Portland!

Soooooooo.

Portland today,

Great time.

I went down with Si Brice, Ben Dickinson and Dan something or other.

An early start to get to Bristol then Si kindly drove the rest of the way in super quick time.

We warmed up quickly on 'The Tank' with a V2 and a V4, before heading to a secluded 3* boulder called Collo Della Terra.

Ben on Collo Della Terra 3* V7

CDT is a really nice problem possibly a little soft at V7 maybe more like V6 but if you are down on Cuttings boulder field I would definitely recommend spending some time on it.

I also managed to open my ankle on this problem which left me with red shoes. :-(

Despite this we moved onto Lightning Strike - 3* which came with strong endorsement from Dr. T.

I grabbed the beta from the relevant ukb article and we worked out some moves.

I eventually sent the problem and once again - very much recommend it to anyone going to the island.

Take some spotters though.

After a quick lunch break I also sent Split Lip V7 and Petty Thief V6 which share the same start through a roof but different finishes. Both alright problems but I imagine there are better ones in the area.

Assuming the grades are somewhat relative to font, I am clearly a little stronger than I was in the last font trip.

And I can also without a doubt say that the last few weeks of training have definitely had an impact on my climbing ability.

I have been doing a lot of core, pullups and fingerboarding as well as climbing on hard problems at TCA.

On Lightning Strike this all came together with a roof section and a long, long lockoff on a small crimp to an equally poor two finger crimp. Two weeks ago I dont think I would have been able to do it based purely on the strength requirements but right now it was perfect. for me.

Well up for finishing off the two whites in the academy now and final training for next SIBL :-D

Cheers for reading.