[duncan]

Well done people.

A twofer:

STG: Manage aches and pains. One session of bouldering a week.
MTG: Colorado bucket list routes in May, a classic E5 this summer.
LTG: 5.13 at 60; a LH&F BHAG.


M - Fingerboard pick-ups 18mm edge (left arm only). 11km brisk walking.
T - 9km brisk walking.
W - Westway 'bouldering'. Beginner or small person level.
T - 10km brisk walking. Shoulder strength (reverse flys - Is Ys and Ts - on the rings, side planks,, single arm push-ups).
F - Westway bouldering, getting the hang of it ('V2').
S - Flew to Reus with Wil, Cyan and Sean. Shoulder stuff.
S - Montsant. Raco de Missa
M - Siurana Sirunella
T - Siurana L’Herbolari
W - Rest day. Hiked around the base of Montsant. So much rock...
T - Siurana Saut de la Reine Mora
F - Siurana L’Olla
S - Siurana Can Gans Dionis. Flew home.
S - Shoulder stuff

... emphasis will be on enjoying climbing. It's probably what I need most of all. If it also counts as building a base in preparation for the trad. season then even better.

Great trip; company, climbing, weather and accomodation all excellent. I did 30 routes up to 6c, more climbing than the previous 6 months combined. Some training benefit and shoulders felt good but mostly really enjoyed being outside and moving on rock in the sun.

This was my 9th time in Siurana since 2004. It was much less busy than the last 5 years, as quiet as back in the 00s. Has the circus moved on? The place is still as gorgeous as 15 years ago and Dave Graham is still trying La Rambla.

Plan: don’t get injured. Bouldering (or fingerboard). Pile on the aerocap.

[jwi]

Nice! Good volume!

[spidermonkey09]

This was my 9th time in Siurana since 2004. It was much less busy than the last 5 years, as quiet as back in the 00s. Has the circus moved on? The place is still as gorgeous as 15 years ago and Dave Graham is still trying La Rambla.

It was absolutely rammed in November (my first visit) and I had pretty big concerns about the long term viability of the place with so many people vanning it and shitting in the woods. We counted 40 vans in the biy layby halfway up the hill one day. Glad to hear that might have been the exception rather than the norm.

[gme]

Mon - Max hangs on 10mm micros at school. BW +8kg= 90kg. Completed but only just. Then limit bouldering session on the old school board which pretty much handed my arse to me on a plate. Did a few 6cs but 7s felt really hard. a bit disapointed but with hindsight i think this board takes me a few sessions to get into as its a lot steeper than the others i climb on. Anyone who thinks the moonboard has tough grading should try this one out. Makes the 7As on the moonboard feel like a piece of piss.
Tues - lunch. Linked boulders on the new board at school. 3no. 12/13 move problems done 4 times each with 2 mins rest between. Hard
Tues - evening. Boulder triples on new board at school. Really good ancap session with 230+ moves in 40mins. Hard and fucking painfull on skin. Three flappers gained. Was going to do foot on campus but pain was just to much.
wed - rest. needed.
Thurs- afternoon bouldering at Hepburn playing on the projects i want to do this year. Great fun afternoon with a couple of friends, no stop watch, no pain, no misery. What its all about really. Projects felt hard but doable. Fingers feel good.
Fri - rest. Stretching
Sat - enforced rest due to being up all night dealing with family drama. I wont elaborate but it involved too much Gin, vomit, police and PS4 bans. I hope the culprit has learn a lesson but suspect not. Ended up not having any sleep between 2am and morning so the day was a right off.
Sun- Kids sport day but managed a 10mm micro hang session in the evening.

Mixed week that started really well but was then knocked off route by my kids antics and the delights of a day out pottering with mates. Pick it up again this week as only a few until spain.

[duncan]

It was absolutely rammed in November (my first visit) and I had pretty big concerns about the long term viability of the place with so many people vanning it and shitting in the woods. We counted 40 vans in the biy layby halfway up the hill one day. Glad to hear that might have been the exception rather than the norm.

The numbers have been gradually increasing over the last 10 years. I saw similar crowds in March 2018 and April 2017 - that layby completely packed - so we were surprised there were only 3-4 vans this time, albeit a little earlier in the year. The crags were relatively quiet too, with the exception of El Pati and L'Olla. I have no idea if this was an exception or the new rule.

[Smith42]

   
M Rest day.
T Warmed up and Max hangs +25kg.
W Ran 5km and biked 15km.
Th Warmed up and Max hangs again +27.5kg.  55 deg board, crushed everything I tried.  Why can’t every day feel like this!
F Ran 5km and biked 15km.

Sat Warmed up in my garage then went to Shafto to spot GF on her 7A project and scope out some potential projects for me as was saving myself for Born Lippy on Sunday.  Anyhow as usual when we got there I couldn’t not climb and surprised myself by climbing Broken Arrow 7C in to Lost Arrow Head 6C in about four goes, (two of which was working the top out).   On checking guide this link up hasn’t been done before, or least not claimed but climbs really well and seems more logical than finishing in corner at the bottom of the crag.

Sun. As forecast the day dawned misty so had lie in, several breakfasts and thought about going to Sunderland Lead Wall in the afternoon but a random post on FB promised better conditions in the County which saw us arriving at the crag mid-afternoon.
Slopers on Born Lippy felt warm in the sun and caked in chalk, couldn’t hang on them so gave it a good brush decided to leave it for couple hours.  Felt off Y Front first time then flashed the direct version.  That’s Northumberland Grades for you, fall off 6A then Flash neighbouring 7A.  Went back to Born Lippy, repeated top, repeated crux and then did it first go despite feet cutting loose unexpectedly on the crux.

Max Hangs and the 55 deg board seem to be paying off for me big time.   

[Duma]

Nice one!

[Bradders]

Max Hangs and the 55 deg board seem to be paying off for me big time.   

Not that surprising!

Good effort.

[36chambers]

Felt off Y Front first time then flashed the direct version.  That’s Northumberland Grades for you, fall off 6A then Flash neighbouring 7A.  Went back to Born Lippy, repeated top, repeated crux and then did it first go despite feet cutting loose unexpectedly on the crux.

I had the exact same day as this last year!

Y Front was an awful choice for a warm up.

[Bradders]

M - Caley in the afternoon. Good conditions with a nice breeze, albeit with a brief shower which threatened to ruin things. Managed Pedestal Arete Sit second go. This has been a total nemesis for me previously, partly I think because I've always thought it's a bit shit and therefore never wanted to waste good conditions on it! Anyway, it climbs really well and I am very pleased to have it done. Afterwards went down to the Roadside and did Andy's Problem after a couple of goes, and the sit first go after that - with the caveat that the very top was damp, so with no spotter and only a couple of pads I decided to downclimb and drop rather than actually top out. Will go back at some point. First time (almost) I've done two proper independent 7Cs on grit in the same day!

On the way home went to the Depot for another hour long strength endurance session. Warm up level problems with short rests.

T - evening fingerboard repeaters, mainly 7x 6r 7/3 repeaters 4f half crimp on the large outside BM2k slots w/ 10kg added. Properly powering out on the last couple of hangs of the final sets. Have definitely progressed on these though as a few weeks ago they felt nails at just bodyweight.

W - rest

T - warm weather and a fixed right hamstring made me think of going to try Dark Art at Anston. I did all the moves on this in a session a year or so ago; couldn't touch it this time! Literally did none of the hard moves. Sacked it and sussed out Black Reservation. Did the first move easily the first couple of times. Had it wired from two moves in and did that to the top 3/4 times but then just couldn't quite make the first move again to get the link.

F - Depot Board session. Few warm ups then 3/4 goes on Palmer Sutra, two halves tick but kept dropping the move to the triangle. 3/4 goes on Steady Intro, couldn't do the second move and to be honest struggled with the rest as well. 2 goes on Zoo; first wasn't great but 2nd made it all the way to the move to the high triangle. Did Austrian Mock first go and then Palmer Ham 2nd go (first time I've done it).

S - gym recovery, bit of gentle TRX, foam rolling and stretching. Felt completely shattered all day, just had no energy whatsoever.

S - Dow Crag. Escaped the warmth to find perfect connies. Warmed up on the moves on Deep Green then did it first go from the start, then did The Hacienda 4th or 5th go having dropped it from the top on the go before. Well chuffed with this one, fantastic problem. Lastly went up to try Supergene. Couldn't even work out how to pull on at first, and it all just felt a bit hard, but gradually worked it out and did all the moves plus made a good link (albeit with a fairly large dab) from the start to the RH drop in.

Great week. Lots of volume at a pretty high intensity, trying to build a peak before a trip to Fontainbleau in just under 3 weeks. Will do another week trying to keep both volume and intensity high and then start tapering volume down whilst keeping intensity high.

[Yossarian]

M - Wall. Shoulder still slightly problematic so stuck to vert / slabby stuff for the most part.
T - Stretching / rehab. Found that (very strict) pull-ups felt fine, so did 150 of them. Light shoulder press / hammer curls, etc on the other hand didn’t.
W - Beastmaker - Mixture of repeaters with some 1-arm max hangs tacked on to evaluate shoulder. Seemed ok.
T - Wall. Great session. Felt good on the 45 board, shoulder seemed better on steeper problems in general. Bit of circuit board at the end. Did 7km run in the morning, and yoga / stretching in the evening as well.
F - Wall. Some shoulder pain from previous day, so avoided anything too strenuous and did some circuits, and then watched daughter school some CrossFit meatheads.
S - Wall. Tried various things on new steep / prow set. Tried to avoid overdoing it. Also, 7km run and yoga, etc in the evening.
S - Portland - Battleship. First routes since September. Fluffed first attempt at 6b warmup, mainly because of inability to find footholds. Then tried short 7a (Flickhead goes boing boing) which I failed to onsight (crux involved bouldery section followed by blind reach for a pocket) but then figured out fairly quickly. Didn’t hang around to RP as we were pressed for time and partner wanted to get on easier things but, though unsuccessful, this episode convinced me that, though Portland is basically my sport climbing antistyle, I finally seem to have fingers that can pull on some of the smaller holds. And also, despite having done zero endurance training between last summer and this week, I could actually hang around for a short while. So, with some structured endurance / foot-on campus over the coming weeks, I’m quite confident I can finally make some inroads on the longer 7s, and pretty syked for routes in general.

Weight dropped from 89 - 86kg, but I think some of that was dehydration.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - fingers, garage session after ages. Hot, fingers tired from Saturday action. Ten overall sets with barbell DL in between, 80% (100 kg) x3x10.
Tue - rest.
Wed - still tired, forearms especially. PE low on a 12 move problem, 1' rests, x4. Weights.
Thu - core. Ab wheel variations. Tired.
Fri - rest, walked all day.
Sat - as above.
Sun - Moon Board, a few problems up to 7a. Grades all over the place. :-/  disappointed and a bit annoyed.

[spidermonkey09]

S - Portland - Battleship. First routes since September. Fluffed first attempt at 6b warmup, mainly because of inability to find footholds. Then tried short 7a (Flickhead goes boing boing) which I failed to onsight (crux involved bouldery section followed by blind reach for a pocket) but then figured out fairly quickly. Didn’t hang around to RP as we were pressed for time and partner wanted to get on easier things but, though unsuccessful, this episode convinced me that, though Portland is basically my sport climbing antistyle, I finally seem to have fingers that can pull on some of the smaller holds. And also, despite having done zero endurance training between last summer and this week, I could actually hang around for a short while. So, with some structured endurance / foot-on campus over the coming weeks, I’m quite confident I can finally make some inroads on the longer 7s, and pretty syked for routes in general.

Although I am not Portland's biggest fan, the routes on Battleship back cliff are great. Pump Hitler is worth doing, as is Jurassic Shift and I am advised Zinc Oxide Mountain is superb.

[Yossarian]

Thanks - I will look those up!

[SA Chris]

M - hill reps 4 x 50m climb in 500m. Nasty
T - nowt
W - Intervals at lunchtime. 5 x 4.5 mins "max" effort. Boulder session in evening. OK session, right shoulder feeling tweaky.
T - Lunch yoga - hard on shoulder.
F - nothing
S - Long Slow Run. 30 km, mostly on trails with a fair bit of hills. Nice route, and made a detour to seek out the "Culter House Road" crag (as per UKC) might take shoes next time, looks like a bit of entertainment. The quarry behind actually looks like pretty good rock too, under all the moss. Unlikely to ever stay clean though.
S - nothing much.

[gme]

Felt off Y Front first time then flashed the direct version.  That’s Northumberland Grades for you, fall off 6A then Flash neighbouring 7A.  Went back to Born Lippy, repeated top, repeated crux and then did it first go despite feet cutting loose unexpectedly on the crux.

I had the exact same day as this last year!

Y Front was an awful choice for a warm up.

The direct version is an eliminate and not supposed to use the first rail. Probably 6A+/B if done using all the holds and actually easier than original, hence probably the most popular 7A in the county. UKC description kind of describes it correctly but guess a lot of people dont read it. Red line in guide makes it more obvious.
Quite a good problem if done as its supposed to be but a total eliminate.

[Wood FT]

S - Portland - Battleship. First routes since September. Fluffed first attempt at 6b warmup, mainly because of inability to find footholds. Then tried short 7a (Flickhead goes boing boing) which I failed to onsight (crux involved bouldery section followed by blind reach for a pocket) but then figured out fairly quickly. Didn’t hang around to RP as we were pressed for time and partner wanted to get on easier things but, though unsuccessful, this episode convinced me that, though Portland is basically my sport climbing antistyle, I finally seem to have fingers that can pull on some of the smaller holds. And also, despite having done zero endurance training between last summer and this week, I could actually hang around for a short while. So, with some structured endurance / foot-on campus over the coming weeks, I’m quite confident I can finally make some inroads on the longer 7s, and pretty syked for routes in general.

Although I am not Portland's biggest fan, the routes on Battleship back cliff are great. Pump Hitler is worth doing, as is Jurassic Shift and I am advised Zinc Oxide Mountain is superb.

It’s world class

[Smith42]

Didn't use the first rail on the 7A.   

Fell off Y Front as the start is just a bit techy on that roll over.  Rf wasn't on proper foot hold and pushed hips out of position on first attempt.

[monkoffunk]

S - Portland - Battleship. First routes since September. Fluffed first attempt at 6b warmup, mainly because of inability to find footholds. Then tried short 7a (Flickhead goes boing boing) which I failed to onsight (crux involved bouldery section followed by blind reach for a pocket) but then figured out fairly quickly. Didn’t hang around to RP as we were pressed for time and partner wanted to get on easier things but, though unsuccessful, this episode convinced me that, though Portland is basically my sport climbing antistyle, I finally seem to have fingers that can pull on some of the smaller holds. And also, despite having done zero endurance training between last summer and this week, I could actually hang around for a short while. So, with some structured endurance / foot-on campus over the coming weeks, I’m quite confident I can finally make some inroads on the longer 7s, and pretty syked for routes in general.

Although I am not Portland's biggest fan, the routes on Battleship back cliff are great. Pump Hitler is worth doing, as is Jurassic Shift and I am advised Zinc Oxide Mountain is superb.

As soon as I do Fighting Torque I’ll be thinking about finishing off Zinc. It’s really brilliant, I never quite had the fitness for it.

[gme]

Didn't use the first rail on the 7A.   

Fell off Y Front as the start is just a bit techy on that roll over.  Rf wasn't on proper foot hold and pushed hips out of position on first attempt.

I wouldn’t expect anything else of you. Got to keep them young wippersnapper overgraders in there place though. No room for easy ticks in the county.

[36chambers]

Didn't use the first rail on the 7A.   

Fell off Y Front as the start is just a bit techy on that roll over.  Rf wasn't on proper foot hold and pushed hips out of position on first attempt.

I wouldn’t expect anything else of you. Got to keep them young wippersnapper overgraders in there place though. No room for easy ticks in the county.

Likewise, the cliff is my local, I know how to climb an eliminate

[Smith42]

GME, Do I know you from back in the Berghaus days?

[AMorris]

very low psyche period at the moment, but trying to push through it

generally quite a non-climbing related busy week, but I got a few bits and pieces done at the wall and on the BM

M - Repeating some tricky problems at the wall, nothing new and nothing too hard but not a bad session.

T - Had a hard time getting through my BM session. The low rail felt hard and could barely make the end of the hangs. Back two low pockets felt like they would kill my fingers to death so I gave that one a miss.

W - Rest.

T - Traveling to Prague on a conference. Did some narrow low hand push ups and a bunch of core exercises in the hotel. Actually felt more enthusiastic for this than I have about climbing all month. I found that going super low on the push ups, with elbows down by my side and tucked in, then exploding up was a totally new exercise which I quite enjoyed.

Fri to Sun - Basically doing the above. No time to visit the local walls unfortunately.

Might be the fact that I am closing in on the end of my PhD, but for the first time ever I have no interest in climbing anymore 

[andy popp]

Might be the fact that I am closing in on the end of my PhD, but for the first time ever I have no interest in climbing anymore 

Its a stressful and demanding - not to mention important - time. If you're not feeling the climbing right now I wouldn't worry about. It just gives you more space to complete the thesis.

[tomtom]

Might be the fact that I am closing in on the end of my PhD, but for the first time ever I have no interest in climbing anymore 

Its a stressful and demanding - not to mention important - time. If you're not feeling the climbing right now I wouldn't worry about. It just gives you more space to complete the thesis.

Final throes of writing up is a horrible and strange time... 1000 yard stare... losing interest in most things apart from whatever you're focussed on writing... I stopped climbing then too, and reading, and buying records... Its like all the other creative/interest parts of your brain progressively shut down to focus on writing that damned thesis...

They do eventually and at different rates switch back on again though...