I'd like to take a second

To mention how chuffed I am with coming 7th in the recent Sportiva climbing comp.

I might have climbed like crap, but I beat everyone I could have done, and even if I had flashed the 2 problems I think I could have done (did second attempt) I would not have moved up a place.

My competition form was just horrible, I was shakey, poorly prepared and climbed a couple of times with poor beta despite knowing the correct beta... eesh.

Anyways, really good event and I am really happy that I decided to make my way up there in preference to the London Fives tournament.

Secondly, I have revised my aims for the winter season.


Ideally I would like to manage 3 7C in each area we go to.

2 points regarding the counting:

7C+ count as 2 7Cs
Entre Prise counts as a 7C


This might be ridiculous given how lazy I have been recently, but I HAVE FAITH!

I will upload a short video perhaps...or maybe a long one when/if I manage to do all the boulders I hope to.

The Terrace

My distilled water,

Left overnight to produce.

The floor is wet now.

I did a Peak day trip on Sunday, with the sole aim of getting on, and completing, the Terrace.

I did pretty well.

I warmed up on the 'Banana Fingers' wall, flashing through the grades:

6A

6C

6C

7A

I then ran through them again on camera in a single shot.

Omar pussied about and pretended that he couldnt climb.

We then went over to the Terrace and started giving it a go.

Since we arrived at about 12-1ish and warmed up for about an hour or so, this only left about 3 hours before it became dark. With time constraints in place, and psyche running quite high due to the conditions, I set about my project with vim and vigour.

Unfortunately, my vim and vigour were somewhat diminished by the 3.5 hours drive in torrential rain that it had taken to get there, and I wasn't quite at top pulling capacity.

Nevertheless, I crushed hard.

The first move - which had eluded me on the previous trip - felt easy.

The next two moves as well.

Unfortunately, the final slap to the good pocket was feeling a bit harder today.

Stickable,

but harder.

Eventually, I brushed out the holds, sat down at the bottom of the climb and pulled on.

The first slap was fine,
I danced my feet across the non existent smears at the base of the problem, and continued to move my hands up through underclings and crimps until I was underneath the final move to the big pocket.

If I could stick the move to the pocket, I knew I could do it.

Compared to the rest of the problem, the last move is about a 5+.

You paste your left foot on a small nubbin, and lever through off your left hand to grab a huge gritstone sloper. I had done the move multiple times to warm up and even 'showboated' by using alternative beta.

Back underneath the final pocket, crimp in my right hand, small pocket in my left, heel on a marginal hold round the arete. I pasted my right foot on the wall underneath my right hand and sank down to go for the move..........

...

The weather next weekend looks alright...

Reading Revelations

I'm reading Jerry's book right now, and tearing through it.

If Jerry can eat Ketchup sandwiches for weeks on end then I can deal with some hunger.

On a sidenote, this banana, applejuice and blueberry smoothie is ridiculously tasty.