[SA Chris]

I monotype. Using any more than one finger dilutes training benefit.

[comPiler]

Injured party
19 August 2010, 9:58 pm

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.  ~Niels Bohr

People frequently ask me advice about injuries. How to treat them, what they've done to themselves. I can understand that; if you want to avoid mistakes, talk to a man who's made them all.

The best advice I ever got about injuries, I completely ignored. My first injury was an impinged shoulder, suffered whilst belaying, of all things. My guru at the time, the dark horse himself Tim Clifford, safely advised me that injury was inevitable and the only path to success was to learn how to manage them by climbing through them. I totally ignored his advice and took what I thought was the prudent action of a months rest. It was a disaster; when I came back to climbing my shoulder was no better and all my fingers hurt. They haven't stopped hurting since!

It's pretty much essential to climb as much as you can on injured tendons; scar tissue needs load to grow properly. Rest instead, and the scar tissue will build up into knotty lumps that catch and inflame. A lot of people don't believe this advice, and I always see examples of people being too careful with injuries; it never works out.

These days I try to climb as much as prudent on an injury. The catch, of course, is knowing how much is prudent. If it gets better, you did it right. If it gets worse, try again!

One injury that's been worrying me a lot this year is my right wrist, which became sore after a layoff over Christmas. Pretty sure it was the usual problem of scar tissue build up I've continued climbing and done plenty of massage, ice and stretching, but the wrist has not improved. Last month my physio suggested it could be cartilage damage, and my only options were to live with it, or risky surgery. I didn't like the sound of that, so I sought a second opinion. The second physio agrees with me; a loss of movement caused by scar tissue buildup, and has begun a campaign of brutalising my wrist until it starts moving properly again. I like that diagnosis better, and hope to see improvement over the next few weeks.

If it clears up, the first thing on my hitlist is Sean's Roof; this video of it on the beastmaker blog makes it look absolutely brilliant (and has cemented Leo Moger's reputation as the strongest beast in beaston).

Location:Hammerton Rd,,United Kingdom

Source: The Spherical Cow

[comPiler]

(I do like) Mondays
23 August 2010, 10:17 pm

Monday night is campus night! Which means it's off to the works  to use the "biggest campus board in the world". Fatxi is back after a week off to go surfing - his shoulders look huge and he is crushing the motherboard. All that paddling must be good for you. Monday is also gun-day, which means team bicep, Sam and Gus are in the middle of their campus board-based endurance workout from Hades. Think over 500 moves squeezed into around half an hour with some deadhanging and pull ups thrown in after for good measure. At the end of it, Sam's forearms look like the Hindenberg, and are actually bigger than his considerable biceps. Savage.

I had a great campus session, and an even better day at Kilnsey on Sunday. I was trying Ecstasy, which is steep and brilliant, but felt very hard to me. I couldn't get through the crux from the ground, which is a big throw to a jug off a poor undercut and bad feet. Adam '8c' Jeeworth (sp?) was there, and crushed it first go of the day; is he the most cheerful 8c climber in Britain? Certainly, a breath of fresh air and a nice guy to share a route with. Now the sad news for Kilnsey fans; lots of rain has meant that the big umbrella has started to leak a bit. The start of ecstasy and the bulge was nigh on unclimbable by the time we left, and the North Buttress looked in a bit of a state. Hopefully, things will clear up again by the weekend, and I can sort my ecstasy problem out once and for all...

Location:

Source: The Spherical Cow

[comPiler]

And, we're back
14 December 2010, 10:09 pm

Thank god that's over with. Like most people, I had a little chuckle when the queen described her annus horribilis. Not any more. Suffice it to say that I've been far too busy writing lectures, giving lectures, fixing telescopes, training and trying to climb to keep you entertained with my erudite outpourings of wit. I'm sure you've coped, somehow.

One of the things I've been mulling over whilst I've been incommunicado is an issue of self-awareness. I'm sure we all meet dicks from time to time. However, I assume that most dicks don't know they're dicks. Which raises the interesting question of how to tell if you're a dick. Is there some objective test of dick-ness? Some set of hard criteria against which you can measure how much of a dick you are, so to speak.

One trait all dicks seem to have in common is that they don't seem to think other people matter as much as they do. If you think that you're more important than the people around you, it's hard to understand why you shouldn't get special treatment. That guy who thinks he should get to the front of a traffic jam by caning it down the outside lane. He's a dick.

Also, dicks seem to think that everyone else is an idiot. The spuming, ranting fool on the Internet who can't accept you have a different point of view. He's a dick, because he assumes you're stupid, just because you don't have the good sense to agree with him entirely about absolutely everything.

So dicks think they're more important than the people around them, and everyone else is a moron. There's only two problems with that. The first is that, based on those criteria, I don't come out half as well as I'd like. The second is that what if, objectively you are more important and more intelligent than people around you. Does that make you a dick?

One person who is definitely not a dick is Ned Feehally. Lovely chap, total beast. Here he is introducing me to the genius idea of warming up on a fingerboard.

Brilliant idea; the same warm up every time and without trashing your skin! One of the reasons Jerry Moffatt is such a legend is his professionalism. WWJD is a great mantra for the aspiring hero. Jerry would never go on a Spanish sport climbing trip without training stamina. Jerry would make sure he had great skin to try his project. The only problem is that, since Jerry stopped climbing, we can add no more top tips from the tip-top to our list. Perhaps it's time to find a new paragon of professionalism? If so, I suggest Ned.

WWND? He'd probably have stopped writing pages ago.

Location:

Source: The Spherical Cow

[robertostallioni]

I'm a right dick.

[account_inactive]

Dick

[Stu Littlefair]

I'm gonna add childish amusement about saying 'dick', to the list of dick characteristics.

You dicks

[comPiler]

An Xmas break in pictures
6 January 2011, 11:23 pm

Ahh, Christmas. The joy of giving, the winter sun holiday and the relentless tide of marketing.

There was plenty of the latter at the "winter experience"; a park just outside Wetherby where we took my nephew Alex just before Xmas. Ice skating, big wheel, snowflake maze and cafe/shop. The winter experience has it all, and for the pittance of £15 a head you can enjoy all the above, plus the Nordic ski trail around the Enchanted Forest. Here you'll find animatronic raindeer, lit by fairy lights, stooping to drink from a frozen lake. I loved it!

Christmas was spent at home, opening presents and getting fat. This year was a little sad, as my sister couldn't make it back from her home in Mexico. Still, it was lovely to spend time with the family and see them enjoying their gifts. My Dad got particularly lucky this year, as Santa brought him a Canon 400mm lens. I couldn't resist borrowing it for a few shots, and now have serious lens envy!

Usually I weigh myself before and after Xmas dinner each year; after a heavy meal the difference can be nearly a stone! This year I refrained from the scales. I took it pretty easy at dinner though, probably because I was psyched for the winter break...

This year, we're splitting our trip between Barcelona and Siurana. The Barcelona part was a treat for surviving a difficult year; we stayed in a posh hotel in the city centre and combined rest days sightseeing with days climbing at Monserrat. The climbing was a bit of a disaster as I pulled a tendon on my second day, so am now in full rehab mode.  The sightseeing was more successful though. Barcelona is my favourite city and is lovely now as they are gearing up for their big Xmas festival, the day of the Kings, on the 6th Jan. Here are some shots of the city.

Finally, we have come to Siurana, for Jules to crush and me to take it easy. Taking a tip from Dave McCleod, I've been climbing as hard as my finger will take; taking care to stay open handed at all times. Thankfully the finger can take a lot of strain in that position, although it's very sore in a half-crimp. The steep pockets at Margalef are just what the doctor ordered, thank god.

We are staying at Cal Giral 2 in Cornudella; a good option for those with cash to splash. Friendly, comfortable and a nice breakfast of fresh pastries each morning. Heartily recommended; and the view from our balcony is stunning...

Source: The Spherical Cow

[comPiler]

Back at the saddle
10 January 2011, 3:09 am



It's a clever pun, see. The title. I'm back at La Silla, the observatory in Chile where I've been doing most of my research over the last few years. La Silla means 'The Saddle'. Back at the saddle. See what I did? Never mind.

At this time of year, La Silla is a beautiful place to be. The weather is still and warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt and I spend my afternoons sat in the courtyard outside the dining hall watching the birds and listening to the quiet burble of the fountain. And eating ice cream. The nights are short, the days are long and leisurely, the view stunning. Basically, it's a bit of a joy, especially compared to winter, when there's no time to do anything other than work, and sleep.

That chap above is the NTT; the anachronously named New Technology Telescope, commissioned in 1989, and my own personal toy for the next few weeks. I'm actually out doing the donkey work (arf!) for other people's research projects, so I'm doing a pretty wide range of science out here. We're trying an ambitious project to try and tell the difference in brightness between the day and night side of a planet around a distant star. Pretty cool, but I think we've two chances of success, Jack and Shit. And Jack's left town. Meanwhile, I've been using the dark nights to try my hand at astrophotography again. The first image below is the nearby galaxy the Small Magellanic Cloud. You can see the globular cluster 47 Tuc below it, too. The bottom image is the Coal Sack; a cloud of dust and gas which appears dark as it blocks the background light from stars in our own galaxy....

It's good to have some work to do, 'cos it is distracting me from being upset about my injured finger. The last few days of our spanish holiday were dominated by me nursing the finger on the juggy pockets at Margalef. As is often the case with injuries, it could withstand quite a lot of load fully open handed and I had a nice few days ticking some nice 8a's at Cova Soleida, which I think is less frequented than other Margalef crags, but has some stunning routes following leaning cracklines. In fact, the finger dealt with Margalef so well, I was beginning to forget it was injured, but a day on the crimpfests at Siurana soon reminded me that it's going to take a lot of rehab when I get back to the UK. Never mind, I'll just keep looking at the pretty pictures...

Source: The Spherical Cow

[comPiler]

Double Bum
11 January 2011, 1:14 am



You'd better like that photo, because it involved a lot of pain to take. That's a Vizcacha right there, a relative of the Chinchilla and native to South America. They look a bit like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel who's had too many nuts.

See that rock it's stood on; looks unstable doesn't it? Looks like the sort of treacherous rock that might shift under an unsuspecting chap, pitching him headlong down the slope, his expensive camera and lens banging along behind him like an over-enthusiastic puppy. Well, if that's what you're thinking, then you'd be right, except it wasn't that particular rock, but one much like it. Miraculously my camera and lens survived with only (fairly major) cosmetic damage. If only I could say the same for me; my legs are pretty bashed up and my finger is the size of a watermelon. I think I bent my finger back trying to stop my fall, and it got crushed under the rocks that were pitching down the slope with me. It hurts a lot. If I had to guess, I'd say I've sprained the collateral ligaments pretty badly. Hurts more than any climbing injury I've ever had and I've almost totally lost mobility in it. At least it's on the same hand as my other injured finger.

Something tells me this years season is going to have a pretty slow start....

Source: The Spherical Cow

[comPiler]

A slow start
17 May 2011, 1:57 pm

Told you so.

That last blog post was months and months ago now, and very little of significance has occurred since then. I did a lot of physio to heal my wounds and a lot of work to heal my publication record. Success on both counts.

I had a fortnight in France. The Cote D'Azur in Nice, where there are a lot of very nice crags which are mostly wet. It was here that I came to realise how stressed the last two years of work have made me, when my head collapsed in spectacular fashion, leaving me unable to toprope 6c's without a hissy fit. Fortunately, two weeks in the sun was exactly what I needed.

Now I feel like I'm back, in more ways than one. I'm back to training; the injuries clear enough to try hard and want to try harder. I'm back ticking, with success on a whole route at Malham this weekend. The blog is back. My psyche is back. Oh yes, the last one gives me the most pleasure. If I'm honest, there have been times when all climbing has felt like a chore over the last few months. Today I find myself surfing the internet for climbing news. Googling for pictures of potential projects. Watching movies on Vimeo and You Tube. In short, doing many things which are not work.

I am psyched out of my tiny little mind.



Source: The Spherical Cow

[robertostallioni]

YHM

[willackers]

Fuck yeah!   

[Will Hunt]

 

Its good to hear its come back. This year I've barely done any climbing and my head has suffered from the stress of work. As of the 26th I'm hoping to be less highly strung all the time and am so psyched to get back on the rope.

[duncan]

Well Dunne!

[comPiler]

Rodellar
1 June 2011, 12:48 pm

Public Safety Notice: This post contains bad language. Sorry Mum.

I am still psyched out of my tiny little mind. It's like being 18 again. Most of my waking thoughts are about climbing. I try to be productive and get work done, but with the students gone, there are no immediate demands on my time and it's easy to let things slide and burn time on the internet cycle. I start with UKB, then make sure UKC is still talking about biscuits, and whether forearm strength is important for climbing. Then onto facebook, and the climbing blogs (who's done what, where, how quick?). After that, it's time to start on UKB again...

This bank holiday was the first one I haven't worked for as long as I can remember. So I risked the wrath of Varian and bought a couple of flights to Spain for me and the wife. The plan; fly to Barcelona and go climbing somewhere every day until dark. On leaving the UK it was 30 degrees so we needed somewhere cool. My spies inform me Rodellar is looking good. Crush mode engaged.

Jules narrowly missing the flash on Sopa de Ajo, 7b+

We arrive in Rodellar at 3am on Saturday morning. After a boatload of faff with the hire car and refugio I am tired and snappy. But the next morning we awake to birdsong, blue skies and vultures circling above the beautiful Mascun gorge. The late night has dulled my psyche a little and it's not until noon we reach the Gran Boveda and get in touch with our spies; Dan and Tom. Warming up in the sun convinces me that the shade is the place to be. The heat of the last few days has eased and a gentle breeze means it's comfortable to sit at the bottom of the crag in shorts and t-shirt.

Dan belaying

So, what to do? The whole crag is dry, which is a first for me, and I'm like a kid in a sweetshop. But before we came out we'd been discussing the curse of the "first day on". Made famous in Stone Love, this is when you arrive at a climbing area and run around like a dog with nine cocks, trying everything in sight. Next morning you wake up trashed; you've done too much, much too soon. Like the seasoned pro I am, I was very keen to avoid the first day curse and thought I'd restrict myself to a few nice 7s. Sopa de Ajo was the perfect choice; a wonderful continuous drainpipe tufa, technical and rounded. I'd wanted to do it for ages, but it was always wet. The route passed in a delightful blur of total absorption; palming and twisting my way from kneebar to jug to kneebar. So good.

Dan was trying a great looking 8a called Les Cadres Regeneren in the middle of the wall. Might as well have a look, eh? After all, the clips were in and a quick 8a redpoint would start the trip nicely. It didn't quite go to plan; legs trembling an uncomfortable distance above the last bolt I'm switching quickly from hand to hand, desperately trying to get some strength back in my arms. I don't know whether I'm fighting to keep the onsight dream alive, or whether I don't want to take the fall. I claw my way a couple of moves higher and into a poor rest and realise the chains are one move away. I remember a hard slap to a poor sidepull and some desperate re-arranging of feet and then a jug you could hang a cruise liner off. Words fail me; I'm back in the saddle baby. Fuck Yeah!

Tom redpointing the rude route in style

Since I'm on fire I might as well keep going. Tom has the draws in a mega (and mega-long) 7b+ called Commando Coño. I won't translate it, but it's not a polite route name. Jules has a flash go, and gets achingly, ludicrously close as she falls off the last hard move, failing to spot another of those titanic jugs that Rodellar has all over it. She doesn't make it look too bad; plenty of good rests, so I hop on, engage crush mode and immediately hit a massive wall, creaking like a lorry dragging its roof on a low bridge. I keep getting to the good rests only to find slopey tufas and awful feet; how did Jules rest here? So I push on to the next rest, getting more pumped, more stressed and more crab-like in my movements. Somehow I manage to fall into the finishing jugs and wobble up the slab to the chain, but I can tell my day is over. Except it isn't; one more duty as ropegun getting the clips in a short 7a and then it's beer, bed and sleep. Ready for the next day

Which, unsurprisingly, does not go well. I get a raging, full-bore flash pump on my 6b warm up and nearly fall off. Once again I fall victim to the first-day curse! What a punter! Today is never going to go well and so I resign myself to having a rest day, except that I simply must try Sayonara Baby; a long 7b+/c on Surgencia up massive flowstone jugs to a tough little sting in the tail. Should be an easy onsight. Oops, perhaps not. Ok then, at least an easy redpoint. Wrong again; I get to the top, but not without dropping the clutch, and a healthy dose of luck! I spend the rest of the day being more sensible, putting the draws in easy 7's for Jules to flash, which she does like the pro she is.

Unknown chappie on Maroskum, 7c+, Gran Boveda

Last day, last chance. We wake to stormy skies and leaden humidity. We're straight up and out, trying to make the most of the day and warm up in the hammering rain. Jules has her eye on an ascent of a mega-classic 7c up tree-trunk tufas on the right of Boveda, and I fancy a day onsighting, hoping to re-capture the form of the first day. It quickly becomes obvious that this isn't going to happen as I fall low down whilst putting the clips in for Jules; and on a route I've previously onsighted. Oh dear. Dripping with sweat I work out a better sequence, and it becomes clear I missed about six no-hands rests. Good onsighting form then... The day doesn't improve much, either. I completely fail on a vertical 8a in the middle of the wall having totally failed to realise that 30 degree heat and 100% humidity do not play well with sloping tufa crimps. Still, I can recover the day with a nice onsight of the classic Argo, can't I? Well, no. Nor can I redpoint straight off either. I use quite impolite language at this. By now it's 8pm, we've been going all day and neither of us have ticked our routes.

And this is what really pleases me. In the past I've been pretty morose about failure. If I'm honest, it's made climbing quite a lot less fun for me at times. I looked back at posts on this blog, written when I was in my best ever form and having great success on the crag, and it's a ceaseless tide of whinging crap. Now, here I am on a short trip having completely muffed up my strategy and failing to redpoint a route that I should be walking up, and I'm having a fucking great time! The route is, quite simply, amazing. I'm quite happy to fail as long as I can keep trying and, for once, I'm happy to just to be where I am, and not beating myself up and wishing I was climbing better. It feels like such a breakthrough. At last, climbing is fun again.

Still, it's cool now. The wind has picked up and heavy thunder is rolling down from the Pyrenees. The rain is blowing into the crag and run-off is creeping steadily down the route. I've got one last chance to go big, or go home so I lace up my shoes, strap on the knee-pads and tear the route apart, grinning like an idiot the whole way. Jules is similarly inspired and pulls out a last-ditch, last gasp redpoint on the 7c, skipping clips and somehow catching wild slaps at the edge of her strength. It's past nine now, and very dark, but I'm too psyched to go home yet so we rush off to the Ali-Baba cave and I hurl myself at an onsight of the short 7c+/8a on the right hand-side. No-chance; it's pitch black, and I'm knackered. Hanging off the rope and peering through the gloom I spot a crucial foot-hold and lower-off, re-tie and shake wildly to the chains. I run up a 7a to the right whilst I've still got my shoes on and finally admit defeat as the last of the light vanishes.

Today, I'm back on the internet cycle. I must need a holiday...



Source: The Spherical Cow

[SA Chris]

there are no immediate demands on my time and it's easy to let things slide and burn time on the internet cycle. I start with UKB, then make sure UKC is still talking about biscuits, and whether forearm strength is important for climbing. Then onto facebook, and the climbing blogs (who's done what, where, how quick?). After that, it's time to start on UKB again...

Sounds like my day, ad infinitum.

Good work on psyche from both of you.

[Falling Down]

 

[Bonjoy]

If I could re-run any two months of my life, I'd go for the two months I had Rodellar. So fucking good!

[comPiler]

Bat route
6 June 2011, 2:03 pm

On UKC at the moment are some videos of Adam Ondra at Malham, including one of his onsight of Bat Route. Obviously I watched it intently, hoping to pick up some beta, and watching the world's best climber attempt a route I have spent (to date) seven days on.

Once I'd picked myself off the floor, I watched it again, and gleaned some useful and interesting ideas for the section through the roof above Seventh Ardvaark. This section has some tough and beefy moves on undercuts, and was punishing me out of all proportion to it's difficulty. Sam can cruise it. Mawson cruises it. Obviously Steve cruises it. I don't so much cruise it as crash heavily into the pier. In the UKC video, Adam uses a brute force and ignorance method which had obvious appeal...

So on Saturday we head off to Malham. It is hotter than the Sun, so a late start is in order, and when we arrive (at about 3pm) conditions are only absolutely awful. The perfect opportunity to train with a weighted bat, so to speak. So I bust up to the roof and try Adam's sequence and, whaddya know, it works! It has the slight disadvantage of occasionally sending me towards the Seventh Aardvaark belay at high speed and head first, but I can live with that. It looks like we are game on apart from a) a bird has made its nest in a 'crucial' heel hook and b) there's still a desperate move on the headwall that I'm worried about. I work out a sequence ignoring the heel hook, but the headwall move remains stubborn. Adam is no help as he lanked past it. Cheat.

After camping at the crag overnight, we climb at Kilnsey on Sunday. It is colder than Hell; the delights of climbing in the UK. At one point Jules flakes out completely and runs away to the trout farm for nourishing sustenance and hot beverages, leaving me huddled in my sleeping bag, sat on my camping chair. I am the only one rocking the sleeping bag/chair combo, and it attracts lots of sarcastic comments. I am warm for my redpoints though, so the last laugh is on me. Anyway, I hear that big issue chic is making a comeback this year. It is of no help on Indian Summer; two redpoints see me falling off the last move. Again. Frustrating route this; it feels well within my abilities, but obviously isn't, or I'd have done it. Maybe next week?

I have an exciting week this week; I am engaging Tom Randall as a coach, and this week is my assessment session. I imagine I'll get told off a lot, and he'll laugh at my hip flexibility. I just hope there's some front levers on the exam, to reclaim some ego...

Source: The Spherical Cow

[robertostallioni]

I could read this shit all day long.

[tomtom]

I could read this shit all day long.

Yup - its superb

[Stu Littlefair]

I could read this shit all day long.

You're a fucking slow reader then. But thanks.

[Paul B]

I really hope the spanish "bring a deckchair to the crag" thing doesn't catch on here (almost as much as the shitting at the crag thing).

[Stu Littlefair]

I really hope the spanish "bring a deckchair to the crag" thing doesn't catch on here (almost as much as the shitting at the crag thing).

Is that because you're going in front of the dragons next week to get funding for your crag deckchair rental service?

Don't reckon you'll ever see chairs at Tunnel Wall or Yew Cogar, for the same reason you'll never see me at Tunnel Wall or Yew Cogar...