[comPiler]

Sweden the ticklist.
24 July 2011, 6:40 pm



Bohuslan:

(5 days climbing)

Skalefjall:

En Liten Bit Granit 6 **

Granitebiten 7- ***

Machete 6 *

Hallinden:

Prismaster 6- *** (second)

Afterburner 6+ **

Fjedan:

Petroleum 5+ ** (s)

Bideford Dolphin 5- * (s)

Galgeberget:

Galgen 6- *

Ater Komsten 4+ ** (s)

Ballabaget 6+ **

Haller:

Mallorol 6- ***

Chapman 6 **

Granite Grotto:

??? F6c

Spektakel F6a

Islandshäst 6b+ **

Norden's Ark:

Jarven 5+ *

Snoleoparden 6+ **

Svanberget:

Hostsonaten 6+ **

Bergkirstis Polka 6- ***

Hogberget:

Lattja 6+ **

Utby:

(1 day climbing)

Snett A Vanster 6 ***

Ants In My Pants 6- ** (s)

Panda 6- ***

??? 5+ * (s)

Bagarmossen 6 *

Svara Diedret 6- **

Seglora:

(2 days climbing)

Punsch 6-

Kronartskolkans Flykt 7-

Delikatessan 7-

Kastrationsangest 7-

Ankedammen 7

Vino Tinto 6

Gasa Marsch 6

Basalt 6

Gettingen 6-

Arponas Planet 7-

Blackfisken 6+

Mluda Matilda 7

Matildas Groggveranda 7

Bjorn Sover 7-

Svartenbrandt 7-

Arkiv X 6+

Lenas Led 6-

Kullaberg:

??? 5- **



Source:  fiendblog

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Sweden the photos.
25 July 2011, 6:00 pm

Bivvy hut in front of the lake.

Lake in front of the bivvy hut.

Typical walk-in at Seglora.

The amazing Afterburner.

More Afterburner.

How can anyone possibly resist??

Typically chilled out climbing vibes at Galgeberget.

Weekly washtime!

View out from Svaneberget.

Nice route at Utby in Gothenburg itself.

Same.

And another nice route at Utby.

Same. Funky rock there.

Dunno what it is but in the words of my mum: "looks friendly tho;-)"

Dude where does the line go??

Somehow not getting too lost...

Source:  fiendblog

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Clambering at Creag Dubh and The Camel.
29 July 2011, 1:14 pm



Back in sunny Scotland, I just had a nice wee trip in rather glorious weather. Time constraints prevented heading too far afield, so Central Highlands it was. Creag Dubh is one of those crags that keeps on giving - there is so much at the low-mid extreme standard that there always seems to be something to do. My main inspiration is some of the harder Great Wall routes, but warm weather and general lack of both fitness and confidence discouraged that. Seepage discouraged Ticket To Ride, laziness discouraged Barrier Wall, but a dry Waterfall Buttress provided a good opportunity to sample the semi-aqueous delights there. A couple of good routes - one very much in the classic "easy but bold jugpulling" Creag Dubh style - got me rather syked for more.

However variety is the spice of life and B-dawg was keen to get humping The Camel, and that seemed like a good plan to me, so after the usual nice & cheap Newtonmore camping and greasy spoon breakfast complete with irredeemably awful coffee, we trotted up there in a mere hour. The day was warm, the Camel was cold and the cobbles could feel cruel to numb fingers, but I managed a few routes including the deservedly classic Stone Of Destiny, and yes, you can ride on the stone :D

Unfortunately my lack of fitness took it's toll on the hugely harder classic F7a, and I slumped off. More stamina training needed, more indication that despite these fun trips I'm still treading water, and it made me grump like an Orc:

P.S. Left over from a previous blog but cleverly continuing the C-theme, here is some more Caithness Culture:

This year there were 10 different tractor magazines in the Wick Newsagent, rather than merely 8. I was stuck what to buy and ended up so confused I bought a copy of Climb instead (which coincidentally had an article on Bohuslan).



Source:  fiendblog

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Summer bouldering on Simonside.
2 August 2011, 4:49 pm



Weekend forecast was funny. Didn't really make many plans. Ended up on a last minute trip down to Northumberland, where the weather was neither funny nor funny in fact it was fully fine. Solid sunshine, a bit of a breeze, and definite dryness. Perfect for checking out Simonside on a long summer's day. Unfortunately there was a slight technical hitch when my planned partner didn't appear nor answer any sporadic phone contact over 2 hours waiting. It later turns out he had a car crash and was admitted to hospital for a few stitches OOOOPS.

Oh well in the meantime I made some use out of the 4 hour round trip by hiking up onto the Simonside plateau, via a serious of blatant and cruel false summits, on a bumbly bouldering mission. This kinda sucked as it didn't involve any Easy Trad, but was kinda cool as it did involve a lot of walking, a fair bit of easy bouldering mileage, some renewed inspiration for Northumbrian rock (useful in the current return to dire weather), as well as a useful recce of a few cool problems for winter conditions. It felt like a "full" afternoon out and was vaguely useful training for the greater ranges so that's nice. Still missed the trad tho, still missing bigger challenges tho.



Source:  fiendblog

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Gaylord chosseering at Glen Clova.
6 August 2011, 8:59 am



Glen Clova:

• Lots of mid-grade climbs to go at.
• Good location and outlook.
• Nice sunny but exposed position.
• Strenuous but short approach.
• Decent area of the country for weather.
• 
  But...
  
  
• The only problem being the climbing is a bit shit.

Fiend:

• Lots of mid-grade climbing experience.
• Good personal inspiration and outlook.
• Nice ability to work out positions.
• Short but capable of strenuosity.
• Decent determination to chase best weather.
• 
  But...
  
  
• The only problem being HIS climbing is a bit shit.

Less of a "maintaining standards" session and more of a "maintaining a complete inability to progress even slightly" session. A previous session at Ratho had me feeling surprisingly unpunterish but once on real rock with the real prospect of climbing above real trad protection and really actually getting a vaguely tricky climb done, the gaylordness - and complete lack of overall fitness - was out in standard force. I did manage a couple of easier routes tho so there is some mileage there. Also got to recce plenty of Clova for future potential - i.e. there isn't that much that looks super-awesome enough.

Learnings from this session: more determination when tackling trickier routes and definitely more fitness training.



Source:  fiendblog

[SA Chris]

Should have bouldered.

[Fiend]

LOL. Bouldering just increases my punterdom. Will go back for more bouldering in cooler weather tho.

[comPiler]

A recce of Arran.
18 August 2011, 11:24 am



Arran bouldering that is. Yes the mountain stuff looks great blah blah 600m altitude walking pretty much from sea level FUCK THAT.

So, the bouldering. Contrary to the mountains the bouldering is the very definition of accessible, not so much roadside as actually on the road itself, in the case of the Cat Stone at Corrie. Warm weather, limited time and a lack of spotters precluded much sendage, but I got to check out the following areas:

Kildonan:

(Above) Very pleasantly situated beach bouldering on well-sculpted gabbro. But very limited with only a few good problems before the rock turns too ledgy or scrittly. Good potential for some serious highballs but I wouldn't go back.

Corrie Boulders:

The classic road circuit, on road or off road take your pick. A line of proper granite lumps scattered throughout Corrie village, with proper coarse texture and proper frictional slopers. I did a wee bit of bouldering but it wasn't the weather for it. What I saw inspired me to come back when it's 15 degrees colder and I have 100% more bouldering buddies with me, to tackle some good bulging slabby things and some good bulging roofy things.

Mushroom Boulder:

A brief look at this overhanging beast provided additional inspiration. While some aspects are crude and could do with a good scrub, the combination of juggy roofs leading into spicey highball slab finishes looks like another good "team fun" venue and contrasts nicely with the granite.

So, a vague plan for winter:

1. Grab some syked friends, lots of pads, a flask of coffee and a short piece of rope.

2. Drive down and get an early ferry across to the island as passengers (car alone is £62 return UGHHH, passengers £10 return).

3. Get the bus up to the far Corrie boulder and start there.

4. Walk back through the other boulders loosing skin but gaining sends.

5. Hitch/bus back down to the Mushroom. Ab down and brush off the finishes. By this time skin should be trashed but muscles not quite worn out - finish them off on the steep sandstone.

6. Bus back to Brodwick and ferry home.

7. Celebrate with fish and chips.

8. Yay!



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

Detachment and distance.
19 August 2011, 10:20 am



Ever since coming back from Sweden, I've had a lingering and persistent feeling of detachment and distance. Detachment from who I want to be, distance from what I want to be doing. Being more active, being more determined, being fitter, being more exploratory, being more progressive, making better use of my climbing time, being true to my self of exploration and inspiration. Something like Sweden (for example) was true to me, the sluggish, vague, floating along that I'm doing now is not.  

This is symptomatic of a greater feeling of detachment and distance I feel from things in the past that were equally true to me. Although I am (slowly) working towards setting myself up for a lifestyle of action including climbing and travelling (in a general sense not in an extreme climbing bum sense), I feel like I'm in a fuzzy cocoon, in a sort of stasis while life outside goes on. While my fitness slips away unless I am totally diligent, while time passes slowly by, whilst things that have inspired me become more memory and less reality.  

This is certainly not helped by my own utterly contrary and self-inhibiting predisposition to procrastination, indecision and inaction (an aspect of me that is totally at odds with what inspires me and what is true to me), and is probably not helped by side-effects of medication I am on (which I will be looking into this autumn). It is also not as drastic as this post might imply - what I've written might seem doomily emotive, but it is a subtle niggling malaise rather than an outright angstastrophe.

I write this because it is very much (although not entirely) climbing (and training and fitness and exploring) related. And because I try to clarify my thoughts and feelings to see if anything can be done about them. And I suppose that is, apart from just doing more and keeping more active, just this, which, of course, I already knew.



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

On personal challenge and personal style.
23 August 2011, 10:45 am



The other day I actually tried something tricky. I didn't do it but that I actually tried it was a hopefully decreasing rarity. The route was a slanting sparse crackline up a wall that overhung 3m in 15m height. I make that 1 in 5 so 15-20 degrees overhanging. Hmmm. Bloody Scotland and it's bloody steepness. The weather was good and I'd warmed up well, I climbed up to a mid-height slopey crux and back down again. Back up, more gear, back down. Back up, somehow committed to the crux and pressed on until a metre below the top I was struggling to hang on to flat jugs just to clip gear, let alone move up. Since the finish was 45 degree slopers into flat (not incut) grass, I knew I was beat. No stropping or sulking, but in the post-route analysis I was particularly fond of the excuse of it being my "anti-style".  

This seemed obvious at the time, but in retrospect I did wonder if it was a too convenient excuse?? Surely I had done enough around Scotland that I would have tackled such steepness somewhere, and should be capable pushing my limits on it despite my fatness and weakness. Well, as it turns out, no. Definitely no. Recalling the more challenging routes I've done in Scotland looks like this:

White Meter, Loch Sloy - slab.

Chisel, Cambusbarron - just off vertical, powerful cranks but not pumpy.

Big Country Dreams, Cambusbarron - steepish but good rest between two short cruxes.

Walter Wall, Glen Nevis - just off vertical, bold with good rests.

The Fuhrer, Creag Dubh - sheer wall, good rests and good holds.

Auto De Fe, Berrymuir - okay this is very steep but short-lived and obvious gear to go for.

Captain Pugwash, Hidden Treasure Wall - vertical with a reasonable shake at the top.

Heave-Ho, Loch Tollaidh - steepish but good rest between two short cruxes.

Strip-Teaser, Loch Tollaidh - slab.

Call Of The Wild, Lochan Dubh - steepish but good rest between two short cruxes.

On The Western Skyline, Ardmair - vertical with good holds and good shakes.

Unleash The Beast, Ardmair - steep but some resting jams and obvious gear.

Where on this list does it say 15 degree overhanging stamina routes with no rests?? Hmmmm?? It doesn't. Because I don't do them, not at my limit anyway. I'm not good at them, I don't suit them, and although I aspire to be a well rounded climber, such routes are not really suitable to push myself on. So I need to get on some challenging routes that are my style, as well as doing more stamina training. Play to your strengths, work your weaknesses...



Source:  fiendblog

[Fultonius]

What was this Fiendishly (un)fiendish route?  Sounds like fun!

[Fiend]

Stone The Crows, Rosehearty.

[comPiler]

Ramping it up a bit at Ratho.
28 August 2011, 6:03 pm



The previous trip was a weekend in Aberdeen. Good wee trip....but....fuck me it is a long long time since I got to proper climbing areas. Will there be a chance to get to Lewis, Skye, Wester Ross, Ardnamurchan, and back to Creag Dubh and Glen Nevis?? A good two months of late summer / autumn, often the best time the year after April/May......seems so feasible on paper, but I have fuck all hope. Really a dismal summer.

However there was a slight respite in the dismality of my water-treading non-progression (Why progression? Why not just potter on? Because progressing is fun and pleasurable and interesting by taking you to new areas of climbs and your climbing and seeing what happens, that's fucking why...). I got to Ratho one evening with the intention of climbing in the quarry. It was warm and still and moist. Usually a good excuse to go to the wall itself, but Simon was syked for outside and that seemed fair enough. After a wee warm up or two, I led a cool route up the main wall. Just a bit trickier than my usual punteering, but it required some committment and calming myself in the conditions - including sweating away and staying pumped despite being on a good ledge. Dropping a rope down revealed the face was - you guessed it - gently overhanging. So much for Scottish wall climbing!!

The upshot of all this is to confirm my previous post that I can actually do okay on climbs that suit me well. And that I'm now rather syked for more of that!!



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

Wankshitting hidden holds at Weem.
30 August 2011, 6:30 pm



A free day and a decent forecast and two syked partners. I was keen to get somewhere either new and exploratory or with some rad challenges to get involved with. But the team-of-three-ness and a slow start precluded that, and Weem seemed suitable to keep the momentum going with convenient logistics (although it is a bloody hour and 40 minutes from Glasgow even with the new super-awesome fully open M80).  

THe Secret Garden crag certainly is secretive, and the disorientating maze of rhodedndron (sp!) carnage and uselessly vague guidebook instructions made us glad of our personal tour guide Simon to lead the way, albeit sans requisitory machete. Once at the crag it was a pretty good day ticking almost all of it. I felt pretty fine on the trickier routes, and the blind and balancy schist is fairly relevant training.

The one that got away, well you'll never guess from the title, but it had a hidden fucking hold. I was up and down over this big roof so many times. Lots of holds, that soon ran out and ended up in the wrong place to pull over on some flat sloper notch thing. So many times trying to get the seemingly suitable hand on that hold. One final lunge for it it, one slump on the rope, one brief glance of the hidden slot on the right side of the hold, one piss-easy graunch over the lip. One small tourettical burst of swearing....for about 10 minutes. Ah well. Cheating fucking route ;)



Source:  fiendblog

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Death or glory at Dunkeld.
1 September 2011, 8:00 am



Me: So, should I do Rat Race then??

Andy: *stares*....I'm not saying anything, it's a great route though.

Me: Yeah, well, I'm syked!!

- usual faffing gearing up chalk basting ensues -

Me: Okay cool I'm going to go for it.

Andy: Yeah, that's the stuff, death or glory!

Me: *snorts*....More like slumping on the gear sulking, or glory!

- usual battling gear fiddling and panicking ensues as I'm trying to get into the so-called rest niche -

Me: Shit, these holds are shit!!

- one move up -

Me: Shit that's it I'm dead, I'm dead.

- etc etc -

In my defence, I kinda meant dead as in when the school bully threatens you at lunchtime "Jenkins you little scrote, you're gonna be so dead after school", rather than actually dead dead. The threat of slithering down with negative dignity to safely slump on the adequate gear was more real, but being pumped and sweaty and stressed, it was enough of a threat!

Also in my defence, I fiddled in some closer gear, committed to the squirm into the niche, soundly and profanely berated the guidebook for implying the sloping cramped body-trashing static grovel was anything like a "good no hands rest", but used it anyway. Transferred the arm pump to all over body pump, thrutched upwards into some sort of normality, did the slabby bit and the roof bit and yeah did the damn climb. Bit epic but very cool and worth the effort. Glory, of a sort ;).



Source:  fiendblog

[Duncan Disorderly]

Sounds like fun 

Think you should probably do this there though

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=45969

 

[Fiend]

LOL. Bit out of my league but you'd never know.

Like you'd know anything about FUN in climbing you myopic grade-chasing work-ethic fetishist!! 

[Duncan Disorderly]

If you're having fun you're just bouldering

[Fiend]

And if you're just bouldering, you're wasting valuable training time when you could be doing thousands of repetitive laps on big hold circuits as part of Tommy's Authorised Plan 

[comPiler]

Close Call at Callerhues
5 September 2011, 9:04 am



What a great wee crag Callerhues is. Even by Northumberland standards it's off the radar - well away from the famed and overused Bowden and Kyloe, guarded by a long-ish walk-in, sitting in splendid isolation on the expansive and exposed moorland, revelling in any sun and breeze that passes it way. Fewer climbers pass it's way, and so miss out on aesthetically featured sandstone and many varied and classic micro-routes whose small size belies their intensity, where an 8m route will have a full 8m of quality climbing from cranking off the ground on perky rugosities to teetering over the rounded top on subtle seams.

I passed it's way on Sunday, and got to sample a bit more climbing than on my first visit in 2003. Neil and Simon got involved with some funky sketchy HVSes and E1s that used to be mere VSes, we all did Weeping Fingers (I was chuffed with how smoothly it went), I did Tossing The Wobbler (above) without much of a wobbler. The actual wobbler and close call came on Rice Krispies later in the day. This steep sheer crunchy wall, home to two bold and intimidating routes, had inspired me previously but seemed out of my reach. Closer inspection revealed protection potential and ignited my inspiration, so I gave the route a try. A lot of ferocious crimping and downclimbing got some seemingly adequate gear blindly placed. And thence I climbed....

In a rare moment of confidence and committment, I just went for it. Crimped past the gear, crimped leftwards above it, crimped into an impasse at the top. Having checked out the finishing flutings, I just went for them too. Got a hand over, it felt okay, but as soon as I tried to move a foot, I started sliding. Shit I'm actually going to fall....Now the gear seemed okay but it was placed blind and it wasn't that far to the starting boulder below. In that flash of sliding, I felt....okayish....but still nervous, I was definitely falling and not pussying out. But in that moment, I did manage to pussy out, of a sort. I flicked a foot over into an adjacent chimney sidewall and got in balance. I escaped, didn't fall, and didn't do the route despite all the committment and having a hand on the top.

A close call to falling, but also a close call to doing the route. An inch further on the fluting and I could have held it, got my foot up and pulled over. A few inches further from the sidewall and I would have fallen.  

I think this will haunt me for a while. I was really pleased that I committed and really excited going for the moves without inhibition. It was unusual to actually be falling off, even if I escaped that actual fall. It was frustrating to be that close. It is confusing to have so little to learn - I could have done a bit better but there's no real lesson there, other than sometimes you just miss out.  

Still, I engaged in the route and there's still more to go back for at Callerhues ;).



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

Aberdeen Antics.
11 September 2011, 6:03 pm



I had a couple of rather anticful days in Aberdeen recently (yet a-bloody-gain the usual Plan B when the west was too sodding sodden). Drove up one morning, climbed at South Cove, Long Slough and Red Rocks, visited Atlas and Dido errrr I mean bRad and Meme and had a nice time hanging out and chatting shit, then then next day climbed at Earnsheugh and Rock Band Cliff, and drove home. A pretty good surgical strike, doing another challenging but ultimately amenable (and excellent) route Cirrhosis at South Cove, and firmly detonating my long overripe Earnsheugh cherry with quickdraw gobbling single pitch ascents of Death Cap, Bat's Belfry, Pterodactyl and Weird Sister between Geoff and I.

Why do I seem to end up at Aberdeen so much?? And given that is rather easily answerable (weather, friends - the area has good ones of both of those - and a reasonably pleasant drive up), why do I persist in being inspired by the climbing there given it is a birdy, greasy, obtuse, highly local-centric mishmash of stupidly steep schist and grubbily granular granite that is often lacking in line or height and tries to make up for it in general discomfort?? Well despite all of those objective facts, it does have it's charms - variety, accessibility, distinctiveness of rock, and if you get it right, pretty rewarding climbing. I often struggle to deal with it, particularly the angle and conditions, but there is always plenty to persist with, and when the persistence pays off it is rather fun - as this trip was.



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

The Dismal End.
13 September 2011, 8:43 am



It is now mid-September, the definitive, quintessential, Indian Summer time. When the showery frustration and occasional mugginess of July and August give way to the settled mellow warmth of early Autumn, when the crags have slowly but finally dried and seepage is at bay, when the midges are satisfyingly dying out, when the second great weather window of the year opens and allows some of the best climbing times.

As I write this, the tail end of a fucking HURRICANE is ripping through Glasgow like a cataclysmic expulsion of weather god diarrhoea, spraying 5cm deep torrents of rain on 70mph gusting winds. Oh but don't worry, there is a good weather window coming for a couple of days.....and then it's straight back to pissing SHIT again.

The dismal end to a dismal summer that never even started. A summer where everything seemed deceptively stacked in my favour: Last year felt like a recovery year from DVTs, this felt like a year where I was going to really get into climbing and progress and enjoy. I had plentiful and diverse inspiration for further exploration and nearer challenges. Following last years's dabblings, I had varied and succinct places to visit: A week on Lewis, long weekends in Skye, Caithness and Ardnamurchan, weekends at Glen Nevis and Creag Dubh - remarkably little to ask for an entire summer in which I had plenty of time. I also had - eventually - plenty of keen partners to explore with.

Time. Inspiration. Fitness. Plans. Partners.

All meaning fuck all without any reliable weather (since April, apart from that couple of weeks in July).

Some people seem to get berateful or bemused at my dismay with this dismality. "But it's Scotland, what do you expect??" Well I expect something better than the coldest summer in Scotland since 1993....a climbing contact said it had been the wettest summer in Fort William for 25 years and given the astronomical amount of aborted attempts to meet up and climb, I believe her.

If I was only into going to the gym, training at the climbing wall, pottering on local crags, going swimming, painting toy soldiers, listening to drum and bass and techno and metal, playing computer games, playing pool, hanging out in cafes and occasionally restaurants, chatting shit online and offline etc etc, then SURE the weather wouldn't be a problem... But I'm not - I'm also, and mostly, and genuinely, into exploring crags all over the country and beyond. Exploration which requires more than the occasional dry afternoon to justify the journey and punishing petrol prices.

So, yes, this really does suck for someone with my tastes and inspirations. It sucks for all of us climbers. I hope the suckage comes to an end soon, with at least some respite.



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

Northumberland Nibblings.
16 September 2011, 11:30 am



In that meagre 2 day weather window I mentioned before, I got down to Northumberland to do a bit more exploring. Day 1 was still blowing a gale so it was suitable to explore somewhere in the woods. No, not Kyloe although that is very good for routes and I've done some really nice climbs (still need to get High T in good condition). But rather the distinctly obscure Callaly crag, recently micro-popularised by Beastmaker repeating The Young, which is indeed a stunning bit of rock and really should be on every hardcore boulderer's ticklist. The only thing hardcore about me is my , so we stuck to the easier routes which despite being short and esoteric offered pretty intense climbing on good rock. After a couple of spicy routes on the upper block, I cleaned The Auld for Ewan to climb, he cleaned Family Affair for me to get onto the initial ledge, find the lone gear placement was out of reach and the move was too hard, so that one got away.

Day 2 was not blowing a gale but was still pretty good weather so it was suitable to explore somewhere exposed, or so we thought. Linshields One was exposed to the backdrop of military training, as we conveniently missed the red flags at the Otterburn range so spent the day climbing to the soundtrack of artillery and small arms fire :D. Curiously it was under-exposed to the wind so we did have to battle midgies and sweatiness a bit, but it was worth the effort as Ewan did a couple of spicey little routes and I managed to tackle Stealth and Mirage, two tasty little slab climbs that I think I'd seen photos of years ago. Both used the same collection of gear and it was arguably the biggest Cluster Of Bollox ((c) Pylon King 2003) that I've ever placed. The beta is:

Ballnut size 2 in shallow slot.

Ballnut size 1 in shallower slot.

RP 0, directional, in tiny seam.

HB 0, directional, in tiny seam.

Camalot C3 size 1 in very shallow down-facing seam.

RPs 4 and 5 stacked together in small borehole pocket.

With climbing gear 6 wrongs can make a right, although it was a rather tentative right whose veracity was best left untested, so it took a while to commit to both routes, but was fun when I did so.

Definitely up for more County action over the winter. I've only got one more esoteric place to explore - Howlerhirst - and then it's back to mixing and matching all over the place, I might even go to some honeypot crags ;).

P.S. Just discovered that blogspot have switched to the stupid pointless user-unfriendly slideshow style photo display bollox. Will have to make sure in future that whatever pictures I post just use a normal link or are full size anyway. Bleh.



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

Rude awakening at Rothley.
23 September 2011, 4:40 pm



Had another day down in The County the other week. Rothley is a fuck of a long way for a single day, especially when the 6 hour round trip involves a gripping emergency stop + swerve on the M8 (not my fault), a detour avoiding a 1 hour gridlock, the death of my MAF sensor yet-a-fucking-gain (and associated panic attack until I realised what the problem was), and finally some airtime (my fault) off a stealth hummock on the road by Rothley (in the grand tradition of Northumberland roads being very straight left/right, but a lot less straight up/down.

Anyway once at the crag I managed to calm down enough to do a bit of climbing. The plan had been to combine routes (which I was syked for) with bouldering (which B was syked for). In retrospect this turned out to be a very good plan as we got so trashed bouldering we left while it was still light, shocking. So mixing in some routes would have been a good use of the time and climbing / skin-loss balance. As it was it was too sodding windy to climb routes particularly on the more delicate fare that awaits once you've done the excellent Rothley Crack.

That same wind made it good conditions for bouldering, which was nice. A steady circuit was order of the day, suitable for the general levels of punteering involved and to get used to bouldering and the rock again. That rock being particularly harsh for Northumberland, more akin to a crozzly featured gritstone than the finger-caressing finer grain further North. So that was a bit of a shock to the system, as was feeling errr fat and weak. Why am I still surprised at that?? Well I wasn't really....more just inspired to get stronger, which is nice.

I am syked for the Climbing Academy Glasgow to open (bloody awful headache colours and bloody awful Core holds and all - it will still be great to have somewhere to get beasted bouldering on a whim). I am syked for more exploration over winter. But I am syked to push myself projecting problems sooner this year. Last year I explored lots of easy circuits earlier on, and didn't start crushing (snort!) until February. This time I'll have a bit more focus I think...



Source:  fiendblog

[comPiler]

Bumbling at Bruin Cove with Birthday and BBQ Boy Brad.
26 September 2011, 11:10 am



Enough Bs?? I hope so. So this last weekend was back up for Aberdeen Brad's highly successful Birthday Event ;). The forecast was good, not too many non-climbers were going, Brad was keen to climb both days, and not even the prospect of a mostly vegetarian barbeque could put me off.

As it was the BBQ provided me with the best tick of the weekend - an entire block of bbqed Halloumi. Nom nom nom but man did I have a raging thirst the whole drive home...

Other ticks were kept low-key with the emphasis on chilled days out rather than big challenges. Day 1 was Sickle Row, a nice sunny spot, I was knackered from a few night's bad sleep (including my cunning plan of preparing for the Rothley single day mission by staying up late playing Starcraft2 hurrrrr) so stuck to mid-grade mileage. Day 2 was Bruin Cove, a nice sunny spot, I was totally refreshed after a great night's sleep, but to avoid hampering the BBQ plans stuck to mid-grade mileage. Both nice fun days. I did miss a bit on getting on something a bit errrr stiffer (unlike Brad and Johannes later in the evening ;)), the sense of doubt and discovery and rising to the challenge and getting into a more focused headspace to deal with it. But that can wait until next time...



Source:  fiendblog