close comfort

Since i got back from Germany i've been just as keen for getting out as ever, if not keener, which is unusual as usually after getting back from a holiday i'm up for putting my feet up. I had a crack at a few projects from last year and felt much better on the whole, after splitting a tip on one i took a walk round wyming brook before heading home to train. Wyming brook is 5 minutes drive from my house in sheffield with a free car park and a 1minute walk in to the rocks. It has no decent recorded boulder problems. until now! (actually thats open to opinion but they certainly seem good)

That's not to say it has a lot of boulder problems, yet, or ever will have. But when such a nice venue (peaceful woodland with a stream) and good problems lie so close to sheffield it really is worth the 5 minute drive if you live there. If you don't live in sheffield but 7b is a tricky grade for you then the above picture of, Superbrook 7b should hopefully encourage you to check out a nice problem to try. Its called superbrook due to it being a smaller easier version of superbloc on initial appearance.

We also climbed a nearby problem (named brookside 7b+) under Matthew Thompson's route, parthian shit (great name) it takes the arete right of the crack on its RHS with the crack being avoided for hands and feet. We (me nick and ben

Another nice arete lies on the opposite side of the brook, on the isolated slab, it takes the overhanging LHS of the arete upto the ledge at about 7a and is called the Rhyming Book

All pics Nick Brown.

i'll put these up on peakbouldering.info soon with directions for people to find easily

keepin' on keepin' on

So after forgetting to fall off a bunch of stuff last week I thought I'd try and build on the previous weeks 8ertainment and sample some more low 8's. First up was a spur of the moment decision to get on Solomon's seal, a problem that must just about win the award for sitting on my must try list the longest. I sat about until 5ish then launched my machine Stanageward. It was still stinky hot but just about ok and after about an hours worth of pottering on some solos (Anniversary Arete is amazing and now vies with Queersville as my fav Stanage solo). Golden hour was starting and it was time to sharpen my teeth. After dispatching the stand fast I hopped straight on the sit, after half persuading myself that it went from there anyway. After about 15minutes i had a rough sequence and had done all the moves, but it took another 25 minutes or so to refine it down enough to be able to drop the 2nd last move twice. This seemed to have something to do with a weird kind of smeary juice coming out my fingers by the last move one of Stanage's grizzliest small crimps. 15 minutes of chilled out pottering and sitting about seemed to have cooled things off for one last go, having basically already admitted defeat this was a one for the road. Then that elusive ladyluck stepped in and I hit stuff grain-perfect and found myself at the last move and luckily I seized my chance. I'm not normally one for renaming sitters unless they're in keeping with a rough theme of the stand. So if Solomon Grundy sticks then that's cool. It adds some hard moves and makes it a nice mid 8a I think. A brilliant session though and one to remember next time I'm grumbling.

In the rest of the week I nipped up Banana Republic and just about managed to keep my skin intact, but then an unfortunate broken leg from another very unlucky boulderer stalled the days antics somewhat. After taking 2 days off to sand 70+ beastmakers and develop a few things. It was back to the blocs and a meeting with a hideously strong bugger of the yorkshire persuasion, Mr Mark Katz. After seeing him make full power look easier than falling over when drunk I thought i better pull my finger out and give it a stab whilst Mark was trying 8ball via a look how stretched i am, cheek against rock display of body tension, good job too or else it'd be a party piece for the guy. The send train picked us both up after about 25minutes of waiting and we whisked ourselves off to Moorside. Where Katz found another much more impressive project which didn't seem to kick up much initial resistance, but then a wild Jackie Chan footping tomb stoned him onto the pads, and nothing puts a downer on a good session like horrendous whiplash. We moved onto the sausage king of meersbrook and rumours of 8a-ness. For my height this is more like Ian's original grade of 7c and a few footlocks later she was on board the send train too (great problem this and well worth hunting out). The weekend saw another illicit lime visit and an 8 with a bit of everything. That took me upto 9 in 14 days with a few 7cs, the odd training session and two 10ks thrown in there too. I've stepped things up a bit for the next months list, i'm also on the lookout for some slightly opto projects, unfortunately there isn't a match.com for that sort of thing, just alot of legwork and thinking/ training.

we're starting to work and train for our beastmaker vid too which should get people keen. We're going to round up all the beasts and their beastly feats who are keen for a bit of dangling and show people what can be done if you can be arsed to dangle and watch tv rather than sit and watch tv.

sendtember

So the wettest month of the year is drawing to a close and people can get keen for the 3 best months of the year for trying most projects Sept, Oct and Nov are some of the driest, coolest and most reliable months in the northern hemisphere, i find it interesting how many people insist on trying to climb hard in august when it is the worst month in the year statistically, hot and wet are too naughty words in bouldering. August is for augmenting, so long as your near a fan then it's a good time to sneak in some sly training ready for when good conditions arrive.

Which happily coincides with the fact that i'm unable to climb outside due to a v bad finger injury. sustained on an outdoor project.

Board production-wise we are now upto mid-ish july in the back order but should be upto mid august by next saturday, we've had one final hiccup but this was nothing too major, more pernickety.

It's a big relief for all of us to be going again and hopefully we can get onto a big batch of 1000 series next as we haven't forgotten don't worry.

breaking the bows and making waves

Post cliffhanger myself and Ned headed upto the county/ the lakes for a bit of winding down. This was good for me as i could enjoy the beauty of climbing outdoors whilst healing up my finger on some stress free sends. It also gave Ned a chance to unwind from all the pressure of competing and get keen for rock again until comp season starts again.
The weather wasn't all too great but we made do and chose venues wisely. Visiting the bowederstone on my 22nd birthday brought back memories of me climbing there when i was 14 and finding problems like power pinch desperate. Although ironically it was one of the few problems which escaped me today due to my finger disagreeing with the top crimps. I still came to realise how much progress has been made over the past 9 years that i have been climbing. The same goes for Ned and to illustrate a point i thought i'd highlight his ticklist from 2 days climbing (sorry Ned), one at Bowden and one at the Bowderstone. Guide book grades have been used in brackets, our opinions being the main grade.
Day 1. (22 degC, still and muggy)
pockets traverse (7c), 2nd go
7b+ (7b) sitter through it. flash.
severus snape 7b (7b+). flash
staggered sit start. 7c+/8a (8a)
the crack. 7c/+ (8a)
sprung. flash. 7b+/c (7c)
transformer LH 3rd go. 7c (7c)
Day 2. (rainy but cool)
impropa sitter 7c+ (8a)
grand opera sitter, local sequence 7c+/8a (8a)
special cases 8a (8a/+)
phantom of the opera (rocking straight off the ramp) 7c+ (8a)

sometimes you can lose sight and not realise how much your improving, yet old venues never lie. We really think we're onto something with the way we train. Our boards are more a sounding board (excuse the lack of synonyms) for an approach to training if you just hang it in your house along with other bits of gear it will do nothing except be a rather nice looking innanimate shelf. Yet put some time in and get your head round it and it should come to life. An ideal if you will. we try to make good our promise of our company name and we (currently) stand proudly by these ideals.

What's in a name?
give us a few years and hopefully we'll show you...

Tales from Wales

Its nice to get out and about and try new problems. I get pretty bored trying the same things over and over again and lately I have been putting a bit of time into a tricky roof (Ned’s average description of climbing font 8b’s. Dan). Anyway that got finished off so I was free to go exploring.

We decided a trip to Wales was in order, then we decided we needed another one etc. We have been getting there quite a bit recently and have been getting a few classic problems done along the way.

The caseg boulder is home to some of the most font like rock this side of the channel, with lovely sloping holds that are a joy to pull on. Anyone climbing in the 7c region needs to go and do main vein. It is the best problem in wales. How can essentially a 2 move problem be so good? Go and do it and you will see.

Another amazing problem is the the caseg groove. I was lucky enough to bag the sitter to this just as it was getting dark (and conditions became better than terrible). The difficulties in the problem lie in moving your feet beween bad smears while pulling on slopers. The crux (for me) succumbed to a ninja kick foot move, which fired the left foot on to a smear as the right foot shot off its own foothold. Brilliant! The only thing keeping me on the rock was a few mm of (stealth) rubber and my core, tensed to the point of hernia.

Another venue we visited is the gop. This hardcore little roof was developed by the Cattell’s – no points for guessing how hard you will have to pull there. After a quick warm up I managed to bag the classic pinching problem ‘Push the button’, followed by Thompson and Mason. Next port of call was the sit start to blokesmoker (genius problem naming from danny). This fell to a basic sequence after I spent 20 mins trying to crowbar some technique into a basic power problem. Will I ever learn? Thompson and Mason also did the deed (after much fannying about!).

Between these 2 problems is a project of Doylo’s. He kindly let me unleash on it and after figuring out the moves I managed to not link it! I will be back….

home again

I returned home last night to find a few things immediately clear.
1 The pace of life in my village is much slower than Sheffield, stuff lies about for months without moving, it seems happy to gradually amble its way along.
Another was that it is absolutely baltic! and i was freezing my cobs off as soon as i stepped out the car, joyous temps indeed.
The worst thing was my dog not being there to tackle me to the ground, he died of lung cancer a few months ago. (I always said he should quit the fags, but the chicks dug it). It does suck though, he was an 8 stone bernese mountain dog so it feels like a big bit of the house is missing at the moment.
Nevertheless, life in the cold hard melancholic north goes on. Luckily there is some reet good bloccin' a be 'ad up eeeya like. And i was straight on it today like a sailor back from sea. Its been somewhere between 20-30 sessions on my project now so its becoming a bit of a home from home for me, i have my warm up ritual down to a tee, i know every bloody grain of that arete, and it knows me all to well as i heave my weight about on it. I'm gradually taming it, by doing things like calling it names in my head. i've also begun to learn to only fall off 2 moves. These moves are utterly brilliant and unique, part of the reason for the large amount of sessions has been me trying other sequences. Like a mathematician going through his working after finding a brilliant solution, incase there is a more simple one available. What i have found is my perfect boulder, which plays to non of my real strengths except tenacity.
Today was all about settling back in, i thought i'd quickly reacquaint myself with the top section. WRONG. It was pretty windy today (as ever) and the wind was was biting through any exposed flesh with a chill designed to preserve dead meat. Cacaphony can often be a reality at this crag. Mamma varian had been enlisted to belay, but was swiftly demoted to snoozing. Thank god for grigris. Basically i got slapped about on the top section AGAIN whilst remembering that mm count, eventually i'd fine tuned proceedings enough to be satisfied, after sticking the top double dyno twice in an hour, each FAIL being reinforced by a good old fashioned static load of the rope (which has been chewed by mice in my absence, ala Dan Osman!).
A brief dabble on the bottom lead me to summise that all the training has been worth it, but that today was not the day for turning the guns up, as mum had a roast in the oven so we needed to get back.
It's nice to be back in the quiet county, where thoughts provide the only noise to one's day. No worries about finding a parking space or whether you've disabled the car enough so that if some pikeys break in it won't be worth their while.
I did some other interesting moves today too, something for the future anyway.

now + then

If your wondering why things have been a touch quiet it's because 2/3rds of Beastmaker HQ have been studying for university finals, as well as training like monkeys on ritalin and there are also dissertations looming . Whack all these into your day and things get a bit hectic, still if you can't take the pressure get the hell out the kitchen. Dave is now merrily churning out fingerboards ready for post font distribution. This'll be when we really get everything together and start functioning as well as our machine (which functions amazingly well, thankyou!).

If you want to see/ train on a beastmaker in the flesh they are now in the foundry climbing centre in sheffield and should be in the Climbing Works by thursday

On the training front my specific index finger training appears to be working, as a quick strength test the other night gave some impressive results, one arm 1/2 crimping on the bottom RH edge is coming along too with decreased resistance being needed. Ned has been finding training too easy so he's infected his little finger tendon and cracked his skin to add more of a challenge to his day. Despite this he is still crushing lots of stuff, it's just he almost complains about stuff 1/3rd as much as i do now.

Hopefully Font will remain "blue" in the sky department and our weeks of repressed enthusiasm can be released upon a tide of unsuspecting orange circuits, we have hopes of doing the odd red circuit too. We'll be staying at Maisonbleau who shalt be recieving a custom engraved fingerboard for their troubles, so now our board grades will be font official! hopefully their resident 8B boar hunting beast will be on hand to give us a tour too.

Neither of us have climbed outside in weeks due to exams so either way it should be a nice change.

fixing up looking sharp

First Major news is that we are upgrading our Cad Cam machine even more so its fully pimped out ready to make the 5000, this means production of all models will be going by october, and even if i only sell 1 5000 to myself i shalt beeth happy as i'll know it was worth it to create such a cool thing. until then hold your hearses

On the climbing front my middle finger is fixing nicely and feels pucker, this means i can crimp again, however dragging is the new black and now i can do both rather nicely a happiness been restored into my climbing, injuries really make you feel the benefit when they're not there, i enjoy training round them (by not using them and abusing everything else) more than laying off as i think it makes you stronger.

Simonside got a visit on tuesday after a rather beastly fingerboard session the day before. things started well with some milktray chocolate delights for the journey there (layer 2 was saved for the way home) my 7b+ project was wet so we went upto potts buttress which is a brilliant few blocs, i got spanked by return of the spring as my arms weren't working and the wind got so bad it was blowing 3 tied together pads away. We then cleaned up some nice 8c projects (no joke) on a new simonside bloc, which will be amazing if the chicken heads stay on. Unlike Pebble patrol which lost a crucial(ish) one before the guide but springer thought he'd fire it in as an overhanging sandbag. after a bit of nipple tweaking and 1 finger crimping a new sequence was found and clamped up like a fat kids nipples in a secondary school changing rooms. It was nice to get some bite back and crimp again as its been months, it ended up being a curious yellow style snatch for the top hold where you need to hold the moment you hold the hold and say CLAMP MUTHA DUCKA and pull in the beak. it climbs about 1 foot right of the old line at about 7b+. if your over 75kg you have a good chance of destroying this problem so i'd suggest an automatic tick in that you could quite literally rip it off the wall. got it all on vidoe but i can't edit it due to slowness of pc and lack of decent editing software, which should be ammended soon.

I coasted down to kentmere yesterday and started my dissertation properly, managed to do LOTS and will be going back right after i get back from Torridon and Reiff where i'm hoping there are some decent sandstone blocs and projects around the 7b+ to 7b+ region.