rginns blog

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