[Fiend]

Come on you toads 

STG - climb less on Peak Limestone.
MTG - get Dan C to actually listen to me when I say "keep the philosophy and satire but lose the aliases and thread takeovers" so everything calms down and we can make UKB great again.
LTG - do a shit on a multi-pitch belay stance that gets a full 100+ post thread on UKC

M - dying of man-flu
T - dying of man-flu
W - dying of man-flu
T - dying of man-flu
F - stopped being so dramatic, got a grip, gentle warming up session at Boulder UK, 2+ hours of V2-5. Felt wobbly at first, then quite good on harder problems with longer rests. Skin sore and sinusy head ached when jumping off.
S - 120m or so of easy traversing. Aerocap or endurocap or something like that?? Good social day - much inspiration for all 3 goals above.
S - Mid grade trad. Got mildly pumped. Stopped to pet an enormous bristly pig on the way home - skin toughness training??

[tomtom]

Sick week Fiend 😃

Tues: Anston, Frodo. Shit conditions. Climbable but the kind of damp where you have to brush the holds to dry them a little every attempt. Squirmed around on Nazgul LH where I now have 4 different t ways of not doing the last move.

Fri. Woodwell!! A iffy peak lime forecast led me north and psyched by Dolly getting Angel Deelite done the other week I headed there. Last time I tried the problem (a year or two ago) it felt impossible - this time it felt - er - fine. As you may see below it was an especially scrappy ascent - but quite pleased I held it together and finished it with a few campus slithers - which I normally avoid doing like the plague



Then went and managed a move on not bad Dave that is not done before. Good stuff.

Sat/Sun double inlaw visit for second 3rd birthday party/meal on Sunday afternoon. As well as the double Ofsted I found myself sitting between my mum and my wife who like some Freudian tryst were both talking over and not listening to each other. Managed to catch the End of the cricket 😱 and then (now) snuck off to helsby where I’m getting thrashed on a 7B. 

[nai]

Busy week of admin shizzle, poor connies made the decisions to stay home and concentrate on that easier.

M - nowt

T - Fingerboard & HI Core

W - garage board & TRX, LI Core

Th nowt

F - Anston. Frodo was still and greasy; at Apprentice the ivy above the crag was being blown around and out by the train line had a nice breeze but at the coal face it was still and muggy.  Luckily I took a book. 
LI Core

S nowt (well I deconstructed a wall so deadlifted & carried 50 stones of various sizes up to reallyfuckingheavy about 10 metres then dug out and shifted a few barrows fulll of soil, so not exactly nowt)

S - FB, TRX

School holidays a week away, motivation lacking, hopefully get a couple of short trips away over the holiday but pretty much done til September now

[Duma]

Quality goals Fiend!

M - S : Rest, elbow rehab for the golfers that came on the week before Rocklands. Think this was triggered by all the PINCUs I've been doing.

[shark]

Thanks Fiend

11.2-6 Average 157.4lbs down 1.1lbs

M Morning. AM Tor. Quite busy. High hopes soon dashed. Warm and still though not too humid but still meh conditions. 3 goes from start of Ben’s just about pulling into first kneebar then failing on kick move. Tried from kneebar but heeltoe slipped out on THFML. Time to go home
Eve Evening. Late eve Max hangs session half crimped on ergo edge. Felt good on warm ups so ambitiously upped added weight by 2.5kgs to 35kgs and scored 10, 9 and 6 secs. PB. Deadlifts at 140kg, 142.5kg, 145kg and failed at 147.5kg.

T

W Evening. Max hangs session half crimped and drags on ergo edge at 35kgs. More volume than Monday - 7 limit hangs. Deadlift at 145kg and failed at 147.5kg but got it off floor .

T

F Morning. Planned to go to Tor then Plum buttress but Nick called in sick. Checked out X with dogs but condensed. Got sucked into assembling chairs and couldn’t face doing planned deadhang session in evening

S Failed to motivate myself to do AeroCap despite opportunity to do so  Eve Party - drank lots

S PM Bit fragile still. Few pull-ups then weighted deadhangs with 3 limit hangs. Not bad scores but hoped for a bit better. Abortive attempt at deadlift

Stressy week re property and other shizzle and with the humid weather didn’t end up doing much though made good progress with deadhangs.

Shock weigh in Monday morning after weekend excess tipping the scales at 160.6 - don’t think Ive been that heavy high since start of year. Corrective action taken. Successfully cut food during week to rebase.

Disappointing session on Bens on Monday  as thought I was on for the send.

Forecast to be warmer but less humid this week. Hopefully get some progress on projects

[duncan]

Thanks Fiend!

STG: Rehab. wrist, enjoy climbing.
MTG: a classic sea cliff E5 this summer (now includes September).
LTG: 5.13 at 60; a LH&F BHAG.


M - Westway - Bouldering to ~V3, Routes to 6b+ with Sean.
T - Hip stretches.
W - Westway - Bouldering to ~V3. Left shoulder and wrist a bit tweaky.
T - Hip stretches. Leg strength: pistols etc.
F - Shoulder strength: IsYsTs. 
S - Split Rocks with Ian. A slow drive but Wiltshire and Somerset were rather lovely. Split Rock was new to me, despite once cycling around the Mendips hunting for it when it was Dick Broomhead’s secret crag. My friend Paul Smith (not the Newcastle one) sniffed it out and nabbed Tricky Dicky, naming it for Mr Broomhead. Paul placed the first bolt on the ledge, invisible from below, to surprise Dicky when he came back to finish his project. Stealing routes was standard practice in 1980s Bristol, although there was no shitting at the base as far as I am aware.

Bouldered the start of Certain Surprise (E3) to warm-up and led it. Then did the excellent Video Kills (E3). Had a play on Smarty Marty (7b+), quintessential 1980s UK sport climbing: vertical, spaced bolts, small holds, and a harsh grade. Good climbing as far as I got but no-one seems to do it! I’ll need to grow 2”, get a lot better, or traverse in from a move higher up the starting crack.

Enjoyed Split Rock a lot, it’s like the Avon Ramp’s country cousin, with bird song rather than roaring lorries. Good to do the two E3s, both soft although one ukb poster’s suggestion they would be ‘about E1 at many inland limestone crags’ seems a little harsh! One more E3 then it’s the E5s. The popular ones are Red Rag to a Bull and Tricky Dicky. Anyone done either?
The former is a quasi 7b, a challenge for me to flash, the latter has the infamous first bolt at ankle-breaking height. It would be great to do Tricky for historical reasons and it may be possible to take the sting out of the start with some trickery of my own. I could just stick-clip it but Fiend would never talk to me again!

S - Hip stretches, shoulder strength..

Plan: trying a 7b+ was a bit premature, neither wrist nor shoulder were very happy. Resume shoulder strength work, keep going with the trad. Have fun.

[Fiend]

I'm not talking to you again because you'd never been to Split Rock before, you heathen!! Shocking.

Corsican Days is a good one to do for a warm-up next time. Quests off out of Certain Surprise via a rockover into a scoop, some steep steady climbing, a squashed rest in a cave and a cool headwall where you go high to clip a peg and then traverse into to headwall lower than you think, or is go low to clip a peg and traverse in higher than you think??

Tricky Dicky I treated very much as an E3/4 5c highball to a bivvy ledge then an E3/4 6a crux to finish - this was mostly accurate. The start is a bit easier than I expected although still cranky and committing, the finish was harder than expected and really fighty (and reachy). Good conditions helps for both bits of course.

[gollum]

M - Still no running due to resting the Achilles.
Steady day with some stretching at lunchtime.
Evening visit to the Depot for campus and fingerboard session. Campus board session starts slowly but once I get into the groove it gets better with benchmarks getting done. Beastmaker repeater session. `Solid as a rock and some progressions getting made, particularly with two finger sets. Finish off with a core session of lever pulls, windscreen wipers and German hangs for three sets of five each.

T - Pull day. Start with rack pulls for two reps and get up to 170k nice and solidly. Not sure I have lifted this weight since I reduced my body weight and started climbing again.  Then move on to some prone rows on the bench with the widest grip I can manage, supersets with pull ups which I do explosively on the way up while controlling the negative on the way down. Some kettlebell Pendlay rows to follow and finish off with some Aussie rows on the bands.Tough session but always knew it was going to be.

W - Push day. Start with 5x5 bench press working up to 92.5k although that set may have been more like 4.5. Then started doing some shoulder work with light weights and slow movements. Lateral raises, front raises, leaning laterals, standing strict presses, front rows and behind the head presses. Shoulders felt like they’d worked hard by the end of the session.
Lunchtime zoom to the Big Depot for some fingerboard work. Set of repeaters and now hitting all my sets where I want them and little steps being taken t make them harder in places. Also, I have now reduced the rest to 2 minutes between sets from 3 which means I can finish quicker or do a bit more as the mood takes me.
Physio visit in the evening and still off the running for a few days and then very gently does it.


T - Evening Depot session. Very hot, very humid and vest was wet through with sweat about ten minutes into the session. First go at the new reds and did all but one, which I couldn’t get off the ground on but was a particularly slopey pinch. The goal to do them all first go in a session didn’t quite work out but given the conditions I was pretty happy, particularly as I wasn’t failing because I was tired which tends to suggest an improvement in session fitness.

F - Day off and decisions to be made as to where to go. Do contemplate going outside but feels a bit too warm and not sure I want a solo trip outside as my first one in a while. Decide to go to Depot in Manchester to have a crack at the comp problems. Its warm and sweaty but do pretty much what I expect to although one problem in the range that should be okay has me completely foxed and I have no idea what to do on it. The rest are pretty good although a few too many nu skool type problems for my personal taste, good old style simple pulling on little holds is much more my thing. Finish off bouldering with a quick flash of one of the yellows that looks interesting.
Do some ring work with offset pull-ups with about 2ft between high and low hand. Ive forgotten how good this is working both the pull up and the push down, I need to do some more of these from now on.
Achilles rehab again.

S - Big push day all working on chest strength. Bench, declines and inclines all fo doubles and all for 100k which is flying up at the moment. Then move on to do some lighter weight inclines at a steeper angle for more reps. Floor presses for triples up to 75k at which point the fear kicks in and I call it quits. Finish off the weights session with some chest dips and ordinary dips as a superset.
Achilles rehab including some easy short intervals,  which seem to go okay and hope to move to the next progression tomorrow.

S - Trip to the Sheffield Depot. A very impressive place. Warm up with some campusoing on the very big holds, gcan do the same moves on these as on the Big and Medium holds at Leeds which means that finger strength is not my limiting factor when on the campus board. Then potter around a bit on reds and purples which all feel pretty good. Do like the huge number of angles at the place, definitely one to visit more often.

A bit less volume this week but not turning the intensity down too much, although it has been really warm all week as well which has meant its been a good week to reload a bit. Back to three weeks of full volume training again now.

[remus]

Enjoyed Split Rock a lot, it’s like the Avon Ramp’s country cousin, with bird song rather than roaring lorries. Good to do the two E3s, both soft although one ukb poster’s suggestion they would be ‘about E1 at many inland limestone crags’ seems a little harsh! One more E3 then it’s the E5s. The popular ones are Red Rag to a Bull and Tricky Dicky. Anyone done either?
The former is a quasi 7b, a challenge for me to flash, the latter has the infamous first bolt at ankle-breaking height. It would be great to do Tricky for historical reasons and it may be possible to take the sting out of the start with some trickery of my own. I could just stick-clip it but Fiend would never talk to me again!

Fond memories of that place, used to be my local crag back in the day when getting the bus to the crag was the one and only option.

Worth bringing a small cam to back up the peg on red rag (one of the smaller BD C3s works well from memory) as otherwise you end up doing some pretty hard moves with only the peg keeping you off the ground. The peg looked good last time I was there, but then it is a peg so you never know.

I haven't led it but Crimson dynamo is good and very safe.

[tommytwotone]

Goal - tick off another new (to me) 7a before the end of the year to make it 3 for 2019


Mon - Sat: nowt much, continuation of work/life stress that seems to be quite high at the moment. Did manage to keep up the Headspace mindfulness / meditations though.


Sun: asked for and was granted a last minute pass, so ducked out for a quick session at the wall which was frustrating for a number of reasons, mostly of my own making. Struggled up a purple (V5-7) though.

[Will Hunt]

Thursday - A quick jaunt to Baildon with the new definitive bouldering coverage. Lots of stuff there that looks entertaining for a quick hit in winter. There was a project marked in the guide which ended up being a done-before HVS/Font 5 using the arete of the buttress or an eliminate E3/6A+ boning the small but positive crimps on the wall using some pretty thin smears. Absolutely un-falloffable as far as I was concerned but might be ok with some big spotters.

Saturday - Was in Kendal till the afternoon and then popped out to Farleton. Warmed up on the Family Planning bit in glorious sunshine which, although it hampered the climbing somewhat, was very nice to bask in. Did the 5 and 6C+ on the right, wobbled up the highball VS on the left, and flashed The Coil which was great but somewhat tempered by the assumption that I must have broken some odd rule or other.
James arrived and I tried Wrath of Khan and did put my hand in the break on one occassion before the crimps turned greasy. Really nice climbing that I think would go nicely on a cool day.
We headed to New Rose which felt like a really nice piece of movement but maybe one for a cool day. The crimp was chewing through skin rapidly so left it. Headed down to the Main Crag to a little wall of the most immaculate limestone imaginable and did all the problems on that - some of which were astonishingly perfect, with all the water worn features facing just the right way to accomodate searching hands. Magnificent.

[cheque]

Rehab Diaries Week Forty-seven

STG- Sub-HVS *** Peak Trad list (15 13/27 remain), onsighting HVS/ low 6s by end of September.

M- Rest. Still tired from previous week in Snowdonia.

T- met up with mate in Matlock after work. Plan was High Tor with Black Rocks as a backup if the possible light rain materialised earlier in the afternoon. Turned out it materialised quite a lot in the two hours prior to our meet-up so we ended up at Intake Quarry  . With more rain in the forecast and having recently had a conversation where I recommended redpointing as a good training/ confidence-building tactic we decided to toprope something hard rather than lead easy stuff but we had no clip stick so our only option was to locate a route with chains close enough to the top to be clipped from above. I set off to walk round and do the deed.

Findings from my 45-minute experiment-

-The only ways to the top of Intake Quarry that don’t involve soloing on untravelled rock or scrambling up steep, unconsolidated choss slopes  are a long, long way from the top of the actual walls.
-As long as you don’t mind getting soaked to the skin then determination will get you through the neck-high grass and soft plants up there but not the intermittent barriers of trees, bushes and brambles.
-Attempting to climb even small sections of rock in these sort of quarries that Gary Gibson hasn’t repeatedly bashed with a hammer makes you realise how much preparation is involved in developing these venues.
-If you abandon your mate in a big loose quarry for 45 minutes he’s going to go and look for your body rather than staying in the place you last saw him.
-The amount of reverberation in Intake Quarry means it’s impossible to determine which direction yelling is coming from.

By the time we’d found each other it was pissing it down again so we went and got fish & chips.

W- Rest.

T- Bought about 18kgs of bird seed from Wilkos before remembering I’d parked in a different place to usual. Logging this as training as it was bloody awkward and I felt pretty wasted by the time I got to the car.

F- Rest.

S- Chee Tor Girdle with Fiend, surely the first time this has been logged in two consecutive weeks of Power Club! I’d thought of this as a bit of a stopper on my list but only in terms of logistics- the fact that it’s four pitches of constantly climbing at the exact height that I decked from hadn’t crossed my mind but by the time I was at the technical crux, completely out of sight and earshot of Fiend and with no quickdraws or slings left, my nerves were feeling a little frayed  . I got the pleasure of leading the last pitch (although as it’s all a horizontal traverse it doesn’t really matter which end of the rope you’re on) and nearly dropped it after a meltdown at the most exposed bit but scuttled back to a ledge, collected myself and sealed the deal fairly calmly. Yersss  . Top day. Every route on my list is an experience no Peak-based climber should miss (although some of them are missed by virtually everyone) and they’re all still challenging for me so I keep having days like this.

S- Kinder Upper Western Buttress with my amazingly supportive girlfriend who stuck to her belay commitment despite the cricket being on telly  . Set off from Hayfield around 2:45 and got to the foot of the route at a fairly respectable 4:00, by which point England were 60 for 2 which she gloomily informed me meant we were going to lose. The cloud hadn’t cleared as forecast and I’d neglected to check the wind direction before we left (you’d think I’d know what I was doing by now...) so it was midge hell with the wind blowing over the crag.

The route was Extinguisher Chimney. Remember how I said some of the must-do experiences on my list were missed by virtually everyone? This is one of them- a VS with *** in the guidebook in a beautiful situation that has only 11 ticks on UKC  . This is probably due to it being at the top of arguably the toughest walk-in in the Peak, half of the route name suggesting that it might kill you and the other half being “Chimney”. I’m not sure that it’s in the Rockfax either.

Turns out it’s a flared, bottomless chimney that narrows to nothing at the top and is very tight at the back, where you’re forced to burrow into at the beginning in order to have some holds to gain any kind of height before you can progress outwards. The guide description suggests that it’s not too bad and as I’m pretty svelte and have climbed a lot of chimneys I wasn’t worried, even when I finally saw it in the flesh. Unfortunately since my accident my torso has healed into new and exciting dimensions (my spine bows out considerably to a point in the middle and while the right side of my rib cage is undercut at the bottom above this there’s a prominent point where the costal cartilage joins the 6th rib) and this proved to be almost completely incompatible with the udging required to get up and out of the narrow section- claustrophobic isn’t the word and attempting to climb it felt like a non-medically-approved method to forcibly return things to how they once were. Full-body chimney thrutching seems to be an area of fitness I’ve yet to regain as well so by the time I’d got the gear in (ancient stuck tat preposterously deep in the cleft backed up with a decentish Dragon 8 ) I was having to take massive rests to get my breath back while my poor belayer, eyes full of midges and scrittle, pretended she was cool with the whole thing.

After lots more painful scraping, thrutching, panting and “dad noise”-filled attempts but not much progress we had a break in the breeze at the top of the crag and I confessed my fear that I might not be able to tick the full list due to the state of my post-accident body, defeating the point of even doing it.  After another go I was almost certain that this was the case and as I started the process again I was still thinking it. Somehow I then found myself bridged out at the lip, above and behind Rache (it’s a wild route, I’m probably not selling it but it is definitely an unknown gem) ready to thread the crucial chockstone knowing I would definitely do it. I don’t properly remember how I cracked the puzzle but I think the trick was to face my head out (you can’t turn your head round in the narrow bit  ) and just embrace the fact that I was going to have to be almost horizontal to get out into the wide flared section. What a trip. Turned out England won the cricket too.

Great weekend. It’s good to be alive. Full-body grit rash and can barely walk this morning but at least my midge bites haven’t started itching yet. 

[spidermonkey09]

M - standard max hangs. 24kg, felt ok.

T -  Depot for first time in ages. Good session in the back room just messing around on the boards. Good to have some fun.

W - rest.

T - Gordale. Put the clips in Cement Garden and got very flashpumped doing so. Was still pumped when it was my turn again but had a go anyway and surprisingly ticked it; nice! Very traddy climbing but a great confidence boost to do it first RP. Quickest I've done a UK 7c. Had time to go up Pierrepoint/Dogpoint a few times before it got dark which felt desperate first go but much more reasonable second time around. Would like to think I'd do the Dogpoint bit next time if not the full link. Pierrepoint roof is wild. Also ticked off Last Dog; this should not exist as a route in its own right and is a strong contender for the worst climbing on Yorkshire lime!

F - rest.

S - slept after drinking late.

S -  watched the cricket. Wild. Still buzzing now.

Hopefully back to Gordale this week alongside training inside. Still hot so sacking off Malham.

[monkoffunk]

STG - Wrist Business, although be a while til can get back!
Maintain weight ~74kg - dig out scales.
MTG - Sport projects.
Zinc Oxide Mountain, etc.
Portland Font 7A+/B from unfinished list, autumn.
LTG - 7C

M - Post nights. Really not up to anything

T - Should have done something but didn’t!

W - Long day. Yoga.

T - Set up portable finger board. Did sets of pull ups 5-10 on various crimps. Probably about 70 odd total.

F - Rest

S - Bristol. Back to try Ninja Warrior. Tried it in September and could do crux fingery move or move after with high step and rock over. Could do the start with a big low percentage throw. Today could use a small crimp to make the start a static sure thing. Did the rock over move first try and only took a few attempts to stick the crux. 4 redpoint attempts to get it done. Really notable difference, can feel the effect of all the finger board training and yoga I’ve done, even if last couple of weeks have been lax!

S - Bit of swimming in Henleaze lake, yoga in evening.

Weight 74.6kg this week. Going on holiday on Thursday, will get back into shape after ready for Portland evenings when my job moves to Dorchester!

[Will Hunt]

Preach, Jim! Last Dog. What is the fucking point?

[duncan]

habrich:  classic Waddy. Good job he took up DWS, clearly climbing without a rope is much less hazardous.

Fiend and remus: thanks for the beta and suggestions. Weird I’d never been before but it was just out of range for a carless Bristolian. Since then...inertia?

cheque: epic!

monk: well done on a job in Dorchester.

[spidermonkey09]

Preach, Jim! Last Dog. What is the fucking point?

There isn't one. The concept of climbing at Gordale and lowering off after 5 metres is just wrong. I hope its not going in your guide.

[monkoffunk]

Cheers Duncan, looking forward to making the most of it!

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - knee rehab, BM: back2 (big pocket), mid2 (small pocket), front2 (small rung) 10" x10. Quite happy. Pottered about with one arm hangs, avoid like the plague. Another Tabata session.
Tue - rest.
Wed - knee rehab, weights, pull ups, abs.
Thu - knee rehab, Tabata session.
Fri - rest.
Sat - knee rehab, weights, pull ups, L-sits.
Sun - gymnastic-like training, shoulders etc. with straight arms and supination.

[Coops_13]

T: Tufas Philadelphia. Finger rehab, BM 1K lower 18mm edge. -20lb X3, -5lb X3, BW X3. First BW hang on this size edge for over 6 weeks!!!!! YYFY Climbing up to V4. Cable workout chest, lats, bis, delts to finish

S: Lincoln Lake. First alpine bouldering at almost 12,000ft. First day out in almost seven weeks. Finger mostly OK - a few bits of pain. Obviously v out of shape. Lacking power endurance and finger lacking strength and endurance. Skin also not used to the sharp granite. Did all the moves of Powder Keg V7, amazing arete / prow feature. Kept failing on the last move to lip so will have to come back for that. Finger (and rest of body) not quite up to Fer Irie V6 so another one for the list. So many amazing looking boulders in the V8 - 10 range that I'm very psyched for

S: Chief Mountain hike. Easy hike to clear the hangover up Chief Mountain c. 11,500ft.

[Goat]

STG- Remain uninjured.
MTG- Get stronger fingers on the whole range of grip types.

Mon- Rest
Tues- Rest more
Wed- 2 hour session on the board.
Had a fiddle around with some of the holds to make a replica of the “The Thing”, but I think ended up making it impossible... Oh well, it’ll definitely be a challenge. Then I made a new problem which was a big lock off move, and I was surprised to get it done in one session. Ended with a core session and one-armer practice.

Thurs- 40 minutes of hangboard stuff.
My left shoulder was ruined from the lock off problem, which made pullups feel damaging. Instead I only practiced doing 1-arm-hangs on the 30-degree sloper, while keeping my arm completely straight. This is the first time I’ve done the hangs like this, as usually I do a slight lock-off in each arm. After a while I was able to hang for longer than I could with only a slight bend in my elbow. So that felt pretty good.

Fri-    (Rest)     Played some tennis, which was great fun.

Sat- Rest
Sun- 1 hour 45 min board session
Felt relatively heavy on the board, and got quite frustrated. But eventually I managed to bag a medium term board project by the skin of my teeth. The session lightened up after that, I had quite a bit of fun trying other projects and making up new ones.
Still felt a bit heavy, so sacked off core and 1-armer practice to eat some chocolate cake instead.
Forgive me father for I have sinned…

[Yossarian]

M - Evening sandstone session, as daughter’s squad were having a session outside. Popped to Eridge aka the Forest of Dog Shit. Tried Azazel 7A - quite basic board style / powerful crimping. Shoulder felt a bit weak, but seem to have finally found a sandstone 7 that I might actually get up. Also tried Sansara 7A - decent-looking slab but top section felt pretty desperate. Went to Bowles - the pleasant evening was somewhat spoilt by the earsplitting screams of kids doing a treasure hunt. Will bring earplugs next time. Repeated a few things that I used to struggle with. Also found a possible direct finish to a 3* 1960 Martin Boysen route. Judging by the amount of crap obscuring the holds no-one has tried it for a while, but left thinking that it’s now impossible to miss and some local wad will be in there before I’m good enough to finish it.

T - Decent / prolonged deadhanging session

W - Harrisons. Chum and son over from Australia so spent most of it sending them up awkward slippery cracks and chimneys.
T - Harrisons - back to try Coronation Crack and the Flakes. CC is hard, nut got it after a couple of goes. The Flakes a bit easier. Former quite sustained / powerful and felt like quite good training for the kind of sport routes I’m currently aspiring towards. Thinking about trying to string them together, with Flakes Direct maybe.
F
S - Wall. Tried to preserve skin for following day. Bit of 45 board, bit of campusing, a few new steep prow problems, etc.
S - Portland. Had plan in place for things to try at Blacknor North (Downtown Julie Brown / England’s Dreaming / On to the Iced Flow) but partner said he’d prefer South. Warmed up then thought I’d quickly despatch I Love the Smell of Resin, before moving onto Sacred Angel. Fluffed crux of former - a crozzly non-line through some extremely sharp rock. Figured out a vague sequence, had another go and did the same thing. Cut finger in the process, so stripped it in a bad mood. Decided to try the exact opposite around the corner - Medusa Falls - thinking that massively obvious chalked tufa pockets would be the way forward. Hadn’t clocked that the footholds up to the second bolt were more finely polished than the Crown Jewels. Slipped off a few times then abandoned. Went back to Sacred Angel to resurrect the day with a 6b+ - realised at the top that I had in fact confused it with a 5+. Drove home in a massive strop.

Portland routes that involve picking a way through spiky weird little holds are really not my cup of tea at all and, though persevering with them might do me good, I’m not really interested in driving all that way to get spanked on them. Might go back for another shunting session on Road Rage - substantially harder but I could see all the moves and do most of them first go - far more fun too. Plenty more at Winspit to try as well, and that’s less far away. If I can get up some other decent routes I’d be quite happy to admit defeat on the crinkly crozzly bullshit.

[spidermonkey09]

Portland routes that involve picking a way through spiky weird little holds are really not my cup of tea at all and, though persevering with them might do me good, I’m not really interested in driving all that way to get spanked on them. Might go back for another shunting session on Road Rage - substantially harder but I could see all the moves and do most of them first go - far more fun too. Plenty more at Winspit to try as well, and that’s less far away. If I can get up some other decent routes I’d be quite happy to admit defeat on the crinkly crozzly bullshit.

High quality shutdown stropping; reminds me of myself last weekend!  Sounds like you were just having a bad day; next session will be better!

[Yossarian]

Portland routes that involve picking a way through spiky weird little holds are really not my cup of tea at all and, though persevering with them might do me good, I’m not really interested in driving all that way to get spanked on them. Might go back for another shunting session on Road Rage - substantially harder but I could see all the moves and do most of them first go - far more fun too. Plenty more at Winspit to try as well, and that’s less far away. If I can get up some other decent routes I’d be quite happy to admit defeat on the crinkly crozzly bullshit.

High quality shutdown stropping; reminds me of myself last weekend!  Sounds like you were just having a bad day; next session will be better!

Ha! That’s after two days of meditative calm. On Sunday night I was picturing a high yield nuclear explosion...

[Steve R]

M - Rest
T- Wall pm. some bouldering then experimented with 4x4s on board.  Got through 2 sets and was thinking this might be working quite well but intensity wrong as arms more or less instantly blasted on anything after those 2 sets.  Insufficient volume to be of much use but at least I know 4x4s won't work for me on the board.
W - Wall pm.  experimented with on the minute on board.  This went much better than the 4x4s, managed a few sets of 8mins/reps (~20sec climb, 40 sec rest) failing on 7th/8th rep on later sets so intensity felt about right.  Good pumps and useful mirror feature on board so you can flip the problem after each go and tire each side evenly.  Good rest then couple of bouts of easy traversing and shaking, controlling pump -  quite miserable on limited array of plastic holds on a bouldering wall but has to be done.       
T- Rest.  Discovered there's a problem with volume/endurance sessions on the board.  Woke up with sore lower back and quads, full doms by end of day.  Took me a little while to figure out the cause - jumping off the top of the board (which is full regulation height) probably an order of magnitude more times than in a normal board session.
F- rest. still doms in back and quads.  Drive to Yorkshire lime eve.
S- Yew Cogar.  Good to finally get to this crag for first time.  Hot and humid, hardly any wind but luckily got away with tolerably low midge level and average cons.  Warm up dog on Vorsprung Durch Technik.  Then flashed Crusin' for a Bruisin' (clips in and good beta from guy).  High quality route,  happy to be feeling a bit fitter already compared with last weekend.  Couple of decent rp burns on vdt, failing on headwall bit.  Not able to get much back at crimpy rest.  Moved to kilnsey, had a tired and optimistic flash go at biological need.  Made it to resting holds below roof bit but lack of fitness found out again as arms malfunctioned and failed to recover anything there.  Cool route but too tired to try to rp.  Called it a day.
S- kilnsey again.  better cons than previous day with good wind. quite knackered from the off.  only just managed sticky wicket 2nd go (seemed appropiate to try cricket themed routes).  Then dogged up the Bulge once.

weight static at 75kg.  Good weekend in yorkshire on what are great routes anywhere.  Hopefully through those unpleasant unfit feeling initial yards going from bouldering to routes.  The on the minute stuff plus easy traversing feels like it should get me to where I want to be fitness-wise but will have to find a way/set problems so I'm jumping off from lower down. 

[bigironhorse]

 
T- Rest.  Discovered there's a problem with volume/endurance sessions on the board.  Woke up with sore lower back and quads, full doms by end of day.  Took me a little while to figure out the cause - jumping off the top of the board (which is full regulation height) probably an order of magnitude more times than in a normal board session.
F- rest. still doms in back and quads.  Drive to Yorkshire lime eve.

Take it easy grandpa 

[Wood FT]

 
T- Rest.  Discovered there's a problem with volume/endurance sessions on the board.  Woke up with sore lower back and quads, full doms by end of day.  Took me a little while to figure out the cause - jumping off the top of the board (which is full regulation height) probably an order of magnitude more times than in a normal board session.
F- rest. still doms in back and quads.  Drive to Yorkshire lime eve.

Take it easy grandpa 

He’s got you there