Mint Mountains

After the ysgo i had to go to Sheff for 5 days to take care of some business. I don't really like the standard climbing wall scene. I only want to go inside to increase my basic strength and most walls are more interested in fun climbing and proper training facilities are often a bit shite despite the massive space at their disposal. This is fine but i'm not bothered about training my technique on plastic. I thought the best bet was the Foundry, last time i had tried to climb on the Works Beastmaker board. This has very nice handholds but i didn't like the foothold situation i.e they were too small and not enough of them. Mawson told me that they'd stuck some more on so i thought i'd give it another go. A few people have told me they find it hard to train properly at the Works because they generally know so many people in there and so end up making small talk and trying not to be rude. I know what they mean now! It was good chatting to folk i hadn't seen for ages but it is quite time consuming. Anyway the footholds made all the difference to the board and although the range of stuff you can do on there is still a bit limited it is a good board and undoubtedly awesome for finger strength and body tension.
Back in Wales we have finally had some proper winter bouldering weather. Driving down to Nant Gwynant i was feeling pretty inspired. Beautifully lit valleys, frost on the ground, no wind,lots of sun and just about t shirt temps. Wish it was like this more often! I took Gorgy down to Craig y Lyn. He had a do on Voie Normale and i finished off Abnormale 7b+. Last time thin skin had stopped me and this time it was fine after a few goes figuring out the technique for the jump. One helluva move! We then went to the Bustach via some shit parking beta from me. Muddy fields, wading through freezing river and stuck car once again. I wanted to try Sick Happy sds but it was wet so just did the 7a stand again (great problem!). The sitter seems very butch, i'm not sure its my bag really. Back in Gorgy's garage tonight. Last time i was there i said 'i think i'm coming down with something'. Two weeks of hell ensued. The priority now is finger strength, this is massively important for hard sport climbing in Britain so i need to get cracking. Would love to get close to my old crimping abilities when i was a youth. Wood and deadhangs barring any global disasters.