rginns blog

Apologies for the last post. Was just feeling a little negative about the situation... It turns out things aren't that bad really, when one applies a little logic. Anyway, yesterday of all days I managed to get on the board and managed about an hour and a half of good cranking. It felt brutal given that I've not been on for a bit, and no doubt it will be a while before I'm hitting the really small crimps, but it felt really good to be back doing something, albeit not a great deal.. I'm feeling really positive about finally getting 7a done soon. We're past the shortest night of the year now, and if I can keep some momentum up with the board, it'll get done. On a separate note, I've finally got the new lathe up and running and can finally start getting some of the cherry and laburnum worked, I can't wait. Finally at 3200 rpm, nice! makes a decent task during rests on the board, aye!

So, here I am, in bed with a fever, hacking sore throat and general lethargy. What with the recent cocktail of long days at work, shitty weather, getting fat at kids birthday parties, getting fat eating hotel food working away, I really didn't need an illness on top. Ok, i might be being a little melodramatic, but this situation does stink. It feels like I've not been climbing in ages, and I've certainly not done any training lately. It's almost worse knowing that the woody is in the garage, but I haven't had the time or inclination to use it recently. In the new year things have got to change I think, the Font trip is booked for easter, so I need to start cranking sometime soon If I've any hope of achieving my goals next year. I guess I could sum up by saying I'm generally pissed off with my climbing, or lack of it recently... I wish it would stop raining soon, and I can get back on the projects,

I had the day off today, and a day of exploration was planned… I met GCW and R-man at ten to check out a small quarry I’d never been to before, and we walked to the crag, in spite of the forbidding signs warning to Keep out. After getting mis-routed, we found the crag and on first sight it looked a mixed bag. There was the obvious off-width crack that is already documented, but more interesting than that was a low roof that could well yield four or five decent lines. Unfortunately everything was wet… Further right there was also a decent looking wall, probably another couple of lines, and also to the left, although this was clearly dirtier and could do with having a tree lopped. Certainly something to come back to – typical esoterica, but with potential nonetheless. Next, after some indecision, we headed off to Duxon, a recently discovered crag near Brindle that R-man visited last week. The main crag is unfortunately mostly covered by a lake, and needs a lot of cleaning for it to beco

I found myself free for a couple of hours yesterday and GCW mentioned that him and R-man were heading back up to Billinge after a successful potential problem hunt and had decided to do a bit of exploratory cleaning. By the time I managed to get out it was nearing 2pm. GCW texted to say they were heading off by that time. I decided therefore to head over to Pinfold to check out the bouldering there, as there are some problems described on the left hand side. After getting a bit mis-routed getting there, I eventually found where to park (not masses of parking) and walked in. Unsurprisingly everything was sodden. I tramped through the fields on the way in and found the quarry, hidden around near a small valley. The bouldering hereabouts is on a terrace on the left and on first sight actually looks relatively clean and of good quality. It was all wet though, so nothing was going to get climbed, but definitely will be worth going back to. At this point I started to walk over to the other s