rginns blog

This weekend saw a couple of good board sessions of about an hour a piece which were unexpected. I was due to be pretty busy all weekend, but I managed to sneak a bit whilst the little one was asleep. Again, pretty haphazard approach, trying the usual set, then trying hard moves at or just beyond my limit. It may sound obvious but I concentrated mainly on working the fingers, crimping mostly, which highlighted the fact that I have few slopers on the board. I think I'll be shelling out soon. Open handing crimps just doesn't seem to have the same effect as a few good slopers. Actually it's probably a good time to review the board to see if I need to make any changes or improvements. On a different note, we made dinner for 8 of us last night which consisted of 2 curries, a Methi and a sort of Limey Balti, both from scratch. I made some awesome onion Bhaji's, I'd forgotten how easy they are to make.

Not posted for a while, no reason other then I've been pretty busy and not been doing much anyway. I have however been getting on the board a bit, albeit not for long sessions. The opportunities tend to be relatively frequent but short. Anyway, last night I went to mcc as Taffa was heading down. I was looking forward to getting some chuffing Done. I put the feelers out to the usual suspects, but all were busy. Now bearing in mind I've not been leading for probably about 2 years, I was pretty pleased to get a 6a done especially as head games have always been an issue for me. Yesterday though it was different, I felt Psyched and everything felt easy. Ok, so no great grades but for me it was good. If I was inclined, I could really get back into roping, it was after all my first intro to climbing, and I think it's good to reconnect with your roots sometimes... This was followed by a good board session tonight, although I could really do with some more resin slopers...

I ended up going to Preston anyway last week in spite of my foot hurting quite a bit. In mitigation, I strapped it up all day and wore big boots in the office. Apart from looking ridiculous, they did incredibly well in taking the pressure off the toe - ironically the way rockshoes have a tendency to keep the feet compacted, it actually helped wearing them as well. The idea was to see how it went and stop if it started hurting. As I was with JB, and I fancied doing a bit of roping I warmed up on a couple of easy routes. It felt ok actually, so I jumped on a 6a+, but I wasn't warmed up properly. I cruised it, but felt buggered for a bit afterwards, and my foot started to ache. I always seem to run before I can walk... I need to learn to step off the gas sometimes! So, by the end of the night I'd climbed up to 6b+, which I felt pretty good about in the face of a knackered foot. Towards the end I had a boulder, and climbed V4, and also got to the last move of the red V5 in the ca