Small Gains

Saturday

It has been a fairly steady last week since I last posted. Trips to North Wales have been avoided with the rather poor weather and obviously being close to a couple of things I wanted to get done this year has made this doubly frustrating. This was remedied to some extent by a full weekend outside giving a couple of friends the tour of Roche Abbey and it's glorious low 7's circuit where I managed to warm up getting the retro flash of everything whilst saving energy for something I wanted to try!

When the action moved to the main buttress, I had by far my best attempts on Fallen Idol sliding off the sloper with a full 4 digits on it, sadly it wasn't to be as my skin thinned rapidly as well as the crimps greasing up something awful in short time. I know it is pretty much in the bag if I can get back with good skin and temps (but a bit of interim training on fingers and explosive pulling wouldn't hurt!)

Sunday

Sunday saw a change of temps and medium, where we transferred our pulling skills to the technical horror shows of Earl Crag. I swore not long ago, to never return to this venue where 2 previous visits had shut me down completely, with my less than insulated body unable to cope with the savage micro climate.

It was (as expected) absoultely numbing with a bitter cross-wind keeping temps low! Determined not to be defeated I crushed the warmups including some 6C+'s I thought felt about 6A! A good start, so I moved straight to Underpants, having only seen it on Stick It I was quite suprised to get stood up on both footholds and slapping at the rail within a couple of goes. I thought I had it at least twice but my hand just kept losing contact. I wasn't too bothered as I had no agenda other than to try some good looking lines and destroy Australia Roof (V4?) which had somehow shut me down on 2 consecutive visits!

We moved across to Desert Island Arete and I managed to get stood up around the left arete with left hand on the rail and right hand moving up to the sidepull when my left foot popped and I fell off losing the flash. Gutting. My mate Rich nipped in for a quick beta flash and I flailed about failing to regain my high point.

After 10 mins I couldn't handle the rest periods which involved shivering with chattering teeth in a bitter wind of icy death. We moved swiftly on to the far left and up to Sloping Beauty. I recalled trying this a long time ago and matching the slopers only to fail miserably on moving in any direction other than down. Well two goes later and I was topping it out after an amazing swing to the left and Earl Crag suddenly didn't seem such a harsh place to be! Rich had a few goes but gave up and then he got interested in Hanging Groove around the corner which I pointed out was the biggest sandbag I had ever done (on a par with Paul's Bulge in the pass). He spent a confusing 15 minutes getting the full shutdown whilst I was in hysterics eating my posh sandwiches (stolen from the Ivory).

On the return to the main crag I got Desert Island in the satch in 1 go, noticing a subtle change in my left hand once I had the right hand on the arete allowed me to pull around easily and get established on the left hand rail. What a great problem.

We moved back to an old nemesis of Grape Nut, I quickly got up to the gaston and the left foot on the smeary edge. I locked in and felt totally solid reaching up with the left hand to a good rail when my right hand exploded off and I flew back narrowly missing the rock with my head! Slightly perturbed I chalked up and tried again only to have my left foot pop every time I had my fingers on the rail. I got a bit angry and sacked it off to go try some new things.

Rich worked out Ron's Slab quite fast then flashed Ron's Arete with ease making a mockery of his year out from bouldering! (Hatton is still my grit hero) I noticed over yonder a small roof and it reminded me of unfinished business...

Booted up and less than psyched I pulled on and swiftly reached the lip, got some beta off Dave to throw a left footlock in and suddenly it all made sense with the reaches through obviously piss instead of desperate snatching off toe presses. I surmounted the top and wondered what the hell I had been doing but glad I didn't have to go back on this piece of choss again!

To round off the day we had a play on Andy Brown's Wall and after a lack of success in getting the high right sidepull a local pointed out a crafty bit of foot beta, next go I was slapping at the top of the wall! Skin was wearing very thin, so we headed off for a pint and I am quite psyched to return knowing Underpants and Andy Browns are definitely achievable given good weather and skin.

Tuesday

Today was a well chilled rest day after having worked and trained yesterday all day making it quite a taxing 3 days in a row! We had a guest around for dinner and my mum made a superb beef bournignon with copious amounts of onion and red wine with vegetables and potatoes as trimmings. This was followed by a fantastic lemon merangue by my sis, which went down quite well! During the second course I was rudely interrupted by a certain Ghost Face Miller on the phone who had some good news about a possible training facility in the pool. It sounds more than promising and I'm going to go check it out tomorrow with him in the afternoon.

Reading dobbin's blog today I could totally relate to the person climbing in a small pond of fish at the local wall... climbing seemingly well by dispatching everything with ease but being generally pathetically weak in the grand scheme of things! This new training venue will hopefully be the dawning of a new era of training on things I can't do without an epic struggle and a lot of time investment, as opposed to the auto pilot mode I can fall into at the local wall. Dispensary mk2 here we come?

Projecting

It's been a great week of working one day, crushing the next with 2 fairly successful days out in Wales. After making the list of problems I most wanted to do, I had a great training session flashing old board problems and also completing all my set problems in 1 whirlwind session 22 flashed and the last on the 3rd attempt.

I went with Tom and Owen up to check out Lizard King on Wednesday and it is one of the most aesthetic looking lines I have seen in the UK and certainly Wales! A 30 degree overhanging board of fairly good crimps and long lock moves... Perfect! It took a while to warm into it and after about 2 hours I had worked out my preferred sequence for the starting 2 moves. (A long press and shoulder lock on the right arm to the poorer of the 3 holds and then a high step and lock on the left arm to get the good right hand crimp). I dabbled with Owen's dynamic right hand first method but couldn't get to grips with it and the snatching was not doing my skin any favours!

Pic courtesy of Dave from UKB showing Cofe on Lizard King (illustrates the way Owen was doing the first move to the rail).

After resting and sticking the first move totally static, I crushed the problem till the last tricky move of gaining the sloper on the lip and totally powered out! I was a bit gutted but also happy as I know it will go next time I am up there as the top out is a trivial rockover.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful and I rested my skin as much as possible in anticipation of the return trip to Lizard King. This time just me and Owen went but turned the car around when through the last tunnel before Llanberis as there was just a wall of grey everywhere. The skies turned blue as we reached the Orme and there was a good breeze. The cave was in near perfect condition!

We both felt a bit lethergic warming up but after a brief warm up I got on Lou Ferrino and managed to get straight to the press to the first of the 2 pockets before falling off with the flash pump.

Owen did Flake start fast and then worked out all the moves of left wall high in about an hour, linking it in 3 large overlaps.


Dave on Lou F, from September time

3 more laps to the same move and I was feeling knackered, so with no expectations I pulled on and pathed it to the press out to the last slot and pulled on my right toe too hard.. pulling my left hand out of the last pocket and Failure! Oh well, next time I guess.

Chester Si and Jamie turned up a bit later on and after sharing some small bits of beta with Si he nearly crushed Lou Ferrino, just failing when getting the crimp before the last pocket. He has put quite a bit of time in to LF and it will be great to see him get it done soon as he deserves it.

So in summary, quite a good week even though nothing was achieved... minor breakthroughs and close calls have given me sufficient confidence that with a couple days rest, I can get LF done Tuesday evening (If it hasn't all seeped through by then). If it has then there is always the gorge where another of the 10 wishlist problems can get worked into submission.

Lists and Focus!

I have had a fairly relaxed time over the last couple of weeks pottering about different venues ticking off volume, rather than attempting to push myself too hard! I think this is a good thing... where I am relaxed and not fearing failure or a lack of progression in my climbing. Whilst in this semi-rehab stage, my mind wandered to what I would like to get done over the next couple of months and for 2009!

I am unsure as to whether font/albaraccin is a good call for next February and Easter, as all of the problems I am inspired to climb due to aesthetics/basic style of moves/rock type/location are all in Switzerland! The plan may be to climb a lot more in the UK (mainly Wales/Lakes) and save up for 1 big trip to Swiss as opposed to lots of shorter jaunts where projecting becomes harder to do with weather, time and more importantly skin restrictions.

To help focus on this idea of localised climbing and a big trip to Switzerland I made a bit of a top 10 wishlist of problems that I feel may be possible with enough training and injury avoidance!

For the UK:

1. Jerry's Roof (The pass)
2. Lou Ferrino (cave)
3. Trigger Cut (cave)
4. Jess's Roof (Almscliff)
5. Fallen Idol (roche)
6. Lizard King (The pass)
7. Be Ruthless (pantymwyn)
8. Sparks (pantymwyn)
9. Hurricane (curbar)
10. Pit of Hell (cave)

Abroad:

1. Vitruvian Man (chironico)
2. Super Nova (magic)
3. Piranja (magic)
4. Cote de Seshuan (magic)
5. Never ending story pt2 (magic)
6. Hoenrausch (magic)
7. Muttertag (magic)
8. Octopussy (magic)
9. Doctor Crimp (chironico)
10. Birds (chironico)

Just reading the lists gets me psyched enough to rest and train hard. Hopefully I can get a couple of the UK ones done before the year is out, to give me a head start for next years ambitious goals.

For now, I will go to tkmaxx and purchase some horribly strong crushing attire in strikingly garish colours, then off to the wall to train.

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).