Well this isn't going very well is it?

Hmmmm, no updates for quite a while. Sorry.
Oh well Merry Christmas one and all.

I'm currently at the in laws on the Isle of Man grabbing brief sessions on stuff that only vaguely resembles rock, I will write more upon my return to civilised rock venues.

Off subject ramblings of the elderly

Well it's been a while since my last missive, I imagine my dear readers have been frantically refreshing my blog page in anticipation of receiving nourishment from the font of wisdom....
Well refresh no longer, here is the latest installment in the continuing adventures of a middle aged family man. So whats been happening, what have I done to initiate this post? Well nothing really. Um, I've been to the Peak, and it was wet. I went to Almscliff, and just worked some stuff without ticking anything and I've done a lot of very sloppy shits in the evil clutches of gastroenteritis, happy times.

However some people have been doing things. Some cheeky Americans have come over here and apparently rather easily dispatched several testpieces on our beloved grit in really rather good style. Stevie is embarrassed, along with a couple of other people and the obituary for British trad will appear in this weekends Telegraph. How terrible.

Well done chaps, I'm impressed.

At last.

Busy week again, also spent most of the week feeling pretty ill. Had a brief wall session on Wednesday which wasn't terribly impressive if I'm being honest. But a good restful week probably was no bad thing.
So yesterday (Friday) saw me journeying over to Almscliff in the afternoon to meet up with GCW. Driving up I saw Andi and Andi's mate walking up the road so gave them a lift for the last 200 yards to the crag. Pretty much assuring my sainthood I imagine.
The to-do list was pretty much unchanged from last time:
1) Underhand
2) The Keel
3) Jess's Roof

Round 1 - Underhand
Right this is annoying. I did this on my second attempt after making a complete hash of the right heel hook on my first attempt. So I should be pleased right? No, I was just a bit pissed off. Because it's pretty easy. I should have done it in the first session, and definitely the second. So finaly getting to the top didn't feel very satisfying, I just felt a bit stupid for wasting time and energy on it, grrrrrr. Oh well at least it's done now.

Round 2 - The Keel
This is more like it. Again I did this pretty quicly. I had a quick play with my sequence for the last move to slap the pocket just to check that I can't keep my feet on, and I can't so it's cut loose time. Then did it on my fourth (I think) attempt. Should have done it on the first attempt really but decided to hang around for ages on the chip before slapping (and missing) the pocket. Second attempt didn't release my feet properly so got a dab on the cut loose. Third attempt, really should have done it this time slapped to the pocket and had the reach but was a couple of inches to the right, aaaarghhh. Fourth attempt, it's in the bag. Again didn't feel that hard when I finally did it. But I still felt very satisfied and pleased unlike underhand. I'm not sure why this is but happy days.

Round 3 - G gets his crush on (sort of)
We went up to DWR where G wanted to do DWR, DBS, Pebble Wall Traverse and Pebble Wall. I also suggested he try HDF (with the heel-toe) as I thought it would suit him. G was carrying a stairgate/childs toy related injury so wasn't at full burl. He looked a bit floppy when he was climbing, lacking a bit of body tension. Anyway he got to the last move of DWR, the last move of DBS and the last move of Pebble Wall Traverse. Are you spotting a pattern, this fear of success is holding him back... Anyway he'll crush the all next time. He didn't try HDF either but he'll crush that to. I did Pebble Wall which was really nice. There was a dad there with his two sons, one was top-roping Demon Wall (think he was about 12) the other (aged 6) was trying Demon Wall Roof. They were brilliant, it's really good to see kids climbing and having the confidence to just go for it. I think the dad was slightly worried that his kids might be pissing off the "hardcore" boulderers but nothing could be further from the truth in my mind. I ended up having a pretty detailed discussion about the best sequence with the kid trying DWR. He could talk about the moves and explain what he was trying to do as well, if not better than, quite a few adults. Brilliant.

Round 4 - Jess's Roof
I was getting tired now and it was pretty dark. Realistically I knew that I probably wasn't going to get this ticked today. I worked the crux sequence and think I have a workable solution now. Sadly it was so dark that I couldn't see the footholds and I was feeling pretty battered so called it a day.

A good afternoon out, feels good to finally tick a couple of things. I was begining to lose heart a bit as I seemed to be constantly working things without getting anything done. Mega psyched again now, and the weather looks good next week, sadly I'm uber busy with work. Oh well bring on the crush...

Almscliff tours.

Monday I still had sore skin, trashed body and a vast list of work to be getting on with. So when Jim suggested an Almscliff afternoon I leapt at the chance. UTG was the tour guide of choice and the to-do list went thus:
1) Keel
2) Underhand
3) Jess's Roof
So in my usual dedication to warming up I started on the hard sloper traverse on the first block, nice one me. I popped off about halfway along and pulled my shoulder a bit. So thats the warm up done then, when will I learn?
Anyway given the above hit-list obviously the next port of call would be Demon Wall area?!? So everybody got on Dolphin Belly Slap, Demon Wall Roof, Stu's Roof Left Hand and Hot Dog Fromage and there were various successes and failures. I managed DBS, DWR and HDF (easy variant with heel hook). Jim declared everything easy and 7a+, I ignored him. Then had a brief go on Underhand before having to dash off to tend to the family. Nice afternoon out and cheers to UTG for the excellent guide work.
Spent the rest of the week feeling very ill, as did the boy lard. We were both wiped out all week. Anyway yesterday (Friday) was Almscliff II - The Crushening, or at least that was the plan. Turns out I still couldn't do Underhand and the Keel defeated me also. However I think I can do them both, allthough I always say that. Maybe I'll have to start proving it.....
Once again I needed to get home so left a bit frustrated as I felt I could have carried on climbing. Oh well, to be honest I was still feeling crap and had really crampy guts all day so walking away and leaving it for next time was probably no bad thing.
No climbing this weekend by the looks of things, unless I bag a quick session on the wall. Bob the builder has just won the contract to develop Sunflower Valley, happy days.

Blue sky? Lets watch snooker...

No blogging for a couple of weeks, hmmm, this doesn't bode well. Hey-ho.
Since the Sheffield weekend I have been mostly working. Which is great as it pays the bills and all that (not that I've been paid yet) but it does eat into the free-time somewhat. Most disapointing...
Anyway I've had a couple os sessions on the home wall but my left hand is really feeling the pace right now, it's frustrating because on the one hand I want to keep trying things but realistically what it needs is rest, grrrr. Also had another night-time session with the uber torch. This time I went to Earl with G. The learning points from this session number two:
1) Earl is a deathtrap of ankle snapping holes and boulders in the dark and not an ideal venue for night-time bouldering in my opinion.
2) Earl is a crag that my body just doesn't get. I imagine this isn't a phenomenon that is unique to me but some problems/boulders/crags and me just don't get on. It's not as simple as the style of the problem or conditions, it's a deeper antipathy. Another example would be the trackside boulder at Curbar, I hate it and it hates me. I don't know why we just don't see eye to eye. The trouble with situations like this is that you don't know that thats the case until you've invested the time and effort in getting consistently spanked. Anyway suffice it to say that Earl is on my shit list.
Moving on yesterday I went back to Stanage, I was keen to get back on Jerrys Traverse but first we called into the Buckstone so G could lank his way up the dyno. I had a quick go and surprised myself by getting pretty close, and next go got my fingers over the hold. Ooooo, this was interesting. I then predictably spent the next 20 minutes getting tp pretty much exactly the same place. G spent this time climbing like an arse, making some of the least convincing dyno attempts I have ever seen, fucking amateur. I would apologise to G for the previous sentence, but he knows it's true. So as a break we did the groove round the back of the buckstone. I then got engrossed in trying it no-handed. I love getting sucked into stupid pointless stuff like this. Some people are very stuffy about messing about all "that's not proper climbing" and "it's just silly". HELLO, wake up and smell the coffee, it's not like climbing is the most point laden activity in to world. Fools. Anyway it took a bit of working out but a footless sequence was dispatched, hurrah! Back to failing on the dyno. For this series of attempts G upped his game and started failing much nearer the finishing hold,good work fella. Eventually got bored off losing skin on it so gave up. I'm confident that both G and I can do this.
Then onto the Plantation where three things rapidly became apparent:
1) Conditions were far worse than we imagined
2) I had no skin on my right hand fingertips
3)Deliverance was the place to be
Jerry's felt awful and my hand very painful so I tried a few of the moves then pretty much binned it straight off. Then went to try Green Traverse, which is a problem I've never done. Fell of the last move on my first attempt, stupidly I assumed it would be easy after the crimpy bit so didn't look at any of the holds which meant I was just papping about at the end and fell off. Greased off the crimps second go then did it. Felt hard to me, but it was greasy (got to love these excuses). G stuck to his guns and consistently fell off before the end of the problem, such dedication to failure is rare indeed. Next time he'll crush it no doubt. Tried a couple of other things but not worth writing about.
Now the sun is shining and I'm sat here with skinless fingers watching the snooker, but about to change over to the F1. Is there a lesson to be learnt here about flogging yourself in poor conditions, patience and wisdom? Probably, but I can't be arsed to work it out....

London on a weekend like this? I don't think so...

I was supposed to be going to London at the weekend to meet up with some uni mates but just couldn't face the extortionate travel on the rubbish train service into a polution hotspot for a weekend of good climbing weather miles from any good climbing. I can't quite pin down exactly why I wasn't keen to go.... It would have been really good to catch up with friends but hey-ho.
Anyway Saturday was glorious blue sky and Kirsty was all for going climbing, I was slightly less enthusiastic for two reasons:
1) It was hot and we'd invariably have picked a crag where the only thing I'd want to try would be some conditions dependent slopy skin-eating horror show.
2) I had plans to arrange a Sheffield trip for Sunday and didn't want no skin due to repeated failure on the aforementioned theoretical horror-show.
So we went for a walk and had chips and lemonade at a pub, I tell you this rock-and-roll lifestyle takes it out of you.
On Sunday we woke to overcast cool conditions. Things were looking good so we quickly loaded up the car (quickly being about an hour nowadays) and set off for Sheffield. As we got closer and closer to Hathersage the weather got worse and worse and I was starting to curse my forethought of the previous day. Arriving in Hathersage all was damp and wet but at least we could go to the wall, so not a complete washout. We went to a friends for lunch (bacon sandwich) and during consumption the weather did an abrupt about face and it was game on. Unfortunately we have a baby who needs daytime sleeps, and our friends have two babies who need daytime sleeps, and none of these daytime sleeps coincide, aaaarrggghhhh.
after some hasty delicate negotiations (anyone with kids will know the nature of these, if you don't have kids suffice it to say the the Cuban Missile Crisis negotiations are just a friendly chat down the boozer by comparison) we were out, yes! To Burbage North where we sweated at Remergance. I'd forgotten how badly it catches the sun, luckily there was a bit of a breeze so it wasn't too bad. Did all the standards which are really nice, still now after all these years of being climbed, just the epitome of classic problems on good solid grit. Then tried an eliminate on the arete problem which is basically right hand on the pinchy rib/arete left hand up to sloper and then right straight through to the top hold. Supposedly "at least 7b+" so I was quite pleasantly surprised when I did it in a few go's. It then git really hot and the wind dropped, i briefly tried Submergence and Blind Date but just couldn't battle against waning sking, strength and conditions. Back to the friends house for sausage casserole and then home happy, a nice weekend.

And as the sun sets the timid boulderer comes out of his cave.

Last night was a first. Not a first ascent of a problem or of a grade but a first night time boulder session...

...and it was awesome!
I went up to Silverdale with GCW. He wanted to go to Warton to finish some long averdue business on Debaser LH (7b+) and I wanted to go to Trowbarrow and crush Iron Man (8a) to prove to myself that my aspirations weren't pie-in-the-sky. First stop Warton just as the sun was going down, G worked the moves a bit to warm up then my homemade portable sun (don't ask) was ignited and G got down to the serious business of falling off the last move. Awesome. After several successful "last move failures" we had confirmed G's fear of success so decided to move on. At Trowbarrow it became apparent that I to feared success as I failed to crush. I was actually quite pleased with my performance and I am confident that I can do this problem, just not last night.
Anyway the main point of last night was the torch experiment which was a resounding success. I was really pleased with the torch, the light is nice and powerful and it seemsd to just light up a boulder problem sized patch of rock really well. It lasted pretty well also. I think next time it would be nice to have a low lighting lantern for rest between attempts to conserve the batteries but otherwise spot on. I don't think it would work for a "lets just go and try a few problems and see what happens" session, it's quite a bit of faffing setting up the lights etc, but for a focussed "we're going to do this/these problems" session it's ideal. Also we were expecting video to be a complete disaster but it seems to work quite well, you appear to get quite moody atmospheric shots with really sharp shadows. I've only seen it on the camcorder screen so the true acid test will come when i get it onto the computer but i think the footage looked quite reasonable and the probable loss of image quality will be offset to an extent by the atmosphere (or at least I hope so). Anyway I'll probably edit the clips and upload something even though there was no success on the climbing front, just to show the success of the lantern session.
Right I've got a nappy to change, rock and roll...

And here is a (somewhat poor) video:

Iron Man Failure By Torchlight from nik jennings on Vimeo.

Stay in bed and waste the best part of the day.

Sunday morning where else would I be at 7:30 in the morning other than entertaining a snotty son. Bob the builder rules.
Had a slightly frustrating week for several reasons. Firstly work, now I don't want to go on a big rant about this because lots of us have jobs a responsibilities and people still cope and manage their time to allow for training, climbing and relaxing but...

...well you know.

Anyway the other frustrations have also been the usual suspects:
Hot humid weather
Insects
Disappointing performance
Sore joints
Injured finger

I feel like my elderly body has been holding me back this week. Especially my hips which have been very painful (to the extent that I'm going to start on the cod liver oil). Some people seem to have young fit bodies that can absorb endless punishment and turn it into muscle, flexibility and technique. I on the other hand appear to have a prematurely aged body that can only convert physical stress into pain and injury.
Anyway after getting eaten alive at Earl on Monday I didn't climb until thursday afternoon when I went to CyL. The only thing I wanted to try there was Big Marine so I just leapt straight on it like an idiot. NOTE TO SELF: Warm up, warm up, warm up!!
Anyway it felt a bit greasy and was really hot there but at the end of the day conditions weren't bad so no excuses. I got to the last move several times and just failed to commit to trying the move. It felt very high, and due to the steepness of the problem my mat was no longer beneath me for the last move. Finally I decided to move the mat out to protect the last move as I could get to the move easily. Obviously having moved the mat out next attempt I greased of the second move and landed with my right foot on the edge of the mat twisting my ankle slightly. Great add ankle sprain to the list of injuries....
Luckily not a bad sprain, just a tweak, but enough to convince me to bin it. Went home in a strop.

Then yesterday went to Brimham with G. He was desperate to fall of the last move of The Grouch several more times. An objective he achieved with ease, good one G. I turned up en famile and we messed around at the niche just bimbling about then proceeded to get progressively more and more spanked as the temperature went through the roof. Must have been one of the hottest days of the year, gaaarrrgghhh should have been on the lime.
Anyway G had to go early then Kirsty had a go at climbing and all didn't go well, she got annoyed, Dylan needed a sleep and it was very hot. So we binned it and went home. So I didn't really get on anything of concequence. Family days out are great but not classic for getting on harder problems. Anyway felt quite frustrated in the evening, still with energy to burn but lacking the motivation to walk the 20 odd metres to the board. Then Kirsty suggested that she might go on the board. Obviously she felt the same lack of achievement as me from the days climbing, but she had the will-power to do something about it. Well that was impetus enough for me. In the end it was a good (if a bit short) session on the board. Did probably the hardest problem yet on the board which I think would probably rate about Font 7c. Font 7c isn't exactly the bleeding edge of bouldering performance but to climb 7c in a single session is pretty good for me right now, although obviously in the near future it wil be approaching a rest etc etc etc.
Anyway Bob the builder is about to finish so I'll have to go...

Midgemidgemidgemidgemidgemidgemidge.....

Went to Earl with three questionable characters. Possibly the most amusing evening I've spent getting eaten alive, which was nice.
We didn't climb in any traditional sense of the word but I got some serious sitting practice in, wild.

The Weekend Of Crush...Errrrrr.....

The weekend was spent in Sheffield. The weather looked to be OK so surely some opportunity for getting something worthwhile done outside? Well sort of...
On Saturday I was working until mid-afternoon then had time to nip out for a quick session. Time constraints meant that getting out to the lime wasn't possible so instead decided to go to the Plantation and give Jerry's Traverse a bash. Jerry's is obviously a uber-classic problem at an uber-classic venue. It is also a problem that I have never really tried (beyond giving the last move a go several years ago...). I was there with Rick who is (like most people) decidedly taller than I. We both managed to work all the moves, I was expecting to have an easier time of it than Rick as part of the problem is very cramped. However this short cramped section is more than offset by the fact that pretty much all the other moves on the problem felt VERY stretched for me. Anyway it was very hot (well into the twenties I imagine) and humid and still so the problem was not crushed. I'm fairly confident that in favourable conditions I could link this, or maybe I'm just making excuses....
Sunday was a family trip out (Ricks family, not mine) so we went to Cratcliffe/RHS. The kids did a bit of climbing as did Mrs Rick. I was relly impressed with Mrs Ricks climbing, she seems to have really got her head straight for bouldering right now. Nice one.
Anyway after a brief warm up (throwing a stick for the dog) Rick and I got onto T-Crack. This is another uber-classic problem that I've never tried however Rick has tried it before. Sadly he has the worst memory for sequences ever, lots of vague references to double toe hooks, campusing and heel hooks. In the end I just ignore him and work out a very simple sequence to get to the last move, which then promptly shuts me down completely. To be honest conditions weren't great (good excuse hey?) all the holds felt damp to the touch and again I'm sure I could do it in good conditions (the to-do list is growing). After this failure I decided to go round the corner and try Jerry's Traverse. If I couldn't do the uber-classic Stanage version maybe I could do the not quite so classic (and easier) Crattcliffe version? First attempt I got to the crux move, a match on a sloping break in the middle of the traverse, and promptly dropped off. Did the move in isolation, no problem, then had another couple of goes from the start and fell off at the same point - arse. The realised the problem (beyond me being weak and inflexible). I had taped my left ring finger as it has developed a slight injury and when I got the slopy hold the tape was rolling off my finger making the hold feel very insecure so making the match too difficult for me. Obviously a beast would just bone down and cruise through, but for me I have to maximise my potential for success by making these small tweaks. So tape removed and next go, in the bag. Felt pretty straightforward in the end, unsurprising really given it isn't exactly a technique-fest.
Oh well not the glorious tickathon I was hoping for but pleased with the Jerrys tick (and the fact that it happened pretty quickly) and on a crispy dry day I think both the other problems will go. I guess the acid test will be whether I go back when I do get the good conditions.
Back to work now and feeling pretty blasted actually, on the board tomorrow then outside later in the week and at the weekend. Right now I just want to get lots of mileage and consolidate 7c. Also keen to get back up to Trowbarrow when good conditions coincide with me feeling good and do Iron Man (8a) to convince myself that the ultimate plan isn't ridiculously beyond realisation. I also need to work on flexibility big time and maybe look into getting a structured training schedule together to get the basic burl required. Although to be honest that's not really my bag so I'll probably just stick to my unfocussed messing and hope it all comes together....

The Longest Journey Starts With A Single Step...

Right as an arbritary start point I have picked last night. Obviously I have climbed previous to last night but for the purposes of this objective last night was DAY 1.
So what momentous event heralded the start? Well a trip to a pretty rubbish indoor wall. I went to West View with G, it was my second day on so I was feeling a bit tired and sore before starting which probably didn't help with my impression of the venue. We had been thinking of going outside to CyL but as I got into Preston it was lightly raining and there appeared to be some very black clouds on the horizon. We could probably have gone to CyL and done something, but there is nothing there that has really grabbed me so motivation would have been low. I think indoors was the right decision. Anyway West View could be quite good I imagine, it has a reasonable surface area of wall at a variety of angles. But it just isn't. The problems were generally poor in my opinion. What makes a poor problem (and conversely a good problem) is not something I can give a sefinitive scientific answer to. A dark art indeed. Anyway I was generally disapointed with my performance, I didn't feel light, strong or co-ordinated. Not a great start, oh well in Sheffield at the weekend maybe things will look up then.

Why a blog?

Why have I started a blog? What makes me think that my life would interest anybody to the extent that they would wish to read a collection of muddled, random musings? To be honest, absolutely nothing. This blog is to perform one simple function and that is to provide me with a means to monitor my progress in achieving a goal in a specific timeframe. Should it fail in that respect then I will cease to post and it will (like so many things on the internet) wither and die. Given the very specific nature of this blog I see no reason to attempt to promote it to a wider audience than myself. As such if you are reading this and you are not me then I would suggest that you may want to move on to a blog which has been written with the reader in mind. If however you find yourself fascinated with snippets of my life and opinions then get yourself a warm drink, a piece of cake, settle in that comfy chair and read on.....

So what goal am I hoping to achieve? That is easily summarised in a short sentence:

"I wish to climb a Font 8a boulder problem on my trip to Fontainebleau in Easter 2009."

What does that mean? Well to most people absolutely nothing, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to provide further definition on the basics of climbing, grading and Fontainebleau. Suffice it to say that if you are still reading this (why?) and you want to know more then search the net, the information is out there. However I am willing to paint a fuller picture of who I am and why I have this goal. I am a 33 year male from the UK who for the purposes of this blog goes by the name of Keeg. I have been climbing for about 13 years however in recent years real life (job, family, mortgage etc etc) have interfered with my climbing obsession. I have recently rediscovered my motivation to climb and so am aiming to match my previous best bouldering performance. And where else to climb Font 8a than Fontainebleau (well Switzerland springs to mind...).

Hello World

I believe it is traditional in the world of computing that when familiarising yourself with a new programming language for example the first step is to write a "HELLO WORLD" program. This is simply a program that when run will cause the text HELLO WORLD to appear on the screen. In the interests of sticking with tradition here goes:

...HELLO WORLD...