[csl]

October Goals
10 7's in Spain 9/10 - i'll let myself off easy with 9 ticks.
Onsight 7b+ in Spain - done, depending on where you look...
Stick to training plan - Managed this all month
Find a UK project for the winter - 7c/7c+ - Not done

Mon - Tres Ponts. 7a onsight, 7a+/7b (depending where you look) flash. 7a 2nd go.
Tue - Tres Ponts. 7a+ onsight, 7b+ onsight. Did Trencaltells, 7b+ on UKC and 8a.nu, 7b in new version of local guide. Robbed of the extension when i pulled off a hold.
Wed - Rest
Thu - Tres Ponts. 7a+ Flash. Attempted Instint Salvatge - got pretty far on the onsight. Good a muerte attempt.
Fri - Collegats. Cool crag with a tyrolean to get there. 7a 2nd go. 7a flash. Nearly flashed (ish) a 7b called Arnalada. Had been up about 3 bolts and come down cos i was knackered.  Then tried again and did the whole thing but didn't see the finishing jug. Got it next go.
Sat - Nerieda at Figols. Did a 6b+ and a 6c. Had a go on a 7b, cool route. Did in two halves first go, too knackered to RP.
Sun - Travel Home.

Good week, psyched to explore a bit of the Lleida area!

November Goals
Find a UK project to work - 7c/7c+
Go Trad climbing
Climb a V8 indoors

[mindfull]

STG: Discover my limiting factors in training and recovery for climbing, running, and powerlifting, not getting injured
MTG: 7th grade bouldering and routes, God shave the queen (8a, Freyr), Sub 3 hour marathon, 125K bench press/170 squat/200 deadlift   
LTG: La divine providence (7c, ABO, Chamonix), Sub 10 hours ultra (100K)

When I read my goals, last year they would have seemed impossible, but since I am training so hard and recovering so well, who knows?

Down to 70kg this week. Good food, only one cheat meal 

MO:
- powerlifting (SQ/BP/DL),rowing warmup, then 3X5X5 for SQ, BP and DL
- Stretching
TU:
- Slow distance run 10K.
- Stretching
WE:
- Circuits in the gym 25-30 6a-7a moves
- Some light campusing
TH:
- Slow distance run 10K
- Stretching
FR:
- Same as wednesday
SA:
- Stretching and Tai Chi
- Rest
SU:
- Morning: 10 ex 5x5 Shoulders and back (pullups/barbell Over head press/Lat pulldowns/horizontal dips/dumbell shoulder presses/ ...), rowing warmup and cool down
- Stretching
- Afternoon: 5x 20min easy climbing for endurance

Today definitely killed my shoulders and back for the next days. Should take rest tomorrow and maybe even tuesday, but hey, at least I had a lot of fun!

[Muenchener]

STG (Autumn): 7a redpoint.
MTG (2015): 7a+ redpoint
LTG (<= 5 years): Big alpine rock routes: Totenkirchl West Face (Dülfer), Marmolada south face (Vinatzer-Messner)

Return of the Glorious Indian Summer

M: Beastmaker, 10 sets. +1 kg over my previous session, +5 kgs since I started with my current fb routine a month ago. Good.
T: School half term active rest: Go Ape with M jnr & friend.
W: Wall, Thalkirchen. Bouldering. Decent session: worked my current proj to the crux and from the crux, just not through the crux yet. Rounded off with weighted pull-ups 4 x 3 x +16kg plus a few sets of core stuff.
T: rest day
F: rest day

S: Sport climbing, Griesen. Redpointed my first 7a, Biset. Second go today, six goes in total. An actual good route too, not just something I picked because soft/short/bolts close together. Was also pleased with the warm-down: onsighted a steep, juggy 6b and found it fairly casual, just slightly pumpy at the finish. 6b onsights are still not an everyday event for me, especially steep pumpy ones.

In general a minor but worthwhile crag, mostly around the 6b to 7a range and south facing. Might hopefully get another good day or two in here before the winter closes in. There's another fantastic looking 7a up a big overhanging prow, v. photogenic, but I suspect it might have to wait for the spring after some solid power endurance training

S: Friend's birthday party. Rest & celebrate.

[tomtom]

Bravo Muenchener

M:

T: Went to Harmers.. got fairly high on Andy Popps new 7A+ but only had one mat - so bailed after about 40 min. Still had the need to climb within me, so went to Logport Wall and had a really good lunchtime session on their new circuits...

W:

Th:

Fr: Where to go! Forecast been all over the place all week, so started at the Tor - wet, went to Rubicon - Kudos wall was dry, did Millers a few times, then played on the 7A/+'s on Kudos wall I'm miles away from doing.. got bored.. left. Went to scope out Curbar for a quick grit hit - it was wet Some folks from Boro working a dry Trackside - so had a play on that  and got it second or third or fourth attempt. Felt good. Everything else was still wet (GW pit was gopping) so went home rather unsatisfied...

Sa:

Su: Good day out at Stony Edge. Took a while to work out longboat 7A, and a little less time to get Elfin Safe Tea. Nice crag - good circuit...

[kelvin]

Some decent crushing this week so far! Nice.

STG - Nov. Keep up mileage and work on power.
MTG - Spring. Focus on strength indoors. Have a decent grit season... lead a Brown and Whillans route!
LTG - Next Oct. Take 18 months off and go climbing! Spain for 6 months. Goal - f7a and not a soft one. Also Zeppelin, El Chorro.

Mon - Needed rest day

Tue - Plantation bouldering. Did some 5s and then had a go at Deliverence - bit too warm and feet weren't sticking (I'm rubbish in other words), a 6A first go, worked 6A+. Went off and worked some cracks, rested, the wind picked up and it got cooler... back to Deliverance. Straight across to the sidepull first go. Well happy with that! Bottled the dyno to be honest as we had no beta on how to jump.  7hrs all told.

Wed - Bamford. Second a couple of things, then mate led Salmon Direct. Too hard for me, so followed up Jet Runner arete. Found it tough as fingertips were bleeding through the pores. Learnt loads.

Thu - Drive to Wales. Legged up and down Tryfan via the North Ridge in rain and late afternoon gloom. Under two hours and took the harder options.

Fri - Windy. Soloed around on Idwal Slabs and then up Cnieffon Arete - way too blowy to be honest but yeah, fun as always and out for four hours.

Sat - Millstone, seconding. Embankment 3, Great North Road, Eros, Lyon's House Corner Direct. Arms and fingertips held out... just. Made four mistakes with my feet, bit peed off with that - missed two foot holds that made moves way harder, also one slip and one bad choice. All in all, maybe a better day than normal for me on grit.

Sun - Bamford. Warmed up seconding Nemes Pas Harry, pleased as got the feet right, didn't get pumped at the bottom either. Tips started to bleed. Mate got Jet Runner, so tried that but bailed as left knee cartilage is playing up and the arete move was fucking painful. Quit whilst ahead. Tips bleeding, knee painful but no injury. Win in my book.

Feel like I learnt a lot this week about movement on grit (and in general) and decided to sack off leading 'easy' routes, as I feel I'll learn more and get stronger seconding and bouldering at the moment. Tips of fingers are trashed and the knee is gonna be an issue at some point, need to be careful for a few days.

Fairly happy with what I did tho, as I'm not too sure how I managed to stay on the rock at some points.

The crazy flash pump never appeared, I got pumped of course at times, but not the disabling and bruising kind that mashes up my left arm. So need to keep up the aerocap and keep analysing what I do at work, to see if I can help the left arm there. Proper tried hard again this week. Happy days.

[duncan]

Well done Muenchener and csl.

STG: Avoid tweaks, design rough training plan (tick) and get stuck into it once recovered from bug, book trip(s) this spring (two ticks). Two more weeks fingerboarding.
MTG: 7b RP this winter. E5 OS, something vertical, classic and not dangerous, next April.
LTG: Long hard (for me) rock routes in the Alps, Dolomites, Picos and Scotland. 7c RP.

M - Shoulder stability stuff: side planks, press-ups, military presses, downward dog.
T - Westway routes [5 sets x 10 mins on (4 routes 6a+-6b+ back-to-back) - 10 mins off]. ~250m, pumpy end of Aerobic Capacity spectrum.
W -
T - Short fingerboard session. Stopped after 2 sets as shoulder a bit tweaky.
F -
S - Longer fingerboard session: 5secs on-10secs rest x6 x2 sets, 7secs on-8 secs rest x6 x4 sets of different grips. 3.5 mins rest between sets.
S - Shoulder stability stuff.

Reasonable week considering I had deadlines on Friday and still recovering from cold. Fingerboarding progressing slightly. My routine is very easy compared with just about anything I've ever read - The Andersons "Beginers" program has more than double the hanging time and shorter rests. Main thing is that something is happening and - touch CNC routed tulipwood - no tweaks yet.

[andybfreeman]

Good job Muenchener!!

Season 1 of periodised plan aiming toward climbing Tyranny after Xmas. One more week of base fitness to go then on to strength

M - Rest
Tu - 3 x 25 min continuous on auto belay
W - 3 x 25 min continuous on auto belay
Th - 2 x 25 min continuous - first set on auto belay, second set on lead
F - Rest
Sa - Outdoor mileage - fun, long easy sports routes at Brooyar with mates and gf
Su -  Outdoor mileage - fun morning of more easy sports routes at Brooyar with gf

Weight - average 70.8kg, 71.1kg this morning

[JackAus]

STG: DWS project.
MTG: More V7s.
LTG: V11

M:
T:
W: DWS. Just the one attempt. Rubbish pull on the crimp and dropped. Also did V1, V3, V3 and 7a.
T: DWS. 2 attempts. First go, best go. Locked to an inch from the sloper. So fucking close... Lapped 7a traverse and retro-flashed a V4 I put up last year. Hard, might be V5, sideways dyno into an iron cross... Managed to flash it for the FA then couldn't stick it again...
F:
S: DWS. 1 attempt. Windy. Toe hook blew, held the cut, 3 inch reach to sloper. 7a, V3, V3.
S:

[Dolly]

Well done Muench.
M Day one of kids cook at half term. Great 3 course meal plus wine but no training
T Day two. Foundry at lunchtime but I was tired on the board. More great food and wine in the evening. Drink too much and buy a weight vest online.
W Kettlebells
T The great Autumn shed reset. Lots of beer, great tunes and testing new problems over nearly 4 hours. Come inside and decide through the medium of beer logic that I need to do more so beastmake for about 20 minutes.
F Not surprisingly battered in all senses. Do some weighted deadhangs.
S nothing. Well loads of family stuff.
S Weighted sess on the Beastmaker. Dont really know what to do. Do you just try and do the same hangs but find it harder ?

[Sasquatch]

STG - Mandala
MTG - Break and body rehab, then start route training
LTG - To Bolt or Not to Be, 8a OS, and 3-5 new local routes in the 8th grade

M - Easy active recovery, plus a bit of unplanned bouldering
T - Nothing
W - FB max hangs (new PB) then repeaters and set new PB's on every prehension.  Bit of a good day. 
Th - Active recovery
F -
S - Boulder, new comp routes, then MED fb hangs and Campus, finished with 2x20 easy ARC
S - Active recovery plus levers and abs

Wednesday felt outstanding, felt really strong. Then had a mixed session on saturday.  Good bouldering, but the campusing was a bit below par.  Probably too much bouldering first though, as they had reset the entire bouldering area. Next campus workout will be Tuesday.
10 days to Bishop!!!

[Sasquatch]

1/2 crimp, open, front 2 pockets, back 2 pockets, middle 2 pockets and pinchs

[webbo]

Mon. Board mainly repeating things with screw on foot jibs.
Tue. Nothing.
Wed. Turbo 1 hour.
Thu. Nothing.
Fri. Nothing.
Sat. Looking at houses first thing. Board repeating stuff including what I feel was last years hardest problem 2nd go. Also did a couple of others that I generally fail to repeat first go. Did a couple of new problems. Bike 18.02 miles 56 mins 19.27 mph.
Sun. Bike 67.23 miles 3hrs 38mins 18.43 mph (winter bike)

[T_B]

83.1Kg

M -
T - Lunch - School. Bit o bouldering.
W -
T - P.M. Started F/board sess, but lost psyche after 25 mins and continued painting skirting board
F - Lunch - School. Better session, trying some harder problems and making progress.
S -
S -

Plans to get back into it scuppered by ill children/wife and decorating jobs dragging on. Inexplicably light - muscle loss? A good week not to be psyched!

[shark]

Effort csl and Muenchener

Half term Kalymnos trip with son Tom

Mon. Cold/sore throat on way out. Took a taxi to the crag (Arhi) which was a first. Busy on steep bit so hung out on the left side. We both failed to onsight a cruxy 6c but onsighted the superb 6c+/7a next to it. Joined the others at the steep bit. Saw a hanging techy groove (7a+/b) which is the sort of thing I'm good at. Successfully managed to fight my way up it. Found out later that Mick who’d done Mecca a couple of months  ago had tried it just before and couldn’t even top rope it which was gratifying. Had a beer whilst waiting for the bus.
Tues. Outvoted on destination and we went to Odyssey. After warmups tried Meltemi 7a/7a+ but was a bit nervous trying to clip 3rd bolt with Tom belaying (73kg vs 42kg) so lowered off but flashed next go. Had a go at Paris Texas variously graded 7c, 7b+ and 7b. Got to the first hard move and couldn’t do it so lowered off and tried the route to its right Patroclos Reborn 7b. This proved a real fight against the pump at the top and I nearly skipped a clip ending up clipping it by my feet.
Weds. Grand Grotta. After warmup I had a go at my main aim – Aegialis 7c seeing as it was available. This is something I failed on 12/13 years ago and is a monster thuggy route out of the left side of the cave. Was keen to flash it. Put in a good effort and managed to get to the 10th bolt but pumped out with my fingers an inch away from a hidden jug. Was out in space so lowered off then dogged up in sun to retrieve gear. Shagged by the time I got down. Tommy then shot up DNA (7a). Went round corner – bit drizzly but we both did Kurva 7a on Spartan Wall.
Thurs. Illios. Easier onsight day on wall climbs. 6c+, 7a, 7a, 7a+ and a 7b linkup when I went off route. (Good strategy this - steep routes one day then wall climbs the next)
Fri. Earlier start and back to Grand Grotta at 9.30am (local time) put gear in Aegialis to warm up and get dibs on the route. Redpoint went went pretty smoothly and even clipped rather than grabbed the anchor. Walked across to Illios. Tom tried to onsight Tufa King Pumped 7b+ then bolt to bolted up it. Realised I had left my belay glasses in Grand Grotta and trotted back to get them and saw a snake on the way back. Tom got it second redpoint. I failed to redpoint it. Too fucking pumped.
Sat. Kalydna. We did an ace 7a Ixion then I did the monstrous 45m Aurora 7a+/b which had an airy finishing crux. Ambled across to Zeus for a couple of final routes in the sun. Saw a fat big lizard. Narrowly failed to onsight the pockety Rocklands 7b. Sat eve Guests at a Greek wedding party at the hotel for the super-friendly Manager - congratulations Nickolas
Sun. Travel back

Logbook here if anyone wants full rundown http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/showlog.html?id=9478

Fun trip. Endurance prep was good but could have been lighter. As always a second week would have been good but hey ho. Didn’t get my 7c onsight but tried hard and achieved secondary aim of not getting burned off by Tommy except on Tufa King Pumped.

[Wood FT]

Took a taxi to the crag (Arhi) which was a first.

Theres a route at black rocks called that is there not?

Redpoint went went pretty smoothly and even clipped rather than grabbed the anchor.

 

[shark]

Congrats to Tommy - sounds like he had a good week. Is 7b+ a new grade for him?

He did Space Race at Malham a few months ago but that was 4 days spread over several months.

With Tufa King I was impressed that he after he failed on the onsight that he went dogged up doing hard moves above gear and redpointed it in the session.

He also had a go at Aegelis but came off low down but top roped up it with rests on the second session. He really enjoyed the trip and was happy with what he achieved volumewise (8-10 routes at 7a or harder depending on which guidebook/database/app you consult  ) 

I'm sure he could onsight a handpicked 7b+ or redpoint Raindogs if he put the time in and stopped the running nonsense.

[Schnell]

STG: 7B+, work on shoulder stability/injury prevention
MTG: try to organise sport climbing trip in early new year

M.
T. Max hangs in the morning, no progress. Eve bouldering session but felt a bit tweaky and tired after long day at work and long cycle to the wall.
W.
T. Max hangs morning, stuck at around 10kg added on the BM crimps. Eve indoor training session, again a bit tweaky and fatigued.
F.
S. Up v. early for a weekend bouldering trip to Fair Head. Day one did 7A and 7A+, also briefly tried two 7Bs and did all but one move on both. Ones to go back for.
S. More Fair Head bouldering, warmed up repeating a brilliant 6C/+, flashed an easy for the tall 7A and did a hard 6C+ in a few goes. After that I was pretty tired and had a few cursory pulls on other problems.

Not a great week training wise. I'm going to have to fix my schedule so I'm not so tired training in the evenings. On actual rock things are pretty good, having tried some of the same problems last year I feel like I've made a lot of progress and 3 new 7's in a weekend is good going for me.

[cheque]

Good effort everyone!

Took a taxi to the crag (Arhi) which was a first.

Theres a route at black rocks called that is there not?

Yep, the arete underneath Gaia. 

Two whole weeks of "Power" from me as I missed last time. A couple of breakthroughs in there!

STG- Finger rehab.

2014 goals- 20 11 E-points, back to 7th grade in sport (won't happen) and bouldering (probably won't either).

LTG- 8a sport, classic trad routes that currently seem way out of my league.

M- Beastmaker repaeaters. All went well 'til I got a nasty twinge in my finger. Had a rest and tried again- same twinge. 

T- Rest. Worrying.

W- Rest. Worrying.

T- Finally went to see a physio about my fingers. Turns out I have comically tight muscles from my chest right down my arms which is putting too much strain on my fingers whenever I climb- this is also the cause of my frequent wrist tweaks and golfer's-type pain too. Makes sense as I've never stretched my upper body much at all! Given stretches and massage to do every day for a month then will be given exercises after that. Deleriously happy as I'd come to the conclusion that my fingers were just fucked. Climbing is fine as long as I stretch my fingers before and arms after, but fingerboarding is out. Misty twilight walk out to Stanage End after.

F- Nothing. Adopting a policy of just doing my rehab on days when I don't climb now for a month at least.

S- Rest.

S- Froggatt. Did Brown's eliminate, my first E2.

M- Rest.

T- Rest.

W- Almscliff. I love this crag almost as much as I love Black Rocks. I'd probably love it more if it was as close to my flat. Soloed for a bit then got the pads out. It didn't take long to realise that the Virgin Traverse wouldn't go as half of it was baking in the sun and I'm also too weak to climb that hard right now. Settled for Wall of Horrors start, but after I'd fallen off the last move three times and realised what I needed to do I couldn't do the lower moves anymore. Still a great day though.

T- Notts Depot. Fell off weird and pulled a muscle in my back. 

F- Working from home worrying about my painful back.

S- Woke up and my back felt way batter. Went to Black Rocks and had a great day filming. Wasn't sure whether to climb myself or not but forgetting my climbing shoes (maybe a subconscious decision?!) decided that for me. Still managed to make a completely unwarmed-up, half-hearted attempted at a 6c move and tweak my finger a bit though...

S- Stanage. Felt like grit temps at last! Didn't want to push my finger hard and was focused more on giving my mate who'd driven up from Cambridge a belay- he did two E1s, his most successful trad day yet  .  Led a couple of HVSs myself.

A weird couple of weeks but two that have made me feel a lot more positive about climbing. Finally getting the E2 monkey off my back was great but even better was getting professional advice on my finger problem.

Every time I've climbed since I started doing the stretches my fingers have felt fine the next day (we'll leave Saturday's moment of idiocy out of this) and although It's still going to be a while before I can pull hard/ train hard it's absolutely great to have an idea of what's wrong and what I need to do to fix it.

[kelvin]

Nice work getting the first E2 cheque, great stuff.

[Wood FT]

Nice one cheque, it's a fine feeling indeed setting off from that ledge

[Muenchener]

Nice one cheque, it's a fine feeling indeed setting off from that ledge

Depends in which direction. In the worst climbing accident of my career, I slapped for it when it all went horribly wrong on an attempt at the direct start on a hot, greasy day in July. Daft idea I know (now). Touched the ledge but failed to hold it.  Where's the "leg in plaster" icon?

Good one cheque. When you go back for the direct start, don't be as stupid about conditions as I was.

[fried]

STG - 10 pull-ups (9 done)
LTG - 7A by 50 (getting more improbable by the day)

Mon - Indoors, nothing new on my blue circuit challange, fail a few times on the last reamaining prob. Go upstairs and finish a blue 6A prob that I've never done, pleased as it's not my style (i.e not a vertical wall!), 30° overhanging on pinches, crimps and underclings. Still at 5/6. Can't remember anything else.

Tues - Work and weather conspire to put all my sessions together, so I decide to go and do an easy circuit, after much uming and ahring I still haven't decided. There's been rain and it's looking grey, so I choose the safe option and go to Canche aux mercier, where the carpark looks damp, luckily everything seems to be dry and friction is the best for a very long time. Pick off 20 or so yellow/ orange problems then a couple of blues. Nasty ache in my left arm means I need to take plenty of rest, play on a couple of reds, nice day. Plenty of Brits around floating effortlessly up stuff.

Wed - Work

Rest of week - Family are visiting, so we walk a lot and eat/ drink too much.

[Luke Owens]

I missed a week due to illness so I'll do a double update.

M: Rest

T: Rest

W: Pen Trwyn - Did some moves and links on Norman Wisdom Trav (7A). Then briefly tried The Plumbline Trav (6C+).

T: Pen Trwyn - Did Rock Bottom (7A) after about 5 go's. Then went over to the Plumbline Trav again. Got powered out all over the place on it. It's apparently about F7b. Felt harder than that to me...

F: Rest

S: Rest

S: Finished bolting my new route on the Diamond. Looks like it's going to awesome. After a few hours of dangling and jugging around bolting I was knackered but managed to work out all the moves on top rope. The crux is right at the top ~30 moves in, really technical and low percentage.

M: Rest

T: ill

W: ill

T: ill

F: ill

S: Gardening/DIY. Got loads done around the house.

S: Back on the Diamond proj. Route breaks down to ~20 moves of around pumpy 6c+ to a pumpy rest. It then goes really hard for 5 moves to a hideous clip off a sharp crimp then 5 moves (the meat of the crux) to a big-ish undercut then about 7 moves to the lower off including a foot above hand powerful rockover. I think it'll end up being about F7b+/c.

Had some redpoints:
1st go - did the 6c+ section to the shake.
2nd go - made it to the crux holds after the sharp clip and powered out/hot aches.
3rd go - made it to the sharp clip then powered out and got hot aches again.

Any tips for training for this route? ~20 moves to a shake out then 10 hard crux moves to a half rest then about 7 moderately difficult moves the lower off. Need to be able to blast through the crux section (which is OK in isolation). Train Ancap? Repeaters?

Cheers

[Luke Owens]

Completely forgot to include an indoor routes session I had on the first Friday:
 
5, 5+, 6a+ 6b+ 6c, 6c+ (2nd go anti-style), 6b+
 
Hard getting used to indoors again... Not climbed indoors since the start of the year...

[Duncan Disorderly]

Brains a bit of a mess at the moment so can't quite remember when I last posted - been doing a fair bit indoors, dropped to 68Kgs which while isn't great for me general health it certianly made climbing easier...

Ended up in Liguria last week, hadn't actually planned on climbing much, more just spending some time with the kids, doing some yoga and generally chilling after a few of the worst weeks of my life...

M: Yoga + Sauna + a couple of 5's at a crag near Triora.
T: Yoga + Morning out at Corte (nr Triora) - Did some nice low/mid 6s and tried a 7b on TR then did it 1st RP.. Result!
W: Yoga + Sauna + Cook all day - Nice!
T: Drive for an hr to a supposed child friendly crag (unknown name) - it wasn't child friendly! Took the opportunity to try the only 7b at the crag as we were there and did it 2nd RP..... Ace!
F: Yoga + Sauna + Walk with kids and go to Halloween witches festival in Triora.
S: Nowt.
S: Heely boulder.

Surprised myself... Unplanned 7b despatching, yoga and nuff saunas... Nice!

:D