Photo by Adam Long

For some reason I failed to mention that a month or so ago I climbed Johnny Dawes’s two amazing slabs; Angel Share and Jumping on a Beetle at Black Rocks.
These we originally climbed as routes and as they have no protection were given pretty high E grades. I wanted to climb these routes ground up with out breaking every bone in my body, so I padded it out- think I had about 8 pads in total.
I have tried to get onto the slab once or twice before but failed to do the hard weird mantle onto a chipped rail start. Some how this session (must have been all the one legged squats I have been doing!) I got up first go. I wasn’t really expecting this and was then faced with climbing Jumping on a Beetle. The first move is the hardest, which is a weird step through once you have trusted your foot you then just carefully climb up some gritty pebbles to the top.
I managed this first go today, so next up was Angel Share. There is literally nothing for your hands on this except a thin seam at the top that is hard to get anything from anyway. So this involved the same mantle start as Jumping and you just had to have an unbelievable amount of trust in feet and pad up the slab.
I think was one of my favourite slabs because you had to think so much about body positioning and weighting your feet correctly, which is what I love and am reasonably good at.
I took quite a few big falls from the top but eventually managed to scrabble my way over the very sloppy top out.
Next up is Velvet Silence the classic of the block…might have to wait till next winter now though.
 

Andy, Val, and Jo headed out to Uster last week for a dealer services European meeting. Jenny was slightly dismayed at the lack of Swiss chocolate that was brought back!

Everytime I'm at the climbing wall I'm still always amazed to see people effortlessly hang off holds on fingerboards with one hand. They make it look really easy, so I think its really easy, go and have ago, fail miserably and can't even take my feet off the floor. some people can hold 1 pad edges longer then I can hold a blummin jug, its not normal!!!

Obvioulsy some of these people can climb substantially harder then me, but there are some who don't climb as hard at all and it really makes me think... flipping heck if I could do that I might be able to get up something myself.

So, at Christmas I gave myself the task of trying to hang the low middle rung of the beastmaker for 8 seconds with 1 (straight) arm. A really simple excercise and I gave myself until next Christmas to be able to to it. However at the beginning I couldn't even hold it for a quarter of a second, I could  get more air time by just jumping. I had to have 8-10kilos of assitance to be able to hold it for just 5-8 seconds...then i'd fall off.

However a few days ago i had an absolute breakthrough, I managed  to hold the edge for 5-6 seconds with no assistance, not big numbers compared to strong wads, but numbers nevertheless. I've no idea how it happened but I suddenly found myself hanging with the ability to even watch the clock as I was doing it...multitasking, oh yeh. It's not quite the 8 seconds yet, but its progression.

Arcteryx Atom LT Hoody Review - Overview

The Atom LT Hoody is possibly the most versatile, comfortable, well loved, near perfect piece of alpine wear I've ever had the pleasure to use. Over the course of winter, ice climbing in Montana, Wyoming, Washington and the Canadian Rockies I NEVER left the car without this. The Atom LT is comparable to the Patagonia Nano Puff Jacket - Men's as a lighter weight synthetic insulated jacket. I’ve owned a Patagonia Nano Puff pullover for a couple years and have loved it literally to pieces, but I find the Atom LT to be much better fitting, more breathable, and better looking to boot.

If you want to read more click here

 

Arcteryx B360 Review - Overview

This is by far the lightest and most streamlined of all the big wall harnesses we tested. In fact, it is so light that I use this harness a lot trad climbing and gym climbing. If you want a harness for long multi-pitch routes with the occasional big wall, this is the harness to get. And considering I hate hauling loads, and generally spend less than two nights on a wall, this is the wall harness I reach for most often. If you are hauling massive loads, or hanging around in your harness for many days, go with the Metolius Waldo that has beefier and cozier padding. The best value is still the Petzl Calidris, which is half the cost of the B360a.

If you want to read more click here

 On Friday night Paul Smitton and I are setting off to go to the Frankenjura in Germany. We are going to stay there for nearly a month. The plan is to drive through the night so that we arrive at Gasthof Eicher or to us brits Martha’s campsite at around midday. I hope she remembers me and gives me a free slice of one of her amazing cakes!

I think when we get there first thing first after the long journey will be to reacquaint ourselves with some of the region’s world class beers. The Germans really know how to make a good beer and the kellerbeers around there are just amazing. If you ever find yourself in the Jura make sure you try some of the dunkles (dark beer) they are tip-top and it’s great way to finish the day.

So I have one main goal for the trip and for me it’s a big one. I’m going to try Action Direct. Action needs little introduction as it’s one of the most famous sport routes in the world and its creator Wolfgang Gullich is one of the biggest legends in climbing. I’m not really sure why I first got involved with this route, when I first tried it three years ago I was a total punter on it. I did manage all the moves eventually but each move was so close to my limit that I would be powered out just doing one on its own. I just want to say thank you to Katy for belaying me on that trip, she’s got a lot of patience!

The style of climbing that epitomises Action isn’t usually my cup of tea, my natural style and strengths are more geared towards easy angled technical crimping. This year could be different, I feel that I’ve done some pretty solid training and I’ve tried to work my weaknesses. I feel as strong as I ever have done which probably doesn’t mean much but either way I’m ready to give it my best shot. All I need now is a strong head, good conditions and a copious amount of luck….

Ps: Muel if you’re reading this you can be the hardest while I’m gone ;)  

 

Some thoughts for small rocks:

 

I’ve had loads of porcelain epiphanies lately but when its actually come to penning them down they’ve bunged themselves up and i’ve left them to flush away with all the other crap memes i have throughout the day.

 

 Moving back home has been really interesting due to the reacquaintance of my current form with the me from 7 years ago. A 17 year old me who’d just learnt to drive in the Morris Traveller. Bursting with fresh psyche for all the new venues around me and many possible new lines. Chapman, Kershaw and Gaskins were my inspiration for the lakes problems! Some inspiration that! you can either look at it as a bunch of visionary Lancastrians with twinkle toes, or a mixture of gel, ponytails and bald/ponytail combos raving about this and that new rockfall/ escarpment which looks a bit like a boulder. I’d been using my new freedom to climb things like Eyes of Silence, Carlisle Slappers (i was 16 then, you can tell by the name, and was learning to drive on the waterworks road as it was private) And i wanted to climb every half decent problem in sight. The guide was all about climbing everything, nice clean consecutive ticks, aah the neatness. 

I left a lot of my Scotland Lakes and Northumberland guides at home through Uni and they stayed dormant, the inky circles of desire slowly seeping into the pages to become a relic of past whimsies. Re-clambering through these routes and problems on the sofa, what were once my dreams now rasp against my current ideologies. Belittled by my older self. That is not to say that the routes are worse, they still look incredible. Just that Prana on Black Crag Borrowdale, Wheels of Fire on Bowderstone Crag, Crystal Vision Knapdale (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=147046) and many more old guide book inspired dreams, no longer represent where I'm bursting to get to when the weathers good.

 

Something went horribly wrong over the last 7 years in terms of my aspirations, its not like i achieved and surpassed them, i simply bypassed many of them completely! 

Carrock was another venue I last frequented aged 17, until last week. I remember doing punks life and briefly pretending i was somewhere exotic, Knight Rider with a massive flapper from a crystal (one of the straws that broke the carrocks back for me with this venue) Cave LH. My finest hour, repeating a Gaskins problem the day after he did it! aah joy, his chalk was on it and everything. I even had to tie a strap round my V10s to keep my heel on, i bet Gaskins didn’t have to use a heel. 

 

Shortly after this i fell in love with the county and Carrock seemed little more than a good place to rasp some skin off in a bogged out midge ridden talus field. In the last fortnight though i’ve grown curious about the old me, the one who went there and had fun. So whilst picking up some wood with Katie to make more holds we decided to swing by on an iffy afternoon for a trip down memory lane. In particular to look at Greg’s sterling work on the back of Boardman’s boulder and Hocks new one move power explosion, Super Yum Yum. The latter was unfortunately piss wrapped so that’ll have to wait for another day.

Metronome (Greg’s new 8A) was fortunately dry. 

The stand to this was a funny problem of mine. I remember doing it whilst being really pissed off with myself for doing it. It was sharp (i had some right baby skin then). I only had one pad and my ankles kept disappearing in bouts of unfettered exploration down the holes in the horrible talus landing (i didn’t know to patio landings like this then) There was a big pissing block looming in the way of the direct exit behind me and my left exit kept rasping more skin off. I wanted to leave it but i knew in theory there was a decent problem there, i just didn’t know how to produce it. I eventually did the stand and then drove 3 miles of the drive home with the handbrake still on (only twigging when the burning smell caught me up on a hill) in the Morris (like i said i was learning to drive too) Fast forward 7 years and all is revealed. Greg Patio’d the landing sorting the exit and the ankle swallowing falls in one. Even opening up the true line, with great moves. Literally sorting the men from the boys. reclaiming the stand was bizarre, physical nostalgia. I set about the sit but with no print out guide i got a bit lost and started with the wrong limbs on all the right holds. The other main difference nowadays was that it felt like my skin was indifferent to its sharpness, and i can squeeze the crap out the holds. With my slightly easier sit sequence i managed it after snapping a bit of the crux LH undercling slightly on my first attempt. How things change with the arrow of time.

So the point of all this is that i’ve been consciously trying to imagine where i might be if life carries on this way and finding not just short term projects in the lakes but long term possibilities for people (not just me) too. As disillusionment in an area is not something i hope to enjoy until my more curmudgeonly years. Either that or i’ll have to start traveling!

 

 

A quick (with the usual dodgy omissions) summary of the above for people who prefer to keep/peruse scorecards rather than guidebooks

 

8A

Metronome, 2nd go

 

poor quality vid (mostly iphone) of some random stuff from the last 10days here:

https://vimeo.com/41010131

On a side note if anyone is looking for a Morris Traveller my dad is selling one of ours for £1500ish

 

it looks a bit like this.

only without the v8, and 2 tone paint job, rally seats and roll cage.

 

 

Chocolate and climbing. My two big passions. Perhaps best kept separate, but I couldn’t resist a chance of combing the two!

 

Actually I always combine the two, with some kind of chocolate always in the bag of essential climbing kit, but when I got asked to come and climb a tower made of chocolate with a chocolate waterfall I wasn’t going to refuse! The latest attraction at Alton Towers was a climbing tower modelled on the famous Rocky Bar, if you know these you’ll know they are pretty nice! The wall has real chocolate in its paint, and a real chocolate waterfall, though, unfortunately, for health and safety reasons it’s not recommended to have it pour directly into your mouth!

 

So I went down to hang around, clamber about, and taste the chocolate experience. Though I didn’t actually fancy a lick of the wall, I did get to leap off the top when health and safety weren’t looking, and as a reward I got 500 rocky bars. So the question is, after these 500 bars.

1/will I be able to climb harder than 6b+?

2/will I still have rocky bars on my list of chocolate favourites?

 

http://www.facebook.com/liverocky