Hot Shit! Two posts in a month!

Am I going soft?

No.

Just back on it, accidentally opened the page and figured I might as well write about it.

I'm going to intersperse this post with some photos from the weekend in the Peak.

For the first time ever tonight, I got on a Craggy 8a, and not only that - I did all the moves!
Not all in one go, but still!
Hoooooooly crap.

I typed that and realised what that really means to me.

It might even be only a year ago now, but I remember coming into Craggy and seeing Scott, Seb and Graeme all working on the Lead wall, training in weight vests, and generally trying all the really hard stuff (anything 7a and above). I was still pretty much only bouldering at the time (what with being a giant wimp about failing on the ropes) but watching them try all that hard shit was super inspirational at the time.

I remember Scott trying an 8a on the wall, and telling me to give it a go, and at the time I thought he was taking the piss.

Maybe he was.

Looking up at it, the whole thing seemed ridiculous. I couldnt even do the moves, let alone doing more than one at a time with clips in between! Well whatever, today I climbed on one, and not only that - I did all the moves at the end of the session.

Was I wrong before about how hard they were? I mean, the one today felt easy...
Has the training just skyrocketed my grade from 7a to around 8a?
Who knows...

Anyways, I am well psyched to get back on it!

Big Thanks to Carly for the belay shizzle - looks like Brean on Wednesday!
First 8a on the table?

TCA again

Getting a little dull typing that into the Title box but TCA is where I like to hang out now,

I have been doing a little thinking about improvement and whatnot and have come to the conclusion that not having grades at TCA is hampering me...

I dont know what to try and I dont know how hard to try and I think it is stopping me climbing at my maximum level.

I love beating people with grades and what I can climb compared to them, so having no system means it is quite difficult to do.

I climbed one of the new whites yesterday too which was cool, very happy with that and it is a great problem too.

Finally,

There is a SW unis competition on Sunday that I am hoping should go quite well, potentially top 3 finish if I climb well.

My tips are awful at the moment so I am hoping that a few proper days off can sort that out.

TCA

Just got back from a session at TCA,

Felt tired and not very strong, with sore tips.

perfect for climbing!

Spent a long time warming up then had a pretty hodgepodge session, almost onsighted the new 7a? circuit which is perhaps a little easy for the grade but I only tried it once and fell on the last move.

I tried some of the moves on a few of the whites but to be honest I was feeling too crappy to try that hard.

Perhaps on Saturday Mr. Mclure can help me out on them.

Knackered now - time to chill out and lie in till tomorrow's lectures.

Few more days of climbing

Not much happening really,

Training on my board was good on Monday with a group of friends, although 5 people under the tarp didn't fit too well.

Did a couple of hard problems and made a funky 15 odd move route which is neat.

On Tuesday I finally did the TCA route setting course which was really good fun and very helpful, hopefully now I will be able to set some tough problems for myself - even though my favoured style doesn't really lend itself to indoors setting...

Giffer seemed mildly impressed with the routes I made and I am also quite happy with how they turned out, one of them is not great though and may require a little tweaking.

The new white circuit looks good so I will try out a few of the problems this afternoon and see how they are in reality.

:-)

Various Things

Found some time to write on this now (between my heavy schedule of eating, sleeping and watching stuff on iPlayer)

Since the last thrilling installment I have been to TCA, Cheddar and seen Tim Emmett (who completely didn't recognise me)

First off - TCA -

I got the red up the front wall in one or two goes which was neat, I dont seem to remember doing much more except fingerboard shizzle (slopey mono pullups)

Second - Cheddar -

I went out again with Ben Broche and my housemate Jonny, didn't really get much done though right up until the end. I ticked a 4+/5+/6b+ and kinda ticked 'The Minstrel' 7a+ but since the top jugs were soaking I had to settle for going mono to the belay rings. I think the grade was pretty much the same though. Short powerful route on jugs and crimps...nice :-D

As you can see it was spitting pretty hard but the actual route was mostly dry.

I bought a pullup bar on saturday and have been playing on that a little so hopefully I'll see some strength gains after a while.

And last of all I saw Tim Emmett's lecture of the various places he has been recently, which was quite interesting but not really relevant to what I want to do in the future.

I got his signature on the shiny white Metolius bag so that makes 3.

Dave Macleod is coming to TCA in January so I'm looking forward to nabbing another for the collection :-)

TCA climbing and campussing

Went to TCA today - tried a few routes - got one pretty hard one that no one else in the group got which - while obviously a little petty - made me feel like it is all working . Also made an attempt on the 7b+ and managed the route in three sections but the end (surprisingly for TCA) really sticks the dagger in.

Then the campussing started. I tried to do a 1-4-7 but didnt really get anywhere - the extra 10 cm seems to make a huge difference.

I did another 1 - 3.5 - 6 wish ease though and various other sequences.

Little bit of front levering - not very good.

Tried various methods of one armer practice along with single fingers on the beastmaker which is feeling super close.

I think I'm going to order a pullup bar so I can really start making some gains in that department.

Success!

It appears my first blogging attempt succeeded, so onto more important matters.

I shifted my wall back to 30 degrees yesterday evening and now I cant hold much, so instead I drew out a topo so that I could write out some routes, but I only managed 6 in the session.

None of them are disgustingly hard but enough to keep me occupied for now.

I went out on the wall this afternoon, but as everyone in England will know - the weather is a tad sucky at the moment. Even though the wall is covered it worries me that the water is still somehow getting onto it.

The holds were ever-so-slightly damp and I wasn't feeling too strong, so I did a couple of circuits and some easy moves but went back inside before long.

Bi/triceps and pullups this evening.

Probably time for bed now - early morning start tomorrow and perhaps my first yoga session.

:-D