Blue Skies – A Winter Update

I went back to Redpoint over the Christmas holidays expecting nothing special. I thought it would be nice to get up a few 7B’s by the end of the three weeks I was back and do well in the second round of the Winter Boulder League, but I had no big ambitions. Redpoint setting is completely different to Life Centre setting so I expected it to take a few sessions to get used to the style there again. However on the first session back I sent a 7B barrel problem with a move on it I’d been unable to do in isolation before I left for university and by the end of my final session there before coming back I’d manage to do 3 7B+ problems and I think I won that round of the boulder league. A big confidence booster and some evidence that winter training is going well.

My New Nickname At The Climbing Wall? That Stickman Has A Remarkable Resemblance To Me….

I’m now back at university for term two and climbing back at the Life Centre after the Christmas holidays is amazing, there’s a lot of hungry climbers there at the moment pushing hard to climb hard and psyche is high. 2015 already feels like it is going to be a good year for all of us training hard there. After our three weeks of hard training back home me and Adam managed to send one of our hard indoor projects the first week back after weeks of trying before the holidays (I think it took me three sessions alone to work out the beta). We both agree it is the hardest problem we’ve ever done (perhaps coming in at 7C?), so the only shame is that it’s indoors and not out. I came third in the inter uni comp at the Life Centre, and am really pleased with that result as I have never done a comp with an isolation final before and was pretty nervous. I know I could have done better, but I’m not a competition climber and it was more of a fun thing than anything super serious. The big goals for this year aren’t comp related anyway, it’s all about ticking of some hard stuff outside.

Out Night Bouldering On Dartmoor.

The past few weeks back in Plymouth has also seen a spate of bouldering sessions on the Tors both during the day and the night and every time I’ve been spanked and every time we’ve gone out more skin has been sacrificed and more new projects have been added to the list. Dartmoor Granite is hard and painful if you’ve never climbed on it before, but it’s still good fun, so hopefully I’ll get the knack, learn to pull hard despite the pain and at some point get up some hardish problems.

Dartmoor In The Late Afternoon. Even If I’m Getting Spanked By The Climbing, You Can’t Complain About The View!

What I’m really waiting for this year though is the chance to get back on the limestone, and more importantly go sport climbing again. There’s still 10 weeks I think till I can get my teeth sunk back into Peak Limestone and Dinbren and some of the projects I have left from last year and some new ones hopefully (including some projects down south if I get out on the limestone down here). The hit list is already far to long for everything to get done, but I’m optimistic and hopefully this will be the year I break into the 8’s. I felt close last year and I’m definitely stronger this year so I just need to keep training hard and giving it my all.

Welcome To The Jungle – First Tastes Of Plymouth

“Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated” – Russell Warren.

With a recent survey confirming my long held suspicions that it is my accent and not my looks that are holding me back with the ladies, I have been able to put my mind at rest and finally sit down and type up another blog post.  I apologise it’s taken me so long to anyone who’s been waiting/nagging me (*cough* Father Ratcliffe) but here at last there is one, so enjoy…

I lost my feet when it came to climbing for a few weeks when I moved down to Plymouth. I went out and had fun, met new people, had a good time, perhaps to much of a good time on some nights. I was still climbing but it was nothing like the kind of training I did before coming to university. The passion was still there but the psyche it seemed was not. I didn’t even realise I’d lost the psyche at the time, I was too distracted by the freedom coming here had given me. Of course eventually it all caught up to me and one to many drunken misadventures later and I was brought humbly back to earth. Although I still enjoy and want to go out occasionally, it was pretty clear it was time for my extended fresher’s partying to come to an end. Drunken escapades no longer such a regular occurrence, I have been reminded that my heart is that of a climbing bum and with that reminder the hunger has returned.

Psyched once again to climb and get stronger,  I’ve really started putting in the hours down at the wall, trying to climb as many days as possible. Although there’s no training room at High Sports, the setting is really good with some interesting beta often needed to send the problems. My “training”, as I like to call it, has just been picking a selection of hard problems I think I can do and trying them until I can do them.  Nothing new there then really. Eight sessions over a month is the longest I’ve spent on a problem so far, but failure in the previous seven sessions before the send only helped make me stronger (I hope). The problems aren’t graded and I’ve stopped suggesting grades as someone always comes along and suggests something different, so I can’t really say what my boulder grade is at the moment. As there’s no training room/systems board (not that I used them loads anyway)  I’ve also been trying to do some plank, lock off exercises and dead hangs at the end of most if not every session in hope of gaining some strength as well, so hopefully at Christmas after a few sessions down at Redpoint I’ll be able to get a gauge of how the training is paying off.

I’ve also learnt a lot about granite in recent weeks, however seen as a lot of that was in lectures I won’t bore you with the details of it’s petrology. In a climbing sense though, there are two key things that you need to know about Dartmoor Granite;

1) You need to add about 3 V grades onto the original grade of any boulder you try to work out whether you’ll have any chance of doing it.

2) It really hurts your skin.

Or at least that’s what I’ve worked out from the three trips I’ve had out onto the Tors this term. I assumed moving nearer to the beach would mean better weather, how wrong could I have been? The rain has been the main thing stopping me getting out climbing but the few days I’ve been able to get out have been good ones.

My first trip out on the granite was to Bone Hill and it left me scuttling home like a dog with it’s tail between it’s legs. I got shut down by a V5 called Llama Farmer and just about sent a V3 after been heckled by some locals who knew the crafty heel-toe jam beta. However it looks like there are some doable hard boulders out there and I’m definitely keen to go out and hunt them down in the spring and see if I can tick off some hard stuff on the granite.

It was a few weeks before I had suitably recovered from my first experience of Dartmoor Granite before I headed out again, this time around it was to Haytor to try my hand at some trad. Full of confidence and keen to get some ticks under my belt I went and promptly fell of the E1 D’argtagnan. I then went and fell off it some more, before finally managing to pull over the roof and onto easier ground. Clearly I have a lot to learn about climbing on granite, but with plenty of time left before I finish my degree, I’m sure I’ll learn. I did manage to flash Haggis one of the classic E1’s at Haytor before the end of the day, learning that if you trust your feet on granite slabs they generally stick. After you’ve managed to get up the slab on Haggis you are left with some good gear and some fun moves on good holds to get over the roof and it’s easy to see why it’s such a popular climb.

What do you mean it’s the end of November?! Enjoying the glorious weather on the easier moves at the top of D’argntagnan.

Chris starting of the Plymouth Uni send train on Haggis.

Psyched for more trad as well as more bouldering I managed to get out to Hound Tor to look at some of the harder routes there after learning there was the potential for some good highballs. Limbo Dancer an E4 5c was a route I especially wanted to look at and after looking at it, I think it would make a really good highball with enough pads. I flashed the crux on a top rope and probably would of flashed the route if I hadn’t had my rope bag covering half the holds on the top as I was using it as a sheath. Rope bag moved I got it clean next go and did it one more time before the end of the day, so I’m confident if I got the chance I’d send it. There are also two E2’s at Hound Tor,  Aerobic Wall and Anaerobic Crack, that look like they’d go as fantastic highballs, so I’m hoping after the new year they’ll be a Plymouth Uni team send day at Hound Tor.

Me enjoying an end of the day lead on the classic VS – Suspension Flake.

Anyway with a week till I’m back in Birmingham for Christmas it’s time to start getting exited for some grit action!

Here’s a few more pictures from recent weeks –

Apparently Father Ratcliffe  saw this picture and thought I was merely enjoying the scenery. No prizes for guessing what I was actually up to…

Will enjoying the easier moves after getting through the crux od D’argtagnan.

 

Sunset on Low Man as Nick seconds the classic Outward Bound.