[shark]

11.4-5 Average 159.8 down 1.0lbs

M.

T. Noon. Lunch. Squally weather. Tor. Just me and the dogs. Tried the first hard move on ‘Bens Without’ repeatedly on changed beta from looking at videos (same right foot but with drop knee). Got it in the end. More lock strength on left arm will help. Andy Cave showed up with a tape measure and sheepishly measured distance between holds on Mecca to accurate replica problems on his board.

W. Eve Fingerboard. Lengthy body weight hangs mainly halfcrimp and a couple of drags. Best hang 33secs half crimp on ergo edge. A few DB lifts - snatch and cleans. Some fast pull-ups

T.

F. AM Blue skies, cold, crisp. Perfect grit day. Went to the Tor. Nick C and Ben S already there. Andy C turned up shortly after and I belayed him on Mecca in between goes on Bens Without. Warmed up and repeated the hard move of Bens after about 5th attempt. Started trying to piece together best option for the next move after and quickly found a low toe hook that worked well and then did the move and got close to linking the two! Exceeded expectations. Downhill after that. Plotted some trips/venues with Nick

Eve. Max hangs Was expecting to stop the session as thought I’d be too tired. Instead ended up smashing PB with a 10sec half crimp hang with +27.5kg on ergo edge representing an overall 6kg/6.4% improvement on the last proper ergo edge max hangs session on 19th Dec

S. PM Systems Board. Short session. Did benchmarks quickly and one set of 20/10s. Upped move time to 3 secs between moves and pumped out at move 89.

S.


Motivated by progress on Bens and on the fingerboard. Alternating between longer body weight hang sessions and shorter duration weighted hangs sessions seems to be working well.

Psyche back up to normal levels after post RRG glumness.

[Wood FT]

Andy Cave showed up with a tape measure and sheepishly measured the distance between holds on Mecca to accurate replica problems on his board.

Gold mine information.

[teestub]

Lengthy body weight hangs mainly halfcrimp and a couple of drags. Best hang 33secs half crimp on ergo edge.

Is this some sort of trad climbing training for placing gear or something?

[tomtom]

Evening. Back to pre xmas weight.

M: Having climbed on Sun - planned not to, but Nai was heading to Church Crag - which is 10 min detour from my monday commute so I went to join him. Mint conditions. Cold, dry, low humidity. Despite being achy from a fairly big day at Baslow on Sunday I managed repeats of UFG and Shield RH - and started putting together Hookups and linkups. THen got drawn into Gullivers Travels - and managed the first couple of moves - which was way more than before. Nai did well - and we got as far as getting the LH pinch then wondering what to do before both powering out. Good session. Someone has removed the ladder that was stashed there - so all the problems will go up a grade

W: Back to Church on my commute back west - this time met up with Dolly. Bit more spoogy - warmed up and tried the new 7A+ eliminates on the LHS, but couldnt really figure out where they went... anyway. Both got stuck into Gullivers. I found some RF out wide beta that made the drop into the LH pinch much easier - and we both got as far as the gaston. Me snatching at it and briefly holding it - Dolly getting it once and getting it and moving RF up from it once... so big progress. It really is a superb problem - very core intensive (despite being gently overhanging) and there isnt a rest or thank god hold on it anywhere. Both left psyched for another trip.

Fri: Off to Helsby HIlltop after some dry days (day? or two?). Only had 90 min, but managed to get the Chirotherium 3rd go. I have to work really hard dropping my RH in coming around the corner of the roof and holding that to jig my feet around the LH side. You can see me grimacing on the vid. Hard - but nice moves (I like the big yard at the beginning..). Spent the rest of the session practicing the moves on Tears again, but gassed out.


Shame about the red flare on the lens - the light was really nice....

Sun: Weather. Meh. Depot Manchester. Very busy. Warmed up then moved to the 50 - where there was no-one. Good session there with another chap. Bumped into Sloper who was in good form and had good news.

[gollum]

M - Bit of a change to the plan and a different style of training with considerably more structure and lots of determination.
Simply working on biceps this morning after false start of forgetting my kit and having to go home again.
A myriad of different bicep curls with lots of reps at each. Arms trembling by the end. 
Nip to Depot as it looks like rain is due.  Have a go at the newish purples. Flash a few, a few more in a couple of goes but still plenty to have a crack at in the future.  Do rehab exercises while I am there and arm certainly feels better than it has of late at the end of similar sessions.
5k steady RED. Starting to feel a bit better and have a wander about a load of different streets, passing two excellent real ale venues.
Put the board up at home to see how my arm is with some repeaters.  Got on okay.  Took it nice and steady using slight larger holds than normal, but felt comfortable.

T - Solid session early morning, working chest. Bench press for two up to a steady 90. Power press for singles up to 100. Some strict incline presses with exaggerated slow motion followed by some one arm presses after some tricep pre-exhaustion work. Feels good to be firing the big muscles again.
Physio visit again at 8 in the morning.
Decide to nip up to Buckstone Edge for a look. When I get there it’s blowing a hooly and is wet through but certainly looks like it’s worth a visit.
In the afternoon decide I should pop in and try Freeklime, given that I live so close. Have a good couple of hours there doing lots of different things. A really nice little venue that is good for something a bit different.
RED and rehab exercises to finish off the day.

W- Epic shoulder session. Lots and lots of different presses wand raises at all sorts of angles, ensuring that I manage to hit all the parts of my deltoids. Lots of static work with lots of tension at joint friendly weights. Finish off running through all of my rehab exercises.
Trip up to Ilkley and it’s cold and blustery. Perfect!!!! Have a couple of hours on the Calf. Do a couple of the classics and play around with bits of a few more before the cold gets to me. The place was looking good and felt really inspired, if cold.
Repeaters session. A mix of the larger holds from Monday and my normal holds. Some successes and some failures.
Quick 50 degree board session, and fail on things that I could path previously. Got a lot of work to do.
RED. Start with Mrs B and then she disappears to do a longer run while I just do the standard 5k loop.
Finish off with a bit of abs work while the bath is running.

T - Up and our early. Triceps get a beating today. Lots of presses and overhead movements, hitting all the bits of the muscle. By the end, very small weights are a challenge. Hopefully the new plan will mean I break bits less often.
Finish off with my rehab exercises and some core work. Happy with the start to the day.
Later I’m the morning go for my run. Still nice and steady on a very blowy and quite damp day. RED
Go to the Depot in the evening for a social session.  Get there nice and early and warm up before tinkering about on some of the comp problems and one of the purples. Get on another one of the purples  which has a sharp pull from a wide arm position to start. Arm started to niggle and then gradually just got worse. Went through rehab exercises and then tried a couple of blacks before deciding the best thing to do was to bail.
Driving home was gradually getting more painful maybe up to about a 3 or 4. When I got home Mrs B had to help me to remove my coat and top as ROM was extremely limited. Iced it as bruising started to appear. Dr Google seems to suggest I may have torn my pec in some way. Back at the physio on Tuesday so will see what she says.

F - Big bruise this morning. Nice steady day. RED 10

S - Back to the physio first thing. Does seem like I have some sort of tear in my pec. Climbing is off the cards for the time being but in the long term it should recover completely. Gutted that I am not off to Albarracín next week. Bruise goes from elbow up to armpit and back down to rib cage at the side.

S - RED. Still badly bruised with it now a couple of inches past elbow and lower on chest. Mobility reasonable but far from right.

Overall a very bad week for lots of reasons least of which are injury related.

[tomtom]

Gollum - thats crap Hope it heals up soon....

[gollum]

Cheers TT

[TobyD]

Andy Cave showed up with a tape measure and sheepishly measured the distance between holds on Mecca to accurate replica problems on his board.

Gold mine information.

I'm sure there was a picture in an old guidebook of someone making foil imprints of holds on tuppence to remake it on a board

[nai]

woah gollum, sounds an impressive bit of bruising.  Still remember when my toes went purple a week after breaking my calcanium
Hope it heals well.

STG: Moonboard 7A, Depot 50 6B, Font 7C
Spring 2020 Lime Font 7C.

M - absolutely terrible nights (non) sleep

warm up at home, tried the BM slopers with 10kg added weight, that didn't work but grabbed to low slots and hung F3 for 10s, at current body weight that was a PB, added a KG and did 8s then another 2kg and just eeked out 6s which is PB qualifying time.  Go me. Shoulders weren't feeling so good though, could only hang engaged off right arm.
Off to Church Crag
Warmed up trying a bit of Shield, Shield RH and UFG.
Struggled on The Shield.
Managed UFG, underwhelming
Good play on Gullivers Travels, class problem. Tickled the gaston a couple of times.
Core back home

T - warm up wasn't happening. Did a bit of skill practice, found I can do certain moves really well one way but barely at all the other.
Shoulders felt a but tweaky, did a Calisthenics mostly push circuit - planche progressions, L/V sits, frog/crane stands, hand stand progressions, wall walks, elevated V pressups, dips, TRX low row, pressups, face pulls.
Fast pullups +6kg
Few HI core things but everything else had involved it anyway so tired quickly
Massage and stretch PM

W rest

Th -
Needed a pre climb glute and shoulder massage and stretch out before getting going properly
Warm up felt hard. FS not up to Monday's standard and still can't lock off left shoulder engaged.
Went to Tor.  Start pocket on Cave Problem SS wet when I arrived but realised it was just full of chalk, scraped and brushed it all out and revealed a far better hold that was dry five minutes later.  First move went surprisingly easily, second took a while then the third was a nasty slappy grab that I'm not good at committing to but once I did it I matched the pocket and had done the moves into the stand.  Boom, game on.  Pretty tired by now and despite retreating to the car to warm my frozen fingers and toes I couldn't link them and was done for the day.  Felt like it was condensing slightly by then (2pm) too, stand start was slightly moist.  Drove home via Rubicon and found it dry, felt like we'd been in an Alternative Reality film and now the perma dry crags were dry again normal order has been restored, successes will commence again.
Core

F - Low humidity meant Luminous green might not be as grim as normal, torn between Yoghurt Hypnotist and Hot Toddy.
Was going to go to Rowtor until a neighbour caught me as I was loading the car and delayed me so  switched to Froggatt. In reality the drive + approach times aren't much different and I was taking the option of a more likely success.

All the holds were dry although still pretty green on the slab, practiced the topout a few times but was struggling on the final hard move.
Two attempts from the start ended at the final hard move then I noticed a foothold I'd not spotted before, tried it and while not a path it made it easier.
Did it next go.  Really is a very good problem.

Tried the LH start, suggestion that non-tall folk might need to start off two pads. Well I sat on two pads and could only just reach one hold. Gave up on that quite quickly

Decided to walk away while skin was intact and feeling freshish but Stottie tempted me in on the way out and after briefly holdaing the slap on the second attempt I kept going at it til I was trashed and bleeding.

Legs - squat, OH squat, DL, hamstring ext variations (all hard)



s rest

S rest climbing works with nipper, mostly did movement drills on stuff she was trying, successfully stayed off anything hard but did hang the 6mm micros for the first time.

[Bonjoy]

Tried the LH start, suggestion that non-tall folk might need to start off two pads. Well I sat on two pads and could only just reach one hold. Gave up on that quite quickly

I remember this being a bit disappointing. I'd intended to start lower on a good handhold but I just couldn't find a way to make it work due to a lack of footholds. Ended up doing from a very stretched out pull on (possibly with crossed hands, but I can't recall definitely) and a slap out into the standard prob.

[shark]

Lengthy body weight hangs mainly halfcrimp and a couple of drags. Best hang 33secs half crimp on ergo edge.

Is this some sort of trad climbing training for placing gear or something?

Just mixing things up / experimenting to stress the flexors in a different way. John Cooke told me ages ago that he got goods gains by doing 30 sec hangs and been in back of my mind to try it out for a cycle. Prompted to start doing it when I tweaked my back over Christmas and so didn’t want to add weight.

[Stabbsy]

Andy Cave showed up with a tape measure and sheepishly measured the distance between holds on Mecca to accurate replica problems on his board.

Gold mine information.

I'm sure there was a picture in an old guidebook of someone making foil imprints of holds on tuppence to remake it on a board

There was some footage on an old C4 program (Equinox, I think) of Ben Moon moulding the pockets on a project at Buoux and taking measurements, then having it rebuilt on a board at Bendcrete. The same program had footage of Fliss Butler doing the Dervish, Ben Moon on Castellan and Simon Nadin on Beau Geste. First time I remember seeing in climbing on the TV.

[nai]

Fear of Falling?  Sure I've seen it on youtube but can't find it

[duncan]

STG: enjoy climbing, try hard on rock, wood or plastic three times a week.
MTG: embrace sport-climbing; RP 7b+.
LTG: classic sea-cliff* E5 before 7.06.2020.

M - Walked 5km home from Golders Green with a 20kg rucksac.
T - Back to work, family back from Japan. Shoulder bodyweight strength stuff: various press-ups, various planks, hand-stands. 
W - Shoulder strength.
T - Shoulder strength. Pull-ups.
F - Pull-ups. ‘Max.’ hangs: 7s x10 reps. 10k brisk walk. Cycled to Stronghold to check it out and recce. the journey. 20km round trip on a folding bike surprisingly tiring; also discovered Stamford Hill really is a hill, who knew!
S - Shoulder strength. Pull-ups. 10km walk.
S - Pull-ups. 10km walk. Westway with the lad. Managed two purples (‘V3/4’) including one on the steeper board in the fridge. My anti-style so happy with this. More importantly, the lad enjoyed himself.

Week mainly spent getting to know my family again. Fingers battered after Chulilla, so happy to take a few days of relative rest. Still crushing the sharkathon.

Westway bouldering is not great these days: even the lad commented on the nasty holds. The setting has too many tweaky moves and my pet hate: the high crux setting you up for an awkward landing if you fall. The comp. wall and autobelays are good but I’m switching training focus this year and it’s probably time to explore what’s on offer elsewhere. Stronghold is the best bouldering wall I’ve been to in London (I’ve not tried Harrow, which might be competition) and the team running it seem great but it’s unfortunately a slightly awkward journey for me. Will try The Arch again and see if the setting has got a bit less parkour.

*High Tor has honorary sea-cliff status.

[yetix]

Golum that sucks mate! wishing you a speedy recovery!

M: Rest
T: Rest
W: Rhiw Goch, managed White Rider and Ride the Wild Smurf (stand), Tried Nazguls, didn't feel a million miles off the first of the harder moves, didn't commit to the second really, forgot how sharp it is there! Went to Elephantitus afterwards, sent Elephantitus fairly quickly, but felt too tired for the 7B variant.
T: MCC, first time using a harness in 6 months, and could probably could the number of times I've lead in total on 1 hand. wanting to get a harness on this summer so need to get practiced at clipping etc. Managed to flash a few things upto 7a despite being pumped out of my mind. Fun session.
F: Rest
S: 1 arm hangs, -6kg RH, -10kg LH both for 7s on BM 2k bottom edge, no nestling and strict half crimp. Funny that without 'cheating' the edge I need this much assistance. Hoping to improve this by sticking with 1 armed hang work over the next few months. Have previously when a little lighter been at -4kg for each hand for 5s when being strict about hangs.
S: Didn't feel inspired by the weather. BUK boards, finished my warm up on a few things I know well on the 55 before getting on the 45, took a couple of hours to get used to the feet again, but a good session after not having been on the boards in just over a month.

[Will Hunt]

Fri - Got out to Earl with the lamps. Considered warming up but it was chilly and I couldn't be bothered. Went straight to Desert Island Arete and got set up. I'd tried the conventional beta before and hadn't really got anywhere with it so started trying the Dave beta from this thread (which is worth a read for its sheer noughties UKBness):

if anyone wants any beta for DIA then here goes. firsty forget using the good starting hold on the arete as a sidepull, instead use the bottom seam of it round the left of the arete as a normal horizontal straight hold. can't remember if i crimp it or openhand it thumbpinching the arete. right hand goes on something on the other side, whatever. left foot somewhere obvious, then right foot goes up and heelhooks the big sidepull over right - you then pull straight up for that hold on the arete, then as normal jump up and sit on your left foot to get that hold out left. This also works well for climbing into it from the righthand sitter - its basically no harder. Dunno about the left sitter.

The advantage of this is you don't have to fight any kinda barndoor that you may get if pull on on the RH side of the arete  then trying to fall round the arete style. Question?

I got kind of close like this. It's really easy to get your RH onto the guppy hold but is then very powerful to get the left foot on the LHS of the arete and rock over it. Didn't have the power in the right arm. Might have been a connies thing as the arete sloper thing felt a bit greasy like this. Thought "what have I got to lose" and adjusted the pads to try the conventional way. Got myself established on the RHS of the arete and looked up and right to the holds that lead up the rib as for "Andy's Problem". Went up these first time and it's a complete path compared to DIA and nothing like 7B (especially if you consider that DIA stand is supposed to be 7A+). For the haters, you can check UKC and see plenty of others agreeing with me.

Does anyone know the history of this then? How did the standard DIA problem become the weird pivot version? The trad route must always have been climbed staying on the RHS? Why is Andy's Problem not called DIA and the pivot thing a quirky variation?

Then tried it using the standard beta and got on better, but struggled to get my right foot around the arete. Beta/advice welcome.



Sat - Push day. Toddler gymnastics in the morning. Followed by a trip to the park. Checked out the Duck Pond Boulder at St Ive's which has a 7C ish traverse on it. Looks worth coming back to with a brush and loppers/bow saw as it would be good lamp fodder.

Sun - Went to the Lab with family. My wife put her old climbing shoes (which must have been worn about twice) in the bag and did do a climb but complained that the shoes hurt and stopped.
Sprog 1 had a ball and is getting stronger and more confident at moving on the wall. She actually got to the top which was fab.
Sprog 2 remained asleep and chill.

I did manage to get some climbing done but was frustrated again by the Lab's one-dimensional setting and shit selection of holds. On the more difficult problems there tends to be one type of hold per problem, most often these really rough long crimps that vary from flat to positive. They'll set some good hard climbing and then at about 2/3rds height put in one random excruciatingly hard move. There are problems there on the black circuit which have been up for months and there's loads of chalk on the holds below these cruxes and then virtually no chalk above. When the Depot sets problems that are found to be too hard or too easy they'll tweak the holds to rectify this. The Lab is either not getting the feedback or isn't bothered to do this.

I don't mind there being hard problems in the wall, but it would be nice if there was some middle ground. The problems are either completely piss or impossibly hard.

[Bradders]

Then tried it using the standard beta and got on better, but struggled to get my right foot around the arete. Beta/advice welcome.

When you come off, it looks like you need to ignore the temptation to put your LF on the goodish edge further out. Instead smear really close to the arete and use that to gain height and balance to move LH up.

[36chambers]

Then tried it using the standard beta and got on better, but struggled to get my right foot around the arete. Beta/advice welcome.

I think you need more chalk

[spidermonkey09]

Can't seem to login on a computer, weirdly. Anyone else?

M- rest.

T- Station, Loughborough. Pleased to see they've removed the Lattice boards and reset the circuits, miles better. Did a bit of everything; remembered how to boulder a little, some circuits and some campusing. 1-4-6 fairly steady. Found some of the alleged V2s quite hard. Pleasantly surprised by the wall which I was really unimpressed with when I last went.

W- Max hangs calibration. 21.25 kg.

T- Tower. The only lead wall in Leicester. Irredeemably terrible but I take on board it is a leisure centre walk. They still had the same holds they had when I was at uni here! Starting to get ill also so not a great session. Will end up there again but might try and train beforehand so I'm suitably knackered.

F- still ill. Rest.

S- Gardoms. Did Marks Roof left and punted off the original finish about 5 times in quick succession as the rain started coming in. Would have pissed it with a rest. Oh well. Hadn't been before and enjoyed it.

S- Max hangs. Easily completed set with 21.25kg. Will add weight next time.

[SA Chris]

Andy Cave showed up with a tape measure and sheepishly measured the distance between holds on Mecca to accurate replica problems on his board.

Gold mine information.

I'm sure there was a picture in an old guidebook of someone making foil imprints of holds on tuppence to remake it on a board

Squawk sticks in my head for some reason.

[Bradders]

M - rest, 20 mins stretching at lunch

T - see Monday

W - Almscliff. Beautiful day. Managed Stu's Roof, took quite a few goes though, kept dropping the move to the LH crimp on the face. Thankfully the one time I stuck it I didn't wobble off the end. Had a brief dabble on the moves of Bruno's Roof before leaving.

T - rest

F - Almscliff. Another stunner. Loads of goes on Bruno's Roof, got through the start consistently but kept powering out getting into the finishing moves. Climbed for quite a while and by the end of the session my core was so shot I couldn't even do the move to the break on Demon Wall.

S - rest, bit of a walk

S - Almscliff. Left it really late, didn't get there until half 2 thinking it'd be wet earlier and had things to do at home. Ended up feeling really rushed and generally annoyed at nothing. After warm up toyed with a few alternative methods of doing the finish to Bruno's, none of which felt good. Had a try from the start but pinged off which hurt quite a bit, then had a rest and did it! Had to fight for it and really bone down through the finish as really wasn't expecting to get there. Very little time remaining before the light went which I used figuring out the moves on Dick Hymen on the Virgin Boulder.

Good week. Almscliff serving it's purpose as a training venue nicely.

[shark]

Squawk sticks in my head for some reason.

Yes he has that effect. Ruined one of my redpoint attempts on Cry of Despair BITD

I suspect you are thinking of when he was showing Bens replica of Hubble on a Sheffield woodie. Can’t remember what that was from
though.

[Bonjoy]

Does anyone know the history of this then? How did the standard DIA problem become the weird pivot version? The trad route must always have been climbed staying on the RHS? Why is Andy's Problem not called DIA and the pivot thing a quirky variation?

I'm pretty sure the route DIA was originally via the standard DIA stander. Difference in landings pre-mats may have influenced this.
A large chunk fell off the start sidepull on the RHS of the arete, maybe twenty years ago. I don't know how this affected the difficultly of the various variants.
I've done Andy's and both the sitters on DIA and I don't recall DIA being harder than Andy's (it was a while ago though).
My sequence on DIA is different to that vid or Dave's beta. I pull on as per your vid but hang low and flag my right foot round left to hook the lip of the roof on the left side of the arete. From a tight lock on your left arm I then reach over into a guppy (RH thumb pointing up), turn lefthand to a crimp then swing round onto lhs.

[Will Hunt]

Does anyone know the history of this then? How did the standard DIA problem become the weird pivot version? The trad route must always have been climbed staying on the RHS? Why is Andy's Problem not called DIA and the pivot thing a quirky variation?

I'm pretty sure the route DIA was originally via the standard DIA stander. Difference in landings pre-mats may have influenced this.
A large chunk fell off the start sidepull on the RHS of the arete, maybe twenty years ago. I don't know how this affected the difficultly of the various variants.
I've done Andy's and both the sitters on DIA and I don't recall DIA being harder than Andy's (it was a while ago though).
My sequence on DIA is different to that vid or Dave's beta. I pull on as per your vid but hang low and flag my right foot round left to hook the lip of the roof on the left side of the arete. From a tight lock on your left arm I then reach over into a guppy (RH thumb pointing up), turn lefthand to a crimp then swing round onto lhs.

That sounds like an interesting sequence! So, just to elaborate on that, do you do the first left hand movement to bump it up the arete? Or stay on the juggy sidepull low down? And when you say you get your RH as a guppy, do you mean your palm is on the LHS of the arete? Similar to how I have my hand from 17 seconds onwards?


If the right hand sidepull at the start has become significantly bigger then this might be significant for Andy's as you get a very comfortable heel behind it after you've stood up. This keeps you in a steady position while you move your hands up the arete and RH rib.

[spidermonkey09]

Some week that Nick!