[shark]

11.3-4 average 158.0 up 0.2lbs

M.

T. Midday LPT. Fingers a lot better after a 3 day break - where swollen and cranky. Met Matthew B and Fiend there. Blue skies, no humidity bit of a breeze - boncon. No warm up. Four tie ins on Statement. First go up Statement linked from below 5th bolt to top with one rest. Climbed fluidly apart from one bit of hesitancy. Route felt half a grade easier than before. Second go tried from below 5th to top but annoyingly muffed snatching for lower sidepull on redpoint crux when I wasn’t even that tired. Third tie in got the whole link comfortably (at last) despite going off the wrong undercut on the redpoint crux. Had a go on the move up at end of first traverse on the way down. Last tie in tried the moves on the first traverse and the move up at the end again but was too tired to make much progress on it but then still linked from below 5th to the top with just one fall on the middle of the top traverse.

W.

T. LPT. Clag from yesterday didn’t clear till we walked in at 2pm. Feared the worst but actually ok. Aim for today was to get first leftwards traverse and pull over the lip wired. First warm up tie in promising as got across traverse fine but pull over lip is knacky - did it once then couldn’t do it two times after. Came down. Second tie in tried the move about a dozen times and only did it once. Third and last go used a lower foothold for left and focussed hard on locking deep on my left with my shoulder over my hand and managed to do the move twice. Then went from under the 5th bolt to the end of the top traverse had a short rest and went from middle of the top traverse to the belay. Rain threatening and Matt had enough so stripped it. Decent session. Should be about ready to start to redpointing next time I head over

F.

S. Bristol and back to retrieve Goat

S. Tor early doors with Ewa and Goat. Cloudy, warm but not too humid but still not great. Abbed in to re-work Crucifixion headwall with a view to doing Cross N’Angry. Still had beta notes from when I did it 10 years ago. Far stronger on the crux now! - less fit though. Had another go up jumaring to Prow hole then bolt to bolting to the top of the crag. Did a few pulls and weighted hangs for strength maintenance when we got home.

Good week. Had contemplated sacking off Statement till Autumn but made decent progress this week.

[User deactivated.]

M - Board + Max hangs. First time back training after 2 weeks of climbing so was nice to see that numbers haven't gone down

T - off

W - off

T - board + Max hangs + rings

F - Nearcliff Wood. Mostly just pottering around, introducing some friends to the esoteric east and had another half an hour on red devil which I still haven't seen off yet despite not finding any of the individual moves too hard (and there's only 6 of them!). Did white rabbit sit start which has never been 7A+, I'd say its worthy of an upgrade to 7B easily. Sublime rock and holds. At the other end of the rock quality spectrum I tried heart of darkness sit again just once and broke the right hand crimp off 

S - rest

S - Earth quarry. Taped up from the start due to a split tip from the previous session. I intended to just work the moves out on midnight caller, but half an hour later the moves were worked out and I did it 2nd try from the bottom! I'd be inclined to downgrade it to 7B+, but it suits me a lot and others think 7C so who knows.

Finished off with diamond white and big dig. Probably not much worth coming back for!

[Bradders]

Rest / de-load week.

M & Tu - rest

W - AM fingerboard, 6x 10s half crimp Lattice edge +27kg w/ 2 min rests. Managed all except the last where failed at 6s. Bit better than recent sessions. Finished with 4x 5 rep half crimp pull ups on Lattice edge +5kg.

Th - Kilnsey with Spidermonkey and Tom F. Managed to re-do Highway 395 first go putting the clips in. Possibly got a little too pumped for a warm up. Next had a go at Rictus, a straight up variation of two other routes I've done before. Got to the last hard sequence but couldn't figure it out on the flash and took a few attempts to sort a sequence. Did the route next go. Lastly onsighted Allakazam, which I thought was great, really enjoyable movement.

F & Sa - rest

Su - Yew Cogar. Super busy. About a dozen people clustered around Cruisin and the other routes at the right hand side, so instead sought solitude on the left. Went up Yew and Me first and my onsight was foiled by absolutely filthy holds. Gave it a good scrub then ascended next go. Next up Yew Terrace. This time onsight stopped by a very non-obvious hold but did it easily next go up; lovely route. Warmed down onsighting Beyond the Fringe on some nice friendly holds.

[yetix]

M: rest
T: rest
W: moving my gf into my house
T: felt beat from the previous day! quick session at the tor on Ben's, too about 2 hours to get re familiarised with the moves but first go managed to get across the karate kick move but felt powered out to continue, 2nd go the same decided to sack it after this as skin was super thin (hole in right index) and did laps of the end section to get it dialed. Need to get better at knees as I cannot rest in that knee after the first few moves...
F: rest
S: griffs. Got on ovine low left managed to get the first move pretty consistent and could do ovine most goes. Best go from the ground I came off on the 2nd to last move (LH to the pinch hold) which I was pretty livid about.
S: rest

Bit of a deload week/moving week. Very psyched for more peak lime action soon. Hoping to get another session on low left tomorrow eve.

Liam midnight caller looks class

[duncan]

Sounds like decent progress on Statement

M - Shoulders: IsYsTs, Handstands, Lock-offs on a bar.
T - Stronghold, aiming to have a bouldering session. Warmed-up and tried a few problems but was very lacking in pull so did 6 sets of 5 minutes on / off circuits instead. Shoulders.
W - Walked 10km.
T - Attempted fingerboard session but lacking in power. Stopped after a few unweighted hangs but not before tweaking shoulder. 
F - Shoulders. Walked 10km.
S - Stanage Unpopular with bridbeast. Did Manhattan Crack, Surgeon’s Saunter, Valediction, Old Salt (lovely) and fell off The Wobbler (“One of the easiest HVSs on the edge” according to a former climbing partner  ). I was always mediocre on grit but clearly I’ve been doing far too much limestone sport climbing recently as they all felt desperate. A lovely day in a lovely place.
S - Not Much Weak Stack Battered Or What (and a bit pink). Shoulders. Walked 7km.

Lacking in oomph for no apparent reason so had a fairly easy week. Not sure what I should do for the upcoming one and will play it by ear.

[Duma]

M - am sleep (off nightshift). Eve TCA, was going to moonboard as enjoyed Friday and feels like the snap will be good for tuppence. However felt a bit of an ache in left elbow warming up so contented myself with less steep stuff, mostly whites (6Cish) and a slabby blue (7A+?). Bit worried about my elbow, assume the moonboard on Friday afternoon is the cause, but no sign of it then or over the weekend.
T - Remnant, pleased to OS Skullduggery (7b) to warm up, less pleased to only manage about 3 moves on Empire Strikes Back (8a+) afterwards. Came down from the third when it became apparent that I would need to pull up the clipstick to get any further. Next go just pulled up and stripped it, but salvaged a bit by then OS Spy In The Sky (7b). 2 7b OS in a day is a good result for me, but still disappointed with my dismal failure on ESB. Elbow seemed fine though.
W - UCR pm, circuits. Was going to do aerocap so started on the shallow board, did 1.5 laps of that then into 1.5 laps of the 6a, then a lap of the 6c. ~150 moves feeling steady, last bit on the 6c prob a bit too pumped. Ruined it anyway by then working links on the steeper board. Managed the 7b into the 6c+ at 7b+, but miles from adding the 7a+ as a starting lap which would give the mega link for 105 move 7c+
T - nothing, 12hr shift
F - nothing, 12hr shift
S - am ferry daughter to and fro, pm van to Pembroke
S - day on beach with daughter, lots of fun in the surf.

71kg

[Wellsy]

Monday, went to the Works after doing some outdoor sessions the previous week. I felt pretty good having recently done Rivendell 6C+, a one move problem that I've been trying for a while (as my highest grade I've ever done outdoors is 7A, was a nice accomplishment). Cracked on with the new mint circuit and did half of them plus made some progress on others. Did bench (5x5 at 65kgs) and deadlifts (5x3 at 110kgs) afterwards. Started a new routine of just doing sets of 6 pullups throughout the day (usually 4-5 sets ideally). As I'm looking to just get loads of volume in.

Tuesday-rest, plus pullups

Wednesday, indoor bouldering session. I'm trying to avoid doing just hard bouldering every session indoors and structure my training a little bit, so focused on largely repeating stuff I've already done to try to and improve technique, plus a couple of harder problems. Benched 5x5 at 55kgs. Pullups.

Thursday-rest, plus pullups

Friday, flashed the entire new black circuit at the Works for the first time. Bench pressed 5x5 at 55kgs. Pullups.

Saturday, on a trip away with friends. Pullups.

Today, walked up Ben Nevis, Pullups.

Tomorrow, bouldering in the ol Glen ideally

Current projects: get stronger overall. Do The Last Stand (7A) at Anston. Consolidate technique. Two years of bouldering has left me comparatively strong in some places and very weak in others, I need to round out.

[spidermonkey09]

Good psyche this week!

M - a few easy repeaters and some stability hangs. Better than last week but still not easy.

T - Depot. An odd session. Cooler than previous weeks and felt quite strong but this didn't translate to performance on the board, where I still couldn't do the "6C+" I'd been trying. Think my floppy core isn't helping matters. Managed a few circuits I hadn't done before, started some foot on campusing but skin was sore so sacked it.

W - rest.

T - Kilnsey. High hopes for Urgent after getting close at the weekend but two failed redpoints halfway up. Wound up as both were caused by silly errors rather than being particularly tired. Last go was very midgy (could feel them biting in the shakeouts!) but made it to the top traverse again, so maintained progress at least and refined a few sequences for next time.

F - rest. Felt absolutely broken from the day before.

S - Kilnsey. Dogged up to equip and worked top crux a bit. First RP felt strong all the way but came off move to crimp over the lip, very pumped. Next two goes the same; frustrating! First time I've got that high more than once in a session though. Nathan did it which was good to watch after a succession of people fell off the Thumb/Urgent at that point.

S - went all in and came back for more. Felt hydraulic on first go but a stupid mistake low down cost me a chance on the upper wall. Second go made it to the undercuts again but was pumped the whole way. Long rest before a final go to get the draws out, made it to a marginal kneebar below the lip which I had previously dismissed as not worth it. Recovered a bit to start with but started to tire very quickly so went for it. Latched the crimp and slapped the jug but came off; bollocks. Think if I had used the knee the day before I'd probably have done it. 

Good fitness week, essentially doing 6 laps on an 8a...but without ticking anything. Annoying as I really should have done it this weekend, but at least its getting me fitter. Hopefully I seal the deal this week as wont be able to get back for a little while after the weekend.

[RobK]

Good effort with Midnight Caller, Liam.

M – Power hour on the board.

T – Gorge after work, back on Cerberus. One go up to put clips in and confirm/refine beta. Feeling more solid on it than previously but the top slot still a bit damp unfortunately. Spent a few minutes digging out a load of old compacted chalk gunk from the back which will hopefully help it dry out a bit. Also spent a bit of time trying to find a rest my mate used when doing Grand Canyon, not entirely convinced I found it. Had one RP but sandbagged myself by trying to go into this rest and getting boxed doing so. A couple of laps on the lower half to finish with.

W – 35 minute run.

T – 30 minutes on the board finishing off one of the problems I made up on Monday. Finished with 30 minutes of conditioning: TRX rows, pull ups, levers, weight iron crosses.

F – A brief morning session before driving down to London. 20 minutes of 1 minute on/off on board jugs. 5 x 5s lock offs each side to finish with. Right hand side so much stronger than my left.

S – 45 minute run round Bushy/Home Park.

S – Rest. Driving back from London.

A pretty quiet week. Good to get back on Cerberus and feeling more keen on it than I have in a while. Would be good to finish it off this year once and for all.

[RobK]

Su - Yew Cogar. Super busy. About a dozen people clustered around Cruisin and the other routes at the right hand side, so instead sought solitude on the left. Went up Yew and Me first and my onsight was foiled by absolutely filthy holds. Gave it a good scrub then ascended next go. Next up Yew Terrace. This time onsight stopped by a very non-obvious hold but did it easily next go up; lovely route. Warmed down onsighting Beyond the Fringe on some nice friendly holds.

We bailed on Yew Cogar last weekend when we turned up and saw how busy it was. Other than dirty, how was the stuff over on the left. Still worthwhile?

[Bradders]

Su - Yew Cogar. Super busy. About a dozen people clustered around Cruisin and the other routes at the right hand side, so instead sought solitude on the left. Went up Yew and Me first and my onsight was foiled by absolutely filthy holds. Gave it a good scrub then ascended next go. Next up Yew Terrace. This time onsight stopped by a very non-obvious hold but did it easily next go up; lovely route. Warmed down onsighting Beyond the Fringe on some nice friendly holds.

We bailed on Yew Cogar last weekend when we turned up and saw how busy it was. Other than dirty, how was the stuff over on the left. Still worthwhile?

Yeah I enjoyed them. The rock on the 6c+ Yew and Me is pretty poor quality but we cleaned it up quite a bit and the moves are good. Quite sustained.

The 7a Yew Terrace is basically a boulder problem through the roof separated by no hands rests. Good rock, nice holds, fun moves, recommended.

And Beyond the Fringe actually has better rock than Yew and Me even though it's only just to the left and a few of the holds are lovely, really friendly things.

[JohnM]

Been in the UK for 3 weeks and away from the computer so 3 weeks behind on Power Club but will summarise here.

7-13 June

In quarantine most of this week so activity was limited at first.

M - Nowt

T - Running S+C in the garden + finger boarding.

W - 5km run around garden - tedious!

T - Running S+C in the garden + finger boarding.

F - Nowt

S - Drove to the Lakes. After monitoring the weather all week it seemed like Saturday going into Sunday was going to be the best weather window for a Bob Graham attempt. However, this turned out to be massively wrong! The plan was to set off at 11pm from the Moot Hall in Keswick and then my girlfriend would join me 8 hours later or so to do legs 3 and 4 and maybe 5 together. It started off well and I got a PB up Skiddaw and by Great Calva I was already half an hour up on schedule. There were a few nav errors on the way onto Mungrisedale Common before going up Blencathra but I was still on time. However, as I approached the summit of Blencathra the weather deteriorated massively. The wind was extreme, with stinging rain and almost zero visibility. Luckily, I found the summit but getting down Halls Fell ridge was hard, extremely slow and I was very scared! By the time I got back down into the valley at Threlkeld I was soaking, cold and mentally drained. I decided there was no way I was going back up onto the higher fells again to scratch around in the mist and rain so ran back to Keswick and went back to bed. No one could believe the weather was so bad on to of the fells as in the valleys it was just still and humid. It turns out another guy (Ellis Bland) who was attempting a double BG also had to quit. Although he had already done over one round, it did alleviate some of my fears that maybe I had just gone soft (although I know I have when it comes to British weather)! 28.99km 1682m.

S - woke up mid-morning feeling groggy but I had promised my girlfriend some running on the fells and this is what we were going to do! Ran up Cat Bells, Dale Head, Robinson and back down. Lovely tour in much better weather. 18.52km 1165m.

14 - 20 June

M - Climbing at Brown Slabs in Borrowdale. Did a couple of Diff/V. Diffs and then two E1s, one of which I had done before. After a few months of going out climbing always in "performance" mode I had forgotten how nice it is to just go out and do easy climbs in a nice setting.

T - Bob Graham round legs 3 and 4. My girlfriend still wanted to do legs 3 to 5 together as we had planned on my attempt and the weather was fantastic. We started at 4am at Dunmail Rise and then spent the whole day up in the fells which is always great in good weather. She found the terrain tough going and was getting ground down a lot quicker than she would on the smoother trails found in the alps and we decided to call it a day at Honister and got a ride home instead of doing the final leg 5. I felt pretty good all day so think I could have done the full round no problem with a good weather window but that is easy to say without the first two legs! However, we realised that my attempt would have failed anyway had we run the final 3 legs together as planned as the pace was too slow. I least I have another disciple to tell people in the alps who say the UK doesn't really have proper mountains (so it must be easy to run them) that in fact it can be really tough! 47.42km 3761m.

W - Fly fishing on Watendlath Tarn. I wanted to catch a trout so of course I caught a pike which I can't seem to do when I actually fish for them. Always wanted to catch a pike on light fly gear though!

T - Mountain biking at Whinlatter. Fun to ride the trails there again. 26.78km 754m.

F - AM: Hike up and down Skiddaw. 10.13km 669m. PM: Iron Crag. Tried to put a rope down If 6 was 9 but I found it really hard to set up a top rope. I had to top rope the neighbouring route to the right to try and swing across at the top break to back clip down the route. I didn't know what the route was to the right at the time but it was fully amazing and fun (on top rope). It turned out to be Phoenix in Obsidian (E7 6b) and I would definitely like to go back for that one. I top roped the top part of If 6 was 9 a bit but found it hard to work the lower boulderly moves without constantly swinging or potentially decking the ledge on rope stretch. I doubt I will ever lead this one but I have a fascination with all Birkett's routes and like to try them when I am in the area.

S - Nowt

S - After an unsuccessful trip to Manchester Airport where Lufthansa refused to let my girlfriend on the plane as she had been in the UK we decided to have a walk round Malham and Gordale. The strong Basque lad was just finishing his session on Rainman as we arrived and we bumped into the in-situ Ian Dunn. Malham is a circus now and all the original parking was full including an additional 3 fields. Like the Lakes there are a lot of people who never really ventured into the national parks before going out there which I guess is great but a lot of them need educating. There is an increase in litter everywhere. The grikes on the limestone pavement were full of energy drink cans and various other things.     

21 - 27 June

M - Run up Longridge Fell from Ribchester. Charged by a ram! 15km 344m.

T - Local run to the coast. 15km

W - Climbing with Davo at Cheedale. We both tried Unleashing. This started off really badly but soon came together. After not climbing much in the past month my skin and feet were in agony after a couple of tries and neither of us managed to send but confident it would go next time.

T - Local run. 11km.

F - Running Trough of Bowland. 15km 422m.

S - Drove to France.

S - Drove back to Innsbruck.

Nice to be back in the UK for 3 weeks and the weather was mainly great! Definitely got bit of post holiday blues now and I am struggling to find the motivation to work. My two big goals for the first half of the year were to finish the 8c route and do the Bob Graham and I missed out on both in the end so my motivation for running and climbing has also taken a bit of a knock. Hopefully I will find some motivation to train again and try again in the Autumn!

[Will Hunt]

M - board sesh on the Seany Board.

Tu - partner wrangling and venue indecision led to a lack of psyche but ended up at Heptonstall anyway. Got on Forked Lightning but heart and head weren't in it. Got to the top vertical where things were quite sweaty. Ballsed up placing the big cam such that it wasn't really fit to climb above so retreated. Frustrating since my partner then went up and placed it in a lower but altogether more sensible place which gave a placement I'd have climbed above. Beta for next time is two Friend 5/purple camalots and a big green camalot.

S - Nice day out trad wombling with a group of LMC folk and Fiend, getting photos for the guide. Paul Evans manned the lens all day and was just so helpful - what a star. We did a few routes in Wilton 3, then a couple in 2, then moved to Egerton to sample its dusty delights. Highlights included Shivers Arete, watching Fiend wobble (with good reason) on Shallow Green, Cherry Bomb, and Gallows Pole.

[Nibile]

Power Club
Mon - torrid. Clean 5x5 60 kg. Bentover row 5x5. Snatch 5x5. Pull ups 5x15 in between.
Tue - rest.
Wed - clean and press 5x5 45 kg. TBDL 5x5 100 kg. Behind neck press. Pull ups. High pulls. 28°. Lattice edge BW hangs in between.
Thu - exhausted. Snatch 5x5 40 45 40. Bar work in between. High pulls 5x5, pull ups 5x5 in between.
Fri - rest.
Sat - clean 5x5 56 kg, 5x5 60 kg. Pull ups x5 in between. TBDL 90 kg 5x5 EMOM.
Sun - very light weights. Push ups.

[tommytwotone]

Goal: Font 7a

Not much from me this week, mainly due to car trouble / kids' extra-curricular activities / me not being arsed nothing in the week.

Sunday took a speculative punt on Holmfirth, mainly as I wanted to get kids out of the house for an afternoon. Weather was awful, muggy and still.

Kids did a fair bit fortunately, but all I managed was a dry-fire off Fist Of Fury, a random 6a eliminate and losing lots of skin on the LH 7a dyno/pop variant of Holmeward Bound.

[Duncan Disorderly]

  Sounds like the calm before the storm! Bring on the send train!

M: Routes @ AW - nowt above F6b... Tired!
T: Repeated a few 6's @ Horseshit.... Meh!
W: Shoulders - Rest.
T: Routes @ Horsethieves - Few mid F6's & a really short/shit/soggy F7a...
F: Routes @ AW - Did a lot of volume and got pumped stupid up to F6c.
S: 20 miles on the bike then BBQ.
S: Hungover!

Good volume week but nothing of real quality, feeling a bit jaded and seem to be ending up sabotaging my days out by having zero self-control when it comes to socialising  ... Anyone would think there'd been a pandemic and nobody had seen each other for a year or so!