[cheque]

Looking good! How many moves is that highpoint from the kneebar you clip the chains from Shark?

I have other versions getting to this point that involve power screaming when tired that I can post if there is demand for further variety. 

My only request is that you film with the camera horizontally. 

[tomtom]

Note for tomtom: that is 6 times in total.

Well done. Sometimes its hard for me not to sound sarcastic (even in type) but well done.

[nai]

My only request is that you film with the camera horizontally. 

Yep, T_B filming vertically brought failure, once he stopped that success came.  Get the camera orientated correctly and you'll be on your way to the chains

[iain]

here we go

I love baby's congratulation coo at the end 
Sounds like Anna was climbing well too.

Here's a video of my new highpoint from yesterday ...

Looking good, make sure you get (horizontal) video of the celebration when you get the chains.

Long, but amazing drive.  When I finally got back into cell reception got fantastic news via email (See YYFY).  Ready to really step into training for the next 4 weeks and get prepped for new job/life changes...

So let me get this straight, you've been doing 2 jobs at the same time as being a full time family man (with challenges), AND still had time to get beastly strong and do things like The Mandala.

You've either got a time machine or the best time management skills ever, you should write a book.
Good luck with it 


and effort T_B, good luck Cheque

[shark]

Looking good! How many moves is that highpoint from the kneebar you clip the chains from Shark?

8 hand moves to the kneebar but only 4 hand moves to the jug at the end of the traverse after which it is relatively easy 

My only request is that you film with the camera horizontally. 

It's the only way I can get all the route in without being too far away or it being a bum shot. If you have any suggestions to get round that let me know.

Room in the car on Thursday if you want to do a professional shoot 

[petejh]

Looking awesome Si. Now that you've finally reached the stage of regularly linking from the ground to mid traverse, each go will be improving your power endurance (ancap/aeropow in sterling?) and giving you positive feedback for how to do one more move along the traverse when core/arms are feeling totally boxed. Try to fail slapping wildly for one more hand or foot move along in the belief that you won't stick it, and not sagging onto the rope.

Some micro-beta that may help a tiny bit: the right-hand bump into the undercut above the left-hand sloper/pinch at beginning of the trav - I found twisting in the right knee/hip a little more made the right-hand bump into the undercut feel a tiny bit easier.


These are strange times.. warmest year on record, Corbyn, Simon morphing into an 8b redpointer before our eyes.

[tomtom]

These are strange times.. warmest year on record, Corbyn, Simon morphing into an 8b redpointer before our eyes.

Indeed - Peak lime even felt 'pleasurable' to climb on for the first time.. whats going on??

[shark]

Looking awesome Si. Now that you've finally reached the stage of regularly linking from the ground to mid traverse, each go will be improving your power endurance (ancap/aeropow in sterling?) and giving you positive feedback for how to do one more move along the traverse when core/arms are feeling totally boxed. Try to fail slapping wildly for one more hand or foot move along in the belief that you won't stick it, and not sagging onto the rope.

Some micro-beta that may help a tiny bit: the right-hand bump into the undercut above the left-hand sloper/pinch at beginning of the trav - I found twisting in the right knee/hip a little more made the right-hand bump into the undercut feel a tiny bit easier.

Thanks again Pete - I have some wilder slapping footage available too. That time it was a wildly jerked left foot back to the smear in extremis. It may not be too obvious on the vid but I do twist and hunker down for the move you mention and feel solid on it. The mistake that time was on the move after - I was aiming for a small thumb catch Id discovered when putting the draws in. When I missed the thumb catch instead of getting on with turning the half crimp into a full crimp on the sidepull as I usually do I fixated on trying to manoeuvre my thumb on, wasting energy in the process when it was already too late.

[rodma]

here we go

I love baby's congratulation coo at the end 
Sounds like Anna was climbing well too.

he wasn't congratulating me, he was congratulating himself since anna had given him half a protein bar in it's wrapper to play with and he had successfully unwrapped it and was gargling the chocolate coating 

Anna is going great and certainly seems to be back at full (pre-baby) strength.

It's certainly a bit tricksier getting to the boulders with the wee one (and all his gubbins) in tow, but is well worth it, even if sometimes you can't optimise attemts/conditions or whatever due to it. This trip was easier than the last since Anna allowed me some full siege time and Sam slept (or was happy enough playing in/outside his wee tent) to permit plenty of climbing.

can't wait for the next trip (which is a long way off)

Congrats to all that have achieved so much greatness over the last three weeks

[mark]

Good luck, Shark.

I thought your video was interesting but a bit long for the short attention spans of the youngsters on here so I made a highlights version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lZLh0w8O7w&feature=youtu.be

[iain]

he wasn't congratulating me, he was congratulating himself since anna had given him half a protein bar in it's wrapper to play with and he had successfully unwrapped it and was gargling the chocolate coating 

Good skills


Right, Dolomites trip report.

TL:DR, The temps were waaaay down on what they should have been, almost 15 degrees colder. After one attempt we decided that any north faces, including the Hasse were a no go so the rest of the week was spent in the sun as much as possible, mostly doing easier stuff to keep moving.

Fri/Sat: Travel and sitting out the rain/snow waiting for the sunny forecast weather.

Sun: Drive up to the Tre Cime road head only to discover it closed due to snowfall and watch a snowplow head past us to clear. Whilst it was very pretty (can't seem to embed photos any more), it meant a change of plan.
Wound up heading to do Ottovolante which was a great route (thanks Duncan) but we bailed on pitch 8 because despite having on every warm layer I owned we were freezing and the effort of climbing whilst cold got to be too much.

Mon: Got on Roberta 89 which was good fun. Not the fastest ascent ever, and managed to route read fail on the crux, but the time allowed the seepage on the last 2 pitches to dry off. Thought the starting 6a/+ slab was the hardest climbing we did on the whole thing, can't see me ever heading to the Wendenstock.

Tues: Rest, ish. Did the VF Punta Anna, doing a 4 hour circuit of the good stuff and reversing an easy VF back to the car. Beautiful day. (The top of the VF is in the foreground)

Wed: Dawn start for the Via Cassin on the Piccolisima. The smallest tower but at least we got to climb something around the Tre Cime. A good day in the mountains, just enough sun to keep things bearable and an audience to applaud as we abbed/walked off 

Thurs: Back to Piz Ciavazes to do a route called Abram in the rockfax but not listed anywhere online by the same name. It was 12 pitch VII although most of the climbing was stepping up easy ground and I got a bit bored with that.
Managed to top out just before the hail thunderstorm started, as if we weren't cold enough.

Fri: Dedicated local research into cake/coffee stops. Still not sure we've found the best one.

Sat: Last day route choice limited by snow/rain from previous days meant back to Piz Ciavazes. My lack of sleep caught up with me (4hrs av. a night up till now), so my inner coward said hello whilst I struggled through 1st pitch of a sport route in the cold. Bailed and got on Via Irma which had good crux pitches and was just about all I could cope with on the day.

Despite getting a bit down about having the plans scuppered by the freak weather after thinking about it all summer we had a fun trip. I'll need to figure out when to go back for round 2.

[Nibile]

The Abram is a really noce route. I don't know if I would have gotten on it in such weather conditions! On Friday morning the Ciavazes looked still quite wet!
If you need any suggestions for coffe and cakes in Canazei or Campitello, just ask!
 

[iain]

It was dry while we were on Abram. My partner said that the rain had passed just as we topped out and 5 mins later we had hail bouncing off our hoods.  (and my comment of the route as boring is more about how I was feeling that day than the route itself.)

If you need any suggestions for coffe and cakes in Canazei or Campitello, just ask!
 

I will thanks We were based in Cortina, and I nearly made a fool of myself one evening thinking I recognised you from your videos and almost shouted Nibs at someone's back. Resisted thankfully, they didn't look strong enough.

[shurt]

Everything crossed for the coming week Shark. Feels like you've made some sort of physiological breakthrough this week.

I went to the wall once and had a very sore left tricep afterwards. No real training other than that apart from further aggravating said muscle carrying an ill child around - rock and roll.   

[shark]

Good luck, Shark.

I thought your video was interesting but a bit long for the short attention spans of the youngsters on here so I made a highlights version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lZLh0w8O7w&feature=youtu.be

 

An Off-beat video 

[cheque]

Room in the car on Thursday if you want to do a professional shoot 

I'll hopefully be able to do this- it relies upon getting all my work finished in time so won't know 'til tomorrow evening though.

[shark]

Room in the car on Thursday if you want to do a professional shoot 

I'll hopefully be able to do this- it relies upon getting all my work finished in time so won't know 'til tomorrow evening though.

 

[Sasquatch]

Long, but amazing drive.  When I finally got back into cell reception got fantastic news via email (See YYFY).  Ready to really step into training for the next 4 weeks and get prepped for new job/life changes...

So let me get this straight, you've been doing 2 jobs at the same time as being a full time family man (with challenges), AND still had time to get beastly strong and do things like The Mandala.

You've either got a time machine or the best time management skills ever, you should write a book.
Good luck with it 

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but about 13 years ago (when I married into an instant family) I learned that if you set a series of priorities and each day you just do as many of them as you can, it's quite amazing how much you can accomplish.  I often wish I could train more, have more family time, and have more time to dedicate to other facets of life, but by just setting priorities every day I generally get enough of each. 

Looking good! How many moves is that highpoint from the kneebar you clip the chains from Shark?

8 hand moves to the kneebar but only 4 hand moves to the jug at the end of the traverse after which it is relatively easy 

That's awesome! 

[SA Chris]

a Caleigh (fuck I know I've spelt that wrong..).

Ceilidh. Only reason I have it down is that it's my daughter's name (sort of - she's Cerys Eilidh)

[JackAus]

STG: More V8s. Consistent sub 75kg.
MTG: V9. Fear Factory List. 6/10 done.
LTG: V11.

M: Rest. Night work.
T: Small session. Ruined from nights. Bunch of campussing. Night work.
W: Starting to get sick.
T: Sick.
F: Sick.
S: Sick.
S: Sick.

 

[SA Chris]

Assuming that's not a "wow that's sick" sick?

[shark]

Better conditions and got stupidly close today. Back around on tuesday

[Sasquatch]

So is that 2 moves from the jug?

[kelvin]

Fuckin' 'ell Simon - almost there! You're looking so in control now... roll on Tuesday.

 

[andy popp]

Bloody hell Simon!