So I’ve been a bit behind the past few weeks on writing up my climbing adventures. But I’m going to try and be better and with four days in France coming up with no climbing I have plenty of time to write things up. So hopefully I’ll be a little more up to date in the coming weeks.
This post however is quite an old one which I had wrote and for some reason hadn’t got round to posting. It’s about the week beginning on the 23rd June:
Part One – First Trip To Rubicon – The first trip of the week was to Rubicon at Water-cum-Jolly with Mirf (low key legend), Zac “good one mate” mini Mirf (age three) and Bramble (dog who thinks she’s a seal). So early on Tuesday morning with child and dog in tow we headed out early in search of some sport climbing.
With 8a firmly planted in my mind I started of by trying the v7/8 boulder problem start to Hot Fun Closing – Kudos. It was not a success as I got the beta all wrong and couldn’t even get two moves of the floor. However having seeing some videos since our trip there I am tempted to have another go with the right beta. Moving on from Hot Fun Closing on that day though, I decided to jump on the top rope Mirf had left up on The Sissy. The first go gave me a good feel for the moves and how I would have to do the route. With the start and the end of the routes been almost jug fests the difficulties of the rout lie in its middle section which is very sustained and technical, requiring good footwork and some matching/swapping of the hands on small crimps. The final move of this sequence is the redpoint crux and involves popping of two tiny crimps to a really positive crimp before you get back to the jugs and a short romp to victory.
Even though with a lot of work The Sissy felt like it could be a potential project, my heart wasn’t in it and I realised what I really wanted to do was just send a route in a day for a change rather than expand the project list any more. Because of this I jumped on A Bigger Splash a 7b+ route which is basically a soft 7A boulder into some jugs to a break. After the break you go into an undercut before getting some good holds before a bit of a tricky top out if you’re not used to climbing over bulges. Although I blew the flash, I had a sequence within the next ten minutes. A short twenty minute rest and four quick redpoint attempts later to get through the boulder problem and the route was in the bag. I was a little surprised to do it so quickly especially seen as 7b+ was a grade I didn’t even climb last year. However I have been climbing outside a lot lately, training has been going well and the route was definitely my style.
Before we left I had one last top rope on The Sissy, which Mirf had managed to send that day (before going on to flash A Bigger Splash). It definitely felt better second time around and I feel it is doable, but it would take a fair few attempts to get it wired and smooth enough to do it, so with so many other routes on Rubicon I’d like to try it might be one for the backburner.
Part Two – An Evening Session At Dinbren – Mirfs project or the proj as it has become known is one of the last few hard lines at Dinbren left to be unlocked. Although it traverses above the also unclimbed roofs of Dinbren, it still looks super hard and must be at least 8b+. With blue skies and hot daytime temperatures over the past few weeks it has been almost impossible to climb at Dinbren between around midday and threeish, so on the Thursday I headed out with Mirf for an afternoon session in hope of finding some cooler conditions.
I wanted to get back on The Rivals and see how it felt in cooler conditions after trying it the week before and nearly getting cooked well done in the process. I warmed up top roping the upper section (which feels about a 6b/+ route) a couple of times, before taking another look at the hard 7A+ boulder problem start.
Looking “Well Done” After Trying The Rivals First Time Round
Having only tried the start a few times the previous week I had no idea how I would find it in more idyllic conditions, but at least I knew where the holds were and had an idea of what the sequence for it would be. The first move and the last two moves of the boulder problem are the hardest and every move in between is droppable. The problem also relies on good foot placements on either really small footholds or placing your feet on sideward facing holds. I don’t know if someone else has been trying the route or the chalk marks where just ones Max placed the week before that I missed first time, but they revealed some foot holds out left that were more positive than the ones I was trying to use and definitely made the problem slightly easier. So after a few quick goes getting the moves wired on top rope I was ready to start trying to redpoint it.
Mirf was also ready to start redpointing the proj, so psyche was high and I was hoping we could get the send train rolling. However it was not meant to be and I dropped the last hard move twice after only getting through the first move twice out of about ten times. At least Mirf is still psyched for Dinbren for his project and this means I’ve been able to go back and get on it again…
If you want to see my best effort on The Rivals on that day here is a link to the video.
Tales Of A Drunken Giraffe 