North Wales

Boysen's groove - V4 - Wavelengh Boulders - Llanberis Pass - Team Psyche Venue!

Project 'Demi-Beast' Underway

With all this snow and ice and baby preparations, I've not done any outdoor sending for a while. However, the shed has come on leaps and bounds and after a few sessions by myself and with visiting senders, I have a decent set of problems to work on. Check out the before (rubbish shed for storing junk) and after (home based climbing paradise!)....

New Board Under Construction

Here are a few pictures of my new board. The panel on the left is removed so I can get in behind to hammer in Tee Nuts. It will get put back an the board will stretch 9ft from wall to wall... Just a crash pad and a visit from the sparky to go...

A good old fashioned captain around... and a nice surprise!!

Had a day at Bonehill Rocks on Dartmoor today. We got up early and Jeeka kindly drove the two hours from our place in Penzance, through Plymouth and on to the Dartmoor National Park. I hadn't expected much from the park itself but was wrong to doubt it. Its a gorgeous place of thatched cottages, wild ponies and peak after peak of granite tors piercing the skyline. Bonehill is described as the Plantation or Cuvier of Dartmoor but we must have passed half a dozen other venues on the way.

After the very little bouldering I have been doing, I was looking to just get involved with a new venue, a new rock type and just gauge just how fat and weak I have become. Font is not far away now and I am determined to make more of it than I did of Albarracin.

I started with the warm up circuit and quickly got psyched for the rock. A really, really coarse granite with huge sharp crystals embedded in it. Hardly font sandstone but it makes nice rounded, gritstone like features. The Cube boulder is a real gem, a square block with problems on all sides and a flat landing. It reminded me of Widdop. I climbed a number of problems up to V2 but struggled to even pull on to a V3. Gutted, I moved on and resolved myself to a good old fashioned captain around. I climbed another four or five easy problems and started to feel properly warm. I flashed a nice blunt nose type V3 and got a little more psyched. I went straight back to the V3 I couldn't do and did it first go, more psyched. I moved round to try the classic Cube Arete V4 (see picture) and did this in four goes, super psyched.

Feeling a bit better about myself, I went to look at the other classic V4 but was de-psyched by the harsh landing and no spotter. By the time I had done a few more easy problems and Greg's Dyno V3, Jeeka was back from her pregnant bumble and the rain was starting so we packed it up and went to the Eden Project.

So, all in all a good morning at a quality new venue. I was, unfortunately, both fat and weak but did manage a V4 in under six goes which was pleasing considering how little I have been climbing. I have sent plans for my moon board to the joiner and will be expecting a quote soon. Just got to buy a load of holds and set some problems. Pete - psyched for a day problem setting?

Back on the Horse

Well hello there stranger, it's been a while....

After a few months of intense family/house/work distractions, I finally got back on board the sending train and hooked up with team medium strong for what promised to be an epic weekend. Now, I didn't have high hopes for myself as I am suffering from a severely inverted gun to canteloupe ratio. This affliction not only weighs me down but makes the nickname of Andy "three paellas" Sullivan disturbingly apt. But you have to start somewhere, and for me it was at Earl Crag. 

Following a fairly sleepless night due to the faux Scots and the 4am dogs, Team thin skin arrived at Earl hoping for minus temps and epic sends. The Wrestler, Martha and Nat "alternative beta" feather arrived shortly after. I could go on to describe the sending but I'm not convinced there is any point. The send of the day was Pete and Andy's ascent of Trick Arete 6b. Also, Hebson should have sent Hanging Groove 6c+ but made a mess of the top like a proper amateur! 

A quality meal, a near on-sight of The Pommel and a night under the stars later we were wandering through a farm/car showroom to Callerhues. I've been looking forward to going to this crag for ages as it is often described and Northumberland's best kept secret. the sun shone, skin was trashed, 5+'s were sent. What a day! The team of Font 7 senders seemed pretty disappointed with the 5+-athalon but I thought it was a cracking day out - rank chat, sunshine, sending and psyche replenishment. 

two months till we go to Espain. This week I've managed two Ratho sessions, two half hour runs and one finger board session. Much better than the last few months. Feeling better about myself already. It's amazing how closely linked self-esteem and sending performance is. It can be a bit of a downward spiral of stopping training for one reason or another, losing strength, losing psyche, losing more strength, losing more psyche... It's a good job I've got good mates to pull me out of it! Thanks guys!

Psyched and Devasated

The team made it to the Shire this weekend after snow put the trip to the gneiss on hold for another day. We woke up in the boot of the car, with ice on the inside of the window but the sun rising over the eastern moors. The sky was perfect blue and we knew it would be a special day for friction. Bullies and flapjack later we were on our way up the hill to the Slipstones, a series of micro edges of perfect grit. Lovely, fine grained, high friction stuff. mmmmm. We warmed up on seven V0 to V1s. We were psyched! We moved on tot he main edge where we climbed a variation to a V1 at about V3. The guide said V4 but I don't think so. I had a bit of a captain about on it but all it took was a move of the hand on the starting hold and it felt easy. We had goes on Sulky Little Boys V7 and Supple Wall V5 but all failed. Pete nearly had Supple Wall though. We moved on and did a nice V4 in a corridor. A cool move from an undercut and sidepull. I had been doing it static but the time I sent the problem was a scrappy affair. Psyched though. We then tried Steptoe V3 and got completely owned! Nearly even got owned by Tiptoe V1. It was quickly turning into farce and the inevitable chat of "lets go to Brimham" was busted out. I reluctantly agreed, having never had a good day at this chossy paradise. I do really like it and the boulders in the Pommel area are amazing. We packed up and travelled over. I have failed on the Pommel V4 (bottom photo) on every visit. I was starting to feel a bit nervous as we approached. Last time I was there, I couldn't even grab the top! What a captain! This time, however, I used different beta and quite quickly got involved. I just couldn't pull over the top. Seven times I took the top boss but every time I peeled off. So frustrating. The YorkshireGrit videos have different beta for the top but I found it a testpeice. Looks like I'm going to have to go back. Oh well. We went straight to Heart Shaped Slab Arete 6c+. This testpeice nealy went for both Pete and Rosco but both got owned by the top rockover. Sacking it off we had team sends on Murky Rib 6a+ (top photo) and then tried a 6c sit start on the cubic block. I captained, Pete struggled but rosco got it second go. Send of the day at the end of the day. 

A great day out, even if I didn't get the Pommel. I was psyched to be pathing the first moves by the end but devastated that I just couldn't finish it. Brimham owned my tips.... I hope they are better for Monday when I do battle with Fight Club!

The day Pete sent the Trossachs

Well, after two weeks of cake eating and arm bending today was never going to be my day. I did, however, make it to Ratho for the first time this week to check it out. Very nice. Lots of bouldering to go at and a campus board. They have got rid of the barrel wall though which seems a shame. Lets hope they change the problems frequently. Although the Blue Oyster banter was noticeable by its absence, I think I will be happy to train there in the years to come. The hour to an hour and a half drive from work to the centre has made training tiresome for the last six months since I moved to Stirling. Ratho is an easy twenty five minutes away from work. The move will be god for me although I will miss the chat. Hopefully, I will get the four training days a week I need to move through my plateau. The once or twice a week I managed all summer/autumn has simply maintained my captain status, no better, no worse. 

And so it was, I went to the Trossachs with Pete and Jonny. I climbed lots of thing I have climbed before (including HB 6b+) which was fun but hardly inspiring. What was inspiring though was seeing Pete climb the triptych of Jawa 6c, Tourist Trap 6c+ and Fight Club 6c+ with no bother. It was a mark of ten months of four times a week training. Pete, I know you are reading! I am relieved in a way that you didn't get that RSPB job. Commuting is a test-piece and I would be gutted if you had to give up a couple of training days for it. You would just keep on the same grade like I have done and stop improving the way you have been. 

Anyway... I'm already starting to send at Ratho. I am going tomorrow. Jeeka and I will be moving in the next couple of weeks so life will soon be very different but I will have up to two hours of my day back again which can be spent training. Two hours wasted in the car every day just so I can drive my desk!! Its gutting but it will be over soon.