2010

Was pretty much the year of injuries!

The year started off pretty quietly with a few days out on the grit ticking some memorable problems like Bens Groove, Ju Ju Club, Matts Roof..etc and March brought a nice chilled trip to font with Mark and Michael.

I managed to break a grade boundary in font dragging my arse up a 7C in font which was a good mental breakthrough.

I then suffered multiple left arm/bicep/elbow pains through the early stages of the year and went off to Font again with low expectations only to have a great trip pathing Aerodynamite, Biceps Mou, Onde de Choc, Arabesque and the brilliant Sale Gosse.

I thought a good vein of form would be ahead but the arm pains soon returned and 1 good day at Anston Stones was the only memorable day out throughout the rest of the spring and summer.

I traded in the arm pains for a finger injury at the end of July which lingered for a month and a relaxing trip to Dartmoor seemed to help get things moving again just doing a lot of volume and visiting some great little venues such as Combeshead Tor.

The injury was still there and my finger swelled up all the time. Mark also picked up a finger injury not long after, so we changed plans from magic wood to font and it turned out to be a good shout as we got lots more done.

Despite the heat I slayed the long term nemesis of Berezina with a subtle adjustment and ticked plenty more classics such as Ange Naif, Bleaus Art, Marginal Droit, Modulor...etc

After getting back from the trip, the injuries seemed to subside and I finally started to get some problems finished off which were long overdue.

In Hell was finally realised and I had broken a grade boundary for the 4th year running even if its a pretty soft one! Cave Life went down a week later and Oppotrocity soon after. I was feeling strong but lacking a bit of fitness, so In Life evaded me falling off on Left Wall a couple of times.

I thought it was still on for the year, when I had that rather bad day out a couple of Saturdays ago, as the wobbly block was ripped from the roof of the cave and I injured my rotator cuff to write off the remainder of 2010!

I guess it has definitely been a year of ups and downs and one can only pray that 2011 features less injury and more success! I think the font 8B pipedream is a bit out of reach until I rebuild my body, get stronger, fitter and spend time on hard problems to build up some momentum and a performance pyramid.

For now the script is to keep therabanding, do some Cardio and try to not eat all the pies! I'm hoping to touch resin within the next 2 weeks if it continues to heal at the current rate. Keeping the years long term plans in mind, I'll definitely be nursing it with the utmost care as Lorenzo commented! I hope to become as big a beast on the elastic as Walter and Doris below...

I wish anyone bothering to read through this tripe has a great Christmas weekend and I'll see you all out next year (provided you are visiting the cave ;))

Triple dismay

This Saturday two terrible events coincided as the wobbly block got pulled out of the roof down the cave as we were over in Leeds at the comp. This means my close efforts on finishing In Life are down the pan for now but for more than this reason alone...

To compound this news which travelled to us post haste via Andy... I put in a rather poor effort in the Depot comp finishing about 11th and injuring my left shoulder in an attempt to climb two problems which may have got me into the final.

I was on the last move of the red on the barrel wall pressing my left arm out to get my left foot up high under it in order to cross to the finishing hold, when I felt/heard a disturbing crunching sound. I let go instantly and then tentatively moved my arm around thankful it was still moving ok in all directions.

I decided to try the yellow to the right and got to pressing out the last move on that too but my left arm was really hurting and I had to admit defeat.

48 hours later and I have a very weak shoulder. I can lift my arm straight in front but not very well to the side where I get halfway and the pain becomes too much. it hurts if I run and sneeze, so all in all a bit worrying!

The timing could have been worse if I had an imminent trip but I won't be able to make use of the new van I'm getting on Wednesday for a good while yet :(

Hopefully Super Physio Matty D can give me some sound advice this week and I can begin the slow process of rehab. Not had this injury before so totally unsure of when it will be back at full range of motion/strength. A winter of walking and slabs could be on the cards!

Out the game...

The Underground hustler

It was a most busy day today as myself, Matt and Sean joined another 15 or so people in matting out most of parisellas and spending a large portion of the day training/failing!

There was however one boy, fuelled by a £9 chippie takeout and plenty of coca cola from the night before, barely awake from 4 hours of sleep... ready to step up to the plate.

Sean dispatched Pit of Hell without breaking a sweat and then breezed along Broken Heart before almost making it a triple takedown with a good attempt on Lou F.

As for myself and Matt...

Matt was still coming through the other side of Friday nights party which went well into Saturday morning/afternoon and it was impressive he made it out the car and on to the rock.

If there is one type of climbing totally not his style then it would be slopey compression with heels/toehooks so he did well tackling it head on working cave life/lou F and then broken heart. It'd be scary to see him combine stronger arms/compression with his legendary fingers of steel and unleash it on the world!

I had an ok session managing to get both hands on to left wall from In Life start only to collapse in a heap as my left arm had nothing left. (I was locked in the press off the arch trying to regrip the wide left pinch on left wall for about 5 seconds or more and couldn't feel it, so just attempted the right hand cross under anyway and failed upon grabbing it).

The next redpoint ended with my hands sliding off the two slopers trying to get feet on so I tapped out and started trying Lou F sans pocket/Full Circle and Greenheart. Didn't quite get the undercut pinch on LFSP and managed to do Full circle to the finish from a move in but the first move is by far the crux, so hopefully I can fluke this sometime soon!

There is the possiblity of a couple trips this week coming, so hopefully I can get another little tick in the lifetime quest to tick the book.

Winter wanderings

With all this white shit taking a firm grip of the Eastern edges and the S Lakes being particularly sketchy, we have been continuing our visits to the majestic Orme that rarely ceases to give a productive session.

Thursday 25th Nov

Myself, Sean, Mark and Joe hit the Orme and it was suprisingly warmer than Monday's session. A lot of stuff was wet so the warmup was a bit trickier this time, with Rockatrocity being problem number 2 or 3! I did Cave Life short and was then ready to get on Oppotrocity again. The shoulders needed a couple of stretches over to the 2nd pocket to get warm and as soon as I got the backhand to the flake I took it down. Not sure if it's 8a but it's harder than RA and quite well suited being shouldery moves involving lots of foot clamping/toe hooking.

I managed to fall off with a foot on left wall from the start of In Life a couple of times then tried the arch moves in the opposite direction to keep warm. I wasn't getting very far on this, so decided to just try something harder again!

So I got on Louis Armstrong...

I couldn't work out the first move but got close going right hand out to a small sloping edge and tried to drop in the left hand clamping the feet in various positions. The crux slap felt impossible without just stepping on to the ground as the foot position didn't feel at all obvious (from getting home later I realised both Danny and nacho step their right foot out wide and use the hips a lot to generate some momentum) I could do the drop in match on the undercuts and climbed the problem to the finish from holding the slap out position (doing the left hand drop in and then to the finish). It was good fun to do some new moves and now that I know how fierce the first and crux move are, I can try and do some training before the next visit. If I can do it within the next 3 years I'll be happy! Maybe it can be done in less time if I really want it enough to train specifically?

I 'warmed down' trying the Greenheart connection from the Lou F press off the ramp and managed to do the undercut match twice in near darkness, with the right foot staying on becoming very low percentage! I nearly got across to the break only to fire out the gopping fingerjug on BH. Keen to put more time in on this section next year once other business is taken care of.

We got back to the wall in the evening and instead of a relaxing cuppa, we got stuck in and had a further 2 hour climb on the 45 board getting burned off by Shauna. She was looking scarily strong and crushing moves I was struggling to do. I'll have to get back on them when fresh and see how much work needs doing!

Thursday 2nd Dec

The forecast was grim for a lot of the North and East, so we went up high and into the icy winds on top of the Little Orme to seek out classic Welsh desperation. We were not to be disappointed with the fairly hardcore buttress of Caveman.

No number of starjumps, sprints or hand gripper exercise could summon blood to my extremeties, so I gave up and booted up into a super tight pair of freezing dragons (which were my comfy shoe for the day).

We did what we thought was Floppy's reach, realised it went right then did the proper version, which features quite a nice move through a pinch.

The next warmup problem was Patch's problem, a v6 that felt a little stiff for the grade where you cross to a lovely 3 finger pocket, then lock miles to deadpoint a dish and try and cram 3 fingers in to this, get the right toe on a smear, grab a sidepull, then slap to victory. It took about 2 or 3 goes to work out the foot positioning and I did it with a big drop knee that would have dismayed Dave 'Face on climbing' Pinnington!

We got shutdown on the 2 v7's to the right, so just moved over to Caveman.

After all of us struggling on the start moves, John pulled it out the bag and repeated it. I was ready to give up after getting shut down by the frostnip taking hold of my feet but manned up, went for a run around the top and the blood came back!

After just about latching the first move to the backhand, I locked with all that I had and grasped the sidepull, then sketched to the finish which was all captured in glorious technicolour.

Hoppo looked like he might die if we didn't leave, so we escaped out the wind and drove to Tremeirchion.

Photo courtesy of Chris Doyle

I'd never been to Tremeirchion before and the magnificent wave of high quality lime looked amazing from the layby. It was like a little bit of swiss surrounded by blanket white snow. The uphill approach was nowhere near as arduous as the one to Caveman but was fairly hard-going up the steep hill wading through knee deep snow.

The re-warm up was on a cool v5 to the left which started low on big jugs and bust up to sidepulls/pinches and laybacked some good holds to a highish finish.

I struggled to see the holds at first on 36 chambers but after John had pointed them out and given me a bit of a sequence, I gave it a very psyched crush attempt. Crossing over to the pinch involved boning a sharp index finger crimp and then tensioning past it until it became more positive as I stuck my right foot across and locked it in. I managed to feel in balance for a second and locked to the right hand crimp which was thankfully positive. The left toe was bumped up and I slapped up to what I thought was the sloper only to go too far high and left and slid off. I jumped up and down to get a view from the floor and realised going slightly right was key so had a rest and tried again.

The 2nd go started like the first, getting through the pinch and snatching the crimp. I popped to the sloper and this time it was miles better. I realised the drop in was now the crux and squeezed juice from the rock as I grabbed it with my left cutting loose and holding on with a bit of a scream! I got the toe on to where John had pointed out and set up for the high jug edge... made a throw upwards with my right and dragged over the edge of it back down to the mats! Devastated.

Sadly, that was as good as it got with arms and skin all failing at the same time as the sharp right start hold took its toll and the pinch felt glassier as temps dropped. Definitely one I will be back for as well as the aesthetic looking grooveline to the right.

Another Nemesis in the bag

It has been a good week since the previous Roche abbey visit. I've managed to get in 3 campus sessions and a lot of core work + climbing on the 45 board.

I'm starting to notice an improvement in body tension from the last few weeks of climbing on a board again and striving to avoid using drop knees/toe hooks/heels..etc

The weakest links at the moment are definitely my creaky fingers and slightly strained left bicep (which is fine when climbing). I had a short beastmaker session on Friday morning and it definitely felt on the edge, so I cut it short and just did more corewoirk instead.

Sunday 21st Nov

We were going to head to the South Lakes and myself and Sean got very excited for Wheelbarrow and Iron Man only for Owen to change the plan to Rotherham. I was partially worried about another shutdown on Ebola and the South Lakes meant avoiding the issue, which was why it was quite appealing.

It was a good venue for Mark and little Hoppo as they hadn't been before so there were some good 7a-7b ticks to be had. We met Tony at the carpark and walked in to the wave area which was drier than we were expecting.

A brief warmup included getting Twenty Four Point Nine done first try today which is a nice sloper traverse into the finish of Alpha at around 7b. Then it was back to Ebola. It was a bit wetter than last weekends session, so I wasn't too hopeful of success.

I worked out how to do the finish and changed both my foot and hand sequence yet again on the bottom section due to a lot of the footholds being wet and to avoid using the wet crimp out right before the pinch.

Fast forward about 2-3 hours later and I finally puntered my way up to holding the swing off the crossover without spinning off. The crimps at the finish were wet but I managed to get the heel on and crossover to the finish of Resonate and then cross under to match praying for my hand not to fire off.

It's such a great problem with each move being unique and hard enough to make it a fight to the end. It would be nice to find it in perfect dry conditions just to enjoy it a little more!

We moved on to Roche Abbey to finish off and myself and Owen had a play on Fallen Idol ss. The pull on was ok and I could get the right hand crimp well only to slide off it trying to match due to the rock getting very damp. The stand up still felt desperate but conditions were far from good. This nemesis will have to wait till next time.

Monday 22nd Nov

Me and Mark hit Tesco early doors and picked up a Christmas double deal on the Krispy Kremes (so we got 24 for £12!). We then picked up Sean and got over to the Wirral to Mike's for about 10.45. We tried to ring but got no answer so knocked on the door to be informed by his mum that he was still asleep! We remarkably got away with Mike onboard at 11 and headed into Llandudno to get a coffee and hit the Orme which was covered in beautiful rays of sun (which seemed to disappear 5 minutes after we arrived).

I did my bit of cardio for the year by running up to Clutch to see if the holds were dry, shake my head, then run back down the hill almost out of breath! A circuit of Star jumps, theraband and Gripp ball were up next and then a painfully cold warmup (for the feet) which kept going white every few minutes.

There were a few wet patches so the warmup was a bit shorter today consisting of a bit of shuffling then Lipstick RH, clever beaver, lip service and a failed attempt on rockatrocity in baggy moccasyms.

I thought I would see how far things had regressed and padded out In Life start. It was quite suprising to get through the start and across the arch with both feet swinging about, in a vain attempt to get them on the sidewall. Even though it was fairly cold, the two slopers didn't feel great and I was sliding about on them on the next redpoint, so decided to leave it for today.

Sean managed to get Cave Life Short done using another new sequence somewhere inbetween my own and Owen's which looked quite steady but a bit more shoulder intensive.

I watched Sorle do Oppotrocity and soaked up the beta. Something short and hard was quite appealing, so I quickly did all the moves in about 1-2 goes and had a rest. First go I fell off coming through to backhanding the flake as I didn't pull hard enough on the left arm.

Next go was surreal as I floated to the end of the problem feeling strong until the very last moment when my right arm failed to keep locked in the last pocket and my hand dragged out of the finish slot. I wasn't expecting to get that far and relaxed a bit too much on the end.

It was a bit dismaying to be doing all the hard climbing yet again and then failing on the easy finishing move on yet another problem!

I guess 8a in a session wasn't to be as I dropped the last move another 2 times and then gave up as it got too dark to see the footholds after 4pm!

Mark managed to crush Lipstick RH first attempt and then Lipstick in about 4 goes in the dark and we bailed back to the pool tucking into the Krispy Kremes and then a chicken bake from Costco before more Krispy Kremes!

I think the next 2 days are going to spent stretching and detoxing from the previous week of doughnuts/red wine/pizza..etc and hopefully I can get Oppotrocity in the bag on Thursday, before getting back on In Life.

Here's a little video for some inspiration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whj9G0xhYNU

:)

Intensive

Sums up yesterdays session at Anston Stones, where I basically climbed all out for about 5 hours or longer without stopping to eat or drink, trying to beat moves into submission and see if I could be close to actually getting an ascent of anything.

It was the usual scenario with a brief warmup and a couple new 7a's. Then straight to work on the stuff that should go down in a session but somehow never quite happens.

I tried in vain to get beta off Owen for Alpha but there wasn't any forthcoming so I pulled on, went wrong handed first move and failed to get the crimp out left. Next go I went straight to it off the pull on and the problem went down this go. Rookie!

Back to my long time nemesis of Ebola and unsuprisingly, I had to work out every move again as it had been a long time since I tried it. I got thoroughly knackered working out where to have my feet for every move and almost got lucky climbing through and catching the crossover move only to fire off two damp holds whilst my legs swung back in.

I had another brief go but didn't get the small pinch and moved on.

Black Crow was the next thing that caught the eye and I got out to the two holds near the lip with my feet set on the first attempt, only for the left hand to fire off soaking wet. This was the same case on two further attempts despite futile drying attempts inbetween.

I did the moves on Dark Art apart from 1 (the only hard one), then continued my beta workout left of Bullet on some reachy eliminate line inside the arete. This was proving a bit hard, so I decided to just try something even harder and got on Revolver.

I wasn't expecting much but managed to get all of the moves apart from the crux slap over in about 1 or 2 attemps on each. The body tension fight to keep feet on the back and get them across was proving a bit hard after 5 hours of horizontal shutdowns but I was glad to have had marginal success on them.

I awoke feeling completely ruined today... so I assume it was a good workout! There is the possibility of a return journey on Thursday if John gets the day off and I think the plan is for a Sunday trip also, which means a chance to have closure on Ebola. Hopefully Black Crow will have a drier LH hold and more progress can be made on Revolver and Dark Art.

Knackered

I've recently been doing 100% of my climbing indoors and slowly upping the number of sessions per week to see how my weak carcass handles it before trying to up the intensity/difficulty.

Saturday 6th Nov

I had a great weekend down in Cardiff with Owen visiting his family and watching Wales take on a sprightly Australia side who had a terrible pack but were fantastic to watch on the attack!

My choice for MoM definitely goes to the Mexican assassin who was lightning, full of trickery and nearly scored an amazing solo try from just over halfway.


In action!

We went out for a lovely Japanese meal in the evening and had a good nights sleep ready to destroy Dinas Rock in the morning.

Sunday 7th Nov

The drive through the valleys was beautiful with a cold chill in the air and the sun rising up, slowly bringing some warmth to the day.

The rock at Dinas looked nice and solid with some good lines but sadly, every single problem we had in mind to try was suffering from heavy seepage from the cracks up above, so any effort to dry holds became futile.

Kev and Liam showed us where things went and we had a coffee break to see if the sun would be able to help out. We got back about 45 mins later and it was getting no better due to clouds coming over, so headed to Boulders in Cardiff instead.

There was a mini comp on, so we joined in for the day and really enjoyed the circuit of 30 comp problems. The whites were all easy and very well set as were most of the blacks bar a couple.

I was having major greasy skin problems on a couple of the harder ones 28, 29 and 30, so had a break and pottered about on some off circuit stuff. I managed to get 29 using toe hook, skipping two holds and a massive span compression to the volume. I walked my hands up the edge and held the swing to get both hands on top of the finishing hold in control.

Problem 30 had spat me off earlier on in the session on my 1 attempt. So I wasn't expecting to get much further after 4 hours in there. With the heaters now on full blast above the bouldering area and the strict tops off policy it was truly tropical but I managed to get through the bottom really easily and then snatch the finishing hold by going left hand over the top and holding the flag position before matching, a great problem.

We had to leave soon after so I didn't get back on to 28, which would have been ok save for greasing violently off earlier on. The vertical wall black 24 was nails and i'd love to see how its done.

Monday 8th Nov

Myself, Mark, Sean and Sam headed over to the Depot to have a try of the new comp wall area and the British team training black circuit problems.

I felt pretty battered from yesterday but managed to slowly warm up without having the usual shooting pains in both arms I used to get from 2 days on. The stop off at Asda to eat Southern Fried chicken from the hot counter was a bad shout and I felt a bit ill trying to climb! The thing I like most about the depot is the cold temperature compared to other walls, which means it suffers far less from grease issues.

To sum it up, the new comp wall is a good angle and the blacks were fierce. After getting a bit of a shut down, me and Sean just went around and tried to do the yellows instead which were good fun if you stayed away from the crimpy horrors.

I think by the end of our 5~ hour session I had climbed at least another 40-50 problems after the 40 the day before. Thats more than I did in 3 trips to font this year compressed into two sessions!

Tuesday 9th Nov

On the Monday drive back from Leeds, we had been informed that the new bouldering section at Liverpool was open, so agreed to have an afternoon rock scaling session on Tuesday.

As it turned out, I had a session with Dave and Jay as Sean was too busy playing Black Ops or sleeping. The new barrel roof is very good indeed and the problems up to v6 were nice and reasonable. Then suddenly the Black V7 was about 5 grades harder than any of the 6s. Either that or 3rd day on had taken its toll. I struggled to do more than 4 moves of what is an 8 move problem so moved on to the white and green. I got to the last move on the flash of the white but couldn't figure out how to get the last hold. I imagine it was set to put your foot inside your hand and lock in with your knee above your ear?! I eventually managed this after climbing 3 moves in to it but not from the start. The green was ok in 2 halves but I was way too gone to link it in 1.

I've felt pitifully weak in the Depot and Liverpool over the last 2 days so hopefully it is just the body getting accustomed to multiple sessions back to back, as V7 shouldn't be an issue but seemed to be the living end.

I'll probably fit another session this week, then rest up for Sunday where weather permitting, we will get out on grit and get schooled by Dolph!