[csl]

Goals for March.
Rehab finger - feeling much better, still some way to go.
Rehab shoulder - almost totally sorted
Get really fit whilst recovering - try to do 4/5 endurance orientated sessions a week done ok with this.
Run an 17.50 park run. Nowhere near, did win one tho.
Go outside - shamefully, not done.

Mon
Tue - the cragg stowmarket, bouldering up to v5. Routes/ circuits to 6b+
        Run - speed effort pyramid 500,1000, 1500.
Wed - kk climbing. Recovery intervals 2x12mins, 20 mins arc
Thu - kk climbing 3 sets of 4 on 35move circuit.
Fri
Sat - parkrun wanstead. Won in 18.33
      - mile end. Bouldering to v4 onsight. Then o/s 6b+ and 6c+ circuit in monkeyhouse. Some more bouldering but skin was ragged from the new volumes.
Sun

[shark]

Weight 11st 4-7

For the Diet Nazis (you know who you are) - last week 11st 6-8, week before 11st 7-9, week before that 11st 9-11 so get off my case 

Mon. Lunch. Received word that the Oak was climbable again but could only get away on thursday. Eve Weighted deadhangs, okish session
Tues. Decide I needed to train again (peer pressure) despite being 4th day on. Aborted systems session at lunchtime as was burnt out. Eve Took Ben and Tom to Foundry tried bouldering but was useless. Tied on and fell off on a 6c/+ on the Main Wall. Despair. 
Weds.
Thurs. Malham. Nice in the sun but cold when it went in. Was anxious about how I would do but did decent enough links on bottom section not to throw the towel in. Joe got Bat Route. Steve got a high point on his project. Regret not having 2 full rest days. Arranged to go back monday. Decided to take 3 rest days to avoid potentially digging myself into a hole.
Fri.     
Sat.   
Sun.

[shark]

Sat - parkrun wanstead. Won in 18.33
     

 

[webbo]

Mon. Home board reasonable session managed to repeat a problem from before Xmas. Turbo 50mins.
Tue. Home board power endurance  sorted out a 26 hand move circuit 6 circuits 5 mins between each.
Wed. Weights.
Thu. Home board best session since December. Ferry to Rotterdam.
Fri. Travel to Germany. Take dog for a walk.
Sat. Bielefeld wall reasonable session.
Sun. Dog for a walk.

[nai]

M - 8km run
T- 1km swim, 20 mins core
w
T - bit of plodding around in snow, bit of digging, tiny but of climbing. Elbow niggled.
F - Burbage North - did Ai No Corrida but frustrated by Velvet Crab, strangely elbow pain completely vanished.
s - felt horrendous
s - ditto

Cold has been bubbling under all week, maybe more of a sinus problem but back in full effect now.  Can't breath when I lie down so can't sleep at night, so tired, resorted to trying to sleep sitting up on the sofa last night which was better but been suffering nose bleeds all day.  Go to Font on Friday, preperation has been almost non-existent with this cold for the last two weeks and the ongoing elbow issue.  Hoping to be over it and that the elbow holds up, still feel it niggle every now and then when lifting a child, shutting a car door or something but the constant discomfort has gone just-like-that.

[cheque]

M- Rest.
T- Notts Depot bouldering. Working new whites (no idea what the grades are but they're the hardest circuit)- did three of them. Best go on blue circuit yet- 4 moves from the end.
W- Notts Depot circuit board. 5 laps of the yellow circuit with three minute rests inbetween. 6th week in a row I've reduced this by a minute. It felt absolutely nails and I was totally done afterwards- couldn't get more than halfway round the blue circuit!
T- Rest. Fingers sore and creaky.
F- 4 mile walk in Chilterns.
S- Rest.
S- 8 mile walk in Dorset.

Overdid it Sat to Wednesday with 4 hard indoor sessions in five days. Paid for it with dodgy fingers that are thankfully feeling lots better today.

[Duma]

Nice one csl.

STG - keep niggles in check, run regularly, get in shape for MTG
MTG - Peak before spring, generally get out more. If I do any hard stuff that'll be nice too.
LTG - 8A, 68kg

M - TCA eve, felt like an ok session despite not getting up anything new - progress on some hard things.
T -
W - TCA, poor session, general lack of psyche.
T -
F -
S - busy till 11, then went for a wander down to the gorge to check out The Prince - 2 bolt 8b that folk have said is highballable - think they're right, but would need a fair few mats to level the landing. TCA for brief session - rubbish, no energy or psyche, waste of time and skin.
S - Early start to get to peak for a days snowballing - missed out in 2010 and wasn't letting that happen again! Amazing day - Black Car Burning (still pretty scary), Shine On, Cemetery Waits (flash), Three Blind Mice (flash), Ai No Corrida (flash)(my god this is brilliant!), Snow Blind Mice (ace mantle). Just fantastic. Thanks to James and Jo for letting me tag along and mats and spot, And hi to 205Chris  Tired now - long day esp including the drive from and to Bristol...

69kg - eaten a lot of shit this week.

[205Chris]

S - Early start to get to peak for a days snowballing - missed out in 2010 and wasn't letting that happen again! Amazing day - Black Car Burning (still pretty scary), Shine On, Cemetery Waits (flash), Three Blind Mice (flash), Ai No Corrida (flash)(my god this is brilliant!), Snow Blind Mice (ace mantle). Just fantastic. Thanks to James and Jo for letting me tag along and mats and spot, And hi to 205Chris  Tired now - long day esp including the drive from and to Bristol...

Great effort, that's a good day out!!

[webbo]

Mon. Home board reasonable session managed to repeat a problem from before Xmas. Turbo 50mins.
Tue. Home board power endurance  sorted out a 26 hand move circuit 6 circuits 5 mins between each.
Wed. Weights.
Thu. Home board best session since December. Ferry to Rotterdam.
Fri. Travel to Germany. Take dog for a walk.
Sat. Bielefeld wall reasonable session.
Sun. Dog for a walk.

Forgot mention Thursday back to Docs due to chest still being bad. Still got chest infection more anti botics.

[Luke Owens]

STG - F7b+ and Font 7A+ (Next few months)
MTG - F7c and Font 7B (End of 2013)
LTG - F8a and Font 7B+ (Next few years)

Monday - Core and Stretching

Tuesday - Oswestry Indoor Bouldering - Climbed various easy problems helping out my girlfriend. Did 9 V2/3's and sent one of the hard comp problems possibly V5-ish.

Wednesday - Rest/Man-Flu(!) 

Thursday - Rest/Man-Flu(!) 

Friday - Pantymwyn for an hour - Tried Embers (6C+) about 5 times with wet-ish holds, couldn't dry crux sloper enough to stick the last move.

Saturday - Fingerboard - Feet on moving hangs. 30 moves then 2 minutes rest, Did this 10 times. 300 moves in total. Did some core too. Boxed by the end... Also went for a 2 hour walk with the family.

Sunday - Nesscliffe, finaly sent Right-Hand Route SS (6B+). It's never 6B+ in a million years, move like 6C. Either way great problem. Told myself I'd have to send this first before trying Northumberland Wonderland (7A+).

NW is a quality problem but damn steep! Spent the rest of the session working the first move off the pinch to a good flatty crimp, it's very reachy and I'm not that tall. Made some good progress, should have some good muscle memory for next time. This is definitely going to be my 7A+ proj - Psyched!

Good week all in all!

[chillax]

STG - Rehab ankle (Getting there)
MTG - E4, 7B

M - Nowt
T - Zip
W - Long snowy walk around Fair Head. Beautiful, but very sore on ankle
T - Zilch
F - Gym. WFH Back & Chest
S - Can't remember
S - Went to Lough Bray with a friend just to get out of the house. Snowy walk in was killer on the ankle, and I couldn't do a vertical 6a, so resigned myself to a day of photo taking. Ended up unexpectedly doing Rainbow, a nice 7a slopey lip, in a session. Very pleased as its a nice problem and its the first thing I've actually climbed since the start of Jan. Felt fairly steady too. The gym sessions and lots of core work appear to be paying off. And the friction was so good it felt like cheating! Renewed psyche to keep training until the ankle is good enough to trad climb on.

[chillax]

S - Went to Lough Bray with a friend just to get out of the house. Snowy walk in was killer on the ankle, and I couldn't do a vertical 6a, so resigned myself to a day of photo taking. Ended up unexpectedly doing Rainbow, a nice 7a slopey lip, in a session. Very pleased as its a nice problem and its the first thing I've actually climbed since the start of Jan. Felt fairly steady too.

Now how about that CWP fingerboard methodology you were testing for us?

Cheers  Got lazy about all aspects of training last week, and it was hurting my elbow a bit the week before. Will get back on it with renewed training psyche this week and report my findings.

[fried]

Mon - Fri - Nothing, too much work and too little sleep.
Sat - Should be outside but I had to make a choice, so I decided to go outside on Monday. Indoor 3h nothing interesting to report.

Sun - Missus and bro-in-law convinced me that it would be easier to wait until morning to clean grouting off tiles, so most of the day is spent chiseling away.

Weight 74.0 kg

[Dolly]

S - Early start to get to peak for a days snowballing - missed out in 2010 and wasn't letting that happen again! Amazing day - Black Car Burning (still pretty scary), Shine On, Cemetery Waits (flash), Three Blind Mice (flash), Ai No Corrida (flash)(my god this is brilliant!), Snow Blind Mice (ace mantle). Just fantastic. Thanks to James and Jo for letting me tag along and mats and spot, And hi to 205Chris  Tired now - long day esp including the drive from and to Bristol...

Great effort, that's a good day out!!

+1 Well done. Thats impressive

[Dolly]

M Foundry felt good
T 5.3 k run
W Foundry but felt tired. Ended up just having an easy sess
T 5 k run after work but did something to my achilles so limped the last k. Still hurts now
F Burbage N with Nai, Plattsy (nice to meet you ) and jonjon. Had my hand on the top of Ai no Corrida 3 times but didnt have the guts to finish it. Lost all my skin so liberally blooded 3 blind mice. Very frustrating. Two problems which I know I can do. Also lost 2 pints as bet jonjon that he wouldnt flash Ai no Corrida (he did) and do 3 blind mice first time. Bollox
S stared at my skin trying to make it grow back. Walked to the match from the car. Does that count ?
S Stared at skin more. Had to run the line for half sons match which was quite difficult as I had a pronounced achilles limp

[duncan]

Ended up unexpectedly doing Rainbow, a nice 7a slopey lip, in a session. Very pleased as its a nice problem and its the first thing I've actually climbed since the start of Jan. Felt fairly steady too. The gym sessions and lots of core work appear to be paying off. And the friction was so good it felt like cheating! Renewed psyche to keep training until the ankle is good enough to trad climb on.

Easing yourself in gently?  That's a great start.

S - Early start to get to peak for a days snowballing - missed out in 2010 and wasn't letting that happen again! Amazing day - Black Car Burning (still pretty scary), Shine On, Cemetery Waits (flash), Three Blind Mice (flash), Ai No Corrida (flash)(my god this is brilliant!), Snow Blind Mice (ace mantle). Just fantastic. Thanks to James and Jo for letting me tag along and mats and spot, And hi to 205Chris  Tired now - long day esp including the drive from and to Bristol...

Wow!


STG - touch dry rock
MTG - E5
LTG - Various LH+F on Alpine Rock and USA

M -  Biscuit Factory bouldering. 20 x Blacks V0/V1 and Tigers V1/V2 in 20 mins. 15 x Blues V2-3 all first go. Felt like I was moving well.
T - finger curls / Biceps curls / Shoulder stability stuff
W -
T - Biscuit Factory bouldering. 20 x Blacks V0/V1 and Tigers V1/V2 in 20 mins. c.15 x Blues and Greens V2-4. Sore R. hand after.
F - Child/parent minding
S - Child/parent minding
S - Child/parent minding

Slightly frustrating tweak to "good" hand, in retrospect should have consolidated at V2/3 for longer but Tuesday session felt really good. This is a a pattern. Very frustrating weekend tied to London but hopefully will touch real rock this week.

73.3kg which is unacceptable though slightly understandable since I have been unable to run and climbed outside once in the last 3 months.   

[Duma]

S - Early start to get to peak for a days snowballing - missed out in 2010 and wasn't letting that happen again! Amazing day - Black Car Burning (still pretty scary), Shine On, Cemetery Waits (flash), Three Blind Mice (flash), Ai No Corrida (flash)(my god this is brilliant!), Snow Blind Mice (ace mantle). Just fantastic. Thanks to James and Jo for letting me tag along and mats and spot, And hi to 205Chris  Tired now - long day esp including the drive from and to Bristol...

Great effort, that's a good day out!!

+1 Well done. Thats impressive

S - Early start to get to peak for a days snowballing - missed out in 2010 and wasn't letting that happen again! Amazing day - Black Car Burning (still pretty scary), Shine On, Cemetery Waits (flash), Three Blind Mice (flash), Ai No Corrida (flash)(my god this is brilliant!), Snow Blind Mice (ace mantle). Just fantastic. Thanks to James and Jo for letting me tag along and mats and spot, And hi to 205Chris  Tired now - long day esp including the drive from and to Bristol...

Wow!

  Thanks gents, must admit to feeling a bit of a hero after the first three - however watching el mocho casually campus up and down through the crux of Shine On was a timely reminder to the ego of just how far off the pace this stuff really is. Still, astonishing how many classic problems are hiding just a few feet higher than I'd normally look...

[iain]

Duma  Good day.

and Chillax, ankle's not really slowing you down any more then

Back from Font last week. Trip didn't start well by leaving both my coffee and the guidebooks at home. Coffee was easily fixed obviously and I ended up mostly enjoying not having the guides. It meant I did what looked fun regardless of grade or name, something I don't do nearly enough of, and I still don't know most of what I did now I'm back.

First half of trip was dodging rain with friends and working in the van when it was too wet to do anything else. Those friends went home without much climbing and second half an old friend from Edinburgh arrived and the weather was much better. He's barely climbed outdoors and getting to show him around was great.

Besides that my mind was properly tired from work and I just didn't really feel like projecting much except for Rubis sur L'ongle which I tried during showers one day. No tick but surprised myself by getting fingers over the little block countless times. Beta and timing will sort that I think.

I also discovered that my new all day trad shoes are the best things I've ever worn for font slabs. I'd always assumed that to stand on small edges tighter and more sensitive was the way, but no turns out flatish stiffer shoes are best for me and I've been doing it wrong all this time 


Now I need to concentrate on finishing the degree so not much in the way of climbing for the next while.

[Muenchener]

STG: Climb outdoors on real rock
MTG (2013): Frankenjura VII onsight; Alpine multipitch VI; Welsh trad E2
LTG (<= 5 years): Big alpine rock routes: Totenkirchl west face (Dülfer), Marmolada south face (Vinatzer-Messner)

In which shit weather scuppers my hopes of getting a couple of days climbing in over Easter, but - powered by the collective wisdom of ukb - I get *that* close to completing my indoor proj.

M:
T:
W: Wall, Thalkirchen. Routes: 5b 5b 6b+ 6b+ 5b 6a+ 6a+
T:
F: Wall, Boulderwelt. A dozen problems to warm up then 7a circuit project. Linked one move further than last week: 24/30. At which rate I need another 6 sessions. The exciting aspect of an indoor project: will it still be there for another six sessions? Almost like icefall climbing (a bit)
S: Wall, Boulderwelt. A dozen problems to warm up then 7a circuit project. Fell on the last move, 29/30, on my first attempt. Didn't get that far on the following attempts. 
S: Fly to .uk for Easter family visit

[csl]

Forgot to add Goals for April

At least 20 sessions climbing 1/20
Rehab finger
7b indoors
Get outside twice 1/2
Run 17.50 Parkrun

[tomtom]

Forgive me power club, for I have sinned. Its is four weeks since I last posted

2013 totals:
Outdoor: 24   
Indoor:1 
Training 5

March has been a busy week for travel and work... I've been away in Tenerife for a week at the beginning of March, back for a week, then off to Boulder for a week for a conference/meeting... I'm also away next week - so this may be a bit of a conflation of various trips etc..

Just before heading off to Tenerife, I managed to sneak a session with Andy Popp at 'Scally crag R' - an urban location somewhere on Cheshire Sandstone..



Theres a nice set of slabby wall warm ups to the left - then the main attraction is the double areted nose that Andy is on in the pic.. Stuff to the right is tottering rotting choss unfortunately.. Anyway, Fatneck has now done the LH arete at 6B+ (I think) and the face in between the aretes is called 'blasted' (the pun may become clearer at a later date) and is really great wall climbing at 6C - possibly 6C+... sadly some tool has been along in recent times (within the last year) and chipped out steps in it - so both are slightly eliminate in that you have to avoid them.. the RH arete is Andy's project and he/we suspect its in the 7B range.. dynamic off balance lunges for crimpy crapness (they are nice moves - just tenuous)...

Post Tenerife - where i managed to only put on 2lbs (drinking, free food - its hard not to put on more..) I had a couple of "trying to keep my self in" sessions at Helsby - where I put up a new line (pretty sure its new) immediately to the left of the arch (full write up here: http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,21946.0.html ). Really nice climbing - locking off a crimp at near waist height to reach blind for a positive hold - 6C ish again - and adds to the slightly harder problems at that craglet which are needed..



SNOWMAGEDDON then hit - and all I saw of it was driving over the 62 at 20mph on friday evening... That weekend the peak was in snowlock and on the monday I jetted off to Boulder \o/ and thanks to Stubbs, Blunk and others got some good local beta.

 I had a free day the first day I was there, so headed off to 'the Spot' - one of the best bouldering Gyms in the country I was told.. it was good - but I was crap. Jetlag - and as I later discovered altitude left me dizzy and weak (Boulders at c.6000 ft). Its an interesting place - with walls and two large free standing boulders - so you have to top out. Which is actually a really good think to have on a bouldering wall. Topping out is one of my weaknesses as a. I am chickenshit and b. I dont do it very often! Normally skulking around on nice safe looking low things... Anyway, its interesting as the colour of the holds means nothing.. instead you have to spy different colour tape on the holds signfiying the relevant ones.. starting holds have more tape and spots on them to mark the difficulty. I pissed all the 3's and couldnt do any of the 4 spots! ho hum.. excuses already given above!

The rest of my week consisted of workshopping.. and of course the associated drinking and eating that go with that I reccomend the Backcountry Pizza and tap house on Arapahoe.. (nr 28th st).. 65 brews on tap. Ever had sour beer? I hadnt - and its nice for a small measure, but certainly not a session ale! Like a 7% beery sour non sweet haribo mix.. Anyhow, it all ended on friday, and some folk had stayed later to head off ski-ing on the Sat, but I figured I'd try and do some climbing. I tagged along with Shawn and Mark who were at the meet and we went up the Boulder Canyon road - went along some paths that were closed.. and found some fantastic bolted grey granite... I've not tied onto a rope for probably 2 years, so it was quite an experience - but we did a 5.10b, and a 5.11b (which had a nice bouldery start I managed to do clean then was pumped to shit and fell off an easy bit!) and finally a 5.11a... The grades were meaningless to me, but it felt like a 5a, 6c and 6b respectively... Its funny being on a rope.. it bought back those half way up thoughts of "what am I doing here" and "why am I doing this" I'm so used to scoping out a boulder problem from the ground, working out what to do then heading up.. not having to make it up on the fly. Hard work!

(some granite roped stuff)


Easter Sunday - and I'd arranged to meet Blunk in Fort Colins (about 90 min away). Having rented a car for the day I headed up to meet him and we went to Horsetooth - where the legendary John Gill had I guess developed bouldering as we now know it.. I have to thank Blunk so much - it was really good of him to show me around - and there was a really good local vibe there (despite it being busy with holiday folk daytripping). Lovely rock (hard sandstone) and some superb problems, flakes and crimpy edges.. I failed on many things Did a couple of V3's and a V4 of note, but failed on the classic problems on the Eliminator.. sadly over use seems to have taken its toll on that bloc, with ground and hold erosion making what looks like a classic set of problems now have rather contrived polished jump starts.. a shame, but still fantastic to see and to try and pull on.

Easter monday and tuesday - were spent in a 18 hour journey home.. amazingly - I seem to have put on hardly any weight while in the states... (I was careful..)