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!