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….

…but I have a note from my Mother

So, I probably should have gone climbing this morning. However, I have 3 really good reasons as to why not:

1. On Friday I went as usual, but went bouldering instead. It’s been ages since I bouldered properly, and as a result I really _really_ ache. Diane (who came second in the uk womens championships!) was showing me how to do some of the routes on the overhanging wall which did most of the damage I think
2. The above hard work opened a set of flappers on my left hand. They’ll heal pretty quickly, but I don’t want to open them again
3. I was out rather late last night watching them demolish the Tinsley cooling towers. The event was at 3am, and the huge numbers of people there meant we didn’t manage to escape and get home till about 4:30!

See the cooling towers fall!

I shall redeem myself by climbing tomorrow instead! (as well as starting week two of the 100 pushs challenge.)

Video Update!

The climb:

The injury:

ps. I totally screwed the omelette up! Damn.

Late update, Cliffhanger and the British Bouldering Championships 2008

I’ve been bad and not updated for ages!

Well, surprise surprise I’m still climbing :). I’m mostly still leading indoors as I still haven’t had the opportunity (or perhaps made the opportunity) to go outside and learn how to trad climb. Still, I’m not too concerned as I’m still really enjoying the indoor stuff.

I’ve definitely cracked that blue 7a now, having replicated it twice more and I’m working on the other leopard spot 7a at the Foundry. I know I can do the whole climb, but it’s a matter of just getting it neat enough to I’m not worn out. Interestingly, I’ve cracked the crux move, but I keep doing something silly and wearing myself out at the move before. As well as the 7a’s I’ve been attempting some of the ‘easier’ 6c/6c+s on that wall. I put easier in quotes as I’m certainly not finding them easy. One of them consists of some very slopey holds and has a move which I’m just not tall enough to do. I’ve watch Ben (who does most of my instruction) do it and he can just reach the next move, but I’m too much of a short arse. I’ve tried jumping for it and can grab it, but it’s very poor and not great for latching on to. Still, it’s definitely highlighting a set of holds and techniques I’m not comfortable with so I’m making a lot of effort to get on that route when I can.

This weekend Jim and I moved out of the Furnace and forced ourselves to climb on the big main wall. I tend to avoid climbing on it as I have real trouble with how steep the wall is. Coward eh? We’ve decided that we should punish ourselves on it more to actually build up the strength to deal with it. It is quite scary how my grade drops on that wall massively; I’m back to 6b if I’m lucky on it!

Two weekends ago it was the Cliffhanger Outdoor event in Sheffield which also hosted the 2008 UK bouldering championships. I was (p)lucky enough to get right at the front for the Men’s finals so took the opportunity to Qik some of the final problems. Here are two good examples:

This one is a shot of the first 4 problems with climbers on. I think the climbers were (from right to left) Gareth Parry, Stewart Watson, Dave Barrans and Martin Smith

This one was the last climb of the day for the eventual winner Ned Feehally who was the youngest climber in the contest at about 22! Looks like I’m over the hill

All of the videos I took can be seen on the UK Climbing and Bouldering group on Qik. Go and have a look!

I really enjoyed watching the bouldering although I don’t think I fully appreciated how steep the wall was until I was walking back home past the side of it later on. Being straight on to the wall really hides this perspective!

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.

Onward and upwards!

Had a couple of sessions since last update. The most significant events which are:

1. Finally completing a 6b+ lead up the main wall at the Foundry. I’m just not strong/fit enough to climb this wall well yet, so this is a real milestone for me
2. Leading a 7a climb in the furnace at the Foundry in three pieces. It was an exercise in working it out, so there was 2 moments where I just sat on the rope to work out the next set of moves. No falling off though!

I’m so chuffed about the 7a, even though it wasn’t a clean climb. This means there are 2 7a’s in the Furnace which I can climb in theory; I just need to execute a clean climb on them. I’m aiming to get the easier one of those done today…

In the mean time, enjoy another climbing video. This time just a top roped 6b.

Airmiles.

I certainly earned a few today. Normal Wednesday climbing session. We warmed up on a couple of 6a’s and did a competition 6a+. That climb was very odd. Lots and lots of holds, but all seeming as if the setter put up an easy climb and then on his way back down the wall, reversed all the holds!

Then on to the previous 6b+ competition climb before having a go on the 7a again. After Jim was nearly halfway up it, we realised that we were leading it, rather than seconding it as we were on Sunday. Eep! Jim managed half of it before having to quit out. Just that little bit too hard! In my attempt I made more of a mess up of the early sections but made one move more than Jim…. for a few seconds before having a rather spectacular fall which saw me swinging right out and crashing back into the wall at speed. I think I yelled! Ouch. I’m nursing a nice bloody graze on my knee from that atm.

After recovering from that, we decided to jump right back in the deep end for the final climb on that Competition 6c+. Jim got to the halfway point but couldn’t hand on to it and I pretty much got to the same place. Fingers just far to tired to pinch the holds hard enough.

We’ll get you next time 6c+! *shakes fist*

So, on with the interesting bit. I’ve discovered a marvellous bit of kit called Qik which allows you to stream videos straight off your mobile. So, I captured a video of myself climbing that 6b+. The idea is for me to look at it and try and work out what silly things I’m doing….

Enjoy: