Yesterday I was required to be at Warwick Uni for the day, to find out as per usual, that the other person involved on my project work has done sweet FA. As usual I gave her all my results and hard earned literature review and spent the day having holes picked in my work and plans for the future. Thankfully, this time I could answer all of the questions and defended myself admirably.
By the end of the day (again as per usual) my brain was on meltdown, the theorising started in the car at 8.30 and didn't stop until 4.30. At this time I was offered a lift to the station which was soon countered by someone else's input that we wouldn't be able to move in a car at this time. A quick google map was thrust into my hand and I was told I had 20 mins to find the station which is roughly 20 mins quick walk away. Fantastic!
On arrival, very sweaty, I found the ticket office to be closed and a post it pad pretty much saying "sorry" on the door. There was no ticket machine, only what looked like a car park meter selling permits to travel. It read; please purchase a permit to the value of your desired destination. Well, how much to Sheffield please? I rang the helpline which was where everything just went wrong. I was told that the cost was £27 (which I didn't have in £ coins) and that if I got on the train without a permit for that value I would be fined a further £90, preposterous, but the dumb (I presume blonde) on the other end of the phone continued along this line of thinking until I hung up and paid £1 before jumping on a train. A train which took far too long to get from Canley to Brum New St.
At Brum New St. I ran to the ticket office to buy a ticket for the full value to Sheffield, the woman seemed pleasant enough and told me that I could catch the next train if I ran to platform 4b now. So I did. However, as the train pulled away I realised that once again the information I'd been given was bogus, yes this train was heading north, but not on the correct line. By now I wasn't happy and all hope of getting back to the foundry in time for a session was gone. The train manager printed me off an itinerary:
Canley 16:55
Birmingham New St.
Crewe
Stockport
Sheffield 21:08
What an absolute joke, I guess its pretty much down to me not checking the information I was given but I did expect (seeing as though she just sold me a ticket) she might know her stuff. Damn Brummies. I pity anyone that relies on trains more regularly than I.
Oh I can't remember if I've posted this but I passed my Mphil transfer interview, barely. I also went climbing at the weekend I'll write about that some other time.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Long live the FOUNDRY!
I've given up with the Works, the recent set of comp problems is a new low even by their standards.
So last night, idiotically or not, Nat went to her wall whilst I headed to mine. The company was good and the wave was great. After what was probably a decent session already I managed to coax everyone else to the board and session part II commenced. I had a plan; instead of come back on my lonesome and figure out all the problems myself, I'd try everything and anything anyone would try. That way securing a good repetoire of problems to try that did NOT suit my style. This worked well and it was only when my forearms started aching that I realised the time, Malc wouldn't be happy but I certainly was.
Long live the FOUNDRY!
So last night, idiotically or not, Nat went to her wall whilst I headed to mine. The company was good and the wave was great. After what was probably a decent session already I managed to coax everyone else to the board and session part II commenced. I had a plan; instead of come back on my lonesome and figure out all the problems myself, I'd try everything and anything anyone would try. That way securing a good repetoire of problems to try that did NOT suit my style. This worked well and it was only when my forearms started aching that I realised the time, Malc wouldn't be happy but I certainly was.
Long live the FOUNDRY!
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Living for the weekend?
I didn't bother with the comp on Friday night as the forecast (Metcheck) looked favourable for Sat. When I awoke I checked my phone and peered out of the window. The road was soaked, the sky grey and it was raining. I had a few messages saying conditions were sh*t in various places. Darn. Nat and I filled the day doing other things until the evening. Once again I ended up at the works.
I'm not impressed at the new set of comp problems (what a surprise I hear you all say). The holds are mostly HUGE and juggy. Needless to say I didn't enjoy my session despite the soothing tones of Nic Clement shouting out 5 sec intervals for the British Team.
There's no longevity in this set of problems. The majority of them are flashable, there's one hard green problem and two volume centric ones, Percy's special (I'll never do) and P14 which should go next session. I didn't do these three. The green was going well but I couldn't get my heel to move from the starting position to the next hold higher, pulling on in this position, the rest isn't uber-hard, tricky enough though.
Where the training board has made some large improvements the comp wall seems to have taken a big leap backwards maybe this will be rectified with the filler problems going up tomorrow. I'm hoping I'll get to a few of the boards this week and if not I'll be heading towards the foundry. Its a ball ache that Nat and I will be going to different places but I'm sick of not enjoying my evenings.
Saturday night - protect the human and far too much to drink. Andy K scores points for player of the evening coming out with some classic lines.
Sunday morning - asleep
Sunday afternoon - Nat and I took Dom (young kid from the works) out to Burbage South, we did a bit of a tour of the boulders before doing the same on the edge. The problems later in the day were a bit tricky for the other two but nonetheless I think they had a great time. I did too, ticking a lot of problems I've never really tried before, most of which were surprisingly good. School boy error of the day was leaving my head torch in the car and staying 15 minutes too long. This led to very muddy legs after flailing in the dark.
The evening was capped off with a bottle of mulled wine. Tues is my transfer interview *GULP*...
I'm not impressed at the new set of comp problems (what a surprise I hear you all say). The holds are mostly HUGE and juggy. Needless to say I didn't enjoy my session despite the soothing tones of Nic Clement shouting out 5 sec intervals for the British Team.
There's no longevity in this set of problems. The majority of them are flashable, there's one hard green problem and two volume centric ones, Percy's special (I'll never do) and P14 which should go next session. I didn't do these three. The green was going well but I couldn't get my heel to move from the starting position to the next hold higher, pulling on in this position, the rest isn't uber-hard, tricky enough though.
Where the training board has made some large improvements the comp wall seems to have taken a big leap backwards maybe this will be rectified with the filler problems going up tomorrow. I'm hoping I'll get to a few of the boards this week and if not I'll be heading towards the foundry. Its a ball ache that Nat and I will be going to different places but I'm sick of not enjoying my evenings.
Saturday night - protect the human and far too much to drink. Andy K scores points for player of the evening coming out with some classic lines.
Sunday morning - asleep
Sunday afternoon - Nat and I took Dom (young kid from the works) out to Burbage South, we did a bit of a tour of the boulders before doing the same on the edge. The problems later in the day were a bit tricky for the other two but nonetheless I think they had a great time. I did too, ticking a lot of problems I've never really tried before, most of which were surprisingly good. School boy error of the day was leaving my head torch in the car and staying 15 minutes too long. This led to very muddy legs after flailing in the dark.
The evening was capped off with a bottle of mulled wine. Tues is my transfer interview *GULP*...
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Basic?
I've been feeling a little rough since the weekend and today was no different. Nat is away on business again but that's ok as my anti social habit of working really late doesn't really get in the way of anything.
Tonight I headed to the works to check if my general ill feeling was affecting my body badly. I keep re-trying this place, desperately hoping that it will offer something for me whilst still being the best place for Nat to head in the evening. On that line of thinking I was ready to splash out on a 3 month membership, dependant on whether or not the board was going to be of any use.
I'm only ~£6 lighter.
Effort has been made to improve the board however I still felt like bashing my head against the nearest girder. Intermediates, left right and centre, Egyptians and nothing really all that hard. *Sigh*, given these problems are within the usual grade range of the place and aren't as basic as I believe basic should be I can't imagine what the harder problems (to be added soon) will be like. I was very disappointed but again you have to hand it to the guys for actually giving a cr*p.
Here's Malc, heed his words!
I'm glad I have access to Dylans board now and then and an invite to climb with Ned at theirs.
Apart from that I think I really should give the Foundry my business, after all it does make more of an effort to cater towards my wants (probably totally different from my needs).
The evening ended with Stu and I comparing weaknesses on the finger/campus board which was great fun.
Tonight I headed to the works to check if my general ill feeling was affecting my body badly. I keep re-trying this place, desperately hoping that it will offer something for me whilst still being the best place for Nat to head in the evening. On that line of thinking I was ready to splash out on a 3 month membership, dependant on whether or not the board was going to be of any use.
I'm only ~£6 lighter.
Effort has been made to improve the board however I still felt like bashing my head against the nearest girder. Intermediates, left right and centre, Egyptians and nothing really all that hard. *Sigh*, given these problems are within the usual grade range of the place and aren't as basic as I believe basic should be I can't imagine what the harder problems (to be added soon) will be like. I was very disappointed but again you have to hand it to the guys for actually giving a cr*p.
Here's Malc, heed his words!
I'm glad I have access to Dylans board now and then and an invite to climb with Ned at theirs.
Apart from that I think I really should give the Foundry my business, after all it does make more of an effort to cater towards my wants (probably totally different from my needs).
The evening ended with Stu and I comparing weaknesses on the finger/campus board which was great fun.
Sunday, 9 November 2008
HULKenstein
I've been a little slack with posting recently, mainly due to getting the final draft of my transfer report done and dusted. Now its printed and bound all I have to worry about (dread) is the examiners meeting, I need to convince them I'm not a waste of space and worth of transferring onto a PhD.
Climbing wise? as well you know the weather has been utter sh*t. Last Friday (Halloween), dressed as the hulk, I went up to the plantation for the UKC/UKB bouldering meet with Nat. TBH the evening wasn't that great at first, I quickly realised my error; the majority of people weren't actually there to climb.
One tall man did laps on Deliverance getting a massive ego boost from the woo'd crowds. I rapidly became bored of this, each repeat made me want to shout abuse at him more and more. There were no lamps as such and therefore the light was poor, as everyone was focussing their headlamps on Deliverance I used it to warm up, naturally failing on the last move (but not being far short really for a first go).
After that I braved the darkness and headed up to the ace. 5 mins later I declared it impossible and played on the green traverse (probably warming up fully by now). A minute or so later I was shocked by the arrival of Ryan Pasquill and Katy W. They were shocked at the amount of people present and Ryan was set on the Ace. He talked me into giving it a go, I muttered 9a at him but promised to come over and use my green hulk of a figure to spot him.
First go Ryan hit the top with his left, foot still on and just didn't bother trying to match. I got excited (he didn't). The small crowd of three spotters all agreed that if he actually tried to match he'd cruise it and that's exactly what he did next go. LH bang to the top, what seemed like an age of body tension and then a quick match. We all screamed (he didn't) but did return shortly afterwards with a big grin. I booted up and Ryan talked me through the start beta using the heel, including all of the little intricacies. First go it felt shit but a little more coaching and I was happily camped on the first crimp, holding it easily and crimping hard. I dragged my toe into the right spot and lent out to the second crimp, falling off. Now, I had a BIG smile on my face, the ACE, the f*cking ACE is doable.
Ryan and Katy left for a romantic curry for two. Nat and I remained camped out as I kept getting back out to the right hand crimp, I never got to actually slap the top but to be getting (nearly perfectly) set up made my night. After that, goes got worse and worse and I got a bit downhearted, it turned out later than my tip was pouring blood I just couldn't see it.
Now here is something contentions (a blog post here wouldn't seem right without it?); the ace doesn't seem that hard. I'm not saying its not 8b, but I'd always regarded it as the hardest of the peak 8b's, I'm not so sure any more.
The small list of ascentionists is however a testament to its difficulty.
Jerry - old beta
Ben - old beta
Malc- old beta
Tyler - old beta
Earl? - old beta
Mick- old beta
Scott M - New beta (given by Ryan)
Ryan P - New beta (CONGRATS!)
However, I do believe (for me at least) that the new beta makes it lower in the grade bracket, the traditional way of starting with just your foot below is the living end!
The rest of the weekend was a let down as I had no skin and then the weather was poo on Sunday. The week flew by and again the weather was poo on Wednesday. This weekend? rubbish. Yesterday was spent at trackside in damp conditions and realistically this was one session where the wall would have been a million times better for me.
Today, supposedly the tor was in fine nick, I didn't bother calling around after the night of rain and went to the sanctity of Dylan's board instead. This place is seriously growing on me despite handing out a spanking each time I visit. The scene was good today, Stu L, Ru, Gary, 320d Saltus, Ed R, Dylan and a few ladies. I came up with some great problems which other people finished off on my behalf. Ru as ever looked strong, poor Stu as ever was nursing healing injuries (or so I think).
Where the school was very flicky between pinches Dylan's place seems to be all about the shoulders. Sean Myles eat your heart out.
Climbing wise? as well you know the weather has been utter sh*t. Last Friday (Halloween), dressed as the hulk, I went up to the plantation for the UKC/UKB bouldering meet with Nat. TBH the evening wasn't that great at first, I quickly realised my error; the majority of people weren't actually there to climb.
One tall man did laps on Deliverance getting a massive ego boost from the woo'd crowds. I rapidly became bored of this, each repeat made me want to shout abuse at him more and more. There were no lamps as such and therefore the light was poor, as everyone was focussing their headlamps on Deliverance I used it to warm up, naturally failing on the last move (but not being far short really for a first go).
After that I braved the darkness and headed up to the ace. 5 mins later I declared it impossible and played on the green traverse (probably warming up fully by now). A minute or so later I was shocked by the arrival of Ryan Pasquill and Katy W. They were shocked at the amount of people present and Ryan was set on the Ace. He talked me into giving it a go, I muttered 9a at him but promised to come over and use my green hulk of a figure to spot him.
First go Ryan hit the top with his left, foot still on and just didn't bother trying to match. I got excited (he didn't). The small crowd of three spotters all agreed that if he actually tried to match he'd cruise it and that's exactly what he did next go. LH bang to the top, what seemed like an age of body tension and then a quick match. We all screamed (he didn't) but did return shortly afterwards with a big grin. I booted up and Ryan talked me through the start beta using the heel, including all of the little intricacies. First go it felt shit but a little more coaching and I was happily camped on the first crimp, holding it easily and crimping hard. I dragged my toe into the right spot and lent out to the second crimp, falling off. Now, I had a BIG smile on my face, the ACE, the f*cking ACE is doable.
Ryan and Katy left for a romantic curry for two. Nat and I remained camped out as I kept getting back out to the right hand crimp, I never got to actually slap the top but to be getting (nearly perfectly) set up made my night. After that, goes got worse and worse and I got a bit downhearted, it turned out later than my tip was pouring blood I just couldn't see it.
Now here is something contentions (a blog post here wouldn't seem right without it?); the ace doesn't seem that hard. I'm not saying its not 8b, but I'd always regarded it as the hardest of the peak 8b's, I'm not so sure any more.
The small list of ascentionists is however a testament to its difficulty.
Jerry - old beta
Ben - old beta
Malc- old beta
Tyler - old beta
Earl? - old beta
Mick- old beta
Scott M - New beta (given by Ryan)
Ryan P - New beta (CONGRATS!)
However, I do believe (for me at least) that the new beta makes it lower in the grade bracket, the traditional way of starting with just your foot below is the living end!
The rest of the weekend was a let down as I had no skin and then the weather was poo on Sunday. The week flew by and again the weather was poo on Wednesday. This weekend? rubbish. Yesterday was spent at trackside in damp conditions and realistically this was one session where the wall would have been a million times better for me.
Today, supposedly the tor was in fine nick, I didn't bother calling around after the night of rain and went to the sanctity of Dylan's board instead. This place is seriously growing on me despite handing out a spanking each time I visit. The scene was good today, Stu L, Ru, Gary, 320d Saltus, Ed R, Dylan and a few ladies. I came up with some great problems which other people finished off on my behalf. Ru as ever looked strong, poor Stu as ever was nursing healing injuries (or so I think).
Where the school was very flicky between pinches Dylan's place seems to be all about the shoulders. Sean Myles eat your heart out.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Pushing my boundaries?
It seems a while since I blogged, so here goes.
Last Wednesday I went out with Dobbin and Dylan as you might already know. Right from the start with warm conditions, bad planning and hurty skin I should have known that getting on HFC was a waste of time. I mean, last time I was there, I said to myself "Don't go back on it unless its cold, its all you need". I ignored this and my 1st go despite being good was stopped short by getting a gigantic cobweb/leaf/mess stuck to my shoe at the crucial point. I'm glad I didn't get further mind as some choad had obviously found the climbing far too easy and attempted to fill in all of the holds with chalk, I can see no other reason for the amount used. He/She had also tick marked the break, the break FFS, how can you miss something that big?
My second go was worse, I was in a bad mood by then and was regretting not doing something else with my day, a session on Zeke or an onsight shot at too old to be bold. I don't know if it was hampered by bad light but everything I caught, I caught wrong, this carried on to the break with me fighting through every move. Frustrated at this point I just pulled hard and therefore wasn't too surprised when my foot popped. Damn Damn Damn. Lesson learned.
Nat disappeared that night for a 5 day conference in Boulder, Colorado. How crazy is that? Next time (if she's selected again I vow to take full advantage).
As she was gone, all work, tidying up etc. went out of the window and I spent far too much time hanging around with a good friend of mine, who most of you know but probably can't name. Here forth he shall be known as Wildcountry (WC) James. He was very excited after spending a session earlier that week on Renegade Master. He'd abbed down the line, brushing, chalking and feeling all of the holds as well as inspecting the gear before having a stab above some pads.
We arranged to climb Sunday but as Sat morning progressed neither day looked favourable for the grit. Usually at this point i'd sack it and head to the wall for some guaranteed conditions, but this is the new me and that's just not cricket. A few phone calls later James agreed to head out with me. He wasn't psyched. It was raining as we arrived and so no warmup was possible. James set away at the start and was instantly on his back after violently slipping off the easy traverse in. Shit. My first go, my onsight attempt, was cut short but non stretchy hamstrings. I cursed my lack of stretchiness and spent the next 5 minutes contorting myself as much as possible. Round 2 showed just how quickly stretching works as my heel was up easily, locked into position I reached out for the good hold but I didn't seem to have it in me. Hmmmm, on paper this route should be my thing but its plainly obvious that I just lack feel for grit, its coming but I do perform sub par. During the two days I did notice subtleties in my climbing improve ,foot placements, sagging a lot of small factors that combined to allow me to make the moves easier and smoother thab before. As the day progressed the weather worsened but our attempts improved. James always one step ahead. I made it out to the lip and onto the next couple of holds but couldn't keep my feet on and had to campus the next move, this sets you up all wrong for the next move and bang, i'm off. We call it a day as the light worsens both relatively happy at our high points.
Sunday was much the same weather wise but the rain throughout the night had turned the path into a stream. The pads were floating which made for some interesting falls. James abbed off cleaning everything (unnecessarily IMO) and placed the gear. Ironically he was forced to use one of my bits of kit, a small DMM peenut instead of his shiny new wildcountry getup. He tested it with bodyweight and seemed pleased. I muttered that it would lift out as he topped out, sure enough as he dogged past it, it fell out.
From now on the two different styles of ascent were set.
WC James - abbed, cleaned, pre-placed gear
Me - plenty of beta, ground up, purposefully ignoring James' gear (as it wasn't placed ground up).
The goes went well with my first being better than the previous day. I blasted past my high point and made the next move before falling wildly. The goes carried on again until darkness with little upwards progression, consolidation was however there. I believe that we both have one more hard move to make before the top out business begins. Ned has rocked over onto the slab and left it at that. Variable, being a hero has topped it out although more directly up the slab. I believe (WARNING CONTENTIOUS STATEMENT) that Rich is the only person to have repeated it in the same way as JM taking the crack direct?
I'm not sure what I'll do when I get there, I'm NOT clipping pre-placed gear and I would love to finish it off in a truly great style however fear of another frame might hold me back. We'll just have to see.
I'm fairly happy with the way i'm approaching my climbing at the moment, I'm rarely down the wall and I'm doing things that I enjoy, ok, i'm not as strong as I once was but then again expectations aren't as high.
I had intended to try some routes in this style just as I hurt myself, Shine on and EOTA being the main targets so its good to feel that I'm back on target.
Tonight I met the travelling Americans who are "Crushing", they're very enthusiastic and talented but I have to say that this pre-placing malarkey is very confusing to me, how can you ground up something if the gear wasn't placed ground up, maybe I've just got the wrong end of the stick, its highly likely...I guess the main important thing is being honest about the way in which you've climbed a route.
The other thing I've noticed is that where they seem to be good climbers I've seen a number of British talents that I'm sure outshine them completely. My mind wanders as to what they might achieve given the same kind of support? (That I'm supposing rightly or wrongly that these guys have).
This week won't be too good for climbing, I'm behind with my work, Friday night I'm hoping to get out and possibly Sunday but it all depends on how things go.
Oh I forgot to say we took a video camera for RM, the footage isn't great and being idiots/lazy we missed quite a bit of stuff. We have however got a couple of nice links on cam. I'll pick a good one and post it up at some point. Its not high def.
Last Wednesday I went out with Dobbin and Dylan as you might already know. Right from the start with warm conditions, bad planning and hurty skin I should have known that getting on HFC was a waste of time. I mean, last time I was there, I said to myself "Don't go back on it unless its cold, its all you need". I ignored this and my 1st go despite being good was stopped short by getting a gigantic cobweb/leaf/mess stuck to my shoe at the crucial point. I'm glad I didn't get further mind as some choad had obviously found the climbing far too easy and attempted to fill in all of the holds with chalk, I can see no other reason for the amount used. He/She had also tick marked the break, the break FFS, how can you miss something that big?
My second go was worse, I was in a bad mood by then and was regretting not doing something else with my day, a session on Zeke or an onsight shot at too old to be bold. I don't know if it was hampered by bad light but everything I caught, I caught wrong, this carried on to the break with me fighting through every move. Frustrated at this point I just pulled hard and therefore wasn't too surprised when my foot popped. Damn Damn Damn. Lesson learned.
Nat disappeared that night for a 5 day conference in Boulder, Colorado. How crazy is that? Next time (if she's selected again I vow to take full advantage).
As she was gone, all work, tidying up etc. went out of the window and I spent far too much time hanging around with a good friend of mine, who most of you know but probably can't name. Here forth he shall be known as Wildcountry (WC) James. He was very excited after spending a session earlier that week on Renegade Master. He'd abbed down the line, brushing, chalking and feeling all of the holds as well as inspecting the gear before having a stab above some pads.
We arranged to climb Sunday but as Sat morning progressed neither day looked favourable for the grit. Usually at this point i'd sack it and head to the wall for some guaranteed conditions, but this is the new me and that's just not cricket. A few phone calls later James agreed to head out with me. He wasn't psyched. It was raining as we arrived and so no warmup was possible. James set away at the start and was instantly on his back after violently slipping off the easy traverse in. Shit. My first go, my onsight attempt, was cut short but non stretchy hamstrings. I cursed my lack of stretchiness and spent the next 5 minutes contorting myself as much as possible. Round 2 showed just how quickly stretching works as my heel was up easily, locked into position I reached out for the good hold but I didn't seem to have it in me. Hmmmm, on paper this route should be my thing but its plainly obvious that I just lack feel for grit, its coming but I do perform sub par. During the two days I did notice subtleties in my climbing improve ,foot placements, sagging a lot of small factors that combined to allow me to make the moves easier and smoother thab before. As the day progressed the weather worsened but our attempts improved. James always one step ahead. I made it out to the lip and onto the next couple of holds but couldn't keep my feet on and had to campus the next move, this sets you up all wrong for the next move and bang, i'm off. We call it a day as the light worsens both relatively happy at our high points.
Sunday was much the same weather wise but the rain throughout the night had turned the path into a stream. The pads were floating which made for some interesting falls. James abbed off cleaning everything (unnecessarily IMO) and placed the gear. Ironically he was forced to use one of my bits of kit, a small DMM peenut instead of his shiny new wildcountry getup. He tested it with bodyweight and seemed pleased. I muttered that it would lift out as he topped out, sure enough as he dogged past it, it fell out.
From now on the two different styles of ascent were set.
WC James - abbed, cleaned, pre-placed gear
Me - plenty of beta, ground up, purposefully ignoring James' gear (as it wasn't placed ground up).
The goes went well with my first being better than the previous day. I blasted past my high point and made the next move before falling wildly. The goes carried on again until darkness with little upwards progression, consolidation was however there. I believe that we both have one more hard move to make before the top out business begins. Ned has rocked over onto the slab and left it at that. Variable, being a hero has topped it out although more directly up the slab. I believe (WARNING CONTENTIOUS STATEMENT) that Rich is the only person to have repeated it in the same way as JM taking the crack direct?
I'm not sure what I'll do when I get there, I'm NOT clipping pre-placed gear and I would love to finish it off in a truly great style however fear of another frame might hold me back. We'll just have to see.
I'm fairly happy with the way i'm approaching my climbing at the moment, I'm rarely down the wall and I'm doing things that I enjoy, ok, i'm not as strong as I once was but then again expectations aren't as high.
I had intended to try some routes in this style just as I hurt myself, Shine on and EOTA being the main targets so its good to feel that I'm back on target.
Tonight I met the travelling Americans who are "Crushing", they're very enthusiastic and talented but I have to say that this pre-placing malarkey is very confusing to me, how can you ground up something if the gear wasn't placed ground up, maybe I've just got the wrong end of the stick, its highly likely...I guess the main important thing is being honest about the way in which you've climbed a route.
The other thing I've noticed is that where they seem to be good climbers I've seen a number of British talents that I'm sure outshine them completely. My mind wanders as to what they might achieve given the same kind of support? (That I'm supposing rightly or wrongly that these guys have).
This week won't be too good for climbing, I'm behind with my work, Friday night I'm hoping to get out and possibly Sunday but it all depends on how things go.
Oh I forgot to say we took a video camera for RM, the footage isn't great and being idiots/lazy we missed quite a bit of stuff. We have however got a couple of nice links on cam. I'll pick a good one and post it up at some point. Its not high def.
Monday, 20 October 2008
What a weekend
It will probably be obvious to you, if you regularly read this blog, that a fortnight or so ago when I started climbing again I realised that there were certain issues within my climbing that I needed to address, the most important (despite not being emphasised enough) is that I DON'T spend enough time actually climbing.
Due to this and with the words of Sensai bonjoy running through my mind I started hatching a plan for this weekend gone.
Friday night up to visit my folks after picking Nat up from work, free meal. Sat carry on up to Bowden, put Nat on the problems that I think she should be trying before returning to my folks, free meal.
Leave on Sun morning stopping off via Yorkshire, free packed lunch. The weather looked fair enough for this plan to actually work and it wasn't long before I was running out of the flat, forgetting almost everything on the way to pick up Nat from work.
It was great to see my folks on Friday night and much merriment was had before I hit the sack with sweating tips. The drive up to Bowden took less time than I remembered and some of the speed cameras have been taken away and others now have flashing signs in front of them. Great. We arrived at a windswept Bowden early ish and only a handful of cars were parked off the road. This we later found out must be due to the insane wind gusting all over the place. Durham university club were the only people to be found on the crag, it was I'm afraid to say, a fresher's meet. However, the club were conducting themselves perfectly.
We warmed up at the far end after which I pointed Nat at Childs play. She got to the crux looking absolutely terrified before being blown off and completely overshooting the mat. I poo-pah'd her claims of a force 9 death wind and quested off, after all it's not longer as hard as it used to be, Childs play in fact. Minutes later I understood what she meant. In between gusts I balanced my way up to the top, declaring it to be E9 (or should that be 6b+ x?). Nat got stuck into another problem and I continued to warm up. All the cave routes went down as per usual, followed by a favourite eliminate of mine. After this I had a dabble on sprung but felt cold. Staggered, captain haddock, poverty and the other things in this area were next. The wind had died down a lot by this time so I urged Nat to try CP again. 5 or so goes later she was past the crux looking terrified and resorting to beginner beaching tactics at the top, I managed to coax her out of this line of attack and once she re-committed to some technique she cruised on over the top. She was psyched out of her mind (as was I) as this is her first 6b. It was fantastic to see her climbing like this after so little time and bodes well for her Christmas ambitions.
Next I went on something out of my comfort zone, lippy bastard, but unfortunately I kept getting hit by gusts at bad moments so I left it. The crack was suffering from similar conditions. A harsh 2 min downpour then struck leaving us all huddled beneath the cave routes for the next 15 mins or so. When it passed I went for Vienna, an eternally changing problem, and then back on Sprung. I felt like a bit of a twat running around as there were a number of onlookers but so be it. My earlier guess at not being warmed up was confirmed as I climbed it straight away, comfortably in fact.
The day was going well and after flicking through the new (appalling) guide, I'd singled out another line, The Growlers, crimpy, vertical, 8a wall. I stepped up, and after a few hard rock over moves on dirty dirty little holds I was eyeing up a larger, decent crimpy hold. I gave it my all, my fingers crept over the edge of the hold, the razor like crimp bit in deep across my tips and I was suddenly aware of very sore skin. Back on the pad I was gutted and extremely sore. A few more goes ended only in backward progress as the smallest hold turned progressively warmer. Saving skin for the next day we packed up and headed to 'the woods'. I really wanted Nat to try Bad Company (now given 6a), a fantastic problem in an even better setting. On arrival conditions were amazing, old timer locals (Bob Smith?) confirmed this. I re-warmed up on Jocks and then Monty Pythons and then demo'd the problem for Nat. I hadn't realised it but her tips were worse than mine and after a few goes we both decided that if we were to climb on Sunday we needed to stop.
Back home, and once again plenty of food and loads of wine.
On Sunday weather reports (courtesy of Stubbs from UKB) showed Caley to be in poor nick. Instead we opted for the ever gusty cliff. On arrival we met Joe Brown who informed us that the good doctor would be arriving shortly. Warming up was hard and sore and I inwardly kicked myself for being a bit silly the previous day. Joe pointed me at underhand which I'd never heard of. It took a while but I worked out quite a neat sequence. Fatigue or a lack of length meant it didn't resemble Foleys sequence one bit however it was efficient. Further floundering later I decided to change out of my floppy Velcro's and into dragons. One minute later it was done. I worked the extension but didn't feel it was worth risking the skin as I want to climb sometime this week. Nat proceeded to crush the left hand roof problem which again, is a good effort for her.
I took my boots off and packed everything away, for a split second Martin(bringing purple back in style, holy sh*t kind of strong) Smith tempted me towards Stu's roof. It didn't take long for the small crimps to persuade me to take them back off.
We stopped off via Headingly to see her brother and chuck down a gallon of warming tea.
A text from Foley later on in the day informs me that he fell floundering around with the end slots of underhand. Next time beast.
Now I fully understand that this weekend hasn't pushed me out of my comfort zone as far as possible (wait to see what I've got planned next weekend!) and as ever comments are welcome (yes you as well Bonjoy, I promise I won't get upset). However, I did spend both days outside, and this resulted in new ticks which can only be a good thing., non?
For the first time in ages I felt like I was climbing well this weekend...It's a great feeling.
Currently on UKB there is the start of another debacle albeit at a lesser scale (although thinking about it probably not). The fact that my name has now been mentioned directly (not in a malicious manner thankfully) leads me to feel that I have to at least offer some kind of stance as a reply. I'm not quite sure how to go about this and really I should be doing more productive things. I'll give it some thought and no doubt produce another controversial blog post at some point, or maybe I'll decide it's not worth it. At best, I've managed to stay away from my keyboard and avoid some rather obvious baiting.
Due to this and with the words of Sensai bonjoy running through my mind I started hatching a plan for this weekend gone.
Friday night up to visit my folks after picking Nat up from work, free meal. Sat carry on up to Bowden, put Nat on the problems that I think she should be trying before returning to my folks, free meal.
Leave on Sun morning stopping off via Yorkshire, free packed lunch. The weather looked fair enough for this plan to actually work and it wasn't long before I was running out of the flat, forgetting almost everything on the way to pick up Nat from work.
It was great to see my folks on Friday night and much merriment was had before I hit the sack with sweating tips. The drive up to Bowden took less time than I remembered and some of the speed cameras have been taken away and others now have flashing signs in front of them. Great. We arrived at a windswept Bowden early ish and only a handful of cars were parked off the road. This we later found out must be due to the insane wind gusting all over the place. Durham university club were the only people to be found on the crag, it was I'm afraid to say, a fresher's meet. However, the club were conducting themselves perfectly.
We warmed up at the far end after which I pointed Nat at Childs play. She got to the crux looking absolutely terrified before being blown off and completely overshooting the mat. I poo-pah'd her claims of a force 9 death wind and quested off, after all it's not longer as hard as it used to be, Childs play in fact. Minutes later I understood what she meant. In between gusts I balanced my way up to the top, declaring it to be E9 (or should that be 6b+ x?). Nat got stuck into another problem and I continued to warm up. All the cave routes went down as per usual, followed by a favourite eliminate of mine. After this I had a dabble on sprung but felt cold. Staggered, captain haddock, poverty and the other things in this area were next. The wind had died down a lot by this time so I urged Nat to try CP again. 5 or so goes later she was past the crux looking terrified and resorting to beginner beaching tactics at the top, I managed to coax her out of this line of attack and once she re-committed to some technique she cruised on over the top. She was psyched out of her mind (as was I) as this is her first 6b. It was fantastic to see her climbing like this after so little time and bodes well for her Christmas ambitions.
Next I went on something out of my comfort zone, lippy bastard, but unfortunately I kept getting hit by gusts at bad moments so I left it. The crack was suffering from similar conditions. A harsh 2 min downpour then struck leaving us all huddled beneath the cave routes for the next 15 mins or so. When it passed I went for Vienna, an eternally changing problem, and then back on Sprung. I felt like a bit of a twat running around as there were a number of onlookers but so be it. My earlier guess at not being warmed up was confirmed as I climbed it straight away, comfortably in fact.
The day was going well and after flicking through the new (appalling) guide, I'd singled out another line, The Growlers, crimpy, vertical, 8a wall. I stepped up, and after a few hard rock over moves on dirty dirty little holds I was eyeing up a larger, decent crimpy hold. I gave it my all, my fingers crept over the edge of the hold, the razor like crimp bit in deep across my tips and I was suddenly aware of very sore skin. Back on the pad I was gutted and extremely sore. A few more goes ended only in backward progress as the smallest hold turned progressively warmer. Saving skin for the next day we packed up and headed to 'the woods'. I really wanted Nat to try Bad Company (now given 6a), a fantastic problem in an even better setting. On arrival conditions were amazing, old timer locals (Bob Smith?) confirmed this. I re-warmed up on Jocks and then Monty Pythons and then demo'd the problem for Nat. I hadn't realised it but her tips were worse than mine and after a few goes we both decided that if we were to climb on Sunday we needed to stop.
Back home, and once again plenty of food and loads of wine.
On Sunday weather reports (courtesy of Stubbs from UKB) showed Caley to be in poor nick. Instead we opted for the ever gusty cliff. On arrival we met Joe Brown who informed us that the good doctor would be arriving shortly. Warming up was hard and sore and I inwardly kicked myself for being a bit silly the previous day. Joe pointed me at underhand which I'd never heard of. It took a while but I worked out quite a neat sequence. Fatigue or a lack of length meant it didn't resemble Foleys sequence one bit however it was efficient. Further floundering later I decided to change out of my floppy Velcro's and into dragons. One minute later it was done. I worked the extension but didn't feel it was worth risking the skin as I want to climb sometime this week. Nat proceeded to crush the left hand roof problem which again, is a good effort for her.
I took my boots off and packed everything away, for a split second Martin(bringing purple back in style, holy sh*t kind of strong) Smith tempted me towards Stu's roof. It didn't take long for the small crimps to persuade me to take them back off.
We stopped off via Headingly to see her brother and chuck down a gallon of warming tea.
A text from Foley later on in the day informs me that he fell floundering around with the end slots of underhand. Next time beast.
Now I fully understand that this weekend hasn't pushed me out of my comfort zone as far as possible (wait to see what I've got planned next weekend!) and as ever comments are welcome (yes you as well Bonjoy, I promise I won't get upset). However, I did spend both days outside, and this resulted in new ticks which can only be a good thing., non?
For the first time in ages I felt like I was climbing well this weekend...It's a great feeling.
Currently on UKB there is the start of another debacle albeit at a lesser scale (although thinking about it probably not). The fact that my name has now been mentioned directly (not in a malicious manner thankfully) leads me to feel that I have to at least offer some kind of stance as a reply. I'm not quite sure how to go about this and really I should be doing more productive things. I'll give it some thought and no doubt produce another controversial blog post at some point, or maybe I'll decide it's not worth it. At best, I've managed to stay away from my keyboard and avoid some rather obvious baiting.
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