Shit indoors

Just about sums it up!

I went up to Newcastle on Friday with my fellow Hangar Team mates to take part in the ASBO comp. I was hoping to improve upon my luke warm performance in the Hangar one and get into at least the final.

Well I climbed like a muppet and basically fell off three very easy qualifiers on vertical walls and slabs! It took 4 goes to do a mantle and despite flashing every other problem down in the pool area, these earlier errors cost me dear and I finished well outside the top 5! Probably out the top 10 and got beat by Sean, Ged and Michael.

Comp punter!

On to the final and Sean and Ged represented us taking 5th and 6th place respectively in the men's. A disturbingly strong Nige Callendar took the title back flashing everything in the final.

For the Women's a local lass retained her title just ahead of the steely fingered Karin Magog and our team mate Becky came 4th in her first comp, a great effort.

We went out for a filthy kebab afterwards to punish the body some more and finished off with various fine whisky's round at Ged's place.

The next morning was a pleasant affair with Nige being our mid morning breakfast delivery service, carrying wonderous gifts such as bacon and bread.

We shot up to Bowden and found it in great condition with a nice breeze keeping it cool and not overly sweaty.

We warmed up around Transformer and I managed to flash every variation on that bit of rock before doing the cool easy highball Brutally Handsome with Ged over to the left.

We moved down crag and as the others went off to try some high stuff, I crawled under the roof and got stuck into V Crimps, getting it done in about 3 attempts.

I went over to Vienna and managed to fall off after getting right over the top of the hold several times as it was super greasy and then the rain came!

We bailed under the V Crimps roof and had some lunch whilst people complained of various aches and skin issues caused by the comp.

As a rewarm up I managed a flash of the Cave Central LH line which climbed superbly well and then had a look at Sprung.

It looked very flashable so I got it matted out, put a decent pair of climbing pumps on and pulled on. It went smoothly until I crossed over from the sharp crimps to the left hand edge but went too high and right on it and couldn't hang the bit of nothing I had. I pulled back on and then pissed the move and to the end, shame!

A couple more goes to the same point and my skin got way too thin as arms got tired and people got a bit bored of shivering in the rain.

We packed up and then went back to Ged's via Morrisons where we purchased and then consumed vast amounts of garlic bread/pizza/ice cream and headed back to the pool.

Back to training on Monday and hopefully I can cure this habit of falling off easy vertical walls/slabs as the steep stuff seems to be in working order. It's obviously fun to be climbing ok outdoors but I'd love to be less shit at comps!

Hangar Comp Hangover

On Saturday the Hangar hosted it's 2nd comp (the first being a local Red Nose Day affair). It attracted the big guns with there being a cash prize on offer so the level of problems had to be raised a notch to test even the best.

I was hoping to maybe sneak into the final 5 as I knew Ned, Dave and James were all over representing team GB but Gaz Parry also turned up, so I knew I was likely going to be behind these seasoned comp beasts!

The qualifying problems were spread all over every angle and stupidly I brought only a pair of dragons and teams and no flat shoe of any description! Suffice to say the steep stuff went well but I messed up on 3 slabs/walls with my feet popping off all of them. I flashed a couple of hardish ones and should have done better on 2 of the steeper ones only to drop the last hold and have to tick them 2nd/3rd go.

I thought my score was pretty average and I finished in 6th place behind the 4 mentioned earlier and the wildcard from Wales and Cave legend Ding Dong! It was great to see Neil rock up in a pair of old boots with homemade laces and holes in the toes and make it into the final.

The finals were a mix of steep and slabby in the new Downtown sector of the wall. Me and Hoppo were rooting for Neil to take down the British team in a spectacular underdog performance and he did well, running out of time on 2 of the problems and getting 3 bonuses but it wasn't quite enough as Ned took the Men's title by flashing the last problem using a sickening flexible hand to foot splits move to get out of the roof and on to the lip traverse before locking out to the finish.
Dave came a close 2nd after dispatching the brialliant first problem involving a dynamic double handed roof dyno catch and Gaz 3rd, just ahead of James after bonus holds came into play.

In the womens it was very close between Shauna and Leah with Shauna taking it down to number of attempts after they both did 3/4 of the problems. A mention must go to Laura too who made it into the final and then finished in 3rd ahead of a team GB member after crushing the slab problem (that Shauna didn't do!).

I'm looking forward to getting down to some more training tonight with Ged and the others and dissecting what could have gone better and what to work on in future. I was hoping to win the pair of Velcros in the raffle but failed and got a Yorkshire Grit vol 1 guide (if anyone wants it let me know!).

We celebrated in good style after the raffle and went for drinks on Lark Lane with Oscar as he was leaving for Sweden the next morning. This continued on into town and all got a bit bleary with me, Sean, Ged and Hot Dog being the last men standing at around 4am.

Sunday morning in work was not pretty but I came out the other side without being sick so a good end to the weekend!

Getting Reaquainted

It seemed like an age since I had last ventured to the Cave but having a day off and the offer of an early lift off Mark was too good to refuse!

I've climbed solely indoors of late after returning from Switzerland, working on indoor circuiting and doing a lot of core exercises from the T Randall 20 min floor + 5 min bar routine.

It was nice and peaceful when we arrived and the sun was making it rather pleasant to warm up. There was just one other guy there who had been biviing up on top of the hill and climbing multiple days on in the cave (good effort!).

As part of the regular warmup circuit, I was relieved to find R.A. still steady!

The goal for the day was to see how far back I had gone on In Life after having fell from left wall around November last year.

On the first try, I was amazed to find myself with left hand on the not so wobbly jug/crimp and matching in on to a rather good edge facing the wrong way. As I took out my right toe hook, I went flying off leftwards into the dirt unable to control the swing! I thought it may just be rustiness, so I tried the toe hook removal once more and the same thing happened even though I squeezed as hard as I could. Were all those months of effort now a waste?!

A bit disturbed I went and sat in the sun for a bit in the directors chair and had a chill.

A banana and a moment of inspiration as I recalled a video of Danny going right hand up to the start of R.A. instead of my old left-left again method.

I went back down and climbed through from the back this time getting my left hand on the bottom of the glued jug and getting the splits/right toe hook on. I twisted over and got the top bit with my right hand and rotated right underneath it, feeling a lot more in balance. I relaxed then removed the right toe dragging it into the roof and it killed the swing enough to hold on. I slapped up to catch the intermediate with my right then put my right toe back on and went again for the R.A. start only to slide just off the edge of it.

After a bit of rest I managed to work out about 3 different foot positions for going again to the start of R.A. and tried them all after climbing from the In Life start but kept on just failing on that same move after having powered out a bit earlier than usual.

Instead of being a bit disheartened at going this far back on the full link, I was quite motivated by doing some new moves and knowing I'll definitely be able to get through it next session when fresh and get on to those lovely slopers over the other side of the arch. It's also quite good in that it should remain 8A+ and not get the downgrade, now that it's a fair bit harder to get through. I'm sure the fitness will return in there so the strong period lasts 3 hours instead of 1 and a half and the core work I have been doing should also help for getting the feet across on to left wall when that time comes again.

Looking to this weekend... I'm desperate to get back to the cave asap to put the time in on In Life but being part of the local Climbing Hangar Team probably means I need to show up and enter the Best Of the West comp (seems a bit pointless when half the British Team are coming to win the money but I guess it can be a steep learning curve!)

Sweltering Swizzie

It's taken a few days to find the motivation to do a trip report as I'm still stuck in the after holiday blues period.

The trip was a bit of a mixed bag with some good problems going down fast whilst others proved to be elusive due to a combination of fatigue/greasy conditions/weakness.

Sun 3rd

The trip started off well with myself and Sean getting a first day sub 15 min tick of Grotte des soupirs (for which I had built a training problem in the crypt at awesome walls that turned out to be far far harder than the actual thing!). It took just as long to do the 7a Vol au Vent next to it.

Mon 4th

The others arrived at our luxurious super villain hideout which overlooked the whole of Bellinzona, up behind the small village of Carasso. It was an epic drive up a winding hill then a walk through a forest including a river crossing to reach the accomodation.

We had another late start and went back to Christianoff. I puntered about on Franks Wild Years with hoppo before realising I was too weak to match the greasy undercut in 25 degree heat so quickly switched focus to XP. I had a tough time on the start until Owen said to start matched on the right undercut instead of trying to pull on wide on both undercuts. It went down a couple of goes later! Me and Mick took about 4 goes to do Harry Spotter which was a cool deadpoint to a crimp off poor footholds and myself, Mark and Sean bailed early down to the cafe only to realise everywhere was closed on a Monday, so headed back the ranch for beer!

Mick stayed out a little longer and managed to crush an 8A+/8B Un ange avec des cornes to the right of La Proue for a decent start to his trip!

Tues 5th

With sweltering temps in Cresciano we headed higher up to Chironico only to find it in direct sunlight and steaming hot.

We warmed up and found partial shade under the Soucoupe roof. I kept failing on the end of Vitruvian Man and then Polish Dave got psyched and flashed it. Mick battled his way up and we moved on.

After spending a while trying to use heel locks on Autopilot, I gave up and dynoed through holding the spectacular swing. Mick did it static and we moved back into the sun to Le Vent Nous Portera. After a bit of bloodshed from the quartz jug, Mick finished it off and I failed to hold the swing back in before calling it a day.

Thurs 7th

We had a well needed rest day on Wednesday and then hit Magic Wood due to the rising temps back in Ticino.

The Woods were full of underground beasts and sponsored wads here for a play before the Milan bouldering world cup.

We pottered about and I took hoppo to Man of Cow. We both failed on this until I remembered how to do the crux and I cleaned the top out for attempts on Master of Cow. I had about 5 redpoints to the crux move but kept failing so we moved on.

Youngy and Hoppo had a mare on some soft touches I showed them so we went to find some gifts! ;)

Youngy crushed Fliegen Erlaubt after a flap on the top and Hoppo got a swift flash ascent.

There was just enough time for a trip down to the river before darkness descended. I had been unable to try Cote de Seshuan last time out due to it having a stream down it but it was prime this time. I worked out the moves for 10 minutes then with energy dwindling pulled it out the bag first go from the start, getting to the rest position and chalking up before holding on to the scary dyno at the end! What a great problem.

Sat 9th

The previous day had proved very unproductive back in Magic Wood doing Octopussy in 2 halves but failing to link. Whilst the others rested I went to Schattental with Lorenzo and Christiano who had come up to stay with us for 2 days. It was 3rd day on but I felt quite psyched climbing with 2 powerhouses and had to represent for Merseyside!

I warmed up with a flash of Chad's bulge which was very pleasant and got the head right for the big slab. We got spanked on some 6c in the heat and got very dehydrated having only 1 litre of water between 3 of us as the other 2 had forgotten to bring any.

Lore and Christiano did a cool looking traverse in the shaded corridor before me and Lore did a short steep 7a+ to the left.

The sun had passed a little further by 2pm, so we moved around to Powerstrips. I thought it looked very flashable so got the psyche levels back up with a re-warm up lap of chad's.

The first move was a pleasant one out to a good blocky sidepull and then the dance began trying to find a good position for the left foot to bring the left hand across the line of many holds. After a foot pop, I swung back in and relocated one that felt ok. I snatched in and caught the crimp perfectly. I pasted the left foot back on lower then launched straight for the good hold at the top and somehow held on! The rest proved an enjoyable stroll up the gigantic slab and only my 2nd 7c flash. Need to do this more often as it saves so much energy! Lore crushed the same sequence but static with some strong locking and then had some fun on the top! ;)

We finished off on a hard 7a up the top end of the boulderfield and went over to Paese for Lore and Christinao to do a nice looking traverse called Bella Gnocca.

The day ended on a perfect note with a cold beer and amazing kebab meal in Biasca before we headed back the house for more beer and wine!

Sun 10th

I felt totally ruined 4th day on having elected to climb at Magic as we weren't going to be going again this trip. I fell off Master of Cow about 7 times at the crux and then once having got through it, with arms melting and hands greasing off. I had to thank Dylan for saving me and also apologise for inadvertently kicking him in the face mid bail.

Not everyone was to be shut down as Mick crushed Sofa Surfer Direct for what was the 4th or so ascent of another 8B.

Polish Dave also made an impressive fast ascent of Octopussy and an animalstic flash of Supernova in near darkness!

Weds 13th

I decided to sack off climbing for 2 days to let my skin and arms recover after getting slowly worse at rock climbing and having a rather poor list of ascents for over a weeks worth of effort.

I felt super energised on my birthday climbing day and got up crazily early, having breakfast and a shower before anyone bar Owen had arisen.

We started off at Nivo Basso and Alta. The warmups were really nice wall climbs with Opus Day being very good indeed.

I then moved on to problem 1 of the hitlist, a short unaesthetic crimpy wall called Kiss Me. I struggled initially till Mike pointed out an obvious toe hook and it went down with a bit of tree dabbing as I tried to flag through, so I did another lap dab free and moved on.

Me and Sean went off and found The Pocket Problem, a cool looking overhanging board which looked piss and very flashable. After brushing the holds I pulled on and moved up into the good left slot only for a foot to pop and I was back on the ground, what a punt! After having a word I pulled back on, got the slot again and jumped out right to the arete which is a great move. I worked the right thumb in to the slot and pinched the hell out of it. Once my body was right underneath I brought the left hand into the other pocket before rocking out a good rail and topping it out.

Sean didn't like the pockets so we moved uphill to the Alphane Moon. This looked great with a bit of a scary match move over a block. It did look very doable so again we opted for the flash attempt. I got through the first sections feeling strong and got out to the greasy left hand hold but was way too sweaty to match in. After chalking up I pulled on matched and did the last 2 moves ok but decided it wasn't going to happen today in the heat, so we moved back downhill to Ping Pong Boulder. I struggled to work out an efficient sequence and managed to bruise my left elbow falling on to the sketchy block to the left of the line. Luckily a wandering Beast from the East popped up with extra mats and a camera in hand. With the extra spotter and matting I found the motivation and sketched up it with a bit of grunting! 3rd 7C in the bag and it wasn't even lunch time :)

We watched the others for a bit then Youngy drove me back over to Le Vent Nous Portera. I warmed up on the top out moves and swung about a bit then had two goes slapping out to the lip but kept getting blinded by the direct sun. Mark helpfully stood in line with the holds with a pad aloft to block it out and on the 3rd go I got the hold perfectly, sorted the feet and launched to the quartz jug, my feet swung out violently and I held on for dear life giving it everything I had left. I held the swing back in and casually matched before rocking out to glory. It was proving a good day with the earlier session and now a Nicole classic in the bag!

Me and Mark went over to Souvenir roof so he could try the 7a on the right and I got drawn into trying the first moves of Souvenir which felt ok but I found it hard to get past the sloper on the lip as my left leg was too long to tension the bicycle.

We shot off before it went dark and went to Grotto Del Nando's for a birthday pizza and beers.

Mick, Owen and Dave turned up fashionably late as Mick had decided to stay out and spot Dave on Boogalagga only to boot up and then climb it within 2 hours... 3 8B's in 2 weeks in the heat!

Fri 15th

After realising the benefits of rest days on a trip, I took Thursday off and put all my eggs in 1 basket to achieve on the last day. As with the last trip to Switzerland, the last day pressure to achieve proved a strong motivator.

We warmed up in area Paese and after almost deciding to just circuit in the heat, I went over with Sean to Souvenir Roof. This time Dave was on hand to dispense some alternate beta. I spent about an hour working different sequences until I found one which worked. A couple of false starts and I had began to give up hope as it was scorching hot and my skin was thinning.

I took a proper rest and gave it one last go where everything just clicked and I hit the holds and positions perfectly. It felt super solid and I only began to panic when I was reaching through to the good hold above the slopers on the lip, I let out a scream and got it right in the middle and pulled through with a wave of relief.

Before finishing we went over to Dr Med Dent which I got close to flashing only to slide off the greasy lip. The reserves were depleted and I had another 2 failures before drinking a coolpresso, eating a banana and having another 'last go for sure'. With a bit of sugar and plenty of liquid chalk I pulled it out the bag. It was a nice problem to end the trip on as the walk out was very short and we were soon back at base beer in hand!

It all proved too much for Beastio aka UKB's most puntered so he spent the last week sleeping on a pad (apart from rising like Lazarus to flash Powerstrips and go back to his sickbed!)

Back in the Pool

Upon getting back after a fairly long drive, I had the shortest of rest periods before beginning team training with Ged and the others at the Climbing Hangar. I turned up too early and got psyched to train on the board so had a 2 hour woody session before doing the intensive 1 hour session with the others. I felt totally ruined on Tuesday morning but after sleeping in late I had to do the 20 minute continuous Randall core workout straight out of bed before eating as I was off to work!

I think relative failure in achieving what I set out to do on our trip has proved a good motivational tool as I awoke this morning still aching but psyched for more, so fitted in another intense core/pullups session before opening the shop.

There is a comp at the hangar at the end of April and I am in pretty poor shape indoors, so need to pack the volume in to a short space of time in the hope of making some gains before then. The short term goal is not be a total punt come the day!

Normal Service is resumed!

After a good few trips out culminating on a swift ascent of the Lotus, I was expecting to polish off yet more unfinished business over the last few days but rather than prolonging this perfect prep for swiss purple patch... it was back to the usual!

Sat 12th March

It was just a day trip on Sat and I picked Fish Head up from the Wirral en route to the majestic Orme.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves for a fair while, then Ru turned up along with the brothers log.

To sum up the session, I puntered up on the handswap bit on Broken Sam about 5 times then moved on to Pilgrim.

I sacked off all the heel sourcery I had been told about and just got my hands as far along as possible before dragging a right foot under the roof, cutting loose and doing a pull up. This kills most of the swing and you stab a right toe across, lock to a sloper and then lock deeper to get to the slot (all off the very greasy left crimpy pinch). After figuring out this new method, I managed to get across the arch a few times but had nothing left on Rockatrocity after the pockets. Small gains = long term victories I guess!

Dylog was looking beastly strong on the Greenheart and if he can keep getting down on a regular basis, I can see him getting it ticked off this year, which would be a fine effort!

Folog was mainly trying everything but mostly Trigger Cut, as was Ru trying to do laps and then link in the Halfway house start (which looks pretty desperate for someone of his height, good job he's an animal!)

Mon 14th March

Me and Sean made our way over to Anston to meet up with Mick and Tony and turned up fashionably late around 1pm instead of 11.30. Mick was busy getting the beastly pair of ned and dave on his white light variations to get some grade confirmations and making the Tenayas stick like glue to seemingly invisible heel hooks.

Tony got me and Sean to try out some of his Tenaya range as we warmed up over on Ebola buttress.

After doing some of the easier stuff, i did a quick retro flash of Alpha using the laceup Tenayas which felt pretty good if a little stiff compared to the Green Hornets that have been in use the last 2 weeks.

After Sean showed me the way on the start to Resonate (the low end 7C+ to the left of Ebola), I contrived to punter the last move about 15 times on the redpoint until the skin got too destroyed in the pockets and the left bicep gave up pulling! I got a full 3 fingers on the top hold but slid off not being able to hang on enough for a match, so hopefully it will go down next trip.

We moved over to Duke's buttress only to find it strangely wet from meltwater. Mick was a bit tired, so we called it a day and me and Sean decided to make a mad dash to Raven Tor.

We managed to get lost down the wrong roads and valley for about 30 minutes until we fluked our way there. A savage warmup on Too Hard for Mark Leach and then straight on to Ben's Roof. I had tried it a while ago with Ken and John M and had fell off trying to stab my left foot across on the flash. I got the crux moves done again through on to the sidewall and had a 2 minute rest. It was now fully dark, so Sean had to guide me with a headtorch. I got through all the bottom and into the kneebar ok, brushed the right hand dry and got the good crimp. I bumped the left hand up to another undercut and got a bicycle in and reached back for the thin slot. I got hold of it but only on the edge as an open crimp and not into the slot. It was absolute agony as I felt it pressing through my already thin tips and had to let go. I had one more redpoint in the dark and ran out of steam on the same move.

Instead of staying over we decided to make a trip to Llandudno and sleep in the van on Marine Drive. In a bid to get there in good time on clear roads, I was a bit over enthusiastic on the gas and we got pulled over on the M56 to be issued with a fine and 3 points, slightly devastating, I felt like a criminal!

By the time we had bought some beers and croissants for breakfast and parked up on the Marine Drive, the chippies were all closed, so we had to make do with a sketchy KFC meal.

Tues 15th March

We had a suprisingly good kip in White Beauty and had a lie in till about 10.30am. A coffee and civilised shit in Dudno were followed by the purchase of a very scal-chic Umbro England polo shirt for a flim... and we were ready for action!

We warmed up all alone and I got back on the redpoint on Broken Sam, only to fail around the wet handswap hold which was not only condensed out but in the rain too. The best go was about redpoint 4, where I swapped hands and got out to the right hand pinch only for my left hand to fire off the sloper claw.

By this time the cave was full of wads but the super beast of the day award had to go to Dobbin who dispatched Trigger Cut with consumate ease and did another lap for the cameras to make sure it were no fluke. ;)

I put a bit more time in on Pilgrim and even had a very unproductive play on Louis Armstrong which didn't last too long. Going to need to hit the gym and grow some biceps for this one.

Training for Swizzy pt 2

There hasn't been any 'training' to speak of, mainly climbing!

With the good weather carrying over from the previous week, we got out another couple of times.

Sat 5th March

Myself, Sean and Darren from the Hangar went to the S Lakes as it looked promisingly dry with a bit of cloud cover, which meant no furnace-like conditions on the Shelterstone Face.

We had a good warmup on the Red Wall and hit the main block.

I gave Darren a tour of some of the easier lines on there and warmed up for Wheelbarrow by climbing the Groove and the Pit problem start, although I found this hard! Sean pointed out that I put my right foot too far around, which was making it harder.

With a rest and this advice in mind, I put my heel much closer up to my hand and hey presto, the move felt much easier. I got past the crossunder and 1 arm unwind into the jug out right then climbed to the lip only for my right hand to fire off.

Sean then waltzed along it with a bit of a grunt to top out. I was suitably inspired and booted up once again. The start went well and before I knew it, I was topping out with energy to spare... which bodes well for Pacman!

Sadly my right shoulder felt quite heavy/clunky so I stopped immediately. The slightly violent nature of the slap move was obviously not ideal on a still dodgy shoulder.

Sean finally did Vitruvian Man and it was no longer a shit problem but 'the best 7C I've ever done'!

We then went over to Woodwell and showed Darren some more Gaskins test pieces and he got a few of the v3/4's in the bag before we packed up and headed the Hangar.

Mon 7th - Tues 8th March

I got the Hangar early only to find Ged bleary eyed making coffee and Hoppo asleep on the couch after a late night of setting.

Ged couldn't locate his car so we smuggled him to Wales in the van after Neil and Joe had said it was glorious sunshine in the pass.

This proved correct and after a brief coffee stop at V12, we went the Roadside and retro flashed the classics.

Moving down to Jerry's we found Rich Ames and friends having a session on the direct finish to Jerry's up some slopey looking gastons/pinches.

Sean got Bus Stop finished off after having puntered the top out last year and Ged worked on Jerry's. I did a lap of Bus Stop to stay warm and fell off the top of jerry's in a brain freeze moment. We then headed up to the Wavelength.

Ged flashed King of Drunks with the heavy beta and also Lordy Lordy!

Back down the hill and I rewarmed up on the Meadow Roof before tackling the Lotus. 5 times I made it to the fingerswap edge only to grease off in the slightly damp conditions.

It went dark and we went back to Beris, had a nice meal and a couple pints, then dropped Ged off at the roundabout.

Me and Hoppo spent a rather chilly night in the van in -6! I definitely need to get a warmer sleeping bag as I was in full thermals and a hoody by the morning.

A breakfast/shower/shit combo at Pete's set us up perfectly for another day in the Pass and we did a brief warmup before I once again dragged Sean up the hill back to the Lotus.

He lay down trying not to be sick and I got really psyched to finish things.

Redpoint number 1 looked like it would be it as I swapped hands on the edge and reached for the pinch out right only to have my foot pop. Devastating but progress!

Next go was looking sketchy as I barely switched hands but after getting out right and a bit of screaming it was done.

And so the week of crush came to an end.

I was relieved the shoulder was ok after tweaking it a bit at Trowbarrow and I'll probably have to avoid Pacman/Iron Man till it gets a bit stronger as the right hand slap is a bit of a no go.

A few rest days and theraband should do the trick this week and I'll maybe go try to finish off other business this Saturday.

Gearing up for Switzerland

It's been a great last couple of weeks in terms of getting outside on rock.

Training

After Lorenzo's visit to Liverpool I got really psyched for fingerboarding/campussing again as I could see how weak I was in comparison and that there was much work to do. The Hangar recently put up another 3 Beastmakers spaced apart like campus rungs and I've had a couple of sessions campussing up the 45-35-35's and the small crimps too which feels like a good strength builder having to lock them down and be accurate to the next. I'm finding the 2 finger sloping dishes quite comfortable again on front and middle 2 so I'll keep putting in a session or 2 a week on these exercises to get the fingers ready for boning down in Chironico.

Back to the rock...

After puntering up on the Terrace and worrying I was going to be massively weak on the forthcoming trip, I decided to get back on things I had failed on in the past.

It started off with a trip about a week ago to the Bowderstone with Sean. Everywhere was a bit grim in the mist/fog but the ladder face was salvageable with a lot of chalkballing/towels/chalk block pasting then fast climbing before grease offs.

I managed to finish off some good problems like Move Man, Ears of Perception, Inaudible Vaudeville and Picnic Sarcastic direct all in a couple of tries save for Inaudible which was fairly wet and felt nails even to pull on but got done with a bit of overpowering. Sean did Picnic sitter and I dropped the last move on a very wet Impropa Opera LH.

Tuesday 1st

Fast forward 1 week and we headed out on a gloriously sunny and cold Tuesday to Trowbarrow to try finish Wheelbarrow/Iron Man but it was like being in an Oven. It was tops off and sweating on the mats! I managed a desperate repeat of Vitruivan Man but we kept greasing off on the longer stuff. We went down the road to find shade and conditions were amazing at Woodwell middle.

I practiced the hardest 6a+ top out in the world (Not Bad Dave) then went to practice the bicyle move I use to slap up into the starting hold of the stand. As soon as I put a tiny bit of weight on the Right foot under the roof a massive chunk of rock crashed down on to the pad luckily missing my legs! The first thought was horror of wrecking a bit of a classic but fortunately The left handholds were all still there. I found a new foot dink on solid rock and could still do the move up past the lip. After 1 standard punter go with a foot pop. I rested up and got it done. Relief! Sean did well and fell off 2 hand moves from victory. He tried again but couldn't quite do the 6a+ (even in isolation! ;))

Wednesday 2nd

We planned a 2 day trip back to the Bowderstone to settle some old scores and sped North in White Beauty on another lovely day.

The plan was to wear offensively bright E9 pants and cause some destruction (of the climbing achievement variety).

We warmed up doing a great little dinosaur back arete opposite XXXX and continued on the Crack then Picnic stand.

I got psyched to try Inaudible sitter as the starting holds were pinchable without getting wet hands and proceeded to flash it with only 1 sketchy cut loose on the last move. The power seemed to be turned on as Sean cooly dispatched Inaudible Vaudeville and we moved pads under Impropa Opera.

Sean was trying the righthand start and I was over on the left, as we strangely found each others' starts most awkward.

After watching a video and altering my sequence, I no longer had to drop my right hand into the terrible sidepull/pinch and stab left hand again to the crimp you lock the last move off. A lovely crossover move and then a twist through to gain the same hold proved much better and after hitting the small intermediate, the last hold thankfully proved to be a jug. It felt piss!

We did some heavy maintenance on a couple of the holds which were still damp and Sean then climbed the right hand start. Not satisfied, we then swapped around and after a go or two managed to get up it from the other side.

Feeling on a roll I shifted the pads leftwards and decided to try the visually appealing line of Grand Opera.

The first go, I caught the groove hold and held on whilst trying to work out where to put my feet for about 10 seconds before sliding off the right hand.

After resting and chin stroking, I had a brainwave and pulled back on, catching the move, getting a high left heel near my chest and locking in to match the rail. I cut loose and got a foot back on the starting hold before stabbing out left and getting a good but very painful incut crimp before bouncing a right heel under my right hand and locking in again to gain a big pinch intermediate. I went again over my head to a chalky mess where it was nigh on impossible to distinguish where the hold was and I crimped whatever I could feel (which was truly terrible). I hung about not knowing what to do with my left foot and slapped to an ok looking left sidepull before sliding off.

That was as good as it got on Grand Opera as I felt a bit powered out upon reaching the same point a couple of goes later. I feel it is way harder than Impropa and am puzzled as to it being 7C in the new 7&8's list.. maybe Impropa is 7A+?

We finished off with Sean almost doing Picnic Direct, then I puntered up on wet holds on Coming up for Air before doing it 2nd go with a bit of drying. What a great flowing problem.

Thurs 3rd

We chose to make good use of our current form and the dry sunny weather and headed Cavewards.

There were a couple of geezers there when we arrived who had just got back from Spain not looking overly motivated for a shady polished cave and we warmed up with the whole place to ourselves.

I had bought a pair of 5.10 Hornet's the night before and thought I would wear them to warm up on old familiar circuit problems.

Rather than being a mere warming up shoe for the day, I kept them on all session as they were immensly comfortable and destroyed all in their path.

All the lip problems were ticked off before a lap of Rockatrocity and Cave Life short. The last time I was here, I had fell off the last move of Lou Ferrino direct without the pocket out right, just before getting multiple shoulder strains.

The 3 month break and rehab seemed to do the job as I got through to the rail on Lou F missing holds and cutting loose but feeling stronger than ever. I let go and let the blood come back to the fingers as it was pretty damn chilly.

A brief 3 minute rest and I crushed lou F sans pocket to the finish with a bit of a scream to get my fingers in that most hated of slots which brings so much joy!

As I moved over to work on the Pilgrim L->R arch moves, Sean puntered up Lou Ferrino, sliding out of the wet pocket out right.

After redrying it just before pulling on, he got it done for a bit of a nemesis tick. Team Crush was still on a roll :)

We stuck around a little longer giving some beta to a couple of guys from the Peak, Nick and Nick I think? (I have terrible memory retention for anything which isn't a sequence) who were over on a roadtrip for the week and they got some good classics in the bag before we left.

It was a good 3 day spree of action and the first time I've felt strong and uninjured on anything since last Ocotober. Hopefully we can get out a couple of times a week before the trip to Ticino and achieve something between us.

I'll aim to take a week off after the Climbing Hangar comp on the 18th March, to get a decent rest followed by some light volume sessions before the trip to keep the skin good.

I learnt from the last episode of injury and Holger/Pete Chadwick's advice, that you are most susceptible to picking up injuries when in a purple patch so fingers crossed the shoulders are almost mended!