Wet Pooh

Went to West View (rhymes with wet pooh, the title, geddit? Funny huh?) last night with G-lah and The Man Of A Thousand Pastry Products. G-lah was complaining that everything wasn't reachy enough for him or some such nonsense, I stopped listening to be honest, but he seemed to be going pretty well. Pastry also seemed to be gunning for glory, maybe if he stops making the schoolboy error of a skin softening, muscle tiring pre climb swim he'll be tearing it up.

I, for the first time this year, felt like I could actually climb. I didn't feel light or strong or anything, but just like I could at some point in the future be lighter and stronger. I still feel like I will forever be completely inflexible though. Anyway, hopefully this trend can continue upwards to pinnacle at the start of April, coinciding nicely with the annual Fontstravaganza. So projects outside and trip forthcoming, time to get the bouldering burl. And then after Easter I can unleash it on the bolted lime to tidy up last years unfinished business.

I'm off to build a fingerboard, ciao.

Local projects for local people...

I was recently moaning to the Guru about the fact that to get stuck into a hard project I need to drive for an hour and there isn't anything near by. He nodded in his wise way and then suggested a venue that may yield fruits a little closer to home. I explained that I had visited said venue and felt it was not really worthy of further exploration. The conversation moved on to talk of chocolate and why my wife is trying to poison me with de-caf coffee, but the thought was in my head. Maybe I should revisit this place for one last search for esoteric gold?

A few days later I found myself with an empty lunch hour stretching before me so hopped in the van and headed out to quest. And lo the scales were removed from my eyes, what had previously seemed a damp and dirty venue was actually revealed to be...


Well still and damp and dirty venue if I'm being honest, but there was potential. A few more visits and the lines were slowly revealing themselves to me, and now I've climbed all the problems that I can climb relatively quickly I'm left with a handful of truly difficult problems to work and work and work. I doubt any of them will be below 8B, and I doubt I'll ever do any of them, but I can try. And it's close to home so I can try a lot. It reminds me of my time spent at Rivelin Quarries, and that is when things start to happen. When you get your focus on one or two problems that you can easily get to regularly. Exploit the good conditions when they happen and hope that you can become equal to the challenge. I feel inspired.

I've also been to South Lakes and Almscliff and done nothing, which puts a slight dampner on proceedings but hey-de-ho.

Climbing in a Winter wonderland.

I wanted to hit the new year running in terms of climbing. My hope was to get out several times in the first week or so of the year to get my body and mind back up to speed on the climbing front after the Christmas lull. Obviously this hasn't happened, I dunno why I bother coming up with schemes as they seemingly never come to fruition, hey-ho. Anyway a combination of heavy snow, car problems, chasing up late payments and feeling a bit heavy and unmotivated has meant that this early dash hasn't thus far materialised.
On Monday I paid a visit to Rochdale wall, which was OK. I went there because in these freezing temperatures it is difficult to build up a lot of enthusiasm for going on the board (or it is right now), I think once I'm back in the swing of climbing the board will be excellent but it just felt a bit hardcore, so the wall it was. It was very quiet, not that surprising given the weather. I had a reasonable session doing something completely new, there were some (four I think?) link up problems which I had a play on. I'd normally just go for a pure power bouldering session so it was interesting to try something a bit different. Anyway I managed to tick them which I was a bit surprised about, maybe last years sport climbing antics have improved my fitness. I would say this though, if you do go there and try the links I think the grades offered are a bit wide of the mark, but then what would I know?
Yesterday I ventured up to Silverdale. I had a quick look at At The Heart Of It All and it is just crazy hard, but I'm still tempted to play. Then I went back to Anna which I got done in quick order, it felt significantly easier when not as glassy as a glassy thing. I had a brief play on Anaesthesia, the moves are hard but not that bad, but man is there a lot of them. Anyway the final port of call was Not Bad Dave SDS, I've spent far too many sessions on this. I managed to finally flounder my way up it, thank god, I'll never be getting on it again. It feels dirty hard to me.
As for the conditions, Anaesthesia was dry (although some of the feet were a bit soggy), Toms roof area was pretty seepy and damp, a few problems would have been try/dry-able but conditions were not primo, Not Bad Dave SDS was dry apart from one of the starting undercuts which was slightly damp but easily dryable, At The Heart Of It All was dry but most of the other problems there were damp. Also several roads had large sections of sheet ice which made for entertaining driving conditions. It was snowing as I left so it may all be white/wet now.

The board tonight I think, need to feed the SYKE.

Happy New Year

Went out for the first time this year yesterday. A trip up to Silverdale with the G-unit. I was hopeful for a not too shabby performance as ongoing underlying plague infection over the festive period meant weight gain was probably at a minimum (although I have no measure of this fact so could be very wrong).

Anyway it wasn't to be, at Warton after doing Plubline in a few goes I then failed to do the crux move on Ebeneezer Goode and failed to do the Poison extension. Then on to Woodwell where I failed to do Anna, then failed to do anything else at all. Rubbish.

Oh well, things were pretty dry up there, though I guess they may not be now. But it was incredibly glassy, which is hardly surprising as G was predicting -4 as the max temp, so friction was pretty much non-existant. I think once the year and myself have warmed up a bit then some of these should get crushed/satched/rinsed/whatever.

Snowing like a very snowy thing now so I think it's going to be a week of board work to get the body firing again then out and about for a tour of CRUSH/DISAPPOINTMENT*

* delete as appropriate.

Brief update

Went to Trollers, it was wet.
Went to Almscliff, did Real Keel, woop woop!
Went to Trollers, it was not quite so wet.
Went to Almscliff, worked Dialectics.
C'est tout.
Now I am ill and about to go to the Isle of Man, it would seem the climbing year will be going out with a whimper rather than a bang.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Common features to this blog...

have mostly been the rain. How can it rain so consistently for so long?
Anyway, I thought I'd do a post just to prove I'm not dead. Recent activity on the climbing front has almost exclusively revolved around the board. It is growing holds at a reasonable rate and the number of problems is on the increase, however I do worry slightly that the new holds I'm making are generally a bit bigger than the holds that I was using when it was a 25. This isn't of itself a big problem as lots of the 25 holds are currently totally unusable by me at 40. But I am aware that I may never find them usable if I just stick to pulling on the new slightly bigger holds, to get to the point where I can use the smaller holds I need to be pushing right at my limit. Time will tell...
Also G-bob visited the board for a session which was excellent, it forces me to try new problems (invariably involving huge spans utilising G-lank) which I'd never think of for myself as I'd just discount them as too far. Training (which is a word that suggests a level of structure and discipline that is entirely lacking from my regime) alone is difficult, motivation is difficult and you almost always end up stuck in a rut of working only one facet of climbing. Maybe I should get a climbing lodger...

Aside from the board I have been out a couple of times, I'm still trying sport and I have found another new project line. I've done all the moves bar one (wet hold prevented an attempt) but I'm thinking the link will be hard work, we'll see.
Also went to West View with G-bob and Ginnster. It's been done up and is a big improvement on what was there before. I don't think the Depot and the Works need to panic but it is a more viable training option now. However the campus board is at the wrong angle and it's textured surface will yield painful tips pretty rapidly IMHO. La-de-da, I had a pretty good session there, managing most stuff I tried, but burning out pretty quickly. I think this may be a bit of post viral lethargy from an ongoing cold/cough/flu/consumption thing I've had. Or maybe I'm just the same old tragically unfit punter I always was.
Also went to the Works at the weekend, I really like it there and had a good time. I had lard in tow and he had the time of his life running round shouting. The trouble is the place is so big that I just throw myself in and get worn out. I'd like it to be nearer, and me to have membership, then I could go regularly and work through the problems, get on the comp wall and flail on the Beast-board. As it is I invariably end up there for an hour or two, generally with lard in tow and just rush at a few things. It's still good fun but I really don't think I get as much out of it as I could, but then that's obvious.
This week looks wet, hopefully next week will be better.

Is it raining, I hadn't noticed...

Bastard weather, bloody bastard weather, bloody bastard twating weather. Arse cakes bum fart pooh.

It is wet, it has been wet, it will always be wet. G helpfully counts the wet and dry days on his blog. Well no need any more just use this:
Wet days - infinite
Dry days - ha-ha-bloody-ha
This is annoying, I have things to do, projects to climb. The list of sport routes was growing at an uncontrollable rate before wet weather put pay to ever ticking anything. Now it's gone into overdrive, I went out with the guru yesterday and everything was wet. I came back with at least 8 new lines I'm desperate to try. That's a whole seasons worth of climbing, and then some. Add in the existing backlog of routes to do and it becomes clear the treadmill is turning significantly faster than I can run.
Frustratingly I have just reached a point where I am confident that the couple of things I am keen to get ticked are now possible for me, of course when they next dry I'll be fat and have no stamina at all (which is an important if small step below practically non-existant stamina, my current level).
Next week looked like it might be promising when I last looked but things are now so very wet I think I may just have to get on the boulders and rekindle my affair with filthy sport next year. Time (and precipitation) will tell.
Anyway all this moisture has meant a session or two on the board. I haven't managed to persuade anyone to come over and play so far and I rapidly become a bit bored of devising problems (I always seem to end up using the same holds just in a slightly different order). Of course this means I end up trying some of the silly party tricks that we climbers are so very fond of.
Last night I managed 3 one-armers on the right and 2 on the left, which is nice.
I also managed to lock a mono (feet on, other hand off, 40 degree board) which I was pleased with. In fact I made some monos and two finger pockets last week and I really enjoy (failing to) pull on them. It's a very different hand position to an edge and feels totally weird (and injury causing) to start with. But now I'm feeling the love (until the injuries start...).

Oh well, I've got to go and stir my lovely homemade soup (sweet potato, carrot and roasted peppers since you asked) a sure sign that winter is coming.

A merry bonfire night to you all.