Sometimes i worry i’m becoming a bit of a hermit climber, not traveling much and working a lot, yes i do work a lot nowadays! But its more that i’ve been a busy bee in the last 2 years sorting many things out. So when Katie and I got a nice little gift of a few days in Torridon from my folks for crimbo we planned a bit of a mini trip around it. I never get bored of the feeling of time grinding to a holt when your on holiday, days passing by at half their normal speed. This trip was only 6 days but it felt like a month. Much of this can be blamed on Scotland itself being so pretty and so varied it feels like you’ve travelled the world between places only a few hours apart, especially when its fully raining at A and sunny with a light breeze at B. Of course non of this is new to anyone north of the Clyde. Not that there are many people north of the Clyde. On the map of UK people it barely exists! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationpicturegalleries/6254582/Population-atlas-map-of-the-world-showing-population-density-in-each-country.html?image=1

Which is good because being Cumbrian i’m not inordinately fond of lots of people. Wildlife yes, Sheep all the better. Massive sprawling conurbations, not so much. It also leaves space for lots of nice things which are really hard to be angry at like mountains, lochs, lochy mountains, fjords, hills, inlets, munros. a hugely diverse landscape of anything you can imagine, so long as its watery or pointy. It was also before Scotland turns into Nature’s little hell park in May. Upon trying to book a nice b&B before the trip i got a lovely email back from the lady saying, are you sure you meant march not April? its just that the weather in March is so unreliable we don’t accept bookings! A good omen indeed. Ah well we could always sit in Torridon YHA drink brews on tap and catch up with a good book. As it turned out our B&B lady was well informed, we had everything under the sun thrown at us on the holiday except for the really bad wet stuff that scotland is so good at.

The ponies know the score, west facing aspect is a winner!

Our first day in Torridon we were greeted by 40mph winds and the locals Richie, Gaz, Ann Nigel and the beast of Bronwen. but not much else. Well at least it wasnt raining! we had a decent enough day out if a little short due to the wind battering us about incessantly. Richie complained about being fit but weak whilst kindly warming up all over Gaz's project. Bronwen stole my socks after demolishing the 2 decoy balls. I finally figured out the start of a project i’ve tried the last 2 times i’ve been to Torridon (albeit climbing in a balaclava and down jacket this time), only to snap a pebble off the top in a moment of wind induced stupidity, oh well back to square one. Stupid gets what Stupid does. After we'd all had enough we retreated back to the excellent Torridon cafe and I atoned for my sins with a massive bacon and egg bap. I forgot to mention that our Hostel had been engulfed by a mostly silver topped tai chi weekend; Katie must have trodden on the instructors Chi (qi for scrabble fans) as when she smiled and said hello she was simply greeted with contempt. Lovely. Although when they left on monday they did leave us with enough food for the rest of the holiday thanks to their friendly chef.

Liathach on Sunday.

Annat on sunday.

Sunday Greeted us not only with 40mph gusts but the quickest snow flurries i’ve ever seen. It was like the flurries were a tube train wizzing by Torridon station, I was simply a bystander getting in the way. The morning was just about ok as the sun was out a bit but when Katie finished and i put my boots on it was like someone flicked a switch. We hid in a cave for a bit, got out, hid in another cave again 5 mins later, made it to the cool project prow in Annat. Hid there whilst another one blasted through. Snow stops bust a bit of warm up dance out like i’ve just heard Axel F for the first time. try a few moves then get blasted by snow. Blow my top and produce a tirade about how crap life is. go back to the car to warm up. Snow stops, Ben Moon did black lung when the snow stopped, maybe i can do this because life is that cliche’d. We jog back to the prow. I Do it. Leave for the pub, massive blizzard hits us just as we get to the pub. To be honest i was more relieved than happy after this. It must have looked bizzare to the house whose rear window's face the prow. Its sometimes conditions like this that really test your mettle though, i wanted to just give up and head to the pub but there would forever have been a gnawing at my conscious that technically it wasn’t raining and that i could’ve climbed and got it done, making sure that gnawing didn’t happen was more important than actually having fun it seems. The most important thing this did was free up our itinerary for Reiff or Applecross the next day where i had more exciting things to play on.

Monday dawned perfectly azure with a dusting on the Beinns. I made concrete my overwhelming urge to drive nearly 2 hours to try a problem i’d seen in October. Katie was happy to see a beautiful new place but not so happy to see a very cold shady cliff on such a gorgeous day, somehow she still managed to be nice to me which must be some sort of inherent but very endearing flaw in her personality. Whilst the day before had physically and mentally drained me, from a climbing perspective i’d done very little. So all the ATP reserves were there but i don’t think there was much behind it to back it up. Sometimes in life you get these weird days and it kind of feels like you’ve come through alot to make them happen, i imagine its like big wallers pushing up to a final crux pitch then going to bed knowing that tomorrow you need to be firing. Except bouldering is much easier than that and all you have to do is walk out the car and up to the problem you want to try, the hard part is having the right skin, conditions, arms, core and most importantly mind to actually get up something which has tried its best to be blank. This isn't a huge problem if the problem is nearby but for places you know you’ll be spending very few hours of your life in it somewhat adds to the atmosphere. Here’s some inner rhetoric from my warm up.

Do i feel good? shit i feel ok, or do i, hmm im a bit monged out, naah i feel strong look (crimps a hold). and i’ve got pads and i haven’t been violated by a massive wave this time round, better try another climb (does scooped arete) ok well if that feels ok then you stand a chance, but is that enough, hmm lets try this other thing coming right out of leaning meanie, hmm that felt hard, i dont know if its been done before though, .. ooh i’m all excited. it was bloody good that, well i guess its been a good day no matter what then, Katie looks cold but keeps smiling at me, cubby must be short if he had to use a bucket to reach those holds, i bet its called romancing the stone because its got a Va JJ made of rock in it, thats pretty funny...

It felt like a heady mix of first night nerves and holiday excitement. The project was as amazing as i’d remembered it to be, chalkless it took me a while to remember the holds as they aren’t easy to see, this is why i like it so much. Yes the arete looks stunning to the left but i need to give everything i’ve got to this first. Nature has pulled a blinder here and i for one intend to appreciate its work by clambering all over it and covering it in chalk. There’s a vid of me doing what became Helicoidal Flow along with the annat prow and reiff arete, sufficed to say it felt just about easy enough from stand and i remembered my beta from last time straight away, the stand is a vague non line to a world class sitter though, which really put the pressure on. I would say that i did the sit thanks to a combination of luck and experience, i was starting to feel the squeeze go and my skin get cold and i’d dropped the catch once already, it felt like my chances were going and that it’d have to wait for another day. After a big rest and a brew i told my brain to shut up and put everything into it, no skin preservation no worries about picking up a tweak just try really hard. I dont know how but i hit the holds all pretty well and i caught the catch spot on. The catch hold is subtle and intricate, like every hold on the problem. You don’t know whether the catch is right or not until your feet come out and the extra momentum comes onto the hold. 

such a cool pinch.

To me this is perfect bouldering. A serene setting and some incredible rock, a line that defines bouldering. It starts from a perfect sit start and heads up to jugs to finish (its only drawback is its lack of topout) The moves are fantastic and the holds only work when used with loads of tension through the feet and are some of the most unique i’ve ever used, not a single hold until the catch hold is easily holdable with feet off. Its called Helicoidal flow due to the rock on this wall mimicking water with its strata and features. Like undertow its also a flow process. It also seems to sum up the dynamics of my legs swirling about nicely.

Normally that’d have been one of my best days ever, but to top it off there was a line as proud as misericorde or partage just to the left on older & harder rock, in the sun, with an amazing looking set of features on it including a fang like rooflet that you can pinch. Now by this stage i was feeling pretty knackered but I had half a chance if i spotted the beta fast. I stared it out and pretended that i knew what i was doing, like when comp climbers look at finals problems. I figured it out by going, i’ll try this crazy heel that’ll work. it did! then i though well you’ve got to be able to kneebar this thing, you could! Bizzarre  under guppy to get LH high. No problem. Toehook the roof? Nope your crap at toehooking remember. dynamic heel above shoulder into scoopy pod? kerching! Thanks to the sun coming heating me up by this time i was using less energy just keeping warm and got up it on fumes and by cheating with heels and knees. I topped it out up leaning meanie’s upper squeeze chimney for full points. Sometimes Aretes can be pretty monotonous, eg careless torque, arcangel, ulysees and white wand are pretty much 3star repetitive laybacking, which is great because they’re one big layback up a mega lines but its hardly varied climbing. To get an arete with so much variety move to move is pretty special. I find as i see more and more lines nowadays less and less gets that childish excitement going like i used to feel when out on the rocks. The bouldering cliff at Reiff was a real breath of fresh air in that sense as it seems to solely consist of 100%, billion year old, single malts. I guess thats why it even gets called a bouldering cliff in one of Scotlands great single pitch trad destinations. One bit of useful advice is that it can seep a bit so don’t turn up there on a wet day in a big swell as you might not get the same experience i’ve been selling. We dined out on the tai chi soup we’d been given on the beach at Reiff looking at the sun setting on the summer Isles and hills behind, free food in a setting grander than the savoy!

That was only the first 3 days of 6, i think i’ve written enough now though and i dont want to waffle on too much. I can save it for another time. Katie was the star of the latter part of the trip by doing loads of classics even after a feather filled night in the car at -5. I mostly scoffed our free food and had fun bouldering with Dave Mac. I also experienced the crappest cafe i’ve ever visited in Fort William, mainly because it built itself up to be good. (called sugar and spice or something; cant wait until i hit them with my truthful trip advisor review). And we found an artist we really like so we bought some paintings for our house https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grace-M-Cameron-Art/214221402031083 

ruining a fort william artwork, i thought it was a game until i read the sign!

Home 8B: Floated up this on a great day out with Dave and Elsie, weightless movement on small grippy holds.

Autumns great hey? There’s something about the trees gilding their leaves that feels like a convivial rustling of a years work well spent. New growth and strength achieved and offerings of those lovely crispy leaves before winter sets in. Watching the wretched bracken die back you cant help but celebrate. I love the first day out when a cold wind barges through the space between you and the rock. I had a good October this year, something clicked, i got fired up on a line i’ve not yet done but a window opened just slightly, not big enough for that yet but it had a knock on effect and 3 other lines fell with relative ease, it felt like all i had to do was show up and pull on and my body would handle the rest. Then something very British happened, i thought oh fuck i cant go on like this, i’ve only got 2 things left which mean a lot to me, if i do them this month then i’ll be lost in a world of pointless shuffling, doing moves just for the sake of them but without being all there in my head. Like a once talented pianist tapping away in a deserted hotel bar. What’s the point really in any bouldering? Dawkins is prattling on about the pointlessness of everything on channel 4 at the minute, He’s right of course (until proven wrong), and there is solace in the miracle of us consciously floating through this brief blip in time when almost everything is possible which we set our faustian minds to, and we have so much free time for minds to wonder. I’m staring at rock nowadays and seeing it eat up life with the flicker of an idea, “i want to climb that” well thats a year gone “and that” another 3 months “and that” well that you may never do, but you probably will because you think you can” 

Nature's Angry 7B+ (stand start in the near the right of the patina shield and head straight up) Pic: by mark Savage (horizon by me not straightening it)

I am a bit lost in it all to be honest, too many projects this year and too many things undone, if it looks like i’ve done a lot, in my mind i haven't (i’m tricky to please) the weathers been great for wild plants but shite for bouldering at many venues. Bowden and St Bees are oozing green lichen that i’ve never seen before and it may well be a sign of crags beginning to be adapted by a changing climate. Also my body has changed so much throughout the year from lots of hard work/ stress/ training that its bizarre, i’ve never been so light and good on little crimps, which is great for some stuff but most climbers i know of this ilk are one trick ponies. Its time to change again, force exertion is what i have ultimate respect for in bouldering and i’ve got a bit worse at the backy side of it in the past few months. Hanging on with strong fingers only gets you so far on projects (watch the difference between Jan Hojer and Dave Graham climbing Sky to see an example of this). sometimes you’ve got to squash the angles to get the holds out of them and that means having the crush to both squeeze and hang on. If i lived in another country with loads of rock in 1 style i’d maybe just wriggle away on little edges but the joy of being here, where i am and will live for a while is that there are almost all the worlds major rock types within 2.5 hours of my house. So i may as well play on them all. But what to do when you begin to run out of things to play on? Crags are more developed now and optimism for new lines is logically waning in a sea of established classics. My mind is a powerful but short sighted thing. Within a week of it massively bumming me out and convincing me the end was nigh then i was back on some great new things. If i want to do everything i set out to then i’ve either got to reign in my expectations or meet them with a bigger window for success. I want to make that window bigger now and not try things so far out of it that it closes up to a size thats hard to deal with day after day. Real gains can be made through proper training, its not just some shallow thing for inflexible gonks to do to look strong, real training creates a base level of pure and mechanical strength for the brain and nerves to fine tune, Climbing is one of those tricky sports in that the hardest things can only be achieved when the mind truly wants them, the processes of doing a hard problem are so complex that not a single thought can interrupt the process, absolute focus propogating though to each limb, if it doesn’t then success hasn’t been hard enough earned for me. I love discovering new challenges, geology and weathering set problems that resin can never achieve. Perhaps i’m taking it all a bit too seriously?  but its hard not to keep trying to better myself with a personality like mine, the conflict is only between my expectations and reality. My climbing summed up on a billboard. Expectations vs Reality. Reality always wins but only for a moment before my expectations whisp me off again into a future that may never exist. Where i’m great and can climb whatever i’d like. There have been two moments this year of this being the case. I’m not the best climber in the world, i’m not the most powerful or the most impressive. But non of that is the reason i try so hard on some climbs. Its so that in those moments i feel what i’m pretty sure is true happiness. Struggling so hard to become better at something which will never happen unless i struggle. Schrodingers cat turning out to be a perfect pet instead of landfill. sisyphus with a happy ending, sisyphus but learning on each roll of the boulder what was going wrong, and finding that perfect spot where the boulder will sit forever, so you can always look back upon the achievement and draw upon it. As pointless as the achievement is, for me it beats anything else i can think to come up with.

Sometimes I do moves on projects that even i find ridiculous, but if they work; they work. Believe it or not this is currently the best (least power sapping) solution i’ve found on a project i’ve just managed to do all the moves (and a few decent links) on on my first session but it took all my past history of technical nous and power to combine into a sequence which worked, it can be refined next session anyhow. There’s always the possibility of a next session, whether or not there’ll ever be another one i don’t know.

Here’s a nice quote from Tom Paine, talking about something much more serious ( i was listening to a folk tune on youtube and it cropped up)

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. T’is dearness only that gives everything its value”

short summation of all the above:

Basically if you do it in a session its piss but you’ll never be as happy as if you really try on something. (if its been a few years you might start going mad).

The Autumnal Crush:

My speed of life seems to be going pretty fast lately. Lots to do all the time and in different areas. Both in work and climbing. Lets focus on climbing shall we?

I feel like i set the bar pretty high this year with a bunch of projects i found. As you get older the gaps get harder to fill between the old trodden paths. I feel like i’ve entered a world of fog whereby i am now trying to repeat problems that after seeing their first ascents, thought they’d never be caressed again. That and the usual foggy projecting. My climbing feels like its fallen into a binary zone of Do or Fail, no matter how hard i’ve tried this year. Of course this isn’t the case but there are a few problems which have been really shutting me down for most of the year. From June to August i felt the fire die a little as the weather was akin to endless skid marks incessantly smearing across the wet humid ceiling, requiem for the colour blue! Something happened a few weeks ago though, i had a bit of a breakthrough and on Two of my nearest and dearest projects i suddenly felt like i could do them any minute. Rather than flailing at moves hoping to do them once in a session; they were going once every few goes. Well at least i felt like i’d caught up with the bar a bit anyway. 5 split tips and 4 sessions later those 2 aren’t done but one was only due to two of the heavily taped split tips sliding down the finishing hold for an eternity as my middle finger held in there for just long enough for my LH to gush open and waft by the good finishing crimp. Merde.

But the fire was going now, well and truly stoked. I’ve found myself checking the forecast more and the weather has been just about workable. On one lifetime project i’ve really felt the gears wind up. 2 sessions ago i almost did a move that i couldn’t pull onto properly last year when i did things like bewilderness. Admittedly it isn’t hugely “suited” to me, but sod that if you can get all your fingers in a glove then it fits. No point whinging about the finer details all the time. Mentally its been the most interesting project of my life and i hope to wrap it up soon. Too many times this year its nearly broken my internal dialogue stretching it out the length of the drive there into a wispy strand of what ifs and you’re shits. I’ve found myself rolling it all up and just sticking my hackles up instead, Trying my hardest and nothing else matters. Last week i felt on the form of my life only for a horizontal shower to soak the crag and the end of the problem, i got in my pad sandwich and sat the fucker out staring out the English weather with the all the eye contact of walking into a shoulder bump you know is happening. It almost got me, i got cold and had to warm up all over again. When a move is so hard for you that you cant pull on unless everythings right then its proper bouldering in my book. People who wear chalk bags on >8B problems (usually these are >10 moves anyway so not really power climbing) and get splits further down their fingers than 1/4 pad aren’t climbing anywhere near the limits of what they could be doing. people who miss a move then try again! or catch a hold slightly in the wrong place and still do it. Or thinking you always wear climbing shoes in a pair! shoes are tools each does its own specific job. If its at your limit any error, any extra weight should mean failure. We should make an effort to go back to lycra, that space age fabric is light!

When somethings hard everything must work at once, all limbs perfectly. I got warmed back up and managed to put my left leg on and weight it through a foothold, something i’d never done before in the past year, it allows a different trajectory to burst out to and you can catch the edge of glory, i almost held it once. Last session i almost held it 5 times. 

There’s been a similarly low percentage move in the county thats bugged me all year, i’ve called in sporadically expecting to do it everytime. As since the first session i’ve been touching this hold, 5 sessions and 8 months later and it finally feels different. Its time sometimes on moves not sessions, i could have had 5 sessions in february and not done it. It could have been my first session last weekend and i’d have done it. I needed the 8 months to get better at climbing, nothing has changed in my sequence as there are no other holds. You see such bullshit sometimes about people doing something in 2 sessions a year apart! when you try a problem there is a window of success, the window is a certain size when you first try it and you can decide whether to try and get through it there and then or wait for it to expand over time. I knew coming into last weekend that I should be a notch stronger, warming up i didnt feel super sparky but my fingers felt dependably better. The move is ridiculously basic, essentially a rock over round a roof from a 1/4pad back 3 crimp through a 2 finger 1/4pad crimp intermediate and then upto a 1/4pad 4 finger edge which i catch as a drag, the trouble comes with controlling you'r loose leg round the lip of the roof, as at my height it cant stay under, but with it out the holds don't "work" so the move occupies the space between the seconds, punching through the positions quicker than it takes for you to begin to fall off, falling upwards like Johnny but pulling like Moon. I can imagine it being flashed and i can imagine people never doing it. I’d guess it was the hardest single move i’ve done outside going on tries vs success ratio. I’ve called the problem Great Expectations as every time i went i expected to do it. Reality and expectations rarely collide in my bouldering these days, but without expectations we have no path to walk down. Trusting a move will go for long periods of time is currently the hardest bit of bouldering for me. Flipper fitz had it sussed in that respect, as he didn’t bother doing the problems after the moves.

Great expectations: Photos by Katie Mundy

Pic of the soft 8A+ Trivial Pursuit Deluxe, a project i did when Ned was up walloping loads of hard classics: Photo courtesy of Mark Savage:

The logical start to Great Expectations is under the roof which adds a 7Cish start into a hard one move 8A+ (plus a few finishing moves, so expect shit all change from that grade, i cant do 1 move 8Bs yet) Its an open project as i’ve got plenty else to try for now until the stand move feels piss. Luckily i’ve got a pretty good training resource now, as i’ve just upgraded from a 7.5sqm garage 45 to a ~1000sqm bouldering wall in Carlisle as we’ve started setting at Eden Rock. Last week i had to have 2 rest days after trying to link the wooden beastmaker holds in roof from the back (i ended up putting the foothold on the side wall but it'll go without it). We’re also developing a range of holds on the machine which will be getting prototype tested at Eden Rock.

Photo Courtesy of Nicole MacGregor

Some Test holds for tool paths, the finished versions will be better quality (these aren't even sanded yet) and they'll be functional first and foremost.

Alot seems to have gone on since i last blogged. There is a lot to talk about both on a work side of things and a bit of climbing. The question is, what is worth putting into pixels?

Well our App is nearly done, it should be getting submitted to the app store this week. I’ll update as soon as that is done. Its only for Apple platforms at the moment (IOS). Thanks to some excellent feedback from Tom Coulthard, Stu Littlefair and Dave Macleod its now more informative and its even easier to use. We also plan on backing up the app with some articles on our site with more in depth info behind the training.

I’ve not been on the most consistent form lately due to lots of work. But this shouldn’t be for too long. August was a crazy month where I made over 700 holds for different centers including Mile Ends new board and The Depot Nottinghams training area. 

The other main area has been helping out with the massive new wall in Carlisle: Eden Rock (its about 1km from the river Eden). Its very much a climbers wall and i’m on tenterhooks waiting to start setting. Katie (my girlfriend and one of the owners) and I have been making holds for the wall the whole year but they are much different to any other wooden holds i’ve ever made in that they are labours of love rather than labours of wage. There are over 600 of them which have been made for 2 training boards and a about 40 problems on the general circuit. The circuit holds should be unlike anything else ever climbed on indoors. Especially as we’ve got the ability to adapt holds whilst setting or make new ones to fit on aretes or in grooves etc. Which should hopefully mean it’ll be the nicest, skin friendliest hard circuit in the World. Most of the resin holds are coming from CORE too so it will almost be a totally British manufactured hold set, which is nice (and environmentally friendlier). Alot of the wood is local and some of it was even picked up from local crags like fleswick bay (drift wood) or the bowderstone (fallen beech branches).

So, between that and making holds, climbing’s taken a bit of a back seat for a month or two. I’ve been getting out where i can but I’ve found i’ve either been too knackered to climb hard or i’ve been climbing really well but only for an hour or so. Just before leaving for a short road trip to scotland with Caff and Adam i got one crappish problem done on the stone (fat lady) on a really showery day. It climbs really well but its very much in the training for better things/ entertainment on a rainy day camp. That said i got within a gnats chuff of bagging another project just before leaving, peeling off the top jug twice, this was great to do battle with as i could feel it going any attempt it was just a matter of getting focussed and a bit lucky. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it soon and its sitter. The sitter might take a while, who knows. 

Scotland was a fantastic holiday. I love exploring round its glens and coasts. I feel really lucky to live within a few hours or so of some of the nicest scenery of its type anywhere. Its stark contrasts in landscape will never bore me. As the tectonic shifts of geology create different moods in different glens you constantly come across reminders of how small and time-short you are whilst buzzing around its rocky blemishes. I’ve now got a good idea of what i’d like to try and get on on a bouldering trip up through the west, which’d have been worth the trip alone.

Caff’s written a great account of the trip up here: http://www.jamesmchaffie.com/1/post/2012/09/team-no-hope-head-to-hoy.html

Hoy was a fascinating few days for me, I felt a little out my comfort zone in that i was back on a style of climbing i hadn’t been on in 7 years (multipitch trad). Sometimes I think its best to just shut up and see what happens though or i’ll be forever trapped in a world of habits. Watching Caff in one of his natural habitats was brilliant to see anyway and as i’ve delved deeper into my own preferred niche of the sport i could just about comprehend how Caff can operate so well in this land of enduro mega-sand-pump and fearlessness (although he does a bit of everything on all rock types) I was impressed with both his and Adam’s jamming on Two Little Boys. I thought i could jam, and technically i can, just not repetitively, quickly or well. i found myself resting on little face holds and big pinches rather than cramp up my thumb in yawning sandy chasms. 

Its funny being decent at one niche and trying to adapt to others in the space of a few days. I found it fascinating to observe my body trying to cope. It was probably like an American, who thinks he speaks English, hearing Glaswegian for the first time and attempting to converse. It was a great experience when combined with the remoteness and tranquility of Hoy. After abbing down to the ledge at the top of the hard pitch of the longhope i found the limit of my familiarities; i felt like a fish 400m out of water. Suddenly all the gear looked like it was going to break (it wasnt) and all the ropes looked like they were going to sheath themselves (they did but over 2 days rather than the few seconds in my mind) I duly took my leave just as i was getting my head around the exposure and position. A little too far in the deep end for moi at the moment. Watching Caff rinse the pitch the next day was beyond belief as he cannon-balled through natural barriers which would’ve had me walking back to the bothy way earlier, i bet old St John thought he was pretty hard until he met Caff on that september day.

 The resilience of Dave to go and clean it and work it out is also inspiring to see for myself. Not to mention the original ground up ascent in 1970 which was beyond ballsy in an era of gumption which i dont think we’ll ever get back. Simply cleaning it on a grim day whilst jostling in the breeze is impressive to me. If only for battling the feelings of desolation which must blow in on that face and the sense of purpose you need to carry on. Basically i can now understand the allure of big trad and real adventure climbing. However i got the feeling that i was a few years to late to really get sucked in by it. Whilst on Hoy i found myself yearning for a brief glimpse of perfectstone. I think i’m too far gone, stumbling along the road for tiny compact pieces of rock which can only just be climbed. A few ripples in a blank face are now all it takes to encapsulate my climbing desires. I’m happy with that. Although its nice to look outside the box once in a while. Caff pointed out that i’ve put more time into doing one problem before (20+days) than i’d need to do the whole route. A good point about the brilliant madness of climbing if there ever was one.

I Finally managed the Sitter to Launch Sequence this week , my last 2 sessions were within touching distance of it and i could feel it coming together. Its also hardly a sitter as the holds of Launch sequence start about 9feet up so by sitting at the jug at the back of the roof you really are knackered by the time your 8m up at the top of the mighty Launch. This has been one of the funnest project experiences of my life, with pleasant progressive sessions and decent conditions whenever i went. The only down side is that i needed time between sessions for my heel skin to stop hurting (its a bit heel hooky on the right leg) and the sequence has so much micro beta it was nails to remember it all. 

After a bad, totally random, bike accident in the capital a fortnight ago and a really bad wrist sprain i thought my year really was going down the pan and i was sick of reality getting in the way of expectations (along with a good dose of bad luck), but after a fretful week of rest and non climbing i managed to get it working well enough to climb hard on straight wrist moves. I did a few things like antihydral (basically flash) and sitter to honeycomb (8A+?) to get the confidence up. With other commitments I thought i was going to have to wait  to get on it, but a surprise window came up when Katie had a meeting in Newcastle the morning of us leaving for a short holiday to Scotland so i blasted in for a few quick attempts. The barefoot run (my first since last year) along the beach the day before seemed to pay off despite a large blister coming along for the ride. Anyway i managed not to cock up enough to finally get up it.

I'd like to call it End Sequence, and it  roughly seemed hard 8B? to me in relation to all other things considered in the county but who knows as per usual i feel it could be a lot easier if you could leave your heel on for the last move and utterly nails if your short. I'll wait for someone else to give it a good bash before i really commit to thinking of it as hard as its been purely myself working it so i may well have missed a trick or two.

Its one of the two things i really wanted to get done in the county this year anyhow and its taken a load off getting it done. Its almost a perfect problem, start jug, great landing, totally non eliminate obvious line, engaging all the way and lovely holds.