The maker of the Beast...

Been getting really excited by the Beastmaker in the mill, or should say Beastmakers as we have two, as Panton put it if one is awesome two must be better. My main aim is to do the 30 sec hang on the 45's. I have been building for the last 3 weeks gone from a few seconds to 24 sec to 26 sec. Last days off I made a new personal best of 29, I think I may have got 30 but I dabbed on the pull on so the first second didn't count!




As well as this I have been developing my locking and footless cross thoroughs . I figure all this will improve my lock and allow me to do my first non chemically induced one armer, another of this years goals. Here is a shot of the cross on the 35 degree slopers, I have also decided that rainy weather makes them sticky... Too far, probably...




But here is a shot of some lovely slopers to hang once beastliness has been achieved.

Keen Roof

The last days off were good, after 5 visits and 6 sessions I managed to link Keen Roof. The mini obsession started about 6 weeks ago, after meeting Leroy up there for a session. Sat in Parisellas disillusioned and with a tweaky wrist. I was bored of trying hard on problems that were hard to be keen for, moves that I had done or tried before, sometimes many times. A sinking feeling that it would all be easier with fitness, rather than getting them more wired, holding your breath and sprinting towards a light at the end of the cave. So new venue and new moves, the mighty Jetta took me across with the idea of Powerband and some spotting duties. Arriving late in the day after a little climb on Pinches wall, we jumped on to see what it was about. Leroy made fast progress and surprisingly so did I, at the end of the session he was redpointing and I had found a knee bar and reach to do the crux moves to the lip. Driving home was ace, fast progress is not something I make that often and I was optimistic of an ascent just needed to fine tune the swing and matching the lip.

For the next 6 days I rested and thought about the moves, at this point I was getting the right hand pocket and throwing again to the hold on the lip. Although I could do this move it felt hard and wasn't that reliable. I came up with a theory to go to the lip lower and then go again making two smaller hand moves the first of which maybe I could reach with the kneebar in. CJD was keen to have a visit so once again, the traffic of Stockport was breached and we met Leroy for round 2.

After a good warm up session doing eliminates on pinches wall we went over and got stuck in the theory worked and I could now get to the lip hold well, Leroy dropped the top twice in the sun, and CJD worked hard phoning schools at the crag. My aim for the day was to do the moves to the lip well and I did that first go, so after this success I got greedy and wanted more from the session, forever a victim of my own enthusiasm, I had many attempts at many sequences, after about 50 goes on the swing I was tired and a bit pissed off. In the end we ran off calling in at Beginners wall so Chris could try Recreational Violence, he jumped around a bit and after a pint and post match analyses, it was a good day.

During the next week of resting and easy days I worked out I needed to be crimped on the good hold on the lip, as opposed to dragging it with three fingers. Holding this open was making me struggle to hold the swing and match the lip. I went back for a session and worked a way of matching, turning the hold to a crimp, dropping back down to the undercut and then holding the swing before matching the lip again. After working the top and bottom sections a bit, I went off to get some food and water before coming back to have a few redpoints before it got dark, I made it through to the match but was too tired for any thing great to go on. It was getting dark and I really happy the sequence was in place and I could defiantly climb the problem now. With nothing much to do I decided to sit around and stay for the next day, I like hanging around by problems drinking and thinking about what to do next. The following morning it was clear that was a shit plan, I was tired, hungover and stiff, too old to sleep in cars now I guess! I also tore a big flapper in the palm of my hand trying too hard on the slap, a bit of cave tactics and some gaffer tape over a small spike sorted that though. My amazing revelation that resting makes you stronger, I now discovered it also made you have really crap day fitness, two days and I was knackered, shit, I normally climb 9 out of 10 days. Still it meant I got to see Natcho destroy it, and I hung out and got bits more worked before giving in and going home.

This time I decided to leave it alone for 2 weeks, go climbing on other stuff and hang around on the Beastmaker. On a night out in Bangor I met a couple of Greek Psychologists, a quick lesson in visualisation and self confidence type tactics followed and I could work on it without even leaving the house. Next session I got it second redpoint, everything went right, its incredible how easy things can be when you get it right. I was starting to get bored of going to try it, and I know from past experience how easy it would have been to make a hash of it, for it to become another must go back to problem. Suddenly it seems like I may be learning. I hope so, its nice when it feels good to do something, too many times the endpoint for me has just been a thank God its over type of feeling. I never did try Powerband.

The Cave

Went back to Parisellas cave this week, its been a couple of months since my last visit, after falling off the last couple of moves on Dans Finish a few times I had had enough. This has been a long year in terms red point angst in there. First up I was trying to link together Full Circle into Broken Direct this was my plan in an attempt to gain some power endurance. This sort of worked as a way of training as I managed my foreign goal of Wrestling with an Alligator in January without fitness being an issue. When I came back I was feeling good, so instead of letting recovery happen I jumped straight back on and made it through the crux of Broken Heart a couple of times but then started to go backwards fast. Next up was Dans Finish and to start off with progress was quick instantly back to the high point of previous efforts. This problem has become a real bugger to link and after falling at the end of Beaver Cleaver, I decided that fitness was required before any more cave links would happen. Being prone to smoking and drinking fitness is hard to get. Instead I started to cruise around looking for shorter problems to try and started to avoid the cave, while Hock was visiting it rained so the cave became desirable once more. In the end it turned out to be good, shit conditions instantly gave the excuse to not do anything, and had an enjoyable day working out the moves on Louis Armstrong and Lou Ferrino Sans Chips, decent progress was made on sans chips and I think on a better day it would have gone.

All in all a good few days off, finished up as i had begun hanging the 45's in the mill, although now on my fourth day on I had gone down to 10 seconds. Next week...

On the Blog

Decided to join in the blogging, so that I too can spray random opinions and post up bully about what I have/want to have been climbing. Hopefully I will weld together wit and wisdom, but in all its far more likely to turn into whine and whinge pretty quickly.

First day off this week saw the beginning of a new obsession with the Mill. After an intensive summer last year, leading to total burnout and failure, I am determined to be more organised in my efforts this year. My first goal was to hang the 45 slopes on the Beastmaker for 30 seconds, a fine beast 8a on the training records. After warming up and recruiting I managed to do 26 seconds before slithering to the floor, this was cool as the target had been 10. Made up some nice problems on the right hand board and managed to retro flash Panton in a blender, Nine bars, and a few other Mill7a+ problems.

Hock came down to the Wales for a quick visit, so we decided to head down to the revamped Tan y Grisiau with Jack and Ian to try Flick of the Wrist, Hock dispatched this with a strange sequence all high feet and shoulders while Ian added 4 or 5 flappers to an injured finger, a case of insult to injury if ever there was one. Jack and I both made good progress before he was stumped by the last but one move, body tension/reach/fear ended it all there for the day. I managed to climb through, catch the sloper after the crux badly and failed to finish it, classic. All in all a good problem that would be awesome without the slightly encroaching block on the left.
Next day was the Caseg to take my annual spanking on Main Vein and The Groove Sitter. I find this boulder desperate at the best of times and was no different today, did manage to evolve my sequence on the Groove and think this one will go, as for Main Vein bah humbug.