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Showing posts from September, 2010

Brief project scope.

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Last night I went over to have a look at a project I've been eyeing up in an attempt to guage whether it's worth giving it any serious thought. I didn't get there until nearly 6 as I left work late, and it was quite humid, being about 16 degrees. As it's relatively closed in the rock was predictably fairly greasy. I'd come completely unprepared, having forgotton my brushes and bouldering shoes. Instead I had my old trad shoes and a chalk bag with no chalk in it. Things didn't start well. ah bugger it. I'd been feeling progressively more and more rough as the day wore on, so I wasn't hopeful of getting much done. The problem goes from a low sidepull jug to a slopey 3 finger hold, then there's a hard off balance move to back hand a crimp which should allow you to get high feet and reach to the break. As I did the first move the sidepull exploded in my left hand, spraining my wrist and sending me sprawling on the mat. Sounds dramatic eh? Well, maybe it

Kentmere, Tranearth and Langdale

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Yesterday I went up to the Lakes, an area that I've not really done much in. I had to drop the better half in Ravenstonedale for a hen do, then nip over the motorway to Kentmere. I drastically underestimated the amount of time it takes to get anywhere in the Lakes and ended up being over an hour later than planned. Anyhoo. Kentmere was the order of the day. G had already been at the crag for some time and I found him loitering around the Badger's appendage. Badger Rock was feeling intimidating as I was still extremely hungover from Big Gay John's wedding on Friday, so I mostly procrastinated whilst GCW failed to crush Badger arete (it looked all but crushed until he jumped off). Then we went up to Little Font, where I proceeded to crush Sheep Flies , which weighs in at a mighty Font 3 (amazing top out skills were also on show). Then we took turns to sit under The Way (6a+) but all the holds were pointing the wrong way for some reason and I couldn't even pull on. We gav

Cadshaw and Broughton

I was going to go swimming after work on Friday, and then on my way to the pool I got a message from the G-Meister challenging me to a Cadshaw run. At the next junction I turned round and headed up, heading along a really picturesque road, Egerton road from Belmont, then Stones Bank Road which brought me out right near Cadshaw. I never know the road existed, at least not that it lead from Belmont to Blackburn road. The wonders of Satnav indeed. I arrived, and managed to stretch a little before GCW arrived. I've not done this run for a while, probably 5 or 6 weeks, so I wasn't expecting a record time. I was right to trust my expectations. The first half didn't feel too bad, but I went through real bad patch just over half way through, I hadn't eaten much in the day and I think it really affected me. I almost stopped at several points. The time was 41:07 which is around 30 seconds off my previous best, which although not being very good, at least wasn't shameful, bea

The dizzy heights of 1000 views

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Well look at that, thanks to you my blog has now reached the dizzying heights of 1000 visit points, woo hoo! Haven't you all got better things to do with your time?? Just think of the time you could have saved, you'll never have that back! To say thanks, here's a picture of a cake with a sad face.

Beasted by the board of the beast

Monday this week found me in Glasgow as I had some work up there. The plan was to cut early and head over to Dumby, but as is ever the case, I found myself looking at 6 hours worth of rain as I left the meeting at 2pm. It didn't look like it was going to stop. The choice was thus: option 1, drive 45 minutes to Dumby, look at some wet rock, then go home , or option 2, drive home. Unsurprisingly I opted for the second option. As it happens, I should be up there again in October, so I'm hoping to get a chance to head over, as I've heard good things about this Scottish bouldering homeland. Aside from that, which was doing nothing, I've done very little this week, in fact nothing. Soooooo yesterday I headed over to the Wall of Burl. Second visit, and it just isn't getting any less steep... and unfortunately gravity still has the same affect it always does on my un-muscly and flabby non-tensiony body. Think it's doing the job though. Today I feel wrecked. I haven'

Boardy boardy

This week has been a bit mad at work really, so I've had less opportunity to get much done. However on Tuesday I was feeling sluggish and decided I really needed to go for a run. As I was supposed to also be going to the in-laws I opted for a Jumbles quick run. It's been a while since I've done this run, and it showed, as I couldn't remember the route and got rather lost, ending up on horrobin lane. This added at least 3 minutes onto my time so I only managed 22 mins 45. bah. I felt broken too, obviously a bit out of touch... Yesterday I headed over to Todmorden for a board meeting at the church with the bearded one and GCW. The brutality of the 40 degree steepness all but finished me off after an hour or so, but I managed to get to the top on the jugs. well, just. Most of the rest of the time was spent generally flailing and watching BB and G crushing mad-stylee / spinning holds (delete as applicable). They were both looking strong. I knew the night was all but over wh

too much booze, not enough moves.

Well recently has mostly consisted of not moving very much, and drinking coupiously. I put it down to drinking while I still can, but whatever, it's not good. This weekend just gone was spent in Edinburgh on Banksy's stag do, and in spite of the only 4 hours sleep on Friday I managed to come second in the claypigeon shooting. ALthough I was robbed, having only 23 cartridges as opposed to the 25 everyone else had, so the moral victory is mine! After a night out which ended up in rickshaw races down the high street, we managed to leave the horrible (but cheap) hostel more or less in one piece. As I'd refused to pay double the train ticket price to leave at a time of my convenience, I had to wait until 4pm to get my train as opposed to everyone else leaving at 11. Ah well, I had a secret plan... I had managed to secrete my climbing shoes in the bag on the off chance that I'd be at a loose end. So, after breakfast I decided to head up to Salisbury crag for a play about. Igg

Pottering

Went over to Brownstones after work yesterday for a potter. I warmed up on the crack, two step and a couple of others. Then worked a bit more on the pond traverse to see how I'd do. Actually I managed to get from the corner at the end of the initial wall over to the muddy arete or whatever it is first go, not even that warmed up. This was promising, as I could only just do that before I got injured. Anyway, another part I've always struggled on a bit is getting round from mantelstrung to two step. I managed that first go too, going low whereas I normally go high. Might I start to think this may actually go down this year? It was a bit of a confidence booster which I'm in dire need of at the minute. For me, Psyche+confidence=results, and as I'm running short of psyche... I was displeased to hear last night that the Great North Swim has been cancelled or rather postponed, meaning I won't be heading there this weekend. It does however mean that I can join the whole of