Few things.

I'm suddenly feeling quite apathetic about writing on this blog, which seems a shame but there you go.

I shall continue to post when I can be arsed though.


1st on the agenda!

I guess the peak trip I took this weekend would be high on the list.
Unfortunately I didnt really tick anything much.
I performed a dayflash of deliverance to show Arjan how to do it - (the fact that he ignored my beta doesnt mean anything at all!) Which was pretty neat, last time took 3 attempts so I think I have this problem pretty much on the money.

I also whaled around on Captain Hook (which is a cool roofy, slopery thing near green traverse) while having a chat with Lorenzo from UKB, who seems like a fine gentleman but he kept calling me Rich till I corrected him :-P
Michele Caminati was also there and I even had the pleasure of spotting him on his onsight attempt of Ulysses Bow - which he backed down from...not that I blame him, it looks pretty sketchy.

Secondly!
I am somewhat vegetarian right now, not for any particular reason, I just thought I would see what happens if I dont eat any meat for a while... Apparently the answer is nothing.
Plenty of protein from pulses and frequent smoothies and loads of genuinely tasty meals - I figure it is easy enough to cut meat from your diet without actually affecting your life at all. If anything I probably spend a little less in wasted food now.
However I'm not about to become some sort of moral campaigner for the rights of animals not to die, and unless I am on a specific challenge not to eat meat (like last week) I wont be too miffed if the world conspires to deliver it into my diet.

I do find these people that inherently decide that vegetarian food is rubbish to be very close minded. I would perhaps have thrown myself into that circle a few years back but I must throw out a very big thanks to my good vegan friends in london who have certainly proved over the course of several trips that food without meat can be delicious.

I very much enjoyed making my own hummus the other day - that is, until it exploded all over the kitchen after I accidentally pushed the wooden spoon into the turning blades of the blender...a mere error of judgement there.....certainly not the act of a simpleton.

Thirdly!
I am feeling stronger again!

Hoorah!

I think that all the time spent doing various core exercise in the down time while I couldnt climb has helped a lot with my general ability.
This should really be my last week of power training and I should move onto power endurance next, which is a shame because I am really enjoying the hard bouldering at the moment.
I feel really psyched for just about everything, unfortunately my skin is too thin so climb for long so I am taking the next few days off to let it come back so I can put in a hard session at TCA or in the great outdoors.

Fourthly!

I took some pictures at the academy the other night and here they are for your viewing pleasure.


Joe cutting loose on the dyno of my newly set problem.


Hamish Potokar bearing down on a microcrimp.


Dave Pickford pulling through on the circuit board.

Tweaked my back!

Arrgh, trust me to pull a muscle doing pullups after a proper warm up.

Useless!

Ice and whatnot should help get me fit for friday.

This week

Since my hand seems mostly alright (still careful about pulling too hard on the old crimper grip though) I have been down to TCA today and had a pretty decent level climb.

Finger feels alright whis evening despite the thin skin.


However, I guess the important news is that I may be going to font on thursday evening! Very psyched to be going with so many incredibly talented climbers. I wont be able to touch anything they are attempting but I can dream!

Inter Semester Break Funtimes.

So now that the exams are over I have finally had time to get some stuff done. Certainly been a long time since the last post but hopefully this one will be worth it.

After my final exam I headed off to Derby with Mungo and Anthony, met Aaron and did a final shop for the next few days of gritty pebble wrestling.

On Saturday we went out to the Plantation to try a few problems that I had read about and tried before.
After running up the hill we warmed up by traversing on the Deliverance boulder and then moved over to problem number one - Green Traverse.




Aaron on the first few moves.


I let Anthony and Aaron work out some beta and then sent it second attempt which was neat, I guess it was just my type of problem with a few decent feet and some strong moves on holds with good friction.


Anthony crimping hard.

While we were working GT I spotted the Potokars who came over and completely destroyed it before heading off to have a play on Brad Pit

You can see the ascent at the end of this video...très impressive.



Once they came back over we wandered round the corner to deliverance and sent I managed to remember the moves well enough to do it in 3/4 attempts using the POWER OF GRAYSKULL!



Aaron and Mungo then disappeared off to do some trad and myself and Anthony had a play on The Storm which felt pretty tough but possibly doable at some point, just an incredibly long rock over to a sloper.
After we realised that this was not about to happen I went back to Not to be Taken away and took a chunk out of both my finger and my ankle in the pursuit of the ascent.



Shortly afterwards we found ourselves in a nice pub eating some dinner before shivering ourselves to sleep in Mungo's house in Derby.

Saturday was spent at Froggatt.
I had my first proper tradding experiences on Three Pebble Slab and Strapiombante which both left me feeling very cold and unimpressed by the prospect of doing any more.


Traddy Bullshit

Fortunately a uni group was also there and they stuck a top rope up on Downhill Racer which I was able to hop on. I had previously seen Johnny Dawes do this one handed at his lecture the week before which was impressive in itself, however, once I got on the route you can tell just how incredible that achievement was. I flashed the route and can definitely recommend people to get on it if they get the chance. I would like to try it a few more times before I would even think about doing it solo.

On the last day we went to Black rocks and stood in awe of Gaia, Meshuga and Angel's share before overcoming this stunned awe and doing a couple of 7a problems and having a look at an E3 6a called Golden Days.


Checking the gear

I abbed down and checked out the right gear placements and then made a flash/onsight (no idea what to call it since I didnt try any moves...) attempt and succeeded after dicking about at the top for a fair while.
Aaron got some footage of the ascent so I'm sure that once he puts together a video I will stick it on here.
Either way E3 tick is (to my knowledge) the hardest done by any current BUMC member so that leaves me happier. I do make the concession that I still dont have a freaking clue what to do with any gear... although I am marginally better than I was.

While Mungo and Aaron disappeared off to trad it again we had a play and found a chockstone which prompted this lovely picture.


Aron Ralston eat your heart out.

Finally we went home and the very next day I had a lead climbing comp in UCR.
I may write a better post on it at some point but right now I am bored of writing. Suffice it to say that I won and got some shiny new BD quickdraws for my troubles.

Finally - My favourite picture from the trip, at the end of the third day on the rock.



Cheerios all.

Ticklist for the weekend

Climb name Grade
Golden Days E3 6a Flash
Harold V6 (6b) First attempt after it was actually clean
Hat Trick font 7a Took quite a while
Trackside font 7a Flash
Strapiombante E1 5b Lame climb, too easy with a semi dangerous finish. What is the point?
Three Pebble Slab E1 5a Same problem at Strapiombante
Downhill Racer E4 6a Flash on toprope - Awesome route.
Strawberries font 6b First session on it, nice climb.
Deliverance font 7b+ Repeat in a few attempts
The Green Traverse font 7a Second attempt.
Not to be Taken Away font 6c One vaguely hard move followed by jugs...not sure I see the attraction...