[shark]

11.7-9 average 162.5 down 0.3lbs

M. AM Didn’t sleep well Home warm up. Picked up by Paul at 12 to go to Malham. Generally cloudy and cool. Ok conditions. Climbed till dark. Consenting in sun when we got there so dogged up Appetite to warm up. First trip of year and in general would be excited going to Malham but felt strangely nonplussed. 4 tie ins on the Oak mainly on lower section. Resoled whites felt clumpy, my climbing felt clunky. First two goes dogging to get recruited and did the throw a couple of times. Second two goes from the ground (which took 4 attempts to get thru the knacky first pop move each time which isn’t unusual) climbing thru to tickling the undercut by the third bolt. Trying the upper traverse I was really weak on the gastons so have to improve on that. Decent enough performance considering I was going through the motions.

T. Mobility

W. Morning walk on the Orme. Bumped into Doylo who was pining at Parisella’s. Abbed into Statement with a view to shunting it but got scared and jugged out again. Drove to Ogwen and we walked round the Lake

T. Warm and a bit hazy. 5 hour circuit around Tryfan descending via Heather Terrace which was hard going on the knees. Drove back to Sheffield. Eve Peak Bolt fund meeting at the Broadie.  Long day.

F. AM Tor meeting Nick S. Tired and a bit hungover. AM headwall still wet. Another lovely day. Played on Bens and belayed Nick. Linked throw to successfully doing kick twice. Fiend and Mark R stopped by to say hello. Felt too tired to train after.

S. Decided against training. Mobility

S.


Lack of volume this week. Enjoyable couple of days away. Back to LPT on Monday with Paul. Temps and tides are good. Generally feel like I’m coasting. Shame I’ve lost my Malham psyche. DM me if you find it.

[tommytwotone]

Goal: errrrr not sure now

M: Random day off work to use up some carried over holiday. Went to Cow's Mouth, nice place but body / skin suffering as it was 3rd day on. Slightly tweaked right hamstring heel hooking on a problem.

Thurs: LSD after work. Good session, did well on (not my comfort zone) steep burly V5s. Did one, downclimbed a V1 (trying to de-risk right hamstring, which had quietened down)...dropped off from a few holds up, landed a bit "off", crunch from my knee. Felt very weird so sacked session of there and then. Got gradually more painful en route home.

Fri: Awful night's sleep, then got up and discovered I could barely walk / move. Trip to Minor Injuries, X-ray, not broken but that's about all they could say.

Sat: Managed a hobble to the shop for a paper, and generally took it easy.

Sun: Pain easing off, managed to mow lawn.

Curse of the "UKB Knee" strikes again!

TBH can feel it easing up day-on-day, so going to give it till end of week before I start calling physios etc.

[James Malloch]

M. Acro Yoga.

T. Board session. 3x10s hangs with +20kg, then 3 with +27.5kg. Was originally meant to do the higher weight, but then switched to a smaller edge and then dropped the weight a bit. Going back up, but sticking with the smaller edge, felt good. Good session after that.

W.

T. Found of that I finish work on monday, not Tuesday. Read contract wrong, oops.

F. Day off doing van jobs.

S. Climbing in Ogwen Valley. Tried Animal Magnetism (7B version) with friends. Couldn’t touch first move for a while but nearly got it by the end (could hold swing but not get feet back on). Other moves were all okay.

S. Back to same area but the horses in the field were too friendly - lots of playful charging which isn’t ideal with 3 dogs. Though the dogs (on leads) were quite happy being nose-to-nose. Moved to the cost of living boulders. Did Cost of Living (6A) but dropped off at the lip - brain didn’t fancy being put through a top-out… Had a brief play on the 6C+ extension but wasn’t committing to the cross through with the shitty landing. Went to Hips & Tips boulder. Flashed the 6C traverse but couldn’t do Hips & Tips itself. Couldn’t get much off the RH pinch.

Beautiful weekend out in the hills visiting friends. Typing this on my last day of work for 9 months - YYFY.

[mr chaz]

Congrats James, enjoy!

Power Club:

M.
T. Evening session on the board, usual fodder of warming up and then projecting 2 or 3 hard problems. Felt like a good one.
W.
T.
F.
S. Got a half day pass, 1st time climbing on rock since May 2021 due to lockdowns, injury and children  . I'm playing the long game, so just went to Nesscliffe to prove to other half I can be trusted to be gone and return in good time
Warmed up at Kynastons Cave and then up to the horrifically suntrapped Terrace. Did the 6B a bunch of times (has lost the nice chicken head hold since my last visit), then surprised myself and repeated Northumberland Wonderland 7A first go. Few half hearted and failed attempts to do Kyloe In and Rigpa and a brief play on the traverse to reconfirm that the cross through move on the slot is never gonna happen for me, followed by a swift retreat home and a beer. Magic!!
S.

[Duma]

Congrats James!

M - 12 hr shift.
T - 12 hr shift.
W - TCA, did the comp - 25 problems, 17 flashes, 21 tops. Got fairly close on 2 others. Pretty happy with that, although def should have flashed 2 more.
T - TCA, circuits, pretty rubbish session, the yellow I tried to work was horribly set, and skin still sore from yesterday.
F -  8 hr shift.
S - 12 hr shift.
S - 12 hr shift.

71.5kg

Fairly crappy week, too much work and not much psyche when I did have time, although I did enjoy Wednesday. This week is better work wise and I've got a couple of dates to get out so hopefully can rekindle the drive.

[Will Hunt]

Th - Ruin Bank Woods after work. Aimed to find a "crazy nose" which I'd seen photos of but couldn't remember ever coming across. It turned out to be just between the Neolithic Walls and The Tower, so I'm not sure why I haven't comes across it before. Maybe I have but just not noticed what a good line it is.
Abbed down and found chalk and very clean holds on the lower overhanging section. Scrubbed the top and figured out the moves to get established on the lip which felt wiggy as they were somewhat bunched and goey. With some chalk on the holds things got better so lowered down and climbed it, which took a few attempts to work out how to do the bottom crux. Absolutely magnificent bit of climbing - full YYFY.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbf7vtgDl5C/

Now need to go back and clean the rib/slab/groove to the right.

Sa - Ruin Bank Woods with Penny. We cleaned and climbed a couple of FAs on the overhanging right wall of The Tower. Wild Geese was not as good a climb as I'd hoped but worth a star for the moves; Penny described her offwidth (Ryan Gosling; HS) as being "disappointingly easy", being well endowed with holds on its inside.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CblG9-QNdDL/

[Aussiegav]

Sorry to hear about the knee Tommy.

Here’s my week and update on the knee.

Monday -

Max hang 7s assessment
Determined not to let my knee affect me too much & my week off. Had to wait for a technician to fix the cooker so I wouldn’t have been able to get out and do routes even if I wasn’t injured. I did the reassessment session of the 8 week programme.
I warmed up with crimp curl repeaters and then 10s hangs while increasing weight. Once I got to BW +20kg, I dropped to 7s hangs.
I managed a PB of BW (87.5) plus 27.5kg. Total 115kg

Tuesday
Knee feels better so I did some very easy climbing on the tread wall at Awesome Walls.
I did 10mins on/10mins off. Four times
Went to the School afterwards.
Conditioning
2 to 3min rests between reps
Seated overhead press
1sets of 10 bar only (20kg) ✅
3 sets of 8 bar & 10kg. (30kg) ✅✅✅
Pull ups
2sets of 4 BW ✅✅
4sets of 4 BW plus 12kg ✅✅✅✅ last rep was desperate
Bench Press
1set of 8 bar + 20kg (40kg)✅
4 sets of 4 bar + 50kg (70kg)✅✅✅✅
Australian pull ups on Rings
1 sets of 8 BW ✅
4 sets of 5 BW plus 10kg ✅✅✅
Single Arm Preacher Curls
3sets of 8 8kg plus dumbbell ✅✅✅. Light weight but focus is to stretch out my elbow joint under weighted tension and work full range of movement.


Wednesday - Rest day


Thursday -

Went to the School for fingerboard session and then Awesome Walls for the tread wall.
Splat Board traverses
Campus board pulls 2-5- match

10s hangs
BW plus 4kg, BW plus 8kg
3x BW plus 10kg. (80%) last one was desperate.
Went to Awesome Walls straight after and did 3 reps of 10on 10off on the treadwall, set at 5 degrees. This felt more effort today.

Friday -
Return to Horseshoe Quarry with Phil. Gorgeous day. I wasn’t sure if I could climb a full route, so I picked two grade 4s to climb. Both long routes around 35m. It was really tiring to climb while trying to work around my knee. But still enjoyed it and found it rewarding. The routes were Neanderthal (5a) and Slab Cake (4+). Slab cake was the better route.
I rested my knee then as it was feeling tired & I didn’t want to push my luck.

Saturday - rest day


Sunday -

Limit bouldering 2 to 3 moves on the 2017 Moonboard @ 25degrees. Couldn’t use the 40degree board, too severe on my knee and higher risk of falling


Yellow Submarine 6b+. 2017 Moonboard first 2 moves. On yellow crimps. Couldn’t do the 3rd move. Committing dead point.
Hot Soss#. 6b. Managed this as the crux was at the start. Down climbed as I wouldn’t risk dropping off from the top on to the ground. Much easier than yellow submarine
Flawless 6b. Yellow crimps did first 3 moves. Didn’t commit to the next move.

Good session considering limitations. Despite set back, a positive approach is making for enjoyable experiences.

Saw specialist this morning and will get MRI next week. Still can’t straighten the knee. Feels weak and still tender on the outside and back of the knee when massaging & working on movement.

[JohnM]

M - walking/fishing

T - Travelling

W - Hill training following the gondola. 10.54km +1075m.

T - Trail running 30km +1096m.

F - Outdoor climbing. Baking hot and I had no energy. Scraped my way up a "6b+" which is harder than many 7bs I have done and then failed to red point a 7b+. Felt completely gassed out.

S - Trail running 34km +1500m - got it done but still not much energy.

S - Skiing at Ischgl.

Pretty fatigued this week. I thought it could be Covid at first as the mrs had had it for 10 days. Think it is just normal fatigue I get at least a couple of times a year which tends to lag a period of burning the candle at both ends. Hopefully a lighter week and eating and sleeping well will get rid of it.

[Duncan Disorderly]

Covid Club

M: Tired... Went to Horseshit and did a F6a but was utterly shattered afterwards! Did test - Fucking positive!
T: Still tired, coughing, did PCR - Confirmed! Fuck!
W: Call Jet2, tell me I've gotta cancel Spain as flying Saturday - Balls!
T: Mope
F: Feeling better - Test negative! Realise that GF has another week off and mates in Spain have room - Move flights!! Insurance say they'll pay (it's pissing down there anyways!) - YYFY!! Go to Horseshit, do some F6's - Still shattered.. Arse!
S: Test negative again - walk to Stanage to meet a mate - Nice day but din't climb owt.
S: Test negative... Again. Still tired, was gonna go to horseshit but opted for TV and tea... Went to the wall and did a few up to F6b... Wiped out.

Strange Covid week - definitely feeling viral but good to see my immune system is working (or just being smug)... Was well down on cancelling Spain but the new dates and weather report are far better (8 days instead of 6 and no rain!)...

[Fiend]

Good luck with the knee TTTTT, hope you're not joining the rest of us reprobates.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - garage session 3.
Tue - rest.
Wed - board climbing, fun but a bit glassy (17° and 19% humidity). Tweaked a project to make it not only almost doable but mainly at least fun to try.
Thu - boxing bag.
Fri - gym in Rome. Walking.
Sat - walking.
Sun - walking. Loaded carries at home, 16'.

[Wellsy]

Cant remember the order but;

Two barbell bench sessions (first was 5 sets at 65, 70, 60, 60, 60, second was 3 sets at 60, 65, 60 plus 6 sets of overhead press, 5 reps at 30, 40, 35, 35, 35, 35) and a dumbbell bench session (3 sets of 6 with 25kg dumbbells)

Three heavy pulling sessions (3 x5 weighted with 20kgs added, 3 x8 wide grip)

One 30kgs, 8 hangs for 10 seconds on the 20mm edge fingerboard session, one ditched fingerboard session that lasted about 4 hangs, one disappointing hunt for 5 second max leading to dicking around campusing between beastmakers session for like an hour that actually was rather enjoyable.

Some cursory core. Couple of 2 minute planks and bar lev raises. Blah.

Some rest days.

Bit of booze at the weekend, weighed myself at the end of the day on Sunday and was 76.5kgs but had eaten loads and not gone to the loo since so probably in the morning closer to 75kgs

[Rocksteady]

Have been slack posting and slack training recently - sprain to back/neck put me out a bit and I was away for a weekend.

What I've logged:

Wed 9th March: 90% Max Hangs 20mm edge. BW + 18.5kg hung. Total weight 90.7kg. Back to the strength I had in September when I was several kg heavier which is good news. Still weak though.

Thu 17th March: Aeropow - capacity power in the Crimpd app. 5x 2 reps of pumpy routes up to 7a, Westway comp wall. Failed on the 7as but not having tried one for a while did pretty well.

Sun 20th March: Bouldering for power. Focused on 3 hard problems (for me). Westway for a change. Felt quite strong, flashed everything I tried up to and including V5. Good links on the board V6s and V7s I tried but no tick.

Wed 23rd March: Bouldering for power again. Arch Acton this time. Tried a red problem in the mezz that I struggled to make good links on, couldn't get my feet high enough. Tried my long term project on the 50 degree board. Got through the crux move for the first time in a long while. Felt very saggy in the core and couldn't keep my feet on. Floppy old Futuras not helpful. On the 20 degree board I made up a cool crossthrough move problem that was fingery for me. Links up to 3 moves at a time.

Thu 24th March: Aeropow endurance again, double laps session. Slight improvements on last week, 7a I am trying is extremely sustained with no rests in 12m so if I tick it would be good progress for me.

Sat 26th March: Hard bouldering again. Sent the fingery project I made up on Wednesday which I was pleased with. Think this was more about body position than strength. The moves felt fairly max difficult but once I worked them out it all linked together. 6C-7A?
Then I tried a max test on the campus rungs and did 1m39. I think I can improve this significantly.

[Yossarian]

M - Bit tired from prev day in Dorset. Walls - mini board session, felt good but not super accurate (seem to be doing less board climbing at the moment and this kind of coordination always seems to suffer) then some fun new problems downstairs.
T - Pull session inc assisted 1 arms, wide weighted pulls, locks, etc. Finally doing lock reps without any assistance which is a nice tick. Along with 5x wide pull-ups with +32kg@96kg, plus a bit of stretching and 5x 10min standing aerocap on FB
W
T - Missed trip to wall. Max hangs, also opted to start some repeaters again, up to +24kg. Another shorter pull session, focusing on fast unweigherds pulls and then wide pullets +32kg. 3x 10min standing aerocap
F 3x 10min aerocap
S Bowles (daughter's squad had outdoor session) - mild cold that had been a bit annoying previous few days felt a lot worse, and could quite happily have skipped this. Did a 5b arête that was ok, and then failed to finish a 6a eliminate thing which I reluctantly accepted was actually quite good fun. Having said that, I descended into grumpy old man thanks to presence of crowds of screaming kids, a massive group of London council workers doing some sort of shibari human centipede leadership training exercise, and crowds of other randoms. It was literally everything that's awful about southern sandstone rolled into one. Plus son skipped his wall sesh to join us and I failed to find anything very productive for him to do, and I'm conscious that on future route trips as a trio he is the weakest link, so need to work harder to get him climbing more.
S - Rest, feeling ill.

Really syked for routes now, so trying to rebalance training in that direction. Need to be getting outside more, and doing longer things at the wall. Pleased to have got quite into doing some aero stuff at home which feels like it's helping. I think I can make some good progress doing all of that, but I think things will be a lot more fun if I can lose some weight. It dropped a kg or two to 96ish kg this month, but getting into the 80s would make a big difference, and low 80s by the summer would be ideal.

[SA Chris]

a massive group of London council workers doing some sort of shibari human centipede leadership training exercise

Mind bends at the image of this.

[Fultonius]

Alpine Fail Club:

Took the Montenvers train up, walked down the ever increasing number of steps to the Mer de Glace, skinned 4 hours up to the Refuge de Leshaux. Inspected the Jorasses. Compared to topos. Searched, desperately, in vain, for signs of ice high on the route. DAMMIT! 

It was quite clear from the various bits of info online that it's futile to try to climb Reve Ephemere d'Alpinists if it's not clearly icy up high - no opportunity to dry tool through the blank bits, and a shiter of a descent back down the route if it didn't go.

Good sleep and ski back down, wandered in to Cascade de Doran for some bolt clipping. Managed a warm up, a 6c and added to the failure list on a tricky / blind but ultimately not that hard 7a.

Next day we traipsed up the much longer walk to the immaculate Tours D'Areu, with it's clutch of 6-9 pitch limestone alpine sport routes. We'd settled on Alcootest with the Etranger finish.

Graham took P1 (6c), steep start on rounded blocky grey lime. Big moves between poor holds but off-vert - classic hard to read stuff. Easy then a steeper crux of 3 bolts. G just fell to bits!  Clearly still fatigued from dragging my ass up the first half of Tournier spur (he led all the hard pitches, being much better on granite slabs in cramps than me).
P2 (6b) was nice, if again hard to read, scooped grey flutings, always seemingly impossible until you commit then fine when you do.
P3.6c+. G started but got shut down committing to the first runout on steep, sharp (tiny crimps) and we were now running very late, with 4 more pitches to go. Alpine fail club was rearing it's head again....
I took over, and also got shut down on the first crux, committing too far left and getting blanked out. Second time I pulled a bit right with thin feet and made it though. Wild climbing, quite runout and very unlikely looking. A good confident head and decent vert/small-edge hanging around stamina required. Second crux just looked sup-improbable. After clipping a bolt after yet another long runout my head crumbled too, and I rested on the rope, to find a big jug just right....
Absolutely brilliant pitch if I'd been in the right headspace.
Rigged the abb and just bailed from there, leaving the 7a+, 6c and 6c+ pitches for next time.....

Well worth a visit bit don't go in summer, we were scorching in March!

Final day in Cham and we had a wee picnic up at Pierre a Voix, above Sallanches (just below Tours D-Areu) with a load of pals not seen in years. Drank 2.5% cider, ate loads of nice food and did a few routes. Highlight was NOT failing on the O/S on a 17 bolt, 38m 6c.

Now off to search for late season powder and maybe do some climbing in the better weather days....

Annoyingly must have tweaked my shoulder a bit at some point on the Tournier, so I'll need to nurse that a bit.

[SA Chris]

Tomorrow through the rest of the week looks good for a bit of fresh..

[Fultonius]

Tomorrow through the rest of the week looks good for a bit of fresh..

Yeah, just booked a few nights in the dolomites to see if we can get lucky with the snow.

[SA Chris]

Bon Chance / Buona fortuna