Ramblog Off

2010-08-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Changes are afoot for me. I ship out to Leeds this week. Decided to drop this blog as I move on into the next chapter of my little existence. I fear I'll be too busy to idle time away on the internet anyway. If I have time, I might continue making videos though I'm keen to head towards a more quality over quantity policy in that regard. Not much footage has been left on the cutting room floor so far! I've enjoyed learning a bit with video though and I feel I've developed enough skill both filming in the field and editting with Sony Vegas to create something I'd be happy with if I put in some time and effort. Could do with a better camera and some good new music too but anyway...

In terms of climbing, I go to Leeds focussed on bouldering really. I'd hoped to complete my 'tempered triple 8' climbing challenge this year but my one day sport climbing at Kilnsey hurt my injured elbows and so more or less put paid to that particular numbers quest. Not to worry, the main thing is I'm still able to climb and enjoying it.

I want to improve and break new ground in bouldering before Christmas and I think I know how to achieve this. Stronger fingers, a lighter body and a focussed siege on something good should see me right. I could bore the world with a new blog chronicling this personal glory quest but I won't.

So that's it for now, Ram Man goes to ground. I've enjoyed this little blogging experiment and it seems to have come to a good natural end. Happy Climbing and until next time.

Round Crag & Hasty Bank

2010-08-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

31/07/10
Visited Round Crag with Noaks, Oli and Miles. After a shower or two, really good conditions prevailed - overcast, cool and breezy. Warmed up a bit on the boulder then, after a quick top rope refamiliarisation and a few false starts on Pippi Longstocking, I got to the top. Great little solo. Though there's no gear (couldn't get anything reliably placed in the slot) I thought it was worth having a tied down belayer to stop you careering all the way down into the bottom of the dale in the event of a crash. The vid makes it all look fairly tame really but I found it quite exciting - messing up after you've got the slot would probably hurt a bit.

Next up, flashed Time Out (e3 6a) which I thought was a really good route. Quite hard too.

And so onto the steep arete line just to the right. I'd shunted it a bit but not fully managed the crux last visit. Found a better way to do said crux this time and 20 mins or so later, bagged it up on the lead. Used runners in Time out - seemed logical/sensible. Nice little slappy route. Was struggling to come up with a name so went with 'Fresh Arete' because of the nice conditions/weather and the moves are pretty fresh in the jive talking sense of the word. Definitely easier than Pippi, gone for E5 6b.
Another good day all round really!

Round Headpointing from Ram Man on Vimeo.

03/08/10

Familiar ground - Raven's Scar with Noaks this time. I tried a couple of things on a rope and found out a couple of things. The Arete is definitely in need of a direct solution. I found a feasible sequence climbing it on the steep left hand side. Couldn't manage the moves but certainly 'felt' them and I reckon it's more likely doable (for me anyway) than the arete direct on the right hand side. Really good cold conditions, good skin and Font8A (+?) boulder ability required.

Also checked the moves on an epic link-up route I thought might be worthwhile on this butress. As for ADKOB but go straight across horizontally right into stratagem from jug on arete to join it below its second peg. Clip that sucker then continue at the same level to reach collateral's holds/jugs above the roof and finish up that. Decent amount of new climbing! Perhaps a bit ridiculous but I think it's worthwhile anyway and would like to do it - maybe next year when I've hopefully regained some route fitness.

Finished the day bouldering at Wainstones, enjoying really nice cool conditions again. Showed Noaks the Prow which he got up in no time then I got shut down on Psycho Syndicate - don't get that thing, may have to top rope as jumping off onto the slope was hurting ankles! Checked out For Liechtenstein last thing to test Dave Warb's beta for the move using the broken foothold out right. Felt about the same trickiness to me either way but think I like the move more with my original method. Just pull on and swoop for the top - sometimes doesn't take much to get a decent and satisfying problem really does it? It seems I totally overgraded this too as it felt piss. Condtions? move memory? hold friction improved with use? Who knows but it felt no harder than font7A this time.

3 holds, 1 move from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Rosdale Crimpin'

2010-07-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here's some footage from my solo mission to Rosedale and Farndale yesterday:

Rosedale Crimpin' from Ram Man on Vimeo.

full report to follow!

....4/5 hrs later.....

Well, about that report... As the vid suggests, I visited the Rosedale Head Boulders again yesterday. Ended up there mainly as I couldn't find anyone keen to come top-roping with me. Anyway, it was a bit warm but I enjoyed it and realised my main objectives. I'd done the moves on the low start to Lion Arete last visit but for some reason I never linked it into the upper arete which, once you're there, is a formality. Good set of moves. A shower passed through. Then, with better skin and a stronger will to succeed, did White Room within a few goes this visit. Satisfying how hard you get to pull on that little crimp.

Onto the nasty link of Lion Arete Low into White Room. I knew I'd never do it this visit as it was too hot and I'm still using up that shit Wild Country chalk. And it's hard for me. However, it was good to revise the sequence. I remain unsure whether this problem's crap or not. It's certainly quite hard and intense. Main beef is that you're in a world of left foot dab fear moving across the iron seam and a couple of the holds are not pleasant. I thought disaster (or salvation?) had struck when I ripped one of the holds off, out of the iron seam. Fortunately or unfortunately, it just makes the problem that bit harder and all the holds are completely stable now so it's still there for the taking. Need it to be quite cold though I think - the crimps on it seem more prone to greasing than the majority of moors sandstone for some reason....

Hit the Rosedale Monolith next for the first time. Repeated Lee's monologue problem which was great. Uses a nice stacked mono, I thought it was pretty hard at 6B. Did the easy but quite nice aretes either side and then, as a bonus for the day, made a bit of an attempt at the rippled front face of the monolith. Straight Talking as I called it has a decent couple of moves. And again, you get to pull quite hard on a crimp or two.

Busted over into farndale next for some shunting at Round Crag. Had a spin on a relatively recent route (well, it was done this millenium) opened by Nick Dixon - Scut di Scun Ai. First impressions were good, nice rock, decent moves. Things started to go a bit haywire for me at the top though. As a protectionless E6 6b I thought I wouldn't struggle with the moves and, in the back of my mind, I was hoping to get a quick day headpoint out of the deal. Not true. Circa 20mins trying and failing on the last couple of moves, prospects were looking bleak. And then I pulled a hold off. I managed the moves via different method after that and I reckon you could get gear in a thin crack to the right for the top moves too. Not too keen for this one though - Good to have done the moves but not really interested in investing much else. Pippi Longstocking is much better in my opinion, with better and harder moves - very keen to get that one done next visit.

Grade Talk.... up there failing for a while on Scut di Scun Ai reminded me how ridiculous some moors gradings are. 8m up, above a fairly unthinkable landing, pulling hard,tenuous and dynamic 6b with poor feet and having done plenty of 6a/b to get there, is this for real? Take well established routes of the same grade and similar style. ie. Linden, Nosferatu, Shock Horror and the like. Granted, they may be soft E6 6b (on both scores) but there's considerably more than a grade between the likes of them and Scut di Scun, so something's gone wrong along the way. Ah Well, such is the way of these things.

Next I headed to a top secret location and shunted my new top secret project. Did all the moves and it's pretty good I reckon. So that's towards the top of the priorities list, hopefully more news soon.

And in other news, I went to Kilnsey a couple of weeks ago. Sure enough, not climbing that much and exclusively bouldering with the odd bouldery headpoint leaves you pretty useless for sport climbing at Kilnsey. My general conditioning is pretty low as I can't do any volume on my gay elbows so I was spent pretty quickly. However, I did manage to flash Nerve Ending which I thought was a good route. It was interesting too in that, I reckon the sequence I'd done on Collateral a couple of days previous was better and harder, so that's good to know. I dogged up The Bulge a couple of times too. Enjoyed it and all the moves felt pretty easy but I was distinctly lacking in fitness and suffered elbow beef, so won't be rushing back this year unfortunately.

Upshot is, focussed on bouldering (with bouldery headpoints for kicks) for now probably until spring 2011. Can't complain.

Three Screaming Popes Vid

2010-07-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Some footage of a fairly fat man headpointing Three Screaming Popes at Raven's Scar last month:

Three Screaming Popes from Ram Man on Vimeo.

A Different Kind of Blue, ground up

2010-07-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the other vid from a last weekend a little later than promised:

Reeve goes ground up @ Raven's Scar from Ram Man on Vimeo.

nice effort Reeve!

Collateral

2010-07-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

Decided on Collateral as a name for the new Raven's Scar line. Was and still am buzzing after doing it - really cool climbing in a pretty spicy situation. Have made a quick edit of it. I'd planned to lump it together with footage of Reeve's ground up heroics but have decided to just do seperate little vids instead - so further vids of all that to come, unfortunately not the best of footage due to belaying duties but anyway...

Grade-wise, I think low E7 is a fair guide for the would be onsighter though in a totally clean state and with some chalk on the holds it could sneak in at top end E6. I reckon E7 is more in line with the grades of other routes at the crag though.

Anyway, after a few sweaty top ropes on Saturday's roastathon, fortunately I bottled going for the lead and returned with my dad and dog and met up with Reeve again on a considerably cooler and more conducive Sunday. Got warmed up a bit, did one more top rope then went for the lead. All went ok really, fortunately the unrehearsed, dusty 4c/5a top out didn't cause as many problems as it might've. Should have moved the top rope anchors out the way too as it spoils the vid footage and stills a bit but oh well...

Collateral from Ram Man on Vimeo.

sweet day

2010-07-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

that's about all I can write right now as I start work in 6/7 hours but today was indeed a sweet day. Cool conditions saw Reeve nail A Different Kind of Blue Ground Up - impressive! And I headpointed another new line on the same butress:

details and video to follow, night for now.

Fade to Grey

2010-07-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Visited Hasty Bank yesterday with Steve D. We warmed up in a little quarry on the south side of the bank which has a cool carved head in one of the rocks (see vid). Did a couple of decent lines and tried and failed on a really desperate wall there. I'm not good on that sort of vertical/slabby crimpy, quarried rock and usually struggle to find enjoyment beyond the pain felt in fingers and toes. As such, the simpsons stlye head carving was pretty much the highlight for me so onto the Wainstones....

There was awesome wind around yielding good midge free conditions. After a little more warming we got the pads under 'Fade to Grey', a relatively new addition from Jason Wood. It's a nice natural traverse on slopers and iron pockets. Bagged up, we moved onto the Loaf boulder and did a probable new line on the right hand side of the billsdale face. It's slighly easier but has similar awquard snatches to Beneath the Breadline, a font6c+ to the left I did last september. Anyway, decent but not great, gone for 'Daily Bread' as a name and font6c+ as a grade.

Fade to Grey, Wainstones bouldering July '10 from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Next up, we regrouped after pad surfing down to and flailing on/around the prow area and moved venue. There, we toproped a project I've had in mind for a while to visit. It was as good and as hard as I'd hoped and should go if I can get de-injured enough soon. A good day but towards the end it was proven once more that elbows are the most homosexual part of man's anatomy.

Hardest E5 ever made gets top roped and Rosesdale Head gets visited

2010-06-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hit the moors with Steve D today. First stop Round crag and having warmed up on the boulder, we tried Pippi Longstocking. On top rope, naturally. My previous session's beta recce prooved useful and we both got the sequence up to the first good slot sorted. This section alone is probably around the font7a+ mark which is a bit tough for what you'd expect on an E5 I reckon. Really great climbing though. Unfortunately, I didn't have the top section sorted well enough to go for the solo today - definitely don't want to be falling off anywhere beyond the slot really... Plus I was already feeling a bit tired - don't think I'd fully recovered from Almscliff on tuesday night.

^Pippi Longstocking face with Steve demonstrating scale. slot visible in middle of face. grim, steep landing less visible....

Content with progress and all the hard climbing sketchily linked on toppers, we headed off to the nearby Rosedale Head Boulders - a new crag tick for me and Steve alike. We only climbed on the large 'Lion boulder' repeating Lee's established problems on it (Lion Arete, 6A and Beer, 6B) before adding two more. Steve put in a good show of steely crimping to climb the wall right of Lion Arete from an obvious start on holds in the iron seam. I didn't tick this one but reckon it's at least 7A, perhaps 7A+, but hard and crimpy for sure - called it 'The White Room' 7A for now. We then both managed a cool line we'd spotted earlier on the left side of the front face. I was knackered on my go on this but we reckon 'Badge' is worth 6C+ or so, maybe just 6C though it's pretty powerful. We did it with heels starting on a block underneath the roof. Though I'm sure it's possible without, I reckon the problem's better and more balanced with it in.

^Steve on Badge, 6C. The arete in the background is Lion Arete.

^Me struggling on Badge.

Most of my attention and effort was directed towards the bottom of Lion Arete. Though you can sit start on a boulder and get going up the arete relatively easily from here, there exists a lower start from sitting on the actual deck which is pretty hard and pretty good too. I eventually found a way to do it and also managed the moves (mostly in isolation) to reach the start point of Steve's The White Room. This is the obvious link over that bit of rock and will be tough - 7B+/C or so I'd guess though I was trying the moves tired so hard to tell. The downside is that some of the holds are a little sharp and brittle due to the high iron content. It's good though and I'm definitely keen to head back when it's forecast coolish and try to do it. There's also scope for other stuff on this boulder particularly a very long looking traverse of the iron seam across the entire boulder. The Rosedale Monolith looked cool as well but we were too cooked to try the problems on it. Next time!?

taste of the future?

2010-06-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

I had an interview for a place on a maths teacher training course starting in September in Leeds yesterday. Once finished, I headed to Almscliff for the first time in a while and was pleasantly surprised by the fact that one day on from the summer solstace, climbing there wasn't altogether unpleasant. I started off just soloing and repeating stuff and had a moment of realisation whilst on the 5* finish of Great Western that this was a considerably less intense experience than attempting to contribute to the 'group interview' part of the day I'd suffered earlier - I was quite frustrated with myself as when the conch was passed my way I had that feeling of my heart trying to escape out of my chest whilst struggling to keep my voice level. Which was a bit pathetic really. Anyway, if they do decide to offer me a place then North Leeds will be my new domain with Almscliff and the like my local stomping grounds. Which would be good.

Having had a good head-clearing warm up and a short nap, I set about trying to do Crusis (the steep wall on the virgin face) from sitting. I'd done the stand a few times before and repeated that easily enough. The sitter held out for a while though and at one point, feeling a bit powered out and sliding off the slanting Gypsy crack, I thought it was going to get away. I'm sure there're better sequences than the one I used (with no less than 4 cut looses) but there by myself it felt like the best and most fun way to do it. Such a good burly problem.

I was just warming down, messing around on the big detached slab below Wall of Horrors when I saw some lads from Hull turn up for an after work session. So I knocked around with them for a while before heading home, passing on some beta for Underhand and Tea Spoon Cave/Roof though I was too tired to actually get up either of them myself.

Seem to be solid around the 7B mark at the moment - a level I'm happy with for now. The main thing is I'm actually able to enjoy climbing again. Back to the moors I think tomorrow....

quality and numbers

2010-06-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

In between watching football matches and preparing for an interview tomorrow I've been thinking about grades a bit today. Though I didn't get a huge amount done, my recent short lakes trip confirmed the quality and difficulty of the problems we've been doing on the moors which is really encouraging. In other news, Richard Waterton repeated A Different Kind of Blue last week which was really great to hear and again, encouraging in that he seemed to agree with what I'd reckoned in terms of quality and grade for the route(check comments a couple of posts back). So that's all great and the moors campaign will resume in earnest this week hopefully. Motivation's high with plenty of new stuff and repeats on the list to go at.

3 days in the Lakes

2010-06-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

My Dad and dog were heading up to the Lakes for a couple of days, I was invited and so, having no work on and ready for a change of scene from the Moors, I gratefully tagged along. Arrived in Borrowdale thursday and after a bit of classic cragging with the old man on Black Crag, drove further up the dale and into the stunning stonethwaite side valley and on to the Langstrath boulders there. Unfortunately, I found them really disappointing. I just didn't get what was going on with the problems. Having looked at the main boulder there and it's best problems for a while (like eat yourself whole, 7B) I tried to do some moves hoping the problems might unravel a bit once I got pulling on the holds. To be honest though, I just got more confused with the very low starts and became increasingly unsure as to what holds were in on the problems or how they're supposed to be done. Add to this growing sense of frustration of 'just not getting it', sweaty/humid conditions and Midge at ~55% and rising I wrote it off as a bad job. Ah well, can't win 'em all, at least the long walk in was very nice as walking goes.

Anyway Friday, day 2, was spent in Langdale. After some more classic cragging and walking I headed to Rakerigg which I instantly reckoned was much more like it and had a great time. Though conditions weren't great again and the midge were quite grim the problems seemed well worth hanging about for and once warmed up a bit I got the overlap(7b) and undercuts left hand(7a+) bagged up fairly quickly before retreating content; the midges had reached the ~65% threshold.

^Rakerigg. Photo from the awesome resource that is Lakesbloc.

Saturday, I'd intended to get up to the sampson stones or to try and work a good Birkett route somewhere in Langdale. For one reason or another and to fit in with what my dad was after doing however, we ended up back in Borrowdale and the day followed a similar format to the others. I hit the Bowderstone after some cragging - a venue I was fearful of as I'm still heavy and didn't want to get demoralised finding it too steep and perhaps not being able to do stuff I'd done before. Conditions were great though and I did alright. Did the crack, crack direct & superdirect all first go, sort of warming up but each one feeling a bit too hard for a warm up really! Crack superdirect was a new tick though so that was good.

On to Picnic Sarcastic and did that first go too from standing, albeit climbing it pretty badly and too slowly. The climbing felt unfamiliarly steep and I was conscious I wasn't moving too well on it, slow and reluctant to be dynamic. Still, I was enjoying it and worked the moves on Picnic sitter, gratefully receiving some good beta from some lads there. Started to feel a bit more confident with the angle and got a better sequence sorted for the rest of the problem. First RP, I fell going for the finishing jug having gone too slow again and finding it all quite uphill. Second RP I was going much better but greased off one of the holds a couple of moves from success - felt a bit robbed as had plenty in the tank. 3rd RP I climbed the best I'd done all session and executed well for me. Felt pretty easy which was nice. Got a good feeling of wanting to carry on when I latched the jug and since I wasn't over my pad anymore to make jumping off comfortable I heroically pressed on to reach the ladder and came down that for the first time. Satisfying. Finsihed off getting slapped about by Coming Up For Air, definitely too tired now to link it, felt hard! Good day had, chilled in the sun by Derwent water for a while before heading home.

body torqued

2010-06-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

As planned, myself, tommi martini, liz and emo guy headed moors way on saturday morning. First stop Tripsdale to meet up with Lee and try the problems he and steve D did the previous weekend. The elephant boulder at high crag didn't disappoint - A couple of perfect boulder problems in the bag early, nice:

^Guy on Elephantitus on the Elephant Boulder

Elephantitus was the pick of the problems, got to be world-class. Me and Tom got it pretty quickly so thought 7A might be a bit generous.... But then Steve and Lee were trying it on about the hottest day of 2010, Tom's tall (which I think helps) and the crux throw is the nearest thing I've got to a signature move so who knows...

Had a look around high crag and tarn hole and any other boulders I could spot but didn't get too inspired by any of it. Partly I think since the midges weren't great...

It was a bit late for hitting one of the major crags we'd planned to visit thanks to the leisurly start and lots of walking in and out of Tripsdale so ended up driving round to blakey ridge and an assault on the roadside Stormy Hall.

Tom and Guy got shut down by the problems or perhaps just the midges. (either way, I'm glad I told lee Angry Woodlouse was never font 6A+!) I enjoyed a second wave of energy in the day and got stuck into Body Torque sitter. There was some breeze and it was late on so cooler - conditions felt ok. Having worked the now familiar (from previous two sessions) moves again I got it second redpoint:

Really pleased to get Body Torque done. Last time I was on it I thought I'd have to execute a near flawless effort to get to the top. I think I've got a little stronger since then though so it felt like I had some in reserve allowing for a few adjustments along the way as well as an unplanned semi cut loose which let me bury the crucial right heel really solidly. It's a really good aggressive problem I think, strong but technical, for me anyway. A slight detraction is that the holds can bite a bit (worth taping right hand little finger) but that's part of the nature (and charm?) of problems like this - they hurt a bit!

Gradewise, I've plumped for 7B+. It felt harder than some of the 7B+'s I've done before but not sure how well I'm going in comparison to those pre-elbow disaster days really. Anyway, it's definitely the hardest set of moves I've done on the moors so far as well as one of the best. Enough rambling, here's the poor quality video from the van Gruening Shakey Cam; not bothered with any editting so just the complete send with puntering on the top out included:

Body Torque from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Then Saturday night and sunday it rained which was a bit of a bummer. Should have got home and out on the rip saturday night in hindsight but then we had a good session on Guy's board sunday afternoon which wouldn't have been the case for me otherwise in reality.

Feel like I've got some decent momentum at the moment, ticking stuff off which I've wanted to get done for a while on the Moors. Still thoroughly enjoying trips up there. Pippi Longstocking (+ a look at a direct finish for it) and the wall at Oak Crag are the main things I'd like to get done next - Blakey ridge is the new Billsdale it seems. Hopefully get back up towards the end of the week with a few days work under the belt...

further top roping adventures and 42....

2010-06-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

Went on a solo mission to the moors today. I was keen to try a wall at kepwick I looked at in the rain last year which has been top of my to try list really since opening a different kind of blue. I thought I'd be trying to shunt it since nobody from Hull was keen to head up but fortunately a quick facebook chat last night confirmed with Franco the Infamous that he'd be back there today. I was slightly disappointed he wasn't sporting ron hills like I'd imagined but we had a really good session all the same. The moors youth did very well - getting the whole thing clean on top rope. Myself and Franco's mate Pete developed different sequences from Franco for more or less the entire route - interesting contrast in styles. Both ways are equally hard I reckon and will/would be Bold.

I was a little disappointed with the quality of the route. Saying that, it is decent and definitely compelling. I was just expecting and hoping for a little more. My main beef with it is that despite been unclimbed, the route's obviously seen a fair amount of attention and as such, the holds are quite battered, brushed and well used. So the rock often feels sandy and delicate - potentially not all that fun to be on without a top rope....

Anyway, I made good progress over the course of my top rope sieges, eventually getting all the moves sorted and making decent links. I'm sure with some more work I could get to the stage of reliably climbing the route in a oner but I'm not convinced I'd ever get it to an acceptably solid stage to risk soloing/leading it. And would it be worth that risk anyway? The route's not bad but it ain't great either.....

Not sure at the moment, I'll just see how it pans out and see if I end up back there. It is good climbing but had some un-nerving moments including a wierd finger slide out of one of the pockets and breaking a bit of the lip of another of the pockets when I was standing in it. hmmm.

Ah well, all in all I'm really glad I went there today - did some good hard moves, was a nice day and was really good to meet Franco and Pete.

Those guys had to get off reasonably early so I busted over to Billsdale solo to find/do some boulders. First stop clay bank and a run up the cleveland way eastward to some boulders which looked accessable and potentially decent. Not true - waste of time. So back south to Tranmire - main objective; finish 42 off properly from the pure sitter. I struggled with the first move for a while (couldn't do it last time) but delivered more grunt, and got through it only to drop the problem a couple of moves later. Maintaining tension and accuracy with feet is the crux with this problem I reckon. Sent next go and in decent style too - was really chuffed, even shouted at the deserted moor topping out which was a bit strange/not like me. Anyway, awesome problem, certainly up there with the best of them on the moors. Grade, probably font7a+ though it might squeeze in at 7b. Unfortunately my sister's nicked my vid camera so no footage (or witnesses!) but I climbed it the same sequence as Lee in the stitched vid from before:

42 from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Yeah, pleased with that one - good to get a tick for the day too.

Anyway, back up to the moors tomorrow with Tom, Liz and Guy. Staying over too so plenty of time to get some good stuff cleaned up and done hopefully. out.

toprope dreams

2010-06-06T03:18:00.000-07:00

Went on another moors bashing mission with a relatively large crew yesterday. First stop Oak Crag and I got to try the move I've quite literally been dreaming about on the steep wall there. It was very hot and humid and I was pinging off the crimps quite regularly. It was ok though, made some progress with the move and did all the other moves on the problem (thanks to getting a rope down it). Need it colder and to get a bit lighter and I think it should go. Not sure how hard it is but the move up to the sloper from the position in the photo is hard enough for me:

The other guys enjoyed the routes hereabouts and had a dabble on the project too, nice.

Next headed over to Raven's Scar. Paid back some belaying debts before deciding to try Three Screaming Popes. Just got on it on toppers since it was described as bold and looked pretty dirty. Anyway, cleaned it up and raked lot of dirt out of a thin crack with my nut-key, uncovering decent wire placements to protect the crux section well. Got the moves pretty quickly, really good bouldery sequence. The climbing's quite similar in style to the top section of a different kind of blue and it's on the same high quality rock that's present in the higher reaches of the crag. Was late in the day but thankfully had enough in the tank to do it on the sharp end. Really good route I thought, 2* for the moors I'd say. In a clean state (ie. now!), it would be a really good E6 to try to onsight/flash/ground up. Guy got some footage so will try and get my hands on that and whack it up on vimeo.

Tom got the moves on toppers too so I think he's keen to get back and headpoint it, might head back with him to try some other lines.

All in all, a really good long day - good to be out with some more people having a laugh and enjoying the moors sandstone.

Francis Bacon's screaming pope:

^ some googling has revealed that 'Three Screaming Popes' is classical music by Mark-Anthony Turnage apparently inspired by some Francis Bacon work, so there you go.

The Huntsman becomes the Hunted

2010-05-29T03:34:00.000-07:00

Checked out The Esklets yesterday with Lee. Whack crag. Tried the arete there. Whack route. Headed over to some promising looking blocks opposite. Whack also. However, the rock on that side of the dale was really nice once cleaned up and Lee's enthusiasm meant he found a great single move on about the best sloper and best pinch I've seen in Yorkshire - font holds! Can't justify an hours hard walk in to do one sweet move off two nice holds though I don't suppose.

We headed to Goathland next to check out Lee's new problem The Huntsman. He let me mess about on it a bit before revealing the beta. Nice problem on totally immaculate rock. I figured out a less thrutchy method on the extension start and linked that too. Great quality, just once again, isolated. Gradeometer has gone haywire now so not sure how hard the extension is. I reckon it's harder than Philleas Fogg and it's a grade harder than Huntsman so probably font7a/+.

The Huntsman on his new problem:

Pink Pages Pick Up

2010-05-27T06:24:00.001-07:00

Mates Tez and Ivan are over from France for a couple of weeks so I went camping and climbing with them for a bit recently. Unfortunately the start of their trip coincided with the crazy heat wave but they've come to trad climb on grit, so that's what we did. And with careful crag selection it was actually fine. I set about expanding my pink pages ticks when the opportunities were there. Only got 3 new ones - Fern Hill, East Rib and Pisa Superdiect. Climbing highlight for me though was Sforzando at Dovestones Tor. Red hot walk in but the crag was getting some awesome wind so conditions were actually ok. Ivan had a good onsight go but got a bit confused and powered out contemplating the wild, slightly unlikely feeling cut loose. I gratefully had a go with his gear in and knew what to do, so it went ok. Good route. Then Ive cruised it on his second go. Sent them off to Almscliff where they decimated all the North West Face classics by the sound of things - nice work! Will head over to meet up with them again next week sometime. Keen for some more sprint flashing, Higgar this time maybe. Onsight trad seems to be bad for elbows, wierd since I can boulder alright now - tradding's too long on the rock with static reaching and locking I suppose....

one in, one out

2010-05-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

Explored a large setion of the Eastern drop off Blakey Ridge yesterday with Lee - he'd been busy planning and looking down on small bits of rock from space again. We essentially checked out all the way from the Lion Inn down to Oak Crag and then another mile or so further south from there. Nothing of any worth turned up until we reached Oak Crag though the heart and lungs were now fired up and the feet were soggy.

I'd actually visited Oak Crag years ago but unfortunately have no recollection of what I climbed. Anyway, yesterday I did a couple of the established routes (Digimon, Captain Birdseye) which were nice and we set about trying a great looking steep wall just to left:

Initially, I was a bit unsure of the rock quality but nothing seemed to be coming off it despite pulling as hard as I could on the holds - it's actually fine. It soon became clear that it was too hard for us. Awesome to find something good quality, clearly possible but currently too difficult. Time to get stronger, lighter, etc. etc. as always!

Next up we headed further South to cluster Lee had just sprinted to and from. Unfortunately it turned out a bit disappointing but we did do one good, (if rather isolated!) problem:

< The very dynamic 'Beacoup de Gifle', font6b. Climbs a steepish arete from sitting - loads of consecutive slaps yet remains not too difficult!

Hiked back to the car, regrouped and decided it was too late for a Rosedale or Esklets visit so we trotted down the hill from the Lion to Round instead. Got on the steep side of the arete on the good boulder beneath the crag which was a great marker for how much my elbows have improved - I couldn't contemplate pulling on last time I was there. Yesterday however, cleaned the holds and fired it off first go. Top Problem. After a quick work, linked the sit too.

< Lee on the Round Crag arete - 'Pannierman's Arete', font6b+

< me looking like a creature from starwars on the top throw move of Pannierman's Arete

So that was one good little project off the list only to be replaced with something considerably more diificult, the Oak Wall.

Got more inspired by the routes at Round as we left. Very keen to try them. Hope to try and flash Farndale Fayre. Pippi Longstocking and Scut de Scun Ai on the other hand will have to succumb to a bout of headpoint mania I think!

So, another good day. More inspired than ever with moors climbing at the moment. Hopefully get back up there doing stuff this week.

Stormy Hall + Camp Hill

2010-05-11T03:58:00.000-07:00

Phone interviews done and emails sent by 10am, myself and another Steve headed off to Stormy Hall yesterday. Got back on Body Torque and made good progress. Figured out a more satisfactory clean sit start - an improvement from the squatting solution from last visit. This better (true!) start adds a fair few more good moves into an already hard (for me) and involved sequence. Good Stuff. It's surprising how much there is to do on it considering it's not that high - quite alot of side to side motion necessary to go up! Anyway, did overlapping halves yesterday and repeated the squatting start. Some of the holds are a little painful but I really like this problem, a good blend of burl and technique/accuracy needed. For my strength level, I'll have to climb it really well to get to the top I think. Hopefully next time!

Body Torque finsih^

Over to Camp Hill and we both did Philleas Fogg Standing. I then linked the sitter, then did the sitter again as the camera tape messed up, and again after it messed up for the second time. Didn't mind though - it's a great problem. Was feeling a lot easier yesterday than last time. Mainly I think as it was a lot colder yesterday than previous visit. Not sure about the grade for this reason. Maybe 7a is a bit generaous, maybe not. Next headed down to the nice arete boulder. Showed Steve the eliminate Lee came up with last time and we both got quite keen for it. It's a worthwhile eliminate for sure and only has one rule - hands pinching the arete only. Nice movement. We both ticked the stand but with different methods but both failed on the sit as skin degenerated. Trouble with the sit is that you need pads doubled or even tripled to reach the decent bit of arete to pinch and pull on unless you're tall...

Anyway, here's a quick vid from the day:

Philleas Fogg @ Camp Hill from Ram Man on Vimeo.

down the gardom path

2010-05-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hit Gardoms today. First time bouldering on grit since well, as long as I can remember. Armed with my 'off-piste' topo sheets I was keen to check out some relatively recent additions to the edge. I was also keen to calibrate my Gradeometer and Qualityometer today since I've just been doing/trying new stuff for ages. After a bit of a warm up and deciding conditions were pretty terrible at the sheltered and sunny crag I thought I'd try and flash Double Bum. Failed. I did get up it in the end but it was quite a fight sliding around on greasy (and slightly dirty) sloping rails for what felt like ages, wondering which hand to slap with next. In fact I was on it so long, desperately trying not to drop it after the initial jump move crux, I had to edit down my send footage a little.

For a new crag tick, headed to Moorside Rocks next. Mainly to rest my now wet kitchen roll like skin a bit and to have a look at Superbloc. Wow, wish I could climb that. Impressive patio work completed under it too. I did a nice little arete problem which I've since found out is called 'Little Latino' - it looks a bit like a very very little brother of Superbloc.

Then back to Gardoms and English Voodoo. Half an effort at flashing, failed. Unfortunately ran out of cam-corder battery before eventual success too. Really good problem this one. The left hand pocket chewed my tips a little but apart from that, great fun.

Was gone 6 by now as we only got out late and my old man and dog were ready for off, so we did. Much to the relief of my tips and elbows. Only 2 ticks but decent ones and an enjoyable afternoon overall for sure. It was also definitely a useful session for confirming the following:
1. why I only used to go grit bouldering when it's cold
2. the best problems we've been doing on the moors would get 3* in the peak
3. our gradings for problems are generally spot on
4. moors sandstone is way less fickle than grit, easier on your skin and more fun to crank on when it's warm.

Anyway, sadly no English Voodoo but here's the other send from today:

Double Bum from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Earthworks Additions

2010-05-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a little more footage from last Saturdays epic hike:

Earthworks Additions from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Earthworm Jim's a hidden little wall a bit North from the main part of Earthworks Rocks. Take these two probelms, combine with what's already at Earthworks and add a quick walk South to 42 and Pythagorianism and a decent little circuit starts to emerge....

further moorland adventures part II

2010-05-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

Bank holiday monday; myself and stead lord headed out, you guessed it, up to the Moors. The plan was a morning raid on Park Nab followed by a visit to Highcliffe Nab. I fancied Highcliffe mainly to have a spin on Esmerelda - my tip for the hardest route on the Moors. Unless A Different Kind of Blue is harder but I think Esmerelda will be both hard and bold.....We'll see. I also want to solo Magic in the Air - my tip for the best route on the moors, I think. Have done it with the siderunners but it doen't feel like I've 'done it'.

Anyway after a pleasant time soloing most of the best stuff at a perfectly sheltered Park Nab it was time to move venue. Highcliffe got dropped from the agenda as the strong and cold North Easterly would, I'm fairly sure, have rendered climbing more than a little uncomfortable.

So back at the car, getting a little late in the day, we eventually decided to head to the wooded and therefore presumably sheltered Danby Crag. After a nice drive and an interesting walk up through the wood past some very green but potentially decent looking boulders we arrived at the crag top and located Valiant - a good looking VS line. Just left is Franco's brand new masterpiece - The Hypocrisy of Moose. Stead didn't fancy Valiant so I got straight down to business and flashed the Moose in my trainers. Not really, sorry UKC. I engaged the now familiar headpoint punteneering mode. Abbing down I was already impressed, some cool looking holds promising good moves. After some time top roping, I'd done all the moves a few times, figured the gear and linked it in two halves. I was getting tired though and was too sketchy on the top to contemplate lead attempts this visit. Really enjoyed working it though - definitely a brilliant route. Haven't been on End of the Affair but I think this is the Moors' answer to it. All in all, a really good effort by Franco. Keen to get back and lead it if I can soon. I reckon the climbing's a bit easier than on A Different Kind of Blue but it's a good bit bolder. They're both 3* routes anywhere as far as I'm concerned, hopefully the moors has more of these to offer up yet...

further moorland adventures part I

2010-05-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

first off, just found a couple of shots from Scugdale visit on 29th april, courtesy of Guido:

^serpent crux

^awesome prow

And in more recent news, myself and Lee had an epic 10 hour+ day of hiking across and around the eastern slopes of Billsdale, starting from Clay bank car park and questing as far as tripsdale last saturday. The power trudge was punctuated with some bouldering and once again, we found some good stuff. We checked out an awful lot of rock so I'll just give highlights. The first worthwhile looking thing we found was a nicely featured steep little wall, almost certainly unclimbed. We both struggled to warm up on the problems and struggled to get them clean and dry too. However, Lee did better than me and bagged up earthworm jim:

Next worthwhile stop was familiar territory for me- Earthworks rocks. Lee spotted a good line with nice holds just left of the Arch. From a sit start, this problem clims really nicely. Some of my favourite type of movement. I pulled on, left up, right up then, with lots of momentum, power glide to a good pocket/hole. Satisfying. Called it 'holeshot', though possibly climbed before. Not difficult but not easy either, I reckon about 6B+ is fair:

Onto the next area and it proved to be the find of the day. On the far left hand end of Tranmire we spotted an appropiately angled (steepish) and appropiately high arete line. Once we started working the moves the quality became apparant - it was better and harder than I'd guessed, nice. I managed a link from one move in but was finding the first move from the sitter totally despo. Lee was making good progress with the sitter move and before long latched it. What happened next was quite something! Crush mode was truely engaged and Lee climbed one of the best I've ever seen him go, awesome. Hit every hold and body position spot on, no adjustments required. Unfortunately he was robbed of the send due to an unlucky foot pop (had plenty in the tank) as he went for the final jump/throw to the sloping apex of the arete. Unfortunately the camera wasn't rolling for this effort, a shame as it was great to watch. Skin, stamina and thoughts of further discoveries to come meant we moved on with the full sit still to go (Again!) but having done the stand version we named it anyway '42' and reckon it'll go at 7a+ or so from sitting. Got some video of this and the next problem which I'll whack on the bottom of this post once Vimeo eventually sorts its act out. Unfortunately the video doesn't really do justice to this problem - it looks a lot better in the flesh. However, I think you can get a good impression of the moves. Just down the slope from 42, Lee had cleaned up a cool triangular steep face. Cue a mighty flash of 'Pythagorianism':

Nice problem with a good tough pull off the deck.

Along the length of Tranmire and into some blair witch type woods, we were starting to lose it. Lots more rock and some crazy angles but none of it much use. Emerging from the woods thank god and back up on the moor, yet more rock but still nothing of interest. Some truely spectacular views, a bee sting and a very remote feeling section of moor later and we arrived and descended into Tripsdale, a stunning narrow and deep dale with a nice river too. We left middle head crag for another day (it's miles away from anywhere far as I can tell) and trundled down to the now visible Kay Nest crag. I'd seen photos of the giant free standing boulder there before but was still impressed by the size of it up close and personal. I knocked off most of the obvious lines on it which were nice though they just climb like routes really. And that was about it, wasn't much impressed by the rest of the crag. So we started back for Clay bank and eventually got there, totally knackered , just around dusk.

Yet another great day, once again finding a class problem which still awaits polishing off. Have been out again today but that's for part II.

As threatened:

42 from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Routine Reward

2010-04-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

Put in a couple more Moors visits this last week. Last Sunday myself and Lee headed up to Camp Hill. I was still feeling a little delicate/phased from over extending myself on Friday night till ~6am Saturday morning (must try to excercise more moderation) on the drive up so wasn't expecting much really. However, my female sense of direction/navigation skills landed us miles away from the crag and the ensuing 45 minutes of moorland stomp got the blood flowing and I felt more alive.

The first set of decent rocks we came across were pretty impressive and one high wall in particular was looking really awesome. As has become almost routine for us on these reccies now, a great quality problem unravelled:

^Lee on the start - A burly snatch with the Left hand from here and you're into the stand-up

^ Crux slap for the top. Fast move and very droppable! (or so it was for us anyway!)

Philias Fogg as Lee's coined it (it was misty and foggy when we first turned up) was the best thing we found that day and definitely one of the best problems we've found on the moors so far. It might well have been climbed before - there were some potential signs of wear but perhaps the sit start hasn't been done? Either way, it was great to find it and climb it. I was trying to think of better wall climbing problems that I'd done before anywhere at around the same grade. To be honest I'm still struggling to come up with anything! Every move is good and hard. We reckoned font7a+ from sitting (though neither of us actually linked the sitter before moving on - loooking forward to going back for this) and about 6c+ from standing. There's potential for another harder line/s just left too..... will check it out next visit.

We moved on to the main section of crag. There's a nice aesthetic boulder down the slope from the crag which had some nice lines. It reminded me of Curbar's Trackside boulder, complete with a strawberries look-a-like. After knocking off the easyish and obvious stuff, Lee turned on his vision goggles and came up with a good eliminate problem making the most of the fine arete of this boulder. Essentially climbing the arete from a sit start with hands only pinching the arete/ using holds on the arete. Not into rules on problems (away from the likes of stoney, tor, etc. which I really dig) but this problem gains some really nice movement having imposed the rule and does make the most of a great feature. It also goes from being easy, though still nice, jug yarding to an involved, tenuous and fairly desperate sequence of moves. Again, need to go back and complete the full link on this one! Tricky to grade but it's in the low sevens again somewhere....

Did a few other things around and about including a couple of the HVS routes on the main crag which were pleasant enough. Probably the best other thing we did though was this little bit of knee bar madness Lee found:

^ Lee topping the inspirationally named 'Knee Deep'

So, only one problem of Real Quality found but for me that makes it totally worthwhile and all in all yet another cracking day out on the Moors.

Yesterday, a dodgey forecast suggested (as chance would have it) that the Moors offered the best hope of some dry and clement. So, out with Tony H, we headed to Scugdale and met up with York Legend (as I understand) Guido. Nice chilled day, soloing along the crag as you do there, not really stopping until your feet start to hurt. Felt good to get lots of movement in on rock, free from elbow pain. I hadn't climbed on this end (northern part - think it's Barker's crags?) for a few years but I've always enjoyed climbing there - it's hard not to really. Picked up a few new ticks, the best of which was probably Serpent. Took a few exploratory looks and escapes (you can step off onto a boulder behind from the crux) before eventually committing and doing it - by which time the other two were a few butresses ahead. Pretty knackered once we'd worked back to the stone wall, called time and headed off, just beating the rain.

Heading back up to the Moors exploring with Lee tomorrow, hopefully we'll enjoy the same successful routine, finding some quality stuff once again. At the risk of getting greedy, it would be great to find more than one awesome thing in the same vicinity!

Name....

2010-04-23T05:55:00.000-07:00

Picking up on the Jazz themed names (satchmo, ella), gone for 'A Different Kind of Blue'. I like it anyway.

proj goes down

2010-04-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

Raven's Scar project went down today. Get in! Went first lead attempt of the day - was great to be back doing those moves again and actually completing the full link for the first time felt awesome. Was all over pretty fast but was still fairly pumped topping out! Conditions were perfect for it today.

The route essentially starts from the large midway break/ledge where you can have a full sit down rest, eat a sandwich and arrange all the gear before embarking. I arrived at the ledge via Satchmo-classic E2. I allowed myself gear in the start of the Stratagem crack since it's possible to place without actually stepping off the ledge and, for that reason, it would feel contrived to me to not have those runners.

After the technical crux up a big hanging flake on the left hand side of the arete, you end up swinging rightwards onto the big flat hold on the arete as per pic above. After a quick shake and optional bat hang on it(!), you span/throw right again to a line of sidepulls. Build feet, left heel/toe goes in next to left hand and reach over with left hand for a cool sloping ramp. Release heel, hack right foot up and slap into good holds at the top of the stratagem crack system. Last move as per stratagem to top out.

It took a while for me to fathom that solution, inevitably trying to climb the arete more directly initially. Plenty of classy moves in a great exposed position, it's a well balanced route and I think it's the logical progression in finding a way through that section unclimbed rock.

I did film the complete deed but unfortunately the sun came out from behind the crag whilst I was chilling on the ledge causing the contrast to become ridiculous (ie out of focus black climber and rock) so the video is shocking (still, proof enough! ;) ) I'd like to go up and get some good footage and photos anyway, hopefully of other people trying/doing it too, so will try to make amends on that front soon.

Right then....

Name - haven't got one yet!
Grade - finding this difficult too. I reckon the climbing is of the order of french7c. The route feels a bit spicy (slappy moves with feet above gear) but totally safe so, on paper, that makes it E6. My trouble with that is that it's way harder then any of the other E6's I've done. ie. this took a multi-day headpoint siege Vs onsights/flashes..... It's also way harder than Ch-Ching (the low part of the arete to the break, which gets the split grade of E6/7). So maybe E7 is more realistic. Especially when I cnsider it as an onsight proposition - blind, sequency, slappy moves.... It's the quality that counts most for me so I'm not really that bothered.
Anyway, I think I'll vote for E7 6c then at worst I've overgraded by one and I can live with that.

And that's all the rambling I've got in me for now. Will try and come up with a good name for it tomorrow. Elbows hurt a bit but it was worth it!

Moors Attacks!

2010-04-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

A day late but got round to finishing a quick edit of footage taken from my last two visits to the Moors:

Moors Attacks from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Gem hat-trick

2010-04-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

Great day today! Met Lee in Bev and first port of call was Ravenswick quarry to try a long traverse Lee was after. Decentish but dirty and pumpy, good warm up for the day though. I'd been to this place before and came to the same conclusion then as I did today - It's a useful local's crag but you wouldn't want to travel more than 20mins to climb there. Saying that though, I quite like it for some reason and I'm sure will get in there again at some stage.

Next stop Stormy Hall, 10 mins up the road. And you get to some cool rocks in less than 2 mins walk from it. Lee showed me a couple of things he'd tried/looked at on his previous recent visit with the moors young gun duo. The first of which was a cool steep prow:

Took a bit to figure the moves on it but a great sequence emerged. Great problem and from a low start on undercuts, the full link's quite tough. High quality moves and rock. Lee wanted to call it 'Body Torque' and we decided to go for 7A+ in the end. In between figuring this out we did an another brilliant problem in the gulley up behind it. 'Angry Woodlice' has got a sweet jump move for the top where everything comes off:

Lee was keen to give it a ridiculously small grade but I managed to convince him it's worth 6C - you do have to pull pretty hard on the left hand for the big move.

I was impressed with the quality of these things - good height and the best finds on the moors bouldering wise so far really apart from the Wainstones prow. Untill....

We went to Ingleby next and on the drive in spotted a promising looking large boulder up on the fringe of a forest, well down the slope from the main crag, possibly only recently uncovered from the forest after logging activity.... Anyway, we made a bee line for it and were rewarded with another great looking problem. This time quite highball and less steep up the centre of an attractive pocketed face. Lee cleaned it up and plenty of goes later neither of us had got to the top but we had a sequence sorted. Full span move and blind foot swap being the order of the day:

Fantastic feature and a lucky find. We both sent in the end and decided it's in the region of 6C+ and called it 'Waylander'. Also did the left arete which was pretty easy.

Got some decent footage of all these but 'Body Torque' doesn't really get justice done to it. Need to go back and complete the full link on it anyway (started from one move in today) so will try and film it better then. Lee got some better photos too.

I'll combine these three problems with the two from round crag I did last weekend and make a short vid tomorrow.

Tramped along Ingleby crag and down to the other boulders, didn't get overly inspired by much else which was a good job as skin, muscles, elbows, everything really had had enough by then.

Anyway, cheers Lee for a great day's exploring. Will hopefully edit and post the vid up tomorrow (well today now actually).
See you anon

Quality Quarry Traddin'

2010-04-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Good day yesterday. Did a hat-trick of great E1 pitches with Tony - Great Peter, Delectable Direct and Time for Tea Original. All felt pretty hard! Such is the nature of quarried grit as far as I'm concerned. Also spent some time looking longingly at Edge Lane, Master's Edge and London Wall. Conditions would have been good for doing them yesterday, cold but not too cold and all looked clean and well chalked (master's and london wall looked rather too well chalked actually.) Inspired by recent news of Master's onsight and relatively old news of Hannold's London wall solo antics. Impressive feat of rock climbing that. Not up to any of those routes at the moment myself obviously (and never have been in the case of Master's and London wall) but back on it now and aspiration is the first step to success.

Going exploring on the Moors with Lee tomorrow - C'mon elbows!

The elblog

2010-04-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time but I've actually got some climbing related activity to talk about. Yesterday saw a family day out to farndale to see the daffodils and enjoy a walk. The weather and scenery was amazing though the two million other people making the same annual pilgrimage detracted a little - one for a weekday visit next time I reckon.... Anyway, whilst in the area I was keen to check out a couple of crags I'd not seen or been to before. Top of the list was Round Crag and Rosedale Head. Unfortunately I wasn't in my own car (it's still off the road, hmmm) and so time constraints meant we only had time to check out Round. I was impressed with it. Having read in the guide about a few 5/6m, 2 and 3 star E5's and 6's I had it down as a good potential 'ground up with pads' type venue. Not so! The main event of the crag is huge detached block which sits on a sort of slanting plinth yielding generally grim to horrific landings. Definitely looks to be more of an ab,brush, inspect then flash or headpoint venue. Pretty dirty too. Good rock though and I'm sure the routes are quality, look forward to trying some of them at some stage soon hopefully.

Anyway, since I've actually been able to fingerboard without elbow problems and even climb a little again too over the past couple of weeks, I had my stuff with me and got stuck into a couple of decent problems on a nice boulder below the main bit of the crag. Just taking it very easy but it was nice to be moving on rock without pain. I did two problems:
a slabby (and spicy!) arete:

And a cool steep arete from a sit:

The photos are just video frame grabs so shocking quality. Both problems are fairly easy but high quality, presumably climbed before.... The other (non-slabby!) side of the slabby arete problem is probably the line of the boulder and is good and pretty hard I reckon. Also a hard problem up the middle (with even harder sit start) of the same downhill face. Would guess those two are unclimbed. Didn't try either but felt the holds and cleaned the arete up a bit in case of a return with elbows. For boulderers not averse to a high leg-work to problem ratio, I'd say this boulder combined with a Rosedale Head hit (same parking) would make for a good day out - you're looking at double figures of problems for about 80 mins on shanks' pony....

Anyway, no blog post here is complete without an optimistic report of elbow recovery or disaster so, here we go. Still problematic, but have made really good progress in these last few weeks. The best development is that I can now make beast without causing them distress. So I've been fingerboarding more or less every other day ready for when I can climb properly again. I've been enjoying a honeymoon period of rapid progression thanks mainly to being totally useless initially, not to mention very heavy. Anyway, today I managed my first full sets of repeaters on mid2 and front2 on the small pockets. Going to consolidate at this sort of level, ie get very solid on 2 finger hangs on small stuff, perhaps adding weight as I lose it before experimenting with some more maximal stuff and trying to break some new ground such as mono repeaters. Also been doing rehab sessions at the wall - ARCing essentially. Feel weak and heavy but it's good to be moving again without the elbows of doom complaining. Definitely back on it for now, hopefully the elbows will continue their recovery curve back to one armer glory. Pumping iron and forcing myself to run a fair bit too. So, generally just trying to continue these trends - elbow improvement, stronger fingers, lighter and fitter. I'd like to think I'll be climbing properly again and in good shape by May but my elbows don't seem to work to deadlines...

Oh, and just moved away from that oppressive black. Inspired to lighten the look if things up with this latest wave of optimism. Much better I reckon.

Bamboula Vid

2010-02-22T03:15:00.000-08:00

Vimeo finally let me upload this quick vid of Tez climbing Bamboula, as planned in last post. Just a quick afternoon capture and edit really:

Bamboula from Ram Man on Vimeo.

His hardest bit of climbing to date I think and cruised, nice one Tez!

As for me, I flashed a good route called Boudille Bordallaise (or something) the same visit which is a calames (the harshest graded crag in the world?) personal best for me - a mighty 7a+!

Climbed a bit yesterday at a really inspiring sector at Alliat. Had to stick to easy stuff though as my elbows seem to be semi-re-fucked. Absolutely gutted! So back in rehab mode, hopefully just a blip in their recovery. Maybe I tried too much too soon on them. Well obviously I guess I did, despite lots of paranoia and careful thinking the whole time. Such a frustrating injury and for me proving very difficult to manage. From what I've read and come to understand, complete rest is almost as bad as continued overuse but it's gauging the correct intensity to stimulate healing without further damaging which I'm finding hard. Won't be climbing much next couple of weeks - plenty of work on. Then I'm back in the UK, hmmmm. Not to worry, when I think about it, my elbows are infinitely better than they were in say november last year when I couldn't even pull on - so the gradual trend is one of improvement! They'll get there eventually, 'as long as it takes'....

"cold crisp day after a rest day every day of your life..."

2010-02-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, this is impossile as The Man pointed out but we were lucky enough have one of them today. It was actually after many rest days as it turns out. Spent this morning doing some work on tezza's place and did a good bit of phys too, shovelling the snow off the drive. I think this shocked the body into actually doing stuff again after a few days of doing not alot, which was probably useful.....

We were running a bit late as I think we got a bit excited and carried away having actually being able to mix cement without it freezing thanks to the improved weather. Anyway we made it to the crag for 4pm. Just enough time to warm up, get the clips in and holds brushed on Bamboula and then dispatch it. And that was exactly what happened. The rest days and beta tweaks from last session rendered it steady though still had to try pretty hard. Decent send, perfect little climbing experience really. Not ecstatic or anything, just felt satisfying and worthwhile and thouroughly enjoyed the climbing. Great route and the right short(ish!) project all in all as I stagger back into climbing. Onto the next thing then.

Was great to see Tez climbing and moving well too - think the beastmaker sessions are helping him out a fair bit. I was sure it was going to be a double victory on Bamboula but he fell on more or less the last move! Not to worry, I think we're heading back tomorrow pm so sure he'll finish it off then. Hoping to shoot some footage too so will add a vid here if that works out.

The comeback continues

2010-01-26T14:11:00.000-08:00

More of the same since last time. Though done more climbing and even ticked a couple of routes. Climbed 3 days on until a rest day yesterday and had a walking/exploring day today.

Just been hitting some of the quality local lime sport crags, mainly getting spanked on stuff. It's great to be back climbing and trying hard, even enjoying the ego bashing process of falling off 7a/+ 's. Had a good session making beast tonight though and I feel like some capillaries have reluctantly started to open up returning some endurance, so shouldn't be falling off low sevens so much now hopefully! Onsighting seems hard at many of the crags around here though - many of the routes at my onsight grades tend to be vertical or at least not so steep often with tiny and easy to miss holds and/or tricky foot beta. Not really my preferred style for sport onsighting but as such, definitely good for me to improve and probably very useful as training for a UK trad campaign later in the year.

My 3rd day on was an afternoon spent back on Bamboula. It was a good session, still felt hard but nowhere near as hard as last time and just as good in terms of quality - can't wait to get back on it. Should go next session then keen to get on an area classic and the briliantly named 'Ariege Against the Machine' seen it given both 7c+ and 8a. Sure it'll be hard either way - Bedheilac grades are about the harshest I've ever come across! A fact I quite like really. I'm really keen to check out some of the local granite boulders too but don't think the elbows are quite ready for that yet. Nearly but not quite, should be good by feburary. So short term, I'll just stick to routes - bashing on with a project or two and trying to get consistent and competent at onsighting these vert and techy low 7's.

Today was good. Nice weather so decided to hike up onto the North ridge of the valley we're in (Saurat valley) to check out some bouldering potential I'd been tipped off about. Got up pretty high again, above the tree line and into plenty of snow. After about 3 hours of hiking we'd found plenty of rock and one or two decent looking easy problems but nothing really worthwhile. The rock was nice but too heavily featured and broken for good bouldering. Got some amazing views up there today though:

(One shot off Ian's camera. The volcano effort on the right down in the valley is calames - the steep limestone faces are on the far side from here.)

There may be better stuff further East along the ridge but it's not within realistic walking distance from tez's place so will leave it for another exploration day some time. There is a mind boggling amount of rock around generally though....

Chilled out for a bit once back from the hike then did a beastmaker sesh and some bench. Not really getting any lighter I don't think but getting stronger and most importantly I'm uninhibited elbow-wise, on routes at least.

Got some work coming up this and/or next week so not sure how much climbing will get done (plus it's freezing cold at the moment!) but sure it won't be too long. Until then...

the first week

2010-01-19T07:43:00.000-08:00

One week into the return to life in the Ariege and things are looking good. The area's even more stunning with loads of snow around the place but fortunately it's still dry and warm enough for climbing. I've had a pretty eventful week.

First day here, it'd just snowed and I got the offer of going skiing at Ax le Thermes - a resort 30 mins away. I went along, undecided as to whether to hire skis or a snowboard. I'd never done either apart from some skiing at sheffield ski village (dry slope) back when I was at school. Anyway ended up going for a board as I've always enjoyed the movement and feeling of going fast on boards. It took a couple of hours before I was going anywhere near fast though! Ian kindly gave me a quick bit of tuition in the morning then I was off by myself enjoying it, was good to learn something new. Great fun but it all felt a bit artificial. I guess this is why people get into off piste/touring/back country or whatever? It felt like quite a cheap thrill really - getting whisked up a 2,500 m mountain with no effort and then hurtling down it on a prepared surface. I think Tez hit the nail on the head when he said he sees it in a similar light to going bowling...

A few days into my stay, my feeble body gave in to a bout of sickness. I think it was down to drinking too much of the dodgey water from the 'old source' ( the 'new source' was frozen up). Anyway, a night of violent dry retching and squirting through the eye of a needle ensued, sometimes simultaneously, nice. I've still not got much appetite as the guts got a thorough undoing but I'm too fat anyway at the moment so perhaps that's not such a bad thing. Fortunately the new, cleaner source is thawed and back in action so hopefully will enjoy good health for the rest of my stay.

Only managed to go climbing once so far but it was the probable highlight of my week. We hit the local world-class class sport crag, Calames. I didn't actually expect to do any climbing as I was still feeling pretty ropey after my sickness bout and had barely eaten anything since. Once there though I inevitably ended up climbing. Didn't get up anything apart from the warm up but just thouroghly enjoyed been at the crag and climbing again. I was worried about the elbows at first but they were fine, get in! Tried tez's project, a great 7c called bamboula which as well as being awesome felt totally desperate but hopefully that's mostly due to the state I was in. I did manage all the moves, nice little short term (with luck) project anyway to get me back into the swing of things - it's pretty pokey, hard slappy moves, no rests, pe based... Think I might try and stick to routes of this style (at least for redpoints) as I think it'll do me more favours (ie get me stronger) for my bouldering and route ambitions when I go back to the UK. Anyway, I digress, the main thing is elbows are back in town, another month and i reckon they'll be back to 100%.

Had a good day yesterday too, I'd have been keen to go climbing but Ian and Ben had planned to walk up a mountain near the house here so I tagged along. Up we suffered with me, obviously the least fit, suffering the most. Was good though, amazing views. We used snow shoes most of the way which were vital really, still lots of deep snow about! A few hours later I made it as far as the indended summit before calling it a day and following our tracks back down to the house, legs a bit thrashed! The other two fitness machines got their crampons and metal work out and bagged the rest of the summits along the ridge.

Haven't got any photos. Think Ian might have taken some. In the mean time this gives some idea:

except it's colder with more snow about and there aren't many lakes (apart from a few artificial ones - dammed valleys)

So yeah, all this amongst the odd evening social engagement and some man-strength increasing graft, it's felt like a fairly busy time. Not enough climbing but that should be rectified this week. Got the beastmaker mounted too and have hit that a couple of times. Will go and hit it again now but a bit knackered from moving and splitting logs this morning.

so far so good

2010-01-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

yup, not bad at all. 2010 that is.... So far this year I have:

Been out climbing at Cratcliffe
achieved a 12322 PB on powerball
Made some music
Almost learnt to backflip
Performed a pull up with only minor discomfort for the first time in months
Worked some/Earnt money
Booked a 1-way ticket to the Pyranees
Done lots of hand brake turns
Played in the snow
Been Partying a few times
managed a half-session on Guy's board

Which, for me, is pro-activity on an unpresidented scale. Where relevant, I'll give a little extra detail for each number now, you may want to skip this! (this golb has selfindulgentdrivel in the title for a reason):

1. New years day. Cold but nice day at cratcliffe and the stride with Al, Laura & Noaks. I actually managed some climbing and pulling on rock which was nice. The others had a decent day but noaks was a bit shit. I stopped climbing relatively early. My highlight for the day was finding a way to run up that egg boulder arete after still finding it the most desperate 6A+ or whatever ever.
2. Left handed as well! As my right elbow is more injured than my left I've been closing the gap with my golly hand due to holding back a bit with the right. Crushed my 12K ambition now, hoping to top 12.5K soon. 12K was a big barrier - can get it either hand fairly consistently now with a good warm up.
3.well yeah, check it:

distorted jungle jam in E from Ram Man on Vimeo.

I've recorded all sorts of stuff but have become a bit confused and lost with it all now so will leave it for a bit and hopefully restore some perspective. Distorted Jungle Jam was day 1 of starting to record music and remains the work i'm most happy with so far! Posted it around the place on facebook and people seem to like it.
4. Almost but not yet. I've just been trying by myself in my back garden on evenings in the snow (the neighbours must wonder). I got to the stage where I was getting over and landing on my knees, on all fours, but not getting enough height to nail and land it. Day 3 of trying saw a bottled attempt with no tuck and I landed on my neck quite badly. Since then I've been overcome with the fear (which leads to jumping backwards too much and not upwards) even in the deepest snow. I've come close though and it's something I've always wanted to be able to do so I'll get there eventually.
5.yup, that's good.
6.needs must
7.back to Ariege land for me. I'm expecting to be there for 2-3 months and intend to climb plenty and work plenty. Elbows definitely getting there now which feels brilliant so gently getting back into things there should be perfect - much less dangerous as rehab than grit bouldering I reckon... I'm taking my beastmaker (which it seems my elbows will let me use again now) so no excuses for not getting stronger fingers. I should get lean in that time there too which is necessary - 2 more weeks living at home and I'll definitely make it onto the wrong side of 12stone. Might do some ski and/or board puntering there too over the next few weeks provided funds and opportinity allow. But mainly just desperate to start getting back into climbing.
8. It just slipped officer
9.I was relieved to find I still have the youthful desire to get out there snowballing and sledging. Decent snowball fight with some chavs ensued on the mean streets of willerby tonight. More sledging tomorrow.
10. yup, desire to be sociable has been there for the last couple of weeks. Enjoyed it, met some decent people, caught up with some old ones. Touched no girls though.
11. Last night I went to guys with al just for the company as much as anything. However I still can't quite believe it but I ended up actually putting in a decent session on his board. So elbows must be nearly there I reckon, they feel alright still today anyway. It confirms what I was thinking that they need use to heal but I didn't realise they were ready for such heavy use as climbing on a steep board. nice.

And that's my story of the year so far. Hopefully things will continue in the same vein (of actually doing stuff) all year. That's 2 ticks off the year's aim list already, with another in the pipeline. My main aim for the year is to live in places with good climbing, more specifically, not to live at home with my parents - much as I love them, living away is the only option for any sane 25 year old. Fly to Carcassonne on monday, looking forward to catching up with tez and ian, getting out to the crags, training and getting fitter.

I'm a bit gutted I'm going to miss grit season altogether this year but then I'm totally out of shape and my elbows certainly couldn't take harder bouldering yet so not missing much by going away anyway.

So far the plan is Ariege for couple of months, come back in decent shape with a decent bank balance, go climbing and crush moors projects, renew passport, do some work in the UK and then see what things are looking like and take it from there. Back to Ariege? Take up residence somewhere good in the UK like N Wales/Sheffield/Leeds? Currently really keen to get back into tradding lots and competently so long trips away in spring and summer would be great. Finding people to climb with will be the biggest obstacle there I reckon. Anyway, enough waffling, I'll see how it pans out.

Almost forgot, Happy New Year and that.

Waiting

2009-12-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

In the absense of going climbing I've been watching some movies about climbing and have made a couple more short vids myself. I re-discovered Consumed last week which has been loitering on my hard drive for a couple of years unwatched. It's brilliant I think, relentless, underground and dark. Another hard drive discovery gave rise to my, poor by comparison, latest offering:

Moors Extra '09 from Ram Man on Vimeo.

I quite like the vid. Should have zoomed in a bit for the Ch-Ching footage though! Beneath the Breadline might be an FA, not sure, but decent problem. The initial slopey pull on and slaps to crimps are nice . The rest felt every bit as awkward as it looks though the stand up version (given 5c or something in the guide) actually climbs nicer especially with a bit of a font start.

Ch-ching's a decent bit of climbing - enjoyed doing that one. It's a slightly contrived line in that when you reach the first good holds you could escape off right onto easy ground rather than commit to the higher (psychological) crux. Some nice holds and good moves made it feel very worthwhile for me though - Moors 2*? Difficulty-wise, I'm not sure what it is really. I had a couple of pads and I suppose it's right on the boundary of route/highball. Falling from anywhere in the top crux wouldn't be pleasant though as I think you'd do well to land feet first by nature of the moves. Me and Andy G-Chav had had a session on it before I went back and did it and though we both cleanly top roped it after figuring out the moves we were too tired to safely see it away that day. We were both climbing relatively well at the time too so it can't be that easy. I think we decided bouldery 7b/+ climbing at the time. But then you do it and it feels easy so maybe more 7a+/7b. Anyway, decent climb for sure - I think I could get into these types of short solo headpoints, I really enjoyed it.

Back to the present, I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately haven't got any work and the elbows still don't feel ready to start pulling on rock. I hate wishing time away but, once through Christmas I'll be nearing a two month lay off which will hopefully allow me to get back moving on the rock. Also, things will start happening with the work situation one way or another so I'll get some cash in and kickstart the fund for a good climbing year. If I can get plenty of work here, then great, I'll stick around and head out to France later in the year. If not, I'm off straight to France and will get work there instead. I'm not too concerned whichever way it turns out. It's up to the fates to decide. In the mean time I can't do much else but be patient and wait for healed elbows and work to arrive.

inspiration and optimism and that

2009-12-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'm missing climbing an awful lot but life's not so bad at the moment, I've got plenty of other stuff going on. Well, relatively speaking at least! I'm progressing in other areas, getting work sorted and pursuing some additional ideas and projects - some climbing related, some not. Either way, it's good to be learning and exploring new things and hopefully some of them might lead somewhere.

I enjoyed a pleasant day at Almscliff with Lee, Guy and Zakdog yesterday. I went primarily to get some photos and info for a little project I'm working on but did touch rock and padded and/or mantled my way up a few really nice easy problems I've not done for years.

I've been idly reviewing the year a bit recently too, compiling the odd list along the way. I was quite surprised how many new/possibly new/rediscovered things I've done on the moors this year and more surprised by how many good quality things I've got lined up to do/try when the elbows and weather allow. Inspired, nice one. In this vein, I've compiled a wee vid of my most obvious unfinished moors objective:

Route Project from Ram Man on Vimeo.

It'll be in an unclimbable state for a while yet (as might I be!) but looking forward to getting back on it and lots of other stuff on the moors early next year.

Anyway, appointment with physio tomorrow. Hopefully get me accelerating down the road to recovery for when/if the epic rains cease...

The heart says yes but the elbows say no

2009-11-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

Now that I've managed two full weeks of no climbing whatsoever, with my last day out being very light and another full week clear before that, I'd have expected to sense some improvement in the elbow department. Unfortunately, they actually feel worse than ever! I'd thought and planned to be able to manage beastmaker sessions during my lay off but I abondoned a session during warm up yesterday as even this seems to causing problems now. I'd like to think they're in some sort of recovery mode and healing and that's why they feel worse. But I'm, not really sure what to make of it all.

On the positive side, I have actually landed some work recently so I can afford to speculate some cash on a physio consultaion this week. Another week off under my belt and I'll have essentially had a month of no climbing. Strictly rehab/weights only this week and surely they'll have to start improving. I built a woodie at guy's this week too which was good. So now, once I'm healed, and whenever I'm in Hull, there's every chance of getting stronger with access to a good woddie and my BM:

^It's pretty big so had to stick guy's fish eye lens over my camera to be able to fit it in shot. about 42 degrees. should be good once I can get involved and get those jugs out of the way. (Just a few holds lying around on so far.)

^It's in a good conditions spot I reckon - the 35 slopers feel piss and I could hold the 45's too which I couldn't at Tom's.....

I'm looking forward to the opportunity of consistent training on a steep board once I'm fixed. I've never had access to one before and I'm interested to see the impact day on/day off type cycles could have on my climbing.

More that that though I'm looking forward to just going climbing and been able to try hard again! I'm as keen as ever at the moment. But not to worry, I've finally got a clear work/life plan sorted now which feels really good - only taken 4 years! And in this plan climbing features large with part of the year spent in the French Pyranees - Sorted!

Exploring in the clag

2009-11-08T13:09:00.000-08:00

Having spotted some potential via satellite, myself and Lee headed up to the moors today to look for boulders. It was a weird day's weather with some mist, rain and clag to contend with and, at times, some strange and interesting light and skies. Fortunately we drove away from the denser clag over hasty bank and Ingleby as we arrived first of all at Park Nab. We had a quick look around and although some of the routes looked pleasant and worthwhile for another visit/time of year, there wasn't really any decent bouldering potential and the crag was soaked anyway.

We quickly checked around for nearby boulders and, finding nothing worthwhile, then headed to the NOS boulder. It was as good as I'd have hoped, if not a bit better really - a nice aesthetic lump with good lines. The weather was at it's dryest for the day too so we got some decent stuff done. I was trying to take it very easy on the elbows and more or less succeeded I think/hope. Though the faces were dry the top outs weren't so we just did some traverses. Some nice moves and got pumped on a couple of things - good elbow rehab I hope.

The rain set in as we moved on to check out the nearby Captain Cook's Crags. On arrival, I was starting to wonder if we'd found the holy grail of moors bouldering - 'that steep, highball, hard and perfect prow hidden in the woods' we'd been earlier chatting about. Unfortunately, on closer inspection, said promising looking cluster didn't inspire me that much. Some nice rock and features but none of it really fitted together so well for climbing on. We did spot some stuff (new and existing) up on the crag worth heading back for some time in the drier future though. Lovely aspect and nice rock.

And that was it for today. Three new crag ticks and I even managed a bit of a climbing hit amidst the elbow depression! I think Ingleby is next on the moors agenda. Plenty of rock up there - hopefully the newly formed exploration duo will find some good stuff.

Oh and I made a whack video the other day, as per the title; a rushed job, just using up old footage rather than delete it basically:

Peak Flow (Part II) from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Brimham, Beastmaker, Video and elboooows!

2009-11-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

First to the climbing: Had a decent day bouldering at Brimham with Tommy M and Rob G last Saturday. Did a few things I've not done before and repeated some stuff too. Was climbing alright but forced to hold back a bit due to elbows (see later). Also got re-inspired to try some of the routes - loads of really great looking E4's to have a go at. Took the vid camera but never used it. I wish I had in retrospect as we did some nice problems. I'd not been to Brimham for quite a while and I was reminded why it's one of my favourite crags. It's a unique, magical place really.

Made yet another short video earlier this week. It's mainly footage from last year of a few days peak bouldering. I've really enjoyed making those little vids. I think I like scugdale balling best. Whilst none of them are of any quality, one has to start somewhere and I've enjoyed learning a bit and getting stuck into something new. As with everything I enjoy, I'd like to develop and improve at it so I'll keep plugging away and try to learn more and think/plan footage more carefully in the future. My editting can improve a lot of course too. So far I've just been using premiere elements and windows movie maker which both seem fine for most of the stuff I want to do. I've just been sticking music tracks (without too much thought) to accompany the climbing, just experimenting really but I've tried to time some bits of the tracks to the climbing - copied it from other movies, I really like watching that. I think I've come a long way already from my first Subculture Vid! I have got a couple of longer term video project ideas that hopefully I'll get good enough at capturing and editting to be able to pull off well. Anyway here's my latest, no better than any of my previous work but hopefully entertaining enough:

Peak Flow (Part I) from Ram Man on Vimeo.

My very own beastmaker2000 arrived this morning. I haven't trained for climbing at all since feb/march because of my elbows (see later). I've had a couple of sessions on Tom's Beastmaker though and I can manage ok, just hanging everything from broken locks. That's what inspired me to get one really. The sessions on Tom's confirmed what I already knew really - my fingers aren't very strong! I found it really encouraging though as I know, with minimal effort and discipline I'll be able to up my finger strength considerably. My front two are, if anything, stronger than my middle two so there's one area with plenty of room for strength gains. I can hang the monos but am a long way from being able to safely complete a set of repeaters on them say. Though I can hold them, the structure of my hand just doesn't feel strong enough to be able to be loaded with those types of grip for any duration. I haven't even tried to hang the monos with anything other than middle fingers as it feels like I'd break something if I tried. So with a careful and gradual build up I expect to see good gains here too. Anyway, I've been a bit slow to get on the beastmaker band wagon but hopefully, with a bit of hard work, it will get me stronger fingers and therefore help to get me up stuff that inspires and closer to my long term goal (and the only number that inspires me now) of Font8a (well, apart from E7 onsight maybe, oh and F8b...shit!)

Onto my biggest problem with climbing at the moment - my elbows. I've been struggling with them and whinging about them for way too long now ~ 8 months or so. I think I've climbed inside once in that time, Leeds Wall bouldering in the summer some time. I really aggrivated them early in the year when I had free access to the wall so was climbing inside a fair bit and I managed 2/3 structured campus sessions on them before they went. Also, at the same time I managed 2/3 sessions training for the hollow and idiotic goal of pure 1-armers from full lock. Anyway, that spate of foolish behaviour has plagued me with elbow pain ever since. It's the fairly classic golfer's elbow by my self diagnosis. I've been able to carry them all year really on the routes and have been doing rehab, antagonist stuff the whole time which has probably alleviated the problem to some extent. However, it's now bouldering season again and Brimham last saturday confirmed that I need to up the ante and do something about them. Enough denial, they're not good and if I can't train, I'll struggle to improve much. Also, it sometimes really detracts from climbing for me - worrying about my elbows as I'm doing moves and having to hold back. Pretty much everyone I know must be sick of hearing me whinge about them too. So anyway, here's my COA for elbow improvement/management:-
-rest (I'm trying to resist climbing and actually get a couple of weeks rest under my belt)
-rehab. hasn't cured me yet but think it helps so will carry on and up intensity, negative wrist curls. 3x12 twice a day + bicep curls + lots of stretching
-glucosamine (never tried it, ordered today - will be boshing 2000mg/day as soon as it arrives)
-powerball. it feels like it helps....
-ibugel. rubbing this stuff in there is the best the quack could come up with when I went to see him yesterday - no physio referal for me. probably useless but maybe placebo + gives a bit of a massage + no effort so will do it.
-ibuprofin. never used it for climbing but got some today and will take it before climbing or fingerboarding to keep any inflammation down. Can't do any harm?

So that's the plan. If anyone reading this has any more ideas or miracle cures, I'd love to hear them!

Hopefully by christmas, if I'm careful and diligent, I'll start to get on top of my elbows and stop whining about them!

wow, what a mammoth post, well played if you made it this far.

As long as it takes

2009-10-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

Put in yet another hasty bank visit today. Was disappointed by how quickly the condition of Raven's Scar has deteriorated, with luminous green lichen and slime springing up all over it. I had to start up stratagem rather than satchmo to reach the ledge because satchmo was soaked, not that it really matters how you get there. I undertook a concerted cleaning effort on the project, but ultimately wasn't rewarded. I did quickly top rope the 2 halves of the route but it was feeling a little harder than it should - the poor conditions meant the odds were stacked against success. I did have a go on the lead but it was fairly pathetic, the less said about it the better really! On the positive side, I'm 100% certain I can climb this line now after doing the all the moves and the route in 2 halves so many times. It's on a platter really - I can't improve anything and I don't need to anyway. Just need a dry spell so the crag is in generally decent nick, a cool (but not too cold) day, a patient belayer (or preferably 2) and to be there feeling ok and with decent skin. The chances of all those things coming together this side of 2010 are pretty slim unortunately but not to worry, it'll still be there when I go back!

vid still from one of the unsuccessful attempts:

Gutted I havn't done the route but thinking about it, despite so many visits, I've actually only had one day where I had good conditions and knew exactly what to do moves and gear wise. The first go of that day was my best so far - I was 2mm off doing the route! Frustrating but you can't win everytime. I think I did well/had some luck to get up Subculture just before pursuing this project so I suppose it just shows how things even out over time.

Everyone else out today had a really good day though. Bill & Noaks did Sesame which I was pretty impressed by. My old man crushed his nemesis too. I'm sure I'll be back and will get the route done eventually - 'As long as it takes'!

For Liechtenstein

2009-10-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

Spent a great day at The Wainstones yesterday (sunday). A few showers hurtled through during the day but the strong winds dried everything quickly and so we got plenty of climbing done and footage taken. The showers and wind meant that I didn't get on the raven's project as intended but not to worry, hopefully weather and circumstances will allow another shot at it soon.

We ended up as a magnificent seven at the crag. The moors was new to most of the guys who came out and it was great to see them enjoying the circuit and problems. It was also good to meet up and climb with Lee and Rob - enthusiasm set to turbo.

Having warmed up I left the pack for a bit to go and clean up a lowball problem I'd actually spotted a couple of visits ago. Getting the holds in decent nick took a fair amount of effort but it soon became clear it was worth it when I pulled on and felt how the move would work. Essentially, just a one-move power problem, but I could tell the one move was a good 'n. Since I reckoned it was a likely FA, I got to work trying to do it before Lee and Rob turned up! But, despite managing to latch the move from squatting, which allowed me to be well established on the crucial holds, I couldn't link from the sitter. Sure enough, the competition(!) turned up but umpteen team efforts later, the problem was still holding out. I had the knacky movement going fairly well after so many goes and was losing skin nearly latching the top with each effort. Another rest and another go and bosh, held it. Satisfying. Good little problem - felt similar in quality, style and difficulty to a bigger splash direct at Rubicon. Assuming it is an FA (which I'd wager it is but wouldn't be totally surprised if it isn't) I've called it For Liechtenstein.

Covering old ground here but as a family out enjoying the day walked past and exchanged pleasantries with us, it occured to me how strange our activities must look to unsuspecting muggles. Three grown men trying to pull their way up a small piece of rock on a windy, showery day in October. It made me wonder at the time; why are we doing this? A question I've not asked myself for a while as climbing is so routine these days. Simply going out and trying to climb stuff isn't really a novelty, doesn't need explaining, just a part of life and usually a thoroughly enjoyable one. We were having a great time so it didn't really matter. But, after thinking about it a little, I've gathered up the usual host of reasons: For the feeling of discovering and experiencing movement. For the reward of ultimately completing the problem. For the challenge of doing something that was hard for you. And the rest. Like I said, it didn't really matter at the time so, why not For (the first word that came to mind) Liechtenstein?

We cruised around most of the other boulders and I got plenty of video. (Am currently finishing an edit off, will post on here when done.) Rob and Joel did the Prow and I did it again too, using Joel's slightly easier beta - maybe more 6C/+ now but still just as good!

I think everyone really enjoyed the day, having a fun, sociable time of it. The young guns are on half term this week too, so have a couple of willing belayers to open the raven's project if/when the weather allows in the next few days. Fingers crossed.

Vid now finished:

A Wainsteean Hoolathon from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Belated Scugdale Vid

2009-10-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

Vid of last weekend some time finally ready a little later than planned, have decided to call the problems at Stoney Wicks Chagrin Left and Chagrin Right. Here it is:

Editting skills increasing slightly. I'm pretty sure I'd get bored watching that but so what, it's good to learn and improve at something new.

Blowing away the cobwebs

2009-10-18T10:15:00.001-07:00

Fate, it seems, is quite determined to prevent me from climbing my Raven's Scar project. Everything seemed to be coming together today with good weather and two keen young guns to get a belay off and share the day with. Unfortunately, about half a mile after setting off, my alternator belt snapped. Balls. Being a sunday, all the car parts places were shut so had a quick go at bodging it. Firstly and unsuccessfully with prussik cord. Secondly and equally unsuccessfully with a pair of tights. No other cars or options meant climbing had to be sacked for the day. Gutted.

I don't feel like I've done anything very bold this year so suggested going to blow the cobwebs of fear away by doing a nearby bridge jump. I'd never been to the bridge before but knew where it was and that Al and some others had jumped off it last year I think. Noaks and Bill were keen so off we went. We weren't disappointed when we found it - small to medium sized but good enough to catch some decent air time. I hadn't done anything like it for quite some time and was surprised how scared I actually was! Great fun though and such a cheap thrill. On my second effort I jumped from standing on the top and it jarred a little and cricked my neck so called it a day. Was good to see the other two enjoy it - 2 jumps each too, good efforts!

Here's a quick vid of the jumps:

Jumping off a small bridge in October from Ram Man on Vimeo.

Well, not such a bad way to spend half a day, though I'd rather have been climbing. And the project holds out for now. Hopefully we'll get some decent weather this week and I can muster some partners and get it done. Really looking forward to climbing on it again. Until next time!

Patrick O'Houlihan

2009-10-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

Have been away from the proect for over a week until Today. ...

Last weekend enjoyed a couple of chilled bouldering days at Scugdale and Almscliff. Just been elbow rehabbing this week.

Headed up with the usual N Yorks team today. On arrival at Raven's I set up my ropes amidst a powerful Hoolie. Must have been gusting 60mph + and I couldn't get my ropes down the crag. Anyway, got sorted, had a quick ab and brush then trotted over to the wainstones to meet the others. Got warmed up and belayed guy something rubbish looking. It was relatively pleasant bouldering around there though - more sheltered.

Went back to Raven's with optimism, hoping the route wold feel managable in the blast. Sure enough it was too cold and blustery to think about trying it much today. I don't think I could have persueded my belayers to stay for long anyway. However, I did have a quick go on second half. Unbelieveably and annoyingly (after last visit) , with numb hands, cold body, socks on with rockshoes, hurting elbows and impeded by excessive clothing layers, blasting hoolie, etc. I cruised through the climbing first time of asking. So I still don't get why I didn't do it last time! But not to worry, it proves I've got the climbing totally wired now and that the route is within me. It surely can't hold out much longer! I'd love to get it done this year - just need a couple of belayers and a less windy, dry day and it should be over.

We regrouped at clay bank car park, and headed off to check out Earthworks Rocks. And it was well worth it. Enjoyed a handful of great highballish lines on nice rock with Guy, the best of which were opened by Steve Crowe a few years ago. 'The Arch' is a really nice aesthetic feature with good moves. The highlight for me though was 'Red and White', a great sequence up an arete with an exciting, grasping on heather finish to flop on to the top of the moor. There were a couple of harder looking aretes to do there as well - in need of a good clean though. Shoud've got some photos but didn't.

Break

2009-10-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

I don't want my project to move into the realm of feeling like a chore. The drive, the walk-in, the top rope, the brushing, the working - it was all starting to feel a little too familiar and boring last visit so I decided to take a break and do some other climbing this weekend instead.

Visited scugdale today. The day started well as we did a bit of exploration of Stoney Wicks. It's essentially just the Eastern continuation of the scugdale crags. The guide just has a few climbs described up to Severe or something. Anyway, the rock was good there and sure enough there were some nice easy lines to warm up on. The best thing I found though was an undercut micro-butress. From low sit starts I cleaned up and did 2 good little problems up each arete. Not sure how hard they are - probably both in the font6b+/6c vicinity. Not sure if they've been done before, I'd guess not but they're probably just about worth incllusion on a scugdale low-ball circuit. Anyway, I videod them and a fair bit of other stuff from today too. Hopefully getting adobe premiere elements sorted tomorrow so I'll try and make progress with my video making quality (not difficult) and make a little edit from the day's footage. I'll embed it in this post once I've done it.

I'd been really looking forward to doing Grand Master Flash and New dimensions again today and filming it but unfortunately the crag was quite sandy and in pretty poor nick. The pockets on GMF were particularly sandy, dirty, damp and grim and I didn't really have the inclination (or rope) to clean it all up. The bottom of the wall was dry though so it occured to me to try a sit start for it. It wouldn't really add much to the problem/route but makes it a bit more complete rather than stepping in off a block. I'd like to do it anyway next time I'm there and it's cleaner.

Next I quested off westward and did some stuff I'd not done before including some really steep hand cracks (arch area) which were good and quite tough. Then repeated some stuff I'd done before but in better style (fairytale low, super skunk). All in all not a bad chilled day, shame the crag was so dirty/sandy though.

It was great to be able to boulder and actually pull a bit without searing elbow pain. I'm pretty sure the new rehab program is working. Right elbow still pretty bad but improving for sure. I might actually be able to train again some time this year at this rate.

elusive? illusive? both!

2009-10-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

The raven's scar project that is. Went up once again 2 days ago. Had perfect weather and conditions again, felt confident of glory again, came home empty handed again!

The frustrating thing is, I don't really understand why or how I failed this time. I don't think I've ever been in this position with a route before. I'm no relentless ticking machine but it's fair to say, once I know I can climb something or at least nearly climb something, I generally get to the top. And know I can climb this project. Yet I didn't.

^view out from base of crag - perfect conditions - even a nice breeze too....

My first go was my best of the day. I nailed the first crux the best I ever have and had plenty left in the tank on the arete jugs - more than enough to see me to the top and I knew it. But I blew it on one of the initial moves in the second crux sequence, a move I've barely ever failed on. For some reason it just felt way harder than usual. Optimistically, I'm just hoping the excitement got to me and I messed up the body position which is fairly crucial to this move. I know it wasn't anything to do with pump/power out because I've done from the jug to the top in considerably worse states on top rope.

Second go I got to the same point but found everything getting there harder and the move I'd failed on previous attempt now felt more or less impossible. Oh dear.

Third go wasn't worth the effort!

Anyway, to the positives:

though it was disappointing not to do it, I did achieve a p.b. on the route with that first effort.
I've got the climbing and the protection/ropework totally wired now and though failure on the second crux means decent length falls, the route's safe so I'm can gun for victory with abondon on the lead, stress free.
I might be able to find a more reliable way to do the move I was failing on next visit(never really experimented with that bit before...)
The weather looks good next week.

So next time hopefully!

Headpoint punterneering

2009-10-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

Went back on the Raven's Scar project today. Driving up I felt fairly confident of glory after the last session but alas, I've returned empty handed! It became clear from the off today that the route wasn't going to go down without a good fight....

Here she is (well part of her):

For some reason, I found the first crux really hard today. I think it was partly getting the body position wrong on my initial goes (not warmed up) and then subsequently just psychologically struggling with it. Next, I realised I'd underestimated the complexity and difficulty of arranging and placing all the gear on lead. At this point, I was starting to wonder if I'd actually get on the sharp end for some goes today.

Fortunately, after a rest, the second crux section went really well - linked it first go and then tweaked the sequence a bit making it less physical and more predictable - nice one. However, I didn't have it all my own way. Today was the first time I've tried the moves with the gear in and the final piece before the top proved particularly annoying and problematical - getting in the way initially of my left hand and then my left heel/foot on the second crux. Not to mention been pretty strenny to get in right in the first place. Ultimately, I reasoned I could just about climb around it and it seemed immune from getting kicked out despite my best efforts climbing on top rope...

So, having convinced myself I couldn't really hurt myself, I felt ready to have a go - sport route mentality. I set off, giving myself roughly even odds. Got to the ledge without issue, got all the gear arranged and sorted the 3 rope system. Chilled for a couple of minutes in/on the ledge then went for it.... I probably stayed on for another 20 seconds or so before blowing the slap on the first crux. Bugger. At least that gear holds then....

I justified leaving all the gear up to that point in and pre-clipped as placing it is a total formality from hands free rests and I can downclimb from the ledge to the deck anyway. Besides, the route/line I'm trying essentially starts from the half-way deep break/ledge so what gear you have in up to that point and which route you take to get there is arbitary.

So having justified cheating a bit, I set off on my second go on the lead. I climbed better this effort but I knew instantly once I'd latched the holds and consolidated after the first crux I was too tired to finish the route today. I ploughed on anyway and placed the two remaining pieces up to and on the arete. On arrival at the arete hold, I jetisonned my 3rd (and now redundant) rope as planned. Except the way it had fallen across my other ropes, all snagged and ready to drag like a mother wasn't part of the plan. So I sat in - no other option really. At least I was learning how to manage the gear and ropes on the sharp end for next time(s) . I knew I wouldn't have made it that go anyway, so not to worry.

Once sorted and a little rested I thought I'd battle on and see what the second crux section felt like on the sharp end. Powering out quickly, I decided it didn't feel all that fun so did that thing where you shout 'take' whilst letting go anyway, slightly above and off to the side of my last piece. Much to my surprise, said piece rocketed out of it's placement and cracked me on the head as I shot downwards and sideways back around the arete and came tight on my new last piece. Fortunately, this one held.

And that was enough for one day and it was pretty much dark anyway.

After a bit of analysis of the angles and placement, I understood why the piece I'd tested a bit earlier and deemed decent had ripped on the actual lead. Hmmmm, yet another thing learnt today.

I'm still not too sure what to make of the route now. It's hard to decide just how serious leading it would be without this piece in the arete. There may be scope for some other gear or perhaps a sceond belayer way off to the right (gaia stlye). I'll have a think about it tomorrow. The route's undoubtedly more serious now that I know that last bit of gear is no good. Protection-wise, it means for the second crux section, you'll have a good thread miles below and out of sight on one rope and a decent cam a bit below but miles out to side around the arete and out of sight on the another. Scary but on the plus side I like the thought of not having to stop to place it and it not getting in the way....

All in all, it's great to have found this project to get stuck into. I've got the climbing dialled now. Just need to have a think and get the gear strategy dialled too and it'll be good to go. I'll stop rambling for now about it anyway. Knackered.

epiphany x 2

2009-10-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Still no work so it was back to Hasty Bank and Raven's Scar/Wainstones today. I nearly died walking up to the top path on hasty bank with my mighty top-rope rigging bergen on - must get a new inhaler from the quack so I can actually breathe under such circumstances....
Anyway, on arrival at the top of Raven Scar, I got to work unpacking the bergen whilst Guy and my dad and dog ploughed on to the wainstones. I had an abortive effort at working my project on a shunt finding it too steep, meandering, hard, cold, etc. etc.

So trotted over to the Wainstones, bouldered around a good bit and got generally well warmed up. Once he'd notched up a couple of the classic routes, Guy headed back with me to Raven's.

Initially, I was just after working the first crux of my project. I'd done these moves before last year but the hardest move in the sequence I only ever managed to do once and I'd subsequently broken a hold, making it a little harder.

After 10 minutes or so of trying and failing, I was starting to get worried, especially as this section will be fairly bold. Getting desperate, I spurned my burly basic method and decided to try some unlikely faggottry and it paid off - epiphany moment #1. The move's still pretty tough but is much more reliable and feels way nicer to climb. Awesome, phase 1 complete and back over to the Wainstones.

Guy knocked out West Sphinx Direct as his first E3, nice one my matey! Both of us riding high, back to Raven's.

And I got to work on the second half of my project. My aim was to link from the 'half-way jug' to the top thus landing me squarely in 'in two halves' town. It was perfect weather today, crisp and cold. Conditions felt the best they have so far on the project. I think it was this as much as anything which inspired me to start to tweak my sequence for the second half a little, trying a slightly more direct approach. Guy threw out some useful and interesting thoughts whilst belaying too. The upshot of all this is that I went through a really rewarding little creative process which has yielded a better sequence, an improved line and even more independant climbing - epiphany moment #2.

I wasn't quite 100% happy with the line I was taking before so am stoked to have found the new improved and more independent solution today. The epiphany moments felt really great; I can't wait to feel what topping out on this beast will be like.

Flute of No Hope

2009-09-28T05:47:00.000-07:00

It's strange how quickly you can switch from having great days, climbing well and cruising your hardest route to having a nightmare day. Well, yesterday was one of those days. There's usually no explaining it. Well rested, motivated, good skin, plenty of sleep, well fed, etc. etc. And yet it goes wrong....

It was Noaksie's suggestion to hit Higgar Tor and I was keen to mix things up a bit with some grit onsighting so off we went. My hopeless navigation skills landed us a fair way east of the leaning block but I'd already planned to warm up in that area so no worries.

The warm up was great untill Noaks managed to tipple off the very top of Huge Slab. Unfortunately, I happened to be spotting at the time. Events unfolded in slow motion, Noaks swearing and slowly coming down towards the grim landing, with me in between. I'm not too sure what happened as we came together, I was just acting on instinct, trying to break his fall and at the same time divert him onto the mat. Sure enough, Noaks ended up face down on the mat and I ended up face down on Noaks. I knew I'd hurt myself a bit and was sure Noaks must've come worse off. Luckily for him he was just a bit winded! I started doing that 'school boy hopping around because it hurts too much to stand still' malarky. I noticed a large hole in my jumper which correlated with a large hole in my elbow when I pulled back the sleeve. Left hip and leg were also smarting. Not a good start to the day then!

above, bad photo of huge slab. Yup, noaks fell from hand on the top.....

I dressed my wound and we headed over to the leaning block. I did Mighty Atom but badly, finding the top out fairly horrendous. Noaks knocked off a couple of the HVS's there abouts. I had a fairly lame effort at Flute of Hope. I optimistically thought my relative good form would see me through any route of this sort of difficulty, even feeling quite shit and on a bad day. Wrong. You've got to want 'em on the grit!

Noaks put in a similar performance on the Rasp, so we scuttled off back eastward from whence we came.

And it was great. I've never climbed around there before but there are a few lovely easy slabs of nice rock which we (re)started on. Lapping them until they're like stairs, using different sequences, one handed, other one handed, no hands.... I reckon this type of thing is a fairly crucial bit of training for the trad climber and it's actually good fun too. Plus it doesn't cost you any skin. I delivered a bit of a masterclass to young noakes and it was good to see him improve so quickly. I say mastercalss, I'm no slab maestro and could do with one myself but still, he did improve at them in the little session and so did I. Next time he should walk up huge slab, someone else can spot though.

And another

2009-09-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed another great day's climbing yesterday. I decided to spurn the Stanage bound Hull team, opting instead for the relative seclusion of the Moors. I persueded my dad along which is always easy to do when the moors is in the equation . It is stunning up there and feels much quieter and less worn than the Peak. Of course, the climbing is lacking in stature and quantity by the same comparison but still, the quality is there and the gems do exist.

My main intention was to get back on a project I tried a bit last year on Raven's Scar. However, my old man had expressed some interest in a Cold Moor visit and I'm always keen to check out a new crag so, first up, we tabbed the 40mins or so along hasty bank. We only visited the two most northerly of the butresses. Fairly underwhelming truth be told, but there were some decent micro routes/highballs to be had. Spinechiller was the highlight and worthwhile. The only 3* route on the crag according to the guide - good line in a great position.

Next we headed back towards the Wainstones. In particular to a cool looking arete/prow on the lowest outcrop there. I'd spotted it on the hike across to cold moor and was keen to try it. It looked fairly straight forward with biggish holds up the arete but a king line for sure. A little brushing and chalking the holds and I realised I'd underestimated it. Deceptively quite hard - nice one! Anyway I got a sequence together and did it. Great line and climbing. It's the best problem I've done in the area I reckon. I got my old man to record it on my stills camera (crude again) and have made a little clip of it (also crude again) but nevertheless, here it is:

Wainstones from Ram Man on Vimeo.

By now, my dad had declared himself unfit for any further climbing having 'pulled something' in his forearm. Bummer. Fortunately he was still able to belay though! First on Bird Lime - a nice little bold route on the Wainstones following a line of flakes, then on the raven scar project I'd come to try.

It was pretty late by the time we got there but it didn't really matter. I only needed to try a couple of moves. I was hoping I'd either get totally shut down on them or do them fairly quickly. Quite surprisingly, once I'd got re-warmed up the latter happened and I was quite excited as I'd now done all the moves on the project, having worked the rest of the route last year. Managed some half decent links as well so, though it's hard for me, it's probably not that far off going. I love the climbing and I think it'll be a really good route. Hopefully will be able to get more folk to go up there soon and get it bagged up!

Good day

2009-09-23T06:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day. After a quick circumnavigation of west hull, dropping my mum at work and picking guy up we were back at mine for a quick brew before rattling out the 90miles to kilnsey. It was nowhere near as windy or cold as I'd feared, nice. Warmed up on directissima which felt not easy and as unfamiliar as ever. Also did a lap on Face Value which I'd not done since first leading it last year, felt like a useful stage in the warm up and got a steady but not too severe pump going - doing better than last time then!

Got the clips in subculture and cleaned the spooge out of the some of the pockets. Felt pretty good on it and the move I was failing on last time was feeling the easiest it ever has. Went back over to Directissima which guy steadily despatched. So far so good. First redpoint time, good to get it out of the way, either way. Everything went really well until my foot popped out of the little tufa pocket towards the end of the hard stuff. The first time that's ever happened. Still nearly fudged on through but the error propagated into falling off with another foot pop a couple of moves later. Felt a bit robbed but pleasantly surprised how steady the whole thing was feeling.

30 mins and confident now, enjoying myself, time for another go. And no problems this time, went nice and steady through the hard climbing. Was nervous of blowing it on the slab culture finish but allowed myself to really enjoy it, having to try hard but climbing steadily enough still. The most elated I've been to complete a sport route since Raindogs. Redpointing, it seems, is worth it!

Anyway, got both efforts on (crappy stills camera) video. Made a little clip (watch out hot aches et al.). If you make it through the whole thing, your boredom threshold is impressive. I enjoyed reviewing it and making the clip though, don't worry.

I managed to sway guy towards heading to blue scar over crookrise next. (cheers guy) I was after a crack at central wall. I'd watched Al and Andy do it a couple of weeks before but I'd got too cold and demotivated to do it that night. Guy had a go on Pillar Talk. Then it was back to me. Started off knowing I was a bit burnt from kilnsey but thought I had enough left in the tank to knock off a soft E5. Wrong! Was fighting pretty hard all the way from leaving the sapling ledge. Pretty sketchy slapping and bashing feet up on poorish holds towards the top jug. Made it though, just. Good fun and more memorable I think than if I'd been totally freash.

And that was it for climbing yesterday. Just a victory ice cream and longish drive home remained.

Positively mundane

2009-09-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

I was almost climbing at stanage again today but when it became apparent that I'd be getting picked up well before 8am by Tom I had to think again. Plus him and Guy had already arranged to go tradding and so, on limited time it just wouldn't have felt right for me to be demanding belays on stuff. So I decided to invest the day trying to sort some work for next week and completing some mundane but necessary tasks instead. So far so good.

I've pinned guy down for a kilnsey trip tomorrow. Will give subculture another toss of the caber. Been lucky in that the indian summer has got it almost totally dry again. No pressure on for tomorrow too as I'm sure it'll still be dry at the weekend and there's a kilnsey hungry young Hull team going up then. Still it would be nice to do it tomorrow. Achieved consecutive PB's on it last session, my first proper redpoints. Was climbing with a local from those parts, nez. Top guy and he gave me some good advice and sequence tweaks which may prove crucial. It was a strange day in terms of performance. It was quite cold so warming up and staying warm was always going to be tough. I think my 1 lap of directissima was found lacking as preparation for a short, PE based 8a. Also, I didn't have my clip stick and the crag was deserted so I had to put all the clips in on lead (the horror). Putting in that first clip from cold straight from the deck isn't an experience I hope to repeat. Some time after this nez turned up and I had a good burn. Felt the most solid I ever have on it, just failing to hit the edge from the out left sidepulls/undercuts accurately enough with slightly cold hands. Still this go confirmed for me that I can do it. On the second redpoint I felt strangely less solid and foun clipping the 3rd pretty touch and go. On the positive side, I still hit the edge better this go but not well enough to stay on. After this, the wheels well and truely fell off. Not sure why, perhaps having not done any harder climbing in the previous couple of weeks had something to do with it. 'Warming down' on comedy didn't really happen though the start did feel reassuringly easy. Was a good day though and good to climb with someone new. My forearms ached with soreness for 3 days after this! Haven't had that for a long time. So, all in all, feeling positive and looking forward to it. Untill then...

And........He's off!

2009-09-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Having remained hesitant about starting one of these efforts for some months/years now, I've decided not to bother. Only joking but I do feel obliged to give a little justification for it's existence. Simple really. I sometimes enjoy and gain inspiration from other people's bloggs. So it follows others might sometimes enjoy and gain inspiration from reading mine. Also, I'll enjoy the process of writing and constucting posts irresepective; so it's a done deal.

Needless(?) justification over, I suppose the motivation and ambition for this blog is much like any other. Apart, perhaps, from those with a particular trumpet to bang......but who reads that stuff?

Anyway, down to business....