Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Done and dusted

So my Rocklands trip is over. I had no expectations thankgoodness as I came back completely empty handed (even minus the finger skin) but damn did I have a good trip. It was great to see old friends and catch up. I also finally went to a RockStock and even got up on stage to perfom "Bohemian Rhapsody" with the rest of the Beeg Phive. And we were robbed - should have won given that it was supposed to be an air guitar competition...
Pic: Me on Springbok (7B) at The Sassies. Photo by Calvin Kemp


As for the climbing, well that took a back seat. I am still battling with my index finger in my left hand so am only at about 85% strength and really battling to commit on snatches. However I was quite pleasantly surprised as I was far better than I should have been. Came close to sending Caroline (7C) in a session which was only ended by the hole it put in my finger. I touched the hold on the Oral Office dyno (8A+) and was  close to sending Sunset Arete (7C). Born in to Struggle (7B+) was ever so close (although I would have sent on my underwear attempt had I not realised the intentions of my spotters planing to steal my clothes). I came back feeling refreshed and rejuvinated and repsyched! I still need to train alot but there is hope.

Focus areas for now are improving my low lock-off strength (i.e. triceps) and get my lefthand finger strength back up to 100%. I had a good session at the Scree on Sunday and managed to put Tiger Nigthmare (stiff 7B) to rest so that is a good start. Maybe there is still some hope for this season?

Monday, August 2, 2010

Light at the end of the tunnel

At last I seem to be getting in to some semblance of shape. One final week to go!

A morning trip to Redhill on Sunday helped me to finally get some much required rock time -  and I was quite pleasantly surprised with what I could manage. Jimbo had only been once previoulsy to Redhill so was keen to get a taste of what it had to offer. I decided on a circuit of the classics.

We started on Baby Fingers (7A) at Vanilla Sky which was a reasonably tough warm-up but we soon both ticked that off. Next up was Entropy easy exit (7B) and Anarchy (7A) at the Mushroom area which were also quickly dispatched (my ascent of EEE being my hardest this dismal year so far). Next up was Dark Lord Sharon (7A) and Four Singers (7A). I also demonstrated the last move of Shark Lord Darren (7B) for Jimbo who managed an impressive pseudo flash (after having just done DLS which he by the way also flashed). We then did a quick ascent of Vajra (7A+) before seeking a less windy spot.

As a final warm down I showed Jimbo Rodan (7A) - a very long and pumpy roof problem. He soon dispatched that. I resorted to trying it from 2 moves in to avoid the opening crux and manged to complete it too round off a perfect mileage session. He then did a final warm down on Vanilla Sky (7A) while I spotted.

Jimbo remarked that that given the quality and density of the lines we had just sample he was amazedthat it had taken him 16 years to get around to it. Guess I did a good job of converting another Sport Climber to the darkside :)