UKBouldering.com
the shizzle => the blog pile => Topic started by: comPiler on April 24, 2012, 08:49:41 am
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A fresh start – from wide to thin (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/a-fresh-start/)
22 April 2012, 3:42 pm
Last year was an amazing year for me. I had a brand new Randall arrive in my family in the form of my daughter Hannah, and I also achieved a huge goal in my climbing.
Myself and Pete Whittaker headed off to the big ol’ USA to try and crush (squeeze??) a load of nasty wide cracks and perhaps even put up a few new routes. Unknown to many, we’d locked ourselves down in my cellar for 2 years doing endless laps on wooden offwidths and it all paid off – more that I could really imagine! The culmination of it all was the first free ascent of Century Crack by us both – pure lines don’t get much better than that.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/century1.jpg?w=279&h=421) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/century1.jpg)The Big Daddy
Copywrite Alex Ekins Photography Since coming back from America, Pete and I have been doing a bit of a lecture tour, which has been great. It’s been nice to tell our side of the story a little better, to show off some of the training footage from the cellar and also to see if anyone out there is actually inspired to climb these ‘orrible looking wide cracks. Generally…. it’s been promising, much to my suprise!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/shaff.jpg?w=300&h=200) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/shaff.jpg)Pete getting a little too close for comfort... One of the main things I’ve been asked is, “what’s next….?”
Well, all I can say is that it probably won’t involve offwidths! Mostly, I feel like I’ve had my fill on that side of climbing for a while and until some other mega project arises, then it’s time for thin, thin, thin.
Yup, I’m going back to what I’m terrible at. Face climbing, crimping and pockets. It’s ok though, I can deal with it all, because it’s all part of The Plan. I remember reading about an Olympic Gold Medalist a few years back and he was asked what he attributed his successes to? His answer…..?
“Working on my weaknesses.”
For that reason I’ve tried over the last 3 years to have two main weaknesses that I will work on during a 12 month period. It’s utterly demolarising at the start to be so embarrassingly weak at something, but without a doubt, it’s been the key to progress for me. When I’ve combined this with a structured training programme, I’ve been really happy with the results, if I can somehow stay uninjured.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/one-armer.jpg?w=300&h=200) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/one-armer.jpg)One armer? Er.... no, not quite.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Good luck beast!
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It’s utterly demolarising
They look to be doing all right in that pic.
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Good to see Tom bucking the overbite trend and ploughing his own fertile underbite furrow.
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(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01728/chin_1728017c.jpg)
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Article and Mike Hutton pics (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/article-and-mike-hutton-pics/)
25 April 2012, 7:46 pm
In my bid to try and keep up with this website/blog I’ve uploaded one of the “short pieces” that I’m most proud of (I’m not exactly a natural-born writer, so bare with me!) that’s about new routing. It was an amazing day out with Pete Whittaker on a ground-up multipitch new route in Val dell Orco, Italy. I won’t blather on about it any more here, other than to let you read it if you’re interested in how gripped I get all the time!
Just click on “published articles” tab at the top of the page…
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/greenspit-silhoette1.jpg?w=225&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/greenspit-silhoette1.jpg)
Secondly, I’ve added some Mike Hutton photos that he’s take of me in the last 12 months or so. He’s a class photographer and an hugely nice guy to work with – if you ever need a friendly face at the end of a camera, Mike’s your man.
Right, if it could just stop raining, I’d be a happy man.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Two very different projects (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/two-very-different-projects/)
6 May 2012, 8:25 pm
Last month was an utterly hectic one – I’ve not really sure if I had a grip on anything and one day had sorted of melted into the next through something I think might have been called the night.
In amongst trying to juggle the care of my feisty one year old daughter Hannah, I’ve taken on two projects; one a gritstone first ascent and the other a new climbing wall build.
The new route I’ve found is certainly the hardest route I’ve tried on grit. That’s probably not saying that much, to some extent, because most grit routes have very low french grades once you convert. However once you combine F8a or more and really terrible gear, it becomes pretty interesting and more of an involved process. I’ve had the meat of the climb sussed for a while now, but was really stuck with the start – but hallelujah – I found a sequence finally today!! I was starting to seriously bang my head against the wall as I know this cold snap will probably not last much longer. Really looking forward to putting this route to bed now and leading it.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/project-gear.jpg?w=231&h=384) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/project-gear.jpg)Vital gear on the project – engaged on just 2 cams, which is better than nothing I guess. The second project of mine is a new bouldering wall in Loughborough that I am now part owner of! I’m really excited about this wall, as I’ve worked in the indoor climbing wall business for a few years now and have my own ideas of what I think will work. I’d really like to try and put my own slant on indoor climbing…. and well…. perhaps even bring something new to it (no, it doesn’t involve an offwidth). We’re well into the build now and it’s amazing seeing wood go up on the walls, after spending days and days t-nutting.
Here’s a 3D video tour of the new wall – The Climbing Station, in Loughborough.
(http://img.youtube.com/vi/_AlugTWnX1c/2.jpg) (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/two-very-different-projects/)
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/climbingstation-3d.jpg?w=398&h=213) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/climbingstation-3d.jpg)One of the 3D views in the main room
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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A wall in loughborough, that's fantastic have you got a location sorted, :goodidea:
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Is the wearing of purple morph suits obligatory?
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Where oh where is that project :-\
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A wall in loughborough, that's fantastic have you got a location sorted, :goodidea:
see map links in:
http://lsmc.org.uk/forum/index.php?forum=General%20Chat&post=32097 (http://lsmc.org.uk/forum/index.php?forum=General%20Chat&post=32097)
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Clintos - yup location sorted and we've been in the building for a while. It's about 3mins drive from centre shopping bit in Loughborough?? There are updates and photos on facebook if you're interested...
SA Chris - hmmmm... Now there's an idea. Maybe we should offer discounts for morph suits?
Fiend - it is at the sort of place you'd approve of. Off the beaten track and no abseiling groups to wreck your favorite slab problems . :)
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It's South West or South East I'm sure. Good luck I'm sure it will be exciting to do and then to hear about.
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Shit, I'm going to totally disappoint you now. I forgot your standards are high :)
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Looking forward to seeing it open as i live in loughborough and currently drive to notts to indoor climb.Always find it hard to justify climbing indoors when its a trek, and theres only so much local rock! Mines one face I'm sure you'll be seeing regularly .I'm also a local gardener catering for private and commercial gardens should you need any site tidying weed killing and such like!
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My standards for being interesting in hearing about your new routes Tommy, is just that they are absolutely gruesome :)
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Crack School (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/crack-school/)
3 June 2012, 9:57 pm
Just before Pete and I went over to the USA for our offwidth tour, we teamed up with Wild Country (http://http:0//www.wildcountry.co.uk/) and Hotaches (http://http:0//www.hotaches.com/) to film a 6 part set of webisodes, called “Crack School.”
I all seemed like a really good idea at the start, but I have to confess on the first day when I realised I had absolutely no idea of how to present to camera, I had second thoughts. The process of learning a brand new skill on the job was actually quite stressful and I was somewhat relieved to see that the videos that came out of it didn’t show my worries too much!
It was pretty funny seeing Pete out of his depth as well for once. Most of the time I’m left floundering in his wake, but for once he had a few mumbles of “oh God, I’m not doing this right…” Unfortunately you don’t get to see the amount of times we ended up in fits of laughter as neither of us could keep a straight face whilst saying “Using fists, is something most people find quite painful….”
Below are the first 5 episodes of Crack School – for every person that emails me saying they’re just been out on The File and had an amazing time getting totally thrashed – it’s all well worth it!
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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You did a great job lads. I did like the sandbag suggestion to press your fingers against the opposing wall in a normal handjam, that will keep people on their toes :smartass:
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Enjoyment in other peoples’ successes (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/enjoyment-in-other-peoples-success/)
7 June 2012, 8:51 pm
One of the things that I’m really lucky to experience in my role of coaching, is vicarious enjoyment through other peoples’ successes. Two climbers that I’ve been working with for a while now, are Stu Littlefair (you can read a little more about him here (http://thesphericalcow.blogspot.co.uk/)) and Luke Tilley (http://www.alpkit.com/people/luke-tilley/8704). Both climbers are brilliant to work with because they understand the concept of proper hard work and dedication.
When I first met Stu properly, I was amazed by his incredible strength, but also his stamina for the opposite reasons! Working for Stu, creating periodised training programmes to try and even out some of the imbalances, has been really good fun (he probably doesn’t see it that way though!) and in the end very rewarding for me, personally. To see him break the Aerobic Power record on my Lattice Board (used to assess the energy systems of sport and comp climbers) this week, was massively inspiring. So thanks Stu, you’ve spurred me on to work harder!
Secondly, to hear that Luke hit the podium in the finals of his recent European Youth Cup in Russia (http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?page_name=resultservice&comp=1420&cat=17) was great. For at least the previous 3 years before going to Uni this year, he’s worked incredibly hard with his training. Almost anything that I throw at him, he just laps it up and gets on with the graft. That base, seems to have paid off this year still, when he’s not quite had the time to utterly beast himself 24-7. As such, his depth of experience and training is still coming through. I hope he continues to push into the Senior events to inspire more out there.
For me, it’s been a bit of a dark month. My finger injury has really pushed me hard and I’m feeling a little lost with where I’m going right now. I might have to go back down a path that resembles the picture below. Perhaps no bad thing if it looks like that?!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/itaca-nel-sole.jpg?w=300&h=246) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/itaca-nel-sole.jpg)Itaca Nel Sole, gorgeous 8a finger crack.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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A reality check (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/a-reality-check/)
1 July 2012, 9:34 pm
This year was going to be big. I was so psyched from last year, so motivated to make changes and up the game a notch.
I got stuck into a grit project that was really hard for me, I started finger boarding properly, I wrote myself a 2 year programme and my lattice board was trained on at all hours of the night and day. It all went really well actually and then…… I went on a slabby 7b and “POP!” game over. I kind of knew it at the time, but for the last 2-3 months I’ve been trying to ignore it. Well, it’s time for a reality check. The finger is doomed. I’m cutting it off and abandoning.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ring.jpg?w=211&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ring.jpg)No more ring for me. It was useless anyway. No problem. Crack Time!!!!!!!
Much that I hate to admit it, I’m a totally crap face climber, so whilst this finger is deciding to hate life, I’m back to cracks. I’ve dug out the old project book, found the key to my cellar and hitting Millstone on a regular basis for some reacquainting.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_5586.jpg?w=465&h=353) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_5586.jpg)Mr Turtle and I, remember how it used to be. Trying to get back into training down the cellar has been a bit of a rough ride. It’s kind of shocked me how good I got at stuff down there, so 12 months later, it’s a bit a rude awakening! On my first session I couldn’t even do the hand crack roof (about 7b?) and the 45deg finger crack was off limits.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/finger.jpg?w=225&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/finger.jpg)No chance. Up the game slacker. It’s ok though, the training and specificity is coming through now and I’m back above my previous peak, so happy days. I’ve got the replica moves on my South Wales project sorted, so that’s all good. Some core, less rain and some time off from building my new boulder wall in Loughborough (http://www.facebook.com/theclimbing.station) and things could be looking up.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_5591.jpg?w=300&h=225) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_5591.jpg)No more splitter tips. Just these.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Nice socks.
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Nice socks.
More to the point what's with the 101 dalmation boxers !
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ring.jpg)
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Er, what's not to like? I'll send you some pics of my silkies if you fancy.
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Tricks of the Endurance Training Trade (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/tricks-of-the-endurance-training-trade/)
9 July 2012, 9:47 am
Endurance training is easy right? You just put your earphones in, get on the wall and plod around on jugs for hours and hours and hours…. Or, do you get down the wall and start a beastly regime of 4×4 laps on routes a couple of grades below your regular onsight? Or do you plug into a TENS machine?? One or more of these might be familiar to you, but which is the best? What’s the real secret?
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/m3.jpg?w=300&h=225) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/m3.jpg)Pumped? Firstly, you have to think about what you want to achieve by training endurance. What is the effect going to be?
1. Increase in aerobic capacity
2. Increase in capillarity (density of capillary bed in forearms)
3. Increase in mitochondrial density
4. Increase in climbing efficiency.
Increase in Aerobic Capacity
This can also be known as an increase in “endurance capacity” and is simply the maximum amount of oxygen that can be consumed and utilised in a given time period. If you have a low aerobic capacity, you will be using little of your available oxygen for metabolism and vice versa, if it is high. The key to increasing this capacity, lies in the next two sections – mitochondrial density & capillary density.
Capillarity
The muscles in our forearms are extremely dependent on the supply of oxygenated blood and also on the removal of waste products. It has been found in a number of sports that the limit of the performance of an athlete is dictated not by the metabolic processes within the muscle itself, but by the oxygen supply arriving at the muscle. Increasing the capillary bed size in our forearms is one way in which we can fight this battle.
What does the research say?
1. Adaptation occurs at high intensities of training
2. Adaptation does not occur at low intensities of training
What does this mean for you?
Get off that wall and stop wasting hours and hours traversing around on jugs, just for your capillarisation session. There are of course other benefits to traversing around for hours, but there’s evidence to suggest that capillarisation isn’t one of them.
Mitochondrial Density
These are protein structures within your cells that produce aerobic energy, and as such, pretty useful things to have plenty of! If you can increase your mitochondrial density (and hence oxygen consumption) you will increase the rate of aerobic energy supply = better endurance capacity.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/m1.jpg?w=390) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/m1.jpg)
What does the research say?
1. We have mitochondria in both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibres.
2. Training intensity will relate to the stimulation on certain types of muscle fibre and consequently effect mitochrondial density in those fibres.
What does this mean for you?
You’ll be able to increase the mitochondrial density in fast twitch muscle fibres by doing high intensity, low volume work and in type I (slow twitch) fibres, you work at low to medium intensities at high volumes. You should be aware that the balance of this training is dictated by your fast/slow twitch make up and maximum efficiency will be gained by working with your genetic make up and not against it!
Climbing Efficiency
Finally the effect of doing a huge volume of climbing, is extremely beneficial on the efficiency of your climbing. You will learn to not over-grip, your footwork will improve and you’ll improve your movement skills no end – especially if you vary the angle at which you carry out your endurance training.
All of the above of course, is just a part of the whole equation and there are always more factors to consider. It does however, get very complicated and even the more intricate training programme can never work to perfection. As a final note of caution – don’t forget if something works for you, and you’re happy with it, then there’s probably no need to change. Probably.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Great explanation.
More, more...
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You’ll be able to increase the mitochondrial density in fast twitch muscle fibres by doing high intensity, low volume work and in type I (slow twitch) fibres, you work at low to medium intensities at high volumes. You should be aware that the balance of this training is dictated by your fast/slow twitch make up and maximum efficiency will be gained by working with your genetic make up and not against it!
Does this mean that if one naturally has more slow-twitch muscle fibres it makes more sense (for endurance) to spend a higher proportion of time training at a lower intensity at higher volume and vice-versa? This seems to contradict the usual wisdom of "train your weaknesses to achieve maximum benefits"...
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Some studies suggest it's possible for muscle fibres to switch from one type to another. Any thoughts on that?
Some links part way down this page (just the first google hit, there may be better sources). http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm)
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Does this mean that if one naturally has more slow-twitch muscle fibres it makes more sense (for endurance) to spend a higher proportion of time training at a lower intensity at higher volume and vice-versa? This seems to contradict the usual wisdom of "train your weaknesses to achieve maximum benefits"...
It would make sense to change the ratios of how you train your aerobic capacity, if you have some awareness of your make up. But don't go mad! I've certainly used this quite a bit now with my coaching and the assessments I do on my lattice board, and I'm really happy with the results from jigging things around a bit. In my experience, it makes little difference to a lot of people, but is absolutely essential for a small portion of the population (or perhaps read, people I work with) in their training direction.
There's no concrete evidence to say this is the case though, and I'm just remarking on my experiences with this. It's a good idea with everyone out there to keep adapting what they do and keep and open mind. I remember reading some of Eva Lopez's stuff in the very early days and being quite skeptical, but I'm less so now.
R-man: yup you're absolutely correct, although I'm afraid I don't have any experience or new knowledge to give you! It'd probably be the place of someone who's operating that area of science to speculate fully on.
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With regard to increasing capillary density:
'1. Adaptation occurs at high intensities of training
2. Adaptation does not occur at low intensities of training'.
This is pretty vague! This subject is pretty important to me as I have spent (perhaps wasted?) a lot of my life traversing below any sort of pump, under the influence of that arch-berk abarro81. The sort of rationale i've had in my head is that in doing this you promote blood flow, and don't impede this at all by occlusion. You can also do it at the end of a session and improve recovery rather than getting yourself more tired for the next session.
Presumably you don't mean that hard bouldering increases capillary density? Or do you? What do you mean by high intensity and low intensity in the context of capilarization? How much stimulus do you need to promote it, and over what duration? I'm so confused.
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With regard to increasing capillary density:
'1. Adaptation occurs at high intensities of training
2. Adaptation does not occur at low intensities of training'.
This is pretty vague! This subject is pretty important to me as I have spent (perhaps wasted?) a lot of my life traversing below any sort of pump, under the influence of that arch-berk abarro81. The sort of rationale i've had in my head is that in doing this you promote blood flow, and don't impede this at all by occlusion. You can also do it at the end of a session and improve recovery rather than getting yourself more tired for the next session.
Presumably you don't mean that hard bouldering increases capillary density? Or do you? What do you mean by high intensity and low intensity in the context of capilarization? How much stimulus do you need to promote it, and over what duration? I'm so confused.
Sparky - just keep climbing on jugs. It suits you...
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With regard to increasing capillary density:
This is pretty vague! This subject is pretty important to me as I have spent (perhaps wasted?) a lot of my life traversing below any sort of pump, under the influence of that arch-berk abarro81. The sort of rationale i've had in my head is that in doing this you promote blood flow, and don't impede this at all by occlusion. You can also do it at the end of a session and improve recovery rather than getting yourself more tired for the next session.
Presumably you don't mean that hard bouldering increases capillary density? Or do you? What do you mean by high intensity and low intensity in the context of capilarization? How much stimulus do you need to promote it, and over what duration? I'm so confused.
Hey, you've only got yourself to blame for listening to Barrows. Seriously though, he knows his stuff and you can't go too wrong listening to him, even if he does have the whitest teeth in town.
Occlusion. Ok so yes, you'll occlude blood flow to the forearm, but for how long? Only the effort of pull. As soon as you're not holding the hold with that arm, then blood is pumping around. You're promoting blood flow whether you climb easy, medium or hard. It's unrealistic to think that by climbing hard you're totally occluding any blood flow to the forearm during that session - if you were you'd fall off in about 45secs and never do another thing for the rest of the session. If blood's not flowing, you ain't climbing..... and since you do continue climbing for your session (well, I presume you don't flake out after 45 secs!) then you know there's blood going to your forearms.
And no, I don't mean you should do loads of bouldering to increase capillarity. You might however, want to reassess how much traversing around you're doing and why you're doing it. Light easy climbing is of course, excellent for warming down, recovery days and helping to increase recovery rate.
This is only my opinion though - Barrows might be right and you should spend your whole year capillarising :)
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Some studies suggest it's possible for muscle fibres to switch from one type to another. Any thoughts on that?
Some links part way down this page (just the first google hit, there may be better sources). http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm)
The quality of this evidence is pretty poor, and even if it were better the studies quoted were in sedentary individuals therefore their findings could not reliably be applied to climbers as a whole.
Without wanting to be accused of being a skeptic, I would warrant that much like physiotherapy and chiropractory (?sp), there is no good evidence to support even what the very best coaches do, it is simply experience and a good dose of luck along with a massive amount of hard work from the beneficiary that provides any improvements.
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Some views:
1. Tom's read a lot more than me, so trust him more.
2. I have no doubt that aerocap is more effective than arc. It's also a lot more tiring, meaning that there are occasions when you can arc ok but dont want to aerocap. Especially if this area is not your weakness.
3. Mark, its not like you're pressed for time so if 20min arc doesnt add to fatigue there's no reason not to do it (except boredom)
4. I don't think lower body studies on low intensity work are that relevant to forearms. I already spend 5-10hrs a week doing low intensity leg work (walking) so no wonder a study won't find more of it that helpful. Any upper body studies on this stuff tom?
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I dont know what you mean, i'm a very busy man with a hectic social life.
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massive amount of hard work from the beneficiary that provides any improvements.
I've wondered this too. If you look at individuals following periodised plans (as such), one thing I notice is that the shear volume of climbing they do is much greater than I've witnessed from the same climbers a few years ago (with notable, steady, performance gains too).
Having said that, the intensities and order in which things are done mean that this can be achieved. Without it I'd expect those same climbers to be burnt out and mostly held together with strappal.
Mark - your weakness is weakness (and ice cream it would seem). You've said yourself that you're far too fit for British stuff already so concentrate on getting strong and ignore the guy in lime green shorts.
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and ignore the guy in lime green shorts.
Be like Jerry.
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On Tim's/Paul's point, I have no idea about scientific evidence, but there are a few things where getting new knowledge has - IMO - made a big difference. The biggest one for me being an cap work, which I think has been hugely important in my development over the last 10 months and which I wouldn't have had a clue about if it weren't for 'coach Randall'.
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Some views:
2. I have no doubt that aerocap is more effective than arc. It's also a lot more tiring, meaning that there are occasions when you can arc ok but dont want to aerocap. Especially if this area is not your weakness.
4. I don't think lower body studies on low intensity work are that relevant to forearms. I already spend 5-10hrs a week doing low intensity leg work (walking) so no wonder a study won't find more of it that helpful. Any upper body studies on this stuff tom?
2. It's not that aerocap work is more effective, you should just keep your eyes open as to why you do certain things. As you'll have noticed Alex, I've never recommended that you drop your ARC sessions as I think they do you good - in more ways than one.
4. Personally I think there is relevance between lower and upper body studies - after all, it's the muscle fibres that are being investigated, not the functionality of the limbs per se. The leg muscles are used in almost all studies I've read, bar one where I found they'd looked at the tricep. But I can't find the paper anywhere now. Out there somewhere...
The point made about the difference in upper and lower body and how much you use it in "real life" is a very relevant one though. It's one of the primary reasons why high level swimmers use masses of volume in their training. I'm a keen advocate of high volume training at the right times of the year, but I guess I personally prefer to go with a bit less of this ARC stuff.
If anyone likes their antioxidants and thinks they're amazing for recovery, here's something to add to the party...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298958/ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298958/)
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I watched this tonight:
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/rcxjd/faster-higher-stronger--series-1---3-stories-of-the-olympic-games---1500-metres (http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/rcxjd/faster-higher-stronger--series-1---3-stories-of-the-olympic-games---1500-metres)
Which made we wonder re the issues discussed here: what are Steve Mac, Ondra, Sharma, etc doing? Couldn't we just ask them to post up their lifetime, annual, monthly and weekly schedules, backed up with a supplementary booklet on the underlying ideas? Shark could offer them a T-Shirt or something for their trouble.
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To me the biggest challenge in endurance training for climbing is being able to dial in the right intesity levels for both "easy" and "hard" training types. Cycling uses power meters to dial in the intensity, most runners use either a HR or vDOT scales to dial in the right difficulty. Climbing seems to be a bit tougher for most people to dial in the right intensity for each type of workout.
There's no point doing ARC if it's too easy(aside from the technical mastery component), and if it's too hard, it's not ARC. That makes it a challenge if you're not sure EXACTLY the right intensity. The same goes for Aerocap, Ancap, etc.
Which made we wonder re the issues discussed here: what are Steve Mac, Ondra, Sharma, etc doing? Couldn't we just ask them to post up their lifetime, annual, monthly and weekly schedules, backed up with a supplementary booklet on the underlying ideas? Shark could offer them a T-Shirt or something for their trouble.
That's would be awesome, but not Sharma or Ondra, more from Paxti or Ramonet. They're training machines.
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what are Steve Mac, Ondra, Sharma, etc doing? Couldn't we just ask them to post up their lifetime, annual, monthly and weekly schedules, backed up with a supplementary booklet on the underlying ideas? Shark could offer them a T-Shirt or something for their trouble.
:o Steady now - we don't just give stuff away to any old punter
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I started talking to Steve about ancap, aerocap and other energy systems stuff once, he didn't have a clue what I was talking about for half of it.
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I started talking to Steve about ancap, aerocap and other energy systems stuff once, he didn't have a clue what I was talking about for half of it.
Where do the terms ancap, aerocap, anpower etc. originate from? I've been hearing them used increasingly over the last 12 months, both on here and from some of my partners, due no doubt to various coaches using the terminology. How do they translate across to the terminology I'm familiar with which is: PE (on an intensity spectrum high to low), Endurance, Strength, and Power (not forgetting Movement).
Same thing but with a different grading system?
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I found Sharma's lifetime training schedule. it was a blank paper.
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If anyone likes their antioxidants and thinks they're amazing for recovery, here's something to add to the party...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298958/ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298958/)
Again the studies referenced in these papers are horrendously underpowered; the evidence for the use of NAC would appear to be 15 individuals, all the other studies re-the use of NAC are either animal studies or show no benefit from nac use. It would appear on the strength of this evidence you would be as likely to expect benefit from burying an onion at the bottom of the garden as spending money on supplements which probabaly just make your urine a bit more expensive.
It is also bearing in mind that these supplements, although not crushingly expensive do cost (£25 for 90 tablets of NAC), I expect if one was to put than money toward better diet rather than an attempt at a quick fix you might see the same benefit.
Lets not dick around if you want to see real benefits from a tablet you can't beat a nice bit of stanozolol, it is slightly more pricey than NAC but there are tangible benefits to be had.
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Lets not dick around if you want to see real benefits from a tablet you can't beat a nice bit of stanozolol, it is slightly more pricey than NAC but there are tangible benefits to be had.
:clap2:
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I found Sharma's lifetime training schedule. it was a blank paper.
I heard it had two words "climb harder"
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Chris Sharma's Secret Training Tips
"I just climb a lot"
http://www.bohusbergen.se/pages/Archive/Profiles/sharmatrain.html (http://www.bohusbergen.se/pages/Archive/Profiles/sharmatrain.html)
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Training to Ride The Wave (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/training-to-ride-the-wave/)
12 July 2012, 8:26 pm
Have you ever noticed that when you’ve taken on new forms of training or new methods of training over the years, that you follow a similar pattern of performance? I certainly know I have, and it’s been a long and painful process to try and push myself out of the following bad pathway. My training method for a particular exercise used to take 4 steps:
1. Start with being utterly rubbish (very hard on the ego, but you push on)
2. Get quite good (reward the dented ego)
3. Get even better, but then suffer from ever decreasing returns
4. Get frustrated and obsesses with this certain manner of training and hit your head against the proverbial brick wall until you either give up or get injured.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/crack-sit-ups-tom.jpg?w=390&h=585) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/crack-sit-ups-tom.jpg)The core can be trained harder than almost any other muscle group. There is one (amongst others) fairly sound method of staying away from this pathway decreased performance potential, and I’ll call it “Riding the Wave.” The wave principal in training is used to ensure that there is a continuous improvement in bodily conditioning. As we all know, it’s amazing to get the initial gains, but we can stagnate after just a couple of months. Common sports science literature suggests that we change the training load after just 6 weeks of training effort, and importantly, supplement it with periods of regeneration training to promote super-compensation.
So, in essence:
1. Alter your training load (factor of intensity or volume) after approx 6 weeks
2. Don’t forget periods of regeneration training to allow your body to realise its gains. Most people love to forget this part!!
When you’ve done your 6 weeks of a new regime and you’ve passed through the lows of being totally rubbish and moved onto the highs of burning off your mates at said exercise (or your own PB) then reassess and ramp it up! Don’t go too mad for too long though; make sure you drop the load right down at regular intervals during the season, so that if you were to graph the “line of load” then it’d look like a slowly growing wave.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tom-crack-beam.jpg?w=390&h=585) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tom-crack-beam.jpg)
Crack training is no different from any other. Change it up, or lose out.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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What would 'regeneration training' involve?
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What would 'regeneration training' involve?
Not training.
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Thanks for the knowledge. :thumbsup:
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The Staffordshire Nose Speed Record (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/the-staffordshire-nose-speed-record/)
27 August 2012, 9:43 pm
Whilst out in America last year, Pete, Alex and I went to see a local showing of the REEL Rock Tour that shows every Autumn. The town of Laramie near the wide crack Mecca of Vedauwoo, was hosting a round of the climbing films and one evening we drove down to take advantage of the free screening.
(http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2012/02/06/1/192/1922729/1318b19aea5661de_Sketchy-Andy-and-Madonna_32.preview.jpg)Sketchy Andy doing it his way At first we were excited just because we were getting to see it a few weeks earlier than anyone back at home, but this soon turned into a massive bout of psyche once we’d seen the “Speed on the Nose” film and also the “Sketchy Andy” short. The latter, was like watching a modern day version of Dan Osman – a Desert Rat by the name of Andy doing anything and everything that you’ve probably never had the balls to do yourself (or is that lack of self-preservation?!). However, it was really the Nose film that got us thinking…..
Pete during the 550 routes in a day fiasco. We don’t have El Cap in the Peak District, nor do we have zee Huber Brothers or Hollywood Hans…. but we do have our own very special (and very British?) version of this challenge – “The Staffordshire Nose.”
The Challenge
I’m not sure who conjured up this beauty, but I do remember reading Andi Turner’s article in the mags about how he and Mark Sharratt had tried to complete the deed. They’d battled with late starts (isn’t that normal Andi??), Ramshaw horrors and of course plenty of jamming. In the end I think Crack of Gloom got the better of them and they called it a (very long) day just inches short of the finishing line.
The “Staffs Nose” is also known by some as the “Brown and Whillans Challenge” and not that surprisingly asks the participant to climb all of the B & W routes (Western Grit) in a single day. There around 30 of them, which in essence doesn’t sound very taxing. However, if you consider that this includes routes like Ramshaw Crack, Crack of Gloom, Brown’s Crack and Teck Crack, then you start to see the dilemma. The problem lies in the depth of the difficulty that you have to complete rather than the volume – sandbag after sandbag and nearly every route includes some form of desperate jamming.
After Andi and Mark had valiantly battled it out, then I believe that Grimer and someone else tried “The Nose.” Possibly if my memory serves me – Graham Hoey and Mike Waters tried? Ultimately, all parties got tantilisingly close but stumbled at the finishing due to exhaustion, wet conditions, skin loss etc. When Pete and I tried to complete this challenge a couple of years back we knew of all the previous attempts and this definitely spurred us on. By sometime in the evening, we completed the last of the routes to finish in a time of 9hrs 31mins.
So Where’s The Real challenge?
To conclude my initial thoughts about getting psyched on the REEL Rock Tour, I’ve decided to write this blog in the hope that someone out there will get motivated and go and beat mine and Pete’s time. We weren’t really very slick on our strategy and we definitely did take a good long lunch break! I’m really keen that someone out there can get some Hollywood Hans competitiveness going and go and thrash our time – bring California to Staffordshire!
(http://www.climbmagazine.com/images/uploads/pdw/news/_L4J4176AndiTurner.jpg)The man himself. Don Andi Turner. You don’t need to be an awesome climber – most of the climbing is below E2, but you do need to be a decent all-rounder. With some good decisions and some planning I reckon the time can easily go to 7 or 8 hours and maybe less if some risks are taken. Know anyone who’d be keen?
The Rules
As far as I know (Andi correct me if I’m wrong) the rules are:
- All Brown and Whillan’s routes at Ramshaw, Hencloud and Roaches must be climbed by both people on the team.
- You can either solo the routes or do one lead and one second per party.
- There must be no falls on route (by leader or seconder). If this does happen, then either party must lower to the ground and re-start.
- The routes can be climbed in any order.
- No pre-placed (A la Huber Brothers) protection can be strategically placed on the routes before commencing.
- Time starts as leader starts first route and finishes as seconder tops the last route.
- Motorised transport can be used between crags.
(http://www.climbmagazine.com/images/uploads/pdw/news/Finishedweb.jpg)Champagne always awaits the successful finisher… unless you’re Grimer.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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The World’s Hardest Back-And-Foot Chimney? (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/the-worlds-hardest-back-and-foot-chimney/)
15 September 2012, 9:14 pm
The Quarryman is one of those iconic British routes that is known round the world. Johnny Dawes, in his usual flair produced an incredible multipitch adventure out of Twll Mawr (“The Big Hole”). which featured one insane pitch of climbing. I remember watching the video of him climbing it when I was a teenager and thinking it looked like the best piece of climbing EVER. Like most people I never thought I’d ever go and even try the route, as it seemed impossibly hard and Johnny was too much of a legend to try and think about repeating one of his feats of climbing.
(http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/images/welshconnectionsimage.jpg)
Photo: Pete Whittaker showing off his golden palms
10 years later, I’d served a decent trad apprenticeship and gone on a mission of madness to do a load of horrible wide cracks. Which, was perfect…… as the Quarryman Groove pitch has been suggested as being the world’s hardest back-and-foot chimney! My first trip to try the Quarryman with Pete was a bit of a nightmare (well, much like the one today as well) as I absolutely hate heights and Twll Mawr is a bloody big hole in the ground. I have to confess pulling up off the ledge into the starting bit of the groove gave me the shakes and took me ages to try and block out the sensation of being so high on a slate wall. Most routes I do, I choose because they’re not too high, but the Quarryman is such a stunning bit of line, I had to dig deep to motivate myself to go there. At times I sat on that ledge thinking I hated it, but once I was into the climbing movement it all made up for it.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2551429482_634ff223d7.jpg)
Photo: Sean Villaneuva O’Driscoll probably feeling totally relaxed. Unlike me.
Today, I went out with Adam Bailes (that boy will go far!!) and we both did the route after a few abortive attempts – some falls from the final move were met with a few tantrums! On working the route, I’d found that you can actually climb the whole beginning groove with none of Johnny’s funkiness (just a sketchy chicken wing and some heel-toeing in the corner), but after it a while it turned out that whilst possible, this method wasn’t exactly the easiest way of doing it! So back to the squirming it was…. Overall the groove is a route of two halves; thrutch for 30ft and then do a Superman for 30ft. Both totally exhausting in their own ways, but mainly just incredible climbing. Is it the hardest back-and-foot though?? I’d have to say I have my doubts as Book of Hate in Yosemite (5.13c/d?) looks a good bit harder, but then again looks can be deceiving. I think Caff is the only person to have done both. Good man.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Grit Season Nearly Upon Us? (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/grit-season-nearly-upon-us/)
16 October 2012, 7:56 pm
It looks like the grit season is nearly upon us. Both Pete and I have put up a new route each (obviously very dubious in style and quality) which normally marks the coming of better conditions! Those lovely frosty mornings, long johns under the trousers and duvet jackets really get me pysched. I think it’s the thought of all the routes I’m going to get terrified on and the foraging around obscure crags looking for new bits of rock to climb. It’s totally backwater and obscure but I flippin’ love it.
I’m always at Millstone taking a quick wonder round the bottom of the crag with my daughter in tow (advanced babysitting, whilst trying to look responsible) and for once I spotted something that caught my eye. I’ve abbed down most bits of the crag, but the wall above Xanadu had always appeared blank. A few days later I was back with a rope and found that wall had a bucket load of holds all over it (promising) but quite a few missing at the top. Never mind I thought, it’ll be easy. After a couple of sessions of cleaning and working, it was apparent that most of the route is a cruise, but the top move is a bit of niggler. A nasty shouldery gaston-press in a certain deck out position. King Ellmore E6 6a/b is the man for you!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/king-ellmore.jpg?w=523) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/king-ellmore.jpg)
Going back to lead the route one evening after work was actually a bit trickier than I thought. I’ve not done any bold routes for absolutely ages, so many of the usual mind games played away. It just goes to remind me how much you can train the body, but if you forget the mind you’ll be a whole load of trouble. Unfortunately my mind and body are both a little off the pace (my pulley injury is still being a bit of a nightmare) but I can feel them both heading in a good direction now. The crack progression is really hopeful for me at the moment and I’m getting the planning done for some trips next year for some crack shuffling of the very loveliest kind. Oooh, so excited!
On a completely different note, I’m finally able to put some pictures from a fashion shoot that I did with the Sunday Telegraph Magazine earlier in the summer. It was for a climbing/Yosemite themed editorial (why the heck choose The Peak you may ask???!) which meant I got to mince around at Stanage for a couple of days showing some of the London boys how gnarly it is to solo VDiffs. I kept trying to get them involved with something a little more tricky, but they loved the VDiffs, so that’s where we stuck!
(http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/603245_10152192909340019_1409732086_n.jpg)
I think my highlight of the two days was to get one of the FHM male models stuck in an offwidth doing an armbar in a £800 down jacket. It was so ridiculous, you just had to laugh. I never thought I’d be able to persuade a photographer that it was a good idea, but there he was in all his glory – lichen coveved armbar and all!
(http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/199427_10152192915035019_1810596234_n.jpg)
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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the route looks really good, nice shadow of the tree on the picture as well
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Superb post Tom, made me think of Zoolander visiting the crag :)
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Are you abbing down Millstone with your daughter in a papoose?? ;)
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Tomtom; Zoolander is a huge inspiration for me - in my fashion and dance moves. I'll never be the man he is, but I can keep trying.
Fiend; not after that Daily Mail episode! Sitting on a bouldering mat is plenty hardcore enough for her ;-)
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(http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/199427_10152192915035019_1810596234_n.jpg)
Hemp rope and cams! :lol:
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What a chump, he's got his jumper on backwards. The v neck is clearly visible at the back, or am i just behind on this season's London look ?
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Randalls school for kids who can't jam good is just waiting to be opened no?
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Kendal Film Festival (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/kendal-film-festival/)
19 November 2012, 10:26 pm
Last weekend, was one of the big ones in the outdoor events calendar – The Kendal Film Fest! This year for me was a big one, as the film – “Wide Boyz” – that Pete Whittaker and I made with Hotaches (http://hotaches.com/shop/wide-boyz/) out in the US last year was going to finally premiere. It feels like it’s been ages since I climbed an offwidth, but last weekend was like a strange dip back in a very weird past (http://wideboyz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/century-crack-part-deux.html).
I headed up to Kendal on Friday for the premiere with my wife and daughter, quite excited that they were both going to see what I’d actually got up to in America. It’s always been the case that they’ve know what I did each day, but never saw any footage. I think the knowledge that my family was there (as well as the general public) to pass general opinion on the film made me nervous for the first time in absolutely ages. It felt like being a teenager at school with my first bit of public speaking, except this time there were hundreds of people to see if I cocked up!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/kendal1.jpg?w=580) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/kendal1.jpg)
Photo: Packed sweaty cinema did little for the palms…
All my nerves disappeared though, when after 10 seconds into the film playing (where there is shot of me on screen) my daughter Hannah screamed out “Daddy!!” in the cinema and everyone laughed! Watching the whole film in its final form was a really cool experience and despite the fact that I was there when it was all filmed, the tension still got to me. I guess that’s the art of a good film maker?!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/img_5850.jpg?w=383&h=510) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/img_5850.jpg)
Photo: Hannah starting to learn bad habits from Dad.
On the Saturday, it was lots of Q&A sessions after the film viewings and it was good to get some really interesting questions from people and also still hear what things people couldn’t get their heads round e.g. is it easier to run it out or step round Friend 6′s?! Physical vs. Mental. In the afternoon Pete and I headed off to the town hall for our lecture, which despite being in front of 350+ people didn’t seem half as scary as the premiere. Yet again at the lecture the question of “how do you clean a roof crack” came up – it’s starting to make me wonder if this is a common problem out there! Outside of the lecture hall Rab had made a funny “Tom and Pete cutout” that we had some fun on – although I couldn’t really use it as my head is such a terrible pin-shape that it doesn’t fit in the hole. Probably the reason why I look a bit of a mushroom head in a helmet….
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/img_5851.jpg?w=406&h=305) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/img_5851.jpg)
Photo: Kim and Hannah show me how it’s done.
As I pointed out to many people on the weekend, much of the adventure and trip that Pete and I had out in the States, has to be owed to the generousity of Wild Country (http://www.wildcountry.co.uk/http%3A//), Rab (http://www.rab.uk.com/) (Patagonia for Pete) that helped fund it. Having a bit of wild faith in two British wide boy punters who could have totally fallen flat on their faces, has to be recognised a form of true altruism.
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Golfer’s Elbow – A Possible Solution? (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/golfers-elbow-a-possible-solution/)
23 November 2012, 11:44 pm
Around 2004 I started to climb indoors a lot – as in 4 times a week or more. As you might expect, my grades started to creep upwards but at the very same time I developed a nasty case of Golfer’s Elbow. That deep pain on the inner side of your elbow (the fancy word being medial epicondylitis) which only seems to get deeper and more excruciating the more you lock-off or do pull-ups. Know the feeling?
(http://www.healerpatch.net/images/GolfersElbow.jpg)
Like many other climbers I sought the advice of the internet and a series of physios. I tried the usual methods; rest, ice, hot-cold treatment, massage, anti-inflammatory medicine, postural correcting exercises and lots of antagonist work. I must have spent a good £1000 or so seeing different people, buying books and feeding my growing Ibuprofen habit. Unfortunately though, nothing seemed to hit the spot. Every person I asked recommended some kind of combination of the above, but I started to get frustrated as the pain continued to get worse. Eventually I made the hard decision to take some time out from climbing and training as I knew no other solution.
Just as I’d made this decision I coincidentally got talking to one of the GB Senior Team members called Drew Haigh (I was managing the team at the time) about my plight and he showed me an exercise a yoga teacher had showed him for Golfer’s Elbow. Drew sounded really convinced about this “magical stretch” that he had been taught, but I remained sceptical as nothing had worked until this point. I got the beta off Drew at a training session and guess what………. 2 weeks later my Golfer’s Elbow had totally disappeared! I couldn’t believe it. Two years of pain had been removed in 2 weeks.
The Stretch
I have no idea what this exercise is called, but hopefully with the aid of the following photos and a little description some people out there may benefit in the same way as I did. I’ve shown this stretch to a number of people I’ve coached over the years and it has to be said that it’s not always successful – it’s seems to work best when none of the conventional approaches (physio, antagonists, NSAIDS) work. Give it a try though – you’ll only have wasted a few minutes if it doesn’t work.
The start pose - the position that you’re aiming to hold with your arms is that shown in the picture below. You want your palms facing outwards and for your elbows to almost touch in the middle – it feels quite awkward to hold this position. You should note that in the correct position your elbows should be about the height of your belly-button and inside the line of your body i.e. arms not lying down the side of your body. Got that so far?
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1.jpg?w=390&h=519) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1.jpg)
The finish pose – ok, so with that in mind, you now have to perform that same arm positioning, but on the ground lying on your front! This means that you’ll be lying on top of your arms and your bodyweight is forcing your arms and elbows into a nice straight/open position. Note that it’s really important that you do this exercise on a solid floor (not soft matting) as you don’t want to be able to hyper-extend your elbows. In this position you should feel a nice stretch – if it feels painful, then stop! I find looking straight at the ground in front of me or to one side is most comfortable with the neck.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/2.jpg?w=406&h=305) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/2.jpg)
The movements – once you’ve gained confidence with the initial positioning and you’re happy that there’s no undue pain, then you can try raising one leg at a time (I do reps of 10) which results in the front of your hip bone pushing into the back of your forearm giving extra stretch. The leg needs to be raised out 10inches or so off the ground and I do just 10 reps on each leg. Once done, I get up off the floor shake my arms out, and get back to whatever I was doing 2 minutes earlier!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/3.jpg?w=580) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/3.jpg)
Below is a quick shot of the back of the forearm to show you the point at which it makes contact with the front of your hip bone once you’re lying on top of your arms.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/4.jpg?w=465) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/4.jpg)
If this helps one person, then it’s all worth it! Please do pass on the information if you find it useful and I only came across it by word of mouth from Drew. I owe you big time Drew!
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Did you continue to use them after the two weeks?
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I have managed to get my elbow back in adequate condition with physio and shoulder stab exercises.
But I definitely still have a weakness that could flare up again.
I have given this stretch a go last night and this morning. I find it slightly uncomfortable during stretch. Not painful. Afterwards it aches quite a bit. Even the elbow that has never caused me trouble. I have iced immediately after stretch. Within 10 mins the ache goes.
Just a few questions.
1) Do you get this post stretch ache?
2) Is carpet too soft to avoid hyper extension? Should I be on laminate? I think the ache I get might be because of this issue.
I must have short arms as my hip pushes in much further down. Still increases the stretch.
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I'm doing these. I can feel a very vague stretch but no discomfort. I've taken to lifting both legs to really drive my hips into the arms - good workout for the lower back.
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Been doing these for a few days now. Lifting one leg is ok but like you Fiend I find that 2 legs off stretches the elbow more. For me it gives a similar sort of feeling in the elbow to when I get the weight on a stick thing at the right angle. I'll see how it goes after a couple of weeks of twice a day. (Combined with press ups)
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Dave K - I definitely feel no need to ice my elbow after the stretch. In fact the feeling afterwards is amazing - like someone just opened my elbows up and they're rushing with blood. Sounds like you need to stop.
Fiend - yup doing both legs is way more effective. Drew Haigh likes to hold the position with the legs up in the air, I like to raise the legs up and down.
It seems to be something that either works 100% or does toss all. Worth a try if you're desperate! I tried getting Steve Mac to do it once and he had such stiff elbows that he couldn't even get into the position to lie on top of his arms!
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Hook or Book; The Zone E9 6c (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/hook-or-book-the-zone-e9-6c/)
3 December 2012, 10:57 pm
So far this winter I’ve struggled and struggled. My two projects have seen sessions of no success and to be honest I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated. It’s not like the training isn’t going well – my fingers (and specific training goals) are the best they’ve ever been and I regularly PB, but it’s still not quite enough for success on the given line. I guess, I’ve got to be patient. The best thing to do when this happens though, is to get out and do something – something that will give you a bit of a buzz and feel like progress. That’s right isn’t it?
I decided I wanted to see how my projects and finger strength compared to something on the hard grit circuit and thus see if progress from last year really was being made. The Zone, E9 6c at Curbar kind of fitted the bill. Nice wall climbing, fairly challenging sport grade (not the usual gritstone 7a+ frightener) and bold enough to thrill. This route was put up by British climbing legend John Arran and one I remember the first ascent of it well, back in the day.
(http://www.ote.dsl.pipex.com/john%20arran.jpg)
Photo: Gnarly bugger and inveterate soloist. John Arran
This weekend, I finally bit the bullet and called up Pete Whittaker and told him I’d man up if he promised to hold my ropes and carry me to my car if it went pear shaped. As usual he was totally psyched for it – I already felt stronger just listening to the enthusiasm on the phone! It’s way easier to commit to routes like this when you’ve got a good mate who’s going to bring the right vibe to the crag on the day and who knows even less about skyhooks than me.
The first half of the route is a highball boulder problem up to a series of flatty edges where you can arrange some skyhooks. This highball V3 takes a little of the edge off the nerves to start and settles you into a rhythm, which you then immediately break by spending 10 minutes trying to place the hooks. In fact I got totally pumped putting them in place and the ensuing down climb of a few moves was desperate in this state – a big reminder that I’ve not done any AeroCap for about 3 months!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sh1.jpg?w=390&h=519) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sh1.jpg)
Photo: the 2 poorest hooks – my mind needed them though.
After taking a few hours of resting, faffing, waiting for the holds to stop being warm and procrastinating I finally went for the lead. I’d moaned for the previous 2 hours about how the crux hold wasn’t cool enough, but somehow I felt that I’d probably sketch it out if I really needed. Climbing the bottom section felt reassuringly solid the next time and arriving at the hooks for a shake out, I bolstered my confidence by only eye-balling the good group of skyhooks. I couldn’t face even a glance at the bad ones as I knew they were there only to make me feel less scared.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sh2.jpg?w=557) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sh2.jpg)
Photo: the good grouping of hooks – surely these are ok?
Moving onto the top sequence of the route I kept thinking about the mental tricks that I learnt on Century Crack last year. The moves glanced by so sutbly that even when I got the crux hold and it felt terrible I didn’t think much of it. Adjust thumb, sit on right foot, bump right hand up a touch (go further than you think), throw for pebbly-boss…. OH SHIT….. that was nearly off. In someways I felt like I’d actually fallen off the route, but there I was feeling gripped on the last hard move. Pete was telling me I was looking smooth (good liar) and all I had to do was crimp it up. Index finger on, crimp that finger first, adjust hip left a little, feel toes inside boot, move foot across, share feet….. ah. Ok all over.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/mg_2212_tom_website.jpg?w=455) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/mg_2212_tom_website.jpg)
Photo (Mike Hutton): bottom V3 highball – great problem in its own right. Luverly.
Topping out on the route was such a disappointing feeling though. I’ve never done a headpoint before where I only did it to progress my headspace. I’d always done them in previous years because I wanted the route so badly. This time, I’d taken my obsessive approach to training and self-progression to a headpoint and it didn’t work. Trying dangerous routes in this style for me has to be about how much I want the experience, not just as a tool for progression. A real lesson learnt this weekend. In the end I just ended up thinking about what I really wanted; to do those other projects!!
Many thanks to Mike Hutton (http://www.mikehuttonphotography.com/) for the photos…
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Dave K - I definitely feel no need to ice my elbow after the stretch. In fact the feeling afterwards is amazing - like someone just opened my elbows up and they're rushing with blood. Sounds like you need to stop.
Fiend - yup doing both legs is way more effective. Drew Haigh likes to hold the position with the legs up in the air, I like to raise the legs up and down.
It seems to be something that either works 100% or does toss all. Worth a try if you're desperate! I tried getting Steve Mac to do it once and he had such stiff elbows that he couldn't even get into the position to lie on top of his arms!
I finally got this stretch to work by pressing my thumbs against the floor as I did them. It seems to cure my pains for the short term but obviously, I haven't been using them long enough to comment on any long-term good.
Cheers Tom.
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Climbers Against Cancer (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/climbers-against-cancer/)
28 December 2012, 7:50 pm
Twelve months ago, a friend of mine was diagnosed with terminal cancer. His name is John Ellison. I’ve known John ever since I got involved with coaching and managing the GB Climbing Teams back in 2007; it’s hard not to know him, as he’s always there! He has given tirelessly to climbing and to competition climbing over the years and it was a massive shock when he told us all about his illness. It seemed impossible that such an amazing person could have anything negative happen to them. I’d always kind of assumed that the perma-grim on his face was some kind of lucky charm.
(http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/544043_106114232892976_1178095600_n.jpg)
Photo: John in his natural environment…. you guess the answer!
His reaction to this news though, has been something that has re-affirmed why he always looks so happy. Instead of running away from the black news and devastation he has ploughed an incredible amount of energy into creating a new organisation called “Climbers Against Cancer.” He recognised that climbing and climbers are “special in that no matter what the creed or colour, there is a natural desire to support each other and encourage one another to succeed.” He would like climbers to come together as a family of friends who will support John in his cause to raise awareness and funds for research.
(http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/255036_447414061985616_1912936905_n.png)
As you may have noticed through Facebook and Twitter already, there are some big wad supporters already! John seems to have a strange ability to chat up pretty much any climber, get them in a t-shirt and then snap the photo for the cause! I even saw him with his arm round Chris Sharma and Tom Bolger’s waist the other day….. John, you naughty boy.
(http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/165026_111818558989210_1018213789_n.jpg)
So what can you do to help share the love?
1. Get on Facebook and “like” the official CAC page (http://www.facebook.com/CacClimbersAgainstCancer)
2. Share any photos of CAC supporters.
3. Visit the CAC website (http://climbersagainstcancer.org/) in about 2 weeks to buy yourself a supporting t-shirt!
4. In the meantime I know you can buy CAC t-shirts from The Climbing Works (http://www.climbingworks.com/)
5. Alternatively, you can always get involved with Cancer Research UK (http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/home/?gclid=CJq4otyUvbQCFSbMtAodei4AUA)
So, just remember if John can pick himself up after this situation has landed on his doorstep then we as climbers are more than capable of getting off our arses to help in some way. I doesn’t have to be money – even spreading the word and helping John in his mission will be much appreciated.
Even big wad photographer and all-round nice guy Lukasz Warzecha (http://www.lwimages.co.uk/#mi=1&pt=0&pi=2&p=-1&a=0&at=0) gave up his studio and time to get John surrounded by 2 of the loveliest ladies in comp climbing, 1 ice climber with massive biceps and 2 jokers with big Friends.
Spread the love!
(http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/149731_451630994897256_1601706464_n.jpg)
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Wideboyz Film Available For Download (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/wideboyz-film-available-for-download/)
4 January 2013, 8:48 pm
I’ve decided to progress my somewhat basic web skills into offering the Wideboyz Film that Hotaches produced last year through my website. I never thought I’d see the day where someone would actually want to film me doing something, let alone me being competent enough to sell it! Well, here goes……….
As it turns out, it’s pretty simple really. You just have to click here (http://www.digitalgoodsstore.com/c/udeRKd/7ZeILf) to buy the film and not long after it’ll be slowly using up all the hard space on your computer! I’ll be donating £1 of every copy of the download sold to Climber’s Against Cancer, which is a charity run by a friend of mine.
You can read about him on my blog (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/climbers-against-cancer/) or an excellent article here (http://planetgrimpe.com/en/2013/01/climbers-against-cancer-john-ellison-interview/).
(http://alexekins.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Wide-Boyz-POSTER-small1.jpg)
Buy the download here:
http://www.digitalgoodsstore.com/c/udeRKd/7ZeILf
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Gritstone New Routing – My Kai (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/gritstone-new-routing-my-kai/)
30 January 2013, 11:16 pm
One of the things I like about starting a new year is that you can draw a line under anything from the previous year. Even if I’ve spent forever working on something in one year, I always feel like a fresh start is made on a route/problem once January comes round. Maybe it’s my way of convincing myself I’m not stuck on a plateau?!
Last year I made the decision to commit to two FA projects on grit – one really, really hard and the other as something that was my anti-style. I wanted to do this as I’ve had a tendency in the past to climb things that were either relatively quite easy (under sport grade 8a on trad) or that suited me in climbing style. Both projects seemed to progress at an equally boring rate and just before Christmas I decided to take a break from both and go do The Zone at Curbar (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/hook-or-book-the-zone-e9-6c/) just to get my head out of it all and get something done.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/the-zone.jpg?w=358&h=237) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/the-zone.jpg)
Photo: headpointing The Zone, E9 6c (image courtesy of Mike Hutton)
This January’s mix of snow, rain and generally terrible climbing conditions has kind of been a mixed blessing for my “anti-style” project at Shining Cliff. The direct start project to Geckoblaster is almost always dry and also conveniently on the way to work at The Climbing Station (http://www.theclimbingstation.com/) in Loughborough. The direct moves into Geckoblaster partly follow Jon Fullwood’s boulder problem “Moo Cow” which is about the most perplexing Font 7a+ you’re going to find on grit! Weird, contorted, tiny crimps, everything facing the wrong way….. All I can say, is thank goodness Jon could give me the beta!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/my_kai2.jpg?w=258&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/my_kai2.jpg)
Photo: Intricate and brilliant climbing on Moo Cow (photo, James Blay)
Once I’d finally worked out what the hell I was doing on the bottom section, it was a case of linking the whole thing together, which involves some really powerful climbing with big moves, very unlike most grit routes. Whilst everyone else was moaning about the snow and wet crags I knew that Shining Cliff would be my only hope and sure enough on the wettest miserable day last week, the project was perfect. As I’d dragged a few belayers/spotters out over recent months, I felt like I couldn’t do it again, so I ended up soloing the line (there is an RP2 on the top headwall for sensible people). Unusually for me, the ascent felt harder than expected, even though I was in a committed mindset. I have to confess, I didn’t have as much a margin as I’d hoped for.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/my_kai1.jpg?w=300&h=213) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/my_kai1.jpg)
Photo: getting a little more committed on My Kai (Photo, James Blay)
After finally completing the route, my mind immediately wondered back to The Zone and how I’d felt on that route – after all, this was my most recent reference point and a “break” from project stagnation. The Zone had felt something like 7c+ and fairly dangerous, whereas My Kai was more like a hard 8a and just as dangerous. It had also taken perhaps 4 times as long to do!
Sat there thinking about it, I could feel myself getting dragged in the “grade relativity” argument and that’s something I’ve tried to stay away from over the years. After a couple of minutes thinking about it, I went for my gut feeling of E8 6c as sometimes you can’t apply science and logic to grit. Maybe that’s why we all love it so much?
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Gritstone New Routing – My Kai (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/gritstone-new-routing-my-kai/)
30 January 2013, 11:16 pm
Weird, contorted, tiny crimps, everything facing the wrong way…..
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
That sounds like pure bliss
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Great effort Tom, especially in this month's weather
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Master’s Edge: An Animal’s Perspective (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/masters-edge-an-animals-perspective/)
5 February 2013, 10:38 pm
Years and years ago I remember going to Millstone in the Peak District and watching Geraldine Taylor inch her way up London Wall on a summer afternoon. She was clearly having a bit of a battle, but undeterred she carried on over the course of 2 hours and eventually topped out. What impressed me the most, when I approached her afterwards was the fact that she did this almost every year as a celebration of the years passing by. This really inspired me that even though you feel a little more cranky every year, perhaps you should set yourself a benchmark route to go back and lead every year to keep you on top of your game. Something that’s a bit of a challenge and something a bit go’ey. Master’s Edge seemed to fit that bill!
Over the last 4 years (I think that’s the right number?! Or am I getting old?) Pete Whittaker and I have been back to Millstone every year to make an ascent of Master’s Edge. We have a rule that no top roping is allowed, so as to keep the spirit of adventure high. Or my high point low…….
The first year it was carried out in big woolly socks, then the year after in suits and top hats, then as a banana and transvestite last year. Pete’s fruited ascent last year was truly a masterpiece considering the conditions and the fact that I couldn’t even top out that year.
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzp9njH3Uk1r78tz6o1_500.jpg)
Photo: (c) Joe Malia
This year, we’ve had a pretty harsh run of weather recently and the evening before our planned ascent had Pete and Marie up on the ledges clearing snow in the dark. Pete forgot his prussiks, so had to take his shoe laces off for Marie to use as back up They’d also forgotten any wellies and eventually soaked almost every part of their bodies. All in all, they gave a true sacrifice for the benefit of others on the following day!
We arranged to meet up at lunch time on the Sunday and considering the weather all other planned climbers bailed leaving just Pete and I looking like plonkers in Millstone carpark. There we were, Pete dressed in a smelly gorrilla outfit (it’d been to party previously) and me in a fluffy green crocodile suit. Fortunately, our respective families and a few diehard friends had come along to watch us continue with the ritual.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5504.jpg?w=204&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5504.jpg)
Photo: (c) Mike Hutton (http://www.mikehuttonphotography.com/section365194.html)
Warming up on Technical Master was promising, and after Pete had tied back his mask with a few hair clips and I had worked out the counterbalance of my tail, we felt somewhat positive. This year (as with all other years so far) Adam Bailes had “bailed” on us and I had to take the forfeit of the bold start up to the shot holes – Adam, we’re going to get you one of these years!! Continiung on to the top arete, I felt the cold blood of my species drain from my claws and faced with the final moves I sketched a wobbly foot and took my first whipper as a Man-Croc. Back on the ground I complained of feeling a bit out of water, but Pete just grunted at me and rubbed his hairy knuckles.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5629.jpg?w=247&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5629.jpg)
Photo: (c) Mike Hutton (http://www.mikehuttonphotography.com/section365194.html)
Ten minutes later, Pete was smeared up on the top arete, his giant gorrilla arms bulging under the stress. Nooooo………… a vision of last year’s banana on the arete crossed his mind and the blood rushed to his stomach. He was off. Back on the ground, you could see the fire in his eyes. He’d let his concetration slip, all for the sake of a measley banana. The next attempt upwards was 100% hairy heart in mouth and there he was on the jug shaking his fist at me. My croco-petitiveness immediately spurred me on with his success and my next attempt I scaled my way upwards with renewed vigour and a little more warm blood (I wasn’t doping, honest gov!). Faced with the final snap for the jug I thought of Steve Irwin and lunged like an African Croc in the Limpopo.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5500_web.jpg?w=210&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5500_web.jpg)
Bring on next year…… Anyone keen?
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Punning is currently frowned upon round these parts. Be warned, no tears for - karma.
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What about crocodile tears?
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So you got the joke then!
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So you got the joke then!
No need to be snappy...
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Looks like The wideboys will be on look north between 6.30-7 tonight :popcorn:
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Back on The Crack Horse (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/back-on-the-crack-horse/)
8 March 2013, 10:03 pm
It often seems to be the way with me, that just as I feel like I’ve had a little bit of a break-through, I get injured. It’s happened time and time again over the years. This time, just one day after doing My Kai and Master’s Edge I injured myself fingerboarding.
I was training down in my cellar doing some assisted one-arm hangs in safe grip positions. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Then, I had this sudden urge to see what my max full-crimp hang score was….Why?? I really don’t know. Thirty seconds later I had a sharp pain down my forearm and I knew it was game over for a while.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/one-armer.jpg?w=426&h=284) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/one-armer.jpg)Bad chin day. Over the years I’ve been injured far more times that I’d like to admit to myself. It’s been absolutely soul crushing sometimes, but over time I’ve learnt a really useful skill: sideways motivation deflection. Every bit of psyche that I’ve got I’ll plough with total energy into what I can do without affecting my particular injury. The list of “sideways deflection” results during the last 5 years probably now reads as the few things that I’m actually quite good at; offwidthing, hand jamming, pinky hangs, core conditioning, and index monos.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_9422.jpg?w=203&h=305) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_9422.jpg)Back when the cool kids did core conditioning, not deadhanging. The ferocity at which I end up training and obsessing about these things have only been equal to the frustration that I’ve had in not being able to do “normal climbing.” So where did this leave me after the latest blow up?
After 2 weeks of total rest, I spent some time testing what I was able to do on rock. I could do some pretty intense climbing on very steep rock (big holds on >45 degrees) and any amount of finger crack climbing. With hindsight, I can look at this injury as being a good thing as it reminded me of two goals this year. My Blackers Hole Projects and an Italian Trad climbing trip to Cadarese and Orco in April. With those in mind, I was back focused and happy!
Firstly, I booked off a little time to spend down at Blackers Hole reaquainting myself with how pumped you can get on big holds. It’s totally mind boggling really as there’s hardly a crimp down there, but within 60ft your arms are exploding. It was brilliant fun though, finding that I could climb with no pain on such big holds, yet still explore a couple of new routes in the E9-10 range. Very, very psyched for this.
(http://oligrounsell.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/keep-going-tom.jpg?w=800&h&h=441)Heading up on Infinite Gravity. The new route breaks out from this into beefy and bold territory. (Photo: Oli Grounsell) The second half of my motivation has been directed towards making new steps forward in my crack climbing again. Pete Whittaker and I have come up with some devious ideas and some devious training methods! I love making these sorts of plans with Pete as he’s partly mad and fuels the fire for some insanely tough and unique training sessions. I’ve built around 40ft of new finger crack that’s got some amazing link ups and problems up to….. er….. well, quite a horrible grade.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_55911.jpg?w=426&h=320) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_55911.jpg) Flappers don’t come in the usual places now. So for over a month, I’ve been slogging it down to Blackers Hole and sweating away down in my cellar, with just a small dinosaur shaped paddling pool (and occasionally Pete) to keep me company. Last 10 days though, I finally felt like my injury was starting to not hurt on problems less than V6ish, so I headed out for a few days with the very talented Oli Grounsell (http://oligrounsell.me/blog/) and did The Bad and The Beautiful E7 6b, Fat Slapper E7 6c, Peas of Mind E6 6a and a rather nice 7c+/8a finger crack in Cheddar Gorge called Bursting the Wave.
(http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/c0.0.843.403/p843x403/307305_10151309707378595_1405685058_n.jpg)Flashing Peas of Mind at Curbar. Can’t be more than E5 6a though. (Photo: Wild Country)
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Speak The Truth (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/speak-the-truth/)
13 March 2013, 8:50 am
Every winter in the UK you inevitably spend a lot of time training indoors avoiding the typically unreliable weather. It’s probably one of the main ways that we as Brits, can stay motivated. We’re slowly getting stronger and fitter during the dark months and all the while you can tell your mates about what routes you’re going to do when it stops raining (yeah, right) and of course browse the guidebooks.
As a trad climber, guidebooks are one of my main sources of inspiration. I absolutely love them. I suspect most people have a nice Tom Clancy novel next to their bed – I have most of the BMC guides with little bits of paper stuck in them! These bits of paper refer to constantly evolving ticklists and ones that contain some totally unrealistic goals and others not so…
Having been able to get out a bit more recently, I’ve found myself trawling through the guidebooks looking up things that I tend to shy away from when I’m a bit rusty. Bold routes, any aretes and anything that’s at Curbar. One route that ticks two of the boxes is Speak The Truth, an E7 6b at Hallmoor Quarry. I remember seeing a video of someone climbing this years ago and thinking I’d never do that (i.e. the bold soloing) but recently 2 things changed my opinion. One, was that Pete Whittaker had been out and flashed the route and secondly that Ethan Walker (http://ethanwalkerclimbing.blogspot.co.uk/)and Sam Hamer had headpointed it in the last few days, so most likely there would be plenty of chalk on the route. To further bolster my confidence, they’d posted a video up on youtube with a (hopefully?!) perfect sequence repeated twice before the camera.
With this in mind, I convinced my wife that post-night shifts she’d like to come out and spot me doing “a nice easy climb that Pete said was ace.” Poor her. There she was lugging a bouldering mat through thigh-deep brambles on a weekday morning – Thanks Kim! As I sat at the base of the route, I wondered about two things;
1. Was Pete’s flash and casual remarks about ease of climbing to be relied on? Shame I couldn’t get him to demo to me one-handed in a pair of Five Ten trainers to show me how it really was a piece of piss. Ok, just trust Pete. He knows how crap at aretes I am. He’d not have recommended it otherwise.
2. Was Ethan and Sam’s sequence any good? Both those boys climb some big numbers and my long term sieges on V8′s isn’t exactly up with their quick V11 ticking. Hmmmmm…. but they both did it quickly. Maybe they’re Arete Jedi Monkeys? Hmmmmmm…. doubts were creeping in.
Ah sod it. Can’t be doubting myself now.
I put my boots on, quickly chalked up and thought I’d just do the first sequence of moves to take my mind off it. Ok yup, feet up and smear high. Not quite as easy as I was hoping. I’m stood up now, high enough that I’m a little scared. I look down. No…. don’t do that. Eyes up. Good hold on the arete. Yes. Good holds. Right, take them hard, and run feet up. I can see better holds higher. Surely this is the “little boulder problem” that Pete talked of. Feet so high it’s getting scary. Move my hands quickly up the arete to counterbalance. Shit. That’s not great. Just two foot moves until a good hold. They’re sandy. Ugh. Don’t cock this up. I’m totally crapping my pants. Holds reached, but I’m so gripped I’ve started cramping in my foot and I’m overgripping on everything. Relax. RELAX. Pretty much all out blind panic. I can’t really think any more and I go autopilot just to top out.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_5954.jpg?w=300&h=225) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_5954.jpg)Point of no return Thank God for that. It’s over.
Sitting back down at the base I mull over the route in my mind. I was so gripped and the route is so much my anti-style (insecure, balancy and not a crack in sight) that I realise that probably this route is really rather easy. I’d been right about my earlier assumptions – I’d simply not realised how much I has batting off the wrong foot.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_5957.jpg?w=300&h=225) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_5957.jpg)Back in autopilot. The more I thought about this route and some others that I’ve done recently, I came to the conclusion that it’s about time that someone spoke out about how ridiculous some of the grades on grit are. Over on 8a.nu they’re always banging on about the “personal grade” thingy and how it will lead to a better consensus. Why don’t we really do it on trad? Sure, the ego can get in the way and you’d love to take the Man Points, but surely the buck has to stop somewhere? Someone has to take the hit, downgrade all their best stuff and be honest. Well, that’s going to be me. I’m going to sacrafice my ticklist so we’ll no longer think that Nosferatu is really E6 and Profit of Doom is E4.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/mg_3739.jpg?w=216&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/mg_3739.jpg)
Time to load up the excel spreadsheet….
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Nice one on the flash, classy arete.
Maybe it is piss but it's alright to pat yourself on the back sometimes. I'm sure there's some low grade pig that's had you before so I hope your ticklist editing goes both ways!
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Time to load up the excel spreadsheet….
AKA can of worms.
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Profit of Doom E3!!??
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E7 for onsight without any pads *.
Beta-flash with pads gonna feel easier.
Sounds like it had high E-grade terror anyway...
Plus you're probably talking shite about not being good at aretes ;)
* Probably a bit of an issue here with gritstone grading on ROUTES not being adapted for pads. I.e. for highballs like, errr, I dunno, Careless Torque, grading as settled down as highball grades, usually with plenty of pads. For full routes like this with only a couple of pads, the system still hasn't adapted fully....doesn't make it a highball but does make it a bit easier than snapping limbs on the hard ground. Who knows maybe it is time for grit grades to assume 2 pads (leader and belayer's) for any ascent, as surely that is the default state of protection :worms: :worms: :worms:
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What Bonjoy said!
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Enigma on first (treeless) ascent, on a humid afternoon in August '99
tetler.mov (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neHmpwVS3Zc#)
Note the worse landing, lack of pads and obligatory British spot.
Having said that, I wouldn't argue with E6. It's an easier proposition than Ulysees.
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No! Profit of Doom should be E5!! There's quite a few upgrades out there needed too.
I'm horrified that you'd think I'd go for E3 :o
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Thank fuck for that I thought the world had gone mad.
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Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges, and there are videos to watch.. it will feel easier than a natural grit route of the same grade. Simples.
(I personally never watch either Nathan Lee or Willackers's videos ;))
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Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges, and there are videos to watch.. it will feel easier than a natural grit route of the same grade. Simples.
(I personally never watch either Nathan Lee or Willackers's videos ;))
I disagree Tom (although, I see what you're saying). I think that everyone who says that "x-grade" is flashable is tacitly saying that they've heard on the grapevine that something is soft or not the grade that it's given. You only have to listen to the number of people down the wall saying they're going to try and flash Nosferatu, Life Assurance, Slackers, Power of the Dark Side, Jasmine, Traveller in Time, Winters Grip etc etc.
Then on the flip side you have others that no one ever dares to say they're going to flash as they know they're desperate for the grade/the grade above!
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Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges...
I don't remember any positive edges on Speak the Truth, though it is a long time since I top-roped it. Great moves I do remember.
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Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges, and there are videos to watch.. it will feel easier than a natural grit route of the same grade. Simples.
(I personally never watch either Nathan Lee or Willackers's videos ;))
I disagree Tom (although, I see what you're saying). I think that everyone who says that "x-grade" is flashable is tacitly saying that they've heard on the grapevine that something is soft or not the grade that it's given. You only have to listen to the number of people down the wall saying they're going to try and flash Nosferatu, Life Assurance, Slackers, Power of the Dark Side, Jasmine, Traveller in Time, Winters Grip etc etc.
Then on the flip side you have others that no one ever dares to say they're going to flash as they know they're desperate for the grade/the grade above!
FWIW Tom (Randall) you are obviously correct i.e. flashable usually does mean soft, given that the grade is for an onsight, and you do have a point RE all the routes you mention. There are quite a lot of grades which seem to make no sense if that's how you measure your climbing on grit. I found it a lot easier just to give up on them and pick what you think you can do, hence why it took me about a decade after first onsighting grit E6 (and a few after doing E7!) before taking on something like Ulysses, and even then it was above a few pads and some snow. Everyone who knows the crags well is aware of this though aren't they? I mean I'd always have more respect for someone who went out and pissed up Nectar, Hurricane, Right Eliminate or something like that, genuinely made them look easy, than for someone who doesn't really climb much grit trad standing on a ledge and reaching the top of Life Assurance, regardless of the "numbers". I guess in a roundabout way I'm agreeing with The Verve - "The Grades Don't Work". But I don't think that matters.
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Although routes that are soft for their grade are obviously going to be more flashable for their grade, surely there are lots of other variables that make a route more suitable for an onsight / flash / groundup approach? Things I'd look for would be positive holds, absence of knacky / fluffable climbing styles, and it being fairly safe (but not too safe - those are the hard ones, and some element of being scared gets you more E-points).
FWIW Tom (Randall) you are obviously correct i.e. flashable usually does mean soft, given that the grade is for an onsight...
Without any first hand experience to draw on, I will confidently assert that I actually think a lot of routes in the hard-to-onsight category are probably equivalent to other routes of their grade for headpointing.
...regardless of the "numbers". I guess in a roundabout way I'm agreeing with The Verve - "The Grades Don't Work". But I don't think that matters.
Ain't it the truth
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...regardless of the "numbers". I guess in a roundabout way I'm agreeing with The Verve - "The Grades Don't Work". But I don't think that matters.
Ain't it the truth
Profit of Doom vs Strapadictomy ... i wonder which one is more often flashed, hmm? Historically E4 and 5 respectively. I'm sure any number of examples can be wheeled out.
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You only have to listen to the number of people down the wall saying they're going to try and flash Nosferatu, Life Assurance, Slackers, Power of the Dark Side, Jasmine, Traveller in Time, Winters Grip etc etc.
Stacks o' pads. Made a lot of difference to Jasmine and fuck all to Profit.
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They do make a lot of difference in some cases, although that is a bit of a side issue. For instance your example of Jasmine - this has always been soft for E6 (i.e. probably E5) even without pads. Pads make no difference on Life Assurance either but that's still soft. Pads do make a difference on Ulysses but when you're up there, not as much as you'd like! Your point does stand obviously, I'm just trying to lead you away from a well worn but diversionary drum.
I guess the fact is that there are "big" routes and "little" ones. But like I said I don't think this is news to anyone with eyes is it? It works throughout the spectrum, not just at the upper end. Hands up whose first E3 was Right Eliminate (hello is that John Allen at the back??). Now hands up for Canoe.
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I did Canoe at E2 6a pre-pads. Not my first E2 tho.
Not really making a point as such, more like it's a definite part of the explanation (along with various other factors).
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There are tons of examples like this. Is it time to roll out my Chalkstorm comment again?
Billy Whizz and Boulevard must be the most stupid example of nonsense grit grading though.
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FWIW Tom (Randall) you are obviously correct i.e. flashable usually does mean soft, given that the grade is for an onsight, and you do have a point RE all the routes you mention. There are quite a lot of grades which seem to make no sense if that's how you measure your climbing on grit. I found it a lot easier just to give up on them and pick what you think you can do, hence why it took me about a decade after first onsighting grit E6 (and a few after doing E7!) before taking on something like Ulysses, and even then it was above a few pads and some snow. Everyone who knows the crags well is aware of this though aren't they? I mean I'd always have more respect for someone who went out and pissed up Nectar, Hurricane, Right Eliminate or something like that, genuinely made them look easy, than for someone who doesn't really climb much grit trad standing on a ledge and reaching the top of Life Assurance, regardless of the "numbers". I guess in a roundabout way I'm agreeing with The Verve - "The Grades Don't Work". But I don't think that matters.
I know, it really doesn't make sense sometimes! I have previously avoided getting dragged into thinking there's an issue and just riding the wave, but I've realised that there's so many routes that keep getting swept under the grade carpet that maybe (or maybe not?!) someone could voice these stand outs and take the hit. Yeah, it will make my ticklist look crap, but that's the way it is sometimes.
Hurricane, Nectar etc why not bring them in line? Didn't we all fall off Nectar at least once when we'd onsighted loads of E5s? Hurricane, I thought was harder and more scary than Committed. So why not E5?
I'm still going to make a list (fuck it, I need that kind of boredom in my life) but you're probably right Nige. Does it really matter???
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There are tons of examples like this. Is it time to roll out my Chalkstorm comment again?
Billy Whizz and Boulevard must be the most stupid example of nonsense grit grading though.
Everyone comments publicly on these lower graded route though. I think there's very few who do it at the high end. I think it's mainly because it's really hard to take the ego out of it (especially good climbers?) and also because we're all generally mates with each other and we don't want to piss on each other's fires. If Reeve went and flashed X-E7 I'd definitely find it hard to tell him I thought it was E6 because I'd think I was being unkind. Like-wise Pete, has done the 2nd ascents of some of my routes and not suggested a downgrade because I think he probably doesn't want to offend me.
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Yes that's fair enough but you were also talking about established lower grade stuff like Profit.
Top end and especially newish stuff is always going to take time to settle but doing a wholesale regrade of everything is another matter.
Actually, isn't that what guidebook writers are supposed to do?
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Isn't there an urban myth that the guidebook committee voted to down grade Sentinel crack to e2 despite none of them having managed to do it. Sort of sums up grading.
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Isn't there an urban myth that the guidebook committee voted to down grade Sentinel crack to e2 despite none of them having managed to do it. Sort of sums up grading.
I heard a version of this. Although the version I recall was that the vote was to upgrade it (possibly to E4) and the only two people to vote for the upgrade happened to be the only two out of the group voting who'd actually done it.
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Well its still E2 although top of the E2 graded list. However Emerald crack is E3 and higher up the list than Right Eliminate :o
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FWIW Tom (Randall) you are obviously correct i.e. flashable usually does mean soft, given that the grade is for an onsight, and you do have a point RE all the routes you mention. There are quite a lot of grades which seem to make no sense if that's how you measure your climbing on grit. I found it a lot easier just to give up on them and pick what you think you can do, hence why it took me about a decade after first onsighting grit E6 (and a few after doing E7!) before taking on something like Ulysses, and even then it was above a few pads and some snow. Everyone who knows the crags well is aware of this though aren't they? I mean I'd always have more respect for someone who went out and pissed up Nectar, Hurricane, Right Eliminate or something like that, genuinely made them look easy, than for someone who doesn't really climb much grit trad standing on a ledge and reaching the top of Life Assurance, regardless of the "numbers". I guess in a roundabout way I'm agreeing with The Verve - "The Grades Don't Work". But I don't think that matters.
I know, it really doesn't make sense sometimes! I have previously avoided getting dragged into thinking there's an issue and just riding the wave, but I've realised that there's so many routes that keep getting swept under the grade carpet that maybe (or maybe not?!) someone could voice these stand outs and take the hit. Yeah, it will make my ticklist look crap, but that's the way it is sometimes.
Hurricane, Nectar etc why not bring them in line? Didn't we all fall off Nectar at least once when we'd onsighted loads of E5s? Hurricane, I thought was harder and more scary than Committed. So why not E5?
I'm still going to make a list (fuck it, I need that kind of boredom in my life) but you're probably right Nige. Does it really matter???
I still think it doesn’t matter, but that’s because I tend not to use grit grades as a yardstick for judging my own or other’s climbing. I would like to see the list though, as I do think you have a point! If it helps, I thought Braille Trail was maybe E6 (HERESY!). Seem to remember Caff may have thought similar. And for some upgrade yang: I wouldn’t throw any toys out the pram if Adrenaline Rush got E6.
P.S. Yes, I fell off Nectar on numerous occasions!
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As long as The Strangler goes down and Demon Rib goes up then I'll be keen to see the list too.
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To nearly quote the enigma, FA of speak the truth, after hard grit came out "seb was doing 3 E7's a year I do 3 a week"
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As long as The Strangler goes down and Demon Rib goes up then I'll be keen to see the list too.
At E3 and higher up the graded list than Stormbringer, Requiem,Cave wall and Great slab either all the holds have fallen off or who ever wrote that list if it wasn't you ;D had taken more presciption drugs than I have.
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As long as The Strangler goes down and Demon Rib goes up then I'll be keen to see the list too.
At E3 and higher up the graded list than Stormbringer, Requiem,Cave wall and Great slab either all the holds have fallen off or who ever wrote that list if it wasn't you ;D had taken more presciption drugs than I have.
It's in the guide at E4 for now so you're both in agreement
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At E3 and higher up the graded list than Stormbringer, Requiem,Cave wall and Great slab either all the holds have fallen off or who ever wrote that list if it wasn't you ;D had taken more presciption drugs than I have.
Yeah that would be fair for The Strangler.
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The Grit List Shakedown (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/the-grit-list-shakedown/)
22 March 2013, 9:01 pm
Ok, here goes then. I’m going to break my own rules, and pass judgement on a load of route grades. Having mentioned that I’d do this a week or so ago, I was fairly surprised by the number of opinions expressed on whether I should do this or not! It’s really not the end of the world if an opinion is expressed and likewise it’s not the best thing since sliced bread. I do think it should be done now and again though – and the more people that did this in an open way (rather than anonymous forum posting/voting) the better. Please feel free to comment at the end of this blog on any others you’d like adding to the list.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rays-solo.jpg?w=225&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rays-solo.jpg)I dare not comment on the grade on this one… I’ll apologise in advance to all my friends who read this and see that I’ve moved anything downward in grade – it’s not personal…. honest! And besides, it’s only my opinion. Also as wise man Sam Hamer pointed out to me, it’s only the lines that truly matter, not the grade.
It was a total geek posting, with a ridiculously long list of those that I’d suggest move up and those that move down. However, after a few days thought, I’ve decided to keep it to those I feel most strongly about, rather than the shady areas of “soft” or “sandbag.” I’ve formatted it so that each route is in what I think is the correct grade boundary and will have brackets afterwards to show its previous grade. I’ve only moved a grade if I think it’s a total joke at the grade – I’m quite happy with some routes out there being tough or soft.
All of these routes I have lead (bar Captain Invincible which I’ve top roped a fair bit) so I hope my opinion is as measured as possible. I’ve also kept it mostly Eastern Grit based as it’s Andi T’s duty to expose those from the dark west….
Upgrades
E9: Captain Invincible, Burbage South (E8 – makes most E8s feel like E6)
E6: Shape Shifter, Millstone (E5 – sorry, bad grading. My fault)
E5: Profit of Doom (E4, Too many wads flail on this)
E5: Hurricane, Curbar (E4: proper Gogarth E5)
E5: Nectar groove & roof (E4. P Widdy even flailed on it)
The downgrades
E8: The Zone (E9 – the climbing is too easy)
E7: Power of the Dark Side (E8 – who made a bloody massive patio??!)
E6: One Chromosone’s Missing, Harstons (E7 – gear is too good)
E6: Masters of the Universe (E7 – everyone knows this one)
E6: Speak The Truth (E7 – dangerous, but the climbing is too easy)
E5: Committed (E6 – no one ever does this without pads. Ulysses or Bust is harder)
E5: Nosferatu (E6 – sorry, it just is)
E5: Peas of Mind, Curbar (E6 – crap route, too easy to step off line)
E5: Winters Grip, Millstone (E6 – hard move much too low for E6)
E4: London Pride, Millstone (E5 – no hard moves)
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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E5: Profit of Doom (E4, Too many wads flail on this)
E.g. Randy Leavitt, who I watched spend an afternoon struggling on it, in the course of which he bent the RP 4 or 5 I lent him for it beyond all recognition or repair.
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The Soft Parade (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/the-soft-parade/)
27 March 2013, 9:50 am
Although a lot of people don’t know it, my main passion in climbing is “new routing.” Everyone assumes that it’s crack climbing, but in fact, the joy that I get from climbing a new route (no matter how bad they are are sometimes!) far outweighs most other climbing experiences. I’m especially lucky to have a climbing partner in Pete who also seems to hold these values highly. I remember when he was still at school, I’d pick him up every Wednesday afternoon and we’d try and get a new route in each week without fail. Some of the quality that emerged from those trips, was utterly horrendous! I think even Grimer was disappointed in Pete’s standards…
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/summit-fever.jpg?w=455&h=342) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/summit-fever.jpg)Pete and I after another day of new routing. Whacked! There is one combination of climbing experience that trumps everything; a new route that’s also a crack. The backs of my hands tingle even thinking about it. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to find routes of this type in the UK as they form many of the most obvious lines and hence were climbed years ago.
Last week however, I struck gold and found a lovely unclimbed ultra-thin crack at Hallmoor Quarry, where I’d previously done Speak The Truth. After a session of cleaning and working out where to place the multiple RPs I gave Pete a call to tell him about the line. Once I’d explained that the crux involved a move just like the one on the mono undercut on Cobra Crack in Squamish, he was sold!!
(http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/12/06/40/2648091/6/628x471.jpg)Didier showing the way on the mono-undercut. Inspiring… Returning a few days later we found that the route was a little wet, but I knew Pete wouldn’t even entertain the thought of doing something else, so we started off on the route as a warm up. My God………. I was so pumped! Everything had seemed pretty straight forward trying the moves on abseil, but now linking everything together in the damp seemed a different kettle of fish. Topping out with arms like lead balloons, I somewhat dreaded watching Pete make it look easy. Fortunately he saved my shame and did me the gracious favour of pulling out a “Full Gurn” and I silently chuckled away on belay below.
(http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/486112_10151353216918595_313857384_n.jpg)FA of Soft Parade, E6 6b. (Photo, Mike Hutton) The next week I then came across the polar opposite to a new crack route – a prow! I’d been hunting around Gardoms Edge for a few hours and came across a fairly obscure prow tucked away in the trees that starts from half way up the crag. I’m certain it would be an easy highball if it were at ground level, but as it is, if you fluff the final tricky move you’re going a loooooong way. It was great to have a local lad Kyle Rance along to make the second ascent – big grin on his face after sketching that final move… I decided to let my 20 month old daughter name the route, so “Porride Egg” E6 6a, it is!
I gave both routes E6, but as I’ve been reminded by my own rantings about grades last week; grades can be so far out on each end of the spectrum. Soft Parade you’re not going to get up unless you’re sport climbing at least 7b+ and good on RPs, and Porride Egg you could climb as a V3 boulderer with balls. What a nightmare. I think I’ve become lost in my own mind.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Effort. Whereabouts on Gardoms is it exactly?
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Left arete of the groove that Gom Jabber takes the right arete of.
edit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=252718 (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=252718)
Banana / porridge :shrug:
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Hidden Gritstone Gems (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/hidden-gritstone-gems/)
5 April 2013, 11:36 am
The recent spell on continued cold weather in Sheffield has given me one of the best periods of climbing I could possibly hope for before going away on a trip. Normally as a Brit, you spend the last 4 weeks before leaving to sunnier places cursing the terrible weather and promising that it’s going to be a “one-way-ticket” this time. The whole of March though, has been awesome! Fresh winds, good temps and plenty of time to explore the crags that lie a little off beaten track.
One of those crags that’s a bit out of fashion is Gradoms Edge. It’s often the last to retain the damp and being hidden in the trees, it’s quite hard to get psyched for the lines. They seem so much less impressive when there’s a forest of birch and oak 10m away… Once you get onto the rock though, there are some absolutely cracking lines to do: Moyers Buttress, Spanish Fly, Stormbringer, Eye of Faith. Aside from the old routes, there are also a number of first ascent projects – probably one of the best known being the direct finish to Charlotte Rampling. Having checked this out (yes, I’m too weak) I carried along the edge and thought I’d try the moves on a line I’d heard talked about by a couple of people. The front face of the Crocodile Buttress. Immediately, I realised the climbing was brilliant. Jon Fullwood had already cleaned the holds (thanks!) and so all I had to do was concentrate on learning how to “hug” my way up the leaning prow.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/c0.199.400.400/p403x403/543091_10151377758828595_382369356_n.jpg)Top out section, where you can relax again… This week I was persuaded by Pete to go out for an early morning session to get the route done, so that we could fit a big crack training session in, in the afternoon. I’d not really worked the route very well, so was falling off the last move on link, but I trusted that Pete would give me such a good belay that I couldn’t possibly fall off. Good logic huh? End the end, we had so much fun at the crag messing around and talking crap that I completely forgot to get nervous and topped the route! Pete made the second ascent the same morning saying it was one of the best routes I’ve put up. Don’t read too much into that comment though……… I’ve established some right choss in the past! Seriously though, I think it’s a nice piece of climbing for those that like gritstone funk.
Going back to what I started saying at the beginning; it’s only 4 days until I head off to Italy with crack climbing legend Peewee Ouellet (http://www.climberism.com/local-legend-jean-pierre-ouellet/)to go and repeat some trad cracks. I’m so psyched for this trip – I’m partnering up with someone pretty mad and also because of the shear quality of lines in Cadarese and Orco. I’ve been drooling over this video of the incredible looking “The Doors” at Cadarese. We’ll be doing some work out there with Alex Ekins (http://alexekins.com/) and Hotaches (http://hotaches.blogspot.co.uk/) on a couple of projects, so I’m sure their blogs will have some nice pics at some stage…
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Italian Crack Paradise – Cadarese, Northern Italy (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/italian-crack-paradise-cadarese-northern-italy/)
12 April 2013, 9:42 am
When I was first told about a new crack climbing area in Italy, I couldn’t believe it. I was in the midst of a rush of new routing in the Orco Valley and the idea that there could be somewhere bigger, better and with more potential seemed so unlikely in a country with with thousands and thousands of climbers. As I started to be sent photos of this new area in Cadarese I realised the rumours were true. Long, perfect pitches of splitter cracks in beautiful gneiss are set in quiet woodland just an hour or so away from Milan. A trip was planned and just a few days ago I got on a plane to find out for myself.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/cadarese-pic.jpg?w=650&h=867) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/cadarese-pic.jpg)Photo: Saro Costa I persuaded Canadian crack legend Jean-Pierre Ouellet known as “Peewee” to join me on the trip as I knew this place with it’s mulitple 8a crack pitches could be combined with a trip to Orco for some more hard crack climbing. Photographer Alex Ekins has also joined us to bring his blend of Onion-based cooking and superb photography…
Arriving in Cadarese on the first day with low cloud and drizzle, we were somewhat dejected. However, after a tour from two local climbers (thanks Saro and David!) we were shown that this crag is still totally climbable in wet weather. What a dream crag for a Brit! We quickly got stuck into some warm-ups which strangely involved bolted crack climbing. I’m not really going to pass judgement on how they’ve done things here, but it was certainly a weird experience doing a 30m hand crack with only 10 quickdraws on my harness. Perhaps if we had more of this in the UK our crack climbing skills would be better??
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/c56.0.403.403/p403x403/602027_10151204297152185_334994110_n.jpg)A bunch of crack lovers in paradise. Perfetto! (Photo: Saro Costa) The highlight of my first day was doing an amazing steep 7b+ changing corners finger crack, which went at about E6 6b on perfect friend 1′s and 0.5′s. This pitch itself could rival some of the very best crack climbing in Yosemite and I started to realise why recent visitors to Cadarese include Tommy Caldwell, Yuji Hirayama, Nico Favresse and the other mental belgians to name a few.
In the afternoon of the second day, I really wanted to try a route that I’ve heard talked about for a few years now. Turkey Crack was introduced to me as a project by an Italian friend; he told me of an incredible offwidth roof crack that a number of people had tried but no one had yet freed. I was psyched to hear this, but at the time I was training for Century Crack, so my priorities lay elsewhere. When I eventually heard that Sean O’driscoll (the mad Belgian bigwaller) had completed the task I was a bit disappointed, but I knew that I was my own fault for not being more proactive.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/turkey-crack-wide-pony.jpg?w=557) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/turkey-crack-wide-pony.jpg)Wide Pony from out of the closet once more. Why not? Tying in at the start of the route I had some big friends, a full tape job and a vague promise that I might be able to get some Wide Pony action – what more can a man want?! The route travels through a perfect 6 inch roof crack that splits an 80 degree ceiling of rock. At the lip, you’re aware of the exposure as the ground lies 300ft below you – such a position! Climbing the route was a real pleasure and reminded me why I started offwidth climbing in the first place and the cherry on the top was to climb this 8a onsight. afterwards it was great to help the Italian guys with improving their technique and passing on some of the tips that I’ve learnt over the recent years. It’s so motivating to see other people come round to thinking that climbing hard offwidths is something that’s kind of cool to do.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/turkey-crack-lip.jpg?w=557) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/turkey-crack-lip.jpg)
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Tom you are a total beast, nice one. Have a great trip and please keep updating about it.
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Italian Trad Cracks: Part II (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/italian-trad-cracks-part-ii/)
19 April 2013, 1:22 pm
Over the last week, Peewee, Alex Ekins and I have continued on the mission of trying out some of Italy’s finest crack climbing. Since arriving in Cadarese, I was immediately impressed with how good the quality was and after talking to the locals, I realised there were many hard crack routes that I’d never even heard of!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/cadarese-crack-lovers.jpg?w=650&h=488) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/cadarese-crack-lovers.jpg)Meeting David Bacci, Saro Costa and Hattori Hanzo in Cadarese. Good fun! After a couple of days warming up on the cracks at Cadarese (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/italian-crack-paradise-cadarese-northern-italy/), Peewee and I went up to try an amazing splitter finger crack called The Doors, 8a+. This route didn’t even get a chance to disapppoint – not even for a single second. It’s an amazing 45m slightly overhanging finger crack that takes in almost every size possible (despite being a finger crack!) and holds back suitors with three brilliant cruxes. Climbing The Doors has to be one of my favourite climbing experiences; hard enough to be absorbing but not too difficult that you couldn’t enjoy it’s beauty and variation.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/photo_6484.jpg?w=283&h=422)Matteo making the first trad ascent of The Doors. Brilliant! Wondering what to do next, I asked some locals about suggestions for other good finger cracks and time and time again I heard the name “Profundo Rosso” an 8a+ that Yuji Hirayama had climbed during his trip in 2011. Heading down to the crag the next morning, I couldn’t believe how good the line looked – yes it had bolts in it, no it wasn’t a perfect splitter, but I loved the tsunami wave of rock that it split. Sometimes, ugly is good.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/photo-1.jpg?w=390&h=390) (http://www.alexekins.com/)That’s where these Five Ten pads go, right? Head-barring? (Photo: Alex Ekins) Starting off on the pitch, I had a rude awakening on the offwidth start; oh dear how rusty my handstacking and kneelock technique felt. After 40ft though, it narrows back to hands, but then starts to kick back to a much steeper angle. At the steepest section it pinches down to single isolated finger locks and some occasional edges to rest your poor skin on. Committing to the upper section, I felt reasonably at home and decided to ignore my doubts that I’d not be onsighting 8a+ today. At the last bolt I was faced with the dilemma of which hand to lead into the final finger lock – agh, right or left? Right or left? Lactic acid left me little choice and I stabbed upwards with intuition. I hit lucky and the choice was the right one. I reached up over the top of the crack towards to the belay and found a horrendous sloping pocket….. Dangling on the rope moments later I wondered if I’d made a bad choice, but searching around I found a hidden hold that I’d never have spotted. Oh well! I returned to finish the route the following day on the way to Orco Valley – overall a touch harder than The Doors and perhaps mid 8a+?
Coming back to Orco Valley after 2 years away has been a strange experience. I’d sort of got the “Orco Bug” out of my system, but within 5 miles of valley driving and constant spying of new lines to do I have been drawn in again. This valley is so good, I honestly think it’s the best trad climbing destination in the whole of Europe. Peewee is here with me to do Greenspit and I’m keen to work on two projects. One is the “Pura Pura” Project which I dreamt up a few years back where a long hard crack boulder problem is linked into an 8b roof crack route to create a Dani Andrada style mega 8b+/c crack route. Sure it’s ridiculous, but why not?! The second is a steep finger crack that Pete Whittaker and I have spent a couple of seasons trying, but not succeeded on. Hopefully this last winter’s cellar training will pay off….
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/photo.jpg?w=650&h=650) (http://www.alexekins.com/)Rest day climbing in Orco Valley. (Photo: Alex Ekins)
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Italian Trad Cracks: Part III (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/italian-trad-cracks-part-iii/)
25 April 2013, 7:50 pm
Each time that I book a trip to Europe for climbing, I get so excited. I dream of perfect lines, quality rock and sunny weather. These three factors are what keep you motivated during the long dark winter months slogging away on the training. There’s an ultimate reward for your sacrifice made at the altar of polyurethane resin and sanded wooden rungs. (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/baceno.jpg?w=410&h=546) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/baceno.jpg) Not this time though. On one account I feel let down. Although the first two weeks of our trip to Italy were somewhat marred by rain on the odd day, it was negotiable. Our arrival in Orco Valley for the second week however, marked a change in luck. In Orco, Peewee was there to try Greenspit and I wanted to do a link-up project and an unclimbed finger crack that I’ve tried for a couple of years now. Going back to Greenspit with Peewee was great fun and kind of relived a period of my life. Getting back on the route with Peewee brought back all the memories of good times, frustrated failures and stupid antics with Sheffield mates on the belay. Each jam seemed like an old friend that I’d not seen for ages. All a bit weird, but that’s how it felt. After showing Peewee some (decidedly dodgy!) beta, I set to work on trying a link up project I’d conjured up a while back called the “Pura Pura Project.” It links hard low-level 8a+ crack climbing into 8b route crack, with the crux right at the end. If Dani Andrada knew what a crack was, I’m sure he would approve. Maybe?! After some work, I did the first section named “The Green Shadow” and started to think about how the whole thing would feel. By that stage a rest day was top of the list as my arms, shoulders and skin were showing signs of wear. (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/peewee-kosterlitz.jpg?w=364&h=486) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/peewee-kosterlitz.jpg) Before taking the needed rest, I wanted to squeeze in a quick bit of time on the finger crack project that Pete and I have tried in previous years. I coud see that the weather was forecast to get a little worse for 2 days, so I ignored the temptation to pace myself and knew time logged on the project would be worth it. The line I wanted to try is a short, but steep and powerful finger crack. It starts at 45 degrees, hits a roof, then kicks back to 30 degrees, before attacking a final offwidth roof crack. Traditionally I’ve not been that great at really powerful climbing, so I was curious to see how my winter’s training had paid off. There were two moves at the crux on powerful finger locks that I’d not even been able to do in isolation in previous years, so this was potentially a great litmus test for improvement. Pulling into the crux sequence again, two years later, I was still dismayed by the size of the holds. The first finger lock was even poorer than I remembered, but the second matched my expectations. Frigging the gear and moves, I pulled into position to try the dyno crux off the finger lock as a starting point. Holy crap – I could do it! I didn’t expect that. Where my arms wilted in previous years, I now had a morsel of power to do something with. What a revelation. I’m sure that there are plenty of other endurance-based climbers out there like me, who will understand how amazing it is to feel – for once in your life – that there’s some muscle fibres actually doing you a favour! I was like a drug to my ego and my confidence surged. Not long after I had the even harder move setting up into the dyno done and then even whole sequences started to flow. Feeling positive about our progress in Orco – I’d got some good links, Peewee was cruising on Greenspit – we finally allowed ourselves the rest day. That day marked the turn in weather. At first it drizzled, then it poured and finally it snowed. Everything was drenched – even the roofs were soaked. Morale plummeted as Peewee wallowed in back-to-back double expressos and I, in my jumbo pack of salted peanuts. He was developing caffeine induced twitch every time the word Greenspit was mentioned and I got slowly fatter. Even our photographer Alex Ekins, was chanting in the corner of the bedroom obsessively polishing his lenses. (https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/317_27289131910_3112_n.jpg) Before we fell into a crack-deprived coma, we pulled ourselves from the depths of despair to make a decision on what we were to do with our last two days in Italy. We’d not climbed a route for 4 days and time felt so precious. As a last resort we decided to return to Cadarese to either try an unrepeated 8b crack route called “Clenched Teeth” or at the very worst do some training laps on some perma-dry bolted cracks. Adrian Samarra from Hotaches Films had joined us by this stage so I think he was a little relieved that he’d be able to film something more interesting than me and Peewee discussing whether Nico Favresse or Yuji Hirayama was our ultimate holiday bromance. Back in Cadarese, we found either mini-waterfalls cascading down our routes or cracks running with water. This left me with only one obvious option; to attempt a 7b+ finger crack in a waterfall (I hate cracks running with water). This climbing scenario actually required some very interesting climbing tactics. You had to wear your chalkbag in the front (or it filled with water), you couldn’t look upwards too much (your eyes filled with water) and no horizontal crimps were allowed (they were filled with water). Finally making it to the belay after copious amount of falling and 100% effort I was rewarded with a great feeling. It doesn’t really matter sometimes how bad a route is, or what grade it is. As long as you have a good laugh and try hard. What more can you want?! (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/once-upon-a-time-cadarese.jpg?w=224&h=299) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/once-upon-a-time-cadarese.jpg) Finally just a 12 hrs before leaving Italy, the rain stopped and we could finally try Clenched Teeth (photo below). After a few hours, I had sore fingers and long links done but alas the redpoint crux as the final move made success unlikely on that last hour. I left Italy happy though – I’d met some great local climbers, visited brilliant crags and got to measure up if my training is heading in the right direction. Hopefully, I’ll be returning again very soon. 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The Wimberry Big One; The Prow, Death and Harry Potter (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/the-wimberry-big-one-the-prow-death-and-harry-potter/)
5 May 2013, 10:22 pm
The Saturday that’s just passed has got to be one of my all time best days out on grit. Ever since the day when me, Pete Whittaker and Nige Kershaw went to Millstone and did something like 10 E6-E8s between us (mostly flashed or onsighted), I’ve been wondering when it would be surpassed. I think yesterday finally did that.
The harsh skyline of Wimberry (Rockfax.com) Often when you go out with friends at the crag, one or maybe two of you come away something really ballsy in the bag. It’s just the way it works out. One of you mops up the collective pysche and cashes in, whilst the others are often happy to support and wait their turn some other day. When myself, Pete and Nathan Lee headed up to Wimberry we all had projects that we vaguely hoped we might climb that day, but it all depended on time, temperatures, sequences and luck. By the end of the day though, the planets had aligned and somehow all three of us had succeeded. It’s strange looking back on the day now and it seems with retrospect that as each person succeeded, that made the next person even more motivated and committed. It was like a tsunami of positive gritstone force was rushing up the Wimberry slopes to push gravity the other way.
Walking back down to the car park in the evening, the collective haul was the 3rd ascent (solo) of Order of the Phoenix by Nathan, the 2nd ascent of Appointment with Death by me and the 1st ascent of the Wimberry Prow project by Pete. Bloody hell, that boy can climb! I don’t really want to steal their own respective stories which I’m sure they’re keen to share, so I’ll recall a few thoughts of my own from repeating Appointment with Death.
Sam on the first ascent of his Wimberry E9 (Photo: Adam Long) I was first introduced to Sam Whittaker’s route (AwD) on the HXS film that someone bought me for Christmas one year. I think I was climbing about E1 at the time and was utterly horrified as I watched this nutter claw his way up Wimberry using tiny gritstone pebbles for his hands and feet. It seemed inconceivable that someone could do that in a position of such danger. I could barely hold onto big crimps on a gently leaning wall, so that piece of footage lodged firmly in my mind.
Fast-forwarding 10 years I have just completed a winter of unusual training methods. Mono-boarding has become the replacement for evening TV sessions, hours of crack campussing have hardened my index fingers’ skin & I discovered some important mental tricks. Combined, those factors meant that pebbles were now my friends, my skin no longer hurt and I knew how to disassociate effectively. That said, I was still the relative weakling that all my friends know me as, but there were small forces on my side now!
After a couple of sessions on the route working the moves, I realised that the lead was inevitable, but success was not. Something really bothered me about the route and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The night before going up to Wimberry, I had the most terrible night’s sleep. I woke up twice drenched in sweat thinking about the route. I switched on my phone and googled some images of Sam Whittaker on the route. Typing the search terms into the entry box, I realised the problem. Sam had pulled a totally brilliant trick on the mind – the obsessive nature of a climber will always lead them to mull the route name over and over again in their head. In doing that the climber also unwittingly takes on the subtle reference to what might happen if it all goes wrong. It had slipped in there, so slyly I’d hardly noticed it. My problem was that for the first time in my life I was thinking about dying on a route!
(https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=f6bdbd7332&view=att&th=13e7655137c34f11&attid=0.1&disp=thd&realattid=1434226357812854784-1&zw)The Wimberry Voodoo doll lying at the bottom of the crag not really helping matters. In the early hours of the morning I had to switch my brain back into the realms of reality. I wasn’t going to die on the route – not by a long way. Sure, if it went really badly wrong I might break a leg but that’d only be if I was unlucky. Objectively the route had to be no worse than many other gritstone frightners. It was tricks of the mind. Or was it weakness of the mind?
Part 2; continued to tomorrow. (Or this post will get very long!)
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Mono-boarding has become the replacement for evening TV sessions,
(http://cdn.epicski.com/f/f7/f77745af_monoboard.jpeg)
Unusual training technique, but hey if it works!
Have you ever sen pics of a route called "(one flew over the) Cuckoo's Nest! on Table Mountain in SA btw? nice roof crack, about 7c.
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I haven't Chris. Sounds good though!!
It's the country that I was born in, so I really should go back sometime.
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Brill - well done. Remember watching Sam do the FA. I seem to recall he was most worried about a pebble snapping. I wonder if that was part of the subconscious anxiety?!
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The Wimberry Big One: Part 2 (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/the-wimberry-big-one-part-2/)
6 May 2013, 6:10 pm
This is part 2 of a blog post that I started last night – if you haven’t got a clue what’s going on, then click on this link! (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/the-wimberry-big-one-the-prow-death-and-harry-potter/)
Continued from yesterday…………
I think it was Seb Grieve that immortalised the gritstoner’s mantra, “It’s all in the mind” when he climbed the E9 6c Meshuga at Black Rocks. The self professed weakling of The Foundry had surely captured something important here – even Pete when I met him, had the words inscribed on a rucksack he used to bring to the crag. As I’ve climbed more and more over the years and more with climbers like Pete, I’ve come to realise how true that is. We’re not talking big french numbers on these routes, but we are talking big Blockbuster bills when it comes to smashing yourself up and lying around the house for a month.
Nathan Lee soloing the third ascent of Order of the Phoenix. No mistakes. (P Whittaker) So what does a middle-aged (yup I think I’m going to call myself that now) man do when he wakes up in the night thinking about dying? I play a game. A game of the mind. I need to trick myself into not going into autopilot on the route, because at the moment my mind wants to think about the ominous nature of this route and what would happen if I fell off. My rational head is completely happy with the situation, but this is often the part that we switch off when we go for big leads. So how am I going to trick myself? I hatch a plan to stay focused on the surroundings all the way up the route, to allow myself to be disturbed, to notice the sounds around me, to see holds that I won’t use and to think about each sequence as it happens. No auto-pilot this time.
Some thoughts from Sam Whittaker on his methods of mind control when making the first ascent of Appointment with Death. Interesting stuff.
Tying on for the lead at the base of the crag, I stay completely relaxed and jokey, almost as if I’m not going to make an effort. I climb the first section of the route in my trainers to the ledge and place a couple of cams. I also place a bouldering mat on the ledge as I seemed to have fallen off the first move so many times on top rope that I kind of suspect it will happen again. As I lace my climbing shoes I chat to a photographer and sing a bit of the new Pink song.
“We’re not broken, just bent. We can learn to love again…”
Man, that’s such a good song. I have to keep my voice down though or my mates will think I’m soft. Humming away to myself, feeling the breeze I pull onto the start of the route. First move passes very quickly and I’m onto the rockover that I always fall off. Hmmmm… it’s gone in a second. This is going too well. Shit, I’m doing what I normally do. I’m letting autopilot take over. Ok, what’s happening? Ah yes, someone’s talking to me. I’ll answer them. For a moment, I pull out of the dark cloud of subconscious action to remind myself of my strategy. As I pull into the next sequence though, I drift back again. Mono on pebble, move foot, adjust to two fingers, roll over to sloper. That’s not right. No, that’s definitely not right. What the fuck is going on, why does that hold feel so bad? I can feel my anxiety rising as my doubts about falling off race towards a reality. Ok, just flick the hand a little, that always works. Alan Cassidy does it all the time and he climbs 8c. Nope, that hold still feels pants. Look down to find footholds to reverse. Ah, crap. Those aren’t that close. At this point I roll out of autopilot again and glance up to the top of the crag to see someone looking over the edge looking concerned.
I’ve only cocked up on headpoint routes a couple of times over the years and it’s a strange feeling when it all starts to spin out of control. You almost feel indignant that the route has turned round to bite you. On top rope you were such good friends, hanging out, thinking about various sequences and how many options you have when you feel soooo relaxed. The sharp end is different though – it’s that quiet black dog that always sits in the corner of the pub looking unloved. It’ll put a hole in your hand if you misread its silence for docility. In that last second before parting company with the pebbles I finally force myself to look downwards to view my outcome. Dear God, yes. It doesn’t look too far. I jump.
Back on the ledge, feeling pissed off and relieved at the same time, I review my climbing. I’d over-estimated my ability to control my mind and vowed that my next effort would be more a mixture between conscious and subconscious action. I take just a few moments of time, before setting off for a second attempt. This time, I feel the balance. I can rationalise when I want to and likewise switch off when necessary. Even at the crux, I’m all four points of contact on pebbles – what a ridiculous proposition – but I’m happy with it. The route flows reasonably and I top out taking a certain joy in shouting,
“I’m alive, I’m alive!”
As I said in my previous post, I don’t want to step on Nathan and Pete’s toes when it comes to their ascents, but I would like to say a couple of things;
Nathan: I’ve watch a lot of headpoint ascents over the years by various climbers, but his performance on Order of the Phoenix was quite something. Totally business-like. I couldn’t believe that someone could dish out E8 climbing in just a couple of minutes, with no fuss, no mistakes and no ego. Brilliant. I can’t wait to see what he gets up to this coming year.
Here’s a video of him repeating my route Nah’han at the Gardoms.
Pete: The prow project (direct on Appointment with Fear) that he’s just succeeded on climbing has got to be one of the all time greatest gritstone leads. The line is totally outrageous, the climbing is high in the 8′s and there are no rests. You’ve gotta be a beast for this one. I was massively inspired watching his performance. Thanks Pete!
Everything from the day was captured by the Hotaches film crew and Mike Hutton on the stills. I’m sure if you keep up to date with what they do, you’ll see some nice pics and video footage shortly!
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I haven't Chris. Sounds good though!!
It's the country that I was born in, so I really should go back sometime.
Just tried (and failed) to find some pics online. I think there's a protection bolt on one of the lower pitches that needs dispatching!
Seems like some nice new trad routes going up on TM at the moment;
http://www.climbing.co.za/2013/04/jimbo-smith-opens-last-of-the-mohawks-on-table-mountain/ (http://www.climbing.co.za/2013/04/jimbo-smith-opens-last-of-the-mohawks-on-table-mountain/)
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Man, that’s such a good song. I have to keep my voice down though or my mates will think I’m soft.
Hehe, good stuff :2thumbsup:
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From “Wideboyz” to “Slender Gentlemen” (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/from-wideboyz-to-slender-gentlemen/)
26 May 2013, 7:33 pm
A few people that are unlucky enough to have to see myself and Pete regularly will know that we’ve spent the past winter improving on our crack climbing skills and taking things down a size or two. In fact it’s gone right down in size. We’ve by-passed hand jams and fists (aren’t they just belays anyway?) and decided to spend some time crushing our nerves in cracks of less than 1 inch.
There is method in this madness, but for the meantime bare with us! The whole experience of the “wide world” has taught us a few handy tricks and at the moment, we need to broaden the skills (and strengths) a little to take on the next little (big?!) challenge.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/finger-crack-cellar.jpg?w=234&h=312) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/finger-crack-cellar.jpg)Front 2 locks – avoid the screws though! After this winter’s training I traveled to Italy (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/italian-crack-paradise-cadarese-northern-italy/) where I got rained on for 2 weeks but I did a couple of 8a+/5.13+ finger cracks in amongst working on wet projects – a bit of a mixed trip of frustration about the weather but satisfaction in seeing improvements. Pete is currently in Sweden showing them his smorgasbord of tricks and no doubt mashing his fingers in gnarly finger cracks as well. Once we’re both back in the UK though, it’s time to really knuckle down and start working for later in the year: the difficulties have got to go up towards 8c really, or we’re not pulling our weight.
As a result of the above, we are going to revive our Wideboyz blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.co.uk/). Yes I know, it’s an abomination to enjoyment in climbing…. but what can you do?! As a little taster for this stuff to come this year (we’re making some more films with the Hotaches guys (http://hotaches.com/climbing-films/)) I’ve filmed some training footage from my cellar.
For anyone who’s interested in the whole training link details (just the individual sections shown in this clip) it’s a 100ft offwidth (8a+ ish) to V8 finger crack crux into an 80ft 8a+ roof hand crack. Guaranteed to get a sweaty brow!
And if you haven’t seen the award winning Wideboyz Film yet…. why the hell not?! Download it here (http://www.digitalgoodsstore.com/c/udeRKd/7ZeILf) and make me happy (http://s0.wp.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
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Anna Kournikova – Orco Valley Crack Mission (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/anna-kournikova-orco-valley-crack-mission/)
27 June 2013, 5:44 pm
It’s funny when you sometimes reflect on where you were years ago. In the late 2000s, whilst developing new routes in Orco Valley with Pete Whittaker, I came across this mega steep roof next to a waterfall in a small side valley called Val Piantonetto. From the road I could see there was a crack in it, but until I walked up to the base I couldn’t see the size of the amazing splitter right through the centre. Oh my God, it was like my own European “Cobra Crack.” A route that I maybe, just maybe wanted to do one day had it’s own little sister in Orco Valley. What it lacked in length, it seemed to make up for in steepness. What a find!
Since that year, I have on and off tried this route with Pete on various trips. Even during the year that we’d both successfully redpointed Greenspit we couldn’t do the crux moves and I think both of us wrote it off in our minds as just two powerful for the weak trad climber punters that we were. As a consolation prize Pete did a brilliant line that came in from the right to join the final roof of the project called “Fat Tony” which was pumpy, steep and well protected 7b+/7c climbing with an offwidth-box finish. Proper good fun!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/fat-tony.jpg?w=557) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/fat-tony.jpg)Pete on the “Fat Tony” finish. Hanging out in the box. After getting really psyched for finger cracks this year, myself and Pete have devised a new training programme of the usual ridiculous methods. As we emerged from the cellar and into the Spring it was time to see if the “pinkies” and “index monos” were on target and we booked some trips. Pete went to Sweden and crushed. I went to Italy and it mostly rained. I mustn’t complain too much, as I did get some stuff done, but ultimately I was really disappointed to not do the project that we’d found all those years before.
This last week, after a trip to Poland and Czech Republic to get scared on the sandstone towers, I headed out to Orco Valley for one last push on the project. My diary had practically no time left in it, and squeezing in 5 days of redpointing seemed a little optimistic, but when there’s no other choice…. what do you do? I partnered up with an Argentinian (but Italy-based) crack climber called Lucas Iribarren who I’d met on a previous trip. If you think you’ve met the most psyched climber ever, well this guy is more psyched! An exceptionally kind, motivated and driven partner is always brilliant and I got bags of it from him in those five days.
We split our time evenly between the FA finger crack and the “Pura Pura” project I’ve also been trying. Good progress was made on the first couple of days and both of us were making good links and Lucas was using his Thai Boxing skills (that boy can fight!) to totally school me in fist-jamming. By day three though, I was red-lining and I could barely face another jam. A rest day was in order.
Day four, I felt a lot fresher and decided to start having redpoint goes on the finger crack.
GO 1: Waaaaaaay too shaky. Nervous as hell and pumped.
GO 2: Much better, but made a silly mistake and slipped mid crux.
I now had to make a decision. I had just one day left (the next day), but only 4 hours of climbing as I had to leave the crag at 2pm to catch a plane. Despite my inner rage at having fluffed the sequence on my previous go, I held back and decided to go all out on the final day. Just two redpoints, all eggs in the basket. Go big, AND go home.
(https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=f6bdbd7332&view=att&th=13f86449f4a90aed&attid=0.1.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1)Mid crux. Two horrible locks, one big move coming. The next morning, I ate just a small breakfast hoping to keep light and went for a run to warm up my body and mind. Walking up to the crag, I felt the usual nerves that you face when picking up exam results. I played through every scenario in my head. The potential success (and various permutations) and also the feeling of disappointment if it all went wrong. Whatever happened though, I knew I’d give absolutely everything. To give myself even more advantage I decide to climb on just one side of a Sterling 8mm half rope and cut the gear down on the crux to a single small nut protecting the deck. Why not, I thought. I’ve got my BMC insurance booked, right?
GO 1: Good start and feel fresh after the first third. I enter the crux, slight twist of the hips on the hardest move, then I’m at the last move. Shit, the last hard move! Throw long…. throw long….. aahhh! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Fingers slap the break but I’ve not given it enough.
(https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=f6bdbd7332&view=att&th=13f864fe4d2fa35f&attid=0.1.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1)Anna Kournikova, short & sweet. FINAL GO: Ok, I’ve got just two hours before leaving to the airport and we still need to get “set-up” shots with film maker Adrian Samarra. As I pull off the ground I tell myself that this is it. No more messing. As I approach the hard move to gain the rest at one third I look down. Bollocks, I’ve forgotten the Friend 4. It’s on the ground. Bollocks, bollocks. I run it out, praying that I don’t fall on this section. Entering the crux, I snatch my way through the moves to arrive at the final throw from a terrible 2-finger lock. YESSSSSSSSS……! I latch the hold in the break. Oh God……………… for some reason I can’t contract my forearm muscles and I can’t hold the break. What? WHAT?! Screaming out in anger I swear at every person and think I can think of and realise that I’ve blown it. No redpoint, no glory, and at least a month of despair until I can return.
Back on the ground, both Lucas and Adrian are mega supportive. I can see they’re gutted for me and look as disappointed as I feel. Looking at my phone, I see the time and know that we have to leave in just over an hour. As I look at the clock on my mobile, cogs start to whir in my brain and I begin to rationalise that somehow I can fit in one last go. One final, final desperate fling. I know I’ve not got time to rest properly and I know I’ll be making Adrian sacrifice on his set-up shots, but I can’t bare to accept the failure.
Working out a minute-by-minute timetable, I tie in for the very last time with Adrian already preparing the fixed ropes and cameras for when I fail. I know all hope has gone, but at least now I’m free of the pressure and I can try without the realistic expectation of succeeding.
FINAL FINAL GO: First section goes badly, but importantly, I do remember the Friend. I feel weak on a hard fist jamming move, but my mind feels free as I know I’m climbing crap and I’m tired. At the recovery point though, I feel light and the temperature of the rock is perfect. I pull through the next sequence of hard finger jams with conviction and despite the lactic acid in my arms, I reach the final throw again. This time, there is no doubt though. I hit the hold perfectly and although I still struggle to hold it, I grimace a little harder and success is in my grasp. After a shake out, I fumble my way through the upper E5/7a-ish offwidth section (I’d not climbed it for 3 years so no idea what I was doing!) and top out with a huge smile across my face. What an end to the trip. With so little time left! With no time to bask in the glory, I immediately start rigging ropes and gear ready for Adrian to film further sequences. Just 30 minutes later we are down at the car, playing AC/DC at full volume and laughing our way to Turin Airport. What an end to a trip!
Yes…. I can go home and Lucas can get rid of me! So the essential details of the routes? I’ve named it “Anna Kournikova” after the lovely tennis player that graced our screens for a few years. I’m going to go with the grade of 8b+ as it’s certainly the hardest bit of crack climbing I’ve done away from Century Crack. Relative to the other two hardest cracks in Italy (Greenspit 8b & A Denti Stretti 8b/+) I thought it was a significant level above as it took me quite a bit of time and never felt easy even when I did it. Compared also to other things like Profundo Rosso 8a+ and The Doors 8a+, it’s in a totally different league. Although it’s quite a short route, it really packs a punch and I always felt like there was an easier way to do the crux, but none of them worked once you actually climbed into the sequence! All in all, it’s a bit like Mecca at Raven Tor, but in a finger crack. Lovely huh?!
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You Can’t Win Them All (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/you-cant-win-them-all/)
22 October 2013, 8:44 pm
One of the big aims for 2013 was to improve my finger crack abilities – the usual methods of systematic analysis of what was needed were applied. I needed better Front-2 strength, more strength in my pinkie in the “drag position” and really good shoulder power endurance amongst other things. Once I (and Pete) had this worked out, we set about training really hard. That’s the easy bit, right?!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/1229920_10151373007702168_216261974_n.jpg?w=200&h=300) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/1229920_10151373007702168_216261974_n.jpg)Who said monos aren’t fun? What we realised was that it’s all very well to do the training to increase performance, but how do you know you’re actually improving? Does a Front-2 deadhang set on an 18mm edge lay down on rock? Would a pinkie mono on a beastmaker really make every crack move a rest?
Question 1: Yes!
Question 2: Not really and ended up injuring me.
So what I did, was make a list of finger crack routes in Europe that I wanted to do during 2013 as a way of measuring my gains. I could try a number of real routes on real rock to see how it was going. I booked some trips to Italy and I reminded myself of some UK crack projects. Whilst the Italian cracks went well (8a-8b felt ok), it was the UK lines that were probably the hardest, move for move. It’s all very well pulling off 8a+’s on cracks, but it’s not exactly pushing the envelop is it?
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/tomdinascrck2.jpg?w=300&h=200) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/tomdinascrck2.jpg)Entering the low crux on Dinas Project (c) Simon Rawlinson There’s two obvious finger crack projects that I know of in the UK. One is at Dinas Rock in Wales and the other is the infamous finger crack right of Ramshaw Crack. With a couple of sessions over the years on the latter, I have always found the moves totally out of my league. It’s not really route climbing. It’s crack campussing! Three simple, very hard, very painful moves. I guess it’s the epitome of crack power. Climb that and you’ve got the power reserves to climb 9a on crack.
Anyway, back to the other project. Dinas Rock. It’s been a line that I’ve actually dabbled on for over 2 years now (or is it 3?!) and it’s somewhere in the same league and style as Anna Kournikova (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/anna-kournikova-orco-valley-crack-mission/). Short, very steep, in your face all the way, and even less rests than its Italian sister. It climbs a 3 bolt old sport route to some chains and then continues through an 80 degree finger roof crack on small nuts. The sequence of climbing is absolutely awesome and I was so psyched when I worked out how to put everything together. Every move seems to “wrong hand” you, so half of the difficulty is puzzling out the way to move upwards.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/tomdinascrack-1.jpeg?w=300&h=200) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/tomdinascrack-1.jpeg)Feet first rules at the lip (c) Simon Rawlinson This year I put some serious effort in trying to climb this line. I was sure that it would be great preparation for Cobra Crack and would also allow me to measure if my strength and power was increasing. Over 4 weekends this summer I relearnt the sequence and started to have redpoints. Each time though, I got shut down on one move. I could do it in isolation, but it was just too close to my strength limit to do when I’d got very slightly pumped. I resigned myself to only trying the route when the conditions were perfect (condensation can be terrible at Dinas) and started making isolated trips to Dinas, trying not to think about the 4hr drive each way. As I got closer to the route, I got more and more motivated and sleeping in the carpark after arriving at 1am the previous night seemed worth the chance of climbing route. In one desperate moment, I even went to try the route on the way to the airport to go to Canada! All was to no avail though, and I ended up going to try Cobra without having completed my “training goal”
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_5946.jpg?w=300&h=225) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_5946.jpg)Hard floor, happy times sleeping under the route Returning from Canada having done Cobra, I knew I was on seriously limited time. I guessed at around 4 weeks of possibly friendly conditions before the rain arrived. I found a couple of days free after returning from the E.O.F.T in Germany (http://www.eoft.eu/?ref) and went back for what I thought would be the formality of finishing off the route (I mean, it can’t be harder than Cobra can it?!). On day two I climbed through the crux and found myself at the last hard move. It was so strange… I’d not really worked out how it would feel to get there. How hard would I have to try? Did I need to go static when pumped? Did I really have to shake my foot out, or could I ignore the numbness?
FUUUUUUUUCK…… I fumbled the hold. I was off.
Strangely back at the ground I felt an unexpected feeling. I was psyched out of my mind. Despite the fact that ultimately I’d failed, I found the enjoyment of the climbing so satisfying. I chuckled to myself that I could find such a great piece of climbing on a small limestone roof hidden away in the Welsh valleys. For once, I wasn’t disappointed with a lack of result. I was inspired by the process.
As I sit here writing this, I know that realistically the season is over. Dinas Crack won’t be mine this season, but I gave it everything I could. I slept at the base, I spent nights in the car park in my cold van and I gave up days at work just for the slim chance the conditions might be good. This whole process has reminded me how much I love climbing and why I’m prepared to sacrafice so much for it.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Fast Grit (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/fast-grit/)
19 November 2013, 11:25 am
One of my favourite things about climbing with Pete is that he loves a silly challenge. It doesn’t matter whether it’s painful, tiring, embarrassing or just ridiculous – he’s up for it. I’ve climbed over 500 routes in a day with him, lead Master’s Edge dressed as a transvestite and various animals and also completed the Staffordshire Nose Challenge.
It’s this “Nose” challenge that I’ve actually grown to be most fond of. It’s an interesting mixture of competitive speed climbing and brutal gritstone crack climbing. Not exactly the day out that most people enjoy, but who said climbing was supposed to be easy?! The task of the day is set out as follows:
1. Climb all of the Brown and Whillans routes in 24hrs at Ramshaw, Hencloud & Roaches
2. Both members of the team must climb each route cleanly and in any order.
3. The clock starts at the first route and finishes when the seconder tops out the last route.
4. Beat Andi T’s time!!!
Over the last few years, the challenge has morphed from one where the aim is simply to complete it in 24hrs (it’s actually blooming’ hard) to trying to better the fastest time it’s been done in. Last year the Staffordshire Hotshots (Andi Turner and Pete Bridgwood) (http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68230) broke mine and Pete’s time to set a new record at 8hrs 41mins. They’d prepared well and got some really good section times in, especially at the Roaches. With the record broken, Pete and I started to get really psyched. It was just like Hans Florine and Dean Potter on the Yosemite Nose…. times were coming down and non-serious rivalries developed!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/224190.jpg?w=530) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/224190.jpg)
Andi T & Pete doing an “Uber-Huber” © Dave Hudson
Last week – after a preparation day the week before – Pete and I went for the record. We were pumped up and amped to the max. I’d even persuaded Pete that stopping for lunch was NOT an option. As we waited at the base for our start time, we felt apprehensive as both of us had a developed a need for frequent toilet stops. I’d eaten a month’s worth of Clif Bars at the Kendal Film Fest the day before and I was paying the price. Guy Van Greuning (http://vimeo.com/guyvg) came out to capture the day’s action on film (by the look of his face at the start I think he couldn’t believe that two climbers could be such idiots and still contemplate this day out!).
The day actually went very badly considering all things. The main problem was that only one route on the whole day was actually dry, due to a claggy mist that enveloped all three crags and later rain. Fortunately one of the first routes that we had to do was the dry one, so somehow Pete and I focussed on the positivity of this and pushed on. After an hour or so, it started to rain and things got fairly critical. Pete’s lead of Dorothy’s Dilemma (very bold E1 5b) was “scarier than Meshuga” in his words and I very nearly fell of seconding it as I tried to pull on holds that resembled bars of wet soap. By the time we’d reached Hencloud and 16+ routes were under our belts, we had entered the zone of no return. We were screwed and we knew it. Our trousers and tops were soaking wet, our shoes were drenched and chalk didn’t seem to do very much except colour the rock.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/img_9464.jpg?w=650) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/img_9464.jpg)
On our preparation day we’d been careful about cleaning our shoes, making sure there were no damp spots on the rubber and coiling the rope carefully. Now, at 1pm on Hencloud we were soloing Main Crack with feet that were so wet that any drying was hopeless. The water seemed to emanate from within! Fortunately Pete and I had a secret weapon. Neither of us ever admit to the other person that we should probably give up. We know that as long as the fateful words are not spoken then failure isn’t an option until literally someone can’t drag themselves up another single move.
That did nearly happen at Ramshaw though. I was seconding Masochism (how the hell is that HVS???!!) and reached a point of total exhaustion. I was smoked. I couldn’t breathe and my arms wouldn’t bend. I’d gone all-body anaerobic and Pete just sat above shouting words that made me feel like a hero.
“Yes! Nice Tom. You’ve got that. Stick it. STICK IT!”
I felt like a deadman walking. Deadman climbing? Somehow his unrealistically optimistic words booted me in the arse and I crawled upwards. I don’t know how. It was so close I felt like I’d just topped out on Century Crack again. In fact I think I might have tried harder on Masochism?! Just half an hour later Pete lead Ramshaw crack in soaking wet conditions and I joined him at the top, slithering into a pile of Tom-shaped clothes. Guy was screaming, Pete was screaming and we were over the moon to get a new record time of 5 hrs and 53 mins. What a day and so happy to have had those two guys to have enjoyed it with. Think I might do a bit more of this!
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Nice one. Off to Yosemite next year then?
Epic fail in the pose-off though. Standards need to be maintained.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Stone_Masters_in_front_of_El_Capitan.jpg/436px-Stone_Masters_in_front_of_El_Capitan.jpg)
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Mighty fine effort. I intended to climb in Staffs on that day, turned up saw the crags and drove straight back east. Gopping it was.
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Very impressive, even more impressive in the wet! :clap2:
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Saw you guys going a bunch of the routes on the lower tier. Slippery Jim certainly seemed to be living up to its reputation. Looked positively minging! Top effort. :bow:
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(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Stone_Masters_in_front_of_El_Capitan.jpg/436px-Stone_Masters_in_front_of_El_Capitan.jpg)
Weird. I was thinking about that photo today, haven't seen it in 20 years, juist popped into my mind about lunctime today. spooky.
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Thanks guys. I really hope that more people try this challenge as it's a great way of getting all day fitness. Anyone who's off to the Valley next year - this day out is perfect!
Someone capable could definitely beat our time again, by a reasonable margin. Just gotta be psyched and like a bit of a mauling.
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Gritstone Esoterica (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/gritstone-esoterica/)
26 November 2013, 11:43 pm
Earlier this year I spent quite a bit of time – too much time – working on a first ascent down at Shining Cliff (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/gritstone-new-routing-my-kai/). It was a short gritstone route that linked hard bouldering in with some bold route climbing and produced a really cool bit of physically hard climbing. I’d not really spent much time up until that point trying grit routes that featured climbing above about 7b+. I guess this is because you can climb loads of E6s and E7s in good style without having to go above this! Once you try and step outside of this zone though, it’s pretty much obligatory to be pulling somewhere in the region of 7c-8a.
One of the Wild Country reps, James Blay came down with me to Shining Cliff on the day that I wanted to do it. I’d not really prepared him with the brief that he’d be filming me soloing, but I knew he could handle the task! He’s mates with Ned Freehally, Michele Caminati and all those wads, so he must see that kind of stuff all the time right? James?
Well, he survived the experience and me gibbering around like a scared fool and enjoyed himself so much that he even got round to editing a video short of the route – THANKS JAMES!! I have to put this bit in capitals, as he went out of his way to put this together. Nice one mate.
On a side note I’d also like to congratulate Ethan Walker (http://ethanwalkerclimbing.blogspot.co.uk)for making the second ascent of this route. Whilst it might not appear that it’s something that’s off the radar in terms of difficulty, he’s really impressed me by doing something that’s technically hard but also esoteric. There’s no real reward of the big lights for doing this route as it’s stuck in a backwater and you’ve got to do it for yourself. What also makes me think that this lad will go far (sorry to embarrass you Ethan if you’re reading this) is that he also did Unfamiliar at Stanage recently. This is yet another route that’s actually got hard climbing and not just a “bold stroll” once you know the moves.
I’m pretty certain that when you combine this attitude of being prepared to travel off the beaten track and tick the “low-lights” for little reward, then there’s great potential. People often go on about what it takes to be a talent in climbing and my personal opinion will always weight a lot towards those who will follow the path a little less trodden and with unbending, unwavering consistency. No backing down. No loss of psyche. These guys go to the top. Nice one Ethan.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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A Start to the End of the Gritstone Season? (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/the-start-and-the-end-of-the-gritstone-season/)
6 March 2014, 7:41 pm
As many of us are aware it’s been a strange collection of weather conditions over the last couple of months and it’s basically been a choice of venues based on which indoor wall is quietest. Local boy Ethan Walker commented on this recently on his blog and pointed out that whilst we can all moan about the wetness, at least we’re indoors getting a little bit stronger….
Finally last week I felt like things took a turn for the better and I immediately reminded myself of the routes that I’d abandoned 2 months ago due to damp. First was a boulder-route link up at Higgar and the other being Captain Invincible at Burbage. The Higgar Tor line has been in the back of my mind for absolutely ages since I saw a thread on UKB about the direct start being done (http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php?topic=10611.0) by Ed Brown (Block and Tackle Direct 7B+) and someone saying in the forum that it’d be good to climb that straight into Block and Tackle E6 6c.
When a windy day arrived in amongst the showers last week I packed everything up and got a belay off a mate. When we arrived at the crag it was blowing an absolute hooley which was good for dry rock but not exactly that easy to warm up. After working out an easier method of doing the direct boulder problem (just jump!) at maybe Font 6C it was promising that it’d all link up. Half an hour later and having flailed around even more on the boulder problem I scraped my way up the whole thing for a really rewarding first proper route of the gritstone season. Guy Van Greuning the Sheffywood Film Magnate has made a short video about the ascent, so I’ll post that up very soon.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/image7.jpg?w=520&h=293) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/image7.jpg)Setting up for crux on Block and Tackle E6 6c (c) Guy Van Greuning Having got that route under my belt I then got really hopeful that my main winter’s project of Captain Invincible might be possible. I’d got really frustrated since Christmas with the holds always being damp or wet but over 5 days of windy conditions had to be good. Surely, surely?!
This route has been a big motivating factor for me in my climbing this winter mainly because it’s one that I’d always written off as being too hard. It was done by Sean Myles at the peak of his abilities and repeated by another Peak master – Robin “The Pocket” Barker. When I’m climbing harder routes I’ve always tended to match myself up in terms of ability with the ascentionists to know if I’m ready for something and I have to confess that those guys always seemed a bit out of my league. Their ascents of this route on the front face of the Cioch block at Burbage have been shrouded in mystery and confusion, mainly due to a lack of information. Not much in the BMC guidebook, nor in the new Peak Rock book and even a google of it brings up not much more than “8b on dubious pegs.”
When I first started working this route before Christmas, it was a bit of a wake up call. I couldn’t even do some of the moves after a few sessions of working, which is never promising. After a while I also tried going on it with a few people who I’d consider being really strong to see if they could show me the way and that I’d just mis-read it all. Nope. I was just not pulling hard enough! Maybe that was what I needed though, as it meant I put my mind into a new gear and decided to get a bit more gnarly. That means for me, going down The Climbing Works, doing some campussing and back-3 finger boarding. I know that’s probably pretty normal for many of the Sheffield boys, but that’s big changes for me! No more cracks. No more hiding behind endurance.
A Christmas of training, a New Year of training and finally Jan & Feb training, finally got me to the base of Captain Invincible last week ready for a lead attempt. Andy Reeve (more E9 belay ticks than Pete’s mum probably?) had come out for moral support after nailing his heel on another one of his weekly grit forays and seemed psyched that I’d chosen to go for the lead just a few hours before needing to go and catch a plane to Spain. Nothing like a bit of pressure.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/img_1409.jpg?w=520&h=780) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/img_1409.jpg)Last break before crux of Offspring E5 6b. Photo (c) Andy Reeve In the end the lead went brilliant and unusually for me, I felt pretty solid on it. There was a bit of waver in the middle where it gets a little interesting if you were to fall there, but I could hear Reeve’s voice below pushing me on. Once you get to the last break (see photo) then you’re into the crux of Offspring and I made sure I shook out fully knowing at least one of the previous ascentionist had fallen here. What an absolute heartbreaker. I’d already pulled on a “back 3″ like it wanted to break my fingers and twisted a pinky mono until I winced, so I had no desire to do that again. I still hurts a bit thinking about it now.
Overall I thought the route was absolutely amazing, mainly because it’s so unlike many of our hardest grit routes in the UK. It’s actually physically hard, you need to be sport fit, there’s toe hooks, heel hooks, mono’s and slopers. Everything you’d want to take to a desert island I suppose. It’d need to be a cold desert island mind….
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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E is for Experience (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/e-is-for-experience/)
17 March 2014, 11:45 pm
I know “E” is supposed to stand for “Extreme” when it comes to grading, but recently I’ve tried to have a very different take on it. In just the last couple of days I completed a first ascent project at Millstone that many people would think is for all the wrong reasons. It’s not a king line, it’s not the best quality rock and it’s certainly not likely to get a repeat.
Why’s that I hear you ask?
Well let me start by talking about the last two “dangerous style” routes I did on grit; The Zone and Appointment with Death. Both left me feeling a little unsatisfied. The Curbar E9 wasn’t quite as dangerous as I imagined (especially not after Oli Grounsell unwisely took the tester fall and was ok!) and the Wimberry E9 wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. Yeah I know I should just take the tick and be happy with it, but in reality I wanted to really push myself in both dimensions. Hard climbing. Hard consequences.
This lead me to scouting around the gritstone edges looking for something that I thought would be of 8a or more to top rope but one where a fall during the hard climbing would lead to hospital. I needed it to be so uncompromising that there was no shirking away from the reality of the situation. If I wanted it, it had to be for the experience.
When I abbed down the wall right of Master’s Edge at Millstone I had a good feeling that I’d found the right thing. You could get to the shot holes and then break out on the wall right and climb up on small edges and blunt undercuts running it out 45ft from the shot holes before meeting safety again. The best thing was that the crux was on slightly snappy edges and at a height where you’d gone beyond the zone of the jug height on Master’s Edge. Nice huh?
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/image17.jpg?w=650) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/image17.jpg)Photo by Guy Van Greuning – do not use photo without permission. Well not really. Each session I had on the route working it, I felt pretty sick thinking about the seriousness of the route. I think it’s either the mark of a truly psychological route or me getting old. I continually brushed and flexed the holds working out which ones were the most reliable and in the end found a good sequence. Sure the odd one broke, but that was just a reminder that I couldn’t f*&k up. I liked that.
When I eventually decided on Sunday to go for the route I was really lucky that the weather was terrible. It was blowing an mini-gale and it was like Patagonia standing on top of Millstone. This meant that psychologically I had no pressure from the route. It had already given me a “get out” and so I only needed to do it if things felt absolutely perfect. The guys at the crag knew it was unlikely as well, so what harm was there in throwing one optimistic top rope on it, just to see how much I’d get blown about. As I warmed up, it became evident that conditions were actually rather good despite the strong gusts. I smiled to myself and thought about how the route had lured me in and now I was ready. I felt calm and accepting of the factors involved.
Setting off on the lead I climbed calmly up to the shot holes and explored my head. Everything felt good. I noticed that I’d placed the cam in the hole slightly wrong, but rather than taking this as a portent I simply noted it and stood up into the next sequence. Just before breaking out right into the hard climbing I had a quick shake of the arms and was amazed to feel good. It was just too good. I felt like I was on a VS. Slap out to side pull…. adjust feet….. slap again…. adjust feet again. GOOD. Bone that foothold. Reel that f*&ker in…. slow…. crimp. Bite the tips….pull it hard and slap to undercut…. YES. Ok…. go big now. No thoughts….
OOooop. Yikes. Just for a second or two I fumbled a hold and broke out of the mist. No mistakes though Tom, this is proper. Back in.
Shake the wrist. Flick, flick. Ok…. in control. High step on the snappy hold. Be accurate. Rock up…. crimp….. crimp…. crumbly hold…. just take it EASY. Hold it light. It’s bomber. Roll out and hit the match…
And then it all came flooding in. The sequence was done and it felt flipping amazing. What a rush. I now just had 20ft of soloing on mellow edges to enjoy on an ocean of millstone wall. What a complete pleasure. It was insane how good I felt in those few moments. Everything I wanted in an experience was right there in just a few Sunday morning minutes. I knew instantly that I didn’t need a hit like that for a very long time indeed. If ever.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Last two entries are totally brilliant. Brilliant climbing AND brilliant writing.
Congratulations for both.
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Nice one Tom - we watched you top rope it on Friday morning after we'd had a brief chat at the top of The Mall and it looked like you were being incredibly gentle on the rock, so it's good to read about your reasons why.
Total effort :2thumbsup:
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Great commitment and write up Tom. Strong effort!
It's always good to read about what goes on in someones mind on bold routes.
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Tom,
Sorry if this has been covered but does the route break right from the shot holes or do you go higher up before breaking right ?
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Wideboyz 2 Download (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/wideboyz-2-download/)
10 April 2014, 1:19 am
Well, that was an exciting weekend! Just a few days ago was the premiere of Wideboyz II at the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (http://www.shaff.co.uk). Unlike the viewing of the first film of Century Crack, I got to have a sneak peak of the unfinished product and I have to say it made the night feel quite a bit calmer.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/img_0160.jpg?w=584&h=875) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/img_0160.jpg)Cobra Crack (c) Paul Diffley, Hotaches I remember sitting in a Kendal cinema 2 years ago for Wideboyz I and absolutely crapping my pants. I’d never been in a climbing film before, let alone one that had my face plastered all over it. This time, knowing that Chris Prescott and Paul Diffley from Hotaches (http://hotaches.com)had made an amazing job was reassuring to say the least. I know it seems a foregone conclusion, but when your year’s climbing efforts are in the spotlight it’s not quite so easy to be casual about. Maybe I shouldn’t care so much, but then again, I’m only human!
So far the production has won Best Climbing Film already at ShAFF which is ace and John Coefield has written a very complimentary review on UKC here (http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=6246). As ever Pete and I will be doing a Europe-wide lecture tour to support the film, so please do give us a shout if you’re keen to see and hear about Pete’s sausage fingers, my nude top rope of Cobra or how you train for 8c on a 8ft wooden crack….
Download Wideboyz 2
Much like Wideboyz I, the film is available to download directly here and all you need to do is click on this link. (http://mydgs.co/Id4Atd/7ZeILf) It’ll take you straight to the download page where you can access it direct to your computer. Simple eh?!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photo-5.jpg?w=584&h=438) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photo-5.jpg)
DVD Hard Copies
You can also order DVD hard copies of Wideboyz I or II through my blog (simply comment on this post and I will email you) for £20 incl P&P.
Finally……………….
As an extra something in case you’re not into all the crack climbing – I mean, who is…? – then here’s a short video (http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/one-mistake-on-this-route-will-kill-you-%7C-dont-expect-anything-normal-with-tom-randall-ep-3/275596?header_b=1&b=1) made by Guy Van Greuning about the recent first ascent of Pure Now E9 6c. (http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68789) Hope you enjoy it.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/screen-shot-2014-04-10-at-02-08-40.png?w=584&h=325) (http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/one-mistake-on-this-route-will-kill-you-%7C-dont-expect-anything-normal-with-tom-randall-ep-3/275596?header_b=1&b=1)
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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The Gondo Crack Project (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/the-gondo-crack-project/)
30 May 2014, 9:10 am
One of the things that keeps me really motivated, is having first ascent projects. It’s the lure of always knowing that there’s something just round the corner, that’s a smidge out of reach. This year, I’ve got 3 main crack projects on the books, which is probably a bit ambitious! One, which is totally possible when it stops raining in the UK, another which is probably a bit beyond me and one more that is just right.
I’ve been looking for something that was the next step up from Cobra in finger crack terms and last year I was introduced to it on the border of Italy and Switzerland. Those who know me, won’t be surprised to know that I actually thought it was in Italy for nearly a year, despite crossing the border each time to try it!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_1037.jpg?w=300&h=225) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_1037.jpg)
The Gondo Crack project was originally envisaged by local Italian legend Allesandro Manini (http://www.up-climbing.com/it/news/falesia/alessandro-manini-8c-in-ossola)- this is the man who’s probably contributed more to cutting edge Italian crack climbing than any other; Profundo Rosso 8a, Denti Stretti 8b/+, Lapoterapia 8c are all very beefy crack lines established by a man of Moon and Moffatt’s generation. The Gondo project, however, has eluded him since his first attempts on it in 1999 and he’s been kind enough to let me try it. I’ve also been really lucky in meeting a local climber, Lucas Iribarren (http://www.haukkari.net/2013/07/roadtripping-turkey-crack-8a.html) who’s psyched out of his mind to climb hard cracks. He’s done many of the local hard climbs and most importantly, is just a little mad like me. That always helps!
(https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_0944.jpg?w=584&h=777) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_0944.jpg)
The route is located near the village of Gondo and forms a thin crack line on a leaning wall – I would guess it’s around 15 degrees overhanging. The first part of the line is a pretty nice introduction into the horrors that lie above, with 7c climbing on pretty pokey gear. All the holds are pretty reasonable, but none are massive and there are no rests…. it slowly wears you down and takes the edge off whilst placing the gear. This section then deposits you at a good resting hold at three quarters height via a slightly scary jump/slap move (well, it is for trad climbers who hate being dynamic!).
After this, the real meat starts. There’s some set up moves on side pulls and a couple of finger jams and then one good position from which to place your last gear. It burns your shoulder muscle like nobody’s business, but it’s worth it to place the offset nut properly as it’s your last piece of gear. From this, you make a long lock to probably the hardest finger jamming move I’ve ever done. A single, shallow finger in a tiny slot to make a full length move to the next jam. Think 1-4-8 on the campus board. After this, you take a small gaston, slap to a sloper, then reverse your finger into a “Cobra-style” undercut mono move. Build your feet and then pull off a total max body length move to a three finger edge. At this point you’re desperately wanting it to be all over, but from here you have to single arm deadhang the edge (I’ve been telling people for years that one arm pull ups are useless and then I find one!) and do what feels like a one-armer on it as the foot hold is so poor. Just a couple of sloper moves after this then lead to a belay and hopefully not a fall…. it’d be brown pants time from there!
(https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_0926.jpg?w=584&h=777) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_0926.jpg)Yet another route that’s destroys your skin!! Well, as I write this I’m sat here in Italy (yes I’m definitely in Italy and not Switzerland) with only one day left on my third trip to try this route. I’ve got all the way through to the last hard move now, but the conditions are not favourable. The temperatures are high, there’s no wind and humidity is right up there with my local sauna. I guess I better hope to get lucky on the last day huh?
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Failure Hurts (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/failure-hurts/)
5 June 2014, 11:27 am
One of the best blog posts that I’ve read recently, comes from British climber Mina Wujastyk (http://www.minalesliewujastyk.com/world-cups-and-a-missing-mojo) about her recent experiences on the world cup scene and how her levels of motivation in climbing were fluctuating hugely. It wasn’t the quality of the writing or the photos that got me psyched, it was the barefaced honesty of it. These days it’s actually pretty rare to read something from an athlete (particularly a climbing one) that lays down some of the truths about how hard it is when things are going wrong or when they’re suffering. Perhaps we all want to appear superheroes, or maybe it’s just plain hard to say we’re hurting?
I’ve just arrived back in the UK this week feeling pretty miserable. Last week I went out to try and complete the Gondo Crack project (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/the-gondo-crack-project/) that I’ve spent a fair bit of time working on and I failed. I was climbing really well, my head felt amazing and I wasn’t making any mistakes but yet I still didn’t succeed. On the final day, in the final hour (yes I was going for an all out, just before catching the plane attempt!) I grasped the finishing hold with my fingers, but they uncurled and my body hurled downwards. Swinging around on the end of the rope, I knew I’d given everything and it was over. Everyone at the base of the route looked towards the ground and I could feel a sense of disappointment that the person they’d tried to push upwards with screams of encouragement had fallen short.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_10291.jpg?w=650&h=867) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_10291.jpg)Looking for psyche?? During the last visit to Italy (I stay in Italy, but travel over the border each day to try the project) I was privileged to meet so many people from the Ossola climbing community. These guys are incredibly passionate about their region and visiting various houses during the trip was constantly opening my eyes to this. There were always photos on the walls of alpine adventures, multi pitch new routes, topos and climbing pioneers up in frames. The history of climbing here is just as rich as ours back at home and the characters involved in the development are real legends. I think it has been the influence of this crowd here in Italy that has made me so determined to succeed on Gondo Crack. They’ve made me believe that putting in extra effort to something that seems unattainable is worth it and when I see each of their faces, I know they’ve already been through that experience. The ups, the downs and the shear hard work.
Being back in the UK again has been really tough, I won’t lie. On the first day back I allowed myself a day off from training (I desperately wanted to punish myself for not succeeding) and spent time relaxing with family and friends to give myself a break from the intensity. Whilst it felt good to chill out, I couldn’t get my head out of gear and I felt like my mind was still pedalling at a breakneck speed towards a certain belay I’d failed to clip.
The next day I felt like I need to start training early. I didn’t want to miss out on any more time and I needed to understand what my body was asking me to do next – did I feel on form to push to another level or was more time out needed? Within 10 minutes, I knew the answer. After just one lap of a hard crack circuit I felt like crying. I had nothing. Suddenly my mind had joined my body and I finally knew that I needed to accept that I’ve got to allow myself some time. Time to reward myself for actually giving 100% to the project and for not flying out from that country thinking I could have given more. I couldn’t. And I should be flipping psyched about that.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_0997.jpg?w=650) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_0997.jpg)
The problem is, that all of us who want to push ourselves in sport are generally quite hard on body and mind. We rarely savour the thrill of succeeding and often reward ourselves in a fairly transient way. Just think about the last project that you completed – did you have a big celebration afterwards, take 2 weeks holiday from climbing and write it down somewhere that you’ve achieved your goal? I suspect not. I would put money on most of us having a meal out / drink in the pub with mates and then getting stuck into training or climbing again within 2 or 3 days. The problem is, that this isn’t a realistic way forwards in the long term. Whether we succeed or fail on a project I think we need to recognise that the huge length of “build up period” that we put into these things deserves a longer “reward period” to balance out the mind and body. For that reason, I’m now on a beach holiday in South Wales and I’m pleased (I didn’t grit my teeth honest…) to say I am not training for a whole 6 days. Yes, that is SIX days.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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I suspect all but the most arrogant of climbers realise that most people don't want to hear folk moaning about their climbing! Climbing is a pointless and often selfish activity, when you're psyched it can be hard to keep things in perspective. I agree, I thought Mina's blog was superbly written. It struck a chord because we've all had those times when we lose our 'mojo' and feel a little lost, though most of us probably haven't worked as hard as she has in their climbing and 'put themselves out there' like she has, especially with the British team crowd funding effort. Taking time out for a while is usually all that's required, or just stepping back and doing some easy trad or whatever. But you're never going to get much sympathy from others just because you failed on your project, especially if you're a professional climber. Most people fit climbing in around their lives and accept that they can't always do what they would like, simply because there are so many things to try and balance. I find that sometimes I have to re-calibrate my aspirations and just be thankful I get to do as much climbing as I do. That said, you should definitely book a trip in the autumn ;)
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Time and Rest = Better Grades (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/time-and-rest-better-grades/)
17 June 2014, 6:04 pm
I’ve not really got that much reading material down in the crack training cellar. I suppose I like to keep it spartan and without any distractions or excuses from working hard. I have allowed myself one small indiscretion though, and that’s a copy of Climb magazine with a very important training article by Steve McClure in it. Does it prescribe the reps, the rest periods, secret regimes and special exercises for fingers of steel? No it doesn’t – it tells us resting is just as important as training! You can break your body down with a good session, but if you want it to adapt afterwards, you have to let it recover to achieve what’s often referred to in the business as – “Super-compensation.”
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/paolosartori-17-2.jpg?w=650&h=977) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/paolosartori-17-2.jpg)Got Super-Compensation? (c) Paolo Sartori You’d think being a climbing coach would make me good at dishing out this kind of advice to myself and taking it on board. I think I’m probably ok at telling myself, but very poor at listening! In my last blog (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/failure-hurts/#comments) about returning from Italy to try Gondo Crack I had to do just this. I was burnt out, tired and lacking mojo. I told myself that it wasn’t the end of the world and all it needed was some rest, which probably for the first time in a (very) long time I took. My God, it felt good. And weird. Six days off pottering around on the beach with my family, going for walks and watching TV was my medicine and I was very curious to see the effects.
Well, it’s one week later and I cannot believe the difference. It’s like someone injected a 25yr old me into my body and gave me the most psyched mind for quite some time. After that week off, I came back and had training sessions that went through all previous highs and did a few link-ups that I wasn’t sure were possible. It’s all very well me going on about this to you, but I’m not sure you really care if I suddenly did a 9b+ crack on wood – it’s just fake stuff. What really counts is what you’re going to do now, with this information.
If you look at the last month, did you train/climb more days than not? Did you do a number of back-to-back climbing days? Are you psyched out of your mind to complete your outside project, but suffering from training gains that no longer come or even worse, slightly dip? Well, take a look in the mirror, slap yourself with a empty chalk bag and GO AND HAVE A WEEK OFF! I’d be great if just one person out there tried this and had a positive experience. Let me know…. :-)
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/paolosartori-16-2.jpg?w=650&h=977) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/paolosartori-16-2.jpg)Entering the crux on Gondo Crack (c) Paolo Sartori
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Conversely, when I take a week or more off I invariably come back feeling atrocious and spend a few weeks struggling to do my warm-ups.. That's not to say I don't think it's worth it down the line, but it's never made me feel good at the time.
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Is that not suggestive of not having consolidated whatever level you were at before taking the break Alex? :shrug:
Or your breaks are too long. Tommy wrote he took six days off (and advises taking a "week off"*), you're saying this happens when you take >= 7 days so perhaps take shorter breaks. Everyone is different so experiment and see what works for you.
* Some might construe six days off as a week.
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Yeah - my trainings the opposite. Repeated 1-2 week breaks due largely to work mean I'm constantly playing catch up in the time between breaks to get back to where I was....
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I don't think I quite get your point? Consolidation is just another word for stagnation ;)
I think it's because I only take time off following a trip generally, so
- my comparison is immediately before the trip (or during the trip), when - all being well - I'm moving into a peak
- peaks have a habit of being followed by dipping (and not through hoods in a snoop dogg style) so after the trip I'm liable to be shit irrespective of resting or not, and even in comparison to base level rather than peak level
- I'm derecruited from the trip, then further so from the rest. I'm someone who loses their 'snap' very quickly - a 10 day trip of pure route climbing causes a notable drop off in strength for me. I definitely aint one of those people who can just route climb all summer and be almost as strong at the end of that period as the start.
If I want to feel 'on it', I get much better results from standard tapering - dropping the volume but keeping the intensity. E.g. if I have a proj I want to crush on the weekend I might not do any aerocap that week. I also find this makes me less injury prone than full rest, after which I have a habit of retweaking old injuries.
[Edit - don't think it's a length of time thing, I've used various lengths of time in the past]
Anyway, my point was just that for me, I have never felt the effect Tom was talking about. Anecdotally, however, my best gains training wise have have come a couple of months after extended (2-3 weeks) breaks from climbing. Too many other differences to really have a clue about causality though - e.g. one time was start of a gap year where I climbed full time, the other was returning from enormous trip on that year where I'd not bouldered for months, so you'd expect good gains in both cases.
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Fair-do's, it was just a thought that sprung to my mind, as it seemed surprising to me that you'd struggle to do warm-ups after a break as they're meant to be easy relative to maximum performance.
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I guess I mean end-of-warming-up-moving-into-proper-session-warm-ups, if that makes sense, not full on first problem of the session warm ups.. There may also have been some exaggeration for emphasis.
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How you feel at the end of the time not climbing will depend largely on how you've spent that time surely?
Tom sounds like he's been on holiday relaxing and enjoying himself having pushed himself very hard mentally and physically. Had the time off been spent working (away like tomtom or catching up after a trip), overeating, drinking too much, sleeping too little, doing stuff that you'd rather not be, etc. then it is quite likely that you won't return feeling as positive or as strong.
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Alex - yup I have that same issue. It only seems to come about though when I'm basically pedalling water and maintaining a good level (i.e. somewhere around peak). We both know that having 7 days off a week or two before going out to do something hard (especially if it's power, rather than enduro) is going to cause us issues.... But if we've hammered it, have consistently overreached and are a little burned out then it's great. Maybe you're not pushing hard enough?! ;-)
In my peak period though, I have had my best performance many times now by taking around 4 complete days off. Most of my hard ticks have occurred after this. Everyone is different though!
Tomtom - I think if you're having those constant 1-2 week interruptions then it's probably the case that you're rarely overtraining and getting burnt out as you point out.
Alex - also looking through your points again, I can see where maybe we have 2 different ideas. I think you think that 7 days off is going to result in you "best performance" and not what I'm saying which is that it will result in a "recuperated body". As we both know, you can be right on the edge of breaking yourself and pull something out of the bag! Maybe that's why we all feel total turd after climbing trips where we've done our best stuff.
The other thing for me often is the mental rest. I train around 25 hrs per week but also work around 20-60hrs per week, which means when you combine hard training with full time work then you're totally wasted in the head. I used to work really hard in a - cram it all in style - before going on trips but I've since learnt that I'd arrive at projects mentally tired despite being physically on form. Personally I really feel both have to align to be your best.
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Crikey... how the other half live.... except on my rare occasions of holidays and leave, I have a 5 day break every week - only do any climbing on weekends. It never struck me as an abnormal, potentially harmful habit, only excusable in times of extreme burn-out. That said, I am shit (with a resigned, phlegmatic attitude to it).
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That's because you only eat enough for two days' activity out of seven
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I am shit
::)
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I've seen you at the wall in mid week evenings Moose...
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I've seen you at the wall in mid week evenings Moose...
Not to mention evening sessions at the calf! :spank:
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It's an interesting post and rest/fitting it all in appropriately, has been the main thing that bugs me about the "energy systems shizzle", especially when people are trying to make significant strength gains (I'm looking at you Three Nine).
Like Barrows has said in the past, strength/power is a lazy man's game, endurance is not.
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Indeed. Really I should spend a few years as a boulderer t focus on strength, but I like routes too much. For sure my energy systems work get in the way of strength gains. (Except an cap which helps in my opinion)
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You're definitely right Bennett, but when I went to Rodellar this year I was reasonably fit, and I really liked feeling like that and swinging around on all these endless v1 moves. Maybe if I want to climb 8c+ one day I should sack any energy systems off for a few years, but that's not as important to me as having the chance to do an awful lot of swinging around in big caves doing a ton of easy moves in a row.
Plus you're really strong and you suck!
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:jab:
Maybe if I want to climb 8c+ one day I should sack any energy systems off for a few years,
And sell your soul to the devil ;)
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I'll give you 3 tins of irn bru and a refresher bar for your soul :devil-smiley:
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sold
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I've seen you at the wall in mid week evenings Moose...
...and you always seem to be trawling facebook for midweek partners in Yorkshire
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I've bouldered outdoors on a weekend evening three times all year (twice Ilkley, once Woodwell - had a job nearby), not been to the wall on a weekday (except bank holidays) for over a year. I have been advertising for midweek partners a fair bit recently though; I've a large chunk of my annual holiday allowance to use up by the end of the month - so have climbed routes midweek three times this month (with two more days scheduled next week). Vast majority of weeks though, I only climb on weekends (which frankly suits me fine - I seem to pick up elbow niggles otherwise - especially from indoor bouldering).
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Fuck that shit
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Like Barrows has said in the past, strength/power is a lazy man's game, endurance is not.
I would disagree, in my limited experience getting fit is much more simple than getting strong; provided you have a sufficient amount of time getting fit is just a question of getting mileage on routes. Making strength gains always seems to require more discipline (i.e. doing more quality, and sacrificing quantity) and often risks injury.
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Like Barrows has said in the past, strength/power is a lazy man's game, endurance is not.
I would disagree, in my limited experience getting fit is much more simple than getting strong; provided you have a sufficient amount of time getting fit is just a question of getting mileage on routes. Making strength gains always seems to require more discipline (i.e. doing more quality, and sacrificing quantity) and often risks injury.
This could be right though it depends on your body type.
I took Alex and Pauls point to be about what other people actually train though: if you take poll of all the kids in the wall; what are they training?
They aren't training endurance.
Training power is lazy; standing around chatting doing a one armer every minute or so is physically less demanding than trying to link two hard boulder problems or doing 4x4's.
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Fuck that shit
For some many life often gets in the way of climbing.
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I took Alex and Pauls point to be about what other people actually train though: if you take poll of all the kids in the wall; what are they training?
They aren't training endurance.
Training power is lazy; standing around chatting doing a one armer every minute or so is physically less demanding than trying to link two hard boulder problems or doing 4x4's.
Yeah I agree but I would say that these people aren't training and they aren't going to get any good.
On the flip side if you go to your average indoor routing wall what do you see?
People chatting, top roping the occasional 6b and eating cake, I wouldn't call that training either.
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I took Alex and Pauls point to be about what other people actually train though: if you take poll of all the kids in the wall; what are they training?
They aren't training endurance.
Training power is lazy; standing around chatting doing a one armer every minute or so is physically less demanding than trying to link two hard boulder problems or doing 4x4's.
Yeah I agree but I would say that these people aren't training and they aren't going to get any good.
Exactly, their problem is that they think they are training.
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Fuck that shit
For some many life often gets in the way of climbing.
For some many most life often gets in the way of climbing.
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I took Alex and Pauls point to be about what other people actually train though: if you take poll of all the kids in the wall; what are they training?
They aren't training endurance.
Training power is lazy; standing around chatting doing a one armer every minute or so is physically less demanding than trying to link two hard boulder problems or doing 4x4's.
Yeah I agree but I would say that these people aren't training and they aren't going to get any good.
Exactly, their problem is that they think they are training.
Sorry I got the wrong end of the stick I thought people were inferring that training strength was easier than stamina but what you are really saying is people are lazy and don't know how to train, which maybe /is true
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Fuck that shit
For some many life often gets in the way of climbing.
For some many most life often gets in the way of climbing.
I don't get the "I can't train like i used to, you know, work, life, gets in the way" bollocks.
Pull yer finger out you lazy bunch of tw*ts, skip the boozing, do your aerocap after you've bouldered and get yer crush on!
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How old are you and how many children do you have?
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Mid thirties, demanding oil industry job with significant chunk of (inter)national travel, girlfriend who lives miles away, 2 cats, no sprog.
If you're psyched, you'll fit in the hard work and get the just rewards, otherwise you'll potter along and make excuses.
Tom is a family man, yet is putting in more training hours than me; he's mad for it.
Too many make excuses; I stand by my original comments.
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girlfriend who lives miles away
Does she know about it yet Ally? :lol:
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Tom is a family man, yet is putting in more training hours than me; he's mad for it.
I agree that some people make excuses for not training hard, but comparing http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/ (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/) with one young sprog ( i think?) to the Average Joe and his spouse each working 40 plus hours a week, with 2 plus kids is probably not the fairest comparison.
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Tom is a family man, yet is putting in more training hours than me; he's mad for it.
I agree that some people make excuses for not training hard, but comparing http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/ (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/) with one young sprog ( i think?) to the Average Joe and his spouse each working 40 plus hours a week, with 2 plus kids is probably not the fairest comparison.
I think its a fair comparison: neither are professional climbers.
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Mid thirties, demanding oil industry job with significant chunk of (inter)national travel, girlfriend who lives miles away, 2 cats, no sprog.
A: You don't have a kid so you have NO excuse anyway.
B: Girlfriend lives miles away is a hindrance to climbing?!?! I think many would beg to differ.
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Tom is a family man, yet is putting in more training hours than me; he's mad for it.
I agree that some people make excuses for not training hard, but comparing http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/ (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/) with one young sprog ( i think?) to the Average Joe and his spouse each working 40 plus hours a week, with 2 plus kids is probably not the fairest comparison.
I think its a fair comparison: neither are professional climbers.
Maybe not "professional climber" but works as a climbing coach and as a setter, and has some sponsorship (Rab at least, possibly Wild Country). Whilst not directly allowing climbing, these roles facilitate spending more time training/climbing than someone doing 40 hours in an office (and perhaps an hour or so commuting each way).
Even outside work and kids there are other commitments that people feel obliged to fulfil. My parents want to visit this weekend which has put a dampener on the plans I had to go climbing and other things.
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Mid thirties, demanding oil industry job with significant chunk of (inter)national travel, girlfriend who lives miles away, 2 cats, no sprog.
A: You don't have a kid so you have NO excuse anyway.
B: Girlfriend lives miles away is a hindrance to climbing?!?! I think many would beg to differ.
If you've only got1 sprog then you've got no excuses :P
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Not enough time is rarely an excuse, but the balance of making the sacrifice often is. It's just too unpleasant for some people.
I flipping love climbing and training and as such I feel like it's worth it. I almost always work a 40hr week (sometimes 60+ if weekends and wanting a trip away) and as such understand that I have to take quite a lot of unpleasant training hours. 6am and 11pm are very familiar! I've often been stuck down that smelly cellar til 2am psyched out of my mind and get up at 7am the next morning. It's not anything special, it's just that right now I feel like it's worth it :-)
Anyone can do it if they are prepared to lose out on other stuff. It's just that the other stuff can be really good - like friends, pubs, cinema, TV etc.
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Ally - The bottom line is that everyone has their own set of advantages and obstacles. Making judgements about other people's lives is bound to be mostly guesswork (to put it politely). I'd also challenge this idea that a time limited climber not training is lazy. Personally I rarely sacrifice climbing time to go training instead. It's a contious decision. I could climb a slightly higher grade by sacrificing climbing for training. To my mind it's a false economy. I'd rather do lots of climbing at grade X rather than less at X+1. Either way I'm still a crap climber in the grand scheme of things, why not enjoy being crap. Just to be clear I respect folk who think the other way, if my circumstances were different I might think the same.
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Ally - The bottom line is that everyone has their own set of advantages and obstacles. Making judgements about other people's lives is bound to be mostly guesswork (to put it politely). I'd also challenge this idea that a time limited climber not training is lazy. Personally I rarely sacrifice climbing time to go training instead. It's a contious decision. I could climb a slightly higher grade by sacrificing climbing for training. To my mind it's a false economy. I'd rather do lots of climbing at grade X rather than less at X+1. Either way I'm still a crap climber in the grand scheme of things, why not enjoy being crap. Just to be clear I respect folk who think the other way, if my circumstances were different I might think the same.
What Bonjoy says.
Ally. Your situation sounds like a dream. I'd write more but I'm off climbing up stairs to read three bedtime books :punk:
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Anyone can do it if they are prepared to lose out on other stuff. It's just that the other stuff can be really good - like friends, pubs, cinema, TV etc.
This.
I like chatting too much, the day out means more than the climbing and I like crisps. Big bags. I've got a million injuries I can use as an excuse but generally, I feel it is laziness and lack of focus that holds me back from being the best I can be.
Yeah I have fun but boy do I get frustrated too and I can only blame myself for that.
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Mid thirties, demanding oil industry job with significant chunk of (inter)national travel, girlfriend who lives miles away, 2 cats, no sprog.
Lucky bastard! :goodidea:
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Mid thirties, demanding oil industry job with significant chunk of (inter)national travel, girlfriend who lives miles away, 2 cats, no sprog.
Lucky bastard! :goodidea:
Time to move further from the women and ditch the cats.
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Sorry I got the wrong end of the stick I thought people were inferring that training strength was easier than stamina but what you are really saying is people are lazy and don't know how to train, which maybe /is true
To clarify; I meant that the total amount of time you need to invest in strength and power type training is significantly less than the amount you need to invest into endurance work.
High intensity, low volume takes up considerably less time than high volume, low intensity by its very nature (and arguably requires more rest).
If you thought I meant that getting strong(er) was easier than getting fit(ter), I didn't.
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Personally I rarely sacrifice climbing time to go training instead. It's a contious decision. I could climb a slightly higher grade by sacrificing climbing for training. To my mind it's a false economy. I'd rather do lots of climbing at grade X rather than less at X+1. Either way I'm still a crap climber in the grand scheme of things, why not enjoy being crap.
:agree: and enjoy being "crap", I can still get on tons of challenging routes and make the most of the time when I'm not doing stuff for other people (i.e. working).
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Since we're all clarifying Jon works 3 days a week, thats plenty of climbing time. You don't really need to train that much if you get all that time on rock. Like others have said its all someones conscious decision. I enjoy not climbing outside in England and don't miss it one bit
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Mid thirties, demanding oil industry job with significant chunk of (inter)national travel, girlfriend who lives miles away, 2 cats, no sprog.
Lucky bastard! :goodidea:
Time to move further from the women and ditch the cats.
This. Pussy won't get you up 8c.
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Since we're all clarifying Jon works 3 days a week, thats plenty of climbing time. You don't really need to train that much if you get all that time on rock. Like others have said its all someones conscious decision. I enjoy not climbing outside in England and don't miss it one bit
Yes and I look after Spike for 3 of the other days in the week. Still sound like plenty of climbing time?
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I've lost who's arguing about what now, but if people with kids are moaning that's kind of like moaning that you've not got enough time for climbing because you spend all your time surfing. Choices innit.
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Spoken like somone who's never had to have the conversation about having kids or not.
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You've got to have sex to have a kid too
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I've lost who's arguing about what now, but if people with kids are moaning that's kind of like moaning that you've not got enough time for climbing because you spend all your time surfing. Choices innit.
No ones moaning about kids reducing the amount of time they have.
Whats being said is that some people have other responsibilities outside of climbing that enrich their lives, whether thats kids, a partner (who doesn't climb but you enjoy spending time with), a job (which helps with the climbing trips to exotic locations, substitute this with Phd if you wish, although the money isn't as good), others have different activities/hobbies such as surfing, reading, cycling/mountain biking that they enjoy too.
For many when they do have the opportunity to climb or train the former will win because for them its more enjoyable than staring a stop-watch whilst dangling from a finger board or going round and round in circles in the Furnace. At the same time those who are time-limited in when they can get out climbing can benefit from squeezing in a little directed training in a half-hour session, but they won't ever let this out-weigh the opportunity to go outdoors and climb.
You're pretty psyched for climbing and training Alex, why are you bothering continuing with your Phd? Why not sack it off train, like a mother-fucker and realise your full potential? Choices innit.
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Since we're all clarifying Jon works 3 days a week, thats plenty of climbing time. You don't really need to train that much if you get all that time on rock. Like others have said its all someones conscious decision. I enjoy not climbing outside in England and don't miss it one bit
Yes and I look after Spike for 3 of the other days in the week. Still sound like plenty of climbing time?
If Spike is a child, then right on. Looking after the kids is more difficult than going to work. (But more fun).
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I only used Jon as an example since he was saying he prefers to climb than train, I was pointing out that if you live as far from the grit as the wall you can take the kid out quite easily and it's nice for both rather than have the kid inhaling chalk at a wall while dad trains. My comments though directed at Jon were not really "directed" at Jon, more there are lots of dads out there who get out and about
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I get the impression that climbing overall is increasingly becoming a game for the middle classes with decent levels of disposable income; I think an offshoot of this is a new sub-genre of climbers who can afford to target long endurance routes as a way of chasing higher grades on paper, where in the UK they wouldn't be strong enough. Except for a very few elite, or those who move abroad, if you want to excel at long endurance sport climbs over a period of time beyond academic life it seems almost a necessity to have a good income (or a trust fund) to pay for all the foreign travel (or be retired!).
This hints at the reasons a lot of the best UK climbers of 15 -20 years ago had unconventional private/social lives - lots of travelling and dirt-bagging around UK and European crags was required. These days it's easier to climb at a relatively high level in the UK while still having a conventional full-time job, as long as you're decently strong - due to there being walls everywhere and more sport crags allowing opportunities for mileage for the time-poor where previously you'd have to spend a whole day getting it on trad routes.
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Dense - I can only speak for myself but I find climbing and childcare don't mix. In four and a half years I've only climbed once properly whilst in soul charge of t' youth (that includes the wall). Maybe when he's older, safer unattended and has a higher boredom threshold :shrug:
To be clear I'm only saying what is the case, not complaining about it. It's another of life's choices, I'd rather be a good father that a good climber if it comes down to choosing one or the other.
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And there was me thinking that sport climbers went on holiday to climb nice quality routes on nice holds in the sun in beautiful places, now I understand it's all about them using their disposable income to chase the grades!
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Well, of course both. I go abroad for the sun, great routes and fitness boost like nearly everyone else. Just thinking aloud about the emergence of a genre of climbers who specifically target their hardest climbs on foreign crags, due to the style - fitness more than strength. I think (?) this is a relatively new phenomenon, at least for climbers below the elite level, and it's a game that needs significant income to be able to play beyond teens/early twenties when responsibilities/i.e. 'overheads' are low.
Not saying it's good/bad/whatever. Just a 'thing'.
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I have got a wife (who does not climb), two kids (3yrs and 6 months), my own business and I have been building our house for the last 4 yrs, which I have pretty much finished, but am now onto the shed/workshop.
As it is my own business I have a beastmaker and a set of kettlebells at work, so can use lunchbreaks for training.
I have come to the realisation that focused training and taking the long view are the key. This means I cannot do everything I want (trad, sport and bouldering) so currently and foreseeable future bouldering and strength training are the way forward. With my life commitments there is absolutely no point trying to get sport climbing fit, for one I get to climb outdoors once or twice a week for about 2hrs at a time, by the time i uncoil the ropes, I would be pumped and it would be time to go home.
But looking at the long view strength takes much longer to build, so while time is short, I will keep building the base finger and core strength, it doesn't even matter if my weight is slightly on the high side as when eventually I do get some more time, it is just a matter of losing some weight and getting fit.
This way I am still pushing and not trying to just maintain my current standards, which, keeps things interesting and the psyche high. Also with kids my negative training partying, festivals and general boozing has gone out the window, so I am recovering from training quicker and am probably stronger than I have ever been.
You have just got to be realistic about your time and set your goals accordingly.
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Ally, you didn't have a girlfriend 2 weeks ago? Therefore, you can't use that as a variable in your current climbing vs. commitment status!
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Except for a very few elite, or those who move abroad, if you want to excel at long endurance sport climbs over a period of time beyond academic life it seems almost a necessity to have a good income (or a trust fund) to pay for all the foreign travel (or be retired!).
I think if you want to climb endurance style routes you have to go abroad because they are vanishingly rare in the UK. Unless you live near malham, kilnsey and ?the diamond I think climbing enduro routes is going to be expensive as travelling/accommodation/food in the UK is so expensive, in fact going abroad for a week maybe a little cheaper than a domestic trip.
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Ally, you didn't have a girlfriend 2 weeks ago? Therefore, you can't use that as a variable in your current climbing vs. commitment status!
When he mentioned he had 2 cats I thought he was reaching, add in the recent girlfriend and hmmm. Ally, is your "demanding job in the oil industry" really a zero hours petrol station job?
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Distance to the crag is a factor too... For me its (mostly) an hour or more away - which turns a 'quick evening/afternoon out' into 4-6 hours... (closer to day out really..)
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Ah shit; I should have kept my gob shut :worms:
If i'd taken a moment to gather my thoughts before spraying i'd have said something along the lines of:
"33, widower, no sprogs, full-time job. Relatively cash rich, time poor compared to my student days, when I was time rich and cash poor yet didn't appreciate/make best use of my time."
Lots of things changed when my partner passed away, in particular my attitude to getting shit done. I'm highly motivated for what I do, and ignore lots of the periphery life things like cleaning, DIY & watching TV. (Anyone who has seen the state of my house will attest to this).
I don't berate anyone's life choices; but I can't stand those who coast through life without grabbing it by the horns and making the most of what they've got.
Right now, I feel like i can still fit more in. I've just started seeing someone. We're both busy people; i'm confident we'll make it work. Internet trawling/social media will probably be the next thing to fall by the wayside!
And yes, petejh is referring to me and JohnM when he's talking about going to people going abroad to try project sat their limit. Fisheye plays to my strengths and 3 day trips to Spain fit well with my work and leave allowances.
For now i'm fortunate enough to have the cash to be able to do this, so i'm going to keep chasing my dream. Who knows, tomorrow i might get diagnosed with a shitty disease like cancer, and i for one don't want to have any regrets...
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(http://ritteja.googlepages.com/Thats.bmp)
"Yeah, that's me, taking the bull by the horns. It's how I handle business. It's a metaphor but it actually happened"
I assumed PeteJH must have been directing his musings at someone in particular, all the people I know who sport climb have made their hardest ascents on home crags!
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Woah hang on! I was not talking about one person although yes, I'm obviously aware of Ally's fish eye mission. I said I think that it's more common than than it used to be for climbers to acheive their top grades on foreign crags; and that to be in a position to follow that goal, for most people, requires money (or lots of time, e.g. student life). This was linked to me saying how I thought climbing seems to me to be increasingly a middle-class game.
(Is this someones blog btw?!)
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I've got the time and money to chase those holiday ticks but I wouldn't have a missus for very long. Hang on...... :goodidea:
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(Is this someones blog btw?!)
No its the blog pile (http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/board,56.0.html) which pulls in others blogs via RSS feeds and mirrors them as individual threads to which people can respond.
Tom's blog (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/) isn't getting cluttered with this discourse, just the mirror of it here is.
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Whilst I see where you're coming from, it's worth pointing out that the British climber with far and away the best foreign sport ticklist is neither rich nor a student, he just does bits and bobs of rope access, used to teach English a bit, and is very good at not spending much money (I'm talking about Tom B, for the avoidance of doubt)... so there clearly is an alternative route, same as the old-school method - live in Europe and spend very little money.
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You're pretty psyched for climbing and training Alex, why are you bothering continuing with your Phd? Why not sack it off train, like a mother-fucker and realise your full potential? Choices innit.
Indeed. I wasn't meaning to judge choices, just saying 'fuck that' to climbing 2 days per week and not using holiday allowance on going on trip abroad. That's certainly not the right choice for me..
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Except for a very few elite, or those who move abroad,
sorry, just noticed this, ignore my post 2 above
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The Pura Pura Project (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/the-pura-pura-project/)
30 June 2014, 11:30 pm
Whenever I’ve thought about trying to push the standard of crack climbing, it always seems so simple. Climb something hard, find something harder, do some training and repeat. This week though, I’ve found myself with a dilemma. I’ve found that mega hard project, done it and now feel really nervous about where I am.
Last year I spent quite a bit of time researching hard crack climbs around the world in the quest to find something to really get my teeth stuck into and also one that would be a first ascent. I knew about Mason Earle’s unfinished crack (http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/stranger-than-fiction-epictv-short-film-festival-2013/238834?header_b=1) in Utah, Peewee’s roof project in Canada but realised I needed something that I could could try without taking away from other people. That’s when stubbled across two ideas at once – the Gondo Crack (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/the-gondo-crack-project/) and the Pura Pura Project.
One is extremely bouldery and slightly overhanging, the other is a complete endurance burl-fest. Anyone who’s had a look at previous blogs will know that the former is Gondo Crack and the latter is something I tried last year in the Orco Valley. The Pura Pura is not maybe what most people would envisage when they think of crack climbing, as in fact it’s a combination of hard boulder and hard route climbing. I supposed it was inspired by watching Dani Andrada in his Spanish caves contorting his way round impossible looking 9a+ link ups as a way of finding the hardest climbing possible.
(https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_1154.jpg?w=584&h=338) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_1154.jpg)Climbing the lower section on The Green Shadow This project aims to link together two climbs of equal length, difficulty and steepness – The Greenshadow and Greenspit. You climb all of Green Shadow with a rope on and then immediately press on into the amazing roof of Greenspit, with the crux lying in wait right at the end. All in all it’s about 25m of extremely steep roof crack climbing and one that leaves your shoulders and core feeling like useless lumps of flesh hung on a skeleton.
Trying the link up last year I found that I was no where near strong enough or fit enough to put the two together. In their single entities they were manageable, but trying to climb Greenspit already pumped and powered-out seemed impossible. It was a whole significant level above for me and I knew I’d have to put massive amounts of work into achieving my aims. Needless to say, the hard work part is what I enjoy the most and over the last six months I’ve pushed pretty hard to make the steps after Century and Cobra possible. My climbing started to fall into place in the last couple of months with a near redpoint on Gondo Crack but it was this trip to Italy when I felt like everything worked 100%.
The problem now is, what do you do when you tick the thing that seemed impossible? Do you go with your feelings of years of experience or do you write it off as a fluke? When I topped out on the line, almost every muscle was at failure point. My fingers were uncurling on the final slopers, my arms were jelly and my core like felt as if I’d done a million sit ups. Still though, in the end I wanted to sit in a position of comfort where I could say “well, it’s not that hard, I could obviously climb harder.” Well, maybe if I think about it, I can’t. Maybe that’s where I’m at right now. I can’t climb any harder and I should be happy I’ve pushed it all a notch higher.
So, I’m going to take a risk. Nico wouldn’t state a grade when he did Recovery Drink, Beth Rodden didn’t when she did Meltdown and if I’m honest I’m very tempted to do the same as it’s the easy way out. I could just say “it’s the hardest I’ve done, but I’m not sure how hard.” Life is too short for safe bets though. I’ll put it on the line and say it. 8c+.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Dina Crac, E9 7a – Welsh Limestone Trad (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/08/18/dina-crac-e9-7a-welsh-limestone-trad/)
18 August 2014, 9:23 am
I couldn’t think of a name for the project for ages…. I asked my friends, the wisdom of Twitter and even my daughter (she said call it “Climber”) for inspiration. Then I came across it this morning, whilst looking up derivations of the word “Dinas” or “Dinas Rock”
“Dina fooled me into loving her and toke all I had, but still I can’t get enough of her.
I wish I can stay away from Dina but her mysterious ways are irresistible.”
In those words it was chosen for me. I never was quite sure why I spent so many sessions in the carpark at Dinas sleeping in my van, driving the M1 for hours and hours and putting up with multiple days of ruined climbing just down to the fact that the condensation had set in. The lines above probably sum this up as best as I possibly could.
I think this particular crack project has been one of the biggest struggles for me, due to a combination of factors. The climbing is really quite hard, the conditions on the line are incredibly fickle and the moves are so complicated that each time I would come down, I’d waste at least half a day remembering how to move my body. The route starts up a very strange and steep 2 bolt sport route which is more like climbing a long boulder problem. This then gives you access to an 80 degree finger roof crack. The sequence through the roof is around V10 and involves amazing spins on finger jams, an undercut mono-style move and some funky heel action. All of this has to be stopped in the middle of though, to place two micro nuts, which caused me problems on a few occasions!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/dinas.jpg?w=584) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/dinas.jpg)Placing gear in the roof (c) Kim Davies The Dinas project has kept me occupied for 3 years I think…. Which seems like a long time. I got very close to it before going to climb Cobra Crack, but I rushed the last move and fell off on practically the last decent day of the season. Going back down again this week, I could feel all the same doubts creep into my head as I know that I’m off to Yosemite in 3 weeks and I’m not supposed to be trying projects. A friend offered a night’s sleep in his house before but I refused because I wanted to feel that I’d earned my route. I didn’t want any soft touches, no luxury, no compromise. It might sound a bit silly, but I find that if I take away the good things, it makes me want my goals more and makes me toughen up mentally.
(https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/img_0018.jpg?w=584) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/img_0018.jpg)Morning view from Hotel Randall The last day at the crag this weekend, was one of those really great days. A good crowd of people, a really relaxed vibe and absolutely no expectation. I’d been moaning for about an hour how sore my skin was, but that I’d just “have a little go to see where I get to” and then I could prepare for maybe coming down the following weekend. If I’m honest about it, I kind of know that this trick of “having a little look” is actually extremely effective on redpoint, as you fool yourself into it being a low pressure attempt. As we all know, the lower the pressure, often the better the results!
On the bolts at the start I very nearly fell off but I remembered at that instant that this had happened before when I did Greenspit. I pushed on. The next hard sequence felt hard and again I only just locked the undercut mono-style move as I was sagging out, so I pushed on. As the sequences flowed I just kept grunting away and trying to “fall up” the route – I think the climbers on the ground probably thought they were watching something rather odd. The climber above was using strange grunt sounds and a sagging arse to climb something quite hard. But hey, it worked!
It was pretty tricky coming up with a grade for this route, because of the afore mentioned factors in trying it. I possibly could have done it quite some time ago, but maybe it was a bit harder than I gave it credit. It’s so hard to be objective about it now though. So for this one, I’m going to assess it as to where it felt relative to other cracks I’ve done even though it took me absolutely ages to do.
Harder:
Century 8c
Cobra 8b+/8c
Kournikova 8b+
Easier:
One Infinity 8b+
Greenspit 8b
Army of Darkness 8b
As it’s a trad limestone crack (although, granted there are 2 bolts from an old existing line at the start) I will stick with the proper UK grade of E9 7a and given it a token US crack grade of 5.14a. All gear was placed on lead (not a very easy prospect!) and consists of loads of those offset Wild Country micro nuts, including the top 30ft of groove climbing.
Many thanks to everyone who’s kept me company at the crag over the last few years. You know who you all are.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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Nice one monster!! :strongbench: :strongbench: :strongbench:
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Effort Tom, bumped into you at Dinas a year ago and it's cool to now see the result after the hard work.
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Ah, were you climbing with Libby on the left side of the cave by any chance? Although if that wasn't you, that question probably makes no sense whatsoever!
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Yep.
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Well good to put a face to another UKB person :-). My wife managed to identify one for me the other day in a hospital, which probably beats me by quite some way!
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Fully Committed: Speed Grit (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/fully-committed-speed-grit/)
1 September 2014, 8:48 am
Over the years Pete and I have tried many different forms of climbing, but one that we keep coming back to time and time again, is the traditional “climbing challenge.” A day of rock that has set boundaries, rules and a very specific goal. There is of course, rather a lot of stupidity thrown in, but that’s up to the individual!
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5504.jpg?w=584&h=855) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_5504.jpg)The Master’s Edge birthday challenge We started our climbing partnership by trying to break the record for the most number of climbs soloed in a day – we exhausted ourselves doing 550 in over 17hrs – and have done many other challenges that involve speed climbing or silly fancy dress outfits since then. It’s been extremely entertaining finding someone else who’s up for these kind of days out and is prepared to push the boundaries of what’s possible. It’s that pushing of boundaries that I think has led us to our next challenge: one where both of us are very, very close to our personal limit.
(https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/img_0034.jpg?w=584&h=777) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/img_0034.jpg)Nothing compares to when Pete took command of that Boeing 747. Pete and I are off to Yosemite in a couple of weeks for some big walling and we wanted to create a challenge that would sort of mimic what we’d be trying to do out there. So we came up with attempting all the Brown and Whillans routes on the Eastern and Western edges in a day. That’s just under 130 routes and up to E6 6c.
It seemed a little (very?) unrealistic when we came up with the concept, but now as I sit here the day before setting off to try it, I feel truly doubtful. That’s what we want though, right? Where’s the fun in trying something where the outcome is guaranteed and you won’t be pushed right to your limit…. yeah…..? I think I feel ok about the amount of climbing (which is around 6000ft of rock) but it’s the roughly 22 miles of running on top, spread across 17 different crags and keeping going for a whole 24hrs at a fair whack that I know could push it. 90% of it has to be soloed and there’s no space for food breaks, mistakes or getting lost. Oh God…. what have we let ourselves in for?!
(https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/img_1381.jpg?w=584&h=777) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/img_1381.jpg)Pete trying on my wardrobe – outfit by @indigoatcrafts Here’s a photo to cheer you (or me) up whilst I’m thinking about our midnight start and the first route to warm us up being MAy35 at Bamford.
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)
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GL HF!
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The Longest Day (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/the-longest-day/)
3 September 2014, 10:26 pm
When Pete and I come up with an idea to do some climbing together, there are usually two reactions.
“Nah, too easy. You’d just need to put some effort in to do that.”
Or
“Ooooh. Holy smokes that’ll be spicy. Isn’t that a bit unrealistic?”
Now of course, there are some exceptions to this rule. I mean, it’s not like every time I ring up Pete and ask if he fancies a day out climbing in the Peak that it’ll go those two directions, but when it comes down to “Challenge Territory” then it really does seem to apply.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/photo-5.jpg?w=584&h=435) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/photo-5.jpg)Make the challenge hard enough and organisation is paramount. The story started quite a few years ago when we succeeded in one particular challenge: to climb the Western Grit Brown and Whillans routes in a a day. (http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68230) I think we originally went for it as we knew a few teams had failed to do it, so we were goaded by our competitive nature. After completing a very long day out (10hrs of climbing over 1500ft of rock) we sat down at the end and Pete said to me,
“Can you imagine doing all those from today and linking it into the ones from the Eastern Grit?”
I immediately replied with something like,
“Yeah, but who’s going to actually do that? That’s an absolute monster day out… A nice idea for someone though!”
Fast forward 5 years and there I was last night at 10pm preparing myself for the unthinkable. During the previous couple of weeks, Pete and I had been out on the edges slowly improving our soloing skills, learning 130+ pitches of climbing, practising the approaches and devising our strategy. Most importantly though, we’d worked hard on driving an unstoppable motivation – there was no chance we would get through it without some serious knuckling down and suffering.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/mg_2397.jpg?w=584&h=388) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/mg_2397.jpg)80 routes in the suffering started to take hold… The climbing on the surface appears relatively straight forward with only approximately 6000ft of ascent, but it’s the style of the route that really kills you. Brown and Whillans routes seem to seek out the burliest, steepest and most awkward routes on the gritstone edges. Goliath, Sentinel Crack, The Unprintable, Cave Crack, Deadbay Bay Groove & Crack of Gloom all make me feel like I’ve got jelly arms and remind me that skin isn’t that tough! Added onto this is the 23.6 miles of running between crags and routes and trying to not get lost in the 7 hours of mostly solo climbing done in darkness with a head torch. With all this combined, you have something quite worrying.
(https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/mg_2292.jpg?w=584&h=388) (https://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/mg_2292.jpg)Finding relief from cracks on some slabs! At the moment, it feels like something that’s really hard to write about in depth as a blow by blow account as we both went through so many different emotions in the whole process, but for the minute I’ll leave you with a few key facts and figures and the odd funny fact.
Crags: 17
Ground covered: 23.6 miles
Best route: Bachelor’s Left Hand
Worst route: Swastika II
Biggest sandbag: Deadbay Groove & Central Crack
Biggest soft touch: Big Crack
Solo vs Lead: 66% solo, 34% lead
Rack: No nuts, no draws, just Friend 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5. (Couple of exceptions)
Challenge duration: 22hrs 36mins
Support team to help with driving and bad jokes: Martin Kocsis & Mike Hutton
By the time we arrived at the finishing post of The Sloth, it felt like a huge journey. Along the way I kept on thinking of James Mchaffie’s words describing how doing these kind of multi-route challenges is a look into a our rich climbing history and the huge contribution that some individuals made. Climbing all of the Brown and Whillans routes on the East and Western edges reminded me constantly of the huge diversity of their additions. They were incredibly privileged to have made those routes their own as well.
I’ll leave you with one funny moment that I’ve not actually told Pete about yet….
One of our tactics on some routes was for the seconder to be immediately lowered back to the ground to start soloing up the next route before the other person could get down to the base and follow. Well on one long route, I was being lowered down, but swung out too far and was about to hit a tree so I grabbed a hold on the face and shouted at Pete to hold me one second to redirection myself. What did he do? He thought I’d said “off belay”, so untied, chucked the rope off the top and left me abandoned on this hold! It all worked out with a little down soloing though…
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Source: Tom Randall Climbing (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com)