This weekend I was in Derby so went to go check out the newly opened Alter Rock. It’s a nice little centre, in a converted church which increases it’s coolness factor significantly. They have a mix of top rope and leading routes and all the right hand side is bouldering problems.

Now, back to the point of the title. After a warm up and a couple of 6bs, I checked out a top roped 7a, hopped on it, hoping for the best, and on-sighted it. Surprised, I went and found another 7a and tried that one. Again, done without trouble. In the end I on-sighted all the top roped 7a’s (3). Crazy. Inspired by my form, I found the hardest top rope climb in there, a 7b (and consequently one of my challenges for the year), and had a go.

It was hard. Very hard. More like a long bouldering problem with very poor holds, big moves and very little for your feet, but with the exception of the accidental use of a another hold, I did it.

Like I said. Crazy.

I think Alter rock grade a little easier than I’m used to. Either that or the intimidation factor of leading is having a far greater affect on my climbing that I suspected. It is hard to compare though because my local climbing centre doesn’t have any top roped problems graded harder than a 6c+!

In other news, I had a good night at my usual place last weekend. I finally managed to complete the 6c dalmatians lead up the centre of the main well. I did have to sit on the rope twice, again raising my concerns about my arm stamina, but now I’ve managed it, I KNOW I can do it. It’s just practice now….