Aussiegav said:
Thank you! No Dolomites this week, although Swanage rivals it in the choss stakes.
M - Swanage Guillemot Ledge with csl. My first time trad. climbing at Swanage since 2014. I climbed there a fair bit in the 2010s but several near misses took the shine off the place. Driving down we had high hopes of trying one of the big west face routes. It was a bit grey when we arrived but the forecast was decent and we warmed up on Ledgend Direct (HVS). This has all the usual Swanage features of untrustworthy rock, stuck gear, and a crux greasier than an Archway kebab. By the time I had finished the cloud was turning to mizzle and by the time Conor had finished it was raining horizontally. This got heavier and heavier so we beat a retreat to the car. The rain radar looked dire and completely at odds with what had been forecast in the morning so we headed back to London. You can’t win ‘em all.
T - Fingerboard lifts to 41Kg, left hand only. Hip flexibility. Proms: Orchestre de Paris and Klaus Mäkelä, French and Russian hits, with The Editor. Great stuff.
W - Shoulder/wrist conditioning: handstands, reverse curls, side planks. Proms: BBCSO; Boulanger, Fauré Requiem and Ravel Daphnis and Chloe. Fauré is a bit too Catholic for my taste, the more profane Ravel was fabulous.
T - Fingerboard lifts to 44Kg, left hand only. Shoulder/wrist conditioning. Hip flexibility. Proms: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle - Bruckner 4th Symphony. One for the ages.
F - Walked 10km. Proms: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle - Mahler 6th Symphony. I wasn’t in the best of moods at the outset and wondered how wise it was to stand through 85 minutes of late romantic nihilism. It was a pretty intense experience.
S - Hip flexibility. Shoulder/wrist conditioning. Walked 10km.
S - Short swim in the murk of the Hampstead ponds. Fingerboard lifts to 41Kg, left hand and some lighter ones with the right as pre/rehab. only.
Another ‘Pat’ tick at Swanage and I’m kind of interested in going back (4 more routes to do) although my tolerance of Swanageness seems to have deteriorated even further in the past decade.
Had let the hip flexibility work lapse over the last few weeks and is it very noticeable. Back on the horse (good for hip abduction). Right elbow continues to niggle which means I've not really been able to try too hard.
Had to cancel the Lundy trip. I guess I'm not going to get to an island this year. Gutting.
Best bit of the week was the proms. Four concerts of amazing music for £32.
Onwards... perhaps down to Weston later in the week when the dust settles.
