gl..oop

headed for glendo but the icy conditions worried us out of going past annamoe so we turned tail and headed for coop. good session, got a little further on bulge traverse using tim's heel. several new hard probs to try on noticeably crimpier stuff. elbows n fingers feel fine. must remember next freeze over to get to glenmac.

alone in the dark

Late in the day idea to get some lamp climbing in. Bray kindly lent me bike and lamps and i was at the rocks by 5.30. Weird in the moonlight on my own without music to distract me. There were a lot of deer, with fuck off antlers and their eyes reflected the torchlight even when they were across the valley. Kept expecting to get gored. Warmed up on BigJim, managed smear test despite seepage, tried the dyno with the top hold in total darkness and nearly lost a tip. Managed andy's ss pretty quickly, pleased enough to do a spontaenous fist pump when I latched the top. The deer were unimpressed. Back to pascals then and difficult to see if i've improved on it though i once felt real close to holding the move from standing, foot popped. Just to compound the niggling sense of stagnation i tried BBE a few times before realising committing to the swing on my own in the dark was pretty spanner. Twas all mint.

coop

shite weather prevented me going outdoors. went to coop with bray, some new holds up, most projects intact. lovely bulge traverse now on shallower walls. bray is getting stronger but remains highly vulnerable to any form of banter.

ucd

coop was being rejigged apparently so myself n bray went to ucd for my first time there since i joined the coop. perhaps didn't sample enough of the problems cos i immediately got distracted by a lovely big purple bulges problem, spent most of my energy on it, got frustratingly close but in the end didn't close it. frustrating cos at €8 a pop i won't be back anytime soon. (V7 apparently but then we were trying v3's and getting nowhere. font all over again.) ring finger on right hand sore at upper joint, need to be careful.

did some roots also. i do enjoy an ould slabby arete.

coop

climbed first time in nearly two weeks. couple of new things to throw myself at. felt mixed, couldn't get off first wall on grey holds traverse but could get rail prob.

Findaloo

Got down for lamp session with bray, very cold, cycled in, dark at 5. After disconcerting warm up got stuck into pascals. Still a long way to go. Right hand up is snatchy and the hold is sharp. Put left foot out further at start, better balance when needed later on. After many failures bray mentioned the fin which i agreed to against my better judgement. After several gos decided right foot needs to pop off, forget about trying to keep it on altogether. After a lot of frustration i removed the tape on my threee crucial fingers and managed to hold it. Fought the top out probably as hard as i've ever fought a problem after my foot slipped at same point as in last lamp session. This time i regrouped somewhat with foot back on crimp, my stomach cramping and managed to top it out. Took a while to get breath back. 8b.

Tried 7b slab, little tiny edge in middle of small base slab, left foot on gets right foot awkwardly to edge on pseudo arete. Don't know if i could move out of that position.

superstar

After an evening of over eating and drinking by rights i should have been a basket case today. However under the guise of going for a walk with Orla I managed to get to the boulders while she spinked. Minto at the late starting time of 2. After a quick lovely warm up and with some reservations i turned to bmx and promptly flashed it, even finishing with the left hand. Psyched I went down to egg ss, tried it a couple of times from standing, then linked it in from the ss, absolutely grovelling the finish. First time ever, chuffed. Realising i had caught Someone off guard here I headed for Pascal's where the run of top outs stopped dead. However I did after some false starts work out an approach that gets me to the triangle. Instead of locking into the high right elbow and crossing through, keep right foot below the good foot hold, left foot flagging out left and left hand in high side pull and go again with right hand for the left most end of the ramp. Hit it but did not hold, it'll go with better skin and some work. Real pleased.

Must do something about how often skin seems to be the deciding factor in finishing stuff.

Woman on her own asked if I'd like a bunt at pascals, i struggled to say something and came out with "maybe later". fortunately she had already passed so i didn't see her face. i should give ped lessons.

Swing and a miss.

Hannah's better than tim.

Arose early and found my new place affords me zero view of the hills and the current weather on 3 rock. Took off for Lough Bray and drove into the rain, wet, cold and windy. Satisfied with my karma building efforts i headed for the coop where Bray was joining me. I took the back roads via Rathfarnam and realised again i'm mostly a stranger to my home town. Coop session was good, Big Mac turned up and gloated up things. Felt better on the arete prob but the final swing seems next generational to me. Got the rail problem again. Need more projects.

Also cooped mid week.