[shark]

11.7-9 average 162.8 up 0.9lbs

M. Short home warm up then drove to LLandudno to meet Paul at LPT. Cloudy, cold, occasional drizzle - good connies. Three tie ins concentrating on first traverse and move up at the end of it. Second tie in sussed out traverse and for the move up did it using the tooth but instead of going again found I was able to rock in, flag and cross thru which seemed impossible before when I was trying to do it this way by pulling on it. Third go went through most of the traverse but stalled as I forgot what to do next. Then did the tooth move easily. Exciting progress.

T. Vague warm up in the Cave. Dogged up Statement to get the rope up and get more warmed up. Next go did the end of the first traverse doing the tooth move easily and fell off reaching for the gaston at the top of the groove. Was powered out after that but did a bit of flailing before coming down. Reinforced that there’s no point doing two consecutive days on something like this.

W.

T

F. Beautiful day. Home FB warm up. Tor to meet Nick S with intention of having a go on the Anger Management headwall but it had a wet streak. Briefly considered joining Nick on Chimes but went on Bens. New way of holding the pocket is great and makes the throw move less of a throw. Between belaying linked the throw to tickling pinch on cross-thru and start to get close to getting edge on the throw 3x.

Eve. Foot on campus session. Scores lower than last time but this time it was a second session this time so happy enough especially with the consistency.

S

S

Good week apart from weight. The old way I did stopper the move at the end of the traverse on Statement was at my limit, powerful and very conditions dependent. The new way is none of those things and makes it no harder than the other hard moves on the route. Similarly holding the pocket deeper with a stacked middle finger is making the crux move on Bens more amenable.

Great to be having a run of sunny weather but it is making my route choices tricky. Arranged to go to Malham on Monday with Paul late on so we can climb in the shade. Similarly planning to have a shunting session on Statement on Thursday in the afternoon shade when the tide is in. Hopefully get on it properly the week after when tides are good again.

[Will Hunt]

M - lunchtime board session. Felt stronger than I have done recently

T - evening at Harrogate Wall.

Su - Gigg North. 8 routes. Onsight/flash/retroflash of 4 x 7a-7b

[Duma]

M - pm, TCA before work, bouldering on whites (6B-7A). Just tried to flash  as many as poss in limited time slot, think I did 12 or so, plus got high on 4 more. Then 12 hr night shift.
T - slept badly, 12 hr night shift.
W - slept better, thought about climbing, couldn't be arsed. 12 hr night shift.
T - 12 hr night shift.
F -  sleep off nights.
S - beach day at Witches point with daughter. Not climbing, but cliff was pretty much completely dry which surprised me, thought it took a while to dry out after winter.
S - went to the wall while daughter at playdate, but just sat in the car for a bit and then drove home, dozed on sofa instead. Still feeling pretty wiped from nights.

71.5kg

[James Malloch]

M. Acro Yoga

T. Quick Board session. Warm up - 6 x 10s hangs with + 20kg (think I’ll add more this coming week). Didn’t feel up to much so went straight into 1 on 1 off for 10 reps. Getting close to hanging one arm now as well.

W.

T. Family visiting

F. BBQ

S. Dry Stone Walling for friends. Kilnsey Bouldering. Warmed up and did Boulder A into Boulder B (6C). Didn’t manage to do it the other way (7A) - I find the first move of the pinch so hard. Tried Metal Prow (7B), got to high point on first go but next was a bit shit. Gave up and tried Edge Problem instead (7C). Worked out the moves to climb into leaches problem but didn’t manage it. Finished by doing Leaches a few times. BBQ again.

S. Lazy morning and nice walk along the canal. Watched the CWIF final in the evening - good fun.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - Lattice edge 85%. Landmine pulls.
Tue - 20' garage session 3.
Wed - snatch ×5 + 30" overhead carry x10; high pulls.
Thu - board climbing. Very careful with the elbow, not too bad.
Fri - 20' of hell: 45" stairs sprint, walk downhill, 45" hill sprint, walk back to the stairs, repeat for 20'.
Sat - board climbing, set and tried another project.
Sun - farmer's 110 kg 30"/1' x25.

[Wellsy]

Monday - weighted pulls (3 x 5 reps with 20kgs), 3 x reps wide grip pullups, Bench (5 x 5 60kgs), fingerboarding (8 x 10 seconds, 20mm edge, 30kgs)

Tuesday - rest

Wednesday - Bench (5 x 5 60kgs), fingerboarding (8 x 10 seconds, 20mm edge, 30kgs)

Thurs - weighted pullups, 3 x 5 at 22.5kgs added weight. 130% BW for 5 reps over sets, happy with that.

Friday - 3 rep max weighted pullup, 33kgs. Bench max (currently 80kgs but I can't really leg drive proper so might be able to do more, it didn't feel entirely max. Happy with it though). So fingerboarding with one arm and assisted weight

Saturday - rest

Sunday - rest

Knee rehab every day and rowing machine occasionally as part of that. This week more knee rehab exercises, rack pulls, 3 Bench and 3 pulling sessions, fingerboarding.

[Aussiegav]

Monday -

Glorious day, last day of my leave. I planned a day of doing a few routes at Horseshoe Quarry. Started on with a lovely 6a Like Fire, Like Ice. The route the left was a 6a+, I pulled up onto a ledge with a mantle type of move and felt my knee get in a weird position and then clunk, followed by pain. I stood for a few minutes trying and hoping it would pass but it didn’t. I climbed to the next bolt but realised I’d injured it.
Disappointed and painfully packed up and Steve brought me home. I iced it for the afternoon but it wasn’t getting any better.
Went to A&E at 7pm. Think I’ve torn some meniscus in the back of the knee. The same knee that had a reconstruction in 2012.
Eventually saw a doctor at 4am, X-ray was fine, nothing noted. I have an appointment with the knee specialist on 29 March. So we’ll see what happens then.

Tuesday
Hobbling around on crutches, no chance of climbing so did a fingerboard session instead.

Week 3 on the 8week programme.
Crimp Curls with 12.7kg
20s hang with 20kg assistance
30s hang with 20kg assistance
10s hang body weight plus 4kg x2

87% max hangs BW plus 7.5kg x5 these felt good.



Wednesday - Rest day


Thursday - 5min of very very gentle slow pedalling on the peloton. This felt really nice on my knee. Felt better afterwards as well. Knee feeling slightly stronger and less pain. Still can’t straighten.

Friday - Rest day

Saturday

Dawn session at the School. Warming up with a crook knee takes some creative thinking.
Splat Board feet on the floor traverses for 3mins x2

Fingerboard session
10s hangs x3 on 30mm
10s hangs x3 on 25mm
87% max hang fingerboard session
5 hangs BW plus 8kg

Conditioning – 2min rests between reps

Seated overhead press
2sets of 10 20kg
3 sets of 8 30kg.

Pull ups
2sets of 4 BW
4sets of 4 BW plus 12kg

Bench Press
1set of 8 40kg
4 sets of 4 60kg

Australian pull ups on Rings
3 sets of 5 BW
2 sets of 5 BW plus 10kg

Aero cap.
Feet on the floor. Splat Board traverses.
5on 3off. 3reps.


Sunday - 10min very very easy peloton ride. This felt great for my knee. Slow improvements all round but still can’t straighten.

[Bradders]

Deload week

M - rest

Tu - Ilkley to try project. Haphazard warm up on things around the Cow, which felt smeggy and humid. Felt absolutely knackered, really low energy / drowsy. Attempted project anyway and ended up being probably best session so far; three times in a row to the last move but didn't quite have the beans to get the foot up which allows you to go for a massive jug. After nipped round to Olicana Buttress for a go on Chariots of Fire but I was wiped out and made no impression on even the non-eliminate.

W - F - rest

Sa - Ilkley again. Far too cold and strong wind for project, which was fine as I'm trying to limit getting stuck on one thing at a time. Basked in the sun repeating Ilkley Bar Kid then round to Olicana again. Did Chariots of Fire (non-eliminate) first go, then flashed both Spartacus and Constantine which I enjoyed; fun burly climbing. Trying to flash more things so was pleased with these. Briefly tried RE but sadly my shin is too long for the knee bar. Rest of the session trying Chariots of Fire Eliminate. Sorted sequence and got near the end a couple of times but took too long to work out an efficient method so couldn't link it. Also managed to heel hook my hand and bruised one of my fingers. Next time. Amazing conditions, absolutely perfect afternoon really.

Su - rest

[Fiend]

Sorry to hear about the knee Aussiegav  wtf is it with knees at the moment.

[Aussiegav]

Sorry to hear about the knee Aussiegav  wtf is it with knees at the moment.

Mine was completely random/bad luck. All I did was gab two massive jugs and high/mantled on the hands free 1mx1m ledge.

Just one of those things.

[mr chaz]

  Club:

M.
T.
W. Planned to train in the evening. Started feeling peaky around mid afternoon, by 7:30 both me and partner were constrained to the bathroom    . Managed to summon enough strength to put baby to bed, before the night from hell ensued.
T. Sick day
F. Sick day
S. On the up!
S. 1 hour board session - baby wouldn't nap so it was a bit limited. Feeling lighter though and managed a couple of short term projects...

[duncan]

Simon, that sounds promising. Gav, hope the knee settles quickly.

M - Shoulder conditioning: lock-offs, handstands, side-planks. 7km walk.
T - Fingerboard to warm-up then very easy bouldering at the Westway (10 problems to ~V2). 7km walk.
W - 12km walk.
T - Fingerboard warm-up then easy bouldering at the Westway: (10 to ~V3). 11km walk.
F - Fingerboard: 3 second hangs gradually reducing edge size to 13mm. Couldn’t hang an 11mm edge. Shoulder conditioning.
S - Shoulder conditioning. 7km walk.
S - Fingerboard warm-up then Westway easy bouldering (to ~V3). Hand popped off a sloper unexpectedly and fell onto my back/neck/shoulder which knocked the wind out of me literally and figuratively. Many of the easy problems at the Westway have awkward and slappy last-move cruxes currently; their strong and bouncy young setters are probably completely oblivious to this. I backed-off several and evidently should have done here.

Elbow is improving but wouldn’t have tolerated a long weekend in Pembroke which the weather is crying out for. I seem to have given myself a whiplash-type injury as I woke up with a stiff neck and shoulder. Hopefully a matter of days rather than weeks but I've cancelled a trip to Somerset. I also feel completely rubbish at climbing (the actual movement) at the moment and can't quite work out why.

[Yossarian]

2 weeks

M - Lunchtime 8km walk. Wall. Pretty tired from prev week. Bit of board, bit of foot on campus, bit of steep easier problems. Thinking about getting a bit more fit.
T - 8km walk. Aero repeaters, assisted 1 arms, wide weighted pulls, locks, etc. Seem to be making small jumps forward on this every session at the moment.
W - 8km walk. Aero repeaters, standing aero, push weights, etc plus good stretch.
T
F
S - Wall. Slightly lacking zip, but quite a fun session iirc.
S

M
T
W - Max hangs, really good. Aero repeaters, assisted 1 arms, wide weighted pulls, locks, etc.  Also felt good.
T - Wall. Great session. Felt much stronger and lighter.
F - 40 mins of FB aero
S - Supposed to be resting whilst son was having his session at the wall, but slightly stupidly campusesd some things, tried some 1 arm hangs on the BM, then slightly concerned I'd screwed my elbow.
S - Winspit. Warmed up on a couple of 6as. Felt slightly fitter but lack of much outside climbing recently still manifesting as poor movement decisions. Put clips back in Peppercorn Rate, and figured out the proper (and less difficult) finishing section. 2 goes. Thought I was going to do it both times - 1st ended up hideously pumped at the top and fell off, 2nd tried to skip hold crossing over the top crack and slipped off. Not too bothered as I'm way heavier still (96-7kg) than previous forays into sport 7s and have done next to nothing in terms of route preparation this year. Both things I'm now going to make a concerted effort to progress. Mentally much preferring returning home having got up quite a lot of things vs long drives to boulders which all end up feeling nails. Getting to Dorset feels quick currently, so aiming to return to Winspit and Dancing Ledge as much as poss in the coming weeks.

Daughter (who hasn't been on a rope since pre pandemic) top roped a load of stuff and then did her first lead. Put the clips in, seemed generally very chilled, came down and said she wanted to do loads more. Very syked for her.

[JohnM]

2 weeks

8-13 March

M - driving back from France.

T - run/hike 7.57km +315m. Campussing, one arm hangs, weighted hangs +20kg (10mm BM edges).

W - Bouldering coloured circuits up to 7A+. Hike 5.75km +220m.

T - Hike 16.40km +975m.

F - Walking around Liverpool.

S - Nowt.

S - Fishing.

14-20 March

M - Bob Graham Round leg 2 to Helvellyn and back 27.79km +2186m.

T - Boulder UK - boulders up to V7.

W - Run 9.89km, 150 BW squats.

T - Fishing.

F - Nowt.

S - Dragon's Back Race day 1 recce. Conwy to Nant Gwynant. Amazing weather but brutal wind high up. Unfortunately had to skip the Snowdon horseshoe at the end as it got a bit late. The effort felt surprisingly easy at the pace we went which was good. 40.52km +4049m (not sure the elevation is close to being right from the Garmin). Snowdon area is a circus now with cars everywhere, people in flip flops drinking lager on the summits and all the associated litter and empty cans lying around. Horrible.

S - Dragon's Back Race day 2 recce. Llyn Gwynant to Moelwyn Bach and back. 26.2km +2242m. Amazing weather, wild trails and no people on the summits drinking lager and shouting into their phones for their Insta stories. Bliss!

[Coops_13]

T: MRI on hand
G1. Kilterboard 45 degrees. V3, 2 V4, 3 V5. Boulder attempts up to V7. Sore skin and peeling stopped play. Incline chest press and bicep curls to finish.

F: Core. Hollow body holds 30s *3sets, Plank 1min *3sets, V-ups X10 *3sets. Density pickups 40lb HC *4

S: Flagstaff Mountain. Found dry rock at Cloud Shadow Wall. Tried Consideration V4 but it was sore on the hand so stopped. Just recently re-found motivation to get fit for summer as well :/ Decided to cancel my trip to Joe's next week and focus on healing

S: G1. Legs. Squats 175lb X5 *5. Bulgarian split squats 65lb X5 *3. RDLs 60lb X2 X5 *3sets. Shoulder press 40lb X5 *3sets. Incline chest press 40lb X6 *3sets. Bicep curls 40lb X6 *3sets. 15 mins incline walk (max incline) keeping HR at c. 150bpm

MRI came back with a light sprain to ligaments between my metacarpals. Likely I just need to keep doing what I'm doing slowly increasing load and avoiding pain. That or complete rest...

[Wellsy]

Monday -

Glorious day, last day of my leave. I planned a day of doing a few routes at Horseshoe Quarry. Started on with a lovely 6a Like Fire, Like Ice. The route the left was a 6a+, I pulled up onto a ledge with a mantle type of move and felt my knee get in a weird position and then clunk, followed by pain. I stood for a few minutes trying and hoping it would pass but it didn’t. I climbed to the next bolt but realised I’d injured it.
Disappointed and painfully packed up and Steve brought me home. I iced it for the afternoon but it wasn’t getting any better.
Went to A&E at 7pm. Think I’ve torn some meniscus in the back of the knee. The same knee that had a reconstruction in 2012.
Eventually saw a doctor at 4am, X-ray was fine, nothing noted. I have an appointment with the knee specialist on 29 March. So we’ll see what happens then.

That's shit mate I'm sorry to hear it. Hope it fixes quickly and won't be hard to treat

[tommytwotone]

Goal: new (to me) Font 7a outdoors somewhere


Tues: LSD eve, slab etc stripped so had a dabble on the new stuff reset from previous week, found it all quite tough. Saving grace was retrying a V5 with a long / off a sloper move (not my style), suddenly feeling really strong on it and doing it.


Thurs: LSD eve, cleaned up V5s on the new slab / vert set and went back to try a weird funky nu-skool ish V6 I'd been stumped by. Progress but no tick.


Sat: Solo day pass, went off to Dove Lowe after a scan of the Lancs guide. Despite ridiculous wind, got warmed up on a few things, then went to try Tangled Up In Blue (7a), which I surprised myself by doing about 4th or 5th go. Very happy.


Sun: Shipley with my kids to meet TomTom (occasionally of this parish) and his lad. Good day all round, kids played nicely and got to potter about, and then kids had a good session on the smallish slab by the pub.

[Duma]

Nice one TTT!

[joeisidle]

A week of life getting in the way.

M - Shoulder conditioning (IYT, pressups, 1 arm isometric hangs, 3x5 narrow pull ups, 3 x 3 wide pull ups)
T - After work session at the Avon Sea Walls. Try Peace but keep half-heartedly slapping for the top move and not committing.
W - Nothing
T - Tried fingerboarding, felt tweaky after Tuesday, stopped after the warm up
F - Nothing
S - Went for a session in the Trench at Ogmore. Repeated some nice lower grade stuff but felt pretty weak and got spanked by anything above mid font 6. Met some nice people from Devon, went home tired but satisfied despite crap form.
S - Core (Planks, leg raise, bicycle)

[Fultonius]

M - pm, TCA before work, bouldering on whites (6B-7A). Just tried to flash  as many as poss in limited time slot, think I did 12 or so, plus got high on 4 more. Then 12 hr night shift.
T - slept badly, 12 hr night shift.
W - slept better, thought about climbing, couldn't be arsed. 12 hr night shift.
T - 12 hr night shift.
F -  sleep off nights.
S - beach day at Witches point with daughter. Not climbing, but cliff was pretty much completely dry which surprised me, thought it took a while to dry out after winter.
S - went to the wall while daughter at playdate, but just sat in the car for a bit and then drove home, dozed on sofa instead. Still feeling pretty wiped from nights.

71.5kg

Sorry if I said this before... But even so - is it worth considering a career change?

[Fultonius]

Alpine Club....


Seeing as this has become as much a "trip diary" as training log, here we go....

Exact days and timings are...vague...

Went up to try to climb Les Droites via the Eperon Tournier. For various reasons we thought we'd try in the afternoon after skinning up from Grandes Montets mid station (the top lift is broken just now, making a 1 hour ski/skin into a 3-5 hr depending on fitness and acclimatisation). Had a prod at a left hand start, but there was a section of total cruddy snow ice that I couldn't pass via sketchy dry tooling, so I backed off and, at this point it was 2 hours before dark, so we decided to bivvy under the wall right of the start)

Up super early and tried the right hand start, which was also thin and Graham wasn't psyched (probably partly dismayed at my sketching footwork  - crampons set up for Scottish mixed.... and not thick enough socks for my massively sized Spantik boots). All in we felt a bit out of practise, so bailed.

Rest Day.

Went multi-pitch sport climbing on La Malardiere. G had done Indiana Jaune before, so we had planned on doing  L'arche do Noé, but were late getting started (post St Patrick's day hangover) and had issues with the Simond 8.9mm / 5mm Beal Tag line setup on the abbs.... so instead we just did Indiana Jaune again. (well, first time for me) - great route, if classically contrived and flawed (being a Piolet "tour de good rock" - missing the main features, but taking in all the solid rock and good moves). Got a bit more "flow" going and manged the 270m of 6b+ in about 3.5 hours before it got dark...

Rest day, then back up to LES fucking DROITES.....

Glacier Bivvy, G was cold. I washed my 20 year old Rab Quantum 400 down bag and it was suddenly back to new. Why didn't I do this years ago!  Got started on the  Eperon Tournier Integral. Apparently it was done a few weeks ago with one bivvy, so that's what we planned for (plus a starting bivvy on the Glacier as the Argy hut is shut due to a load of people getting the Carbon Monoxide poisoning 2 weeks ago...).

Maybe next time we should heed the knowing look and concern in the voice of the French Alpine guide we met on thew way up - "it's a big route, no?"  Yeah, we know, but we're prepared..

Well, 8-900m of climbing (600m vert, but a lot of wandering), mainly of HVS-E2 slabby, unfeatured granite with big packs, crampons and mix of dry tooling and bare hand rock at -10c and we were finished.... We got to the Breche at 3407m, where it joins the original, with perfect weather, but no gas, minimal food, no dry gloves, and a cold G who was worried about another bivvy out high up and we decided that bailing was the best option.

Luckily the only failures in Alpinism are death and heli-rescue, so, while we didn't tick off another classic alpine North face, I'm still tying with all my fingers!!!

Reckon I've lost 2kg, and my abbs are totally wrecked so that's good for the spring trad and sport season   

[Duma]

Nobody ever comments on the weeks I have hardly any shifts :-D

Seriously, nights are rubbish, but they only come round every 6 weeks or so. I get a decent shift allowance and I only ever work my contracted hours. If I pick the right point in the rota I get plenty of cheap (hours wise) holiday too.

[Fultonius]

Nobody ever comments on the weeks I have hardly any shifts :-D

Seriously, nights are rubbish, but they only come round every 6 weeks or so. I get a decent shift allowance and I only ever work my contracted hours. If I pick the right point in the rota I get plenty of cheap (hours wise) holiday too.

Ha, fair point. Human psychology to see patterns and make inferences!

[Yossarian]

Alpine Club....


Well, 8-900m of climbing (600m vert, but a lot of wandering), mainly of HVS-E2 slabby, unfeatured granite with big packs, crampons and mix of dry tooling and bare hand rock at -10c and we were finished.... We got to the Breche at 3407m, where it joins the original, with perfect weather, but no gas, minimal food, no dry gloves, and a cold G who was worried about another bivvy out high up and we decided that bailing was the best option.

Luckily the only failures in Alpinism are death and heli-rescue, so, while we didn't tick off another classic alpine North face, I'm still tying with all my fingers!!!

Did you take any pictures?

[Fultonius]

Yeah, some. I'll post up a few later.

This trip has turned into Bailathon '22.   Just on our way down from a night in the Leschaux Refuge where we forlornly looked at an out of condition Reve Ephemere d' alpinist on the Jorasses. Nothing else in our radar up there (or that we had kit/topo/psych for) so it's off to the Arve for some afternoon bolt clipping.