This one also goes back to 2005. This is a shot from the opening ceremony for the UIAA World Youth Championships held in Bejing, China. There were two of these dragon characters each with two men inside. It was amazing to see, some of the tricks they did without really seeing what they were doing were unbelievable.
Not only was this one of the best competitions I have been to but it was also my best result internationally, finishing up in 15th place.
This one goes back a few years to 2005. I was competing at an EYC (European youth cup) in Slovenia. Being young, stupid and wanting to climb anything Tyler Landman decides to start warming up on a wall outside of our accommodation. Normally someone climbing a wall wouldn’t really be that exciting but I just love his shadow.
Happy climbing!
I’m not so good at keeping my blog up to date. I guess, I don’t have the time to write about what I’m doing all of the time. And plus, your probably just get bored anyway. So I’ve stolen a little idea from a good friend of mine. Il try to post a photo every now and then with a little description on what it’s about. Also it will be good for me to start digging through the archives to see what I can find.
Who better to start with than the man whom I stole the idea from.
Matt strutting his stuff, Back Bowden Doors
Fortunately Matt doesn’t dress like this all of the time, only on special occasions. On this occasion it was his stag do, up in Northumberland.
Enjoy
Il be honest, I’ve been pretty slack on the blog case recently. So this one is going to be a bit of a general round up of the last few months. As per usual Jan and Feb were pretty quiet on the “cragging” front. Apart from a couple of excursions to probably one of the best quarried limestone walls I’ve been to in the UK.
March saw a bit more activity starting with a good quality day down on the Gower. I met up with Simon Rawlinson and Rob Lamy who gave me the tour of Minchen Hole and Bowen’s Parlour. Minchen Hole doesn’t sound or even look very nice, but has two quality F7a’s. One called The Raven and the other Jump the Sun. After ticking off a few routes there, we moved on to Bowen’s Parlour where Simon had put a a F7c called Pegasus, which I managed to onsight.
March also marked my return on to the competition scene, The CWIF (Climbing Works international Festival) is one of the biggest competitions we have now in the UK. With the UK’s best route setters coming together at one of the best bouldering walls in the country, it’s no wonder The CWIF has built up such a reputation. To top it off the french super star Jacky Godoffe was part of the route setting team. The CWIF is talked about as being a really tough comp, with 330 competitors battling it out over 30 qualifying problems all trying to make the cut. The top 20 male and female go through to the semi’s and the strongest 6 out of that go through to the final. As I haven’t competed for a number of years I went in to it with an open mind and with no real pressure. As there are so many competitors, qualifying was split into two sessions – we had gone for the morning session. You have 3 hours for qualifying, at first this seems like loads of time but come the end of it I was running around like a headless chicken.
Our team name
I felt pretty strong and by the end of the morning session I was sitting in 7th place. I was happy with the way I had climbed and even more psyched that I had a chance of going through to the semi’s. It was now time to play the waiting game and hope there wasn’t too many strong people in the afternoon session. Fortunately for me there wasn’t and I scraped through in 17th place. Woop, Woooop! The semi’s and finals were the following day so an early night was on the cards. The next morning I woke up feeling pretty sore, it’s been a long time since I had felt like that. We were staying in The Works car park in the van so we didn’t have to go far for coffee in the morning. The semi’s didn’t start until 12pm so we had a chilled morning hanging out in the sun getting to know a Font climbing legend (Jacky Godoffe). The closer it got to noon the more nerves started to build up. The comp format was 4 problems, 5 minutes on each and 5 minutes off, with the competitors in isolation. It was a strange feeling being back in isolation, I was super psyched but at the same time slightly nervous as I hadn’t been in isolation for quite some time. As I qualified in 17th it wasn’t long before I was out. As soon as my name was called everything changed, I remembered how it felt to compete again. It was like auto-pilot took over. The first problem was on a slab, you had to step on with no hand holds and jump to a volume which you then had to mantle. I got the jump 1st time but the mantle was a total different ball game. I got really close on my 3rd go but my foot popped as I was trying to stand up.
Problem 1
After having one more go and not making the mantle I decided to save my energy for the other 3 problems. The next two problems were pretty spicy, I only managed to get the bonus point after a couple of tries on each of them. It was all down to the 4th which was a crazy bat hang to start. Unfortunately I made it to the penultimate hold but didn’t have the beans to finish it. It turned out you only had to do one problem to make the final, so close! My 4 bonus point finished me up in 8th place overall. I was still really happy with that, a good weekend was had by all.
Bat hang, Problem 4
A big enthusiastic crowd
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A few more weeks of work then lead to a weekend down at Swanage. The first day was spent at Hedbury quarry which tuned out to climb a lot better than it looked. The two routes that stood out for me were, Cinderella’s Big Score F7c, which I managed to onsight and Sexy Beast F7a which was the last route of the day and a full on battle. The following day was spent at Winspit quarry, which was a great mileage day, climbing a total of 15 routes over the weekend.
The next few weeks were spent gearing up towards our two week trip to Kalymnos, but unfortunately things don’t always go to plan. The week before we were due to fly out we got a call to say that Heath’s mum had been taken in to hospital so we headed up to Scotland. Sadly she passed away a couple of days later. We spent the next week up in Scotland. After the funeral Heath obviously wasn’t so keen on going back to work and as we still had a weeks worth of accommodation we headed out to Kalymnos for the 2nd week of our trip.
All the training, preparation and psyche had just gone out the window with the sad news of the last couple of weeks. So we started the trip with no expectations or goals, I guess the only goal we had was to have a good time. The first few days were spent in true Kalymnos style, early starts, swinging about on tufa’s until just after lunch and then down to the bar for a Mythos and a swim in the sea. Kalymnos is great for building up fitness with it’s super long, steep routes. We had bought an 80m rope before we had come out so I wanted to put it use searching out a few classic 40m F7′s. On the Friday we headed to a new crag called Secret Garden. This is a newly developed north facing crag, something the island doesn’t have much of. The wall isn’t quite as steep as the Grande Grotta but it’s still dripping with tufa’s. After warming up on a couple of low F7′s, Dave had put the draws in an F8a called Syrtaki Lesson. It was a bit of a different style to most of the routes I had done on the island as it was a bit shorter and had quite a bouldery crux. Gav stepped up and managed to flash it in style and I closely followed also getting the flash.
Heath enjoying the water of Rina Beach
After an easy day on Saturday we headed to Sikati Cave the following day. When they talk about it being a giant hole in the ground they weren’t lying, it literally is a GIANT HOLE in the ground. As we had climbed pretty much every day I was starting to feel pretty fit again. It’s amazing how fast endurance comes and goes. There was one route I had my eye on for the day, Super Lolita a 45m F8a. Ater warming up on Mort Aux Chevres an awesome F7b and a bit of a rest it was time. Super Lolita is the extension to Lolita F7a, If F7a was you limit then Lolita would definitely be a challenge. It had a stiff bouldery start and was pretty run out in places. After the 1st Lower off the extension could be broken into 3 sections with good rests in between. After making it through the first two sections ok I found myself sitting in this little cave feeling pretty pumped. The next section pulled out of the cave and onto a slab, I heard that this is where everyone drops it. I rested in the cave for a while and really didn’t want to leave it. When I did I pulled the lip and rocked onto the slab. Actually it wasn’t that bad, but I did find myself fighting up to the chains, not because the climbing was hard, but because the rope drag was immense.
Crag transport
Overall it was a good trip, due to unforeseen circumstances it didn’t quite go to plan but what can you do. Life is a bit of a rollercoaster you never know what it’s going to throw at you.
My hat goes to off to my beautiful wife Heath, and her family for being so strong in these difficult times.
December hasn’t been the best of months, not only have I been working every hour god sends covering my supposedly best mate while he’s away jet setting all over the word. “Why didn’t I think about that for my honeymoon”. On the few days that I have had off it has been rather wet. So it had left me no other choice than to turn my attention indoors for a little winter training, I suppose you have to start it some time. As I have mainly been focusing on routes this past year I thought it would be a good idea to start in the boulder wall. After my first proper session back I was pleasantly surprised, I hadn’t seemed to have lost much of my strength. I guess hard British lime stone tends to be pretty bouldery.
Throughout the month I managed to fit in 2 – 3 sessions a week, they weren’t long sessions maybe 2-2.5 hours but they were packed with quality. As I was trying to focus on bouldering I tried to have one hard bouldering session followed by a not so hard session, but including core and campus-ing and the last session would be spent on 3, 50-60 move circuits ranging from F7a+ to F8a+ I had set in the cave, this was just to maintain a bit of fitness but still focusing on strength and power.
It soon came apparent that I was lacking a little power. I really noticed this as soon as I pulled on to the campus board. Hence one of my sessions being a campus one. Over the years I can honestly say I have never really trained, I have dabbled here and there but have never done any specific training. I always saw it as if you want to get fit and strong for climbing then climbing is the best sort of training for that, which in most cases is true. But when your trying to hold down a full time job and you can’t always get out to the crag for one reason or another, a little bit structure and specific training can be very useful. I guess what I’m trying to get across here is that if you want to go that extra mile but dont quite know how to get there, just take a step back and have a look at what your doing and maybe try and structure your sessions a little better.
After a couple of weeks on the plastic I finally got a dry day on my day off. I was keen to get down to Anstey’s Cove. As there had been no rain down there for a couple of days I thought it would have been a safe bet for a dry crag. I couldn’t of been more wrong! I headed down with Dan Jenkins who was pretty psyched as he had only been to Anstey’s once. He was keen to get on “Just Revenge” F7c+. I was quite keen to get back on “Poppy” F8b+. I had one session on it a month or so ago managing to do it in two sections bar one move in the middle. As we walked in the seepage on Empire wall came in to view, “oh dear”. After dropping the kit off, I walked around to Ferocity Wall, which unfortunately wasn’t much better. The only route dry on the entire crag was La Creme, a F7c+ I had done 5 or 6 years ago. As we had driven for two hours to get there it would have been a waste just to drive back again, so I racked up and set off up the F6c arête of Might and Main. This was also wet which made the crux quite interesting. After Dan had stripped the draws out, we walked round to Ferocity Wall. As the majority of Poppy was wet I decided to have a look at Fisherman’s Tail F8b. I knew I could do the second half as Poppy joins it half way and the start looked fairly dry. It wasn’t long before I could see the outcome of this, I managed a few moves but it was wetter than it looked so I ended up threading the third bolt. As it was the only dry looking route Dan got on La Creme. After getting stuck at the crux for a while he lowered down. Unfortunately for him I didn’t really remember much of the route so I tied in and set off. I dropped the crux. After figuring out the best way to hold the slopey lip, I pushed on to the amazing stuck on block and then on to the lower off. Dan went up to try the crux again this time with my beta. After a little bit of work he managed the move then carried on to the top. I tied in for my second go and fortunately sent it. The crux felt pretty greasy, but I managed to just keep it together. Dan had a few more red-points but didn’t get it.
It was a shame it was a bit of a wash out, but all-in-all it was nice to be out at the crag again.
It has been a pretty good year for me not only getting married I managed to get 20 F8a’s and above, with the majority of them being in the UK. I’ve decided to take a couple of weeks off over Christmas both work and climbing, looking forward to enjoying a bit of a rest.
I hope you all enjoy the festive season. I will try and add on a new section for the blog over this period, which will be focusing on coaching and will also include ideas for session plans.
Bring on 2012…
A wet looking crag, at least the pups had fun.
I first tried Brean topping back at the start of the summer of 2010. For some strange reason I thought it would be a good idea to try a route that has a couple of the smallest crimps I’ve ever pulled on in the blazing sunshine. As you would expect I didn’t gain much from this attempt. I could barely pull the start let alone thinking about trying the crux, so with the aid of the a clip stick I dogged to the top and lowered off. A year and a half later and it being one of the only local mid to low F8′s I haven’t done, I finally decided it was time to get it done. A couple of weekends ago after getting rained off at Split Rock we headed to Brean.
"The Boys" checking out the crag
I was still feeling fairly warmed up from Split Rock so I got straight down to business and got the draws in it. All the moves seemed to go quick, I got to the top and felt like I had a pretty good chance of doing it. After a bit of a rest I went for my first red-point. This went really well, I got through crux and dropped the last hard move. I think I’m starting to develop a thing for dropping last moves now. Anyway I was pretty happy with that, although my skin wasn’t. The crux involves doing a reasonably big move to a really small, sharp left hand crimp. Which then you have to bring your right hand in to a slightly better and less sharp crimp, then move on in to a couple of pinches. After a couple goes putting the draws in and one red-point attempted the skin on my left index finger was already looking really thin, I shouted down after falling off my red-point, “I’ve only got one more go in me before it spits”. What a surprise….. I was right. The next go I got through the crux but my foot popped going from pinch to pinch and low and behold, I had split my tip. It was getting late in the day and I had written off pulling on that small crimp with a tapped finger so I striped it out and we headed home.
Sun setting over Brean
After a week of not climbing and stuffing Climb On (Skin healing balm) in to my split finger, it was Friday. Heather had taken the day off with the plan of heading back to Brean, although heavy rain on Thursday night and rubbish tides didn’t fill us with confidence. We headed out anyway just getting to the crag before the tide cut us off. I warmed up putting the draws in for Heath on “The Root of Inequity” F7a+. Just as I set off It started raining luckily it wasn’t too heavy so the top of the route was still doable. After doing that and getting the draws in Brean Topping, Heather had a go on the F7a+. She climbed really well but got shut down pulling the lip of the roof at the top. the holds had got too wet to hold. Things weren’t looking too good, fortunately the crux of Brean Topping stays dry as the majority of the route is over hanging. It was just the top I had to worry about. The first red-point I had that day seemed to be very reminiscent of last weekend, falling off the last hard move but this time opening up my split on the first go. It’s safe to say I wasn’t best pleased, instead of just wasting the day I though I would have another go with tape. After a bit of a rest and belaying Heath on another go on the F7a+ I taped up and pulled on. Theres a bit of a hard move at the start that involves pulling on a small left hand crimp. I felt the split open up more on that move, the move after my foot popped and when I finally made it to the half height break I was sort of over it, laughing with Heather. I had a look at my finger and blood was coming through the tape. This time I had managed to find two hand jams in the break where as before I was trying to recover on a pair of slopers. This was actually a really good rest, after a minute or two I shouted down to Heath, “I might as well give it a go”. I pushed on and got to the crux, as I got my finger tips on that small hold I locked my thumb over the top and brought my right hand in really statically, during the move I felt my finger split again but I was psyched. The next few moves I felt solid, everything came together and the moves felt easy, I got my foot up and made that last hard move. Get In!!! All I had to do was to keep it together on the last wet few moves to the chains. These weren’t hard just a bit tentative due to the holds being wet. I made it!
It just shows, when your really relaxed and not stressing, “I need to send this route”. It all comes together.
Realising I had split another tip.
Heather had one last top rope on The Root of Inequity in which she managed to link it from the start, up until the crux at the top. After a little rest she managed to pull the lip and go to the chains. She was pretty happy with that. A good day all round.
On Sunday we managed to get out again to settle Matt’s long-standing battle with “Smashing the Amps”.
Find out about how the day went and check out some of the photos we got here,
http://cox85matt.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/good-conditions-at-split-rock/
Back at the start of July a small team of us headed down to Anstey’s Cove for the weekend. Matt had his eye on “The Cider Soak” F8a and I was going to have a look at “Tuppence” F8B. We got down there and the conditions were far from perfect, being that we were in the month of July I suppose you could kind expect it to be slightly warm! But that didn’t faze us. After warming up I set off putting the draws in Tuppence, which surprisingly went quite well. All the moves went really quick and I felt pretty confident that it could go this weekend. “I couldn’t have been so wrong”. After having about 14 red-points that weekend of which 12 of them I dropped the last move, I walked away very tired and empty-handed. I made a promise to myself that I would come back later in the year as soon as we got some better conditions.
Making shapes whilst cleaning holds on a hot sweaty day!
Saturday, the day of the “Climbing Festival” was finally here. After a heavy weekend in Northumberland for Matt’s stag do and a full weeks worth of route setting the day had come, finally I could relax. The weather was amazing, cold and sunny, but surprisingly the it was a rather good turn out all things considering. The comp went well with the usual suspects taking the gold. Gav Symonds was down and mentioned that he was heading down to Anstey’s cove for a day on Tuesday, my day off’. “Perfect I’m in”.
After a couple of days rest I was feeling recovered, We got down to Anstey’s about 11:30am. After warming up on the classic arête “Might and Main” F6c I went bolt to bolt putting the draws in and reminding myself of the moves on Tuppence. With it being a bit later in the year the sun is a lot lower in the sky, this proved to be a bit of an issue putting the draws in. As my skin was quite thin anyway due a full weeks worth of route setting and the sun was directly on the route I could barely pull the crux. I pushed on and got the rest of the draws in, It wasn’t looking so hopeful. After belaying Max on Avenged and a quick jog back to the van to grab some liquid chalk, conditions had got better. The sun had gone and the wind had picked up. I tied on for my first red-point of the day. I climbed well, pulled through the crux where I started to feel a good flash pump coming on and then dropped it on the red-point crux. That final last move, I kind of expected to fall on that 1st go.
Crux sequence
Crux sequence
Crux sequence
After belaying Max on a red-point of Avenged which he managed to link in two. I was still trying to recover from the flash pump I got on my first red-point attempt when it started to rain. I left it a couple of minutes hopping it would pass, It didn’t. Instead it got heavier and heavier. The majority of the route stays dry but the sloppey top out at the top was getting soaked. The time had come, I was still pumped from my last go but if I didn’t go now the top would be unclimbable. The start felt fine and a got through the crux feeling pretty strong, I pushed on and latched the move that I had fallen off about 15 times previously. Theres a couple of good holds just after that which I used to try and recover a bit, I didn’t want to blow the top. After a minute or so I tried to pull the lip, the hold I had been previously using was unholdable, my hand just slipt straight off of it. I had to rethink, there was a “crosslely” kind of hold back from the lip I ended up using. I pulled on that to gain a crimp that I had ticked but hadn’t used before that was sheltered from the rain, from there I could reach the chains. Get in!!! After getting wet stripping the draws out we rushed back to Empire wall for Max to do battle with Avenged. We walked around the corner to find that the run off was half way down the wall, but Max was still psyched. He climbed solidly up until the crux where he came up short on a big move, following that he had 6 or 7 goes trying to do the move before he succumbed to using a clip stick for the first time.
While Max and I had been busy getting wet Charlie and Gav had been making good progress on Poppy and they were staying dry. But it didn’t last much longer, after a while the run off had limited them to only climbing about 5 moves half way up the route.
Heres a few snaps I got just before it started raining.
Gav working Poppy
Gav working Poppy
Archie
Charlie working Poppy
Charlie working Poppy
