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.