowing the swing down a lot. I could still pull on at this point and finish the rock climb every go which was encouraging.

The start had proved to feel even harder than the crux slap on my previous tries but first go of the day: I went out to the shit crimp/drag, got a heel on the RA flake and clamped the right foot under and reached past my head to the shothole undercut totally static! I was shocked to find that I was still on the rock and managed to walk my feet up and get out to the big RH undercut before flicking into the left one to match. I caught this poorly and then fell off. Breakthrough!

After a short rest I then did the move again in even more control and it felt easy. I got out to the undercuts, this time getting the left one better and getting my right foot out to generate hip movement for the slap to the rail. I had a poor slap and was stood on the ground before getting close to holding it but it was a great progression. Chalking up, I could still climb it to the finish.

I was so psyched to get the first bit figured out as Danny/Nacho's crossover method was way too hard for me and now it's a matter or recruiting the crux slap and putting some time in on undercut burl.

To finish off I managed a lap of RA, Lou F and Cave Life short before we headed the Hangar.

Despite the long cave session, myself, Mike and Sam had a go at the new White circuit which is a much fiercer beast than the last, set by the king of crimp Nige Callendar.

It is a testament to training lots of circuits/pyramids of problems that I could still climb 8 of these and almost another 4-5 after 8 hours of climbing.

I finished off with Laura, Becki and Olivia with a 20 min core session whilst Farnell ran about doing hundreds of problems around the centre looking quite sprightly for a crippled vet! ;)

The morning after

I woke up this morning feeling like I had been hit by a bus with what feels like deep fatigue and bruising within my arms. Hopefully it will have subsided by tomorrow afternoon and I can get another productive session in at the cave or the Hangar with Mills.

A brief update

I've had nothing much to report over the last few weeks but did manage to get to do some outdoor rock climbing as well as another comp experience under the belt.

Elephantitus

Me and little Hoppo chugged over at a steady pace to find Llanberis in sunshine. We got a brew then hit the road. The cromlech boulders were parked out, so we sacked warming up and went straight through rain at pen-y-pass to overcast dryness and a stiff breeze down at Llyn Gwynant.

It wasn't much fun carrying 4 pads between us but made it worthwhile once there with the dodgy rocks on the floor.

The warmup consisted of an arduous walk in, followed by some starjumps and some pullups on jugs and crimps.

We had a small camera with us to try get some footage together to make some Team Hangar short clips to appease the sponsor and fought our way into some crippling toedowns.

I did a couple of laps on Elephantitus to warmup and give Hoppo the sequence and he got it done relatively fast, having to cut loose to hold on to the sloper move.

I managed a smooth lap of Going down on an elephant and then Hoppo came very close, falling off at the sloper crux of elephantitus 3 times!

The goal for the day was to get Tusk done as I had seen Sorle piss it on a facebook vid recently. I initially found the crimp very painful and the left heel hard to lock in and weight but eventually it all came together with the changing of Hornets for my ever reliable Team shoes!

When it went it felt utter piss for the grade but it had felt nails until that moment. I thought I may as well have a burn on Cross Therapy as the videos of Sorle walking it and Danny mauling it were quite inspiring.

It went fairly well cruising through the start and also the crossunder and campus drop down move. I got into Tusk and had the heel in, left hand guppy... coil up to throw.. then the heel ripped out.

I was quite psyched by the first attempt so rested up whilst Mike carried on trying GDOAE. He got about 10 attempts into the space of 15 mins and it was time to go again..

I got through to the exact same place feeling even better than on the first go, the guppy felt good and the heel solid. This time I coiled and threw over left hand to the pinch catching it in the right spot and celebrated a bit prematurely in my head only for the heel to peel off as I started to engage the thumb.

We sacked it off and went to Jerrys Roof to try and get Jerry's and Bus Stop on the camera but the batteries died and we were a bit knackered from all the walking about, so the day was cut short to pick up stock in Beris and go for pizza and a pint.

Roc Bloc

After looking at the list of people entered, the goal was to try and get in the top 20, maybe 15 at a push and I managed an ok 15th place despite falling off 2 I definitely should have flashed (then failed to even complete).

The field was deep and packed full of beastliness with Dave Barrans not even making the final 6!

For my fellow Hangar Team, Sean did really well getting 12th place and Mike psyche came in 14th after some point scoring error where we all thought he had come 10th but it wasn't to be.

Little Hoppo walked the boys 11-15 category looking about twice the size of all his rivals and his age was questioned by a rather suspicious announcer. He's looking stacked for a kidda... going to be scary in a couple of years!

Becki and Laura both did well getting into the final 12 in the womens and it goes without saying that Shauna crushed in the women's being pushed very close by Mina.

The comp was pretty fun with a nice variety of things to be getting on with but the heat was unbelievable (people were outside in the sunny 25 deg heat cooling down!).

As at the depot comp last December I managed to get another shoulder area injury but this time on the right hand side. Not quite sure what it is yet, but it feels like I pulled my tricep/lat/back of shoulder right across when on the green roof problem in the shady cave corner. I carried on after and still did another few problems but it hurt yesterday and is marginally better today.

Going to be super careful and not mess it up before a return to Magic Wood on June 18th :)

Shit indoors

Just about sums it up!

I went up to Newcastle on Friday with my fellow Hangar Team mates to take part in the ASBO comp. I was hoping to improve upon my luke warm performance in the Hangar one and get into at least the final.

Well I climbed like a muppet and basically fell off three very easy qualifiers on vertical walls and slabs! It took 4 goes to do a mantle and despite flashing every other problem down in the pool area, these earlier errors cost me dear and I finished well outside the top 5! Probably out the top 10 and got beat by Sean, Ged and Michael.

Comp punter!

On to the final and Sean and Ged represented us taking 5th and 6th place respectively in the men's. A disturbingly strong Nige Callendar took the title back flashing everything in the final.

For the Women's a local lass retained her title just ahead of the steely fingered Karin Magog and our team mate Becky came 4th in her first comp, a great effort.

We went out for a filthy kebab afterwards to punish the body some more and finished off with various fine whisky's round at Ged's place.

The next morning was a pleasant affair with Nige being our mid morning breakfast delivery service, carrying wonderous gifts such as bacon and bread.

We shot up to Bowden and found it in great condition with a nice breeze keeping it cool and not overly sweaty.

We warmed up around Transformer and I managed to flash every variation on that bit of rock before doing the cool easy highball Brutally Handsome with Ged over to the left.

We moved down crag and as the others went off to try some high stuff, I crawled under the roof and got stuck into V Crimps, getting it done in about 3 attempts.

I went over to Vienna and managed to fall off after getting right over the top of the hold several times as it was super greasy and then the rain came!

We bailed under the V Crimps roof and had some lunch whilst people complained of various aches and skin issues caused by the comp.

As a rewarm up I managed a flash of the Cave Central LH line which climbed superbly well and then had a look at Sprung.

It looked very flashable so I got it matted out, put a decent pair of climbing pumps on and pulled on. It went smoothly until I crossed over from the sharp crimps to the left hand edge but went too high and right on it and couldn't hang the bit of nothing I had. I pulled back on and then pissed the move and to the end, shame!

A couple more goes to the same point and my skin got way too thin as arms got tired and people got a bit bored of shivering in the rain.

We packed up and then went back to Ged's via Morrisons where we purchased and then consumed vast amounts of garlic bread/pizza/ice cream and headed back to the pool.

Back to training on Monday and hopefully I can cure this habit of falling off easy vertical walls/slabs as the steep stuff seems to be in working order. It's obviously fun to be climbing ok outdoors but I'd love to be less shit at comps!

Hangar Comp Hangover

On Saturday the Hangar hosted it's 2nd comp (the first being a local Red Nose Day affair). It attracted the big guns with there being a cash prize on offer so the level of problems had to be raised a notch to test even the best.

I was hoping to maybe sneak into the final 5 as I knew Ned, Dave and James were all over representing team GB but Gaz Parry also turned up, so I knew I was likely going to be behind these seasoned comp beasts!

The qualifying problems were spread all over every angle and stupidly I brought only a pair of dragons and teams and no flat shoe of any description! Suffice to say the steep stuff went well but I messed up on 3 slabs/walls with my feet popping off all of them. I flashed a couple of hardish ones and should have done better on 2 of the steeper ones only to drop the last hold and have to tick them 2nd/3rd go.

I thought my score was pretty average and I finished in 6th place behind the 4 mentioned earlier and the wildcard from Wales and Cave legend Ding Dong! It was great to see Neil rock up in a pair of old boots with homemade laces and holes in the toes and make it into the final.

The finals were a mix of steep and slabby in the new Downtown sector of the wall. Me and Hoppo were rooting for Neil to take down the British team in a spectacular underdog performance and he did well, running out of time on 2 of the problems and getting 3 bonuses but it wasn't quite enough as Ned took the Men's title by flashing the last problem using a sickening flexible hand to foot splits move to get out of the roof and on to the lip traverse before locking out to the finish.
Dave came a close 2nd after dispatching the brialliant first problem involving a dynamic double handed roof dyno catch and Gaz 3rd, just ahead of James after bonus holds came into play.

In the womens it was very close between Shauna and Leah with Shauna taking it down to number of attempts after they both did 3/4 of the problems. A mention must go to Laura too who made it into the final and then finished in 3rd ahead of a team GB member after crushing the slab problem (that Shauna didn't do!).

I'm looking forward to getting down to some more training tonight with Ged and the others and dissecting what could have gone better and what to work on in future. I was hoping to win the pair of Velcros in the raffle but failed and got a Yorkshire Grit vol 1 guide (if anyone wants it let me know!).

We celebrated in good style after the raffle and went for drinks on Lark Lane with Oscar as he was leaving for Sweden the next morning. This continued on into town and all got a bit bleary with me, Sean, Ged and Hot Dog being the last men standing at around 4am.

Sunday morning in work was not pretty but I came out the other side without being sick so a good end to the weekend!

Getting Reaquainted

It seemed like an age since I had last ventured to the Cave but having a day off and the offer of an early lift off Mark was too good to refuse!

I've climbed solely indoors of late after returning from Switzerland, working on indoor circuiting and doing a lot of core exercises from the T Randall 20 min floor + 5 min bar routine.

It was nice and peaceful when we arrived and the sun was making it rather pleasant to warm up. There was just one other guy there who had been biviing up on top of the hill and climbing multiple days on in the cave (good effort!).

As part of the regular warmup circuit, I was relieved to find R.A. still steady!

The goal for the day was to see how far back I had gone on In Life after having fell from left wall around November last year.

On the first try, I was amazed to find myself with left hand on the not so wobbly jug/crimp and matching in on to a rather good edge facing the wrong way. As I took out my right toe hook, I went flying off leftwards into the dirt unable to control the swing! I thought it may just be rustiness, so I tried the toe hook removal once more and the same thing happened even though I squeezed as hard as I could. Were all those months of effort now a waste?!

A bit disturbed I went and sat in the sun for a bit in the directors chair and had a chill.

A banana and a moment of inspiration as I recalled a video of Danny going right hand up to the start of R.A. instead of my old left-left again method.

I went back down and climbed through from the back this time getting my left hand on the bottom of the glued jug and getting the splits/right toe hook on. I twisted over and got the top bit with my right hand and rotated right underneath it, feeling a lot more in balance. I relaxed then removed the right toe dragging it into the roof and it killed the swing enough to hold on. I slapped up to catch the intermediate with my right then put my right toe back on and went again for the R.A. start only to slide just off the edge of it.

After a bit of rest I managed to work out about 3 different foot positions for going again to the start of R.A. and tried them all after climbing from the In Life start but kept on just failing on that same move after having powered out a bit earlier than usual.

Instead of being a bit disheartened at going this far back on the full link, I was quite motivated by doing some new moves and knowing I'll definitely be able to get through it next session when fresh and get on to those lovely slopers over the other side of the arch. It's also quite good in that it should remain 8A+ and not get the downgrade, now that it's a fair bit harder to get through. I'm sure the fitness will return in there so the strong period lasts 3 hours instead of 1 and a half and the core work I have been doing should also help for getting the feet across on to left wall when that time comes again.

Looking to this weekend... I'm desperate to get back to the cave asap to put the time in on In Life but being part of the local Climbing Hangar Team probably means I need to show up and enter the Best Of the West comp (seems a bit pointless when half the British Team are coming to win the money but I guess it can be a steep learning curve!)

Sweltering Swizzie

It's taken a few days to find the motivation to do a trip report as I'm still stuck in the after holiday blues period.

The trip was a bit of a mixed bag with some good problems going down fast whilst others proved to be elusive due to a combination of fatigue/greasy conditions/weakness.

Sun 3rd

The trip started off well with myself and Sean getting a first day sub 15 min tick of Grotte des soupirs (for which I had built a training problem in the crypt at awesome walls that turned out to be far far harder than the actual thing!). It took just as long to do the 7a Vol au Vent next to it.

Mon 4th

The others arrived at our luxurious super villain hideout which overlooked the whole of Bellinzona, up behind the small village of Carasso. It was an epic drive up a winding hill then a walk through a forest including a river crossing to reach the accomodation.

We had another late start and went back to Christianoff. I puntered about on Franks Wild Years with hoppo before realising I was too weak to match the greasy undercut in 25 degree heat so quickly switched focus to XP. I had a tough time on the start until Owen said to start matched on the right undercut instead of trying to pull on wide on both undercuts. It went down a couple of goes later! Me and Mick took about 4 goes to do Harry Spotter which was a cool deadpoint to a crimp off poor footholds and myself, Mark and Sean bailed early down to the cafe only to realise everywhere was closed on a Monday, so headed back the ranch for beer!

Mick stayed out a little longer and managed to crush an 8A+/8B Un ange avec des cornes to the right of La Proue for a decent start to his trip!

Tues 5th

With sweltering temps in Cresciano we headed higher up to Chironico only to find it in direct sunlight and steaming hot.

We warmed up and found partial shade under the Soucoupe roof. I kept failing on the end of Vitruvian Man and then Polish Dave got psyched and flashed it. Mick battled his way up and we moved on.

After spending a while trying to use heel locks on Autopilot, I gave up and dynoed through holding the spectacular swing. Mick did it static and we moved back into the sun to Le Vent Nous Portera. After a bit of bloodshed from the quartz jug, Mick finished it off and I failed to hold the swing back in before calling it a day.

Thurs 7th

We had a well needed rest day on Wednesday and then hit Magic Wood due to the rising temps back in Ticino.

The Woods were full of underground beasts and sponsored wads here for a play before the Milan bouldering world cup.

We pottered about and I took hoppo to Man of Cow. We both failed on this until I remembered how to do the crux and I cleaned the top out for attempts on Master of Cow. I had about 5 redpoints to the crux move but kept failing so we moved on.

Youngy and Hoppo had a mare on some soft touches I showed them so we went to find some gifts! ;)

Youngy crushed Fliegen Erlaubt after a flap on the top and Hoppo got a swift flash ascent.

There was just enough time for a trip down to the river before darkness descended. I had been unable to try Cote de Seshuan last time out due to it having a stream down it but it was prime this time. I worked out the moves for 10 minutes then with energy dwindling pulled it out the bag first go from the start, getting to the rest position and chalking up before holding on to the scary dyno at the end! What a great problem.

Sat 9th

The previous day had proved very unproductive back in Magic Wood doing Octopussy in 2 halves but failing to link. Whilst the others rested I went to Schattental with Lorenzo and Christiano who had come up to stay with us for 2 days. It was 3rd day on but I felt quite psyched climbing with 2 powerhouses and had to represent for Merseyside!

I warmed up with a flash of Chad's bulge which was very pleasant and got the head right for the big slab. We got spanked on some 6c in the heat and got very dehydrated having only 1 litre of water between 3 of us as the other 2 had forgotten to bring any.

Lore and Christiano did a cool looking traverse in the shaded corridor before me and Lore did a short steep 7a+ to the left.

The sun had passed a little further by 2pm, so we moved around to Powerstrips. I thought it looked very flashable so got the psyche levels back up with a re-warm up lap of chad's.

The first move was a pleasant one out to a good blocky sidepull and then the dance began trying to find a good position for the left foot to bring the left hand across the line of many holds. After a foot pop, I swung back in and relocated one that felt ok. I snatched in and caught the crimp perfectly. I pasted the left foot back on lower then launched straight for the good hold at the top and somehow held on! The rest proved an enjoyable stroll up the gigantic slab and only my 2nd 7c flash. Need to do this more often as it saves so much energy! Lore crushed the same sequence but static with some strong locking and then had some fun on the top! ;)

We finished off on a hard 7a up the top end of the boulderfield and went over to Paese for Lore and Christinao to do a nice looking traverse called Bella Gnocca.

The day ended on a perfect note with a cold beer and amazing kebab meal in Biasca before we headed back the house for more beer and wine!

Sun 10th

I felt totally ruined 4th day on having elected to climb at Magic as we weren't going to be going again this trip. I fell off Master of Cow about 7 times at the crux and then once having got through it, with arms melting and hands greasing off. I had to thank Dylan for saving me and also apologise for inadvertently kicking him in the face mid bail.

Not everyone was to be shut down as Mick crushed Sofa Surfer Direct for what was the 4th or so ascent of another 8B.

Polish Dave also made an impressive fast ascent of Octopussy and an animalstic flash of Supernova in near darkness!

Weds 13th

I decided to sack off climbing for 2 days to let my skin and arms recover after getting slowly worse at rock climbing and having a rather poor list of ascents for over a weeks worth of effort.

I felt super energised on my birthday climbing day and got up crazily early, having breakfast and a shower before anyone bar Owen had arisen.

We started off at Nivo Basso and Alta. The warmups were really nice wall climbs with Opus Day being very good indeed.

I then moved on to problem 1 of the hitlist, a short unaesthetic crimpy wall called Kiss Me. I struggled initially till Mike pointed out an obvious toe hook and it went down with a bit of tree dabbing as I tried to flag through, so I did another lap dab free and moved on.

Me and Sean went off and found The Pocket Problem, a cool looking overhanging board which looked piss and very flashable. After brushing the holds I pulled on and moved up into the good left slot only for a foot to pop and I was back on the ground, what a punt! After having a word I pulled back on, got the slot again and jumped out right to the arete which is a great move. I worked the right thumb in to the slot and pinched the hell out of it. Once my body was right underneath I brought the left hand into the other pocket before rocking out a good rail and topping it out.

Sean didn't like the pockets so we moved uphill to the Alphane Moon. This looked great with a bit of a scary match move over a block. It did look very doable so again we opted for the flash attempt. I got through the first sections feeling strong and got out to the greasy left hand hold but was way too sweaty to match in. After chalking up I pulled on matched and did the last 2 moves ok but decided it wasn't going to happen today in the heat, so we moved back downhill to Ping Pong Boulder. I struggled to work out an efficient sequence and managed to bruise my left elbow falling on to the sketchy block to the left of the line. Luckily a wandering Beast from the East popped up with extra mats and a camera in hand. With the extra spotter and matting I found the motivation and sketched up it with a bit of grunting! 3rd 7C in the bag and it wasn't even lunch time :)

We watched the others for a bit then Youngy drove me back over to Le Vent Nous Portera. I warmed up on the top out moves and swung about a bit then had two goes slapping out to the lip but kept getting blinded by the direct sun. Mark helpfully stood in line with the holds with a pad aloft to block it out and on the 3rd go I got the hold perfectly, sorted the feet and launched to the quartz jug, my feet swung out violently and I held on for dear life giving it everything I had left. I held the swing back in and casually matched before rocking out to glory. It was proving a good day with the earlier session and now a Nicole classic in the bag!

Me and Mark went over to Souvenir roof so he could try the 7a on the right and I got drawn into trying the first moves of Souvenir which felt ok but I found it hard to get past the sloper on the lip as my left leg was too long to tension the bicycle.

We shot off before it went dark and went to Grotto Del Nando's for a birthday pizza and beers.

Mick, Owen and Dave turned up fashionably late as Mick had decided to stay out and spot Dave on Boogalagga only to boot up and then climb it within 2 hours... 3 8B's in 2 weeks in the heat!

Fri 15th

After realising the benefits of rest days on a trip, I took Thursday off and put all my eggs in 1 basket to achieve on the last day. As with the last trip to Switzerland, the last day pressure to achieve proved a strong motivator.

We warmed up in area Paese and after almost deciding to just circuit in the heat, I went over with Sean to Souvenir Roof. This time Dave was on hand to dispense some alternate beta. I spent about an hour working different sequences until I found one which worked. A couple of false starts and I had began to give up hope as it was scorching hot and my skin was thinning.

I took a proper rest and gave it one last go where everything just clicked and I hit the holds and positions perfectly. It felt super solid and I only began to panic when I was reaching through to the good hold above the slopers on the lip, I let out a scream and got it right in the middle and pulled through with a wave of relief.

Before finishing we went over to Dr Med Dent which I got close to flashing only to slide off the greasy lip. The reserves were depleted and I had another 2 failures before drinking a coolpresso, eating a banana and having another 'last go for sure'. With a bit of sugar and plenty of liquid chalk I pulled it out the bag. It was a nice problem to end the trip on as the walk out was very short and we were soon back at base beer in hand!

It all proved too much for Beastio aka UKB's most puntered so he spent the last week sleeping on a pad (apart from rising like Lazarus to flash Powerstrips and go back to his sickbed!)

Back in the Pool

Upon getting back after a fairly long drive, I had the shortest of rest periods before beginning team training with Ged and the others at the Climbing Hangar. I turned up too early and got psyched to train on the board so had a 2 hour woody session before doing the intensive 1 hour session with the others. I felt totally ruined on Tuesday morning but after sleeping in late I had to do the 20 minute continuous Randall core workout straight out of bed before eating as I was off to work!

I think relative failure in achieving what I set out to do on our trip has proved a good motivational tool as I awoke this morning still aching but psyched for more, so fitted in another intense core/pullups session before opening the shop.

There is a comp at the hangar at the end of April and I am in pretty poor shape indoors, so need to pack the volume in to a short space of time in the hope of making some gains before then. The short term goal is not be a total punt come the day!

Normal Service is resumed!

After a good few trips out culminating on a swift ascent of the Lotus, I was expecting to polish off yet more unfinished business over the last few days but rather than prolonging this perfect prep for swiss purple patch... it was back to the usual!

Sat 12th March

It was just a day trip on Sat and I picked Fish Head up from the Wirral en route to the majestic Orme.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves for a fair while, then Ru turned up along with the brothers log.

To sum up the session, I puntered up on the handswap bit on Broken Sam about 5 times then moved on to Pilgrim.

I sacked off all the heel sourcery I had been told about and just got my hands as far along as possible before dragging a right foot under the roof, cutting loose and doing a pull up. This kills most of the swing and you stab a right toe across, lock to a sloper and then lock deeper to get to the slot (all off the very greasy left crimpy pinch). After figuring out this new method, I managed to get across the arch a few times but had nothing left on Rockatrocity after the pockets. Small gains = long term victories I guess!

Dylog was looking beastly strong on the Greenheart and if he can keep getting down on a regular basis, I can see him getting it ticked off this year, which would be a fine effort!

Folog was mainly trying everything but mostly Trigger Cut, as was Ru trying to do laps and then link in the Halfway house start (which looks pretty desperate for someone of his height, good job he's an animal!)

Mon 14th March

Me and Sean made our way over to Anston to meet up with Mick and Tony and turned up fashionably late around 1pm instead of 11.30. Mick was busy getting the beastly pair of ned and dave on his white light variations to get some grade confirmations and making the Tenayas stick like glue to seemingly invisible heel hooks.

Tony got me and Sean to try out some of his Tenaya range as we warmed up over on Ebola buttress.

After doing some of the easier stuff, i did a quick retro flash of Alpha using the laceup Tenayas which felt pretty good if a little stiff compared to the Green Hornets that have been in use the last 2 weeks.

After Sean showed me the way on the start to Resonate (the low end 7C+ to the left of Ebola), I contrived to punter the last move about 15 times on the redpoint until the skin got too destroyed in the pockets and the left bicep gave up pulling! I got a full 3 fingers on the top hold but slid off not being able to hang on enough for a match, so hopefully it will go down next trip.

We moved over to Duke's buttress only to find it strangely wet from meltwater. Mick was a bit tired, so we called it a day and me and Sean decided to make a mad dash to Raven Tor.

We managed to get lost down the wrong roads and valley for about 30 minutes until we fluked our way there. A savage warmup on Too Hard for Mark Leach and then straight on to Ben's Roof. I had tried it a while ago with Ken and John M and had fell off trying to stab my left foot across on the flash. I got the crux moves done again through on to the sidewall and had a 2 minute rest. It was now fully dark, so Sean had to guide me with a headtorch. I got through all the bottom and into the kneebar ok, brushed the right hand dry and got the good crimp. I bumped the left hand up to another undercut and got a bicycle in and reached back for the thin slot. I got hold of it but only on the edge as an open crimp and not into the slot. It was absolute agony as I felt it pressing through my already thin tips and had to let go. I had one more redpoint in the dark and ran out of steam on the same move.

Instead of staying over we decided to make a trip to Llandudno and sleep in the van on Marine Drive. In a bid to get there in good time on clear roads, I was a bit over enthusiastic on the gas and we got pulled over on the M56 to be issued with a fine and 3 points, slightly devastating, I felt like a criminal!

By the time we had bought some beers and croissants for breakfast and parked up on the Marine Drive, the chippies were all closed, so we had to make do with a sketchy KFC meal.

Tues 15th March

We had a suprisingly good kip in White Beauty and had a lie in till about 10.30am. A coffee and civilised shit in Dudno were followed by the purchase of a very scal-chic Umbro England polo shirt for a flim... and we were ready for action!

We warmed up all alone and I got back on the redpoint on Broken Sam, only to fail around the wet handswap hold which was not only condensed out but in the rain too. The best go was about redpoint 4, where I swapped hands and got out to the right hand pinch only for my left hand to fire off the sloper claw.

By this time the cave was full of wads but the super beast of the day award had to go to Dobbin who dispatched Trigger Cut with consumate ease and did another lap for the cameras to make sure it were no fluke. ;)

I put a bit more time in on Pilgrim and even had a very unproductive play on Louis Armstrong which didn't last too long. Going to need to hit the gym and grow some biceps for this one.

Training for Swizzy pt 2

There hasn't been any 'training' to speak of, mainly climbing!

With the good weather carrying over from the previous week, we got out another couple of times.

Sat 5th March

Myself, Sean and Darren from the Hangar went to the S Lakes as it looked promisingly dry with a bit of cloud cover, which meant no furnace-like conditions on the Shelterstone Face.

We had a good warmup on the Red Wall and hit the main block.

I gave Darren a tour of some of the easier lines on there and warmed up for Wheelbarrow by climbing the Groove and the Pit problem start, although I found this hard! Sean pointed out that I put my right foot too far around, which was making it harder.

With a rest and this advice in mind, I put my heel much closer up to my hand and hey presto, the move felt much easier. I got past the crossunder and 1 arm unwind into the jug out right then climbed to the lip only for my right hand to fire off.

Sean then waltzed along it with a bit of a grunt to top out. I was suitably inspired and booted up once again. The start went well and before I knew it, I was topping out with energy to spare... which bodes well for Pacman!

Sadly my right shoulder felt quite heavy/clunky so I stopped immediately. The slightly violent nature of the slap move was obviously not ideal on a still dodgy shoulder.

Sean finally did Vitruvian Man and it was no longer a shit problem but 'the best 7C I've ever done'!

We then went over to Woodwell and showed Darren some more Gaskins test pieces and he got a few of the v3/4's in the bag before we packed up and headed the Hangar.

Mon 7th - Tues 8th March

I got the Hangar early only to find Ged bleary eyed making coffee and Hoppo asleep on the couch after a late night of setting.

Ged couldn't locate his car so we smuggled him to Wales in the van after Neil and Joe had said it was glorious sunshine in the pass.

This proved correct and after a brief coffee stop at V12, we went the Roadside and retro flashed the classics.

Moving down to Jerry's we found Rich Ames and friends having a session on the direct finish to Jerry's up some slopey looking gastons/pinches.

Sean got Bus Stop finished off after having puntered the top out last year and Ged worked on Jerry's. I did a lap of Bus Stop to stay warm and fell off the top of jerry's in a brain freeze moment. We then headed up to the Wavelength.

Ged flashed King of Drunks with the heavy beta and also Lordy Lordy!

Back down the hill and I rewarmed up on the Meadow Roof before tackling the Lotus. 5 times I made it to the fingerswap edge only to grease off in the slightly damp conditions.

It went dark and we went back to Beris, had a nice meal and a couple pints, then dropped Ged off at the roundabout.

Me and Hoppo spent a rather chilly night in the van in -6! I definitely need to get a warmer sleeping bag as I was in full thermals and a hoody by the morning.

A breakfast/shower/shit combo at Pete's set us up perfectly for another day in the Pass and we did a brief warmup before I once again dragged Sean up the hill back to the Lotus.

He lay down trying not to be sick and I got really psyched to finish things.

Redpoint number 1 looked like it would be it as I swapped hands on the edge and reached for the pinch out right only to have my foot pop. Devastating but progress!

Next go was looking sketchy as I barely switched hands but after getting out right and a bit of screaming it was done.

And so the week of crush came to an end.

I was relieved the shoulder was ok after tweaking it a bit at Trowbarrow and I'll probably have to avoid Pacman/Iron Man till it gets a bit stronger as the right hand slap is a bit of a no go.

A few rest days and theraband should do the trick this week and I'll maybe go try to finish off other business this Saturday.

Gearing up for Switzerland

It's been a great last couple of weeks in terms of getting outside on rock.

Training

After Lorenzo's visit to Liverpool I got really psyched for fingerboarding/campussing again as I could see how weak I was in comparison and that there was much work to do. The Hangar recently put up another 3 Beastmakers spaced apart like campus rungs and I've had a couple of sessions campussing up the 45-35-35's and the small crimps too which feels like a good strength builder having to lock them down and be accurate to the next. I'm finding the 2 finger sloping dishes quite comfortable again on front and middle 2 so I'll keep putting in a session or 2 a week on these exercises to get the fingers ready for boning down in Chironico.

Back to the rock...

After puntering up on the Terrace and worrying I was going to be massively weak on the forthcoming trip, I decided to get back on things I had failed on in the past.

It started off with a trip about a week ago to the Bowderstone with Sean. Everywhere was a bit grim in the mist/fog but the ladder face was salvageable with a lot of chalkballing/towels/chalk block pasting then fast climbing before grease offs.

I managed to finish off some good problems like Move Man, Ears of Perception, Inaudible Vaudeville and Picnic Sarcastic direct all in a couple of tries save for Inaudible which was fairly wet and felt nails even to pull on but got done with a bit of overpowering. Sean did Picnic sitter and I dropped the last move on a very wet Impropa Opera LH.

Tuesday 1st

Fast forward 1 week and we headed out on a gloriously sunny and cold Tuesday to Trowbarrow to try finish Wheelbarrow/Iron Man but it was like being in an Oven. It was tops off and sweating on the mats! I managed a desperate repeat of Vitruivan Man but we kept greasing off on the longer stuff. We went down the road to find shade and conditions were amazing at Woodwell middle.

I practiced the hardest 6a+ top out in the world (Not Bad Dave) then went to practice the bicyle move I use to slap up into the starting hold of the stand. As soon as I put a tiny bit of weight on the Right foot under the roof a massive chunk of rock crashed down on to the pad luckily missing my legs! The first thought was horror of wrecking a bit of a classic but fortunately The left handholds were all still there. I found a new foot dink on solid rock and could still do the move up past the lip. After 1 standard punter go with a foot pop. I rested up and got it done. Relief! Sean did well and fell off 2 hand moves from victory. He tried again but couldn't quite do the 6a+ (even in isolation! ;))

Wednesday 2nd

We planned a 2 day trip back to the Bowderstone to settle some old scores and sped North in White Beauty on another lovely day.

The plan was to wear offensively bright E9 pants and cause some destruction (of the climbing achievement variety).

We warmed up doing a great little dinosaur back arete opposite XXXX and continued on the Crack then Picnic stand.

I got psyched to try Inaudible sitter as the starting holds were pinchable without getting wet hands and proceeded to flash it with only 1 sketchy cut loose on the last move. The power seemed to be turned on as Sean cooly dispatched Inaudible Vaudeville and we moved pads under Impropa Opera.

Sean was trying the righthand start and I was over on the left, as we strangely found each others' starts most awkward.

After watching a video and altering my sequence, I no longer had to drop my right hand into the terrible sidepull/pinch and stab left hand again to the crimp you lock the last move off. A lovely crossover move and then a twist through to gain the same hold proved much better and after hitting the small intermediate, the last hold thankfully proved to be a jug. It felt piss!

We did some heavy maintenance on a couple of the holds which were still damp and Sean then climbed the right hand start. Not satisfied, we then swapped around and after a go or two managed to get up it from the other side.

Feeling on a roll I shifted the pads leftwards and decided to try the visually appealing line of Grand Opera.

The first go, I caught the groove hold and held on whilst trying to work out where to put my feet for about 10 seconds before sliding off the right hand.

After resting and chin stroking, I had a brainwave and pulled back on, catching the move, getting a high left heel near my chest and locking in to match the rail. I cut loose and got a foot back on the starting hold before stabbing out left and getting a good but very painful incut crimp before bouncing a right heel under my right hand and locking in again to gain a big pinch intermediate. I went again over my head to a chalky mess where it was nigh on impossible to distinguish where the hold was and I crimped whatever I could feel (which was truly terrible). I hung about not knowing what to do with my left foot and slapped to an ok looking left sidepull before sliding off.

That was as good as it got on Grand Opera as I felt a bit powered out upon reaching the same point a couple of goes later. I feel it is way harder than Impropa and am puzzled as to it being 7C in the new 7&8's list.. maybe Impropa is 7A+?

We finished off with Sean almost doing Picnic Direct, then I puntered up on wet holds on Coming up for Air before doing it 2nd go with a bit of drying. What a great flowing problem.

Thurs 3rd

We chose to make good use of our current form and the dry sunny weather and headed Cavewards.

There were a couple of geezers there when we arrived who had just got back from Spain not looking overly motivated for a shady polished cave and we warmed up with the whole place to ourselves.

I had bought a pair of 5.10 Hornet's the night before and thought I would wear them to warm up on old familiar circuit problems.

Rather than being a mere warming up shoe for the day, I kept them on all session as they were immensly comfortable and destroyed all in their path.

All the lip problems were ticked off before a lap of Rockatrocity and Cave Life short. The last time I was here, I had fell off the last move of Lou Ferrino direct without the pocket out right, just before getting multiple shoulder strains.

The 3 month break and rehab seemed to do the job as I got through to the rail on Lou F missing holds and cutting loose but feeling stronger than ever. I let go and let the blood come back to the fingers as it was pretty damn chilly.

A brief 3 minute rest and I crushed lou F sans pocket to the finish with a bit of a scream to get my fingers in that most hated of slots which brings so much joy!

As I moved over to work on the Pilgrim L->R arch moves, Sean puntered up Lou Ferrino, sliding out of the wet pocket out right.

After redrying it just before pulling on, he got it done for a bit of a nemesis tick. Team Crush was still on a roll :)

We stuck around a little longer giving some beta to a couple of guys from the Peak, Nick and Nick I think? (I have terrible memory retention for anything which isn't a sequence) who were over on a roadtrip for the week and they got some good classics in the bag before we left.

It was a good 3 day spree of action and the first time I've felt strong and uninjured on anything since last Ocotober. Hopefully we can get out a couple of times a week before the trip to Ticino and achieve something between us.

I'll aim to take a week off after the Climbing Hangar comp on the 18th March, to get a decent rest followed by some light volume sessions before the trip to keep the skin good.

I learnt from the last episode of injury and Holger/Pete Chadwick's advice, that you are most susceptible to picking up injuries when in a purple patch so fingers crossed the shoulders are almost mended!