First Round, First Second

Another hard week on the crags. I bolted two lines on wednesday. One was a big roof which looked really good but hard to assess from the ground whether it went or not so a bit of a gamble to bolt. It was hard work sorting it out on my own but i did it in a few hours. Then i shifted to the other crag and bolted a short steep bouldery thing. The holds looked ace and i'm sure it will be a nice boulder problem on a rope. The next day i was out with Norm, he did a new 6a crack and i tried my roof bolt to bolt. It was flipping cold! The roof section turned out to be ok but getting over the lip seemed hard but doable, ace! Then i jumped ship again and bolted a not very steep rib feature which looked very thin. It was almost pitch black as i was sticking the belay in. After i went to Matts board to see how things were strengthwise. I haven't worried to much about training yet as i was more concerned with getting my arms used to climbing again. It been a good stategy as i've been enjoying my climbing. I was predicatably shit on the board but took heart from the fact that i could almost do the moves on my roof even though i couldn't yet climb den 7a. Mule did a hard problem, wouldn't it be nice to never be weak! Today i went out with Robins and Ian. It was Pete's 3rd sesh on my old project but he pissed it first redpoint today. The grade is 8a+ and as another Sharma route name parody he's called it First Round, First Second as its shorter than the original and a bit easier! Really cool route and style.
First ascent here:


For the sake of comparison here is the original:


I went to work on my rib project. It had looked very thin when i bolted it with small holds. I had imagined it to be like a Homosapien (pen trwyn 7a+) affair. It turned out to be much harder. I worked out a sequence that seemed pretty tricky but i could do. It wasn't very steep but the holds were pretty bad, not really my style. Before i had a go i set the technical master loose on it to ensure i hadn't missed anything. Sure enough Pete scrapped two of my moves straight away and used (yes thats right, you've guessed it) a HEELHOOK! I tried it again and it was much better. I fell off the last hard move a few times on redpoint then punctured my soft skin in two places so had to stop. I've had a great time getting out in the last few weeks. I've enjoyed bolting and checking out new lines despite it being hard work. I've been trying to appreciate it as it won't last forever and i'll soon be back on those same old holds in the cave or LPT!