outdoors-ish, real rock-ish

I've managed to find a bit of beach-side sandstone to train on. it's a man-made little bouldering wall, part of a cafe on the beach dominated mostly by sandy volleyball courts. the wall has lots of jugs for the kids but the base wall is a nicely featured compact sand with a smattering of pockets and crimps to make it interesting if you read between the lines. it made me realise how rarely in the past i've enjoyed the features on a man-made wall. it's a god-send considering font is in three weeks. already been twice, i went this morning so there were a few kids in their bare feet being watched hawkishly by their parents whilst this red-hooded paedo cleaned out little pockets with a toothbrush. go home freak.

i also went to a local route climbing wall to meet up with a local club. they were all nice folks, i'm not sure that we were the same demographic, will probably meet up again. the wall was grand, like ucd before the facelift.

was close to building my own little board, went as far as to check out plywood sheets in the local woodies equivalent but ultimately decided against it.

K2 Crawley

My nails grow longer, my skin more lady like. We had nearly two weeks of mostly blue skies here and I was too intent on saving money to get the train, by the end of it I had mostly stopped feeling that guilty niggle that whatever I was doing was a waste of perfect conditions.

Today it was damp out and at the end of my patience I headed off on the train to an indoor wall up the way. A farcical £11.50 in, it was the lobby of a sports centre, mostly routes with maybe a ucd sized bouldering section. Fifty yards away was the centre cafe which seemed to be pumping that delicious/obnoxious chip fat scent at me the whole time, like having dec breathing on me. Stayed there for the guts of 4 hours, did what I could to feel like a climber again despite having to share the bouldering section with kids parties half the time, fortunately they weren't the "here, mister" type. Good to do something again but am going to get the train up to sandstone next good weather I get, before I turn into a properly bitter ex-boulderer.

the doldrums

i didn't quite realise what a climbing backwater brighton was until now. In researching to come here I found two new climbing centres in the pipeline and I thought great but somewhere along the line that pipeline's got clogged and there's radio silence on when they're actually going to start building. so in the short term i'm a little fucked. Font in less than two months and all i've got is a chin up bar.

got into glendo for a rushed festive special on xmas eve. conditions were generally pretty good, with the occasional damp hiding in the creases. started out on big jim, good craic then back over the river where the we spread out into the boulders. squamish was damp so i tried a midge too far, the others eye for a good problem was far too unrefined to recognise the improbability of such a fine start on magnificent rock. they got stuck into a sideways squeeze chimney instead, i tried it once but was trying to climb through when in reality you need to roll up your sleeves and thug through. trish was wandering around off her head on drugs, a very poor example to the kids. the lads were rushing off whilst our car was under no time duress but the chimney had worn through jeff and ped had finished his space walk so we left after a couple of abortive efforts on superstars. fun if relatively unproductive day.

headed into gravity today and had very enjoyable, vaguely hungover, fat bellied time. got one problem before tim and was happy to let him generally burn me off the rest of the time. good honest fuckology.

Three rock

Got up to my favorite haunt cos it was local and stood a small chance of being climb able unlike the grey and mowldy lowlands. The cold was back with a bang and we hovered around the puddles reluctant to take hands out of pockets. The rock was as unforgiving as ever and the lingering damp didn't help when trying to avoid rasping off holds. Gina and bray tried a couple of things but seemed happy to natter. Managed a few things on the middle stack and then down to the third hoping for shelter from the bitter wind. Feet were frozen but managed most of the usuals. Good Christmasy feeling snatched session.

fuck yeah.

a year ago i'd have been grumpy at the idea of having spent a dry day off in the scalp. Headed out with dave in the late afternoon when the light had already changed. Started on dark angle which looked soaked but was actually grand, that weird dark veneer of recently wet rock. Managed the standing fine and was pleased to solidly hold the good hold from a sitter only to barn off. Tried it a couple of times, i'd like to think it was only dave's shit chalk between me and success. Up to ldf for the flash, heel hooking a puddle, and left manhole as it was green on top. Tried gentilly, managed the standing and then steadily scoured my skin away trying the sitter, the bulk was mighty. Finished on the snatchy hole problem further in, only managing it when i avoided the soaking left heel and went right hand first. Overall managed to sample some of the best rock quality in the scalp, really enjoyable. Skin is fairy-liquid fragile but hopefully i can do some more damage while i'm home.

glendo burn

without having thought about it much i sort of hoped my glendo muscle memory would get me through my outdoor rustiness but this turned out to be fanciful in extremis. got in there after a rainswept walk in and found the rock to be fine, twas windy as fuck. james and dave headed off up to the crag with their hemp rope and joss's hand-me-down helmets, if you squinted they turned sepia, while i thought i'd get some money in the bank bouldering the usuals. my warm up was fine, though i felt clunky and i clung onto holds far tighter than i needed. after that i couldn't touch anything. the pathside traverse i couldn't hold the swing. the egg mantle i exploded off the sit start 3 times. etc. headed up to the fin and found myself stumped on the fin arete for a worryingly long time. so once i'd done the pair of aretes i decided i'd try and regain some dignity up on the crag. after a long ped-like space out scree scramble i found the lads just finishing up, as the wind had apparently been too much. back down to the bloody boulders where we found the lads trying superstars. i tried a few times and got nowhere. we sniggered at the secret ingredient in trishes banana bread then they continued up valley and we headed out via the tripod boulder. managed the snatchy side pull line which causes me trouble at the best of times, a good project for someone just getting into the 6s. then out to zef's other boulder to try the straightforward looking little line, absolutely stunning granite. couldn't manage the burly beached whale mantle but really enjoyed the efforts, a good end to the day.

monday we headed to the infamous gravity and tried to ignore the fact that the weather was actually fit for outdoor climbing. gravity is big and there's a lot to do even before you consider that every problem is high and involves one or two more moves than one might be used to. i really think they've missed a trick by not putting in proper steep training facilities. it currently seems to provide something very different from the cooperatives, which is good but i think a wasted opportunity. you could fit the entire coop climbing space in a small corner and have all your training needs met under one membership. my own feeling is if you want to climb harder you're better off in a cooperative. gravity really succeeds in those bits the coop can't replicate, the thuggishly subtle full body moves like bridging or using volumes, and its high slabs. there was one particularly fantastic heel hook rock-over problem that we unfortunately only found at the end. i'd go back for that alone.