Wake Up Call

Got out to the roof crag on Sunday after a night out on the sauce with some smelly climbers. I spent 45 minutes hanging on a bolt hacksawing a piece of metal sticking out the rock a bit close to my roof project (the saw was blunt!). This is a sign that the bottom of the crag was quarried. Then i bagged the FA of the diagonal grooves undercut route. This is really cool and weighed in at about 7b. It was quite a tussle in the end and the name is Three Stroke Norm (don't ask!!). Went to the Cave today to meet these aresholes:


It was a bit dark as a result of the temp increase but wasn't a total disaster. My strength is still a total disaster though and it took a visit to somewhere familiar to bring it home. I don't get a sense of how strong i am on new moves on a new route or down the Indy. In the cave every on every move i felt heavy and weak in every department. Even the old men Jim and Pritch burnt me off! For me being weak after a couple of month lay off is a different thing to being weak when you've actually been climbing. In 13 years i've only had more than 2 months off twice and the first was down to injury. Far from being disheartened i am quite optimistic and looking forward to getting anywhere back to my normal level. I have extra motivation as 3 out of my 4 bolted projects require a higher level of strength than i've got now. Plenty of reasons to gain strength. I really need to get to it now though and shock the body with some pull ups and fingerboarding.