I'm back....

Right then lets start this new year as we mean to go on.
My last meaningful post was at the end of October and since then I have....
ummmm
I'm not really sure what I did in November, which suggests I didn't do very much.
I think that I mostly worked a few things that are currently a bit (or a lot) beyond me and was frustrated by the weather and work schedule. In fact thinking back November was a frustrating month because I was desperate to get out and climb but every tiime I did it was not good conditions. Some beasts can just crush through these things but kitten weak me needs everything just so. There was quite a lot of visiting the wall in November, which is very expensive and whilst lots of fun probably doesn't have the same training value as sticking to the board. That's not to say I regret doing it, I don't, just that in terms of absolute maximum gain achieveable the board would have been the ideal choice. However that is to discount one factor which in my case plays a huge part in my ability to train and that is motivation. I think I needed a break from trying to achieve these goals I had set myself, and November was it. As it happens it was a break of unplanned circumstance rather than scheduled rest, and I was still climbing pretty actively. But in terms of focussing on targets and such-like it was a bit of downtime. I can't say it felt like a great month of rest and such like at the time but looking back it apppears to have served it's purpose. In as much as a totally unplanned sequence of events can have a purpose at least.
Anyhoo, on to December. I got a couple of things ticked. A couple of 7a things at Burbage South boulders which were OK but nothing spectacular. Flashed Beachball at Secret Garden and did Zaf's Problem which was nice but took me several more attempts than it should have done due to incompetence, hey-ho...
Also visited Stoney in a day of rubbish weather and did two or three of the dynos there, quite good fun but useless in terms of getting better at climbing. Beats sulking in a cafe though.
Then it was off to the Isle of Man for Christmas with the in-laws. Now climbing on the Isle of Man is not great. The rock quality is pretty poor to be honest and it doesn't really lend itself to bouldering in a big way. It is probably good for adventure style trad, but that isn't really my bag. Even when I was a route climber I only ever stuck to short solid grit routes and whilst the idea of going for it on some not entirely solid sea cliff does have a certain romantic "the road less travelled" appeal I think I'd lose my resolve at the uncoiling the ropes at the start of the day stage if I'm being honest. This sin't helped by the fact that the last time I did a route on the Isle of Man the butress I was climbing on fell down a couple of days later. Anyway the bouldering is limited but there are some reasonable bits. The big problem is it's all tidal, and at this time of year daylight hours are short so awkward tide times can mean no real prospect of climbing. However I managed to get a couple of decent sessions in and did a couple of projects from previous visits. One is a sit start to a stand up 7a/+ ish wall problem which goes at about 7b/+ and the other an sitter to a 7a arete which is a steep bulging rounded slappy arete at about 7c. There is also a traverse into this arete which is yet to go, I think it would be pushing towards 8a when it goes, but time will tell. Obviously these grades are doubtless innacurate as they have had only one ascent (to my knowledge) and I doubt there will be huge queues forming to repeat them. Anyway there is a nice circuit of about a dozen or so problems in this spot now ranging from pretty easy to pretty desperate so I might put a little guide together, obviously it will never get used but thats like 99% of all the stuff on the internet anyway.
And then back to Blighty. On the 29th I got the ferry to Heysham. The family were staying over on the Isle of Man for an extra couple of days so just me and the dog which suited me fine because I had sneaky plans to pop up to Trowbarrow from Heysham before heading home for a quick hour or two on a nemesis. Iron Man is the sit start to Vitruvian Man on the Shelter stone. Vitruvian Man is a 7c and Iron Man gets 8a. Previously I had been geting to the first move of Vitruvian Man (a hard slap out right) but lacked the uumph to do the move. I was confident that if I could do that first move of Vitruvian Man after having done the sitter then I could do the rest of the problem. I also had picked up a sneaky bit of foot beta from watching a video of Adam on Vitruvian which I was hoping would help. It certainly made the first move of Vitruvian feel much steadier when done in isolation however on the first couple of attempts I still felt powered out by the time I got the move, aaaaargh....
Conditions were pretty good, it was very cold but dry. However there are, for me, two critical holds on Iron Man, the first is a blobby pinch at the top of a groove near the start, and the second is the left hand pinch which is the starting hold of Vitruvian. When the blobby pinch is feeling good the slap up with the left to the Vitruvian starting hold feels solid however it was feeling very glassy and almost frictionless so I was pinching the arse out of it which is obviously a bit tiring. The Vitruvian starting hold pinch also felt very glassy, for the stand-up this isn't so bad because you just pull on and immediately throw out right then you can move your left up to the next hold so you are only on the pinch for a short time, you can also get it really well as a pinch before you pull on so you are in the optimum position. However for the sitter you are hanging on to this left hand pinch for ages, I do a totally of nine "movements" with my left on this hold and for most of that my left hand is taking the majority of my weight. Also I can't get the pinch in the optimum position from the sitter and due to the postioning of my body I twist my left hand off the pinch as I go up so it is in an increasingly poor orientation to use the hold. Anyway all of that combined with the glassiness of these two holds meant that after a quick warm-up, work the moves and then a couple of goes I was feeling less than optimistic. So I decided to throw a stick for the dog for fifteen minutes, get a good rest and then throw everything at it in one last hurrah. So fifteen minutes later, boots are clean, hands are chalked, holds are brushed, mats are positioned, dog is watching I pull on do the first few moves then slip of an easy move, aaaaargh....
I resisted the temptation to leap back on and instead have another few minutes scootling about. Then brush holds, hit rock with towel, clean boots, chalk hands, a couple of deep breaths and away we go. The start felt easy and I got the left hand starting hold of Vitruvian. Now comes a sequence of several moves to get the right hand starting hold. Each one seems to make my grip on the left hand pinch slightly worse but I get to the position, position the left foot on the edge, put in the right toe-hook and it feels just perfect. By now the left hand feels pretty poor and ther's no way to re-position, and I wouldn't have the reserves even if there was so I just throw the right hand for the big hold, catch it, the left foot comes of and I'm desperately bearing down with my left hand on this glassy pinch trying to fight the barn-door. But my left hand is at completely the wrong angle and it feels like it won't stick but I just try a hold the body position, keep the toe hooked, keep tension and then the pull of the barn-door is controlled, a quick repositioning of my feet and then slap my left hand up for a good hold. Hit the hold and start feeling confident now, just a couple of moves left now. But the next move, up to the top with the left, feels a loooooong way. Adjust feet and just throw for it, it's all a bit wild and graceless but I'm wasted now so it's just an all out fight. Hit the hold, sort feet, match and then top out like a beached whale - nice.
Obviously the above all happened in a handfull of seconds, rather than the several minutes it sounds like.
But 8a ticked by the end of the year (just). Which was the first aim, now it's serious consolidation time, hit the board and it's game on for Font. Time to get the tick-list refined.
The final thing I would say is that generally when I get to the top of a problem I tend to think it was easier than I thought it would be, not this. It felt like the living end. And that's great.

I have also constructed a UK ticklist of 10 problems for this year. I'll not reproduce here because doubtless everyone who reads this (if anybody does) will have seen the list elsewhere. I think the list is partly made up of realistic achieveable goals, and partly hopelessly optimistic. But time will tell :o)

Oh and just to take the wind out of my sails, I went to Stanage on the 30th to try Jerry's traverse which was on my 2008 ticklist and got completely shut-down in a total and quite depressing way. Although I was very sore and tired after Iron Man the day before and I think conditions weren't great (an old excuse but a good 'un) as the Plantation was shrouded in mist and the slopers were feeling quite glassy to me. Oh well next year, or should that be this year now?

Sorry for writing so much about so little in such excrutiating detail.

Happy New Year.