A Westie Day and the end of 08

The last week of '08 has been a good one, with multiple trips outside in great weather with a variety of characters from Merseyside and further afield from exotic places such as Derby, Rotherham and The Valleys of South Wales!

Friday 26th

Trip 1 was a strange Boxing Day morning out to Craig Y Longridge with The Mills and Donnelly, quite a strong crimping team to let loose on such a venue. As we approached the village we noticed the speed cameras had been wrapped up in christmas paper with a fancy bow on top, most quaint! We did a few laps of some random country roads until Matt had some sort of clarity of mind and remembered where to go!

On arrival, it was cold as anything, I decided to drink coffee whilst Matt and Tom started doing shuttle runs along the crag in a synchronised effort. This spurred me into action and I managed a lap there and back before being out of breath... strong start (I really will have to address this cardio issue next year)

The warmup was frantic and powerful, doing big moves between lots of juggy crimps and then moving on to the real action. It took about 6 goes to do the first hard warmup problem of the Gauntlet, a reet sandbag at V5. Big Marine got a quick crush using 2 different methods and then Fertile Delta got the flash treatment, nice. We contrived a sequence for the sitter and myself or Matt really should have finished it off when going for the 2nd to last move into the gaston but the sun was making everything a little greasy.

We finished shortly after failing to reach the first hold on some jump problem (we tried stacking 4 pads and still failed to make this Olympian reach!). Maybe some form of NBA 40inch standing jumps would have been of use?!

On the way back we were accosted by Longridge's finest local ladies dressed as Disney characters, with a charity bucket in 1 hand and a pint in the other, classy! We quickly slung a fake £1 coin into said bucket (that we had aquired from the Mersey Tunnel toll) and sped down the road just catching the sound of shocked cries behind us, of having been tricked by a car of strong scouse crushers.
Around the corner, there were many more of these charity collectors diving into the road trying to halt our escape to Merseyside and Matt pulled off some fine manouevers to aid us in getting the hell out of this strange place.

Sunday 28th

On Sunday, I returned to my nemesis venue of the plantation with Hitman and Mark the Builder. The goal was to achieve something of note and it didn't take long! There was another rapid warmup on the pebble ticking off some fine eliminates and then having a full on whitey on the far left arete next to the rampline, that gets 6b/+ but feels like certain death if you were to barn door off! We moved up to Green Traverse as I wanted practice in the dark arts of topping out. The Green slap got dispatched in 2 goes and then the direct mantle round the corner (where the Full Green starts from) took a much greater effort... 6b!?! My shoulders were pretty gammy after that one but I felt ready to tackle Twister once again.

First attempt it got cruised to the topout ledge and once again much failure to get that belly over! I slid down on to the pads to the disbelief of the Hitman and laughter from little Hoppo. I threw the toys out the proverbial pram, got psyched and then crushed it to pieces next try. A wave of relief was the result and we could move on to greater things.

Brass Monkeys was in great nick and first attempt saw me past the crux swing, heel on and hand hovering over the jug on the lip when everything popped and I felt way too tired to try again. Try I did... but no success with much bloodshed and 2 split tips!
We ran up the hill to check out Help The Young and the psyche was instantly back. it took a couple goes to make the first move to the edge but after that it was steady to the end, with ascents from myself, Hitman and Si. What a stunning line. It climbs as good as it looks and went straight into my top 5 favourite grit problems.

With light fading, we headed to Satin and Pressure Drop with about 12 pads. I said it looked piss, so had the honour of going first to show what not to do! Luckily I had found Si's right foot Gallileo (that he had lost on Tuesday) on the anvil as you leave the car park, which happened to make a perfect pair with my only current flat shoe. I did some weird sequence going left foot over the lip instead of right and boning so hard on those crimps that a minor slip would have resulted in much pain and skin loss. Thankfully everything stuck and I found myself grasping the break and shuffling off to the side almost feeling like a grit technician but knowing deep down that no delicate footwork was really involved!

Tuesday 30th

A large crowd of us headed to Cratcliffe yesterday morn to meet up with Mike from Rotherham and Kev from The Valleys (Not Pembroke! ;)). High on the agenda was either Jerrys Traverse or T crack - two problems that had evaded many attempts on my last few visits. After the warmup on the top boulders the arms felt ready for action, so I made the decision to get on that traverse and lay it to rest. First go, my hand was on the jug at the end and then a heavy foot dab brought things to a halt. There was blood everywhere on the rock, holds, my pants, chalk...etc but the psyche was on. After a quick heckle over at the egg, I returned and swiftly dispatched opting for the far left hand exit which felt fantastic... finally.

Down in the woods we had a quick team ascent of Brain Dead arete, a very aesthetic line with good holds and steady moves all the way.

The team moved on to Rowtor expecting a quiet scene and it was rammed with many fellow punters and what seemed to be some sort of dog owners collective. After a brief walk around, I got sucked into just trying Quine as it seemed perfectly suited with a large shoulder press and a drop knee, with a bit of a pop at the end to a good hold (provided you caught it perfectly). The first couple of goes were promising, almost managing to do it totally static to the lip but just falling short by an inch or 2. There were about 5 different ticks on the lip to make it a bit more confusing than it already was and after thinking I had it sussed I began trying about 3 or 4 different methods resulting in equal failure. It eventually got too dark to continue and the left shoulder had long since given up the press, so we headed back home to Merseyside, Rotherham and South Wales tired but hopefully grateful of another fine day of weather!

2008 Was a good year for myself in terms of getting outside and having a wonderful trip to Italy with such nice hospitable people like Lore, Val, Roberto, Geovanni and Sabrina looking after us! I think the turning point (in terms of my climbing) has to be returning from Italy destitute and getting a training program off the guru which helped to see me through a good month and a half of indoor climbing and work. The gains made were clear to see when I returned outdoors in October and ticked off many old nemesis problems amongst new ones and broke through more grade boundaries than in the previous 2 years.

I can't wait for 2009 and getting stuck into my hitlist of 10 problems before recommencing the Guru's fine programme when the weather inevitably craps out around January/February. I hope everyone out there is as eager as me to get off to a good start in the new year and make the most of current conditions!

Stanage..or Burbage...Burbage or Stanage

Well in the end we went for Stanage seeing as the hills were entirely blanketed in a fine mist of minging proportions. It was looking like the Works might become a likelihood as opposed to a fallback option as we approached the Plantation.

On arriving we hung around hoping for someone else to go up first and return with news of conditions, to avoid a fruitless walk-in but alas the only other people in the car park sacked it to Cratcliff, so we padded up and commited to the epic.

The rock was surprisingly dryish with just a few places feeling a little slippery but on the whole decent. Being a regular gritstone technician I had come well equipped with 3 pairs of toe down boots, perfect for the cave but maybe not my current predicament... So after a brief warm up I failed to repeat Deliverance and decided to get on everything that overhung in someway and didn't involve luck based padding up slabs!

First up was Captain Hook that felt ok until I smashed my shin in the roof trying to do a wide leg clamp and I sacked it over to Twister on the back of the Pebble. Mike came over and helped me work out the moves as he hadn't done it in a while. After working the sequence and latching the top to the left of the boss I proceeded to thrash about like a dying seal and with the heckles of a 15 strong crowd willing me downwards I slid off on to the mats below.
It took another 3 attempts to redpoint the top out and after resting I couldn't link it again, feeling a bit battered and more keen to get over to Brass Monkeys.

Me, O and Mike went over and had it padded out enough, to not feel like broken limbs were a likely outcome if you were to fly off backwards. It took a short while to work out how to hold the swing and get over the lip. The bottom section was ok but it took a while to stop trying a variety of poor ideas and just clamp hard on the right heel instead of draping it, in order to free the hand and top out scarily. I must have spent at least a minute stood on the arete working out which bit of green moss and lichen to sketch up on! Having done it in 2 halves it just remained to link it but I was just feeling a full on body shutdown and decided to wait for a stronger day.

We ended the day up near Silk willing ben up but he was sketching about on the smeary left foot rockover crux. Me, O and Dave had a go on the 'cortomaltese' of Stanage with Help the Aged, what a terrible line! It really capped off a day of trying and failing on mostly obscure a-technical problems.

It was a bit of a weird day really, nice to be out with some mates, but left feeling underwhelmed by the plantation yet again. I think the best policy is go warmup, crush your project and get out of there to save skin and sanity.

A New Era of Injury

Is about to commence on Merseyside!

Early days and lots of potential (space).

The art of Rest

I've probably had the most rested week of rest weeks in a long time and it was with trepidation that I went out to North Wales with O yesterday to meet up with Kev from Pembroke.

I recall previous days out after a 3 day rest where I felt heavy, lethergic and generally unable to wake myself up from the relative hibernation-esque period of rest. A bitter wind was making life hard at the RAC, which was our warmup venue of choice and it was not long before we just sacked it to the pass to meet Kev at the roadside. We decided to make the warmup walk into Lizard King a bit more of an epic by strapping multiple pads together, with the intention of creating an unmissable landing surface incase things were to go awry!

A brief warmup by doing the slap to lip and topping out, I was ready to go. I managed to stick the first move with power to spare and cruised through to the lip only to have my feet pop off when I had my hand right on it! I was relieved it felt so effortless but a bit nervous about possibly wasting my limited energy reserves on my first go by gripping a bit too hard.

Owen quickly warmed into the first moves and also got the top out sorted (as he had never previously bothered). Kev was having a bit of a reach related nightmare in figuring out the reach to the lip seeing as he had roughly 12" of deficit in the lank department (ah well... short people are generally way strong to compensate ;))

After a quick walk about and a bit of banana, I went for attempt 2, and failed to do the first move, I had a quick gripe about trying to wake my body up.. pulled on again and dispatched! It flowed, the moves felt fantastic and the top out was glorious, probably the best problem I've done this year in one of the nicest locations.

I rewarded myself with a bit of coffee then took photos and encouraged the others to get it sent. Owen didn't take long in cruising it with ease 15 mins or so later. Kev worked out how to make the lip move and I'm sure he'll get the whole problem quite fast given a proper session on it.

We moved down to Jerry's roof and had a quick play on the main event, linking the moves but feeling a bit heavy and mentally drained in general from all the walking! The roof looked ok but felt a bit like grabbing on to bars of soap, so we made another epic mission up to Wavelength to meet up with the Pembroke crew and ended the day pottering about as the sky quickly turned dark. A great day out.

This coming week may see a Tuesday return to the Cave and I will hopefully recommence battle with Lou F if I feel up to it. I reckon O should do well on Left Wall High seepage permitting.

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.