rginns blog

Not done too much recently, West View, swimming, West View, Swimming. However a recent Sheffield visit saw me heading to the works, I can pretty much flash most of their 6as although find the 6bs fairly tricky... definitely feel like I'm getting stronger though. Jerry Moffat was there, although he wasn't climbing, more chilling with a large group of Sheffield-ites on the competition wall. I felt as though I really should recognise some of them. They were being rather boisterous, it must be said. Incidently I have somehow lost 6.6lb over the last couple of weeks and I'm starting to look less round and feel more fit. A combnation, surely of the combined CV and climbing sessions. Anyway, this isn't important. It will soon be 2010 and I anticipate my climbing activity for 2009 has ceased, what with visiting relatives I dare say I won't now get the opportunity to crush the remaining problems on the list. It would be a phenomenal week if I did, let's put it that way..

This week so far I have been to such illustreous places as Milton Keynes, Maidenhead, Portsmouth, Havant, High Wycombe and Daventry. Although not strictly in that order. However, no matter how much I seem to travel the country impressing the associated dangers of using Lead acid traction batteries, the infinite capacity for human stupidity knows no bounds. hint: if it's pissing acid everywhere, there's probably something wrong... Aside from the frustrations of dealing with various grades of Monkey, I have actually managed to get some climbing done this week. Monday saw a visit to Craggy island in guildford. They seemed intent on checking I could belay and tie into my harness, in spite of just going to boulder, but I guess it's their insurance company's beef. The bouldering is spread over one three sided section about 10 - 15m wide. after warming up on the auto-belay (I'm still not too convinced about those things) I flashed a couple of the 6as and managed to get up

Not too much been going on at this end, although the talk by Mick Fowler last Tuesday was pretty inspiring, but I’m not sure I’ll be rushing out for a set of Crampons and ice axes just yet, from recollection the exposure is pretty intimidating in Winter climbing, although it was an entertaining evening. Working away has continued to be the theme recently, and I found myself in Sheffield last week. A visit to the works seemed far too good an opportunity to pass up, so after finishing the job I headed straight there, eager to start reducing the winter beer insulation jacket that I’ve started to develop… This being only my second visit I wanted to give it a really good session, so after warming up I attacked mainly the brown and black circuits. I was pleasantly surprised to flash a couple of font 6bs and tick a few of the 6as. The problem I seem to be finding though is that I can’t seem to last for much more than an hour and a half without my strength really dropping off after which there

Work has been mad busy of late, I seem to be away almost every week so keeping any consistency with climbing is proving challenging. Add to that restaurants, beers and pub grub that comes along wth working away and it's a recipe for becoming a fat worse punter. The upside is I sometimes get to different walls or crags, but only if I finish early normally. However, all of this needs to change, as I have now booked the gite for next years Font trip - woohoo! YYFY! I've not been for a couple of years, so it's about time. 5 definites so far and I quite fancy getting a van and bombing it down instead of faffing about with planes and hire cars. Randomly, it's the same week that GCW, Nik and some others are going, although being the school holidays I guess there was a good chance. It would be good to get a few of us for a crushing session. So, this is just over 4 months away, which means I've got to get fit over Christmas ready for Font. As well as this, I need to start

Went to Preston tonight, as I'd planned to meet G-man and Nik was coming along too. I arrived earlier than I anticipated and started off by traversing around the vertical walls to warm up, spending quite a long time warming up - this was because when I came to West View last week I didn't warm up at all and was beasted after 45 minutes. After warming up I tried a couple of the V3s, which felt easy, so thought i'd work my way through the V4's - I managed to get through all but 2 of the V4s flashing about half of them. I moved on to the V5s one by one, but really couldn't touch them. G and Nik turned up after a while and were both up for bouldering. G's mate Felix was there too. G and Nik both warmed up on a couple of easys and then started to crush - V6s, 7s and more, pretty impressive. I feel the need to train... Nik especially seemed to beast everything in site and G was no slouch. I flailed about for a bit on some more V5s getting absolutely nowhere except m

Sunday I went to Thorn crag. I was on me tod as everyone else seemed to have better things to do than walk uphill for half an hour with rain imminent, but anyway I decided to head up there to crack the two lines on the list, Elemental and Burnt Heather. The hangover was fairly readily despatched by the walk in, which is still as brutal as it's ever been, but the sun was really trying to burn through the clouds. The great thing about Thorn crag is that it really is pretty desolate. The moorland setting is awesome, and as luck would have it the visibility was great, the sea was in clear view, twinkling in the far off sunlight. There were a few game birds flitting about in flocks, but apart from that, there was not a soul in sight. It had been raining on my way up the M6 which didn't bode well, but by the time I reached the crag it wasn't as damp as I thought. the rock however was wet. This was ok by my book as a rest was the order of the day. The hangover was coming back with

No, unfortunately not ticking of problems, rather time. Time, the inexorable ticking of time . Well, it truly is now the indoor season. In the week at least, and especially in this rain. Time to get strong for the briefest window of opportunity for any outdoor crushage. I still have quite a bit of work to do if I am to work my way through this years list, especially when you bear in mind there are only 7 weeks or so before the end of 2009... The last week or go have not yielded great things from Mr Ginns, in spite of hopeless yet optmistic aspirations, however there does, at least, seem to be some regularity to climbing which may or may not translate into crushing prowess at some unspecified point in the future. Another two sessions at Broughton have confirmed my current competency at around 'broughton 5c+', which I like to think is approximately V12, but alas I dare say it is slightly less... The last 3 sessions I have reached this point which if nothing else is consistent. To

Went to Broughton after work today for the first time this winter. The first of many no doubt. as I expected, the wall was still as steep as it ever was, and just as unremitting, or should I say unrelenting. I have no idea whereabouts I am in terms of the wall as it has been so long since being there, so I decided to work my way through the grades to see how I would fare. Starting at 5a,5a+,5b,5b+,5c, I got to 5c+ and couldn't get any further. Not altogether disappointing. Especially bearing in mind you can add a grade or two to bring it in line with other walls in the area... I can't expect to be at the top of my game having done relatively little climbing indoors this year. One thing I did notice was a significant lack of stamina. Give it a month however, and it'll come back I'm sure. It's a hard task-master but pretty much the best wall in the North west... Proper old skool.

Rather a mixed bag this week, I’ve been on the road for the last four days, but still managed to bunk off a bit early to go climbing. Firstly on Monday I was over Burnley way, so once I’d finished work I snatched an hour or so at Widdop. Unfortunately the whole place was sodden, and humid. I guess because it’s quite high up. The clouds were rolling in… The weather forecast proved to be predictably wrong, as it had spoken of dry warm weather.. ah well, I guess it’s the first of the autumn trip disappointments. Still, I decided not to waste the visit and take a look at all of the other bouldering I haven’t previously had a look at. I started over at the left of mystery buttress at a couple of good but hard lines on the vaguely overhanging reddish wall, which all look a bit hard to me. Then I worked right, following the problems in the Rockfax guide. Although a lot of the problems are in my range, the landings are often not ideal. Eventually I got to the Resevoir Dogs buttress – the chip

ok here goes, I re-rendered it in WMV let's see if this works... enjoy

I know you're all desparate to see the boopers crush, but although the vid has been edited and is ready to rock, my lack of knowledge regarding prem pro means that the file size is 366 meg, quite a lot for a minute and a half methinks... so until I can devote the time to working out how to re-render it in a smaller file size you'll have to wait. aha ha ha haha anyway on a slightly different note, i went out climbing early this morning as the weather was good, and Taffa fancied getting some ropework done. We headed to Widdop in the Big White Van and did a couple of routes on the Mystery buttress (original route I think and some sort of VS to the right...) the former was desparate, and involved some god-awful crawl akin to more speleological activity, but good value really and the second was much more straight forward. Although I've been thoroughly bouldering based recently it was kind of nice to be back on a rope, and the craic is always good. I guess it just reminded me of

I've been to Brownstones a couple of times this week, as the impending autumn weather is on it's way and the light is fast fading. Once the clocks go back it's game over for climbing after work, at least for non-lantern sessions. At the moment I can still get over an hour in though, so on Monday I went primarily to try the Sloper problem, probably my most frustrating aim so far, and after warming up at the pond end I cracked straight on with it. The move now feels really natural although I still can't get it. I keep trying to alter my technique, but to no avail so I soon gave up. Then I tried a few of the classics at the top end, and surprised myself by getting to the jugs on Obscenity which felt surprisingly easy. As I was flying solo though, and had no spotter I wimped out of the top out. Then exactly the same thing happened on Boopers, I got to the break easily, and latched the two crimps, but didn't feel confident topping out without a spotter, instead I had vis

no climbing news at this end for the time being as I am still recovering from last weekends misadventures. Well, this is a partial truth... I had planned on going to Brownstones this morning, but that plan failed at around twenty past ten last night due primarily to Plymouth Gin. This leads me nicely onto this latest tactic: instead of drinking beer, my tipple of choice is now Gin and slim-line tonic. How gay, you may think. Well, the outrageous camp factor is counterbalanced by the reduced calorific content of gin, which is around a quarter of that of beer. So I don't care. Excellent. On the weight front, the extra cv sessions in the last couple of weeks appear to be having the desired effect as I've lost 7lbs in the last 3 weeks. I'm now on target for losing a stone in 8 weeks and due to the slow nature I'll hopefully be able to keep it off over the winter, and if everything goes to plan this should translate into climbing prowess durng the cool weather... watch this

Decided to do a short vid anyway, the sheep picture was a bonus...

Some people get tired of good climbing fitness, so aggravating that injury you've not quite recovered from is the perfect solution! It is simple with this easy guide! Step 1. Don't warm up. This is an important ingredient if you want the injury to flare up as much as possible - warming up will only prevent injury which, as pointed out above, is not the aim of the game! Step 2. Get straight on the problem that caused the injury Possibly the most effective way of exacerbating any strain as this focuses directly on the weakness you're targeting. Combined with bad technique and greasy conditions, you can accomplish reslts in minutes! Step 3. Flog the problem Determination is key to success, so keep going until you get results! If you're not crying, you're not trying!! I went to Widdop today and strained my finger again. Arrived at the crag to look at Pickpocket's crack and splashdown, and instead found an inordinate amount of fog. Unsurprisingly the rock was slick

Short version: Dropped in at Brownstones after work but didn't get anything done. Long version: Dropped in at Brownstones after work for a bit and as the weather was relatively settled I expected to see a few people. Although there were a couple of people about when I got there, by 6 I had the entire place to myself, unusual really. pretty much went straight over to Satisfying sloper after warming up on some easys round the pool. Wasn't sure how the left wrist would fare on the diagonal crimp, but actually the 4 days complete rest seem to have sorted it out - although I could feel it, it wasn't an issue too much.the right foot is bigger than I remember and although I slapped the sloper about 15 times made absolutely no more progress on it. In retrospect I think I need to be more static as I'm using one dynamic move from the high right foot which makes holding the sloper really hard. Anyway, excuses really. Got bored of this so I went over to have fun on Nexus dyno. I

I had a morning free and G mentioned he was heading out on the Yorks grit and seemed up for giving a tour to the uninitiated. I’d never been to Widdop so it seemed a good choice, with plenty of stuff for a punter such as I. I arrived criminally early as time was tight, and was at the crag by 9. The journey there was straightforward if a little confusing coming through Haggate – I had to ask directions from a funny little white bearded fellow. He knew his stuff though, as I was soon on track. The road to Widdop is pretty spectacular but was really foggy in the low sections. Incidentally on the M65 I was treated to a great cloud inversion in the hills to the left. Anyhow, I digress… conditions were nice and cool and although the ground was wet it didn’t feel like it had rained. After being passed by several rotund people on overpriced bicycles I had a little scoot around the plantation boulders. Orienting myself, I started off with a V0- slab on the four square boulder. Then I tackled Re

The weather was nice, so I left a meeting early and headed down to Brownstones with the target of either the low break traverse or satisfying sloper. The conditions felt pretty greasy actually and the crag was caked in chalk although I'm not surprised given the weather has been good for over a week. No doubt the rain will clear that next week. After a few false starts I got the sequence I was using last time I tried this, and with no warm up almost got the step through. The feet were sorted, so it was just a case of sorting out the balance and standing up on the good feet. On about the fifth go I got to the ledge - then it was the second half, and I realised I'd never actually tried it! Anyways, it's just a couple of burly moves however I got to the last smear with the right foot and promptly fell off... After a 5 minute rest I got straight back on and nailed it - Another one in the bag! Here's the shit vid, starring Jim Holmes too... really need an HD cam...

The weather has recently started turning a little cooler and so it seemed appropriate to head back to Cadshaw to take another look at Brian Jacques, especially after Gareth's succcess the other day. It didn't start off well as I left the chalk bag in the car, but I'd already got my shoes on in the small quarry. Still, I thought running back to the car and back would make for a good warm up, and I needed my water too. Running out of the quarry however did rather startle the woman walking two little Westies! (quite amusing actually) I warmed up by traversing for a bit before going to the main quarry. Funnily enough all of the midges had gone from the other day, I guess they're starting to die in the cold nights. Not a bad thing. Bearing in mind this is the hardest problem on the list, I felt quite positive, and I could get the first move fairly easily. Bearing in mind this is the easiest move however it's not really saying much! I quickly realised that GCW's beta

Today was a good day. Not only because it was sunny, but because I've finally made progress on the ticklist. It seems my tactic of adding a couple of easys to the list has paid off, as these are now in the bank - good problems too! I sailed up the M61 after work, leaving this time a little later at 9 minutes past 5. I'd convinced John to head to Denham as I had plenty of stuff to do and also fancied some roping. I got there at about 5:39 and John and Danny were up at the other end on Main break having already done a couple of routes. I noticed straight away that the huge pile of rubbish mentioned here had disappeared - it looks like Chorley council took note. I showed John and Dan the bouldering and we traversed for a bit before John decided to lead a route, so I wandered off to the splash area for the first objective, the Arete. The problem itself is straightforward, but the situation is great, as you are precariously poised over the pond, which adds a bit of spice. It's

I don't think I've had the psyche of late, so I decided to head over to Cadshaw quarry to see if flailing on the hardest problem on the list would help the situation. I left work at 7 minutes past 5 and managed to fight my way through the traffic to get to the crag in about half an hour. Time was short, hence the objective. There was still a lot of water in the ground and the run-off left puddles all along the path. The ground is saturates, the crag however was bone dry, and a warm up in the little quarry was the order of the day. This consisted of traversing the length of the crag leftwards from the pond. Midges. When do the critters finally die? It must be soon, surely. Lancashire must be the midgiest county in England. There must have been a dearth of blood in the area as well as they all decided to congregate around my head and try to eat me. It started whilst I was warming up. Whilst wandering over to the main quarry I realised I really need to do more cardio to shift the

Well as I was working in Nottingham, I thought I may as well check out the local climbing centre. After a chat and a cup of tea at Andy's house, I was on the way. First thing to say is that Notts climbing centre is not an easy place to find. Having got myself lost even with the satnav and blackberry maps. It happens to be tucked away in the back end of a new housing estate. No wonder it wasn't easy to locate. First impressions are that it's smaller than I thought. there is plenty of variety for the boulderer even though the grading takes a litle while to get used to, very little roping. The cellar board looked awesome, but that was reserved only for members. Didn't get that really, unless they funded it themselves of course. I expected to see Bernie and John down there, but they didn't turn up in the end. I got lots of problems up to brit 6a done, as well as a monster traverse around the entire wall (well, in sections!). Pleasant evening, nothing of note.

I've never particularly been a fan of fingerboarding, tending to be driven to it during bouts of enthusiasm in a training regime. It occured to me that a reason for this has been the lack of structure to the training. To be honest, I also can't get away from the fact that it's, well, pretty boring. Therefore, due to the rain, and inspired by the recent plastic session, I decided to dust off the board for an exploratory foray and establish some sort of regime. I built the board a couple of years ago, and it consists of 3 rungs of about 2cm about 6 inches apart, suspended from a pull up bar. Looking at it, it could definitely do with a bit of modifying. It has room for a couple of jugs to be cut out, some slopers need adding and some smaller crimps would do the job nicely. I started off with 6 x 10 rep assisted pull ups to warm up, as well as some sit-ups. Not a good start, as this nearly destroyed me. hmmm. I had a couple of minutes rest, then cracked on: I started easy so a

Ok, so I’ve not posted on here for what seems like an aeon. This is for several reasons. Primarily I seem to have lost the love recently, which mirrors the front end of the year in which I barely climbed for 3 months. secondly, I’ve been out of action for the last 6 or so weekends due to various stag do’s and weddings (including a memorable 3 days of guns, strippers, white water and zlotys in Poland) the result of which means I’m not only fat from too much booze (as the wii fit kindly pointed out), but I’m also weak as a weak thing. Anyway, in a bid to sort this out I had a free day on Saturday so decided to head up to Denham to get some problems I’ve had my eye on recently. Got the car loaded up, mat, chalk, tape, camera etc and set off on the road. At junction 6, it started raining, and as has been a feature of this summer it only got heavier. I thought I might be ok, as it didn’t seem too heavy, but on closer inspection the rock was sodden and the rain seemed to only be getting wors

After torrential rain overnight the Healey Nab trip wasn't looking on. The sun came out however and after an afternoon of scorching temperatures it dried everything up nicely for the afternoon. Got there about half five, parking at the shorter walk. I was meeting Carl and Taffa but they were running late so I decided to walk in. I took a look at this place last year in the rain and I'd been meaning to get back. It was disappointing to see there was quite a lot of litter, which wasn't good as the place is already esoteric without being littered with rubbish. Anyway, it wasn't really bad, just a bit annoying. I started of with the slab and old route (which climbs quite nicely in spite of it's contrived nature!) and then the boys turned up. we did all of the other easy problems, sooty corner (mmm lovely!), Slaptasm, Andi's traverse (nice traverse, if a bit pointless..), Andi's mantle, chipped wall . Coolboy slap felt really hard for V2 from a true sit-star

Went to Baslow on Sunday, although never made it to the eaglestone - we spent most of the day soloing about the crag, up to HS. Showed Mr Kennedy the rudiments of lead belaying as he'd never done it before too. A great day had by all, it was nice to get a bit highball really, with all this bouldering my trad grade should be improving but I've not put a harness on for ages! I'll soon forget how to faff around placing gear!

ok, so I've not crushed any aims yet, and there's nowt much of interest to report, but in the spirit of at least keeping a track of what I've been up to here's what I've been doing recently: a few recent sessions at Brownstones have yielded some good progress, I've linked all of verdi wall which is actually pretty easy really, and so I've climbed all of the Pond Traverse in sections, and just need to work up the stamina to blast it off in one. good progress on Safisfying sloper problem - using the same sequence GCW uses, I can get into a good position to go for the pop to the sloper, but I find it a really long reach - it's been pretty sweaty though each time I've been down (haha excuses). Harder than 6a?? I think it might be slightly morpho inasmuch as if you're under 6 foot it's a long reach. Anyway, I've slapped the sloper (once) but not latched. It should go soon though, and the move is good. This week I also managed a visit to Cadsha

I managed to shoot off from work early blaming the heat and the fact that I'd not had more than an hours sleep the previous night. I was not feeling my best and the conditions knew it, they decided to be extra sweaty just to make me feel extra special. I had arranged to meet GCW for some intended crimp-tastic crushage and expected a beasting. I was on his stomping ground, so wanted to take advantage of the knowledge. I was showed various problems, did a lot of the easy probs before Mr. Wallis arrived, then traversed a bit and then tried the arete to the right of Mohammed - did it in two parts, but like a lot of the problems there it's high and although it's bomber, you kinda feel a bit off balance - anyway I need to finish it off as it's a great juggy problem with good moves so I've added it to the list. I took a look at Pickpocket direct and got to the good crimp - much better than I thought it looked actually and the moves feel ok - fresh and with a good head on

I’ve decided to add some easier problems to the tick-list. The idea is partly to stop demoralisation due to non-completion of harder goals, but the main reason is because there are some great problems that I haven’t done yet and like the look of in the easier grades. I'm always open to suggestions too, watch this space...

Thursday 24th June: Good progress today. In an effort to get back to some semblance of fitness I’ve been getting in the early pre-work sessions, firstly because Brownstones isn’t far from my work, and secondly at this time of year the rock is cooler in the mornings. There are also less midges. Oh, and there’s noone about. So actually there are plenty of reasons. The primary reason however is that I have several routes there that are on this years list, and as we’re already half way through the year it’s about time I got on with some crushage. Anyway, I arrived at about 7:45, which gave me an hour. The objective of the day was the Pond Traverse. I normally warm up at the pond area anyway, my usual warm up being the traverse from Verdi corner to watery arête and back. It felt ok, so I decided to work on the traverse further right. After a few minutes I had worked out the section from the manky corner to about half way along the wall, and it felt ok – the difficulty with this bit is that

Monday 22.06.09 - Rather poor performance today although conditions were far from ideal - the aim of the day was either boopers or nexus dyno. Got there about ten past five and warmed up at the pond area - decided the only chance I'd have is if I got straight on with it so I cracked on with Boopers - it looks like a good line and was recommended by Mr Wallis last year and i had got as far as the crimps above the break. My first attempt got to the break which was fill of dried mud so I cleaned it out and dropped off - it feels a lot harder than it did last year although as I had only had 2 hours sleep due to the return of insomnia - I was armed with excuses! I kept going at it and although it felt ok, I still couldn't get to my high point - it will go soon though, I just need to spend more time on it. GCW arrived and watched me fall off Boopers a couple of times before I decided to give it up - if I couldn't get it after 45mins it wasn't happening - I did a few easy prob

Brownstones seems to be best in the mornings at this time of the year so I've decided to climb more before work to take advantage. When you walk into the quarry it's fascinating to hear all the warning calls that the birds make when they realise they're not alone. Incidently on the wildlife front I've seen Magpies, Crows, Peewits (lapwings) and wood pigeons and I've not even been twitching properly! Earlier in the year there were ducks and either a Kestrel or other small hawk soaring about. The rock is usually cool in the morning, so I've been working on the Pond traverse - in a couple of half hour sessions I've managed to link from Verdi Corner over to Watery Arete. Last year I managed to link the initial wall so now the pond is dry it's only a matter of time before it goes in it's entirity. The entire traverse gets Font 6c so if it does get crushed it'll be awesome as that's this years target grade. There's no reason why it won't a

Working away is a proper drag sometimes. Drive, meeting, hotel, drive, meeting, hotel, drive... ad nauseum. Plus normally late finishing procludes climbing action, but not this time! Happened to have a meeting in Swindon and a quick trawl of the net brought the nearest bouldering as the Ring road boulders in Brisol, a mere hour away. The dice was thrown and the avoidance of a rush hour drive to Portsmouth was the deciding factor. Weather was choppy, bit of a gamble. upon arrival, the outlook was poor - the proximity of rock seemed unlikely as I parked up in a neat housing estate, but I trusted the topo and crossed the dangerous 5 lanes of the ring-road. It was more precarious than the Brownstones road-crossing lottery and I'm not a fan of dancing with cars! After a short trot through the field and with the nose running from gayfever, I start to regret this. after dropping down to the river and following it for a couple of minutes the climbing appears up the banking to the right. T

Hutton roof is always good for an ego boost, and as Taff hadn't been up there before it was a good choice for the day. We sailed up in the hairdressers car with the roof off, making the hair even more bouffant than usual. Quite fitting really... Weather was boiling hot and too warm to get any meaningful bouldering done anyways so roping was the order of the day. As expected the crag was full of DofE types and beginners all over the shop. the idea was to bust the rope out for mileage as it's been a while since being on the sharp end, but we decided to warm up on a few easy solos - the ropes, suffice to say, never made an appearance something quite liberating about soloing. Plenty of routes, mileage, polish, and mucking about on the overhangs... first VS solo although it's never VS, more highball 5a boulder problem but f*ck it, I'll claim it anyway ;).cracking day had.

It's my birthday tomorrow and for some reason everything seems to be conspiring to piss me off including this shitty weather. for two weeks it's been boiling bloody hot and then it pisses it down and looks like doing so for the next week, aaaaaaaaaaaargh!!! Roaches trip to crush the staffordshire flyer has had to be cancelled. That makes it the 4th planned Roaches trip out of five cancelled. On a more positive note I get the Cornwall guide tomorrow ;)

Tuesday 2nd June: went over to the place noone goes to again as per usual on Tuesdays pre-in-law teatime and was dismayed by the amount of midges also enjoying the solitude. Also lost ten minutes by leaving me bloody chalk in the car, which I had to fetch. nice spot as it is, the waterfall however really detracts from the atmosphere with it's humidity, but anyway I warmed up on the dyno wall doing the usual traverses and felt weak as shit. As I was short on time I thought I'd better get straight on with the objective of the day, the overhang, the landing of which had already been nicely prepared with dead rhododendrons by Mr. R a few months before. after a spot of brushing I tried the first moves which felt impossibly hard, however after a few tries I nailed the move to the roof from a jug on the arete, and much to my surprise reached the good hold - the moves feel really good and easier than I thought - this progress has got me PROPER PSYCHED to go back and complete, although

Saturday 30th May: went to Cratcliffe Tor with Andy and Stoff, but felt entirely uninspired, mostly because it was exceedingly hot - slab climbing was like trying to walk up a kids slide with oiled up feet. No pleasant. Had a good time in any case, ticking plenty of easy stuff and I always like visiting places I've never been to... not a day for ticking hard stuff, but for catching up with mates.

Tuesday: So I decide to head down to the craglet X that noone goes to, partly because it's close to the in-laws where I'm eventually headed for tea, but also because it offers a bit of solitude when you're climbing craply as I currently appear to be. I try the double cracks and get as far as the sidepull yet again, and down climb - it definitely needs a belayer or at least another mat and a spotter, so I give it up for the moment and do a bit of traversing. I've got quite a good burn routine going: traverse for about 15 moves, step off, wait one minute, repeat. I can do about 7 before arm-doom, but it must be doing some good. Slowly it seems to be coming back. Anyway, I'm about to leave when I realise I've been walking past what looks to be quite a cool dyno,very doubtful it's ever been done before so I give it a go, getting it on about the 5th go - I've called it Undiscovered Dyno, must be more or less V3 ish although I could be wrong and is 164cm... he

It seems I've left half of my forearm an finger skin at Bridestones. I always forget the man-eating properties of gritstone, especially Yorkshire grit which tends to be particularly brutal on the hottest day of the year. Nothing of note acheived, apart from a lot of mileage, so mission accomplished. Good prep for elemental and Burnt Heather - makes a change from crimping all the time... Fantastic day out, good scenery, good climbing, good company. I now sport a wife-beater sunburn too. quality.

Was flying solo last night and had a couple of hours spare - I dropped into Rochdale as it was raining. Considering I've not done much training of any sort this year I was quite pleased to flash a couple of V3s, after a proper warm up which was promising. need to start a bit of power training though, and reduce the beers if I'm going to get anywhere... mileage tomorrow, off to the kebs, never been before. expecting gritrash.

Thought I’d join this blogging malarkey and spout spurious crap every now and then in the safe knowledge that noone will actually read it. This is my first entrance, in which I hope to chart my rise to climbing greatness - or, well document my training... Lancashire is a fantastic place, I’ve been here for 4 years and enjoyed some cracking bouldering. There are some magic venues. However, sometimes it's crap. It seems to rain incessantly in Lancashire. Yesterday I went to Brownstones, Mecca of Lancs climbing, home of the eliminate, school of the hardcore, crimp-tastic quarried grit paradise. It was the sixth time in the last 2 weeks I’ve been out, and the first time I’ve actually climbed anything. bloody rain. Unfortunately I shortly discovered I can’t actually climb…after a 2 month layoff at the front end of the year, I've barely moved.. This must change. I’ve decided to start actually doing stuff and completing the 2009 ticklist – four months in and not one thing completed...