Wednesday, September 30, 2009

CooP

First time in a while, was good, nearly got monkey problem, held red for first time, very pleased, finishing a formality. Half volunteered to knock in the remaining nut nests on the boards so that a re-jig can take place before everyone gets stuck in for the winter. Tim I'm sure would love to help.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Sunday Driving

Got back to Glendo, comfortable with the idea that it would be shitter second day on but it turned out to be great, got the usuals but also got Black Art pretty comfortably which was defying me last week. Tried pascal's, got higher on egg and bmx. Andy's still undone. Ferns are dying.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Indian summer

Headed to the glendo with the paedo. Blagged our way into the car park when ped took advantage of cross cultural misunderstandings and pretended we were Mountain Rescue. Unfortunately he did not watch what code our young Indian friend punched in which would have cemented his status as some sort of prophet. Got coffee and they wouldn't give me a free ice cream flake, dicks. Big jim was in the shade but warm still so conditions were imperfect. Ped added yet more layers of pointless to our already entirely pointless subset of a pointless sport by successfully climbing the Big jane arete in 4 moves or 3 holds or something, god love him. I failed andy's ss, learnt nothing new. followed the advancing shade across the river, got left of egg ss with grace and style, also rails ss despite the greasy tips. UCDMC freshers were camped out in the sun on the upper path and the fin. Elbows felt fine after a week off with work which is a relief. Will start to vary my climbing locations over the coming weeks, maybe even lough dan once the ferns start dying.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

BAck to glendo with bray and found my elbows quickly hurt, worrying but understandable considering my push ups regime has yet to take off. pottered more than yesterday. tried fin ss but failed, no excuses, need more strength to hold the squeeze, hitting rh hold fine. rest of time was fine. must go to coop more for crimp strength for font.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

autumns first

headed direct from work parked at hostel and was at the ruins by 5.15, sempre fi. conditions were great, cool, no midge. dry underfoot there so tried the usuals, no hands slab, cherry etc. found legs to be very shaky, almost disco leg maybe too much caffeine or not enough sleep. Got the start of barrys problem first time which i rarely get. headed up to pathside, flashed ss rails with a little more grace this time, same with pathside traverse, nearly pulled calf muscle trying line left of egg ss but felt strong on it. headed up to fin ss with confidence but found that a lack of skin and chalk ( I had some in the car fucking spanner) let me down, could hit the right handhold with relative ease but greased off repeatedly. back down to superstars and BBE which firmly put me in my place, barely getting my foot up on superstars. BBE you fucking inscrutable nightmare. then over to andy's arete, did from standing but lacked the "stamina" to do from sit, crimp felt fine just faded each time i tried to move right hand to arete. after this selective tour of the harder offerings i headed home in fading light, possibly back tomorrow. the leaves are turning.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

tour de force

last night between arrival and darkness wandered amongst the scrubble, marvelled again at all the almosts and what ifs. looked at my old forgotten project, someones pavemented extensively so i will assume its ticked. will still go back and give it a shot on my way back up to black art which left me stumped when i thought i had done it previously. pleased with efforts to hold a shit left hand green sloper, pinky important, then right hand up to arete, then snatch with either right or left, not sure which. code has changed. mountain rescue were down giving reassurance to a shaken climber.

nothing doing in the morning so headed to electric mountain and did the lovely slab after some early psych out. then spent ages on a low ball crimpy problem (lipservice 6c apparently) which should go when i get some more core and finger strength. skin was also starting to show fatigue 4th day on. just as we were leaving i looked at the deep ss which at a glance i think would also go without too much extra effort. ha.

on drive back stopped at zef's and tried the right boulder, absolutely immaculate granite, too warm and tired but should go easily enough on another day. very pleased with the productivity of the whole expedition.

Friday, September 11, 2009

roped some more fresh meat into touring 3 rock with me though jimmy being from Braaay had to be back before the 9 o'clock curfew. stuck to the middle boulder in the end, doing all the usuals. traversed well, also got campus slap and got foot up high on the ss. couldn't do pinch line though friction was generally good and skin felt great.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

midge menace

got chased out of glendo after an hour, cycled to make the most of the dwindling day. climbed surprisingly well if unconvincingly, flashing ss rails with wrong sequence, and pathside traverse also with fucked up sequence and then managed the ss prob to the left of the egg which i'm quite chuffed about having only done it twice previous. friction not brilliant, greasy tips nearly cost me the rails. really noticed loss of crimp strength on the traverse, had to improvise. still don't know if code has changed.