[dave]

All are 2-3 grades easier than ER and close to the grade of the crux section of you-know-what (if I've remembered correctly from the, er, several discussions here). My blunt point was that to improve your chances on you-know-what, it might be worth projecting a 7B or 7B+ that went upwards rather than sideways...

If only anyone had pointed this out sooner.

[Fiend]

 Was feeling pretty glum in the car about climbing, life and everything for no especially good reason.

Brave admission given how much you put into this stuff and how you get a fair bit of flack on here about training and tactics (admittedly usually deserved)

I like the driving lesson story though.

[tomtom]

 Was feeling pretty glum in the car about climbing, life and everything for no especially good reason.

Brave admission

Mecca.

[shark]

All are 2-3 grades easier than ER and close to the grade of the crux section of you-know-what (if I've remembered correctly from the, er, several discussions here). My blunt point was that to improve your chances on you-know-what, it might be worth projecting a 7B or 7B+ that went upwards rather than sideways...

As an overall grade yes but I guess the crux section of The Reverse is 7B. I think it is a useful thing to do for the Oak given that the individual moves aren't that hard any more but linking them is ie AeroPower or AnCap. I have checked and overall I have had 16 sessions on the Reverse which is more than I would have guessed but not that excessive given Ive had 162 days of climbing or training. Also eatswood is pretty much always dry and in condition.

Re harder problems I have attempted Jericho Road, Rattle and Hump, Blind Date and Brad Pit this year.

[Nibile]

Hadn't read the whole post, congrats for ER!
Nice one!

[shark]

My blunt point was that to improve your chances on you-know-what, it might be worth projecting a 7B or 7B+ that went upwards rather than sideways...

Of course going on you-know-what and doing burns up to the horn and occasionally beyond is the equivalent of projecting a 7B+ that goes upwards

[csl]

My blunt point was that to improve your chances on you-know-what, it might be worth projecting a 7B or 7B+ that went upwards rather than sideways...

Of course going on you-know-what and doing burns up to the horn and occasionally beyond is the equivalent of projecting a 7B+ that goes upwards

How many moves is ground to horn though?

The point I believe everyone is trying to make that you need to be doing harder moves. i.e. 2-5 move 7B/7B+ on similar style holds at a similar style angle.

[shark]

My blunt point was that to improve your chances on you-know-what, it might be worth projecting a 7B or 7B+ that went upwards rather than sideways...

Of course going on you-know-what and doing burns up to the horn and occasionally beyond is the equivalent of projecting a 7B+ that goes upwards

How many moves is ground to horn though?

The point I believe everyone is trying to make that you need to be doing harder moves. i.e. 2-5 move 7B/7B+ on similar style holds at a similar style angle.

I know it is a rhetorical question but for clarification it is 9 moves.

I appreciate the advice but I dont think you appreciate how crap I am. If I cant complete Jericho Road or Rattle and Hump (both low 7Bish) after many sessions spread over a few years what is the point of projecting something harder? There is no training benefit from scarcely being able to pull on. I think my failure on those problems is down to max finger strength and I am confident that the finger strength improvements I have made have been the key to the incremental progress I have made in bouldering* over the last few years.   

At the end of the day I'm 52 and been at it for 33 years so can only realistically expect incremental gains unless I focus on bouldering to the exclusion of all other climbing which would be perverse given it isnt my primary climbing interest. Even more perverse to sacrifice time on a woodie over going outdoors. I think given that my main interest is routes I have done well to spend as much time at bouldering as I do and in part that means doing types of bouldering that I like more ie traverses as a substitute for other sorts of endurance training. Big jumps in grades can only be really expected by those who are young and haven't plateaued or those who haven't tried hard enough or those who haven't trained and I don't fall into those categories. 


*I am refering to bouldering here as steep and/or fingery bouldering of the type that is useful for the Oak 

[petejh]

STG: first 8b+ (Mecca), in July October
MTG:
LTG: 8c, by June 2018

Well done on ER Shark. Your comments above would suggest to most people in the same position to not attempt a route like the Oak. But you're not most people!


Supposed to be first week of bouldering/strength training for Mecca in Oct but nothing happening, too busy at work/life at the minute.

M. Went to Devil's Gorge to finish off Born Slippy but badly condensed out. Went to Parisellas instead. Gave Almost Familiar a flash go, sent it second go. 7c with Doylo's finish.
T.
W. Core session
T. Flew to Belfast.
F.
S. Climbed the new 6s I'd equipped last weekend including an excellent 6b+ arete. GF's daughter got in on the first ascents!
S. Quick easy bouldering sesh at boulderworld. Tired.
M. Equipping another new route at crag x, a good crimpy 7b+ ish.

[tomtom]

Shark - hypothetically... if you were to Boulder steep lime to increase your ability / strength to do the Oak (as many have suggested here) then just focussing on two quite specific 7B's (that you don't progress on) doesn't seem to make sense. Try a load! Go do some at Blackwell, Rubicon, Beginners wall etc... Get a variety of holds/moves etc...

(Edit- probably what Dave said)

[shark]

Shark - hypothetically... if you were to Boulder steep lime to increase your ability / strength to do the Oak (as many have suggested here) then just focussing on two quite specific 7B's (that you don't progress on) doesn't seem to make sense. Try a load! Go do some at Blackwell, Rubicon, Beginners wall etc... Get a variety of holds/moves etc...

(Edit- probably what Dave said)

Would make sense. I do get locked in to certain locations. Did go to Anstons twice which was a start. Anyway lets see how my session on the Oak on Friday goes and I'll plan my activities accordingly

[Will Hunt]

Seeing how close you were to the Oak last year, it may only take a marginal improvement in your bouldering to tip you over the edge into success. If you feel like you've gained that then it's all to play for. Go get 'em, Shark 

[csl]

My blunt point was that to improve your chances on you-know-what, it might be worth projecting a 7B or 7B+ that went upwards rather than sideways...

Of course going on you-know-what and doing burns up to the horn and occasionally beyond is the equivalent of projecting a 7B+ that goes upwards

How many moves is ground to horn though?

The point I believe everyone is trying to make that you need to be doing harder moves. i.e. 2-5 move 7B/7B+ on similar style holds at a similar style angle.

I know it is a rhetorical question but for clarification it is 9 moves.

I appreciate the advice but I dont think you appreciate how crap I am.

It wasn't totally rhetorical... I just remember you saying it was a long boulder.

The reasoning behind the post was that your reply to Duncan suggested you had (maybe deliberately?) missed the point.  I just wanted to check that you note the distinction between projecting the Oak and what Duncan and others are suggesting (a wide variety of harder problems in similar style).

Good luck on it this season! I really do hope you get it done!

[shark]

Good luck on it this season! I really do hope you get it done!

Cheers - just talking about it is starting to get me all fired up again

[dave]

I get the thing about wanting to get out as much as possible. However a few indoor steep board sessions, meaning sacrficing a couple of evenings a week  for a couple of months, might save you dozens of 4hr round trips to malham in the longterm, leaving you to do high tor new routes to your heart's content free of the oak albatross and constant online pisstaking.

If you've never really done any steep board training for any period of time, then you could still see decent gains, and these gains would have crossover value to other stuff. Might be worth finding out how hard other Oak ascensionists boulder at, then don't allow yourself back on the route till you're at that level.

[Will Hunt]

might save you dozens of 4hr round trips to malham in the longterm

But isn't that really, when all's said and done, what it's all about?

[nai]

unless I focus on bouldering to the exclusion of all other climbing which would be perverse given it isnt my primary climbing interest. Even more perverse to sacrifice time on a woodie over going outdoors.

Isn't that what winter's for?

[tomtom]

unless I focus on bouldering to the exclusion of all other climbing which would be perverse given it isnt my primary climbing interest. Even more perverse to sacrifice time on a woodie over going outdoors.

Isn't that what winter's for?

Winter is to get strong for the summer training season...

[petejh]

Might be worth finding out how hard other Oak ascensionists boulder at, then don't allow yourself back on the route till you're at that level.

I'd be surprised if there were any who couldn't boulder lime 7Bs (not one 1 or 2 move'rs) in a few sessions. As a minimum benchmark.

But then I'd be surprised if there were any who've spent as long as Shark trying it. So you could move the lime bouldering benchmark down a little and increase the time to send the route (by a lot!).

[Hugh]

Mon: Moon board and campus at TCA.
Tue: Swim.
Wed: Woody at TCA. Started well, went downhill quickly.
Thu: FB max hangs (+25kg 18mm)
Fri: Ace session on the garage board with a mate. New projects galore.
Sat: Nowt. Loads of booze and cake.
Sun: Was in the area so went up to Robin Hood's and Cratcliffe with family. Lovely day, didn't do much as was mostly managing sprog, but lots of fun.

Decent week, with surprising dip on Wed. Weighed myself and seem to have managed to hit 89.5kg. Oh dear Less booze and cake for me.

[kac]

Simon hopefully you feel strong on the oak so can ignore this  but i'm pretty sure you can do those bouldering projects if you just prioritise them for a bit. ie. don't try when tired from other training or trying hard routes. Dont waste time trying when skin trashed. Bouldering wise I think you should really get on sheep shifter. It's not as knacky as some of those others and I think you will definitely get stronger trying it. It's also really good!

[shark]

Hi Keith

Thanks for reminding me. Perma dry too? Did you get it done?

[TobyD]

STG get the fuck out of hospital
MTG heal head; retain/ improve aerobic fitness and climbing fitness for 6 month or so before another operation,then rehab again
LTG get back to 8something sport climbing. Do a sportive. Never see the inside of a hospital again (as a patient!)

Mon gym weights, assisted pull ups, intervals on bike
Tue 5-6 mile walk
Wed gym jog to warm up weights bike intervals
Thu gym jog to warm up, light weight high rep stability exercises, cycling and rowed 2km
Fri walk, core.
Sat gym weights, assisted pull ups, row 2km
Sun walk 5-6 miles on Dartmoor, light core

Decent rehab week, noticeable small improvements in weights, unfortunately massive set back this week and I'm in bed in hospital all week having had a massive head operation on Tuesday. Now I just need to get better and get outta here with a healed head!

[SA Chris]

Shit, I must have missed that, what happened? Hope the recovery goes OK.

[kac]

Yep Simon I did it but took more than a couple of sessions! Seemed perma dry and so much easier to get good conditions than other lime venues. It's good training as you can pull on in a few places and theres quite a bit to it.
Good luck with the recovery Toby!