This is the end...

I've kind of fallen out of love with this blog, not that I ever was in love with it but you know what I mean. It's more than run it's course I think. I have thoughts for something new, a fresh start if you like, but I won't make promises I can't keep.
Anyway I think this is goodbye, it's been emotional.

It's A dog's Life

Yesterday I went out to Cow's Mouth Quarry, a local-ish venue, with a view to trying Daytona Wall and Daytona Wall Direct. Last year I did Boldness Through Ignorance which is on the same buttress and had seen that the other routes looked good so I had harboured ideas of a return visit. I turned up and visually the lines looked dry and clean, there was a bit of dampness in the depths of some low down cracks and breaks but that was easily avoided and the higher face appeared dry. The original route Daytona Wall takes a rising traverse line, starting on the far left and topping out to the right. There is also a direct start, and a direct finish. Daytona Wall gets E5, the Direct Start and Direct Finish are also both E5.
I decided to try the Directs first. The direct start is actually pretty straight-forward, maybe slightly harder than the original start but not a lot in it. The middle bit (which is common to all three lines) was surprisingly technical but a delightful move once I hit the right sequence. Then it's a couple of long but easy reaches to find yourself a move or two below the top at a couple of holds in a thin break. At this point Daytona Wall head off right to an obvious and easy finish. I was keen for the direct finish though. It all seemed pretty obvious, reach up with the right to a slightly gaston-y hold, high left foot in the break, rock-on and reach the top. I went for the gaston-y hold with my right hand and felt very stretched out, too stretched out?? I tried to get my foot up to the break but (as a short inflexible old man) I could only just get my toe up to the edge of the foothold, I tried to waggle it further onto the hold, and a bit of the part I was stood on crumbled under my foot, hmmm... A couple more waggles and the foots on, phew. But now I can't move up, the foot is too high and is fouling on my left arm so I can't get any weight onto it. This is getting a bit tense now. Right move my left arm, put my left hand back on the same hold but this time with my arm under my leg. Right now I can move, get weight onto the foot and up to the top, sheesh. The dog stops crying.
Back down to the bottom, give the dog a fuss, then off up the original line. This goes easily, it just flows really nicely and is over very quickly and with no fuss, although having done the direct start and finsh and Boldness Through Ignorance I've done the vast majority of the climbing before so it's hardly on-sight.
I think Daytona Wall is an excellent quarried grit E5, I also think combining the directs as a solo is well worth E6, that top move felt hard to me. However I have a sneaking suspicion that it may (only may, I certainly couldn't say for sure) be possible to arrange some gear in the top break before the final hard move, which would probably get it back down to E5.
I'm really feeling keen for some trad this season.

Report from the Font line...

Well I'm back from Font. It was great weather, there were no kids to consider and I was rubbish.
Something about PPPPPP, prior preparation prevents and all that...
A summer of sport climbing is all well and good, but it certainly doesn't set you up well for a cheeky week of power in Font come the Autumn, especially when coupled with finger injury the week before departure. Lesson well and truly learned. This was compounded by the fact I felt rough for the whole week. I got home to discover I'd lost half a stone in weight, whilst holidaying in the land of the pastry, indicative of a serious case of consumption I'd say.
Anyway nothing of any note got ticked but a good time was had and I finally did El Poussif which has been a bogey problem of mine for several years. I've consistently tried it each year and it's always felt like it would go but I've reliably fallen short of the top. This Easter's trip I gave it a miss for the first time in several years, and then last week bosh first attempt it goes down, and feels pretty steady, and in front of a gang of young French hot(ish)-shots who then go on to fail on it for a couple of hours (well OK they obviously weren't anything like hot-shots, but they were French and young so the point stands). On a trip like this you need to take all the victories you can, no matter how trivial, so yay for me.
Maybe I should follow Keiths example and lock myself in a garage with a collection of dirty small crimps and a steep board...
Toodle-pip, what? what?

Phew, that was close...

After my finger misery of the last post I continued to wallow in a depressed funk and was generally grumpy, not a great pleasure to be around for that time. Anyway come Saturday the finger, whilst still uncomfortable and not right, felt as though it could be climbed on. Obviously when I say it could be climbed on what I mean is any intelligent rational person would rest for a few more days and monitor progress before diving in at the deep end but obsession being what it is I climbed.
A delightful day was had with the Guru, the rare treat being a complete lack of curfew, this makes days out so much more pleasurable and relaxed. Guru made good progress on his chosen target and I likewise made inroads on a (hopefully) short term goal. The climbing was (or certainly felt) fingery and powerful so provided an adequate test-bed for finger damage assessment. And the verdict was that whilst it wasn't right, it wasn't that wrong either. Woop woop. Or so I thought...

Roll forward to Monday evening and I decide to try the board. The warm up went fine, although I still felt a bit stiff and sore from Saturday (it was a long day), and even the circuit went OK, two and a half laps (a couple of moves shy of my best) but then onto the power problems. Oooof, the finger didn't feel so good then. Hmmmm, a bit of thinking about things led me to what is a pretty obvious truth, sometimes when you think you're pulling hard on routes, you're just not. On the board or perhaps bouldering are when you really pull down.

Anyway whilst out on Saturday the Guru and I discussed our aims for the coming winter on grit and we both appear to be suffering from the same malaise towards grit bouldering. There's still problems out there to do, but the buzz isn't quite there. At first I thought maybe this was because (in my case at least) I wanted to cling onto the remains of the sport season and get a tick or two done. But a bit more analysis led me to the conclusion that the routes were calling, maybe it's time for me to get back on the trad? And to that end I think I'll spend the afternoon surveying a couple of local prospects. Cheery-bye...

Bum bum bum.

I'm not a happy camper.
Last night I had a board session with Pasty and Memory Man (a newcomer to the fold). It was an enjoyable session, Pasty was looking stronger again on the steep stuff pulling on smaller holds and even his footwork seemed more crisp and precise. Memory Man struggled with the steepness but had pretty good positional awareness and reasonable strength in his arms and core, his fingers were his weak link (and footwork of course...). Anyway it was a fairly steady session with a healthy ratio of chat to climb. I didn't want to push too much as my left hand split tip was still at a critical re-splitting stage which would mean back to square one.

Roll forward to this morning and I am woken in the early hours by pain in my right ring finger and wrist, WTF?? This pain grows throughout the early hours making sleep difficult and causing my mood to deteriorate rapidly. Breakfasting the family and dressing Lard was undertaken through gritted teeth (caused by pain and poor mood) and now all family members are packed off to work/playgroup I've had a chance to assess the damage. My thoughts are thus:
1) This is very annoying
2) I don't think it's a pulley thing in the finger, it doesn't feel like it is and I don't remember doing anything last night that felt poppy.
3) I think the finger is probably some sort of lateral straining, I have noticed recently that my fingers have felt weak and painful when a lateral force is applied so I think I've aggravated this. I'm hoping it's just some light bruising/straining type thing and it will clear up in a day or two.
4) This is very annoying as I was hoping to get out and (assuming I could find dry rock) I was optimistic about getting some sport ticking ticked.
5) I am more concerned by the wrist pain, this is currently the less painful area but I think this has to be tendon (or some supporting structure) that has taken a hit. Again I don't remember anything that pulled it but that's all I can think of given the area/nature of the discomfort (as I dredge up anatomy from the far recesses of my mind...). Luckily this isn't so painful so I hope this is a minor tweak which will again sort itself in a day or two. My worry is that it could be a longer term problem, visions of G-lanks multi month rehab from pulley poppage...
6) This is very annoying as I'm going to Font in two weeks.
7) I'm annoyed.

Anyway enough negative stuff, I'll go off and concentrate on mending...

Sunday at Chapel.

Can't believe that pun hasn't occured to me before now...

But first Friday on the board. Another reasonable session on the board, getting even closer to the long term project, the top now feels like a formality (after initially feeling desperate). The first "slap" is feeling more and more static, I've still not properly held the hold but I'm definitely hanging it for a brief period of time. Yes that makes no sense, so sue me. Also managed to get one more move on the circuit, three laps is close now. All of this is very boring though, reading about moves I can do a few times or moves I can't do once which aren't even made of real rock on a poxy home board that you've quite likely never seen. Maybe I'll sort out a bit of video of it, still dull, but even more self-indulgent on my part...
Anyway the bad thing about the Friday training session was a left middle finger split tip, annoyingly postioned for Sundays plans which I hoped to involve pulling down hard on shallow left hand two finger undercuts. Bugger.

Saturday was epic in length, constant activity from 6am until 2am Sunday morning then up again at 6am Sunday morning feeling a little jaded. But the weather was nice so myself and Lard packed up the car and hit the road. Mrs Me's enthusiasm to come along that she expressed at the tail end of last nights activities had strangely dissapeared in a mere 4 hours of sleep, odd. A blast accross and up the motorway saw us once again trudging across the scree to Chapel Head and it was rather wet. Sexpest and family arrived shortly and discussions were had about staying or heading for pastures alternate. Sexpest had the final word, we stayed (I agreed with his view, after all Surfing With The Alien was dry enough to try). So SP and Mrs SP set about warming up on a route that was approximately 18 miles long while I stuck some clips in Surfing. After they'd returned to terra firma and recovered from altitude sickness I had a dabble on Surfing and gave it a brush, then a rest then redpoint one. I surprised myself by getting through the crux move then my foot popped, bum. Then a bit more dabbling with the third clip (which is really hard), SP had a play and slightly refined the footwork to good effect (still nails mind). I had another couple of red-points, my best effort being getting the third clip (back clipped mind, doh) and then falling. Doesn't sound like much but that's only one move from having done all the hard climbing (leaving only a bit fairly easy stuff and the fickle conditionsy last move). Anyway my skin was VERY sore and the split was growing at a quite alarming rate so I binned it feeling sure that any further attempts would be less successful and more painful. The SP family persevered with their mountaineering efforts, surely they both ticked 8,000 metres. I had a rubbish play on Zantom Phone where I just managed to make myself appear completely incompetent and I confirmed my suspicions that I was very tired and pretty much climbed out.
So Surfer is definitely on, I got close today and about the only two postive things were (1) that I had a pre-worked sequence that only needed minimal tweaking and (2) SP had provided SYKE in the form of 13 wolf power fleece, monster. Whereas the negatives were (1) conditions were not amazing (but to be fair it wasn't awful either) (2) I was very much tired and not on top form (3) skin issues in the critical postion on the critical finger on the critical hand. Next time it should go.

Monday evening I tried to have a board session, I warmed up on monster holds and felt a bit sore and tired but OK. Then I got on the circuit, which has some smaller holds, and it just felt like the split was being ripped apart. Not good, so I binned it. I now feel like I could hit the board tonight and have a good session apart from the split, a bit frustrating. Maybe I'll chance it...

Positive Person, Negative Environment.

How many posts with a weather theme? Jesus. I feel weirdly positive about my climbing right now. Given the lack of climbing I'm doing, both outside and on the board, I feel like I'm actually going reasonably well. On with the "thingz wot I hav dun" bit...

Last Thursday Lank and Pasty came round for an evening session on the board. A quick brew on arrival and then on to the board. It was another pretty good session which left me with a problem to come back to. Both Lank and Pasty seemed to have improved their footwork, although there was still evidence of some shocking foot-pops, tut-tut. Pasty definitely seems to be adjusting to the steepness well and was looking pretty strong, I think he might have a Winter of CRUSH if things carry on in this vein. Lank spent the evening trying to devise problems that revolved around doing a massive reach beyond mine and Pasty's span, so no change there then. Amongst his lank based machinations he managed to pull down in a convincing fashion. It's good having guests come to the wall as:
1) It gets me out there climbing on it.
2) I end up trying new and different style problems and linking holds in ways I hadn't considered.
3) Group sessions last longer and are more evenly paced.
This is all good stuff but I also need to get the keenie-beanie-ness to head out there seulment and put the effort in. Beasts aren't born they're built. Or something equally cheesey, right?

Saturday I popped up to Kebs with the family, the weather was grim. I didn't climb but I collected a Clip Stick that I've purchased off Nemo The Grumpy Teenage Fish (who incidentally appears to be going quite well right now, if he starts wearing trousers that fit him he might be not bad at climbing).

Sunday I had planned for a regular education session in the presence of the grand master Sex Pest at Chapel Head. The weather had different plans (i'll say no more about the weather) so I headed to Rubicon to meet up with Lank, Rick and Lagers. Now lets just get this clear from the off, I don't like Rubicon. It's all very nice next to the water leafy pretty blah blah but I find the climbing (bouldering) unpleasant and silly. The problems all seem to either be jump starts (which are just silly) or the crux is pulling off the ground (which is silly) or dirty hard sit starts (which aren't silly, well they are but in a different impressive way). Anyway I had a pleasant time despite the climbing. I think me and Lagers both agreed that the way to be amazing at climbing is to come to the crag with a ready supply of pastries and coffee. Sadly I didn't. ANyway afterwards I went for a cake and brew with Lank at Outside and made the extravagant purchase of some liquid chalk. Clip-stick, liquid chalk, just paint me in lycra and call me sport boy. I'm hoping the magic of liquid chalk (coupled with the granting of my wish for more PE and stamina) will change my current sporting vogue for failure into a lengthy line of ticks. Cake slices in Longlands are massive by the way.
Monday evening I went on the board with Mrs Keeg. She is also in training for Font-Oktoberfest and is looking like she's got the bit between her teeth. She's actually pretty handy at climbing in an annoyingly natural way but at times lacks focus and SYKE. Good to see her pulling down and going for (and hitting) moves which most times she'd not even attempt. I had a dabble of my circuit, it's about 16 moves and steep. My strategy is to go round as many time as I can without a rest, then take as long a rest as feels enough then go again (and theoretically repeat this process but I tend to get bored after attempt number 2 and move on to one or two move power problems...). Anyway when I first devised the circuit I could just do one lap and noow I'm up to two and a half laps. I think three laps is just round the corner and I think if I can do four laps then I will have the cling-on-ability to do my LTG sports project (which will then be replaced with a new harder project in the endless cycle of climbing...). I then went on to power problems (I am aware that mixing training like this is not considered optimum training but it's more fun and I'm all about the fun). I surprised myself by doing at the first attempt a problem that was devised at the previous group session on the board, I then worked a longer term project. It has a very hard first move then a hard few moves to the top. The top moves I have linked (albeit unreliably) but the first move is way off. Anyway today I did the top moves a few times in a row and they felt steady and for the first time ever I got my fingers into the pocket that you slap for the first move and for the merest sliver of a second I held it. I dunno where this apparent improvement has come from (god knows I've done nothing to deserve it) but I 'aint complainin'. It has however motivated me, the sport season is coming to an end and it has been thus for less than successful, and I have a Font trip coming at the end of October. I think the time has come to take this motivation and turn it into CRUSH.

September is drawing to a close, hopefully if the fates and the stars align October could be a month where things happen. And it's about bloody time...