On the Brink

Of many things

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

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

Tues 27th July

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

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

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

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

Wednesday 28th July

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

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

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

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

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

Sat 31st July

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inspiration and goal setting

After last summer's trip to Magic Wood with Andy and Mark I got back home really excited to push on a bit and get strong/start climbing harder.

I look at 8a.nu and see other people climbing multiple 8th grade problems as if they are nothing! I wonder how to get to this level of ability, to get things done in short time and wish for this to happen to my climbing!

The problem is training hard enough/knowing what specifically to train and still getting things ticked whilst attempting to head up the exponentially steep hill called grade progression.

I've had a pretty poor year so far and managed maybe 1 problem I consider 'hard' (for me at least). Injuries have been commonplace and I don't even feel like I have trained enough to improve. My only level of benchmarking is doing laps of things in the cave and getting closer on my year goal of font 8a+.

I had probably my best session in a long time on Tuesday dropping the last hold on In Hell 3 times in a row and once not being able to hang the slot long enough to match. I don't know whether I am actually improving or just super conditioned to this set of moves. I fear becoming a one trick pony and getting shut down hard in Magic Wood come September. I feel like I don't deserve to get things done if I aren't cranking out laps on the 50 deg board and sweating/fingerboarding till failure..etc but I seem to break down and require a lot of rest if I attempt this.

I think I read somewhere on fit club from Simon questioning if the best policy is to beat things into submission or take time off and rest/regroup. I am always unsure of this. Should I just train hard and treat outdoor days leading up to a trip as active rest days and ignore feeling weak and not getting things done hoping to hit peak strength come trip time. Or should I always take double rest days and try climbing all out 99% of the time??

Anyway, I apologise for the above incoherent ramblings.

I watched Core again last night and really enjoyed watching the Italian bouldering which brought back good memories from the brief trip to Sassofortino and Amiata that me and Tom enjoyed a couple years ago. It's a beautifully made film and I appreciate how he has used the shorts of Shawn Rabatou to give some structure to the film as he picks the different items out of the claw machine representative of the segments. I know a lot of people aren't fans of the Fryburger's methods but I enjoyed this as much as Pure, which I put on straight afterward to watch the Swiss bouldering.

With renewed enthusiasm, the swiss hitlist was re-wrote and I think if I can get a couple of 8th grade problems (chiefly Octopussy and Astronautenfieber) done I would be made up. I'd love to get something like Jack's broken heart, Electric Boogie or Voigas done but am scared to set goals too high and waste energy failing when I would have more chance on something easier. I guess the best way to look at it, is that it's all training for the cave anyway ;)

Roped shenanigans and the Ondra Show

I've felt pretty uninspired of late, so not felt an urge to post an update on things.

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I had read a couple of books (9 out of 10..etc) and got motivated to try something new that I was crap at, so bought the various paraphernalia required to sport climb and got involved.

26th&27th June

A couple of weeks back, I had a great trip to Yorkshire with Dave Pin, Holger, Fiona and Aefe. We spent a day at Yew Cogar which was a fantastic piece of rock featuring wonderful tufa features and routes that were not too long to be doable without resting on a rope!

The highlight was definitely puntering my way up Cruisin for a Bruisin on about the 4th redpoint of the day screaming for the last couple of moves as the I caught the holds the wrong way and generally fought like I have never had to before. It all looked a bit pathetic after Dave had cruised it and then done a casual lap of the 7C to the left.



The walkout looked epic as we set off back up the massive hill but with heads down and stomping, it didn't end us.

On the way to the free camping spot we dropped in at what appeared to be a nice, quiet village pub. Holger had his reservations after popping his head in through the front door but Dave insisted that "you never get a bad pint in Yorkshire".

We tentatively entered the front door and walked up to what appeared to be a bar/reception desk with a peculiar looking man behind it. Dave erred in asking whether it was a pub to which the landlord replied "do you think it looks like a pub?". He then said he had some ales and we asked what he had;

Barman: "well what do you want"
Dave: "Well what have you got"
Barman: "Well what do you want"
A perplexed Dave: "Well that kind of depends on what you have got?!"

We noticed a lack of taps on the bar and the guy insisted he had a barrel of Timothy Taylors under the counter but asked that we don't watch while he prepares them.



We laugh nervously and try and look elsewhere as Holger sneaks outside clearly ill at ease. The guy sprays the pints into the glasses direct from the barrel using a hose and then asks "how much would a round like this cost in Liverpool?". Dave replies "£3.50 and 2 bags of crisps". The guy seems to have no idea of prices, so we hand him a tenner and shift uneasily past the stuffed fox and back outside.

The pint's were clearly not TT's and were a pretty potent homebrew that had no doubt been maturing in that barrel for many a year!

We hit Kilnsey the next day and I managed to get up a few more things such as Sidekick, Nerve Ending and after Dave had cleaned it up and crushed it, I failed on the end of Fit of Peak.

We then went to a pub with a big screen along with Pete Robins and Rach who we met at Kilnsey earlier and watched as Holger's home nation made us look like schoolboys. it was quite funny to watch Holger cheer each goal and then sink back down into his chair as the locals looked to be ready to lynch the imposter!



29th June

I returned to Kilnsey with Hoppo, The Pinnmeister, John M and Holger feeling a bit weak in comparison.

The warm up was a few pullups down the far end of the crag and a lucky first redpoint ascent of Fit of Peak for my goal of the year of sport 7b+ (soft 7c YYFY?!). Hoppo should have done it but didn't quite manage, so we moved leftwards and I got on Comedy. The flash attempt was over a bit abruptly when I rather lazily put the right toehook in under the big undercuts and didn't really place it, so I span off when reaching for the holds near the 2nd clip.

With this amazing attempt out of the way, I managed to get up to the cigar move on the 2nd try and run out of gas. Short rest, then piss the move and get to the top ok. No hard moves but strangely it felt hard to me!

I had a couple more goes but fell off that same move both times after clipping the 4th. It should hopefully go down next visit and I may have even developed the fitness to do an extra move by then.

3rd&4th July

I went with the Hoppo family scal and Youngy to go and watch the biggest beast in the world (+ others). We managed to do fairly well getting free camping and the Hoppo's even better by sneaking in to the event through various rivers/bushes without paying in. I figured it better to just pay the £5 entry and not feel paranoid all day about being ejected!

The qualifiers went well for the Brits and 7 made it through to the semi's. Me, Youngy and Sean were torn between watching the Kilian/Ondra show and watching the women's problem 5 with the crowd pleasing splits move finale!

The Semi final was good to watch and Ondra didn't dissapoint... his gangly frame, long neck, crazy hair and awkward appearance were everything we had hoped to see and then he totally destroyed everything.

We whooped with delight as he let out a magnificent ostrich like power scream and booked his place in the final. Kilian was anything but on form. He struggled and declared the problems shit before walking off a couple of them with over a minute still left on the clock. I had been hoping to watch the final face off but it wasn't to be.

During the interval, I was persuaded to enter into the dyno comp which all seemed a bit pointless seeing as Skyler had turned up but it turned out to be quite fun and I was amazed at how far away the hold is when pulling on to the start! I made it through to about the last 6 at 2.45 (thanks to Lily for lending the chalk) and couldn't imagine how to get the extra 40cm of jump! We then watched him crush a casual 2.80 with a dodgy arm to take home his cheque which I imagine barely covered the flight back home.

The final was the ondra show as he dispatched the first 3 problems with ease. The only blip came on the final problem as the crowd went a bit quiet after 2 failed attempts. He sorted the move and cruised to the top to secure another victory and we went wild :D

last week

Inspired by the events of the weekend, I had a couple of indoor bouldering sessions on Monday and Wednesday. Monday was a quick crush of the new step wall set flashing all but 2 and then getting them on lock down. The arm felt a bit sore the next day so I didn't risk the routes with Matt and Tom and chose to sink some beers whilst watching the first WC semi.

I went to Rockover Climbing with Sean and Mike psyche on Weds and was really impressed by the new centre. The comp wall was nice and wide with plenty of light and no risk of kids running past underneath!

Sadly, The power was well and truly not on as I got spanked on most of the comp wall ascending maybe 6 out of 15 I tried. i think it's a combination of the crazy humidity on those crimps, weak arms and a lack of technique but it has let me know what needs working on before Switzerland in September. When we moved over to the steep roof corner things were a lot better as I could climb the green and yellows again with it being more cave/crypt-like in style! Note to self: Stick to roofs as walls and barrel walls are desperate.

I worked all weekend and enjoyed a diet of pizza, burgers, beer and more beer watching the 3rd place play off and the final which was a bit flat. Really glad to have watched Spain win after the Dutch played a rather cynical game and gutted how I dropped away in the UKB fantasy football league falling from a solid top 2 place a couple weeks ago to 6th... I will never disregard Diego Forlorn ever again!

(Cheers to Dave Pinnington photography for the above images!)

On the Mend!

After some sage advice from the ukb forums and a chat to Pete Chadwick on the phone, I have nursed the left arm of weakness towards the road of recovery.

I basically did no climbing at all for 6 days whilst performing light weight exercises in work sat on my arse. These are all aimed at fixing the small tissue/tendons that support the major muscle groups in the arm which have apparently grown strong (a debatable point!) whilst the small bits have been on holiday, meaning imbalance and pain.

Anyway...

I tentatively arranged an outdoor rock climbing trip with my good friend Benedict and met him in a leafy Hartford village on Tuesday afternoon. The strong boys were heading to the cave but I couldn't quite face it just yet and it would probably set me back again in terms of recovering fully. The venue of choice was Harmer's Wood as I figured it was going to be relatively easy on the arms and a good finger workout as well as a test of footwork!

Upon arrival I was really impressed with the stand-out aretes and highball walls, all with nice flat landings in a fairly open plan space that felt quite peaceful.

A local guy turned up who was part of the local village team who had been working on making the area easy to access and family friendly. I just followed Ben around climbing almost everything and offering grades for each one (that somehow amazingly matched what himself and Andy had agreed on).

There were some really brilliant climbs from F5+ to F7B with the classics being The highball rib line, Queen of Hearts, Harmadillo and Baby Bloc.

At the end of our 3 hour session my fingers were truly destroyed and my toes ached as I found wearing super tight, thin 5.10 projects and standing on small edges made the toes work overtime.

The climbing was fantastic and very similar to Pex in places but a much nicer venue overall in terms of landings, lack of litter and no scallies (save for Ben and Chezzie Si).

I didn't manage one of Ben's harder lines and didn't get on the line left of Baby Bloc, so will most likely be going back again Tuesday next week to finish these off. It was nice to be climbing pain free again and should be good to go in the cave/s lakes again after Tuesday assuming all goes well.

Here is a local lady who turned up clearly psyched for some hardcore sandstone crimping:

June already

...And nothing of note achieved. I've been mainly working in the shop lately and nursing yet another left arm injury, so after an unproductive session at Pantymwyn belaying John up Grand Canyon, I took a couple days out and then spent the rest of the week carefully fingerboarding and seeing where I was. The result was weak in the fingers and unable to 1 arm deadhang!

After the last fingerboard session being pain free, I decided to test out the level of injury on the rock as myself, O, Pete and Si drove through torrential rain to a misty but dryish Llanberis pass. We warmed up around the roadside and I managed to just about beat the pump to crush Cave Route and Roadside Basic which both felt desperate!

Luckily the arm didn't seem to suffer other than a mega pump, so after a break to stare bemused at a large bus load of Polish tourists who ran about the boulders taking photographs of cloud and drizzle, I had a play on Diesel Power.

Despite having seen Mike climb it in about 20 mins last month, Owen didn't remember any beta at all, so I just got on with failing on every move for a good hour. I skipped past the first move as I didn't know the rules about where you start and also couldn't figure out where to put feet for most of the moves! By the end of this rather poor showing I had managed about 3 hand moves. It was quite condensed on the rock with the low clouds but I am in dire need of some foot beta and body tension.

After a bit of lunch I went over to spot Pete and Andy on Bus Stop. Pete managed to crush the first 2 moves but was struggling on the finish. I did it from a move in to try remember things for him and then decided to try something on Mr Fantastic that Dobbin had posted on his blog a while back. When bringing the left hand across to match on the Bus Stop holds, I kept my left foot pasted on the ledge and then brought the right foot across and pressed it into the roof just above the LF. This allowed me to easily take my left foot off and place it on the good spike and then bring the right foot down on to the polished dink and do the first move on Bus Stop (totally removing the desperate leg swing I had previously been fighting with!) . To try and keep things positive, it was shoes back in the bag and down to Pete's Eats for cake and a coffee.

Really struggling with motivation at the moment with being injured and weak most of the time and unable to train as it results in aggravating the left arm. This means when I get out, I'm generally pretty crap and feel like I'm going backwards from last year as opposed to improving.

I might take a big break during World Cup time and hopefully this will clear up lingering injuries so I can start training afresh after. News of a new dedicated bouldering wall opening in Liverpool is fantastic and it can't come soon enough!

The turning point

Having recently had a bit of time to spare, I read 9 out of 10 climbers by Dave Macleod cover to cover as well as 'How to climb 3 grades harder' by Mick Ward. One thing was glaringly obvious. I am pathetically unfit in terms of climbing more than 10 moves and have poor recovery.

To improve, I really need to get some fitness and figured the best way to work on a glaring weakness is to attack it head on.

Being a bit jaded and demotivated recently on bouldering days out, it is probably as good a time as any to mix things up, so I purchased a harness last week and today a rope seeing as I haven't owned one for a few years. Stage 1 complete!

I did one day out at Llanymynfach last year and managed to drag my way up a 6b+, 7a and soft 7b fully pumped on every one of them at the chains!

Wednesday I'm off to Kilnsey to start stage 2 and to see if I can find a 7b+ to climb. Getting the top of anything will be a major bonus and I'll no doubt feel uber weak watching John M, Dave P and Smooth Pete crushing all over the place!

Bank Holiday weekend

I managed to get a 3 day vacation from the fully stressful job and went to probably my 2 favourite venues in the uk...

Friday 30th April

Me, O, Smooth P and the Hoob decided on the safe bet of the Cave due to the sketchy weather.

The warmup was going well with parisella's original, Bust Lip and Clever Beaver all done and I decided a brief lap of Lip Service was in order before going for the Broken Heart RP. I got out to the lip and was moving my right hand to the fingerjug when my left hand pinged off and I was sent hurtling downward. A loud slam and much cheek rubbing later and I could thankfully still move about with a bit of a limp (although weighting the right bum cheek was a no no).

I puntered up Broken Heart a couple times (I still find this fully desperate for a soft 7C+ but I think its more of a mental thing as its just a distraction from what i really want to get done and hence doesn't receive the effort it probably requires) and sacked it for In Hell.

First go and I was really struggling to get through the first moves. It was pretty warm, so the liquid chalk was broken out and try number 2 resulted in a power out at the move to the flake off the 2 pockets on R.A. A bit of a breather and I managed another go through to the same move but something was lacking (maybe caused by training the previous week and not resting as much).

In Hell was sacked off due to weakness and I moved on to try get some consolation ticks with the marvellous Dust Kick High going down. Ring of Fire High ended in failure at the crimps and attention moved towards the right lip of the cave. A bit of beta off Bobbins ensured Beaver Cleaver became more like 80% instead of 40% so I tried the sitter and failed after all the hard climbing due to a cut loose draining every last ounce of energy.

Smooth Pete got to the last slot on R.A. from the start going over for the pinch and Owen managed to get Clever Cleaver from the break, narrowly missing out on the full sitter.

Sun 2nd May

Me and O headed East into the tempest but the skies thankfully cleared a little as we reached Anston Stones. Mike arrived shortly after and we did a crag inspection. My 2 goals for the day of Ebola and Alpha were wet so this made things a bit more simple. A brief and inadequate warmup was followed by a desperately pumpy flash of Beta Blocker and a strong failure to do the first move of the sitter due to wetness.

As I worked the moves on Bullet again, trying to remember where to toehook to catch the fingerslot, Mike mauled his way up Dark Art and pretty much everything else including Magnum Eliminate, a massively morpho line to the left of Bullet.

After he had recrushed Bullet, I knew where to put the feet and it went down quickly! O should have sent but got drawn into trying the lefthand line.

After tea and scones we headed off past an absolutely stunning roof that isn't currently topo'd on the limestone cowboys gallery and I scoped out a summer project which takes in a lot of ground through a roof via some wonderful holds and big moves off a lot of foot clamps and body tension (In to the light)

We had a look at the Seaman staines area and most lines looked pretty full on (and maybe undergraded)

Then we arrived at Mecca. The Duke's buttress is definitely my favourite section of rock in the UK up there with the Zoo York/Ben's Groove area/Shelterstone and the Cave!

We worked some moves and the friction was prime due to a cold breeze coming through the tunnel. I managed to get Red Duke fired off fairly fast which left plenty of energy to try Filthy Duke. Owen worked the moves with me and after failing a couple times on the last hard move up to a right hand deadpoint... I finally got it (after barely catching the first move and captured on a phone with an embarassing scream to hold on to the RP crux).

Owen made some good redpoints on a RH link into Filthy from the Dark Lady start and it looks a great one to come back for as well as Duke's Peril which looks amazing if a tad scary.