Little Women
Well if you set em up, you've gotta knock em down. today i resisted the urge to try a big new prow in thumberland, by biting the bullet and knuckling down to one of the investments in the failure bank as i thought i could see a crack of light appearing.
Kentmere was once again pristine at about -3 without a cloud in the sky, as a granny in the Spar in Stavely said "it's an honest morning and you have to work for your warmth". With a rare natural Vitamin D dose i was mentally building up some serious psyche. A thing i do very rarely, if you build it and you don't succeed its really easy to burn out. Its like flooring your car to get to a place on time, if you miss it, its all for nothing and it sucks.
After a slow and careful warm up and enough green tea to fail a drugs test, battle commenced. Excuses were hard to find as i felt light in the core and the fingers, the pipes weren't doing too bad either. Perfect conditions didn't help the moaning either. Warming up in my expedition down jacket kept the dry slips at bay. after cruising it from 2 moves in I started to try the shonky gaston move which is my cop out from manning up for the true crimp way, (i can slap the sidepull using the crimp but its beyond hurrendous to try and stick, unless i've missed something)
After about 10 close but failed attempts and learning crucial micro beta i unleashed both the "emergency crimp" and some serious growl, as crunch time was fast approaching. "Emergency Crimping" is a Varian trademark where upon full rack crimp is used instead of normal and finger injuries queue up by the dozen, extreme overbite is a common side effect as is severe verbal pressure release in the rare event of the failure for it to work. I managed to stick the crux at the deadpoint and it felt piss, using this as fuel i clamped my way to the top despite a foot pop which was hydraulically repositioned onto the 8mm edge. Relief of about 6 sessions over 5 months came to be, thoughts immediately turned to the lower start as the upper one, despite being a logical sitter is still a shallow victory. I'm pretty sure its the hardest boulder i've done but its hard to tell, time will tell i guess, i know the low sitter will be.
To me the crux of this is harder than any move on: Superman, the ace, voyager, bloodsport, a bigger belly, and any foreign problem i've ever done a move on, it probably just doesn't suit me though and i didn't even need to diet or train too specifically. A big thanks to Gaskins for leaving such testing blocs which really make me push myself, and apologies for defiling it with a heel hook (which has nearly destroyed 2 boots!) and wussing out on one of the crimps (which i still use on the move after)
The low sitter (LW-RH) from the sidepulls just to the left of shadowplay is the true logical start for me, coming across from shadowplay for 1 extra move seems forced and hurrendous (I.E. im too weak) , i'd rather get stuck into shadowplay after doing this as i have a feeling it might take me a few years. The moves from here are 3 ok ones and 1 hardish one to get into the other sitter, i also ripped a massive hold off it, which hurt some serious body parts, whilst doing the moves. It was a useless hold anyway and the moves are fine without it. its stowed under the boulder if anyone's bothered but its better that its a tad harder now, the new sequence crimps a large foothold instead.
NOTE: I'm pretty sure the 3rd last hold (incut crimp) has broken backwards and slightly improved (nothing major) since november, if anyone has it i'd like to glue it back on if it can be done tidily as blocs like this shouldn't get easier, if not thats cool.
So now i'm sat at home listening to Jesu explosions in the sky mix, waiting for tomorrow when Ned and Tom arrive for some more trudging about with foam on our backs.
Kentmere was once again pristine at about -3 without a cloud in the sky, as a granny in the Spar in Stavely said "it's an honest morning and you have to work for your warmth". With a rare natural Vitamin D dose i was mentally building up some serious psyche. A thing i do very rarely, if you build it and you don't succeed its really easy to burn out. Its like flooring your car to get to a place on time, if you miss it, its all for nothing and it sucks.
After a slow and careful warm up and enough green tea to fail a drugs test, battle commenced. Excuses were hard to find as i felt light in the core and the fingers, the pipes weren't doing too bad either. Perfect conditions didn't help the moaning either. Warming up in my expedition down jacket kept the dry slips at bay. after cruising it from 2 moves in I started to try the shonky gaston move which is my cop out from manning up for the true crimp way, (i can slap the sidepull using the crimp but its beyond hurrendous to try and stick, unless i've missed something)
After about 10 close but failed attempts and learning crucial micro beta i unleashed both the "emergency crimp" and some serious growl, as crunch time was fast approaching. "Emergency Crimping" is a Varian trademark where upon full rack crimp is used instead of normal and finger injuries queue up by the dozen, extreme overbite is a common side effect as is severe verbal pressure release in the rare event of the failure for it to work. I managed to stick the crux at the deadpoint and it felt piss, using this as fuel i clamped my way to the top despite a foot pop which was hydraulically repositioned onto the 8mm edge. Relief of about 6 sessions over 5 months came to be, thoughts immediately turned to the lower start as the upper one, despite being a logical sitter is still a shallow victory. I'm pretty sure its the hardest boulder i've done but its hard to tell, time will tell i guess, i know the low sitter will be.
To me the crux of this is harder than any move on: Superman, the ace, voyager, bloodsport, a bigger belly, and any foreign problem i've ever done a move on, it probably just doesn't suit me though and i didn't even need to diet or train too specifically. A big thanks to Gaskins for leaving such testing blocs which really make me push myself, and apologies for defiling it with a heel hook (which has nearly destroyed 2 boots!) and wussing out on one of the crimps (which i still use on the move after)
The low sitter (LW-RH) from the sidepulls just to the left of shadowplay is the true logical start for me, coming across from shadowplay for 1 extra move seems forced and hurrendous (I.E. im too weak) , i'd rather get stuck into shadowplay after doing this as i have a feeling it might take me a few years. The moves from here are 3 ok ones and 1 hardish one to get into the other sitter, i also ripped a massive hold off it, which hurt some serious body parts, whilst doing the moves. It was a useless hold anyway and the moves are fine without it. its stowed under the boulder if anyone's bothered but its better that its a tad harder now, the new sequence crimps a large foothold instead.
NOTE: I'm pretty sure the 3rd last hold (incut crimp) has broken backwards and slightly improved (nothing major) since november, if anyone has it i'd like to glue it back on if it can be done tidily as blocs like this shouldn't get easier, if not thats cool.
So now i'm sat at home listening to Jesu explosions in the sky mix, waiting for tomorrow when Ned and Tom arrive for some more trudging about with foam on our backs.
posted by Beastmaker.co.uk at
11:22 AM
2 Comments:
Happy NY beastcheeks. Good crushing!
Awesome crushing. Good effort. Gaskins is a god.
I was up in Kentmere myself over the holiday period, did some of my own long-term projects on absolutely mint days. It was the best conditions I've ever had there.
When are the boards going to be available for purchase by rock-starved punters that no longer live in Sheffield? I'm quite happy to spend my cash to help keen youths go out and crush, but you don't quite seem to be at the manufacturing stage yet? Any timescale for when I can get my fat fingers on one?
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