Stoney Madness

Following the demise of England's world cup bid (which I seem to be unashamedly happy about) it's back to the old routine of being a punter. At this time of year this involves pulling hard on half decent holds and standing on ones that are mightily polished and where finer to do this than at the hallowed temple of polish that is Minus Ten at Stoney.

Leaving Sheffield I wasn't feeling too excited about it all - I was feeling tired after drinking too much the night before to try and erase the memories of the worst England team ever to play in a World Cup (I now know the Scot's feel when they qualify) and it was baking hot. Getting out to the Peak it had deteriorated to hot and cloudy and humid beyond belief but having parked the van and walking up the High Street a gentle breeze was blowing so it didn't seem so bad. That lasted till we got to Minus Ten where the magical zephyrs so prevalent only a moment before had disappeared again and all we were left with was super sweaty limestone to flail on. Well we were there so flail we did - the middle of the traverse was dispatched (didn't bother with the left hand part) and then I tried the final moves though Pinch 2 which is the crux of it all and a fair degree harder than the rest by a long way. Got a half sequence going but really not drilling my right foot onto the hold for the crux and so was subsequently barn dooring off and try as I might the syke really wasn't there to try harder.

All quiet on the Western Front

Not the combo double bonus route at Almscliffe but in general.

Finally recovered from my brothers stag do midway through Monday and was hopeful that the van was going to be sorted so that I could go and beast myself at Rubicon. No such luck as they couldn't get the drive shaft for that day so it would have to wait till tomorrow for delivery.

Tuesday came and it brought with it the wrong part which didn't make me very happy. Up till this point I had been relatively sanguine about the fact that the drive shaft had already been removed days earlier to have the clutch replaced only to get bolted back on and then being subsequently warned that it was very close to fucked. Now I was just bloody annoyed - another day that I can't get out and go climbing and it was then I remembered the Heeley boulder. It may not be much but at least it can be climbed on and it will do when you can't get anywhere else - needs must and all that.

From a visit a long time ago I remembered the Heeley boulder as being a bit shit and while a return visit didn't exactly dispel those memories it didn't prove to be as bad as I expected. If you use a bit of imagination it can be quite useful actually as it's steep, the crimps are big enough to be of some value if you have not crimped for a while and the Sheaf is minutes away for a post training pint. It will do as a training for the greater ranges and all that.

Aftermath

This weekend was my brothers stag do organised by yours truly - no calls to bail anyone out so I think we all survived the occasion which given the state of Ballooner was bordering on miraculous. Over the course of two days I drank an awful lot of beer, ate some curry, repeatedly texted some poor person whose phone number I had mistakenly entered into my phone, and looked at some scantily clad women. Recovery is still taking place and I am going bouldering tonight assuming the van is sorted by then - it is unlikely to be a very productive session but all in all a rather successful weekend...

Sublime slime II

The weather cleared out this afternoon so decided to hit Pleasley with the Flipper. The overnight rain had left the crag a bit wet at the bottom with the odd hold seeping but the majority of the crag was climbable though any cloud cover resulted in a greasy collection of positive holds to try and hold on to. Still turned out to be a good session though - checked out the left hand side buttress which has a few good lines to go at, made a bit of progress on the big traverse and my footwork seemed to be on the ball. All good stuff and as an added bonus we managed to get back to the van about five minutes before the next bout of monsoon rain passed through.

I now feel like I have been run over by a small train and while I won't be going to work at 7PM tomorrow night with great joy etc. at least I will know that I cranked hard on my off days.

Sublime slime

With the heat building up to the levels of a blast furnace it was time to say goodbye to the grit for the summer months and start on a new journey - that of learning (maybe relearning) the intricacies of limestone. I have had a brief play on the white stuff this year but lime has always been a harsh master for me and has only got worse given my steady diet of grit bouldering for too long. Too long off from stuff involving a bit of string and some chunky quickdraws have left me with absolutely no crimp strength and even less endurance.

In an effort to rectify this I am forcing myself to love the lime and I am slowly getting there - spent Friday night bouldering at Rubicon for the first time with the Flipper. A really lovely setting to say the least and the long, long, long traverse gave me a very pumped set of forearms but thankfully not quite as pumped as those experienced on "Sock it to 'em" at Smalldale which took pumped to a whole new level. The traverse is notable for looking piss and being decidedly not piss - it is subtly steeper than you think it is, the hand holds are generally huge and the footholds are not. After an hour and a half I was pretty trashed and for my sins I had managed to work the first part (of four) to the big sidepull flake to a point where I was happy with the sequence. From there I then managed to link half way into the second part where it gets steeper and the ability to put the weight through your feet and hit the footholds both precisely and quickly starts to become more urgent. From this point is unknown but it is not going to get any easier for sure.

Saturday was on more familiar ground at Horseshoe with Broken Beagle. Decided that seconding and focussing on decent footwork was going to be of more use to me than getting scared on lead. Pale Rider (6a) went clean but placed far too much emphasis on pulling hard instead of using my feet, Schools Out (6a+) went better but got the sequence wrong towards the top, fought back to get into a position to try and make the move but lack of arms saw me off and finally Rotund Rooley (6b allegedly) beasted the living daylights out of me. No way is it 6b - for someone of my stature it's somewhere closer to 6b+ as far as I am concerned - the crux felt Font6b on it's own. Grade debating aside it was the best burn of the day - less over gripping and the footwork seemed OK up to that point so reasonably pleased.

Today is a rest day as the first storm of the summer arrived in a rather noisy fashion this morning.

True Story

I stole a rabbit from a pet shop the other day.

Thinking about making a run for it...

BOOM BOOM!!

I like this joke so much that I am going to use it in my best man's speech for my brother.