Got wood?

'cos I do!





worth the wait I'd say...

Now, all that remains is to mount it somehow on my paper thin walls/doorframe and to work my back three into submission!

PSYCH! From Spain:

Beasted, Mossatrocity...

I'm not sure if i'll get chance to write a detailed blog account for the weekend so here it is in piccies. On arrival Richdraws crushed to the top of Mossatrocity. I didn't get on too well with it, by my 3rd go I had two bleeding tips and 3 flappers!
A Bonjoy sequence was shown to me by Mawson which made the start a lot less spanned but as you can see its still stretched! Much adjusting when stretched out like this leads to a lot of pain!

Mossatrocity, 7C Grindleford.

Less spanned sequence for the start of Mossatrocity, 7C Grindleford.

Kind to the skin? I think NOT!

They look worse today, a lot worse. My best effort ended with one move to go (twice). I still haven't done this move which is a little frustrating as if it was done in overlapping halves I would be psyched to get back to it. As it is my hands aren't so keen.

View from the Plantation on arrival (playing with my new camera!)

Nat by the band landing trav. Minutes before falling down the hole.

Nats foot popped on the starting hold and she slid down between the boulders completely, very funny to watch but the look on her face afterwards told me my laughing wasn't helpful.

Mark of the BEAST!

Session one (The Board):

After going out on Tues I didn't feel completely worked. As I was on the way to the Foundry, Ned called offering for me to join them in an hour on the beastly board. I haven't previously had the chance to train on the board. One time I was meant to be training and Natalie decided to take all of my boots etc. to the wall with her. Instead I watched and the board looked like it would spank me. Not only have I NOT trained on steep stuff for quite some time, lots of the holds looked pockety or even worse, drags. Back on track...
I warmed up at the Foundry briefly with Dr Pinch (sorry Ed I forgot to extend the invite) before stomping up to Crookes for my first beastly session. Tony, Ned and Dan were all there when I arrived and I warmed up by pulling on the frame a few times before getting stuck in. Warm-ups went fine and the next few problems were the same. I don't really know what to say as I don't know the names of the problems I tried and the grades are all on a different weird scale, what I DO know is that I was climbing well. I felt strong given my lack of board training but I was channel surfing. Lots of things were tried, some good efforts, some good flash efforts etc. but then I moved on to the next problem. This carried on until I felt tired.

Session two (Cellar):

I've never bothered with deadhangs. My fingers aren't what you'd call weak and its never really entered my head until recently when I noticed the grave imbalance between my fully crimped position and open handed. I've tried to address this a few times but I've managed to injure myself severely and since then it was never really high up on my to do list. However, I am still keen to sort this out.
I saw Dan and Neds fingerboard about 8 months ago I guess, and was instantly impressed. Being wooden its kind to the skin and the pocketed design forces crimp meisters like myself to hold things differently. Who better then to give me my first deadhanging masterclass then than the makers of this board?
The house of power probably contains the highest density of fingerboards i've ever seen. They're all in there as well as an array of discarded boards, system tiles, pinching bars, pulleys and door knobs screwed into the ceiling joists.
Dan and I chatted a lot and as he did his session. During this we worked out what I could do, what I couldn't and more importantly what I NEED to train.

Open i'm dreadfully weak.
Slopers I'm ok on.
Mid two I'm ok on.
Back two and front two I'm cr*p on.
Mono's are ok on my middle finger but nowhere else.
Lastly, my fully crimped is overly strong.

So much so that I managed to do a one armer on the smallest crimps on the board.
In true beastmaker style I thought I'd take the p*ss and do a breakdown of my hand:



The problem is I'm not so good with "the Gimp 2.0" and you can barely read the percentages. (5% 15% 20% 25% 35%)

I couldn't get my hand to stay crimped without engaging my thumb which is strange and leads me to believe that it contributes a lot.

Anyway, this isn't a particularly good blog post. I'm just glad I didn't get completely spanked and I'm looking forward to my next board session.

If the above means nothing to you visit:
http://www.beastmaker.co.uk/

and use:
http://www.beastmaker.co.uk/grips.JPG

Lip of Fools, E7 6c

a
You may have noticed references to Jon "setting up ropes" or a one liner at the end of my latest posts showing what Jon did for the day. The reason for the vagueness of my posts and their brevity is due to one thing; Jon had a project. A project that he kindly invited me to try with him a little over a week ago. Since then my vagueness was necessary to keep all of you wads away from the said line, stopping you from stealing an awesome FA and my chances of being number 2!
I'd never been to Eastwood before but was keen to tag along for the traverse. Jon spent a while rigging a top rope whilst I puntered around and quickly got the trav ticked. After this we set about the route, it was cold however Jon was throwing good links. I however, wasn't. I would pull on, get half way along, fall off, pull on and do the remainder of the route. The issue I was having was that although my halves overlapped they didn't correspond. Namely, I was taking one hold with the wrong hand. Idiot.
The next time we went on it the temperature was low. Far too low to warm up, we both had a little play but it was clear that it wasn't going to happen. Early on in last week we returned as a three, Jon, Pritch and Myself. As pritch got stuck into Westwood (and got psyched, and TBH was looking fairly good) Jon again went and rigged stuff. Now this day was a strange one. Jon looked great on a top rope, throwing the best link I'd seen. Quickly after this he went for a redpoint and looked really solid until the last move, a lock to a pocket. Ben and I screamed for him to slap but cold fingers got the better of him and he took the fall. His next few RP's were similar, although one ended fairly early due to his foot popping. Every go he looked smooth and every go I thought it was in the bag but for some unknown reason it wasn't. I think at this point Jon noticed that I was cold. Frozen in fact as I hadn't climbed for a long time. We chatted for a bit and he was keen for me to have a go and "take the ride". It was agreed that I wouldn't take the gear to protect the top section, so I didn't. Annoyingly (having never linked the route) I cruised through the hard lip traverse and locked up to the pocket comfortably. A few more moves up and then I turned to Jon, who had a big grin on his face and was shouting for me to jump. I reversed as far as I could and took a comfortable if airy fall.


Back on the ground I felt elated as Jon set up for another RP. This time I thought! Again he looked smooth and fully composed on the traverse but fatigue had set in (trying it earlier in bad conditions was a mistake in retrospect). He span off the end of the traverse. F*ck!
Pritch was there with his lens so I suggested we all get some piccies whilst we had the option. Jon went again and, like before I thought he had it. However, he was clearly tiring and dropped off exhausted.
My turn for photos and I basically repeated my previous effort. This time reversing the moves back down to the lip before jumping off. I left the crag feeling happy for myself but wishing Jon had got his line in the bag.
At the weekend whilst I was busy with a family thing (Gran's 80th!) I recieved a text. Second RP of the day on Saturday for Jon, the top moves turned out to not be as trivial as he remembered and thus he'd spent around 20 mins avoiding committing to the final move. Great effort and a fine line!
Now, I felt edgey, nervous if truth be told that somebody else would cruise up it shortly after. Monday the weather was poor and I was busy and Tues Jon was busy until midday. I was reluctant to go to Eastwood just for the afternoon in case I had a 'mare of a time repeating my previous form so Emergency Belay Bod (My Dad!) was rung. Revelling in the chance to try and convert me to liking his new ish car he agreed.
On his arrival the weather looked dodgy. Very dodgy. On the drive to the crag it looked bad. Wet roads, no wind and frost on anything in the shade. On arrival at the crag things perked up; the finishing holds on the trav were perfect and so too was the route.
This time it was my turn to rig everything and I took my time as its been quite a while since I placed gear and a lot longer since I fell on self-placed gear! Jon rang, james rang etc. and all I could say was "I'm about to have a go"...
The climbing?


Well that went without incident. I even paused mid crux to give instructions to my dad on what to do with the ropes. On arrival at the pocket my fingers were frozen but the sanctity of a big jug soon brought them back to life for a relatively trivial finish.

Thanks to Jon for putting me on this route and helping to push me.

For the full sequence take a look at the pics below. However, be warned, my sequence is unlikely to be the easiest/best/most sensible, and it will blow your onsight! I think the route can probably be high balled by somebody feeling brave and having all of the beta although the lock is big and might cause an uncontrollable fall. The other option is to place a ball nut on the traverse but to do this you need to climb half of it, reverse, then do it correctly. The third option? I'll leave that in Jon's concept head.


Sequence shots:
(thanks to Ben Pritch for the photos)



I don't have any photos of Bonjoy as my iPOD was full but there are some on Facebook.

After standing under Fat Slapper with a "Wowed" look on my face we retreated to Sheffield via some twisty roads. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching L'etranger with Dad and then by my first session on the Varian/Ned board, it went well! But thats a whole other blog post!

A grand day out

The other day was great, good company, good climbing and for a nice change good form!

I was happy and thus, stopped at Waitrose to take full advantage of their beer selection on the way home:



I think before Christmas I seriously worried Dr Pinch with a booze conversation...

I feel fairly psyched towards having a look at Fat Slapper sometime with Jon and an inspiring DMM poster of Ben Bransby high up on Cornelius (spotted by the one and only unclesomebody) has also caught my attention, although TBH my leg mightn't like that fall. God knows if i'll actually get around to either of these routes as my attention is easily swayed.



Today the weather looked poor so I stayed in. I spent the whole day wishing I'd gone out. I didn't get a lot done that was worthwhile so I might as well have chanced it. Tomorrow I hope the weather picks up a little because lets face it, I'm not going to get a lot done until I get out again. The psych is killing me...well, killing my work.

I happened to be at the Works this evening (more volumes have been added to volumes!) picking up some kit from James. It was "clinic" night so Rick had a quick look over my hand, he seems to think its not the joint and that i've strained one of the small muscles in that region of the hand. Vigorous massage to the area for 3-5 minutes daily for about a week should see an improvement he reckons. After he'd done so the pain went away completely for a good few hours.

Resolve

I don't do new years resolutions but these are my aims for 2009:

• Enjoy my climbing
• Re-learn how trad shizzle works
• Stretch
• Deadhang
• Re-build the school
  
• Go to Switzerland
• Go to the Frankenjura
• Go to Wales
  
• Stay in on the 2nd of Feb

last but not least:

• Stay out of petty conflicts

Saturday I went back to Eastwood with Jon, it was bitter. Far far too bitter for what we'd come for. Nat came along and climbed well and Fi was working the traverse. It looks a goer!
Sunday I did boring chores including finalising our Mortgage application (Gulp!) and didn't leave enough time for the planned board session. Therefore, today I had a short and sharp session at the Foundry with Dylan. I climbed well although wasn't at all psyched, my hand hurt warming up and on a spikey guppy but thats about it. Tomorrow, Pritch, Jon and I are back out.
My work IS suffering.
Annoyingly my SD card seems to be f*cked so I must await one from memory bits before I can use my new toy.

Eastside

Wed night I visited the foundry. I couldn't decide whether:

A) I was climbing badly
B) I wasn't climbing badly, I just wasn't psyched for climbing indoors
C) I was climbing well.........................but wasn't psyched for climbing indoors

Despite all of the confusion going on in my head I was very aware that my hand still doesn't feel right. It aches on the 5th metacarpel and feels sore (especially when crimping with my little finger). So I AM carrying an injury, thankfully not an A2 and it could just be the cold. Whatever it is, it's slightly annoying and a pain (literally).

I stopped the session early ish and decided to accept Jon's offer of a trip to Eastwood today (Thur). Good decision.
On arrival at the crag, I was impressed by the bit of rock but when Jon demonstrated his sequence on the traverse I was horrified at all the gritty ness involved and didn't feel confident. After this we did Jon's idea of bouldering and spent an hour or so setting up a pulley system to trundle a rather large hunk of rock. A good warm up.
For the actual warm up I climbed the great layback crack before getting stuck into 10 inch zombies. This ate my skin and Jon talked me out of Foleyitus on the grounds of actually climbing something else that day.

Trying to get a landscape shot of Jon at Eastwood, I'm no Johnny B

Unfortunately the finishing holds on the traverse were wet, and I mean wet wet (more on this later). As Jon went to play with ropes I worked out my own way through the tricky bits. Hmmm. I gave it a shot from the start and first 'redpoint' I got to the last dry holds. Damn, so close but I can't do it! Jon wasn't about so I sat about at the end eyeing up the possibilities. I eyed up a dirty little crimp and a powerful sequence emerged in my head. I tried it quickly and hey presto it sidesteps the wet holds apart from the slimey break.
I rest for a bit while Jon is still rigging stuff and was about to have a go until I remembered; its really bad form to do things when no ones looking when you've gone with somebody, not to mention suspicious. I shouted up to Jon and he was nearly done. So I sat it out. He came over to spot shortly afterwards..... The traverse went without incident, Jon had to point at the finishing hold as by the time I got there the chalk had all been eaten by the damp. So a nice quick tick, the Powerband of gritstone, used to be 7b+ but now with a broken hold its 7c ish supposedly. Well worth seeking out if you haven't done it and to be honest it put a big smile on my face!
We then got involved with Jon's stuff, it was great and I'm keen to return. Freezing fog from the other side of the valley soon saw us of home....very chilly....brrr.

Trip Report

Firstly, I got bored of the blog being all dark, it didn't really work too well on my rubbishy laptop screen so its back to minima and a cheeky 7+8 theme until I can be bothered to do something better. Having said that, I can't focus on work so it might happen sooner rather than later.
To avoid this getting too lengthy I'm not going to go through every aspect of our two weeks in font, just the things that stand out. The full list of ticks, failures and looking at things for the future is up for anyone who is truly interested to decipher (boredom in Font can make you do strange things).

The Weather

Well I arrived with death cold so I didn't mind too much that it was damp and un-climbable the first day. I retreated to bed after visiting the Carrefour. The second day was slightly better, climbable and from then the next 8 or so days were absolutely perfect, blue skies and temperatures between 2 and -5 according to the Italian diesel monster. The last 2 or 3 days weren't so good, one night it rained. It then froze and thawed during the next night and days and made climbing tricky. There was stuff to get on but nothing remaining on my list and Nats projects were all at Cuisenere and very damp! Not the ideal end to our holiday but really we can't complain, compared to others who came out after us we've had a perfect trip.

Noir Desir


This is my most prized tick of the trip despite not being the hardest (grade wise anyway!). I have to thank Bonjoy for recommending it to me a number of years ago. Every time since then that I've visited Font to find it in the baking sun. I'd never had a chance to get on it however on one of the first days (driving around) it was one of the few things vaguely dry, despite the start not being so. I pulled on at the heel hook and was soon spat off confused as hell. Slopers, technique, long? hmmmm not my ideal problem but something about it meant I couldn't leave it alone. The day that it got done (I think the 3rd session but Nat tells me 4th!), we arrived early and the rock was HOT despite everything else being freezing cold. I tried it quickly with Scott and Lee and fell matched on the dish. Sense kicked in and I left the Rempart to go and find/try Coup de Patte. Later on we returned meeting Scott and Lee on the path back to Cuvier, talk was of better conditions and I got all excited. The first few goes saw me falling off matched until Andy J suggested a change of foot placement and some helpful micro beta. I slapped hard next go and my LH went into the final dish worth noting, psych! but then.... my right hand ripped. I burst out laughing (which is not my usual reaction I can tell you!) as I just can't get pissed off about trying this problem. Every time I tried it I learnt something new about my body position or the way to take a hold and squeezed one more move out. Next go everything stuck. I paused for a moment on the last hard move and had a celebration. Then again at the finishing jug, afterwards I sat on top of the boulder looking out at the best weather I've ever seen in Font, truly happy. If you haven't done it, do it!
If you have done it you'll know what I mean.

Coup de Patte


If you've watched L'Etranger (which you should have done!) you'll have seen this problem and know why it was on my hit list. Powerful, dynamic moves up steep rock. One thing it doesn't really convey is how bad the landing feels.
In the morning we'd left Noir Desir and searched out shadier spots. We found it easily enough (near the BEES Jon!) and it wasn't long before I got involved and tried to push Nat down the gully in the picture (bad foot placement). If you ever try this problem try it once for the flash then do it from standing first as if you get through the first moves you shouldn't be falling on the top or wussing out.
So...Out of sight edge for left foot (instead of heel to avoid an akward foot placement, makes first move harder but 2nd easier). Left hand slap up to pinch. Pogo right leg and slap crimpy bottom of the big feature. Foot back on and slap to the slopey boss (amazing move, picture^). Adjust RH into the good bit of the hold, move LH over, high foot and jump out right to slopey top, heel hook, match and over the top. It was a quick tick but great nonetheless. Other people weren't too psyched by the landing and problem in general (Lee, Scott).

Ouzo


Not much to say about this apart from it was on Christmas day! Earlier on I'd warmed up at Bois de Long Vaux, the day started well with a flash of le nuit as a warmup (its steep and positive but still maybe a little soft?) then took a turn for the worse as Fata didn't roll over easily, in fact I made zero progress on it. First go I was 1cm from the pocket, Gaston Method (amazing!) 1cm away from pocket. Last slap go 1cm from the pocket. Arghh damn! Thank god the day turned around or else I would have been a grumpy person on Xmas day.

The Marie Rose


Despite Noir Desir being my most prized tick of the trip it was far from the best moment. On the same day (actually earlier on, it was Nat's turn to pick the venue) Cuvier was freezing in the morning. As we waited for Lee to turn up Nat got re-involved with the Marie Rose. On her previous sessions she was hitting the sloping pinch but not holding it. That morning, first go her hand stuck to the pinch and we both new it was on. She carefully ticked the foot placement and noted micro beta that helped her get to this position every time. What happened next left me utterly startled and really impressed. After sticking the pinch she found herself unable to move her feet as she wasn't getting much from the RH sloper. She'd been up there for an absolute age, her RH searching for a non existent better hold, it worked its way down the dark runnels where I can't find anything and then; emergency crimp (Varian TM) was unleashed. Crimping on nothing she moved her feet high before returning both hands to the sloper and topping out comfortably. I can't explain how happy I was for her, every time we've been to Font she's jumped a grade band and now this!

Moondance


Moondance is Nats unfinsshed business. For its grade I can't really think of a better problem. The problem was; I can rock over on a good hold, she's too short and has to use a bad bad foothold. By the end of the fortnight it was wet and out of the question. Oh well, there's nothing wrong with having something to go back for is there? I've always found (and this trip is no exception) that my ticklist doubles in size. There is so much to do, Cuvier Rempart boulders would be my desert island choice. No doubt about it!

During the remainder of the time we did an awful lot of driving to tick things that I'd either not got around to, seen on L'etranger but never heard of! Or in some cases problems I'd previously failed on. I identified that Big Dragon is my helicopter problem. James had given me some beta about moving the heel that convinced me I'd do it this time whereas in reality the heel was taking most of my weight. This one has been filed as an obvious challenge for the future but I need to be stronger and better on slopers.

I can't describe how envious I am of Keith and Lee who are destined to remain in the forest for around 3 months! Maybe, just maybe when I finish this PhD I can treat myself to something similar.
I can't wait to see what Unc manages to get up during this hol and what fancy camera work he has in store, the trip hasn't started too badly from my perspective. L'Etranger provided entertainment almost every night of the week and a soundtrack for the hol!

Back from Font.

A huuuuge trip report will probably follow as on one of the rainy days I entertained myself by writing up pretty much everything that I tried, wanted to try and actually (in a few cases) did!

The trip was about the best I've had, the weather...well it was either perfection or utter dog sh*t.

Happy new year and all of that malarkey.