Proj Psyche

After watching this video i was taken back by the effort Ondra puts into every attempt. None of us will ever be able to get anywhere close to his physical ability but surely tuning your mind to give it everything can be achieved. "Try harder" - it sounds easy, it should be easy, but putting this effort in and channeling it so it doesn't just throw you off the rock is pretty hard. So many times on Walking Mussel this summer i fell off through sheer ineptitude and just not trying hard enough. There was something in my head stopping me squeeze that pinch as hard as i needed too. I'm not alone either i've seen loads of people redpointing at their limit who just seem to drop off. Surely if you're on for your dream route, at your limit, you need to give it everything you have. I don't know what it is in our heads that stop many of us on so many redpoints but i'd like to get to the bottom of it!

Check out this video of Pete Robins 8b in Ogwen. A few people have said to me it looked good in one pic but not as cool in another. I think the vid shows its a pretty sweet line and a proper boulder problem. Get to it all you 8b climbing hommes.

I've had a bit more opportunity to climb recently and have been trying Pilgrim in Parisella's a bit. My downfall with the Cave is that i go, but don't go back soon enough to capitalise on it. Pilgrim inspires at it's pure power endurance and to me one of the best looking links in there. Its 25ish moves so basically a route and i can't really stop anywhere on it. It's frustrating though as i find every few sessions i have a backwards session and that's hard to take mentally. I got to the flake then a few days later my heel kept slipping off before Rockatrocity. I'm hoping this time i'll persevere with it and not get distracted by everything else.
I finally got to try my Pigeons proj yesterday, this was the one that got away out of all the routes i bolted last year. I've played around on it but yesterday felt like my first proper session. It seeps so has been wet all year. The top half of the route contains one of the coolest crux sequences i've done on a route. It all depends on a very specific kneebar that most won't be able to get. Yesterday was the first time i tried it with the 5.10 pad and it felt better. I also found a kneebar on another hard move which really helped but it's on the other leg so i'm going to have to borrow another pad. I managed to get from the ground through the first kneebar into the hard climbing but i need more power endurance. I've had a picture of the route on my desktop all year to keep me psyched. I really love it but doing it is dependent on the weather, work and belayers.