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....