[fried]

M - Nothing
Tu - BM session 5x5, this let's me use the easy slopers. 30mins.
We - Heat wave hits 36°
Th - Heat wave continues
Fr - ...Tried to do some BM, but greasy and hot as hell.
Sa - Hot, hot, hot
Su - Planned to get up at 5.30am and do as much of the orange mountain circuit at cusiniere as possible. Slept badly due to the temperature not dropping below 30° until the early hours. Got up later and had a nice session at Apremont butte aux dames, doing oranges and a few blues. First session minus aircast, a bit sore after, but in a good way.

77Kg this morning , too much holiday beer.

Hopefully lower temps this week and I can get back into a normal routine.

[kelvin]

First session minus aircast, a bit sore after, but in a good way.

Nice to hear mate - good progress indeed.

 

[shark]

Nice one fried

Weight (gain) as yet unknown.

Temps in 30s all week

M.

T. Back to Rue des Masques with whole tribe. Hot. Warmed up by doing a traverse graded 5 which wasn't. Then got to work on our project. Ben got it first redpoint to his and my surprise. I got close but needed two attempts. Pressure off. Good problem. Ben called it Walrus because the big stone looked a bit like one. Rereading the ruedesmasquesbloc blog it sounds like something was done there - maybe the stand? Also flashed the easier direct start and Ben pulled a hold off trying it after. All on vid below. First rate fun at a second rate venue.

T.

W. Dragged Tommy back to Mont Dauphin. Did a great long 6c warmup. Then jumped on a 7a. Got through the crux bulge then too pumped to recover on jugs then fell one move off easy ground. Tommy flashed it on TR then managed to do it first redpoint. Called it a day

F. Back to Mont Dauphin with whole tribe. Did two hard polished 6s to warm up then went on a 7b. Committed to quickly and left myself unable to clip a bolt so dogged up it then got it fairly steadily first redpoint

S. Long drive to stop off at Auxerre. Not enough time or psyche to check out ale Saussois

S. Stop off at Bas Cuvier so Ben could try Marie Rose. Me and Tom tried The Joker with a friendly French team. No success for any of us. It was 28degrees

Currently on ferry back. Not sure of plans for Autumn. Will be at Malham at weekend. See how it goes on Oak (dry I assume?) and take it from there

[tomtom]

Not sure what days things happened, but two weighted DH sessions, one Rubicon (good) and one CragX session (decent but frustrating). Now in unboulderable Norfolk for a week.

[nai]

goals:
Autumn - complete 2 routes at 7c-8a  (Powerplant, Raindogs, Body Machine were the original goals but whatever's dry now)
Winter - another training block - tempted to plan for a trad/MP summer in 2017 which will ensure a classic Cornice season.

M - Had an afternoon pass and found a partner for Cornice. It rained a lot.

Kids asked to go to Foundry in the morning, just belayed until they went on autobelays then found myself campussing briefly.
Reports of condensation meant plans were cancelled so ended up doing HI & LI AeroCap before going fishing.

T - planned rest day but kids asked to go outdoor bouldering.  Took them to Newstones, did a few problems. Thought I'd failed on a 6C but turns out it's only 6B.

W rest

Th - Had an afternoon pass, it rained.

kids asked to go to miniworks. Ended up bouldering too and doing more than planned. 
Eldest got to penultimate move of her first long-term project three times, tried so hard but couldn't quite finish it.
Campus laddering back home which had been the scheduled activity for the day. Suffered badly and powered out, too much bouldering I reckon.  Core eve

F - woke early so did 2x10mins LI Aero, Eve 10x1min HI Aero

S - nowt. Eldest requested we go back to mini works where she finished her LTP second attempt. So proud of her.

S - Had an afternoon pass. Heavy rain was forecast so nobody was biting for routes.  Decided to check out Pleasley Vale.  Climbed like a spanner, managed a few problems graded 6C but nothing as hard as Millers Tale.

[Nibile]

Mon - ab wheel, EMOM sets, 30" pause x5, 20" pause x 5. Rings, I's and cross progression. Overhead carry 30"x5. Other stuff I don't remember. Good session.
Tue - rest.
Wed - tried some board climbing, terrible. Left finger painful. I had it coming. Rings, EMOM sets L-seat: 15"x10. Brutal. Weights circuit: cleans x5, pull ups x5, dumbbell complex x5 moves each, overhead carry x30", all x5. Not bad.
Thu - rest. Rode my motorcycle.
Fri - rest. Rode my motorcycle.
Sat - rest.
Sun - walked all day in town.

I did something very strange and very bad to my left index finger. The upper side of the distal joint has a kind of spike that I swear wasn't there before. In some positions it hurts in an unbearable way, but it's hard to understands what triggers it exactly, seems a bit random.
Maybe, and I say maybe, training front2 full crimps on the small rungs and index mono one armers for one season wasn't very smart.

Apart from this, good week but lots of committments. I needed to give my forearms a break though. Will take some more rest and hit the system from now on.

[SA Chris]

Goals - S - get climbing again
M - get strong

M - 10 k run, manged under an hour, with a few hills
T - nothing
W - nice evening went out on SUP from Stonehaven to Dunnottar Castle - about 7km. Good, but a bit of swell in a few places round headlands had me paddling on my knees.
T - nothing
F- 10 k run - hills, struggled, thighs sore from SUP, calves sore from Monday run. Went to see hand specialist about thumb - still clueless so getting an MRI
S - bike ride to friends barbeque - 48 km including about 480m of climbing. Deserved beer.
S - not much. Kids wanted to go running, but youngest gave up after about 500m. Tried again with eldest, he did 2km no bother.

[Luke Owens]

M: LI-Aerocap - 4min on 1min off x 4

T: LI-Aerocap - 10min x 2

W:  LI-Aerocap - 10min x 2

T:  LI-Aerocap - 10min x 2

F: Stretching and Antags

S: Diamond - Session 5 on N-TS - Bolt to bolt warm up, did a link from the rest at half height through the upper crux to the chains in a oner, felt steady.

1st go - Hold I had dried was wet again... greased off it.
2nd go - Powered out just before the rest 5 clips up.
3rd go - Fell off a greasy hold 2 moves in.
4th go - Got through all the lower section to the rest - felt better there this time than last week. Felt like I recovered, did the 6 or so easy moves to the next rest, this rest then felt so rubbish despite it being big but rounded holds, stuck around for ages and didn't feel like I was getting anything back but progressively more pumped... tried to carry on and just couldn't move for being to pumped one move up...

Annoying, I keep doing all the hardest climbing on the route and just die of pump on the easy section above.

Been recommended by Tom to drop the LI-Aero as it's to late for that and it'll be supressing my Aeropow and to just work Aeropow for now. Hopefully that'll help!

Top-roped Rub-a-Dub at the end of the sesh, did it with one rest despite terminal pump from my last go on the proj.

S: DIY

[monkoffunk]

Two weeks for me!

Week one: one day at cheddar failing on Circus Finale in the heat. Pathetic performance but I've found my 7c+ project.

Week two: Bordeaux. Can't believe I was complaining about the heat before. Fuck me. No climbing and a lot of getting fat. A chance to rebuild some motivation for feeling health and strong again.
Sunday: red spider circuits to try and remind myself about climbing. Worked on technical weaknesses (failed the V2 slabs I mean). Let's see where we are two weeks from now...

[the_dom]

Not a bad week, finally!

Monday: Bouldering. Pretty average session.
Tuesday: Crossfit. Very heavy kettlebell and rowing machine session.
Wednesday: Very solid hangboard session
Thursday: Crossfit in the AM (rowing machine based workout) and a relatively short bimble around the bouldering wall in the evening, just trying various things.
Friday: Rest day, wandering the Cape Town promenade
Saturday: Bouldering at my local training boulder - awesome day. Ticked 2 7Cs first go and a 7C+. I've done them before, but only when I was young and strong.
Sunday: Bouldering in the Topside. Wanted to try Marlboro Man, a solid 8A. Managed to do all the moves. Psyched. Good day out.

[Muenchener]

STG (August/September): get a couple more decent alpine rock routes done.
MTG (2016): Redpoint 7b
LTG (<= 5 years): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60.

In which I am completely out of my depth on a route that was done a century ago.
Hans Dülfer: 

M:
T:
W: Had planned to go to the wall but - exhibiting rigorous training discipline - decided stuffing my face then going to bed early was better preparation for the big weekend ahead.
T: Knee, shoulder, mobility, core.
F: drive to Kaisergebirge, walk to hut.

S: Kaisergebirge. Dülfer route on the west face of the Totenkirchl. We got to & past the technical crux - the famous & photogenic Nasenquergang ("Nose Traverse") in reasonable time, but a few pitches later I totally ran out of gas with five pitches still to go, of which I only managed to lead one. Fortunately my partner was able to get us out of trouble, but not in time to save us from a scenic sunset top-out.
S: ... We knew from previous recce trips that the Totenkirchl descent is long, tricky and best done in daylight. So we did it in daylight. "Your belay jacket looks like it's been slept in". Yes dear. Saw some nice shooting stars and was buzzed alarmingly close in the wee small hours by a couple of owls.

[Coops_13]

STG: Fix self so I can climb (something) in Magic Wood
MTG: Solid at 7B/+ and 7b/+
LTG: 8A and 8a

M:
T: Indoors, testing out finger. Couldn't put too much force through finger. Shoulders and arms felt strong though!
W: Squash
T: Press-ups through-out the day, testing the wrist. Lately I've been doing press-ups on clenched fists, wanted to see if I could do them the normal way now, seemed OK!
F:
S: The Diamond! Wasn't expecting any ticks due to injuries but had a good day. Interesting approach (more interesting exit) and dogged my way up some good routes
S: Rain forecast in Snowdonia so we went to Porth Ysgo, so much sun! Did a few classics and failed on a lot of harder classics in the heat! Got on Jawbreaker V5 at the end of the day, pinged off the onsight due to grease, went next go. Such a nice problem, lapped it a couple of times.

Really good bank holiday weekend, Magic Wood on Saturday. Finger is still sore and limits me to which problems I can do, basically anything that doesn't require me to crimp too hard with my left hand is fine!

[Luke Owens]

S: The Diamond! Wasn't expecting any ticks due to injuries but had a good day. Interesting approach (more interesting exit) and dogged my way up some good routes

Good to meet you buddy! Good luck in Magic Wood!

[Coops_13]

S: The Diamond! Wasn't expecting any ticks due to injuries but had a good day. Interesting approach (more interesting exit) and dogged my way up some good routes

Good to meet you buddy! Good luck in Magic Wood!

You too    Cheers

[duncan]

Another two-weeker, mostly spray.

STG: Don’t get injured. Maintain good shoulder rehab. habits. E5 by the end of Summer.
MTG: Don’t embarrass myself on Caveman. Maintain ~70kg.
LTG: Font 7A. Sport 7b+. Something properly long, hard and free (and ideally in condition in August).

M -
T - Shoulder strengthening, pull-ups.
W -
T - Train to Edinburgh, met Wil, drove to Scrabster.
F - Ferry to Stromness, Ferry to Hoy, taxi to Rackwick. Hiked over to the Geos and did an E1 and an E2.
S - Heavy rain overnight and morning. Cleared in the afternoon so went over to Mucklehouse Wall and did the excellent Roaring Forties (E3).
S - Fog, but forecast to clear later so got on For A Few Dollars More (E3) on the old man. An excellent adventure with some Keyhole Cave / Fisher Towers style soft sandstone low down, solidifying with altitude. Top pitch furry and wet. Fog finally lifted as we touched back down.
M - Grey and drizzling. Hiked to St John’s Head (4 hour round trip). By far the most impressive cliff I've seen in the UK and one of the most impressive I've seen anywhere. Gopping wet, forecast for some rain every day for the next five days. Big routes seemed unrealistic, so decided to bail.
T - Ferries back to Stromness and Scrabster. Saw a pod of 7 Orca whilst waiting at Moaness, wonderful!  Checked out Sarclet, enthusiastically recommended in our guides. Not very impressed. Did an HVS before rain started. Drove to Sutherland and Sheigra; an unexpected joy, the far north is glorious.
W - Sheigra: Bloodlust Direct, Dreams by the Sea, and Geriatrics: three excellent E2s, the latter one of the best pitches of sea cliff climbing I've done anywhere.
T - Blind Faith Direct (E2) and the excellent Monkey Man (E3). Wil worked Here and Now (E6; ~7b). I had a quick play; not now.
F - Rest day, soloed some easy stuff. Wil did the business on Hear and Now.
S - Drove to Ardmair. Warmed up on Primitive Dance, supposedly E2 5b. Spanked! May have gone too direct as what I tried seemed at least 6a. Anyone done it? Unleash The Beast (E4) which went pretty smoothly. Happy with this, should have tried something harder but running out of energy and midges tiresome by this point. Followed Wil up Gravity’s Rainbow (E1), a fine end to a fine trip.
S - Drove to Edinburgh, train to London.


Excellent trip to Hoy and north Scotland, both marvellous places. Weather was pretty good overall, some rain every day but good sunny spells most days. Midges mostly tolerable and Fulmars successfully avoided. The only unclimbable day was the one spent checking out St John’s Head. Weather didn't feel stable enough to get on something really big and close to our limits but this was always going to be a gamble. Unless you’re Mick Fowler/Andy Donson/John Arran you need a two consecutive good days, one to let things dry a bit and the other to climb. Sheigra was the ideal antidote to Hoy: great fun, sometimes in the sun. It's a beautiful spot.

Unleash The Beast was a good tick but playing to my strengths: a tight hands crack, 5.11a at Cookie Cliff or E3 at Chatsworth? I should have been trying harder things but was running out of gas somewhat towards the end of the trip. I’ve done a lot of travelling and quite a bit of climbing in the last four weeks.

Plan: Rest and recuperate. Some general strength work. One more trad. trip this weekend then do some proper training.



Hoy Logistics

In addition to Rob Greenwood’s article on UKC, the following may be helpful:


Check ferry times in advance: Ferries are primarily for local transport and do not connect with each other.

Book the taxi to Rathwick in advance, there may be no phone signal when you disembark at Moaness.

There is a small co-op which sells usual corner-shop food, including fresh milk, at Stromness. No food shops on Hoy. There is a Lidl at Scrabster and other supermarkets in Thurso.

Have a SMS weather forecast service prearranged, phone signal is poor at Rathwick (non-existent at the Bothy).

Bring a triple set of Purple to Gold cams, doubles above and below. A single set of wires were adequate on everything we did.

Hoy is isolated and remote. Consider going as a team of more than 2, take self-rescue kit and know how to use it.

The Mucklehouse Wall abseil can just be done with a 60m rope and some long rigging slings from the cairn above the gully. Abseiling directly down the wall from the larger cairn needs a  70m.

The descent to the base of St John’s Head looks reasonable, down an obvious series of grassy ramps and gullies. The start, 400m north of the top of Longhope, is now marked with a cairn. It seems sensible to check this a day or two before going for it, possibly stashing some of the gear at the base.

New-routing possibilities are astounding. If this is of interest, take a long static rope (or a John Arran).

Have a midge strategy or go in May and have a Fulmar strategy.

[SA Chris]

Good stuff, some good ticks there.

Sheigra is quite a place isn't it. Spending the morning in Second Geo and Treasure Island Walls, then scoring late afternoon and evening surf at Oldshoremore is probably one of my best days out I've had in Scotland. Long old way from anywhere though!

[Coops_13]

Looks like you had a good trip Duncan, sounds very similar to a trip I did a few years ago. Brings back memories, I really need to get back to Sheigra...

[Duma]

Goals:
Good trip to MW (assuming I get organised to go). Lots of local sport, unfinished business with cider soak from 15 years ago, identify (and if possible do) candidates for:
8A (Hunters Roof?)and 8b by next June

69kg.

Body Audit: Shoulder much improved this week, have been off work, climbing and driving though. Had pins and needles down outside of L ring finger for the last few days.

Two weeks in one:

Week 339, memory is hazy, but vague attempt:

M: TCA am, probably still trying orange roof, can't remember any progress
T: TCA setting am, new 5 to 6B circuits.
W:
T: TCA am, easy milage, did all new yellows (5 - 6B)
F: TCA aft, good hard session, 1-4-7 leading left, tickled leading right. Held jug in Orange roof from 2 moves in, no attempt at next move though.
S: easy hr at TCA, did hold jug in roof again though.
S: MTB, lap of Ashton court, hot, fun.

Week 340:

M: drive to Cornwall
T: bit of swimming off the beach
W: as above
T:
F: as Tues and Weds
S: Took Clo to Carn Brea for a scramble/boulder. Both had fun.
S:

[webbo]

Mon. Board did a few new things and did a better finish to a recent problem. Bike 63.61 miles 3 hrs 45 mins started out in the rain but eventually the sun came out.
Tue. Bike. 76.15 miles 4 hrs 33 mins.
Wed. Bike 85.64 miles 5 hrs 25 mins.
Thu. Board did a problem I couldn't do Monday the ground to a halt. Repeaters 5 secs on 5 off x5 5 sets with 33.75 lbs added.
Fri. Bike 33.38 miles intervals 20 secs on 40 off X 5 3 sets. Heart rate quite low probably tired.
Sat. Board did a few new things as well as failing on some stuff, not a bad session.
Sun. Board. Did a couple of things I couldn't do yesterday and failed on a couple of other thing. Tired.

[tommytwotone]

Goal - Font 7anything


M - tabata class on lunch, not a huge fan of the instructor but was certainly done in by the end of it.
T - missed "boot camp" class so did 30 sec on, 30 sec off 20kg shoulder press, 20kg upright row, 12kg goblet squat and plank x 4.
W - wall after work, boiling hot but good session on new V5-V7 purples, even flashed one of them and got one second go I should have flashed.
T - nowt, plus car sailed through MOT only needing new wiper blades!
F - nowt.
S - nowt apart from tyre blowout (with family in car) and ensuing wheel change.
S - brief trip to Climbing Lab with Una - she's getting a bit more brave / good, but had no patience to sit while I climbed. Did 3 warmups and had to leave.
M - nowt apart from mowing the lawn and pulling loads of weeds out of a flower bed.

[fried]

First session minus aircast, a bit sore after, but in a good way.

Nice to hear mate - good progress indeed.

 

Will you and the van be healthy enough for an autumn trip?

[36chambers]

I've missed the past 5-6 weeks. I'll try to keep it brief since I haven't been training anyway.

25/07/16 After putting it off for a while and with it being such an obvious hole in my Almscliff CV, I finally got round to doing The Keel 7C. That thing is awkward if you can't go to the chip from back. The crux is definitely finding a workable sequence. Was still tweaking the beta up until the send go.

01/08/16 holidaying in Canada

08/08/16 5 days in Squamish

15/08/16 another 5 days in Squamish

Climbed lots of excellent classics (Mantra, Baba Hari Dass, The Fuzz, Mind Bender, Summer Vacation, The Bulb, Viper, Timeless) and managed my goal of Sesame Street V9 with little bother . Absolutely love Squamish, I've never experienced so many three star problems in one place.
-

STG: training
MTG: Ben's Groove sitter 7C+ and Zoo York 8A come winter
LTG: 8B

M: Travelled back to UK
T: Bouldering indoors. Pottering about as I was tired/weak
W: Almscliff. Beautiful evening. One of the few times I've been to the cliff and have been so unbelievably uninspired. Repeated Si's Arete 7A+ and Syrett's Roof 6C+. Need to decide upon something hard to work.
T:
F: Drove up to Scotland for a wedding. Called it at Shaftoe for an hour. Nice venue. Climbed Neb's Roof 6C and Broken Hearts are for Assholes 7A+. Good problems.
S: wedding
S: wedding

Training plans for the big winter crush are under construction

[filz]

I spent last the week in Iceland. Part on vacation and part for work, so no training, just some walking and some theraband exercises on thursday and friday.

Iceland is beautiful definitely suggested. A couple of pictures:

[petejh]

STG: first 8b+ (Mecca), in July October
MTG:
LTG: 8c, by June 2018

Nice pics filz! My girlfriend and her daughter have just been there for the last 5 days and have been sending me pics, looks beautiful.


'Ticking over phase'

M. Devil's Gorge. Condensed to fuck. Tried Parisellas Cave, wet. Finally washed up on short average 7as/+s/bs at the end of the road (pen trwyn),  unpsyched and getting shut-down on fierce crozzly boulder-routes. Oh well.
T.
W. Devil's Gorge. Bottom of my goal route condensed again, grrr. However it was dry from the 3rd bolt up so tried it from there. Underworld into Grand Canyon link (Born Slippy). Took a while to work out how to do my own route Underworld! Felt harder than I remembered it to be. Then gave it a go from above the condensation and got through the lower wall but didn't know the link section into GC. Final go up to look at link section and flail on easy headwall. Average sesh.
T. Flew to Belfast.
F.
S. Cleaning and equipping at crag X
S. Cleaning and equipping at crag X. 2 lower grade newies finished for my partner and her daughter to enjoy.
M. Cleaning and equipping at crag X. A true classic , one of those new-routes you hope to discover, great features and a pure pleasure to climb.

Not a lot of climbing, much dustiness and resin.

[mr chaz]

Great photos Filz

[SA Chris]

Yep, looks amazing. On my bucket list.