NOT DEAD YET!

Moved to Llangollen - nearest 8b sports route is 5 mins from my flat, i can hear the river, see the hills and the castle and smell the rock from my room!

Been climbing indoors regularly for the first time in 5 years? Feels good!

Had my first day out on Grit - toproped Kaluza Klein, E7 6c at Robin Hood's Stride and End of the Affair E8 6c at Curbar - both in the Peak District, both Dawes routes and both from Hard Grit - and both were surprisingly easy to figure out and work - managed around 6 clean, slack topropes on both routes before the meager winter daylight faded and we had to leave - Now they've been in my mind a few days i'm ready for the leads... With all the media hype about E8's and 9's being ground-up'ed lately it's easy to forget the seriousness of these routes and the difficulty! That day on grit was eye opening for me and also inspirational - i know i would have never been able to even hold the holds a few months ago - never mind consider leading these routes! I'm mega psyched!!!! For training, bouldering, hard trad headpoints.... the lot! Respect to Eddie B. and Ricky B. for their leads of End of the Affair b.t.w! Legends! hope mine goes as smoothly :)

Got a fingerboard

Sculpted my first ever climbing hold that is gonna be moulded and made in north wales the other day while off work sick... sweet sloper action!

Neal is off in Thai land - about to start his send fest no doubt - Good - it'll keep me psyched throught the winter :)

Will post more and more regularly again - promise :)

Summer 2008

Well i'll call it a summer - despite the weather! :)

I've been working non stop to scrape funds together basicially... nuff said.

No holidays, not much climbing - non really. Bits of training .... just managed to keep my head above 40 miles pre week throughout the summer with the occasional week above the 70 mile mark. No climbing indoors. A steady ammount of hanging.

I've been working at Freelance Climbing instruction with groups out in Llangollen and also got my hand into leading Gorge walking groups and White Water Rafting Sessions - All great fun so it's not nearly as bad as it might sound.

Work wise - I got my first set of GCSE results during the summer and the schools poor run of performance in Maths has taken a turn for the better - with a department consisting of two, Tim the Head of the department and Me, we jumped the percentage of pupils achieving between a C and A grade from a Regional low the year before of just 14% to a new regional high of 52% !! So i must be doing something right :)

Got out on rock a few times - it was often wet - and managed a steady bit of mileage on some 7b's and 7c's but made no real progress on the 8b - Well, i got on it twice - now finding the lower section harder, but made huge progress on the top, crux move after watching Nico tryng it way back. Oh, and i'm climbing sans-tape.... the finger feels ok :)

Last night i went climbing indoors and had alot of fun. I failed patheticially on routes by the end of the night that i should be able to cruise! I mean 6b's by the end of the session but instead of feeling like topping myself off the nearest bridge i'm kinda excited. I know i've gotten Way stronger and fitter than before and that i can pull harder off smaller edges now than ever....it's just that i've done literally NO mileage in ages. I'm hoping to see and report back on a steep improvement curve.

Thats all for now Folks.... hopefully more to come

Nico sends 8c trad crack

Check this out!

Dave Sends Echo Wall, E12?

Just check this out!

And a serious Well done to Dave From me... his blog is the best source of honnest grit and determination, following his trail of hard work and progress, on the web.

Way harder than E11 or any other route he's done?!?! Harder than 8c solo or 9a redpoint? on really crap gear? On a mountain crag? The route's already got legend status... I'm guessing there won't be a que of people wanting to repeat it anytime soon :)

British Fell Championships

A few weeks back Caroline decided to enter into the Fell championships despite not really managing to get into the groove of training at all this year really (Mainly due to a few lingering illness').
Heres some profiles and pictures of the event - 3 words - short and Sharp!

Caroline finished 9th Senior Lady despite a fall on the descent - got us back training on the fells with a vengance