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Showing posts from 2013

September 30th - Catterick Bridge to Osmotherly

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I don't do long distance walking. However, having done the first half of the walk in 2012, I was expecting it to start hurting around day 3. I wasn't disappointed. At Catterick Bridge, we stayed in a pub B&B (which was, incidentally very pleasant). Here, I had to see to my feet. Twenty minutes with a needle and compede, and the work was done. My feet felt remarkably better after this. Evening meal, a beer, and bed. It took about half an hour before my feet started hurting the following day, but luckily, it wasn't that bad that it slowed me down. I like walking with my dad. We have the same pace really, although I tend to be quicker on the uphill, Dad is quicker towards the end of the day when I'm flagging. Still, we compliment each other well. This section took us along a flat plain towards the Cleveland Hills which you can see for ages, and promises more interesting walking that is a little more up and down than the Mowbray valley. We left Catterick Bridge, pa

Reeth to Catterick Bridge

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We left Grinton Lodge in the morning and walked down the road, suitably refreshed after a few hours of unconsciousness. We were treated to fantastic views across the valleys. We made our way back to Fremington and rejoined the route following the Swale, we soon came to Marrick Priory after walking through sheep inhabited fields and barns, although we didn't make a detour. It seems to be an outdoor centre now, with a dozen willing idiots in helmets and lifejackets walking gleefully towards the river. They had picked a good day,  fairly sunny and still no rain. At this point we were overtaken by a rabble of about a hundred geriatric ramblers so we let them pass and waited, leaning on the fence. We then went through the gate and diagonally left up the grassy hill to a set of 375 steps through a wood and then a couple of fields and the hamlet of Marrick. Leaving here we were soon crossing fields of cows, a total contrast to the Lakes, tame by comparison. Field, wall, field, wall,

Coast to Coast part two - Saturday 28th Sept

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I'm quite behind with the blog, but will catch up over the next few days... In Late September me and Dad went up to Kirkby Stephen having walked from St Bees to Kirkby Stephen last year, thus completing half of the Coast to Coast. Last year it took around 5 days to reach Kirkby Stephen, meaning we had 6 days to walk from Kirkby Stephen to Robin Hoods Bay in order to finish in 11 days. We took an early train up, as early as we could, and after a change at Carlisle managed to get to Kirkby Stephen by 10:30am. Then ensued 13 hours of walking... This was to be the longest stretch of the week, over 26 miles and we already had a late start, so it wasn't the best of first days!! The highlight was the pull up to Nine Standards Rigg on Hartley Fell, the boundary between Cumbria and Yorkshire and pretty much the half way point on the route. We stopped here for some well earned cheese, Brot and dried apricots...   Pops on the way up to Nine Standards Rigg The descent from Nine Stan

Egerton Short

Went to Egerton last Friday with Taffa to see just how wet it was... the only climbable rock was under the bridge and even here a lot of the lines were wet, which produced that really insecure slippy feeling you get in damp weather. Anyhow, we got some easy problems done and still had a good time... here's the vid...

WiltonFest

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As I was working away for most of the week I didn't manage to get out anywhere, in spite of working about 30 minutes south of Font. although this was frustrating I know there will be other occasions I can get there. This weekend saw the very first WiltonFest, a celebration of all things Wilton. This was organised by the BMC and luckily the weather was cracking - well, at least it wasn't raining..  I'd mentioned to R-man  that I'd intending in going and he was too. I was a bit unsure as to how many people would actually make it down, but it seems the Wilton's are really well appreciated, as there were 80 or 90 people down at one point!! I was pleasantly surprised to see a few boudering mats as well as plenty of old faces: Ousells Tim made it down, keen as mustard to try the line to the right of Cosmic Rockers on the inside of the Prow - a great looking though potentially squeezed in line that both Robin and Tim were trying on a top rope, It'll probably be 7c

Egerton Quarry

So the training has taken a baack seat this week. I went up to Lancashire archives in Preston on Tuesday to drop off some more of the LCCC archives for safe keeping, and the rest of the week has been spent driving around the country sorting out various software and hardware issues on site for work, so psyche has been low for the wall.  Anyway, R-man contacted me to say he`s developed some bouldering at Egerton quarry and offered to give me a bit of a tour, so on Thursday I met him after work. After some parking  confusion, we located each other and made our way to the upper tier. Egerton is a pretty scruffy quarry, overgrown in places, but it has the same Lancashire charm that you often encounter, and the rock is mainly solid, crimpy, and there are some pretty good problems. All in all I climbed the following problems; Bringing the Bear 6a+, Reach for the Stars 6a, Competition Horror Show 6b+, Conniption 6c, Hit the Buzzer 6b, The Nose 5,  and a couple of other easy ones. If you ca

Week 3 and Wilton 1

Ok, so Week 3 was pretty average, only managed two sessions on the board, the second of which was cut a little short as I managed to tweak my left middle finger slipping off a sidepull. Moral of the story is don`t assemble a table saw inbetween sets, especially if it has a freshly oiled blade. Or rather dry your hands and chalk up before getting back on the board. Ah well, you live and learn. It didn`t turn out too bad in the event, and in the morning it was just normal post session finger ache, but it could have gone the other way I guess. The week was topped off on the Saturday by a visit to Wilton 1 as Taffa fancied getting a rope on. Weather was pretty good, bit chilly but not too bad, and the  aim of the day was to get something done. Clearly a pretty low aim, but as we had 3 kids in tow and the better halves we could quite easily have come away empty handed... Whilst the kids looked fruitlessly for wimberrys (geddit?) we headed straight for the prow, and there was already a

wk 2

So the psyche continues, even if convenient weather has been letting me down recently.  So in the supposed structure I've reached the end of wk  2 - POWER. Having not been wanting to update the blog with every minutiae of my activity suffice to say I've continued to get on the board regularly.  Sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and tonight have been consistently late night, betweenn an hour and an hour and a half, and have all ended in feeling suitably beasted given the nature of the training which has been power moves between poor holds, a mix of crimps and slopers/open hands followed by core work. Even  though there have been relatively few climbing moves compared to a session training endurance, I feel the time has been well spent in improving finger strength and general power. It's interesting however how old injuries you'd forgotten about come back to the fore once you starrt stimulating the movement that caused the original injury... I have been noticin

Power

So, the rain and squally weather has meant that getting out for short hits has been pretty unappealing recently, it's been raining pretty often in the Bowl Town and making gains on the board is a more effective use of time. The weather, coupled with just not being organised enough to get out of the door early aongside pressure at work has meant I haven't been out in the day. Must do better... So continuing on from earlier in the week I've managed to fit in another 3 more late night sessions, each an hour or longer and I can begin to feel the gains, simply from what I can do on the board. It's not the most inspiring form of training, but it's a useful way of getting strong, with the limited available time. In an effort to add at least some structure, I will continue in this vein for the next 3 weeks, and then start to work on stamina. So if I were defining this as some sort of periodisation, I am one week into Power, and in 3 wks I'll start on Endurance. Of

late night board sessions

so the weather continues to be pretty crap bearing in mind the heatwave in july, its funny how quick you forget...  so I've been confined to spending any climbing time on the board. so I've had 3 good sessions in the last few days, again concentrating on power moves mainly, I've pretty much taken the view that the board is for purely getting strong rather than improving technique (OK, so they go hand in hand to a certain extent, but...), so strong wide moves between positive but small holds has been e order of the day. The fingers are definitely feeling it, which is good so long as I can avoid getting injured.I've also been working in sets of sit ups and push ups, trying to keep on top of some core work too. Most sessions have been late night, around an hour or so, but hopefully I can build in some finger boarding at other times. if this rain stops I might get out to crush something...

rubbish weather...etc

The weather has been pretty mixed recently although there has been planty of good weather around having said that... I've just not been out in it.  My latest strategy of getting out early doors and at lunch has been scuppered a bit lately as I've been caught up running training sessions for our US colleagues as well as being in Germany for meetings this wk. unfortunately I've just not got as much as I'd like done. However, I have been on the board, training mainly long reach powerful moves, my core being a key weakness. Following on from the last post I've ordered and received a further 30 holds, a mix of crimps, jugs, pinches and pockets. The board is now about 80% full but there's still scope for fillers between the main fixings for screw-ons. there are quite a few holds I can barely hang yet..plenty for the future. I'm pleased with the set up and managed around an hour on it after I'd put them up tonight. Rain tonight, so probably won't

Brownstones and board...

So last week I didn't manage to get to the Wiltons, but I did get to Brownstones a couple of times,again before work or at lunchtime. It's been ages since I've been here and last time I was here I had a really good session ticking the old circuit of easy problems. During that visit however I did get spat out by Verdigris (6a+/b), a problem in the Two step area that is typical Lancashire climbing: a dynamic start,with a crimpy high step to finish. This annoyed me, and I wanted to get the problem on video anyway, so I headed down with this in mind. I was pretty pleased to get it second go, and it felt pretty easy, which was promising. When I originally climbed it about 5 years ago, it was about as hard a problem as I thought I'd be likely to climb here, but recent psyche has made me believe I can climb a lot harder than this. When it comes down to it, so much of what gets done in life comes purely down to belief. If you want it badly enough you'll find a way of get

Wilton and Great Manchester Swim

The last two weeks weather has been fantastic, very warm even early in the morning, which has meant I've been super keen to try and get out climbing as much as possible without disturbing the normal routine. This has been challenging especially with a new baby in the household. The best plan of attack has been to get out in the morning, I can normally get an hour before work, and if I'm focussed I can normally get a bit done. I've been out before work 3 or 4 times in the last couple of weeks and sometimes half an hour at lunchtime. I've been working my way through plenty of easy problems in the Wiltons, and there are some really good ones even if you do feel a little strange bouldering on a 20m tall crag... Amongst others, I've managed to tick the following (W1)Horrobix 6a, Horror arete 6a, Remembarete 6a, Pocket Wall 6a+, Break Dyno 6a, Big Frenchie 5, Leading Question 6a, (W2) Bish Bash Bosh 5, Wam Bam 5, The Urkling 6a, Iron Orchid 5, (W3) Final walls 1 5+,

Local Stuff and birds.

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I think I'll try to keep this blog a little more up to date than I have been doing, especially as I seem to be getting out a little more than normal. 3 weeks ago our beautiful baby girl arrived, 2 weeks earlier than expected but otherwise healthy, so time looks like it'll be pretty constrained for a while, which gives an extra impetus to get on the board for late night/early morning sessions. I got out with Taff to Cadshaw small quarry about a week after she was born for a couple of hours. We climbed 7 or 8 problems up to 5c before being out-gunned by midges and after a brief look at Brian Jacques we ran away. Unfortunately a crucial (for me) foothold has been broken on this problem and it now feels a lot harder than it did although I may just need to man up... I may sack it off as something I want to do, but it needs a closer look before I decide I think. It's a proper midge fest up there right now, but the river blocks also need to be looked at as I think there have bee

Hottee, Font, Burbage and Local stuff....

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Wow, another few months have gone by without an update. So, what have I been doing I bet all you cool cats are asking? Well, eager not to disappoint my readers reader, here's a rapido summary: At the end of March I had a trip to France, seem to be there quite a bit this year with work, which is not altogether a bad thing. After various meetings I managed to get free for an afternoon and spent a few hours at a crag called Hottee du Diable which is north east of Paris on the way to Reims, kinda out of the way if you're going straight up to Calais, but well worth the detour if you have the time. The crag is not far from Coincy which is itself not far from Chateau Thierry. As it was a weekday afternoon there was noone else there apart from a couple of walkers so I had the place to myself along with warm spring weather too. Don't get me wrong, this is no internationally significant venue, but there are quite a few problems to go at - mostly easy, but there are a handful of

recent psyche

Various excuses mean that I've not been climbing for what seems like ages. 2012 was pretty much a washout with very little being done, and this needs to change! So anyway, starting as I mean to go on I went to West View last week for an hour or so and realised how weak I've become and how much training I need to do in order to get back to some semblance of normality when it comes to climbing. I've not got too many specific goals this year, just to get back into a rhythm but sorting out the woody at home needs to become a priority. I've added some more holds to the board, a mix of medium holds and smaller crimps and I've re-jigged the landing zone to be more friendly. The addition of a king size mattress with bouldering mats on top means that the landing is much more friendly than it used to be. Ok, so the garage is still baltic at this time of year - this needs some work... but it's a more friendly environment to actually train in. I'm considering putti