[Duma]

M - 12 hr shift. Eve run, hilly, trail, glorious light, 7k, 38 min but that includes stopping to take loads of photos. Tiny bit of knee rehab but it felt tired after the run so stopped after one set. 2 min plank with variations and press ups.
T - 8 hr shift. TCA eve, 90 min trying blues (7A - 7C) only did one, but failing on hard moves is how you get better right?
W - 12 hr shift. Knee bit tender. DOMS in calves
T - knee still tender. TCA afternoon, more trying blues. Managed 2, good to be trying hard. Knee tender. Knee rehab in eve.
F - Portland, arrived about 2 and straight down to Coastguard South. Warmed up on one of the 6a's on Xavier's wall area, then got the clips in Tennessee (7c). Would have been nice to have another warm up but tide window was already closing. Did moves ok, couple of hard ones but the main issue for me is the steepness. Only time for one RP, did everything pretty much as planned but not enough beans for the first hard move. Tide then stopped play, but tbh it's a fitness issue so not really much chance missed. Amazing route though, really steep for Portland and great climbing, keen to come back fitter. Swim and braai in eve
S - Hidden Valley, easy day planned, 5, 4+, 6b+, 6b. Then failed to do the crux move of a 7b+ (Stoning of St Stephen) so tried the neighboring 7a+ Mono y Mono missed a decent hold on the OS, but did moves ok, then a shower stopped the RP. Hung around for 20 minutes for it to pass, but gave up in the end. Obviously it stopped once we'd packed up, but couldn't be bothered to go back.
S - drive home. 2 min plank with variations and press ups. Knee rehab.

71.5 kg
2022 plank total 169 min

[Fultonius]

@Simon, what happend on Pabbay?  Did you get whisked off early due to bad weather?

Mingulay - yes the forecast bad weather meant the skipper wasn’t prepared to pick us up after the Tuesday evening so had to go back two days early but had already got 4 amazing days in so was relaxed about that.

Nice one getting the Skull done. It’s on my to-do list

Aye, get on the skull now while your trad psyche is there. Basically all tech and nouse rather than PE or anything modern like that haha!

Seems that the new skipper (son of old skipper) is much more trigger happy with the exit plan! We noticed this last time we were there. He came 2 days early and said "times up". Seems like once he has your cash he just wants you off on the easiest day. The old boy would come it in all but the worst days.

[SA Chris]

Swim and braai in eve

lekker.

[csl]

Tennessee (7c)… Amazing route though, really steep for Portland and great climbing, keen to come back fitter. Swim and braai in eve

It’s brilliant isn’t it, would love to get back on it. Felt nails for 7c to me, already feels like a 7c to get to the jug before the top rockover and then that rockover is hardly easy!

[Duma]

Yeah so good! Glad others thought it was tough, I assumed it was just that it doesn't suit me. Yup I was a bit shocked by that move onto the headwall, assumed it would be over at the jug...

[James Malloch]

I did think about trying Hitchhike, but opted for a nails Wolfgang 6c instead.

Computerspiele and New Dimensions seemed like my perfect style. I think I used some whack beta on ND too (at the top). Way harder than it should have been and avoided all the better holds. Went wrong onsight but just stuck with the beta for RP.

Went back yesterday and did Internet (7c) too. Got it second go without any issues - thought it would be a fight as it was only my second route of the grade. Would be keen to try some of the 8a there but it’s our last morning today before 2 weeks visiting family.

I love that crag - style seems to be positive but small holds, and you really have to use your feet well. And every 3m you get a better hold to rest on.

I'm there in the summer, so perhaps I should go back and give New Dimensions or similar another go. I was quite detrained by that point - month 8 of a van trip with little to no bouldering or other strength maintenance - I could feel that affecting some things but perhaps it skewed my strengths and weaknesses more than I had assumed.

If you're likely to be back there I do somewhere have my written down beta for Hitchhike which I could dig out if it would be any use. I've no idea how much sense it would make (even to me, 8 years after the fact!) but its a description of sorts for a set of beta that ought to work (I got through to near the end of the crux on my best redpoint, so it ought to be refined enough to do the job, if you see what I mean).

Which 6c?

The 6c was just behind chasing the train. Called Auerbacher Weg. It’s basically a Boulder problem start on little pockets and then a really easy romp to the top. Nearly got it onsight and then failed miserably for ages trying to get to the second bolt again before it just worked one time.

I think ND is a weird one. Some guy cruised it yesterday before falling at the top. And then couldn’t get past the 2nd bolt on the rest of his attempts. The style seems quite unpredictable. Similar to CS, the pre-crux sections seemed okay enough to not need to work out beta, but it means that you can easily mess them up!

I don’t think I’ll be back on Hitchhiker, but thanks! Someone was saying about a broken hold too which may have changed things a bit. I get kicked out of the EU soon too so only a few climbing days left ☹️

[James Malloch]

I'd be interested to hear other's thoughts on this - but when I know I'm going to have a longer period off I usually smash in a few hard days in a row. Obviously you need to be careful not to get injured, but it seems to me a good idea to have a massive last day working a hard route you might come back to.  Just be careful though, as it can be all that's required to tip you over the edge to an injury 

I did this yesterday by getting on my first 8a. Lots of minging crimping on a vertical wall. Haven’t pulled that hard for a long time, and avoided injury. Shame it felt so hard - though it was in the full sun!

We’ve climbed day-on-day off (on average) but never trying anything too hard, and some days are just 1-2 routes, so I’m not craving any rest at the moment. But maybe we could do with more rest?

If you've been day on day off but never anything hard, aren't you more likely to be detrained than fatigued? Maybe the best thing you could do would be to do a load of training during these two weeks rather than resting.

Yeah I think we will try to do some strength work and maybe some power (I see shark mentioning Speed Pulls on here - maybe that on our fingerboard…). Definitely not feeling that fatigued.

I think this depends on lots of things, as ever, e.g.:
- what volume are you normally used to and how much have you been doing recently compared to that?
- what "life" stress do you normally have and how has that changed (e.g. are rest days lounging in the sun and sleeping or are they working and doing a big hike)?
- have you been getting pumped every climbing day for 10 weeks or dogging hard stuff?
- what do you tend to lose fastest, strength or fitness?
- how do you feel compared to when you left? what do you feel you're lacking for the routes you want to do in your remaining time?
etc...
It sounds like you've been doing lots of easyish stuff (i.e. quick ticks in a day or similar) so unless you're someone who happens to hold strength well and lose fitness easily I'd spend the 2 weeks doing pure strength/power... but then I lose strength/power fast so for me that would be my answer after 4 weeks away let alone 10!

Not used to much volume, but our days aren’t huge ones. Definitely used to this volume now though.

No life stress for the first time in ages. Lots of lounging around.

I’ve barely got pumped on this trip. Not for a while anyway. Seemed to have found a nice (but maybe not that beneficial) median of routes that challenge me, but not so much that I’m having to fight to stay on.

The main thing I noticed was that when bouldering the other week I felt weak so I think you’re right that strength/power is likely to be the best bet. I’ve definitely built up a load of fitness which I didn’t have before.

I think that the main think I’ve built us is just being comfortable falling. I think that improves your efficiency so much and is the main reason why my onsight grade is increasing, more so than just pure fitness. Just feeling way more relaxed whilst climbing.