Bury My Beagle At Bummers Knee.

Got out of work early last night and went to the works with the Flipper last night - turned out to be a good session all round for fat weak punters like us on the Black circuit. The black circuit has been up for ages now and still retains its brilliance but it is really bloody annoying when you are trying a problem that has had a random hold removed from it for reasons that a simpleton like me fails to understand. Why do it - surely the Climbingworks can afford more than one of every hold and not be forced to "steal" a hold from a good circuit for (I am guessing) the comp wall? Just don't do it!

Other than that managed almost half a circuit before I had to remove my climbing shoes which is great as it makes forgetting my shoes on the Wales trip and having to pay large for a new pair seem like a good plan in retrospect. Now getting them through the breaking in period and really happy with them - in fact I am so happy with them I am going to buy another pair when I can afford to which judging by the state of my bank account at the minute will be sometime after 2015.

Saw the Broken Beagle as well who was going to get an assessment from The Clinic chaps but the initial prognosis I heard was 6-8 weeks out of the game which is not good. It was obviously depressing for him as he wouldn't come down the Sheaf for a post climb pint afterwards - punter... ;-)

Edit: just got this update via the power of email about a mate who met us in the pub last night in a state that would be called merry by the extremely charitable:

"...what a mess. He stumbled around, set off home the wrong way, twatted around a bit more, fell into the kebab shop, and thats where I left him! I hastily set off up the hill not looking back. There were no bodies on the road this morning so presumably he got home."

Bless him...

Stuff

Yesterday was a good day if you exclude the fact that I was at work. The leisure battery for the van was delivered so now I have no excuse (apart from the snow) not to start on the electrics on pROJECT mAYHEM. Mere words can not express how much I am looking forward to laying in the road and running the cable for the split charger in but once it is done then that should be that and the next stage of the conversion can start.

To add to the good news the reversing camera and monitor was also delivered and when I got home the coffee I had ordered from hasbean had arrived (super fast deliverey, would buy from again. A* etc.) so at least I will be well caffeine-ated when I am laying in the road and swearing about skinned knuckles, the general indignity of it all and the like.

Last but not least I think I have decided on the project for next winter but I won't say too much for now - I need to finish off the one that is currently occupying me and then get a good summer of climbing in first...

Other stuff

One of the reasons that I have been out of the loop re: blogging for a while is that I have been doing stuff on pROJECT mAYHEM though not as much as I would have liked due to missing the best part of a month down to Christmas and then the wintry conditions which followed.

Another reason is that (for me at least) I have been climbing a fair bit in the last week or so. First outing was a part of a mates 40th birthday do in Wales which resulted in a first time visit to the Sheep Pen Boulders. It wasn't the most productive of trips as I had consumed what could quite rightly be called a prodigious amount of beer the night before but spending the night in the van seemed to have mitigated the worst of the ill effects that I really should have been feeling so off we went. The great plan was also hampered by yours truly forgetting to pick up his bag of climbing gear when leaving Sheffield resulting in a rather painful outlay of £80 that I really couldn't afford but the resulting day spent luxuriating in the relative painlessness obtained by going up half a size helped. Unfortunately the new shoes didn't make the walk in any easier (I thought I was Fiend I was blowing so badly) or give me access to vast amounts of previously untapped talent - if anything the talent available was even less than usual. First couple of problems got dispatched and then I had a major wobble topping something out which rather shocked me and things lulled for a while before going on to try a fair few problems at the top end of my ability and not getting too far. This was largely down to the rather awkward style of climbing on the Sheep Pen Boulders (it might be a feature of the rock but I haven't done enough in North Wales to say). This is not to say that the climbing is bad - it is very good but all of us struggled a bit to come to terms with the movement required. A few more trips to figure out how to unlock the rock and I think I could get quite good (relatively speaking) on it as it seems to suit the basics of my climbing with good edges and quite powerful moves all wrapped up in some improbable sequences. Nice! Finished off the day trying Dog Shooter which is totally my style and should go next time with a bit more commitment and a bit more fitness.

Thursday was the Climbingworks with Flipper and Beagles - tried the green and pink spots circuit which started off OK before descending at about problem 13 into a mass of nasty thrutchy oddness which really didn't find any sort of appreciation from me. Did OK though considering I had finished work at 7AM that morning - flashed one of the black and purple spots problems at about 6a+ which I was pleased with and then promptly ran out of steam. Good fun all round but it proved to me that I need to get some fitness and soon!

Saturday\Sunday was spent at Almscliff - the Saturday wasn't much fun with a baltic wind blowing in and the odd shower following it. Went to have a look at The Crucifix but the ground underneath was a churned up bog so sacked that idea, played on Flying Arête and got the start worked a bit better and then decided to sack it off to the pub as we were fed up with being cold and the weather was closing in again. Sunday was a better day - got Pork Chop Slab first time and then played around on the overhanging 6a problem from a sitter to the left until I pulled something in my shoulder\back which wasn't good. Thankfully it only seems to be a minor pull and seems to have settled down OK so just the ignominy of getting burnt off on a problem that I know should have been in the bag and finished with to cope with now.

Gah!!

How long....

It has been nearly a month since I last rambled on so what is new in the world of butters then? pROJECT mAYHEM continues to progress and the worst of it seems to be over and the end is in sight allegedly. The rear speaker housing has been completed, the speaker cables have been belled out and once a few other tasks have been finished off the van will feature its full complement of 11 speakers but for now though I am just revelling in the sound of phat bass emanating from the working sub woofer. I finally got round to sorting out replacing the amp that was driving the sub (or not in this case), sorting out a few other minor tasks at the same time and getting the HPF's sorted with rather impressive results even though I say so myself. I am still getting a small degree of bass rattle through the passenger side speaker but I was half expecting this and it is only at very high volume so I can live with it for now. Eventually I will get round to fixing the problem permanently as is down to the door card not being fitted correctly but it is a job for a fine day as it is quite possibly the most frustrating job know to man to remove and refit the bloody thing.

Anyway here are a few pics of the rear speaker housing to be getting on with for now - I did take some of the speakers in place as well but they are rubbish so just make up some pretty pictures in your head as they are likely to be just as good as the reality.