Rock Crawler

Oops.

I seem to have entirely failed to keep my blog up to date. Ah well! I’m not going to recount all I’ve missed, that might take too long. Instead I’ll continue as I was going….

TARGETS! I’ve decided my targets for 09:

1) Lead a 7b. Ouch. I’ve managed a couple of 7a’s in the past year, and they’ve remained hard, but I’ve not been able to push harder than that. I really need to work on pushing through this and get to the next level, hence the upgrade!
2) Lead outdoors. I’ve really failed to do much outdoor climbing since I’ve started, mostly due to the weather. However, I’ve already made it out this year (see below) and I really enjoyed it. I’ve not actually seconded or lead on one of my excusions, so it seems a good target.
3) Score 100 points in a bouldering competition. This is a tough one. It will really involve a step up in gear on my previous bouldering comp scores. Cross fingers eh?
4) Take more photos and videos of climbs, especially outdoors!

So, what else has been happening? Quite a bit of climbing! Last weekend saw me climbing on Friday, Saturday and spending the whole glorious, sunny day in the Peaks climbing. I’m still fairly achy from it now, but it been great. My little circle of climbing associates has a new person in it (Hi Kiri if you read this!) who is encouraging more climbing which is good. Sunday in the peaks was all her fault and it was great. We started in Stoney Middleton, climbing on Morning Crack which was HARD, we then ended up at Baslow Edge doing three more climbs. Central Crack was really demanding for me, needing a really strong layback to get up it, which I’m really not comfortable with doing but managed. The top bit involved me doing a really inelegent belly flop. I think I’ll try harder to avoid that next time!

What about indoors? Part of trying to hit those above targets has meant I’m changing my approach a little. I’ve starting doing stamina climbs once a week, where we do 3 climbs in succession, or an Up, Down, Up climb. I’m also aiming to climb on something far outside my grade every week to try and push myself.

Videos/Photos-wise, check this out:

This is Simon completing a nice over hanging 6b at The Foundry.

Some Videos

I’m off to my Wednesday climbing session in a mo, but I thought I’d pop up two more videos taken this weekend.

First up is Jim completing the 7a I was talking about in my previous update

He’s happy because, like me he’d been working on it for ages and knew that it was going this week as well!

Next video is Jim attempting to climb a nasty 6c+ that I cannot do. I’m about a hand too short to reach the second to last hold and can’t figure out a way to get closer to it. I’ve tried jumping for it, but the hold is too poor for me to be able to hang on it.

I’m looking pink as I’ve just come off it! Ah well, that climb is probably gone by now….

Another 7a!

I’ve got another 7a done now. It’s the orange and black spots climb up the corner in the Furnace. Jim and I have been working on it on and off for months and, under the threat of it being taken down on Monday, set on it with a passion today. It was my second attempt that finished it, but first being thwarted by me not actually remembering how to climb correctly. After a stretch out on a couple of other easy climbs I got back on it, worked over the bits I kept messing up in my head and just did it.

It will be a shame for it to go as it’s a cracking climb.

Oh, 100 Pushups. I’ve done the first 2 weeks now and last night did the test again to start week 3. At the start I managed 40. This time I managed…. 41. Oh.

The realm of the 7b.

Today Jim and I broke ourselves on a 7b in the Furnace. It’s a blue with orange tags and it’s evil. The first third was hard but possible, but as you pass that it becomes very very hard.

I’m covered in scratches and scrapes from quite a few attempts!

Video Update!

The climb:

The injury:

ps. I totally screwed the omelette up! Damn.

Help, I’m melting

I had a really good climbing session yesterday, despite the stifling heat in The Foundry. After a quick warm up, I got on a main leading wall and completed two 6a’s, a 6b and the dalmatians 6c+ I was talking about in my last post. I also worked on a 7a up the main wall but just didn’t have the oomph to get over halfway on it. I need to keep on this wall for a couple more sessions before going back into the Furnace to finish that 7a I’m working on.

A quick Hi to Kate who has been commenting on my blog and I’ve now properly met. Sorry I didn’t have a proper chat, I was still a bit stunned after managing that 6c+!

Not all routes are created equal!

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….

I’m drinking a beer!

In celebration of completing my first lead 7a!!!!!!!

GET IN!

No, not this time!

Really good work out on Sunday. Jim and I warmed up on some easy climbs and then really threw ourselves at the 7a we are working on. Again, it avoided us, but we are SOO close now.

Jim has finally got his head around the crux move as seen in this video:

The trick is to get your balance perfect as you match both hands onto a very poor finger tip hold. You can see at the start of that video what happens if you don’t get your balance right

After the crux move, the rest doesn’t get much easier. Here is a video of Jim finishing it off:

The tough move is about 35 seconds into that clip. You have to raise your legs to the right, while leaning left and pop your left hand up to the next hold mid move. Really quite intimidating.

Anyway, Jim and I have now done this climb in a million and one pieces. We know the moves, know the tricky spots. We just need to string it together. Wednesday, you are ours.

I’ll get you next time Gadget!

We’ll I tried to nail that easier 7a on Friday and didn’t manage it! I got over the crux move and then could for the life of my remember how I managed the top section last time! Still, I had three really good goes at it, and I’m confident that I’ve got the crux nailed, so perhaps next time!

Saturday I went for a run along the valley again with Becky which was nice. The weather was just about perfect and the pace nice. I’ll go again on Thursday, probably pushing the pace somewhat.

My Sunday session was a bit of a wash out. I really didn’t have the oomph; the most difficult thing I attempted was a 6b in the furnace which was a struggle from an effort! Hopefully this means I’ll work a lot harder on Wednesday though.