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...