[cheque]

Rehab Diaries Week Fifty-one

STG- Sub-HVS *** Peak Trad list (11/27 remain), onsighting HVS/ low 6s by end of September.

M- Bumped into mates and invited myself to tag along on their trip to Deep Rake. Didn’t have any climbing gear or a camera with me so didn’t stick around too long but it was nice to check out what looks like a decent evening venue.

T- Rest.

W- Rest.

T- Crap weekend forecast so decided to get an outdoor fix while it was still OK. Walk up to Stanage from Redmires. Grim conditions even for walking about- sticky, super-high bracken and, as the wind was from the south-east and it was clouding over, below the bigger sections of the crag was extremely midgy- we’re talking climbers-running-away-in-panic levels. 

Interestingly the bites were itching immediately. Does anyone have any knowledge of midges beyond “they’re bastards” that would explain why my reaction to their bites changes as the summer progresses? 

Anyway, soloed some very easy routes and took some (non-climbing) photos before waking back.

F- Rest.

S- Decided that the best use of a rainy day would be a nice walk to check out Standing Stones, the only crag that’s home to two of the remaining routes on my list, with my girlfriend. I’d underestimated just how bad the weather over there would be though and we were each literally blown off our feet multiple times! Battling to get our waterproof trousers on while sheltering behind an undersized rock as horizontal rain/ hail soaked us felt far too epic. Getting to the crag is far from straightforward due to the efforts of a hostile landowner (it’s all access land though) no tracks anywhere near the rocks, not being able to see the crag until you’re right there, the incredible variety of fauna and surface structure of the moor and the general wild ‘n’ spooky atmosphere of the upper Chew (the only laybay it’s currently possible to park in is the one that the Moors Murderers used as their base of operations ) and all of this was enhanced by the unseasonal weather but we didn’t fall into any streams/ bogs/ undiscovered graves, I know the best way to get there now, had a good look at my two target routes and picked up a fair bit of litter from the A635 so mission accomplished. I love the Chew 

S- Race support for my girlfriend.

Bit of a tough week this one. Work and family stuff is hard at the moment and I felt tired all week despite not really doing much. I always forget that if you’re not on holiday August’s actually a pretty shit month, with weather fluctuating between rain and unpleasant stickiness. I also put a lot of effort into hustling potential partners for the rest of the year (getting a horrible feeling that ticking my STGs might be hampered by weather and partners than anything else) without much luck*. Hopefully I’ll do some climbing this week!

*not a dig at anyone on this forum

[SA Chris]

1st week at new job. 7 weeks off have been fun..

Decide to put climbing on hold for a bit due to a) race upcoming and b) want to get wall in garage done in prep for winter season c0 weather is shite right now.

M - back to 10 min walk 2 x a day from station to office. Ran while Kyle at athletics training meant to do 10 at race pace, but route choice had a rally steep hill, and heat got to me in last km or so.
T - nowt
W - Interval session outdoors. half way in started getting bucketed on, soaked through but stuck it out 8 x 2:30 plus warm up and cool down, 8km altogether.
T - nowt
F - ran back to station in miserable weather instead of getting train. 16.5 km, you only get so wet after that it stops mattering.
S - kids wanted to go running, so did 3 km with the, easy pace.
S - nothing, missus ran Dyce half, and kids did kids races.

[nai]

M - rushed hangs session, had to give up after 8/10
even more rushed TRX, only managed 4/12

T - AnCap - set a slightly harder finish to my circuit, quit after 10/12 laps having completed only two
Core

W rest

Th - Lees Bottom woth Dolly and Plattsy. Did something that I'd worked last time and worked something that I'll aim to do next time.
Core

F set a harder Aero circuit, 10 laps
core

S nowt

S
AM - PE - created a new long circuit, 33 moves, all basic crimps up and down plus burly undercuts for the sideways moves. Did it 3 times in 3 sections, pumpy.
PM - IYT & core

[Will Hunt]

M - Very quick session at the southern end of Newgale Beach where Mike Adams has done some problems. Did Brute Arete (about Yorkshire 6C or 6C+ in the local currency) and a few others. Had a call from the rest of the family that they were ready to leave. I'd parked in the parking directly above the boulder and was in a hurry and the incoming tide made it look like I couldn't take the normal route back without getting wet feet, so made the unbelievably stupid decision that the direct walk back didn't look so bad. The steep, collapsing shale bank was childs play, but irreversable. The 100m of deep, very spiky, very impenetrable gorse and bramble (not visible from the beach) was not childs play. I was wearing shorts. Fortunately I had a fleece top with me. After a few meters of painful progress I shoved my legs down the arm holes and used them as trousers which helped a bit. The crux was descending into a crevasse thing which was also filled with this super-gorse and then having to climb out which required using my hands to mantel out. Fortunately I had a pair of flip flops so used them on my hands. Arrived at the path a prickled, bleeding shell of a man.

W - Had met the Mawsons in the beach car park a few days earlier and they were keen to join me for some beach bouldering at Marloes Sands. They were already there when we arrived and once I'd helped the family get established they'd already found a great looking unrecorded thing to warm up on. They were trying it from a hard and low start but I found that you could still start from sitting from some higher, better holds. The first move is a slap to a decent flatty, then you've got to get your foot high in a little pocket and slap to some little finger jugs. Going over the top is fun, slapping into this fab little hanging pillar feature and pulling over onto the slab above. Will post a photo in the new problems section. About 6C+/7A. Fortunately it had been in the shade.
We moved onto the 7A+ slab arete which is possibly unrepeated. Had fun trying it a few different ways and would love to see how it eventually goes. Unfortunately, pressing time and blazing sun stopped play and it was back to building sandcastles and hunting around in rock pools. Did solo a nice VD on a little mini sea stack on the beach. Marloes has loads of rock that the locals don't seem to use very much - probably because there's not many locals to speak of and they live in the UK's premier trad destination!

Was disappointed to not use my trad gear or do any DWS while I was there but failed to get a partner for an evening session. I was hoping to finally get to do Barad on Trwyn Llwyd but it'll have to wait.

[nai]

cheque, your mission to Standing Stones will be worth it in the end, bunch of great routes there, about four good VSs iirc and the two E1s are very good. What's left on your list?

[gollum]

 M - Lunchtime 10.5k in an hour. Playing about at maintaining pace without too much effort to reduce damage to my legs and Achilles. Seems to go fine.
Depot after work. Start with a bit of scapular work as part of my warm up. Move on to a campus session. Feels a bit tough today and so reduce intensity a bit but increase the volume to compensate, which seems to work pretty well.
Move on to a project session on the 30 degree board for a bit of a change. First problem goes well with big links and sorted on the sequence. Very fingery start and big butch moves at the top suit me pretty well. Will do this soon, I reckon. Second problem has me falling off the top
moves ......repeatedly. Dig deeper. Third one involves some very quick moves to a very shoulders move. Tasty but a bit beyond me at the moment.
Finish off with a repeaters session, which seems to work after a 30 degree board session. Pleased that all seems there or thereabouts. Great session and just what I need.

T - My three weekly leg training session. Squats for doubles up to 120k, get the stance right and today it feels easy enough whereas I failed after one rep last time. On to deadlifts and doubles up to 140 and then go for 145, feel good after 2 so get third rep done. Breathing hard after that. I do wonder what heart rate I reach when doing weights that are heavy for me for reps. Finish of with some legs raises ballistically into bands, which puts a sudden tension into the abs and really works them, followed by Pallof press on each side. A really good session and seems to be enough to maintain my strength.

W - 10k at lunchtime to just get the legs going a bit. Followed up with long rehab session to make sure was well stretched out.
Depot after work. Campus to start with. Still not quite at my benchmark levels but only off by a fraction and considerably better than Monday evening. Happy enough. Repeaters went well with each grip being solid enough and all two finger stuff feeling like it was hard but beneficial. Finished off with footless bouldering, which I haven’t done in ages. Nothing too hard but nice to be pulling through a whole range of positions, distances and hold types. Fun and hopefully effective.

T - Back to weights. Push day. Bench for triples up to 90k, followed by the same for decline and incline. Felt tough as I hadn’t done this for a while and shoulder felt it. Time to work on it again. A bit of close grip floor press for triceps and finish with plenty of ankle and shoulder rehab. Glad to be back to it.
Evening at the Depot doing the comp problems. A good set and I stop while I am still strong although not until I have become the human pendulum on a roof problem where it felt like I was swinging about for an age. An entertaining session and don’t make the mistake of last time of keeping going when I should stop, remain sufficiently disciplined as they will be up a long time and there is no rush.

F - Nice steady lunchtime 10k and rehab.

S - Fell race against a nonexistent barge. Up a big hill and down a big hill. First club race and happy enough with my result. A good day out.

S - Stretch, rehab, socialising and rest.

A couple of easy weeks. Need to step up the tempo a bit.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - fingers. Still tinkering with the sessions, went back to doing the full half crimp session instead of the new session of half crimp and open hand. Good fun. Clean and press in between sets, then gym work and weights. Overhead carry to finish. Phew!
Tue - various weights and bar work.
Wed - fingers, full open hand session on pockets. Strong. Weights and rings.
Thu - heavy bag, fast bag.
Fri - tired, weights.
Sat - fingers, system session. Bar work, weights. Torrid.
Sun - rest.

[SA Chris]

M - Very quick session at the southern end of Newgale Beach where Mike Adams has done some problems. Did Brute Arete (about Yorkshire 6C or 6C+ in the local currency) and a few others. Had a call from the rest of the family that they were ready to leave. I'd parked in the parking directly above the boulder and was in a hurry and the incoming tide made it look like I couldn't take the normal route back without getting wet feet, so made the unbelievably stupid decision that the direct walk back didn't look so bad. The steep, collapsing shale bank was childs play, but irreversable. The 100m of deep, very spiky, very impenetrable gorse and bramble (not visible from the beach) was not childs play. I was wearing shorts. Fortunately I had a fleece top with me. After a few meters of painful progress I shoved my legs down the arm holes and used them as trousers which helped a bit. The crux was descending into a crevasse thing which was also filled with this super-gorse and then having to climb out which required using my hands to mantel out. Fortunately I had a pair of flip flops so used them on my hands. Arrived at the path a prickled, bleeding shell of a man.

Sounds like a fun day out.

[cheque]

cheque, your mission to Standing Stones will be worth it in the end, bunch of great routes there, about four good VSs iirc and the two E1s are very good. What's left on your list?

I enjoyed every minute of the Standing Stones trip! Trogging about on the wiley windy moors is well within my comfort zone but not so much in my girlfriend’s, who had confused Chew and Churnet so was expecting a walk around some woods and did not find my grim trivia an interesting prelude to exploring possible moorland approaches . I write everything up on here as dramatically as possibly for entertainment value too (you know that people who mainly lurk consider it our duty to amuse them, right?)- I certainly enjoy other people’s write-ups, especially the image of Will waddling through a gorse field with a fleece round his legs. 

The remaining 11 routes-

The Great Slab- Alderman Rocks
Fairy Nuff & Womanless Wall- Standing Stones
Jester Cracks- Ashop Edge, Kinder
Flash Wall- Nether Tor, Kinder
Count’s Crack- Stanage Plantation
Birch Tree Wall- Black Rocks
Crabbie’s Crack- Five Clouds
Sin- Stoney
Skylight- High Tor
Ten Craters of Wisdom- Tissington Spires

Flash Wall is the only one I haven’t at least stood at the bottom of now- I’ve either seconded or made incomplete lead attempts on many of them in fact. Just need to get them done.

If anyone reading this is inspired by anything near those routes then get in touch!

[nai]

 I write everything up on here as dramatically as possibly for entertainment value too (you know that people who mainly lurk consider it our duty to amuse them, right?)- I certainly enjoy other people’s write-ups, especially the image of Will waddling through a gorse field with a fleece round his legs. 

I clearly need to try a bit harder then. Maybe I should have left in the Sunday evening entry when I tried to make cheese sauce with destroyed forearms and could barely hold the spoon.

[teestub]

I clearly need to try a bit harder then. Maybe I should have left in the Sunday evening entry when I tried to make cheese sauce with destroyed forearms and could barely hold the spoon.

I particularly like that you didn’t even deign to let avid power club readers know which problem you ascended, which one you were trying, or comment on the quality of either!

[duncan]

STG: enjoy climbing, don’t get injured.
MTG/LTG: reconsidering these

A holiday toofer

Will: sounds like a typical SW climbing experience!

M - Fingerboard max. hangs, pull-ups.
T - Hip and knee strength: squats, pistols. Posh picnic and opera in Sussex.
W - Shoulder strength: IsYsTs, pull-ups.
T - Drove to Font. Hip flexibility stuff.
F - Rocher Canon. Bumped into @newascents and T_B. The lad and I did the White kids circuit together, I did some of the Blues. Everything felt nails and the ground scarily distant. We then got hopelessly lost, literally going round in circles, and - after encountering the same group for the third time - had to ask for navigational help. On top of that I was savagely bitten by something(s). Oh dear!
S - Franchard Sablons. Lovely and quiet, it doesn’t take much walking from the car park for the numbers to drop exponentially. Blue circuit: crimping on credit cards and slapping for woks. Great day.
S - Elbows felt a bit Font-y, so had a rest day. Hip flexibility.
M - Canche aux Merciers. Did the kids circuit with the lad. Attempted first fifteen or so of the Red Circuit, some great problems and fine example of the random-number-generator approach to Font. grading: 6As that were HVS and 5+s that felt UK6b (both steepish and positive, not a style thing).
T - Paris, train station is a short walk from the camping. French trains cheap, smart and late. The Louvre was closed (on balance, probably a phew!) and the Orsay had huge queues. Walked for hours, soaking up the wee-smelling ambience. 
W - L’Elephant. The lad decided he’d like to try a grown up circuit rather than the kid’s one so we did the first twenty or so of the yellows before getting diverted by lizards. Then did some of the blacks, pleasingly a couple that had required significant efforts on a previous visit went easily this time. Tried Voie Michaud (6C), tickled the jug on numerous occasions but didn’t quite tick. Late afternoon temperatures and family distractions didn’t help
T - L’Elephant on my own with an early start. Relatively cool, deserted, no distractions. Warmed-up properly and got the Voie Michaud jug. A satisfying end to the trip. Drove home.
F - Fingerboard max. hangs.
S - Weston-super-Mare with several generations of family. Great weather for kite-surfing...not so good for climbing. Hip flexibility.
S - More British seaside scenes: particularly impressed by group of Sikhs playing cricket on the beach in non-ideal conditions. Felt a bit pathetic in comparison. Drove home, did some weighted pull-ups.

Great trip to Fontainebleau, the rest of the family are already asking when we can go again. Felt a little less incapable at climbing this time and possibly even a little stronger. Glad I’d been doing the hip flexibility and leg strength work beforehand: being able to lift your foot to chest height (approx.) and stand up (very approx.) is quite helpful. Still pathetically weak on anything powerful and timid on anything slappy.

Plan: strength work twice a week. Get on an E4 or a 7b depending where I next dodge the showers.

[spidermonkey09]

M - rest.

T - decided to go to Malham as the wind was from the right direction and later in the week looked poor. Taking The Space to warm up. First redpoint nearly slipped off opening foothold of the boulder, which at least relaxed me. Made it to the crimp move, hit it and held it for half a second before my left foot skated off the big foothold it was on. Odd. Second go foot skated off the biggest foothold on the sequence. Third go had to fight when foot skated off yet again, made it to same place as first go. Did reasonable link at end of session too but it felt hot still. Conditions felt good with the breeze but the air temp was still high which perhaps contributed to my repeated footslips on sections I don't normally slip on. Oh well!

W - max hangs. Matched and perhaps slightly improved on last weeks 26kg efforts.

T  -Depot. Going hard on the training as was planning a weekend off. Did well campusing after warming up, eventually managing 3-4-7. Will try 2-4-7 next time. Switched attention to 30 board and eventually got up the replica boulder I created last week; significantly harder than the sequence in reality! Will keep trying this and perhaps come up with a harder variant.

F - nothing.

S - nothing

S - nothing. Apocalyptic rain on M1 suggested I probably didn't miss out on a lot in the Dales. Perusing the conditions reports reinforced this view 

This week; resting today, perhaps some stretching this evening. Out tomorrow after work; hoping that Bat Route has dried off a bit but sounds like that may be optimistic. Will do what I can. Planning on training midweek and getting out at the weekend, nothing else on so might even go both days.

[Coops_13]

T: Guanella Pass. Another after-work session up here. Warmed up on some nice boulders up and did Ninja Pony Ride V5 3rd go, should have flashed - soft. Went up to Love Matters, really nice steep prow feature which was V8 prior to three hold breaks, now touted to be anywhere between V8 - 9. Felt approx 7B+. Slowly did all the moves then managed a really good link from a rail three moves in to the top (12 moves total) - good try-hard. Psyched to get it done when I'm next working in Denver

W: Hour and a half of stretching. Crimpd forearm, upper body and hip stretches. Some back stretches thrown in

T: Movement Baker. Fingerboard rehab up to +15lb. Climbing up to V5. Deadlift up to 255lb - asked someone experienced to watch my form and he said it was good. Bench up to 165lb - feeling weak. Cables and bicep burnout before weighted dips up to +55lb to finish

S: Lincoln Lake. Overcast and cooler today. Hiked down and warmed up by doing Emancipation V3 and Chalk on Rock Left V4. Tried Chalk on Rock V8 for a while but v sharp and one dynamic move that kept tearing up my thumb and index. Moved on to Fer Irie V6 - one I tried on my first day back outside. Nails for V6 but very very good. Dispatched just as some rain started. Went for an explore and found Vaporizer V7 next to a very impressive Warrior Up (V15  ). Vaporizer was fun but a bit crimpy for me at the moment. Called it a day then

S: Knackered after the day before and a lot of booze round the fire.

Video of Fer Irie:

[tomtom]

I write everything up on here as dramatically as possibly for entertainment value too (you know that people who mainly lurk consider it our duty to amuse them, right?)- I certainly enjoy other people’s write-ups, especially the image of Will waddling through a gorse field with a fleece round his legs. 

I clearly need to try a bit harder then. Maybe I should have left in the Sunday evening entry when I tried to make cheese sauce with destroyed forearms and could barely hold the spoon.

Pressures on...

Mon: Work

Tu: Sacked off work as a bad lot for the day and went to Anston. Hoped to get Alpha done ~ but didn't.... Bottom part (to break) is now more or less wired but I dont seem to have the beans (or technique) to do the top part at the moment. The sharpness of the pockets limits my number of attempts (even with taped fingers) and whilst I felt strong on my first couple of sighter attempts it quickly faded. I'm not getting the lunge up to the second RH pocket. All fairly straightforward (though painful) up to there. Had a couple of try hard attempts that all failed wildly... Wandered back to Reservation - which felt a bit more promising that last time..

We: Seem to have 'tweaked' my left fingers and wrist from the LH pocket on Alpha. You know when you have an ache when you move your had from side to side whilst keeping the wrist straight. And down the side of the  ring finger... border line doms/muscle strain..

Thu: Practiced some one armers with assist provided by doubled up theraband... L arm noticably stronger than right..

Fri: Weather  - ugh.... Hand still aching but easing up...

Sa: BIG gamble and headed up to S.Lakes lime... ended up at a dry and fairly decent condition Red Wall at Trowbarrow - though heavy showers every ten min meant leaning mats against the rock between efforts to keep everything dry - and living in the 40cm dry band of ground next to the rock... still the regular nature of the showers meant I had decent rests and I clocked up over two hours in the session (which is decent for me on my own..). Shallow Grave.. so much better than last week - now wired up to the crux leap - tried different foot beta - made it feel better had a couple of decent attempts and then stopped. Given this shit forecast I was amazed I managed to get up anything - and I was very gloomy all the way up there and until I started climbing... glad I went out.. Wrist still achy but alright... On the walk back to the car - across the deserted sodden quarry floor I was assaulted by a rogue herd of capybara - I was forced to wear a folded up bouldering mat on each leg to wade through the furry sea until I reached the style.

Su: Nothing... hoovered my pads.

[nai]

I particularly like that you didn’t even deign to let avid power club readers know which problem you ascended, which one you were trying, or comment on the quality of either!

Often no idea what you're trying there with so many link ups and variations and one person in charge of the pdf on their phone you're reduced to grades and numbers. But I will resubmit my entry with added entertainment value

[SA Chris]

I was forced to wear a folded up bouldering mat on each leg to wade through the furry sea until I reached the style.

People will do anything to reach style.

Not sure about reaching stiles though!

[tomtom]

I was forced to wear a folded up bouldering mat on each leg to wade through the furry sea until I reached the style.

People will do anything to reach style.

Not sure about reaching stiles though!

AND provided you with a thingywotsit to spot Chris!!  Winner.

[Will Hunt]

I'm surprised you went to such lengths to protect yourself from mere capybara. They make good pets apparently. I'd have thought that swaddling in a light muslin would have been sufficient to prevent any unwanted tickling. I've only ever used bouldering pads to pass through a crowd of porcupines who'd gathered to watch the annual Spine Race.

[Andy F]

Bloody youths using bouldering mats as leg protectors.

In the Somme we used beer mats (Tetley of course) to protect from the driving rain of the Hun shelling. Did us no harm...

[tomtom]

I'm surprised you went to such lengths to protect yourself from mere capybara. They make good pets apparently. I'd have thought that swaddling in a light muslin would have been sufficient to prevent any unwanted tickling. I've only ever used bouldering pads to pass through a crowd of porcupines who'd gathered to watch the annual Spine Race.

One or two would be fine - but they swarmed across the floor of Trowbarrow quarry like a furry equivalent of the Jerusalem scenes in World War Z... unlike Brad Pitt I didn’t have a helicopter so had to make do with my bouldering pads. Organic ones - which clearly are highly durable under sustained small mammal assault conditions.

[Bradders]

We: Seem to have 'tweaked' my left fingers...from the LH pocket on Alpha.

Been there. Utterly, utterly grim that pocket. I found taking it with front two, with a heavily taped middle finger, was least painful/injurious.

If it helps, I also go to the first RH pocket before taking the LH pocket. Really nice deadpoint move, not too hard, and means you spend less time on the LH horrible one.

[tomtom]

We: Seem to have 'tweaked' my left fingers...from the LH pocket on Alpha.

Been there. Utterly, utterly grim that pocket. I found taking it with front two, with a heavily taped middle finger, was least painful/injurious.

If it helps, I also go to the first RH pocket before taking the LH pocket. Really nice deadpoint move, not too hard, and means you spend less time on the LH horrible one.

👍👍 good idea. I’ll try that - if I go near it in the next 6 months 😃

[nai]

I thought I took it F2 but rewatching my video I actually used M2 with tape on ring finger. Same but dfferent. Perhaps it's your tendancy to open-hand everything, pretty sure I kind of crimped around the sharp edge rather than dragging skin over it.  It really isn't that bad when you suss out what to do. 

[tomtom]

So I find middle two feel best for the move going over to RH pocket but less so for going up to higher one. I crimp/hang the edge of the RH pocket now rather than dragging..