Rad and Syked

Well it was a good last week, with a trip to the Lakes taking in an interesting lecture by the king of skye Dave Graham anda couple of days outdoors to the Langdale and Kentmere boulders. Nothing hard got crushed but I really enjoyed the relaxed circuiting. The rain put paid to any Bowderstone action and a bit of indoor crushing as well as slacklining made up the rest of the trip.

A day after coming back, I went the cave with Dave not expecting too much and after a brief warmup (about 5 minutes) I pulled on to my current nemesis (the low start into Rock Atrocity from the wobbly block) and crushed it into the ground first try of the day. It felt good.

Feeling pretty psyched at breaking through this mental barrier, I got back on Lou Ferrino (which was pretty wet) and after doing the 4th move a few times in a row (a move I used to really struggle on), I linked it all the way to the finish from said move. I wasn't really expecting this, so psyched out my mind, I rested whilst towelling and brushing a a ton of chalk into the 2nd LH sidepull at the start. Pulling on to it as fast as possible I flowed through but dropped the 4th move as said hold had already covered my hand in water and my left hand blew off! :( I know it won't be long till we meet again!

Today was a bit of an interesting one. Me and Dave went ov er to the Peak with the aim of getting on Brad Pitt but we arrived to blustery wet conditions with bouts of sunshine being rudely interrupted by minor rainstorms and high winds. Perfect conditions :S. We briefly warmed up on the Deliverance block and Dave swiftly despatched Deliverance infront of some American wads being given the tour by mr Pickles. I tried to re-repeat it as well but using the short mans High right foot method but it wasn't to be, so determined to do a new problem and not fail on old ones I went over and tried to flash the Green Traverse. It was going ok till I puntered the middle section trying to smear instead of campussing all the way and had to go back to the start to get it 2nd go :(

We went over to Brad and it was miraculously dry. We got the full shutdown but got to witness Pint Sized American beast Matt Segal flash it with ease! The rain came in again to end our play and we sacked it to Hathersage for a coffee. With the weather breaking yet again...we headed to Burbage, got shutdown on the Terrace, I showed Dave the Remergence block and he agreed with me that it was a highly overrated and uninspiring piece of rock!

To end the day we went back to Stanage so Dave could meet up with Ry and Katy. We watched Ry and Dave Graham trying the Ace in pretty crap conditions (covering the holds with taped bits of paper to keep the rain off), and then headed over to the storm which was wet. British weather sucks and I still loathe gritstone climbing.

Knowing that next week holds a full week of work, I really hope I can get back to the cave sometime this weekend and get back on LF... it would be great to surpass this years goals again!

Recent goings on

After my last post almost a month ago bemoaning injuries and the like, this one will be a bit more upbeat!

I've well and truly got over the weird finger niggles and been busy with regular trips outside, almost exclusively to the cave. I don't know what it is that draws me there (apart from the search for numbers), but I enjoy the rock, the moves, the feeling of getting a good workout and also the motivation brought about by failure to send! I always come away in an almost comatose trance like state with the body in full shutdown, knowing I need to train harder, put more effort in and rest properly before returning. I enjoy the need to focus on problems, isolating weaknesses and working on them, to the detriment of other things I could be doing such as clipping bolts or out circuiting classic easier problems well within my capabilities.

I have no short term plans other than a trip to the Lakes to visit someone I have become close to and care a lot about, who has sadly just moved away to uni recently. The good thing is that she is equally psyched to go and see a Dave Graham lecture in Ambleside and get out bouldering around the Lakes... the bowderstone will be getting a visit for sure! I'd love nothing more than to find some form of employment up in the Lakes, making more use of my outdoor qualifications and spending more time with her.

Today I will rest and hypotrophise for Saturday, then enjoy Sunday's rest before I kickstart the guru's plan next week. Back to basics...pass me the weightbelt

Dark Clouds Gathering

Well... it has been an utterly miserable last few weeks with one period of horrific weather after another and little chance to get out and enjoy the fruits of the training labour!

I've been mostly spending my time devising new 4 move problems on steep planks of plywood and in the murky depths of the crypt, some 15+ move monstrosities have been created in order to stem the boredom.

Last weekend brought some light relief with a daytrip out to some chossy Peak Lime and watching Owen get agonisingly close on his project there. I wasn't really feeling the vibe or awake for that matter and proceeded to eat a carrier bag worth of food, washed down with a can of some grim chocolate "Power Up" drink from Trafford Centre services.

Just as we were all fading, a strong barrel shaped team appeared through the undergrowth! Crushers Sugden and Gibson had been out on the lash but were clearly keen to show the keen youths how it was done. Tom almost flashed the crag but his fingers of steel were denied by some fine beta hustling by madams! Gibson was momentarily spotted putting on his boots but the moment passed in a flash and he was soon atop of a rock with rolly in hand, with the black down jacket doing nothing to mask his penguin like physique!

The evening do at Sheffield's darling socialite was a grand occasion with great BBQ food and plenty of beer. I was enraptured by an amusing conversation between Rhyn and Owen about the Bob Graham round of 43 peaks in 24 hours. Owen reckons he will give it a go, so Rhyn has offered somewhere to stay as well as a pacer..this I cannot wait to see!

Back at the wall of Awfulness things haven't been going to (The Guru's) plan with me managing to crush my hand by climbing (with added weight) in the crypt. The fact that the swelling was triggered when lead belaying for an ungrateful urchin, only compounded my misery. Hot and cold treatments and a visit to the Liverpool A&E have left me none the wiser apart from being told I should rest for 10 days minimum and then see if it still hurts. The temptation to train my opposite arm into a mutant limb of embarassing power, has a certain appeal when the olympics coverage will be coming to an end this weekend!

I will possibly post a photo montage of swollen finger shots over the next 10 days and jazz it up a bit with flames and lightning...etc

Scraping by and staying motivated

I've had a pretty uneventful last few weeks since we were at the Orme for Chezzie Si's birthday.

I am still trying to recover financially after returning from Italy and paying 2 months of overdue rent and bills..which has meant a lot of time spent at awful walls climbing centre slaving away for 3 weeks straight just to clear my negative bank balance and buy enough food to get back to something approaching a normal diet! (I had been living off beans and economy weetabix for a week, before pay day came).

I have resigned myself to not getting a summer holiday this year and am focussing my attention on saving up enough money to go to font again in October with the Liverpool crowd. To co-incide with this situation, the guru's training plan could not have been timed any better, so I began last Sunday with basic strength tests and Monday on the actual training. It is based on a 9 week cycle and largely indoors which will fit in well with my need to work a lot at the wall.

The highlights of the week were definitely my rest days sitting off with Stu (our new squatter) and eating steaks and cakes all day long to try and overload on calories and put a bit of fat back on after the awful week of near starvation that preceded this week! I also watched First ascent and thought it was brilliant (apart from Timmy O'Neill), getting me psyched to move over to Squamish or Yosemite for a few months to try some hard wall and crack climbs. I am most definitely green with envy of Esther at work going over to the States for a few weeks!

For now though I look forward to more sessions on the fingerboard and 45 board and will continue to stick religiously to the guru's plans. I am intrigued to see what it may do to my climbing by the end of it (and more importantly if I will be in crushing mode come font time).

A Minor Success

Last weekend I went to the Orme for Chester Si's birthday climbing trip.

On Saturday morning we travelled to Parisella's Cave and Rock Atrocity finally got crushed in 3 attempts. A celebratory meal of coffee and doughnuts on the pier shortly followed. It was truly immense! After that, we spent a chilled afternoon in Split Infinity and went to watch the Holland v Russia match in the Heights in Llanberis, it was full of blurts and scallies but at least the football was good!

Due to the horrific weather storms, we managed to sort out a bunkhouse in Nant Peris for £10 a night so we at least got a decent nights sleep and dreamt of dry weather in the mountains. When we awoke it was looking heavy again in the pass, with low grey cloud and very strong winds, so we sacked it again to the Orme and it was a beautiful thing, bathed in light with a nice breeze.

Split infinity got another visitation with Ben trying Organ Grinder and me and Si working Bell Pig (oh how frustrating catching the sidepull is..) before we ventured up to Norman's Wisdom to try out the problems up there. Ardvaark and Norman Direct were really good at 7A and 7A/+ but Snout (7B+/C) proved a bit trickier and I'll need to go back after not climbing 5 days on, to see if it feels any more amenable.

Back in the 'Pool

Well it's been a whirlwind tour of Italy over the last 2 weeks and although the weather was largely wet, it meant that me and Tom got to visit a lot of places including non-climbing related historical sites of interest and fantastic cuisine.

We spent a good few days in Florence hanging out with the 'Guru' Roberto, who gave us a great tour of the city as well as the climbing gym. Lorenzo's other friends Sabrina and Geovanni from Project O, took us out in the evenings for meals and drinks and we were both really grateful for them helping us to get out at night and see some nice spots around the city.

Upon leaving Florence, we travelled to Siena, the town in which Lore grew up in and spent a day wandering around getting lost and discovering all of the City bit by bit until hooking up with Lore and Valentina for another great meal in the evening. This was followed by a bizaare Irish folk music evening that was at an open air venue near to a University building (I think?). I loved Florence as a city but the calm feeling I got wandering around Siena was much more preferable and I think it's a beautiful place to visit. There is a strong medieval vibe to Siena thanks to the architecture and narrow streets.The Central square is visually fantastic, with an amusing Polish clown keeping the general public entertained, with some classic tricks on unknowning passers by!

After a couple of days in Siena, we went back to Follonica and had a small meal to prepare for the next day of crushing. The weather forecast was grim but the sun was shining brightly above as we set off in Lore's van of psyche to Mount Amiata. As we ascended up the slopes of the Mountain we soon realised it was going to be a complete washout yet again, so we drove over the mountain whilst Lore pointed out the many undeveloped boulders up in the woods (some looked stunning). We hooked up with a couple of Cheech and Chong lookalikes who were meant to be providing us with the key to an elitist hardcore training board hidden in Amiata but alas they were too mashed to remember where it was. Luckily, another guy 20 minutes drive away had one that worked and we released the pent up rage and psyche on these steep boards of ply.

A few hours later and we were thoroughly beasted, returning back to Bruno's restaurant and dining on fine seafood once again whilst he looked on admiringly at our ability to crush all of the food with ease! The last day was spent swimming and sunbathing near the pool and before we knew it we were on the train back to Pisa. The journey was not quite over as we realised there were no more trains to the Aeroporto, so we ventured into Pisa Central and happened upon a cabbie who relayed the bad news about the airport being closed until 5am. We bought some beers from the bar and headed off towards the airport on foot, not looking forward to a night of dossing in front of the Airport doors... but our luck was about to change! We bumped into a couple of Students fom Pisa and they said we could crash round theirs on the floor until 5ish but before we got any sleep, Martina and Petra gave us the tour of Pisa City and the notorious tower that is a lot more piccolo than I was expecting! The street art was really good, so I have posted many images on a facebook gallery, with just the 1 large picture on here. We managed about one hour of sleep before having to get up and head to the Airport and then it was followed by a stress free flight back to sunny Merseyside.

The trip has been fantastic and I am really grateful to Lore and Valentina for letting us stay so long in their several homes dotted around the West Coast of Italy! The climbing was great fun when we managed to get outside and the indoor sessions with Lore and the Guru were amazing for the psyche and future training plans. I'd like to thank Sabrina and Geovanni for the cool t-shirt and hospitality whilst we were in Florence and also the Austrian girls for saving us spending a night sleeping on the streets! Adopo.

Bouldering, bouldering, bouldering

Saturday - Amiatta

After the great meal we had a good our first taste of the bouldering. Lore took us to a very beautiful location called Amiatta, where the climbing is powerful and short with the sharpest rock I have ever pulled down on. After a tour of the routes (which looked amazing), we went down the hill and did a circuit of great warm up problems before heading back to the van and driving to the real action!

In the second location, we got some fantastic wall and arete climbs and I managed to get a possible new problem sent from a sit start via some very sharp holds and long reaches (maybe a little bit morpho ;)) and we had comedy scenes with Tom heel hooking his shoe off and me attempting to put it back on whilst he clung to the rock for the flash!

Down the hill, we all sent some hard problems on a hueco style roof before Lore took us to one of the best pieces of rock i have seen abroad, which contains 3 main lines a 7B+, 7c and his 8a roof problem which was beyond impressive and certainly very hard for the grade seeing as every move was nails! Lore was pulling down hard and was looking strong on his 8a+/b project line (the first of the Mohicans direct).

Sunday - Sasso

The next day, we were taken to an even more special place, Sassofortino which was totally serene, with scattered blocks hidden deep in the woods with the rock very similar to Magic Woods. After another warmup we went to the Lourdes roof and I was amazed at how pure the line was, utterly stunning to look at and the moves were fantastic. I managed to just about get up the easiest of the lines on the roof with a fight to top out and Lore also crushed Lourdes to the finish on the retro flash! Mightily impressive as his wrist was giving him quite a bit of pain. I was really psyched for Lourdes but wanted to go and check out Spigolo calibani that Keith had recommended to tom to go and try.

The line of Spigolo is beautiful and what was even better were the superb moves all the way to the top, it had everything, with heels, compression, crimping and jumping with an airy finish onto a damp slabby top! We worked the moves on it and quickly linked most of it but sadly the air was really humid and the rock greasy as anything I have encountered. I managed to do it in 2 overlapping halves but on the final attempt at linking I had to give in to bad skin and pain, with every finger on my left hand covered in tape to avoid going through more tips than the 2 I did on day 1. Giving up on this we spotted Tom on an even sharper problem to the right that also had a really nice line and great crimpy moves but thin skin and agony won the battle and we had to concede defeat.

In the evening, we went swimming in the outdoor pool and it was slightly cold. We did a few laps and I nearly died from the cardio! The meal afterwards was really nice with some pizza and local cheeses, ham and honey brought over by Lore and Valetina's friends. Good times!