Skype

WOW! All I can type is wow! The other night after having a webcam and skype on my computer for over a year I was trawling through the web trying to find some good examples of GCSE maths exams for one of my classes when I get this weird phone noise coming from my speakers… Eh? I click something and up pops Neal! My first video conference call from home! Class! (Lucky I was wearing clothes! Haa!) It was the business, being able to talk to and look at your mate for free! It’s the way of the future people! I cant believe I never tried it before!

Next...

Well again i'm late in writing anything as a result of adjusting to the new schedule of work and training but thats not to say we've not been getting up to anything. After the success on Highway we headed back to Dinbren, this time to try a neighbouring 8a+... on arriving to the crag, the locals in the form of Lee (the guidebook writer), Guy (Lee's Nephew) and their strong friend Mark were set up camp on what we had come for.

After catching up with Lee and hearing his Beta for Elite Syncopations i decide it's worth getting on again and seeing if it feels any more doo-able. This is another 8a at the crag and has a wicked hard crux at the second bolt. The frustrating thing is that aside from this section, the rest of the route is fine and dandy! I had tried it a few months ago and decided that it didn't suit me and left it at that. With Lee's new sequence it seemed possible.



Sunday we return and after watching Lee's successful ascent on youtube the night before i was psyched to give it a propper working! Man i got spanked! if you look at the video it looks like a path! it just highlights how tall Lee actually is! I've never before been outreached by anyone but he manages to do it! It's a git of a move but workable all the same - Very powerful lock with the left shoulder on a crimp with only a very low right foothold while you reach for a distant sloper with your right

Heres Guy's video of Lee's ascent... the third hand movement is the crux! He styles through it!

Meanwhile Caroline continues her training by working the harder 7's at the crag. The line pictured above is a brilliant 7a+ but a bit reachy! I can honestly say that i reckon the sequence Caroline has crafted out of the meager holds on offer to her looks more desperate then the 8a crux i was on.... reach huh?! Not the fairest thing in the world but makes for great grading debates!

Highway

A while back, one of my Blog posts had a comment on it from a guy called Steve who said something to the effect that he was motivated to train as a result reading my waffle… then he went and wrote some inspiring waffle of his own about his recent few days climbing with Séan in Fair Head and I got Psyched meself! I had to get out on rock and prove to myself that I could climb something decent and do it fast!

Today we headed out to Dinbren again, a week after my last skin trashing session with “Highway”. Well it marks the end of the first two weeks of our intensive winter running and climbing training schedule and I feel like a different climber again! Only two weeks of training on my board and the 8a felt like a path! I really wanted to redpoint it today so after two laps on the crag 6b warm up I abbed down the route, cleaning the holds and placing the quickdraws – the sharp nature of the crux monos means that I usually only get 3 good burns on this route so I didn’t want to waste any time (or skin).

The temps were perfect, sunshine, dry rock and a nice breeze. Someone must have been working the route lately and there were a few massive chalk lines indicating someone’s choice of footholds… They weren’t much use to me and looked gank so I brushed them off aswell on my abb down before starting. While I was abbing an impressively large owl did a fly by of the entire crag. A father and son team on a trad route further down alerted me to it first with shouts of “ Oh WOW!” and I turned around just in time to get an awesome aerial view of it’s bright golden plumage gliding by. Caroline was fairly chuffed with her close up too; apparently it practically flew past her face! As a side note, the Clwydian crags are generally good for wildlife, so far we’ve regularly seen Foxes, hawks, falcons, Owl’s, Rabbits, mice and even a Poll cat or something up at worlds end (Like a giant squirrel with a massive cigar shaped tail with a black ring on it).

Anyway, I pull the rope down and tie in… the route begins with a boulder problem involving a shallow mono and a slopey matchbox pinch that has to be deadpointed from to a sharp two-finger pocket that you have to catch as an undercut at full stretch. From there a few non-descript moves lead to a good hold and a rest before a long crux sequence out under and through a blank-looking bulge. Left crimp, high right gaston, left to intermediate thumb-catch, foot up, left again out to wide, beefy pinch, right toehook in the good hold allows me to release the gaston and catch a high undercut below the crux bulge without swinging off. Then the scary clip from way above the last bolt.

Now the strange bit, previously I had been sketching by this stage due to the pump and nerves but this time I’m solid enough to relax and chalk up my left before reaching over the bulge to the slopey two finger scoop… normally this feels desperate and I have to snatch out to the right hand mono sidepull but today I can actually lock-off and chalk my right hand (I actually thought to myself “Why are you chalking up for a feckin mono?”) and then wipe the excess chalk off on my trousers before holding the mono. Next I’m adjusting my feet, ready for the deadpoint to the Killer mono with the flapper-ripping tooth. From here on things get a bit Vocal as I know I’m fresh and I really want to stick this sequence. I reach high to the mono and it feels good as I stack my thumb and index finger onto my middle (just like I practiced on the board during the week) and step up my feet. The slap to the sloper happens perfectly and I’m on the bulge and further than I’ve ever been on this route.

The footholds are rubbish at this point. Basically I’m standing on a quarter of your little fingernail with my right and a rough patch of vertical rock with my left. The handholds are slopers. The higher you stand up, the more likely your feet are to skid off and theres a bolt to clip infront of my face but I cant let go of either hand! I hop my left up high and have one of those on-off moments where I’m a gnats left testie from peeling off backwards. I’m on, stand up to the undercut above and the final easy bulge after skipping the last draw. Clipping the lower off I’m shocked. 2 weeks of board work and the route felt like a path compared to how it felt before our trip to Ireland. After stripping the draws I was at a loss as to what to do next… I was all set for a full days battle and I sent it in one! We kept busy – no shortage of bolts to clip

My second 8a …

The Storm

I've been quiet lately....

My first week of Teaching in my new school is just over and i'm enjoying it there!

But i'm taking a beating adjusting to the hard winter training and working routine again and adapting to being generally fatigued every day as a result... We're upping the weekly mileage to around the 60 miles mark and cranking up the climbing training intensity too... must be paying off, went out yesterday to Dinbren to tie in and try clipping some bolts for the first time in over a month... after a warm up i managed to get past my previous highpoint on my new 8a project before fluffing the sequence and comming off at the top crux mono (the one with the sharp tooth!). I realised something important though... I've always had a good head for remembering sequences, what hand and footholds to use and in which order, but this requires more than just the black and white pattern. The holds themselves are not enough for me to stay on, they have to be used and squeezed in the right way, tensing and contorting my core in just the right way and at the right time to allow me to pass. I gave it one other good redpoint effort before the 3 right-hand monos on the route took their toll on my skin and i called it a day. But i learnt something up there that i can use on every route in future...

Today (Sunday) Caroline had a 10km race in Manchester so we made our way there for half eight. Then the Coach springs a race number with my name on it on me without warning and i end up running my first 10km road race on the spur of the moment! I feel shite having not raced since June but jog around in 40mins (with my 5km times around 17mins i should be able to knock out a 35min 10km!!) Ah well, it was a nice morning and i got some training out of it - most importantly i didn't kill myself trying to race it and risk my fitness for the comming months hard training.

Complete Scream, E8

Sean boy goes and picks up the second ascent of this cracker! Well done man! Ah well, plenty of More rock at the head... I'll have to content myself with some hardcore training for now before a lenghty trip back to Fairhead sometime in the future...

http://blog.teamgearedup.com/2007/09/sean-vilanueva-belgian-sean-climbs-e8-in-fairhead.html

Séan had this to say to me about it all:

Ha...
Without the Peg and without duck tape... I think duck tape is unethical! don't you think? :)Awsome route... though the skyhooks are pretty bommer... You'll love it, big moves on small face holds...excelent technical face climbing
Also did Bad skin day, not as scary but really nice route too. and this route called Men of kerow, nice stemming and jamming.
Was climbing in Freyr today with Tom and the lads...feels funny to clip bolts again but Freyr is really good climbing.
slan