Wales boyo!

Well the CWIF is this weekend. I was quite psyched that once I'd finished my degree I could get back to doing comps (they were always in my exam time and then when I was broken) but that psych has long since faded as the comps have changed from the days in which Malc was king and Holdz were the height of designer resin. Now its all giant swinging balls and triangular weirdness. Each to their own I suppose. I'm thinking team beastmaker 'might' just make a big impression especially after Neds session tonight.
Nat and I haven't been out climbing recently, we've been tired, busy and then building. This weekend we decided to do something different; WALES! I've hardly bouldered in Wales, what I mean by that is that whilst LPT has been drying off I've done a little bit in the cave and that's that. The weather isn't perfect but I figure having a meal in Pete's eats is a good enough tick regardless.

The plan looks like this:
fri night - drive over to Pete's
Sat morn - drive to Porth Ysgo, get Nat ticking Jawbreaker, she'll love that. Do the classics
Sun morn - the pass, sheep pen looks good.
Sun aft - the weather looks questionable, I'll do what I can, maybe the mill if its really bad, hopefully Doyle will be around to give me a pointing tour in the evening.

Today I presented in front of a large number of people who I deem to be brighter than me. To top it off I had to present a brief summary of the work that had gone before my PhD topic. The people that carried out that work were in the audience making it even harder. I thought it went badly but I was told otherwise, the Q&A session at the end went well. I crushed that. For some therapy I spent a fair portion of the afternoon screwing on a large number of holds, the board is looking really good now, some more wood and a small scattering of jibs and it'll be good to go!
Motherboard tonight (I hate the name, supposedly Dave M hates the colour). Ned, Dan (ill), Stu L, Travs, James, Ben T, Dense and myself occupied the corner all evening. Everyone was looking strong, Ned and Stu especially so. I climbed well I think and I've got a fair few problems to work at now, I say problems but what I mean is Ned's 'moves'.

Another topic is grating in the back of my mind, I'm trying hard to let it go but I'm struggling...

Another Jaipur might kill it... or a honeydew perhaps.

Absent Bloggage

Its been a while since I wrote anything here due to a few reasons. The main being that blogging had seemingly become yet another thing which I waste unnecessary time doing. I think when this blog began it had a point, I'd messed myself up and it was a good way of keeping track of the healing process and much easier than relaying that information to a load of people at every stage. After that it descended into nothingness albeit with a couple of posts that read well (I hope) as well as one or two controversial posts. After leaving it for a while a few thoughts were rattling around my empty head but nothing earth shattering but this, THIS I have to share:

BEHOLD BEDROOM BOARD:


Now I'm terrible with wood, give me steel, a lathe etc. and I'm ok. Give me wood and a jigsaw and things get messy. Despite this, I'm very happy with the board.
Its 8ft wide and has about 12ft of climbing length and completely self supporting, it also supports a nice big storage shelf and some stow away space. You get in underneath the right hand side of the board. The holds aren't all on yet. I started with the jug's and I'm slowly working down to the smaller stuff.

Its not symmetrical - I can go to the works for that
Its not systematic - If I made it too specialised then Nat couldn't play on it when she wants.

It will have:
A good range of holds
Big moves
A beanbag shaped like a beefburger sporting dubious marks
A large rear storage shelf

Back once again...

Count it... 3 times in one week at the works.

I was meant to go out today initially with Ben but he managed to assemble a team of about 6 to go and try one of the most conditions dependant problems there is. It looked a lot less appealing despite the list of good company, after all, the main idea is to try the problem. A few minutes after pondering the possibilities a text arrived from Vic, desperately searching for someone to accompany her to Eastwood for a full day out. That sounded more like it, there's a couple of things I'd like to try there, one project which would be a lot easier if I had a couple more inches (I'm sure that's been said before), James' thing; Westwood, which is now harder due to hold breakage I was going to see if I could climb into the press method like Ned suggested.
Anyway; when Nat awoke she told me I wouldn't be going anywhere today. Grey and missly was how she described the view from our flat. Damn and blast! Vic confirmed her thoughts on the matter via another txt and again when she arrived at work. Later on tonight I found we made the right decision, Scouse had ventured to Eastwood and EVERY hold on the traverse was wet, wet, wet.
The backup plan was the Beastmaker but Nat was climbing with peeps tonight so it seemed sensible to join her. I was a bit wary of two days on, especially on the board but it went well. I climbed my Mono problem on both sides and I 'think' its reasonably hard. I don't understand 1a-5a though so I can't really comment. I came up with a crimpy number as well with the added miniature dowels at the top of the board. Being the first to pull on them (or so I imagine as there was zero chalk up there) the first few goes landed me in a crumpled heap in Bennett corner. Any takers? I'm also now convinced that the works BM is easier than mine. A quick look at the panel suggests it might be on a slight slab... Someone (Dan?) has added some Beastmaker wooden logo's to the board just above some footholds. They look good but lead to unnecessary boot rubber mince-age if you're slightly in-accurate when clicking off.

Rest tomorrow and work hard. Fri try again to get out. Sat morning very early raid. Rest of weekend deal with her family. Nice dinner.

Hip Hip Hoorah

....for the climbing works!

(WTF?)

Yup, I have to say that the works, Ned and Dan have excelled themselves with the new board. I climbed on it this Saturday while it was still a work in progress and couldn't really see how it could be elevated from what it was. Well... fixing a lot of the non symmetrical holds and adding nearly everything from the Varian board that's how!



Tonight was meant to be a short session but I was climbing well so I carried on. I set a number of problems on the V-board which were instant hits with some familiar board faces. Climbing with Nacho I ended up jumping between pockets and then finally I set myself a power problem on two finger pockets and mono's. Work those weaknesses! (Joe pointed out when I was yarding on the bleaustone key-rings that if I could do that I really shouldn't be training it anymore...).

Agh DAMN!

Mortgages are a pain in the ass, I'm sick to death of this one already. The b*ggers keep losing my proof of income, now they've actually managed not to lose one and they're complaining as I didn't send them the whole lot. They're also refusing to accept Nats electronic copies (she doesn't get payslips anymore) so they now want all of the electronic ones and copies of her bank statements for the last year)...
Solicitors are scum. I spoke to ours today and he has yet to get Nat an examination since the crash, hasn't yet got hold of the police report and was unaware that the other party was prosecuted for drunk driving (over a year after the event). For the amount he gets paid an hour I think this shows utter imcompetence.
The weekend seemed to be lost to alcohol and far too much of it. On Sat we both climbed at the works which was suffering from condensation on the holds. Strangely the beastmaker in there felt p*ss easy and without warming up I was doing pullups on the worst slopers, maybe the condensation helps with the wood? I was flying off without warning left right and center on the resin and after a while got fed up and left. Of course due to this I needed to drown my sorrows and made myself incapable of doing anything apart from a short BM session on Sunday. I'm still to equal my best effort on back 2 repeaters.
I'm a little annoyed that the weekend before I didn't put in more effort to get out. I note dobbin has been on the ace and TBH I'm gutted I didn't get the chance as I've been climbing well and its the one thing I'm keen to do (although realistaclly I don't think it'll be this season), when was this? My work is mounting and I have a looming March deadline. This weekend coming is Nats birthday and with her family descending on us early Saturday morning I can't see when I can fit in getting out? Tomorrow I'll train and then I should deadhang on Wed but then again if people are heading out Wed maybe I shouldn't train tues?....
Oh I don't know...

Beast-failure

As predicted tonight's Beastmaker session was short lived; the fact that I could feel last nights session in my forearms before I left the Foundry should have been a good indicator. Rookie error thrashing myself at the wall, even more rookie considering I realised what I was doing and still didn't stop... Tomorrow I rest, Sat I'm not sure, I guess its dependant on the weather...

Moonblog

Look like Tyler did Gecko Assis recently looking on the moonblog, as well as Kheops,


Ty Landman - Khéops 8b from ben pritchard on Vimeo.

Mortgage people have re-valued the flat lower which has restarted the whole damn process and of course the rates are now slightly worse. I'm so sick of it.

Last night I climbed well but like a fool, I didn't stop when I should have. Stopping strong wasn't on the agenda but at the end of the day my goes on a specific problem didn't progress purely due to fatigue. I'm sure that tonight's BM session will be poor but i'll try to make the most of it!