[shark]

11.7-9

Mon. Eve Foundry Wave. Bouldered with Paul. Good sess.
Tues. Eve Foundry Wave. Bouldered on Wave. Another good sess.
Weds.
Thurs. Noon. Weighted deadhangs. Wave. Drive to Swansea. 
Fri. Interviewing then drive back
Sat. Noon. Did a full set of 3x10secs @ 37.5kg (23mm hold on the Wedge) 
Sun. PM. Short trip with boys to Plantation. Windy/cold. A privilege to at last see the Stanage show pony perform on his home turf. Managed to repeat Green Traverse.       

Good week workwise and climbingwise. Shame about the weather. Made good progress on Wave pink black spots 7A though still a way off it. Doing Green Traverse on first winter visit was a first - improvement in finger strength was obvious. Psyched at prospect of upping deadhanging to +40kg.

[duncan]

Week 148 -

Gentleman 'flu all week. Fly to Tenerife.

Week 149 -

M - Arico Gorge onsighting to 6c
T - Las Canadas: onsighting to 6c
W - Las Canadas: onsighting to 6c, just missed a 7a.
T - Rest
F - El Rio: onsighting to 6c, 7a first RP
S - Arico Gorge onsighting to 6c+, worked a 7b finger crack (Anikilator) which is doable, suits my strengths, but annihilated my fingers. One for the last day of the trip possibly?
S - Arico Gorge onsighting to 7a (La vagoneta; really 6c or Swanage VS)

Great week.  Lots of mileage and I'm just starting to feel like I'm a bit less hesitant on rock.  Climbing is all about movement isn't it?  It used to take about 50 routes to really feel like I was flowing; another 20 to go.   

Much Tenerife climbing is pretty scruffy and some of the venues (Arico) uninspiring at first glance.  The volcanic rock is interesting and varied to climb on and the scenery up on Tiede is great; well worth the drive in my view.  The weather is ideal and forecast to continue that way.

Plan: onsight 50 routes; find a 7b that suits my strengths (not an steep jugathon) and redpoint it.

[nai]

A slow week, bad weather forced a retreat to the board with sessions Monday, Thursday and Friday. Sunday afternoon I was granted a pass, initially I headed to the Plantation but all the way there a voice nagged at me "go to the Secret Garden, Left Hand Man isn't a drainage line, it's so windy, the sun's been on it all day, it might be dry".

I drove to Stanage, got out of the car felt the force of the wind, got straight back in and drove to the Secret Garden.  I'm so weak.

Walking up I could see the main flank soaked and my heart sank slightly but as I got closer I could see my objective was indeed dry. Last week I'd done it all bar one move to the funny left-hand dishy pock and the top-out.  Working out the top-out constituted a warm up then it was back to the hard section but unfortunately I couldn't do a single move. After 15 frustrating, fruitless minutes a break was called and I began to wish I could go back to the night before to not eat takeaway and drink wine.  First go after the break though I climb easily through to the move I couldn't do last week and haven't worked today.  Balls, that could have been it, but at least I can do the moves again.  This move is proving a real stopper and unable to do it anything but a very low percentage way this part of the sequence gets a complete rejig to a much more solid method and proper attempts can commence.

My best go is quite early on, I get the pocket but forget to adjust to the right before moving my left and fall, swearing. That really was it, daft mistake.  I have loads more tries to the lunge to the pocket but never hold it again and slowly my fail point becomes consistently lower and lower, my skin sorer and sorer until cloud cover changes everything, there's moisture in the air and the friction disappears, I'm now struggling to hold the slopers and it's obvioulsy time to go home for Christmas.  Strangely I'm not disappointed, I didn't expect to be out today and certainly didn't expect it to be in condition so to have put myself in a position whereby I'm sure I can do it next time is a bonus.

I managed to squeeze some quick core in at home and 12 days after realising I needed to beef up my core (and finding it hard to do a one leg lever) I managed a ten second two-leg lever for the first time ever, oddly that really did make my day.

[csl]

Mon - nowt
Tues - run 8.5km - 43.22. Good slow run, injured hamstring better
Wed - warm up 3.5 km slow then speed work, 400/200x5 @ too fast. 1km home.
Thur - nowt
Fri - nowt
Sat 3km run
Sun - Wharnecliff, first time out in about 3 months, and with a new partner so just pottering up to VS really. Felt like i was moving well considering the total lack of climbing, Autumn Wall looks good for a future visit. Definitely need to do more day trips to the peak, only 5 hours driving...

[nai]

Autumn Wall looks good for a future visit.

Oh yes, did it a few months back, absolutely fantastic.

[Wood FT]

Autumn Wall looks good for a future visit.

Oh yes, did it a few months back, absolutely fantastic.

sorry to jump in but how did you find it nai? You seem the same stature as me and i've heard mention of reachy goodness (soft E4 or not)

[nai]

It was fine, a slighty nervy move to gain the break before the first gear but only at highball height (I used a pad). Then joyous crimping to the next break. Having fallen off Moon Walk recently it remains my only E4 so no real idea about the grade, although it is more sustained than that with a crux sequence just as hard, maybe just easier to read.  So, maybe just E4 and runout in an exciting not terrifying kind of way.  Get on it, you won't be disappointed.

[Wood FT]

It was fine, a slighty nervy move to gain the break before the first gear but only at highball height (I used a pad). Then joyous crimping to the next break. Having fallen off Moon Walk recently it remains my only E4 so no real idea about the grade, although it is more sustained than that with a crux sequence just as hard, maybe just easier to read.  So, maybe just E4 and runout in an exciting not terrifying kind of way.  Get on it, you won't be disappointed.

nice one cheers, now just to get back out of the south-east.

[i_a_coops]

Until last week: continued with ancap/aerocap heavy regime but started adding in more board climbing in an effort to have some power available in Font next week. Managed a V7 on the board at Westway, definitely the hardest thing I have ever climbed despite the mega-sandbag grade.

This week: visiting family and skiing, occasional door frame hangs. Attempting to taper for Font next week....

Next week: get spanked in Font.

[fried]

Monday - Nothing
Tuesday - Hard indoor session, first 6B. More importantly lots of easier repeats (I tend to avoid repeating problems at the top of my range  ), repeaters on steeper board.
Wednesday - Lug 8 boxes of red wine back from the supermarket
Thursday - indoors. Sore and tired, back done in from lugging wine.
Friday - Lug wine back to U.K.
Saturday - ache
Sunday - indoor (big rock) do easy stuff, ache. Back finished, shoulders ruined.

I think I'll have a week off.

Have a good day everyone.

[tomtom]

Hello,
This may be shorter than recent weeks due to the limitations of an iFern keyboard..

A tale of two cliff trips.. Tuesday and Friday.
Tuesday was the day. A okish weather window and some time off work. Recovered after Sundays session, all fully wired - just needed to be fresh and ready. I warm up and get on the keel.. Feel creaky, get close, twice but end up just short of the pocket. Many more tries but after the first few it's probably just a training exercise.. I also video'd myself and this revealed I'm losing all the pocket elevation by my core collapsing

http://vimeo.com/m/56026288

So back again on Friday. I'm away in Normandie for Xmas so this was my last chance. A sketchy forecast at best but racking up at the cliff it was all sodden. Completely wet even under the virgin etc.. But no rain. Optimistically I dried the keel holds and slowly conditions improved.. But underneath it was still damp. Warming up on the problem you're trying never seems like a sensible idea - but nothing else was dry. This was really pretty desperate conditons.. Still may as well train on the problem rather than a fingerboard! I worked on the weakness - the pcket lunge - and figured out I need to tense and twist but not be too close to the roof, or too far away. Try enough times and the percentages will come through and it will go. But no chances now for a week - where my training will be eating and drinking.. Interspersed with moderate amounts of infant induced sleep depravation

Anyway - happy Xmas and new year to all on power club! As Lore says 'keep the faith'

TT

[Duma]

STG - keep up various injury rehab stuff, start running again, get in proper shape for MTG
MTG - multiple 7C's this winter, 7C+. looking pretty optimistic now.
LTG - 8A, 68kg

M - TCA eve, playing on comp problems from saturday, managed all but one of the finals probs and a few of the harder ones from the main comp too, pleased with my haul given my slightly frazzled state.
T -
W - TCA afternoon, bit more stuff on the mothership. feeling pretty good despite a general lack of much activity recently.
T - down to Kernow for the season with family
F -
S - bit of wood collecting, splitting, sawing - that must be worth something
S -

Coasting along around 69kg.