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.

Gravitational pull

Have been vaguely following gravity wall's development despite myself and having now frequented a lesser version of a dedicated bouldering centre over here I'd actually be pretty excited about it. It's impressive how a bit of space and multiple angled/volumed walls can change the indoor climbing thing back closer to the playground spirit that climbing should always involve. I currently have to make a determined effort to climb on the 45' steep training wall as otherwise I'm just distracted by all the bright colours and weird shapes of the sparsely-holded other sections (though the steep wall also doesn't have very many woodies, which i have an unlikely fondness for.) And they seem to rejig a section of the wall practically every week which means there's always something new to go at. Time wise they open here early enough that people go before work and stay open until half ten every night. And i assume gravity will have equivalent hard training facilities alongside all the fun sections like the works.

I'm curious to see where all this leaves the cooperatives which need a minimum membership before the price just gets exorbitant. Will there be cooperative loyalty? should there be? Who will be the tipping point? Also what happens if gravity doesn't find the broader market its looking for? 120 ( who knows) boulderers is not a market.

Mightily looking forward to getting outdoors when i get home, might even get Sparkle out climbing, all the dads.

have settled into a rough routine of day on day off in the arch. unlike back in the coop, sessions tend to be at least 2 hours and my body complains if i go multiple days on. realised today i haven't got up anything harder than V4 which makes me think i am a lot weaker than i was. Then again i never used any grades in the coop and equally i suspect i always punched above my indoor weight when i was outdoors, or under-punched indoors or whatever. I'm getting used to using the volumes on the wall here, the range of possibilities in approaching a problem are both intriguing and mildly frustrating. I initially was leaving them out of problems thinking they weren't "in".

I had forgotten that the coop naturally contained a sample of people who were into bouldering, and interested in the coop on some level as a means to an outdoors end. The arch is a sort of UCD of bouldering, with a lot of people climbing at lower grades (V1/2) and just there for the climbing gym element. This isn't an elitist observation more that in my billy-no-mates state I'm often quietly looking to other people's efforts on problems to help figure my way up them and i have found myself in weird ability gap with few people making repeated attempts on the problems i'm trying.

Also people keep referring to problems as routes. I'm not sure if this is cultural or just people who have never been into routes proper so don't distinguish, but it jars with me in a grammar nazi kind of way.

There are many more girls climbing here, which seems to increase the number of lads with no tops on, shivering stoically.