“Zoolook” – The 1/4 Life Crisis (http://robbiephillips.co.uk/blog/?p=1193)
2 September 2011, 9:24 pm
Since our last coaching trip, Nat and I have been pretty much knackered! All our energy, all our skin and all our motivation has dwindled and fallen away, we are empty shells of our former selves… I think a mixture of camping, cooking, climbing and coaching has drained us, without a car we can’t get much new food, of which we’ve been running a little low recently (thanks to Dalvinder for the groceries) and sleeping in a tent has definitely taken it’s wear on us.
Anyway, enough moaning… I decided next to face a route that has looked good ever since I’ve arrived, “Zoolook” (8a). Not wanting to sound like an arrogant prat, I figured, just another 8a, I’ll do this as a bit of mileage before looking at something harder… I want to slap my past self for thinking this! Although the route isn’t physically hard, nor is it technically that hard, it’s bloody awkward and polished to HELL!!!!! Nat went up on it first, I figured I might go for the flash. Unfortunately Nat didn’t manage to get up past last crux due to sore skin, tiredness and probably a lack of sleep. So anyway, I went for it, the starting crux wasn’t that hard for me, I think a mixture of being a bit taller and having good hip flexibility allowed me to make the first crux without any bother. I walked my way up to the second crux (pulling the bulge), getting a good shakeout below was handy as it didn’t seem like there was much rest after this. I headed through the overlap and where I had seen others struggle, I seemed to be ok. Still not pumped, I looked around for the next hold… A few moves later and I was totally blind, people shouting different things from below I was totally scuppered, I threw for a side pull that turned out to be an intermediate undercut and I fell. After a brief rest, I pulled back on and went to the top! After a quick glance through the crux, I figured it wasn’t that hard and I put it off until next go.
A day later, my confidence took another beating as I fell moving through the crux on my second attempt. A third attempt saw me slip again at the same point moving to a crimp off a good undercut.
Another day later I fell again at this same point on my fourth go! My feet feel like rollerblades on these damn footholds. I’m not remotely tired, pumped or in any way struggling with anything but keeping my feet on the footholds moving through the crux.
Today I was determined to do this route, out of a want never to give up, because I felt like a spanner falling off it so many times, but mostly out of spite! Two more falls due to foot slippage and I was tearing my hair out… Before my final burn on the route that day (if you can call it a “burn”, more like a stroll until someone trips you up and you fall flat on your face), another climber at the crag, Stu Littlefair suggested spitting on my shoes for a bit extra stickiness for the polished footholds. Like magic sticky spit from heaven, they stuck to the polished smears like glue and as I crossed over to the final hold off the crux, I had enough time to do a quick chalk and blow (my impression of flipping off a route whilst climbing)… That’s what I call an EPIC!!!!
Nat, also having similar difficulties with the route rocked up after me and despatched the route with similarly solid climbing (I think she may have actually swore at the footholds from the resting jugs : P).
At the end of the day I got on “GBH” (8a+), a left hand variant to “Zoolook”, starting at the same point and finishing on the same chains with only a 4-5 clips of difference verging out left instead of going out right (Zoolook). Amazingly, although not surprising, “GBH” felt quite a bit easier for me. The moves are more athletic but without the polished smears and uncertainty that “Zoolook” has. Hopefully I will despatch this tomorrow if I can grow some skin back before then.
Also, my two young padawans from Edinburgh, Angus and William are joining us tomorrow. We have a few routes lined up for them to try including:
“Free and even easier” (7a+)
“Bongo Fury” (7b)
“Something Stupid” (7b)
“Space Race” (7b+)
Untitled (http://vimeo.com/28462997) from Robbie Phillips (http://vimeo.com/user7698642) on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com).
ROBZ OUT
Source: Robbie's Blog (http://robbiephillips.co.uk/blog)