ideas of march

So since our little county visit i've been getting oot and aboot in this gloriously stable weather. We don't often get such prolonged periods of being able to straighten out our necks and look up into the sky without being spat on by a thousand droplets or by the wind knocking us over. England is ace when the weather is like this, it starts to feel like a normal climbing destination where you can just head out and try what you want when you want without a worry or second thought as to whether it's dry or not. Ned hasn't been so lucky, since the CWIF is in 2 days time and we're hoping to sport the best all UK team he has switched over on the training polarity scale, so now it is easier to mention when Ned is not training. I thought removing all his bed slats except for the two behind his head and his ankles was a step too far, but he assured me that training core in his sleep was the next logical step, the sand filled duvet was my idea after he slept through the night with pleasant dreams. This quick adaption was a good sign we thought. It looks to be a fun comp anyway, and you can watch the semis and finals live from the works homepage, so get screaming at your pc if you can't make it.
Really i think all foreign competitors should be made to climb hard on the grit the day before to equal out foreign skin advantage. as resin is far too easy to crush without massive giblets of skin missing from your tips.

So what else... i've being weighing up whether its worth the time and effort trying to ground up solo hard grit routes, as i appear to have found my mind crumble limit for hard moves (currently at about 8.5m) (the hard refers to tech grade there i.e. 7a and up with ok gear, rather than a font 6c with an iffy landing) as the extra effort required is ridiculous and basically i'd rather just go normal bouldering. Superstition (i didn't do it if your just on a success scan) started this all off... or actually snow balling did. First off i snowballed a bunch of things which i didn't fall off. So i thought i'd step things up and try to use the drifts to my actual advantage. i started to punt about on superstition at the end of one day ( a Gibson route being the obvious choice as you're guaranteed to get slapped about). Ground up beta finding is hard work, especially on a route as you only get half a second to make up your mind and try something. Its even harder when the climbing is at least font 7c (i think at least 7c+ to ground up) and when the only other top ropee beta involves things which'd be suicidal foam up (ground up with foam), like dynos or hurrendous undercling moves which offer the chance of landing on various angular objects from a height with any possible body part. So slow static progress it is then. By my second session i was tickling the last move. But the ridiculous sharpness of the line meant i only got about 6 goes before splitting a tip. So 5 days of healing and snow melt left me on my own with just a few pads and getting to here



Now that is a pretty distorted wide angle lens so i look a lot nearer to the pads than i actually am, anyone who has seen it in the flesh can picture it anyway (basically at the top of the promise) i sat up there facing the last 6aish move of rocking onto my left foot and locking to the top (no jumps here) for about 30+ seconds. guaranteed to be hitting the ground either way whether i committed or not. The coward in me won and i whistled down onto the pads. The fall is actually fine, as long as you take it properly. and here in lies the hard part, the higher you get the more in control you need to climb and land. and even though this is when the johnny big bolloxes of the world go for stuff they don't tend to be doing it on routes like this. So is it worth even bothering, are standards being pushed here or am i just kidding myself? I think i could train up to get better at pushing through the ~7m barrier but it is a risky game. It feels like i've completely missed the ground up with gear stage of the game. But why bother with it when hitting the ground from the last hard moves is fine (i got even further a session later and rocked onto my left leg before the crumble hit). it also removes the massive grey area of gear and rests when ground upping as retrieving the gear never really happens after attempts and many people are content with a quick play after they fall off. So in this sense it is very pure. But still why don't i just ab it get it dialed and send it first HP? and then do another 2 similar routes the same day. Lordy knows thats what i really want to do. the two weigh each other up in my mind but ground up always wins for routes like this (i'll be the first to admit that i've worked hard boulders off a rope, and cleaned many a problem) but as far as repeating routes goes. landing permitting. I'll always choose this style. for the same reason why i solo easier routes if possible and why i love bouldering and DWS. Natural unencumbered movement on rock is unbeatable whether it is above sea or foam or a sea of foam. It's just that the foam part hurts a little right now, nevertheless things like this are to be savoured and not consumed in a slurry of numbers and ticks. That said i don't think i've got loads of attempts at routes in this style in me, nor do my ankles. Which keeps things like this special. Its pissed me off alot this route as it's exposed even more weaknesses which i didn't know i had. And it is so sharp it is barely fun.

One bonus is that normal highballs are starting to feel smaller. The major draw back is lugging all the pads out to the crag. And that repeat visits are worse for the environment.