[Fiend]

Any advice??

Broke foot in mid-May. Have done nothing all summer (under the excuse of "letting my niggling tweaks heal", but really lack of any inspiration).

Before the break I was doing pretty well at sport climbing - overall fit and confident. Had put into practice some falling practise which had helped. Hadn't done much trad but the little bit I'd done was okay (before that period of decent climbing, I'd had the gashest and least-confident summer ever in 2004).

So now I am fat, weak, and totally out of practice. What I want to do is get back into it and get confident at UK trad climbing, probably mostly on grit or similar crags for the winter. I don't have much inspiration for bouldering and I have to be careful of my foot anyway.

Any tips / ideas / plans etc? Or failing that just inane comments?  :wink:

[squeek]

Well as you broke your foot and not your upper body you'll have been training on pullups bars and campus board, be stronger than ever, so anything steep and on your arms.  Comedy at Kilnsey?

Or have I missed something?  

[dave]

if you wanna get psyched i can recomend a good challenge - go out with a mate, a token rack of cams and the lightest rop you can find, roll up to stanage popular end as early as you can one morning and set off doing all 36 starred VSs from the 89 guide on stanage. You'll get to done soem superb route you've never done, and wide range of styles, all superb, nothing too hard and a great day out. You'll need to allow about 7 hours though if you go at a steady pace and stop for snacks drinks etc. I did this earlier in the summer and it was brilliant. Afterwards you should be back in the trad route head and in tune with the rock.

[Palomides]

Tips? Here's advice from my own experiences of breaking stuff and trying to make a comeback.

Don't try routes that you've done before (esp. if you cruised them). They always feel harder than you remember.

Do plan trips to new crags and areas. That way you don't worry so much about grades, as they always feel different in new places, plus new crags are always inspiring (unless it's somewhere forbidding like Goredale....)

Do stuff like dave suggests - use the comeback time to do easier routes and all those easy classics that you've never bothered with.

Buy some new shoes.

Good luck.

[dobbin]

and dont get put off when you pull on at your percieved lack of strength, it will come back faster than you imagine. Stick with it.

[Fiend]

Cheers for the ideas so far...

Squeek, what have you missed? The bit of my post that says I sat on my arse all summer  

Dave, that's a really good one, might have to do something similar, a burst of concentrated mileage makes a lot of sense.

Palomides, I agree with all of those, gotta find me some underclimbed crags! But, I have plenty of shoes though.

Dobbin, aye, one of the benefits of being weak is you get stronger  :wink:

[Pantontino]

All of the above advice is spot on, but you're still going to need some forearm stamina.

I would go to West Vale once a week and traverse backwards and forwards (thinking about all the runners you could be placing if you were on a route) until you're so pumped you have to get someone else to untie your rock shoes.

Always used to work for me at the start of a season.

[dobbin]

I havent been there (west vale) in ages - used to be a favourite lunchtime traversing venue. very old school, but very good.

[Fiend]

Yeah good idea, god I hate stamina training  :?

Do I have to go to West Vale in particular though??    

[dobbin]

I dont think so! where do you live?

[Stubbs]

Only go to west vale if you are down with the most urban of flavas, and if you like the smell of piggy poo poo.

[Fiend]

Sheffield, of course.

I have been to West Vale though!

[dobbin]

I used to refer to it as 'Pig Shit Quarry' as it does smell.

What about the keyhole traverse at Millstone? its dead easy and quite fun. Ru has written a most amusing comment in the guide about it. Granted, you could sit at home and read the comment and not bother with the traverse at all!

Alternatively, go to Stoney, theres loads of bimbling to be had there.

[Fiend]

Well hurrah I managed to do the first chuffing for many months the other day. Did a few VSs around Count's Buttress area. One of them scared me as it had a slopey slab bit with a potential foot-twanging fall. On the other hand Count's Crack was excellent and easy and great fun. Seconded a few routes too, almost all of which were entirely reach-dependent.

I'd forgotten 1. How much I pour sweat on grit when it's above 0'c, was greasing off everything which is actually quite fucking annoying. 2. How badly graded gritstone routes with ground-fall potential are. E1 5c with a potential 6m+ deckout off the crux? Rather him than me. What a pile of fucking nonsense.

Still, it's a start.

Dobbin, will have a look at the Millstone traverses, good idea.

[Yossarian]

I'd forgotten 1. How much I pour sweat on grit when it's above 0'c, was greasing off everything which is actually quite fucking annoying.

have you considered one of these - http://www.mindon-eng.com/powder-spray-guns.html?

you could get yourself sprayed with chalk before you leave for the crag.  apparently it "has the ability to cover the most awkward of shapes", which sounds very impressive to me...

[Fiend]

I've considered eating chalk, bathing in liquid chalk, and make a wet-suit like body suit impregnated with anti-hydral cream, but never one of those! Thanks, will look into it  :wink:

[fatboySlimfast]

have to say that the keyhole traverse is good for hurting your fingers and not much else

[Fiend]

Well the chuffing has been going okay until the floods have arrived.

Got away for a few days to Clwyd limestone, nice to be out on a trip again, and managed to do a fair few routes which was good.

Definitely the right plan to go somewhere fresh to get some mileage in, even if it is limestone. Have plans to get to Yorkshire limestone to.

What's interesting is not so much what I've lost but what I haven't - technique hasn't gone (not that I ever had it hohohoho), jamming ability is still pretty reasonable, I can fiddle in gear okay if not very quickly, and for short bursts the finger strength is okay.

The main problem is lack of stamina - short term at least, and probably long term if I ever made it that far. I get pumped very quickly, which I kinda anticipated, but also I run out of power quickly without getting pumped at all - I get a feeling of "can't hold on any more" without feeling the pump. As well as just hammering away with the mileage, I should probably work on that...