Quick update cheat

God it's been busy here with home, work even illness again!

still not quite out of the mess yet but heres a copy of an email i sent to a friend about the rest of the week with the lads .... it'll have to do for now i'm afraid

"Well we established a new 7 foot horizontal dyno in devils gorge, went to pembroke, did 4 E2's, an E3, an E4, 3 E5's, 2 E6's and played on the big issue (Nice!!), got rained on, drove back up to north wales, went to slate - did 4 E2's, 5 E5's and 2 E6's before getting rained on and going to Llanuduno - Went bouldering in the rain at parasellas saw a V13 getting repeated, lead a wet 7a+ 3 times in LPT, went to Dinbren Nico onsighted my 8a from last year - loved it! Then sean tried to onsight it, came off at crux - worked it a bit and sent it 3rd go on redpoint. Then i got Nico playing on my current 8b project - again loved it but didn't send it - i got new beta for the crux though and he fell off at my highpoint on both his redpoints. then we went to slate to do the Quarryman - E6 6c, E5 6b, E8 7a and E7 6c - never been freeclimbed in a day - we didn't manage it despite spending nearly 12 hours on it!! Awesome though - felt like a Big wall! then we went to nesscliffe - bouldered, i lead an E7 - fell off a greasy hold onto rusty little peg in damp friable sandstone above crux, pulled back on and topped out with more excitemebt before the top (broken handhold) - the lads flashed it then, Sean did an E8 after abseil inspection, then Nico onsighted an E7 and Sean flashed it afterwards. yesterday we went to Dinbren after work for soem power endurance training - i lead 4 7a+'s - feeling psyched beyond belief - unfit but focused and hungry for pain - it's training time!"

Juice part 1

Last Thursday I picked up Sean and Nico from Manchester. Friday I went to work and when I came home we got stuck into some sweet climbing. First up we went to Devils Gorge for some pre-dinner bouldering. Sean spotted a (not so obvious) challenge inspired by our recent viewing of Stone monkey – a 7 ft horizontal dyno to a jug and wild swing. This kept us busy for ages until it was eventually stuck (I’ll go back and film this one for the blog sometime – it’s nuts!). After dinner we packed the car to capacity and hit the road to Pembroke. Arriving at 2am we set up camp and got up at 8 for a full day on the rock. Warming up at St. Govans we swiftly dispatched half a dozen routes up to E4 between us and made our way to Huntsmans leap – the lads loved it! Straight in for the E6 onsights – damp holds saw the ladz slip off the cruxes of both Souls and Hunterkiller – lack of trad climbing resulted in me fluffing up the 6b crux slap on Minotaur!! Not too bad though as I was fairly happy with the move once I tried it again and it’s the sort of move you do mess up onsight – a reachey (for me!) blind slap to a hidden pocket. Ah well…. Caroline finished up with a E2 lead in fine form before we went to check out The Big Issue, E9 6c. AWESOME! It was really weird to be climbing with some strong lads on a visit – they had no reason to not jump on these hard routes because they’d never heard or read about their reputation – the outlook really rubbed off on me – everything looks doo-able and fresh…. Ripe! Anyway – Nico checked it for gear and then gave it a quick toprope – agreeing that it was 8a+ … he was psyched for the lead but the following morning it was chucking rain!! Noo!! Where now?

Where to start?

Dear God it's been busy!

More news in any one day of last week to write about than i've had all year!

Pembroke, Slate, Sandstone, Limestone, Bouldering, Sports and Trad!

I'm still processing it.... but will post lots of sweet pics and Vid clips asap!

Fluke

I've been thinking....

I'm more psyched now than ever for climbing and it's so easy to see why

• i was climbing well by my standards at the beginning of the year
• i got injured and was forced to take 6/8 weeks off climbing
• during which time i was literally frothing at the mouth to climb and train!
• i began to feel better and started some easy climbing
• i began to hang and train again
• i started to send routes and boulder problems i had never managed before
• some insanely motivated and strong climbers come to visit for a month
• i realise theres an awesome hard trad crag 30 minutes from my door full of inspiring lines
• and now i've a week off climbing!

Don't you just love it when things come together?

The latest

Well i'm not dead, i've just been busy.

Last thing i blogged about was Caroline's E5 lead - since then it feels like i've not had a minute to sit down and think. Firstly we had a busy weekend entertaining Caroline's Mam and friends who came over to hike up Snowdon - awesome day for it but a weekend with no climbing and only little running. After that things got real busy. Firstly my finger began to feel normal again.... but not normal - i started to hang from the fingerboard with tape on the injury but within a few days i was training again with no tape... was feeling stronger.

Sean and Nico arrived nearly two weeks ago and we spend an afternoon in Lanberis bouldering with them before dropping them off at the BMC international meet where they ripped North Wales apart with E8 onsight attempts and numerous E7 and E6 onsights. Needless to say the combingation of this excitement and the working finger of mine set my psyche levels rising fairly rapidly! Sunday was my birthday (26) and we had study to do so no climbing on the cards. However, Sean and Nico swung by with Adam en route to Gritstone for a few days so we had a bit of lunch and the lads filled us in on the climbing they'd been up to - and we were planning what to do next week, when i'm off work - Pembroke is sounding very, very likely :)

Monday came and with my motivation levels at a new high and Adams encouraging views on Nesscliffe still ringing in my head we threw the kit into the car and floored it to the crag - we'd only been there once before and it was damp - this time it only took 30 mins to get there - nill walk in - and within 30 minutes i had warmed up an a 3 star E3 and was working a beautiful Soaring thin groove/arete, Yukan II, E7 6b. I couldn't compare this line with any other climb i've even been on - it felt utterly desperate. Technical 6b moves alot of the way protected by a variety of rusting old pegs. The seed was planted though - this would be perfect to do before trying My Piano again. It seemed like i had some close, hard trad to play on at last - it was always there, i just never thought it was feasable for mid week climbing! Doh! Tuesday evening - Nesscliffe again - this time, and after only one play on the route the night before i was way more comfortable with the unique rocktype and i managed the route clean on a top rope - the only thing now is getting comfortable with the arete dyno i do to the break - Friction holds for feet, open handed arete for left hand, throw your right hand for a sloping sandy break - looking at a 6m fall from that point minimum in the (quite likely) event of comming off. Hmmmm.... Anyway, Caroline began to work this line too and was making great progress on it before we packed up and headed home - it's good to play on hard lines!

Yesterday, Caroline had a driving lesson so i packed the pad and shoes and went to our local Limestone crag for an hour's mileage. Ended up soloing an E3, E5 and E6 plus a load of bouldering. Now i know someone commented on the validity of claiming E6 for a short route with a boulderpad below it and thinking more about it i have to kinda agree with them. It didn't feel E6 - but i suppose the intensity of the climbing was hard enough for the guide editor to award such a lofty grade. With a fairly packed and sustained 6b sequence getting you up the majority of the route, one things for sure - it's not E6 for exposure - it's for difficulty. Anyway - the point of this bit of the post is that despite the injury and layoff - moves and crimpers are feeling better than ever! Yes!

Now all i'm missing is a load of route mileage and a good summer's climbing is back on the cards!

A week in Pembroke with the Lads, Sean and Nico should get that well underway - I'm psyched!