Onwards and Upwards

First up is a continuation of the last blog,  Last Rites was despatched standard slow style.  Leaving me with only Mr Whippy and Pete s new problem Screwball.  After these its Traverses and Sit starts. Think I am done with it for a while.  I would like to do Mr Whippy, Millenium Drive and Chris's Link as these were the three I went there for in the first place to continue my guide ticking mission.  Guess we shall see what the weather brings.  Which brings me neatly on to the present project,  after hitting the top for the last 4 sessions, landing all round the block and risking my legs a bit, I finally got CJD to come up and spot, sods law the clouds cleared and wind stopped instantly I failed to get anywhere near it.  So in an effort to do it (very) soon I have analysed all the footage and worked out what is missing.  Its because I am only going for the move once a session I think, having landed sideways with both feet on a block, landed on my knees between 2 blocks and just generally missing the 4 pads from a quite unpredictable fall.  I have to really build up to a big effort, and given it wears out my skin quickly as its summer and I shouldn't really be trying it now if I had any sense, it a tricky balance to get up there feeling good before I hurt my skin, (or what I thought was a big ball of scar tissue on my finger till I felt Sam's the other night when I realised it was tiny and I should man the fuck up).  But I don't have any sense other than the sense that I am a tiny % away from doing it any session.  Hmm,  reminds me a bit of Clyde but we wont go there, that would be negative.  Anyway the up shot of it all is that I found the best goes and looked back in my book to see what I was doing at the time, and quel surprise I was campusing a bit at the time.  Which makes me laugh, given the fact that in November when I first taped the top hold I said to Chris that if I was still campusing lots the move would have been easy.  Genius it only takes 7 mouths to implement what I know is a good idea.. So its back to the Mill and the Indy and swinging round on strips of wood, hanging on the Beastmaker with weights attatched and hopeing for a window before the baby comes. 




Next up its my most/least favourite thing GRADES,  ugh.  Feel free to ignore everything from here on in if I was wise I would.  When I wrote this last year  I thought yes I am going to leave it alone stop using 8A nu as I think it did encourage me to be optimistic sometimes.  I also said I was going to Font as that's where they came from, well the upshot is I must be better at climbing in Font than I am in Wales.  I failed to stop using it so this time I have obliterated it, it took a while as the only way I could find to do it properly was to delete each ascent individually.  This turned out to be quite a cathartic experience, it feels like I am no longer a slave to what I did and the need to prop up my ego on the fact that I did  X 5 years ago, instead I can move forward get better and hopefully climb harder, not necessarily as in  a harder grade, just as  in harder to do for me.  These are 2 very different things I am learning.  And that's the point as long as I am learning I am progressing, and as long as I am progressing then this silly little game of bouldering makes me very happy.  And when I am happy I climb better.  Look out boulders of Wales, I am going to get you, definitely not today definitely not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of my life.

Pill box

Well the quest continues, except I have lost a bit of steam with the ticking and am in danger of developing a new obsession.  The venue of hatred has ensnared me, forcing me to accept some things.  Crimping hard on edges and shuffling sideways is hard, hard is good so the Pill Box is good.  

Once I found my stepladder and got over myself I am starting to get into it.  It has also reminded me of one thing, I love climbing things that I cant!  For a little while I think I got carried off into a distant confusion of trying to climb harder grades, now I realise a 7b you really struggle with is better than an 8a you find easy. Well in every way except for talking shit, but maybe I can get over that too.  I forced Jack to come with me at the weekend and CJD was keen too, so we went down and continued to attack the up lines, we did Pill thrill awesome jump to the pinch (if you avoid the 'orrible mono)  Jack Daniels, and I got the Original Party link.  Unfortunately this seems to be a little blinkered climbing it from the right, but fuck them I am still doing it my way.  (See you can tell I am getting into it starting to develop opinions on how other people should do sequences!)

No photos this week so lets see what Google can find.  Pre-emptive guess, thank you Si Panton and http://www.northwalesbouldering.com

This leaves:

Last Rites, (next session) 

Doylo on Last Rites
Si Panton

Mr Whippy (any time soon) 

Old favourite,   Mark on Mr Whippy  
Si Panton

Gaskins Problem (hmmm, Would happily settle for hanging the positions).

CJD on Gaskins Wall
Si Panton

Then its either traversing or sit downs, unsure which yet probably back to the cave.  But I do need to do Millennium Drive for my ticking.  New computer is on the way so soon I will have Pill box the Movie.  Oh I bet you can't wait!

The Puerile Ticker

So what do you do when North Wales becomes hotter than Greece?  For a few years that would mean getting wasted.  Then last year it would mean going to the mill.  This year with a new guidebook approaching it means frantically trying to tick as much of the graded list before there is a new one I will never tick.  As a puerile ticker, I have been busy and its sent me to some good problems.  Starting at the bottom:

The cost of living 5, this is a stunning problem now my very favourite easy one in Wales.
Accomozos Wall 6a, nice to find this and climb it the perfect venue to combine a few beers and a few problems.
Middle bluff line 6b, Brilliant Slab in the pass.  Shame I failed to complete the Lower Bluff 6c, have to go back best taken with a cold cider.
Harris Arete 6b, done before but forgot how good it was.

Last Orders 7a a Pill Box problem thats good and feels easy!
5 Knuckle Shuffle 7b, brilliant and well worth the long walk.

Message to Rudy 7b+, after trying the FA with Katz and then the second FA with Hock, finally I managed to climb it, careful with that brush though!

So that's all lovely and good, but they are not the stoppers on my list, for example the first one I went to try was
Nicks Sexual Problem, 7b+.  Fail to get off the ground.  Nothing new there then!
Mr Whippy 7a+.  For fucks sakes how many times is it possible to fail!  remember almost doing this when I was climbing 7a, still almost doing it 14 years later.
Chris's Link 7b+ on the Pill box, its fair to say if this was my problem I would have over graded it.  2 proper sessions now.  Hopefully it will go next time.  I will beat the Pill box black hole, it destroys me, but one day as Doylo put it

"The clouds will part and a golden ray of light will pour down and you will understand" 

 And I guess when they do I will turn Pill Box into another roadrunner, however I doubt I will ever pull on these holds, for the Final Exam.

Crux hold on Pill Box Wall

The good crimp? on Pill Box Wall

So there we go lots of easy climbing and enjoyable failing, that's what to do when Wales is hotter than Greece.

Bear with me

Now hopefully there will be something good going down soon and then a whole lot of stuff can come out.  But till that point I need to maintain radio silence.  I am really really fucking schizophrenic about climbing at the moment.  I am bouncing from a session where I lap Mr Fantastic 4 times, to a session I have to dig deep to get up Jerry's roof.  Being an emotional kind of guy I take all this to heart and allow no room for the reality of conditions or skin or tiredness.  There is only one reason for failure, its because your shit.  Success well its an irrelevance a fleeting thing that comes and is gone in a moment.  But failure that I can really dig.


Weird?  Uh huh damn right I am.

Any-road, I had a session down at The Cromlech roadside for the first time this year, and was blown around the corner to try Diesel Power for my attempt of the year.  It was strangely good fun, highlighted a big weakness in my core strength though.  Basically I can be lighter and generally weaker or stronger but too heavy on small holds, cant decide which is more fun.  I guess I wasn't cut out to be a boulderer, well apart from the size of my leg and a few knee bars perhaps...

A different Dave showing admirable optimism against the Welsh winter




As well as playing on diesel I had a session trying the big move on Louis Armstrong, again my core was too floppy, and I spent the session hitting well round the lip but milliseconds later/earlier standing on the floor.  Think I will save this one as the future wad will fall asleep as I drive to the cave and then I will have a roadside project, actually thats probably a good time to try Diesel too...

I also managed to come out of the back of the cave on In Life, always hated this section, mainly because I couldnt do it.  Now I am semi enthused, although I generally get bored and start to hate life before redpoints arrive on these long cave things.  I must remember to try and finish the Wire soon, it was all going so well was 1 move away from in the bag before I wandered off back to the hills to heal my broken soul.   Well there you go what a load of hot air. Have some pictures as a reward for your patiance:

Jack working out the moves on PIL

Working on In Life

Jack going for Mr Fantastic

A whinge

You know those goes on your projects when you are crushing and you know you are going to do it?  They are great aren't they.  I had one on this awesome problem I have been trying in November, but I didn't do it.  I hit the lip instead of the jug and that was that, shit weather and wet days off work took over.  Five months of weather watching  and waiting later, I got back up there a few weeks back.  I was quite pleased as the problem was still doable it hadn't all gone away.  Yesterday I went back up, first go was good, second go I hit the jug, and in my surprise let go.  Third, fourth and fifth goes were too close together and shit.  Frustration set in as the sun came round blinding me on the last move, a move which is either difficult or I am doing wrong or the crimp is just a bit too small for my 80kg's.  I have crawled up this wall working the sequence as you cant try the top without climbing the bottom and skin can quickly become an issue.  5 sessions were spent trying to go left instead of right, and progress has generally been slow.


So the sixth go...  I squeaked my shoes and put my left shoe on first in a superstitious manner.  Chalked up to my elbows, cleaned the holds, waited for a big cloud bank to roll in covering the sun there was a good wind blowing straight onto the face.  Everything ready off I go, first second and third moves perfect, really pulling hard feel fucking bionic, then the key move.  Right hand goes again to a 2 finger edge, (if you get this well you can set up really well on the crimp for the top move...)  I hit it and curl my thumb over,  yes yes fucking RAH etc.  Drop in to the left hand crimp before moving feet and going for the last crimp before the jug.  Absolute fucking control, piss, feet up and get the crimp again set up perfect left foot in and up... Right foothold snaps off and I land on the ground again.


Go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 pounds.  Gutted.

Caseg

Some problems from the odd sunny day in the winter.

Tripping all over

Years ago my mate Rhys was in Sheffield Uni, on Friday nights I would head over from Wales to go and climb for the weekend.  Usually I would arrive before him and his house mates were back from the pub, so I would let myself in through some window or another.  Generally I would let myself in find his stash roll a fat one put Rampage on and read either Rock Stars or The Power of Climbing.  There was one photo in Rock Stars that I loved, it was of Fred Nicole on Dance De Balrogs.  At that point I decided that one day I would go and see this block in Switzerland.  Time Passed and I started to go on more trips including many to Switzerland but I never made it to Branson.  The list of things I wanted to see or try got shorter, some of them got done, a lot of them did for me.


A couple of years ago I suddenlly realised that contary to what I had always thought there is more to life than slopers, and love had a part to play in my world.  A chance to be happy presented itself and from the botom of a pint glass I decided that this time I would not be as foolish as I had been in the past, fear of losing my options would not stop me from being happy.  So this has a few repercussions the main one being the creation of my very own baby mutant.  This is great and I am super keen for the summer when he/she should arrive.  It does however mean that I wont be able to galavant around sleeping in woods and try problems for the next few years.


So while last trip plan was formed the goal was obvious, and plans were put in place to go and pay homage to this block where so much history had been made.  A few people told me it was shit and a few more told me there was amazing climbing all over the valley, initially in my head I planned to go alone and siege the line, then I got in touch with Ug and he was keen, Jack and James were also keen so the team was set, so off we went.  I wasn't really sure I was up to climbing hard having trained hard last year the season in Wales had been shit, almost no good weather on my days off, and any strength I had gained was rapidly disappearing.  So a back up plan of having a nice time and ticking was formed, we arrived at Ugs.  The following morning already nursing a hangover, he pointed out it was hot, and we were heading to a valley 1000 meters lower reality started to set in, this was not going to be the trip I had planned....


First up he took us to a crag called Ravio (or something like that)  we got stuck in and tried this ace roof that was good and quite tricky.  Nobody did it but I was pretty close before the team got bored and we decided to come back another day.  Down the winding road to Vernayz, which was a great crag, after some warm ups, we did 7a+ which was amazing, its the sort of feature you get on amazing 8a's but easy.  By this point I was preety desperate to see Dance so we decided to head up there for the evening.  After a very tight squeeze through the town itself we arrived and I ran off to touch the holds.  They were shiny and warm.  Nice.


The following morning arrived and started same as the last, after taking the edge off the day we wandered down to the boulder it was hard and it was hot.  After spending 8 dayas trying Emotional in adverse weather last trip my heart wasnt in it, and it would have taken a lot of manuvering and sulking to get the team to stay up there as opposed to the much more extensive areas around the valley.  So I accepted defet and after doing a lot of the moves, but failing to link anything we set off back down to the valley.


From here on in drinking and smoking ruled.  Apart looking for Fionney buried chest deep in snow, scorching in the sun at a crag we thought was La Balmaz, walking miles with a topo looking for Master of Pouges but it turned out it was  the wrong crag.  Having a half hearted battle against the slime on Satan 8a+ in the big roof at Vernayz, I don't remember much.  And I certainly cant piece it together in any sort of coherent order.  Fortunately one night I did a problem called Tommorow comes knocking which at 7c was the line that saved me from coming home without a 7c or above for the first time since Font in 1998 or so. So there it is a massivley unsuccesful climbing trip for the second time this year.  Roll on family holidays in Fontainbleau.  

The Ravioli Roof

7c+ at Vernayaz

Its a hard life

Dance de Balrogs

Cool 7b+ at not Balmaz

Sleeping with one eye open

After 30 goes we checked the topo, 6a I hope we were doing it wrong.  Vernayaz.  

James on Mrs Dick 7b

Jack on Something Somewhere

Jack on a classic 7a+

The local

Mill training coming in handy 

The Dru from Ugs Balcony

Awesome 7a+ at Vernayaz

Tommorow comes knocking 7c