[tomtom]

Redpoint week for me - but no cigars...

M: Anston: Reservation: Dropped the last move (pretty much) twice. Chuffed to get there - gutted to miss out.



W: Depot - quick 60-90 min in the morning - didnt manage to find the easy yellows Galpinos talked about (apart from the arete one)

Fr: Lees Bottom. Chiggas with Attitude. Took a bit of beta refinement - then gassed out on two decent efforts. Suspect Nai will post a better video later...

[nai]

Heartbreaker on Reservation,Tom.

M
Pretty tired, didn't feel climbing hard was a good idea but inspired by last weeks Power Club (no, really) did a version of the power workout linked by petejh.
2x offset pullups til almost failure (14 & 16) then 5x fast pullups
2x weighted pullups (+10kg) then 5x fast pullups
2x weighted pressups (+10kg) then 5x fast pressups
Core

Fancied being out so headed to Burbage North, bit warm and muggy with sun sucking the overnight rain back out of the ground. Arrived to find I'd not brought a chalk bag, soloed 15 ish routes before a few highish scares on damp/greasy holds convinced me the midges were bad enough to call it a day.


T - Decent warm up at home then headed to Lees Bottom with Dolly. Worked out the intricacies of Chiggars With Attitude, gave it a few attempts but was too done in to finish it off
Core back home

W nowt

Th - Warm up at home then headed to Lees Bottom without Dolly. Bit nervy without a spotter but once I'd done the big slap to jug once, having bottled it several times, it felt ok and I could start tryng it again. Got it reasonably early:



Really is a quality problem this, one of the best lime problems of the grade in the Peak I reckon (although watching tomtom's vid, it doesn't look quite as good (and a fair bit easier ) for the tall).
Deadlifts and HI core to celebrate

F -
Burbage quarries tRad - found Fox House Fake hard, moves at the top quite something at the grade, didn't put me off trying Zeus though which went ok, burly but basic fun.

S nowt
S Core and massage and stretching of tweaky shoulder

[Fiend]

W: Depot - quick 60-90 min in the morning - didnt manage to find the easy yellows Galpinos talked about (apart from the arete one)

The big arch in the first room, on the far left side, opposite the steep bit of the back wall, there's one on mostly those shit Core holds starting on a double pocket going into the groove then out right - that one is piss HTH.

P.S. Can people PLEASE specify which of the 3 major Depots they're talking about when posting PC updates, ta.

[Teaboy]

W: Depot - quick 60-90 min in the morning - didnt manage to find the easy yellows Galpinos talked about (apart from the arete one)

I was at Depot Manc yesterday and the grading seems all over the place whereas in the past it's been really consistent. I had to back off a couple of blacks, normally I'm happy to warm up on these. On the other hand I can't normally do purples (done two in total since it opened) but nearly (I know, but I'm not committing at the top due to injury) flashed about three of these. Reds were very much a mixed bag but there's always a few of these that seem impossible

[Wood FT]

Th - Warm up at home then headed to Lees Bottom without Dolly. Bit nervy without a spotter but once I'd done the big slap to jug once, having bottled it several times, it felt ok and I could start tryng it again. Got it reasonably early:



Really is a quality problem this

That does look like a great problem, well climbed.

[shark]

Nice one nai - hard luck TT

10.12-11.0 Average 153.5lbs down 0.3lbs

M Eschewed Anston despite nice temps for power training inspired by Pete’s post. Warm and did a couple of long dynamic moves on poor feet that I don’t think I’ve done before or if I have not as easily. Then did a new exercise of 10 moves up and down the board on undercuts and incut edges on poor screw on footholds to a replica Oak throw move that I did 5x up and down. Did this 4x with 5 mins rest failing to hold the ‘horn’ on the 5th and final throw - sounds familiar. Finished with 6 fast pull-ups x3. Later got mauled on Power Club for avoiding the issue

T

W Malham with Tommy and Victor from Marseilles. Cloudy but still. Variable temp. Average conditions. Stuck to plan and went on Mescalito as a break from the Oak and to get back into longer routes. Go1 Stick clipped up it deciphering beta notes from a couple of years ago. Moves felt steady. Go2 Went from ground and came unstuck as felt in wrong position to pop for edge to clip 3rd bolt. Carried on up route again refining moves Go3 Went from ground again and cam unstuck in same place. Sussed out an intermediate hold to use - thumb in undercut. Go4 Tired  but using thumb managed to get to where it joins New Dawn before falling off. Carried on to top with one more fall. In the meantime Tommy did the Oak

T. PM Foundry. Warm up and then some throws on campus board. Sought out TB’s hold #31 which was a lovely small positive undercut. Experimented pulling on using obvious features for feet and poor hardwood pinch #49. Best goes were getting hardwood#31 and pulling through to rail and holding skin ragging edge #48 a couple of times but not being able to pull on it. Bit more campussing till started powering down.

F. AM Tor Lovely but strange weather. Cloud inversion over Derwent valley. Temp dropped by 5 degrees driving towards Wardlow mires. Was thinking of going on Obscene Gesture but didn’t have any real enthusiasm for it so went straight on Bens (not been on it since July before anyone jumps down my throat) and also belayed Nick on Indecent not without incedent (sic). Was joined by Mike B on Bens as apparently it was condensed on the right side of the Tor! Did THFML a couple of times then linked into it from the cross thru. Couple of failed goes from kneebar rest failing on kick move. Got it third attempt after a rest and linked to end. Tried from start and surprised to get straight through to kneebar rest and without cutting loose but then fell off on kick move. Did this link two more times. Tried kneebar to top again at end but too tired.

S.

S. Malham with Tommy, Haydn and Andy B. Grim weather - rainy, clammy, still. Cons x 2. Put draws in Mescalito. Greasy. First redpoint got up to New Dawn but foot slipped off smear Second redpoint felt tired and got really pumped but with encouragement from below managed a few more moves so all I had to do was step up onto New Dawn ledge but couldn’t move and was off - lowered off Third redpoint fell off funny move by third bolt. Climbed to 4th bolt and took a rest on the bolt. Surprised myself by linking from there to 8th and final bolt. Gutted not to get to tick it but was unlucky with the foot slip and conditions. Good stamina training for RRG. Tommy had a frustrating time on Overnite and got pretty grumpy

Was intending to resume Oak campaign on weds as forecast looked promising. However, forecast looks crap now so not sure.

Booze free week 

[monkoffunk]

Not a great week for me! Lots of good intentions and then unwell all week basically. Best days of conditions and could hardly get out of bed! Zero training, finally felt up to trying something on Saturday and then tweaked a finger. Think will heal quickly but bit of a set back. Yoga today though, which was good!

[cheque]

Rehab Diaries Week Fifty-seven

STG- Sub-HVS *** Peak Trad list (7 6/27 remain), onsighting HVS/ low 6s by end of September.

M- Rest.

T- Rest.

W- Walk up to Stanage End from A57 after work. Ran back as it had started drizzling and I wanted to see if it hurt. It didn't hurt that much.

T- Rest.

F- Great weather and mid-morning found out that my mates had come up from Dorset for the weekend so sacked work off and met them at Lawrencefield. Seconded Great Harry then had a go at Great Peter on a toppy after my mate had led it as his first E1. Expected to flail but actually did it clean and felt great on it- seems the rest week following some basic strength training has really helped.  We moved on to Millstone but I was happy to just take some photos there.

S- Roaches. Late start so it was hot when we got there but thankfully it was windy. Started at Five Clouds and seconded a truly rubbish gap-filler E1 before my third attempt (well... third session, sixth lead attempt  ) at Crabbie's Crack. Did it straight off, no problems  . Everyone I was with did it on my gear after and (perhaps generously) agreed it was tough for the grade. Glad to put that little mini-chapter of my recovery behind me.

Led another quite poor HS (I love the situation, rock and some of the routes at the Clouds but it does not seem to have "strength in depth") then, like Cathy Dennis, we headed (In)to the Skyline. I was given the chance to lead Safety Net (cool E1 that's accurately described by the name- three successive boulder problems with excellent gear) but I opted to second it instead. I needed at least two goes at each of the hard bits which was a bit disappointing but it vindicated my decision at least- all three are quite reachy and it was not just my current lack of power but also my lack of mental adjustment to my new height that caught me out . Frankly it's times like this when I feel the most regretful of where I find myself- pre-accident I had this on my list of routes to onsight but a lack of confidence and a feeling like I had all the time in the world meant I just never got myself underneath with a belayer. I would have pissed it.   

S- Rest. Eating and editing photos.

Off work for a week now- shame the forecast isn't great but I should get out and hopefully onsight an HVS to tick my STG.

[Will Hunt]

Tu - Evening session at Caley with the LMC. Last outdoor evening climbing session of the year so we climbed till it got dark and then went for pizza in Otley. Very nice. Climbed The Groove at Caley which is in at 7A but more like 6B+ (not just me who says that) which was the highlight.

Sa - Langcliffe. Loads of people up there. Onsighted 4 routes of 7a or 7a+. Thanks to Jim who put the draws in a couple of those for me which definitely helped with the onsight. Also tried a "7b" which needed checking for the guide. Think it's definitely lost some holds. Couldn't figure out anything to link between the 2nd and 3rd bolt. If anyone has done Mass Exodus recently then let me know.

[Will Hunt]

And completely forgot to mention that I spent a lot of time on Sunday clearing out the garage and excavating my board. It's ready to go for winter!

[duncan]

Well done nai, that looks excellent. Next time tomtom.

STG: continue shoulder rehab. Try some crimpy 7as.
MTG: 7b+ by the end of the year.
LTG: tbc

M - Hips stretches
T - Shoulder strength. Westway bouldering to ‘V2’.
W - Hip stretches.
T - Fingerboard: 24mm, 18mm and 14mm edges, 3-5s hangs.
F - Shoulder strength.
S - Anstey’s with Yossarian. Warmed-up on the 6b and 6b+ on the newly excavated wall opposite Empire. These are good, sharp, and soft; get on them before they become polished! Had a brief play on the start of Mitre but big burly moves on shiny slopers are not ideal for weak shoulders. Got on Cocytus, techy groove climbing is much more my style, which went well to the original belay (formerly E3 6a, now ~6c). Tried the steeper extension, which was a bit too shouldery and didn’t go so well. Tried King of Ming (7a) back on the wall opposite Empire. All good except for one move where I missed a foothold in the gloom. I need new specs. as the current lenses are scratched as **** and the near vision prescription has changed. Gratifyingly close to doing it via some unnecessarily small holds. Drive back up the A303, this is not fun in the dark when you’re tired, hours of winding single lane with headlights in your eyes.
S - Slept, ate, shoulder strength.


Much better week than the last three, shoulder is settling and survived some harder pulling than planned. Good to feel comfortable on some relatively small holds, woeful on anything where I can’t get weight on my feet but this can be addressed once the shoulder is stronger.

Really good day with Yoss, much more successful than our previous attempt for both of us. I’ll let him explain.

Plan: onwards and upwards

[spidermonkey09]

Please excuse the self indulgent post to follow!

M -  rest. Booked half day off work on Wednesday.

T - rest.

W - Malham. Warmed up and had a redpoint. Absolutely rinsed the boulder feeling as strong as I ever had on it. Headwall went without alarms until I arrived at the heartbreaker throw for the crimp. Held it and brought foot up for next move only for something to go wrong; must have lost some tension or just not got it on right. Slipped off to much shouting and cursing. Gutted as thought that would be it for the day.

Watched Tommy do the Oak and belayed Matt as he smashed in Baboo putting the draws in! In hindsight maybe conditions were getting better. Set off for round two expecting to fall off the boulder and try a link afterwards. Got through boulder with a massive effort; not sure its ever felt that hard before. Was very calm in kneebar and it was getting dark; realised I was recovering well but topping it seemed unlikely given I'd already been up once that afternoon. I remember there was a slight breeze blowing. Felt recovered quite quickly and set off as soon as Lee told me it had been 5 minutes. Climbed smoothly and efficiently up to the top undercut rest. Stayed there long enough to get my breathing back to normal before setting off. By this point darkness was well on the way and I was forced to improvise a foot sequence setting off as I couldn't see the edges! Felt strong on heel move and moved well through the crimpy sequence. Dropped knee in and hit the split crimp with middle three, crimping it up quickly. Foot went onto to the good edge precisely and I remember shaking my right hand as I brought it across to the small square cut crimp which I hadn't felt able to do before. Laid one on to the incut crimp in the corner and hit it absolutely perfectly with next to no effort; I don't think I've ever done the move this well. I immediately knew that this was the chance. Heard Lee shouting 'give it everything' from the ground and remember thinking that I felt remarkably in control as I moved into the top rest at the end of the crux sequence. I was very calm initially and followed my plan of shaking for 30 seconds before assessing if I was ready. Felt good so prepared to leave by moving my right foot the extreme right side of the foothold to allow space to match it. Couldn't see the foothold clearly which resulted in a few seconds of over gripping and wobbling the feet onto the edge. This had broken my veneer of calm and the nerves started to hit as I set up for the crossover move that marks the end of the tricky climbing. I hit the incut jug with very little to spare and again struggled to sight the 1p sized foothold. Lee shouted 'breath!' from the ground which helped enormously. I sorted myself out and set off into the final traverse to the jugs. I have practiced this section so many times and my equilibrium returns. I feel eerily calm on the final moves, observing the foot movements totally dispassionately, aware that I am about to do it without getting nervous or overexcited. This is probably as close to an out of body experience I have ever had climbing. The final moves up to the chain are without incident; it is clipped and I have five seconds of silent incredulity before shouting myself hoarse for a minute or so. It is almost dark by now and I sit on the ledge for five minutes pinching myself and unable to believe that its finally done. An unbelievable feeling. Matt's reward for patiently belaying me is having to lead the top section of Baboo/Straightened by headtorch to get his clips back! 

T - nothing. Some drinking in the evening...

F - Nothing.

S - Went to Langcliffe Skyline. Did five routes, the best of which was probably Late Night Final. Meal out and some guilt free boozing in the evening.

S - went for a wander round Otley. Shit weather.


Needless to say feels pretty amazing to have completed the route in the nick of time before going away to Spain. I have created a 'pyramid' with an apex but absolutely no buttresses and strengthening this is going to be the priority over the next year or so. Looking forward to some chilled onsighting to start with and perhaps some reasonably quick projects after that...

[tomtom]

excellent write up!

[Yossarian]

M - Wall. First half off session doing comp wall problems - trying to improve movement on various things I’d slapped my way up previously. Circuit board - a few easier things then 6c x7. Skin a bit trashed.
T - Yoga and shoulder rehab
W - Wall. Good session on the board, trying to focus on bad footholds later towards the end. Fingers on LH feeling a bit tweaky. Was going to do some campusing, but fingers didn’t feel up to it. More circuit board - another 5x on the 6c.
T
F - Drove family down to Devon PM
S - Ansteys with Duncan. Weather forecast had been so bad for previous few days that we only confirm on Friday. In the end the conditions were perfect. Put clips in Empire, inc falling off searching for funny little pocket / pinch before the first break. Duncan then tried to fathom why a clueless team just right of mitre wall had managed to spread their ropes across three routes preventing him from climbing any of them.

Some spits of rain in the air, so swiftly went for first burn on Empire. Did it all very smoothly, which perhaps I should’ve expected, but had been a bit paranoid about a couple of polished feet and generally feeling of expectation, etc. Left clips in for go on the Direct.

Belayed Duncan on Cocytus, which looked great and v varied. Was tempted to have a go but remained focus on the plan.

Then tried Empire Direct. This was quite hard. Tried a number of variations inc using what I later discovered to be the Gaston hold as a RH side pull up to a LH flake and then the break. Getting between the v good LH letterbox slot and that hold seemed desperate though. Retreated to study the only video I’m aware of, which is chap starting LWM. He used crimpy bit of big RH slopey thing then LH up to gaston, high RF and then powerful pull up to RH finger jug. So did that bit 3x which felt tricky but doable. I was starting this section with a slightly crozzly foot pocket. Having viewed vid again, I might’ve missed the lower LH handhold for a high LF. Also realised that by this stage I was getting quite tired and perhaps things would feel easier next time.

A thoroughly good day out, helped immensely by Duncan’s patience and moral support!

S - Went for a walk with family around Haytor. Then drove to Burrator for a look at the Lakeside boulders. Didn’t have a guide so kids and I crashed around for a while before we found Baric’s roof. Initial inspection of King of the Swingers (7B+) suggested we would‘ve been better off looking for an ice-cream van, but perseverance paid off and I actually made some progress. Height definitely an advantage on this problem, so it’s on the list for a return visit next time I’m down that way.

Ticking Empire was a major success for the year, and finally feel I’m more or less back to where I left off about a decade and a half ago. Definitely want to press on with the Empire Wall progression as and when conditions and time allow. I’m going to be extremely strategic in picking venues and routes from now on - quick redpoints of high quality 7a-7b+ For the next few months. Also, max hang progress revealed last week suggested that I should be trying harder boulders, so going to do more of that too. Yay...

[abarro81]

Nice one, that slightly out-of-body holy crap this is actually happening last few moves experience on a project is ace innit

[Will Hunt]

Great write up, Jim. The redpoint that such a siege deserves. Imagine if you'd just pissed it from bottom to top. Yuck!

[teestub]

Dropped knee in and hit the split crimp with middle three, crimping it up quickly.

Is having 5 fingers and a thumb the secret to 8c success?!

Great effort with the time constraints 

[spidermonkey09]

Is having 5 fingers and a thumb the secret to 8c success?!

Good point; front 3!

[SA Chris]

Average week.

M - Not much. Woodie tinkering.
T - Not much. Cubs, plus a bit of work in the evening
W - Mental day, work deadline. Away from work an hour later than I wanted, met mate for a run, lovely route the reverse of last week, up North bank of Don, down the south. Getting a bit dark by the end, so had to take route on streetlit roads to finish. 15 km total. Then short wall session, felt pretty strong, and cruised up all the probs on the 45 I can do with ease.
T - not much, knee feeling a bit tweaky.
F - was going to run home, but missus got stung in the face by a wasp on here long afternoon training run, so wasnlt feeling great and knee not great, so sacked it off.
S - 4 k with Kyle, his longest run to date. Knot sure about nee.
S - woody work. out with kids in afternoon.

[andy popp]

Lots of people having a great week (even I went climbing), but an especially good write up there from SM. Fantastic!

[highrepute]

Nice one spidermonkey. Enjoyed your write-up and in fact the whole account of your road to redpoint. Also, pretty sure I suggested a beta tweak a week or two ago and now here we are!

Thought I'd start back on here to see if it helps with the motivation. Good conditions on voyager are approaching. Although massive change in my situation means I'm struggling to get even one climb a week in at the moment.

ST
*climb once a week
*max hangs
*find 8b+ project

MT
*Voyager
*curbar climbs

Thu
Took my campus holds off (have a kitchen based wooden beam with FB and holds on) and sanded the edges considerably more rounded.

Sat
Fingerboard - following my loose plan I've done a block of repeaters now moving on to max hangs. Through some ill thought out logic I'm doing 7on, 7off 3 reps, 3 sets. long rest in between sets. warmup, aerocap, campus problems (newly rounded edges have achieved aim of increasing the difficulty), 7/7 hangs x3 at 10, 15, 20kg. failure at 20kg

Tough week, missed the works window but got back on the fb - mostly out of a desire to keep up at least one session a week. still sore from weighted hangs so hopefully they're doing something.

[tommytwotone]

Looks like a good week for Power Clubbers - efforts spidermonkey, cheque and Yoss!

No climbing of note last week, only thing I did was Yorkshire 3 Peaks on Friday, with work team for a charity thing. Having been pretty blase about it, turns out it's a pretty big day out. Really enjoyed it, been ages since I've done anything like that.

Weekend was spent walking about like a penguin and trying to avoid anything involving bending down.

[spidermonkey09]

Nice one spidermonkey. Enjoyed your write-up and in fact the whole account of your road to redpoint. Also, pretty sure I suggested a beta tweak a week or two ago and now here we are!

I actually meant to make reference to this; cheers! I've made so many mistakes along the process, chief among them being not investigating/refining the sequence at the top until it was almost too late. It should have flagged a lot earlier that something wasn't right there, but never mind; got there in the end!

On the plus side, following my own rules ensured I managed to not drop the 6c climbing at the top so you win some, you lose some!

[Footwork]

Yorkshire 3 Peaks on Friday, with work team for a charity thing. Having been pretty blase about it, turns out it's a pretty big day out.

Weekend was spent walking about like a penguin and trying to avoid anything involving bending down.

Ditto this. It's only a long walk, I thought. The work mates I did it with were complete fitness nutters (one had run it in around 4 hours, another does that whole lifting logs through 25km of assault course and the fourth was just cardio obsessed. Bearing in mind this was a charity team event where everyone else is just having fun, they started running. RUNNING. Oh shit, I thought. I ended up doing that winter approach power march with the runner the whole way round and we caught up with a very tired other half of the team at the bottom of the last hill.

Never again.

[Will Hunt]

Yorkshire 3 Peaks on Friday, with work team for a charity thing. Having been pretty blase about it, turns out it's a pretty big day out.

Weekend was spent walking about like a penguin and trying to avoid anything involving bending down.

Ditto this. It's only a long walk, I thought. The work mates I did it with were complete fitness nutters (one had run it in around 4 hours, another does that whole lifting logs through 25km of assault course and the fourth was just cardio obsessed. Bearing in mind this was a charity team event where everyone else is just having fun, they started running. RUNNING. Oh shit, I thought. I ended up doing that winter approach power march with the runner the whole way round and we caught up with a very tired other half of the team at the bottom of the last hill.

Never again.

Didn't you once play a game of 5-a-side and wake up in the morning thinking that you'd got rheumatoid arthritis in both legs? You're the new One Lung.