Some Footage

Times are frustrating in these parts. Early tides so far have kept sessions short down LPT. Climbing with Danny Cattell can be frustrating too as he's always late and when your going to a tidal crag this is bad news. Feel good on my LPT project, the footage below shows my best recent go, really should have done it, stupid. And now the weather is total shite and there are no signs of improvement. Good job Pete did liquid when he did cos things have got officially crap. LPT is a bad place to be when its raining!

Big Trouble in Little China

As a change from rock climbing and the orme here are some clips from the greatest film ever made:

New Deadhang Rig

Since Ryan Janckyn Pasquill fucked off to the Frankenjura with the A-Frame i have had to create a new portable deadhang board. Yesterday i had my first deadhang session for six weeks. Hopefully this will bring my finger strength back up where it was and i can finally challenge Ondra as the worlds greatest rock climber.
Some of my other pals are in Ceuse getting pumped. Smit has crushed Bah Bah Black Sheep. Very good.

The Holy Trinity

Yesterday Danny explained to me what the "Holy Trinity" of orme climbing consisted of. He said that any man who climbed the Big Link, Big Bang and Jonny's Pill Box problem would achieve this so called Holy Trinity. I wonder if a man exists who could complete this feat. They would require burl and sick power endurance for the BL, pure finger strength, power endurance and stamina for BB and then incredible crimp strength for Jonny's problem. Something to think about!

Liquid Robbins!

Managed to finish work in Swindon early today so headed home pronto. Popped in to see Danny C who had just come back from Ceuse, he was heading out to the Orme so i thought i'd join him. When i pulled up at the Cave Petes van was there and i knew what that meant. Sure enough as i looked down to the beach there he was setting off on Liquid Ambar. I watched intensely. Despite being so far away i could see every move, he got to the top section in record time and i got excited but wasn't sure if he would pull it out the bag or not. He did, the screams confirmed it. The fourth ascent of LA (after only 20 years). A great effort. Cool to see someone local do this classic route too. You will be able to see the footage on Dave Brown's forthcoming Welsh film. Me and Danny made our way down there to congratulate him, i guess relief and elation must have been the order of the day! Pete warmed down with the second ascent of Moonwalk. My mini crisis subsided slightly when i got back on Pas De and could do the moves again. I had a decent go, getting to the redpoint crux again. Hope is not lost after all. Danny did Bad Boy (just!) he'd never done it before and then got on the Pas De is hard bandwagon after he had a quick go. Then it got dark. Man of the moment:

Battle of the Parasites

Tonight i climbed a cool new link up route down LPT. Battle of the Parasites follows Battle of the Little Big Orme to the big sidepull rest then steps left into the slopey break on Parasite. It then climbs to the end of Parasite up the cool blue headwall. I think it probably soft 7c+ which is a pretty cool grade for this bit of crag as it is firmly in big 8 land. the hardest move is the move left where Battle leaves Over the Moon. I managed to get a no hands rest after this section by kneebarring the big sidepull on Battle. The top wall on Parasite is brill, really cool rock.
Tommy climbed his project tonight in between Over the Moon start and Walking Mussel. Hard moves at the start lead to a shakeout then a crux section joining Over the Moon Direct up which it finishes. Another great addition, Moonwalk 8a+. Pic of Pete on it below:


Pretty weird how LPT hasn't had a new route for 12 years and has just had 2 in one evening!

Taking the lows with the highs

Well things have gone royally tits up in the last few weeks. Since i greased off the last move of Pas de Deux my strength has been deteriorating at a rapid pace. I have thought long and hard about this phenomena. Alright so i haven't really trained for 3/4 weeks, this could be responsible. Also i have considered the possibility that maybe my body has just adapted to being lighter. After all it was used to pulling up 12 stone and all of a sudden it doesn't have too anymore. This doesn't seem to happen to Pete or Tommy though. Hmm, whatever something needs to be done, i haven't finished crushing yet, not by a long shot. I spent last week stuffing my face with cake trying to console myself, this obviously helped too. My main mistake was not to take advantage of things when i was cranking i.e. stop working. I really should have done Halfway House and Pas de Deux and more. I've always known that weight loss for me would not be a long term thing, more short term in order to crush some hard stuff. Anyway i intend to start deadhanging again so hopefully my fingers should feel stronger in a few weeks, also need to get light again.
Yesterday after a horrendous five hour drive i headed to the Orme with Matt and Schelmerdine. These days i'm always a little nervous about doing easier routes. This may sound gay but i've been so focussed on trying to climb at my limit and redpointing for so long i've lost much of my route reading/onsighting ability. So i often have an epic on 7a's etc.. even though i used to walk up then when i was piss weak. Many of these easier routes on the orme were big deals when i did them so i was keen to revisit a few. Last night i did Contusion 6c, Julio Juvenito again, my first 7a and the Bloods 7a+. I felt happy to be on these routes, it was nice not to be in extremis, just climbing up perfect rock, the odd little crank here and there enjoying the easier sections. It made me realise that i should make time for more of this, there are some brilliant routes on the Orme that i am keen to revisit. Doing those routes that i hadn't done for 9 years really took me back to my early climbing days and it felt nice. Every increase in grade was such a big deal, getting on the sharp end was so nervewracking back then. One of the first days i went climbing with the Mule he flashed The Bloods and i was quite simply astounded, to me 7a+ was another level and there was this guy who was my age doing it first time. Anyway thats enough reminiscing, its green tea time.

Shit Week

Well my time off work has been pretty shit. My split tip screwed up the first half and rain, bad tides, lack of belayers has screwed up the second so far. I made it up to Kilnsey in the week and had a good session on Grooved Arete. I got to the fourth clip from the deck, i clipped the draw but then my hand buckled. Got a pretty nice sequence on this route though although i can see the long move off the jug at the top being a bitch on redpoint. Nice to have a project at the great Kilnsey though. The tendons in my right hand felt a bit worked so i rested friday and went down LPT to watch Pete on Liquid. It is interesting watching him at the moment, he is in intense battle mode - living and breathing this route and getting down very regularly. I'm not sure i have ever been in such a intense battle, most my attempts at things at my limit have been spread over longer periods of time. Pete is currently attempting to batter the route into submission. He really just wants to get it done! This approach is effective but also brings heightened stress and has a more all consuming effect on your life. The problem with this route for Pete is that if the slightest thing goes wrong on the hard climbing, it is very hard to recover. Its hard to re-adjust on those holds! So he needs a good day conditions wise when he's in the right physical and mental shape and then he needs to climb it extremely well. A week ago he tickled the undercut high up before his left hand popped off. Above is a few more ticky moves but he's pretty solid on them. Fingers crossed he will tick it soon. I hope to get down there tomorrow, it pissed it down this morning.


And he's off!

My favourite crag in Britain:

Pas de Twat!

Went down LPT with Spidey on Fri, Pas de was feeling pretty good. I managed to work out that i needed to crimp up the last sloper as soon as i hit it almost. This is where i kept falling. I had a good blast managing to half crimp up the slope i rocked over got the intermediate, starring at the last hold i went for it when my right hand pinged off the slope - bastard!!!! It gets damp as it gets late dow LPT and i'm sure this is why i pinged. I had basically done it. Then i looked down at my finger and it had a vertical cut in it, in fact the whole tip was marked. As i pinged off my finger had been dragged along the crozzles. Well i had 9 days off work coming up to do some climbing then this happens.
Anyway i went to Yorkshire, ended up pottering around at Kilnsey, worked out a good way of doing the crux of Grooved Arete which was good, quite keen to go back and put some effort in on this great route. Popped into Malham where Steve Mcclure has just completed a mega link up, Bat Route into Overshadow, what a beast did Hubble the other day too, what a beast. So now i'm forced to rest, sack.

A Step Too Far

Didn t climb as much as i d have liked last weekend.Friday i tried Katz s route Carinthian Groove in the evening. Really cool route! This starts up the hard 7a+ boulder problem Mr Whippy.After the jug you do perhaps a Font 7b+ section to join the route Foulish Ghoulish which it follows to the top. Danny almost did it once but being a route punter these days he fell off the top not knowing what to do. Mawsons has also done the moves. I couldn t do it their rockover way but managed the crux via a dynamic pop to the high crimpy pinch.Quite low percentage from the deck i reckon but its really only 1 move.Great route though and worthy of 8b i d say. Something else to do! Sat went down LPT with Pete. He s still seiging LA and slowly making progress. I had a quick blast up it myself.Felt pretty good but i have been thinking about this climb and i think it probably won t be on the cards for this year. For one there is so much i want to do.I haven t got the time to invest everything into this route. i m really psyched for ticking some 8a+s.8bs and maybe 8b+. Also i m not in good enough shape for LA after all this is a really hard link. Pete is stronger and fitter than me and he is having a right battle! I do want to do Liquid but feel relaxed about when. I am definetely encouraged by how my efforts on it have gone. After i had three more redpoints on Pas de Deux.Close but not close enough,tis proving a tricky redpoint. I have been thinking about the link from Melancholie,very inspiring!