Team Slovenia - Day 5

Should you ever find a couple of Slovenia crushing machines in your house the following  "rules" will keep them more than happy.

• Feed them lots of tasty home-cooked food.
• Let them stream Futurama off the internet to keep them entertained whenever they are not climbing.
• Drive them about in a van with a big sound system with the bass turned right up and Techno on demand.
• Take them to lots of different gritstone crags, point them at various things that are famous\hard and watch them crush.

Day 5 saw Team Slovenia having a rest day following their exploits at Stanage the day before and therefore it was declared that it was my day to crush (albeit at a more mortal level). Given this it was an easy decision to go to Curbar for Round 1058 of Butters vs. The Ulitimate Gritstone Experience but before that though there was time for a quick guided tour of Baslow and another look at Fatworld.

We stomped over to the Eagle Stone and upon seeing that any idea of a rest day  was put to bed for Team Slovenia. After hanging off various parts of it in the guise of warming up Jernej got on the Send Train with a quick flash of "A Fistful of Beagles" and not wanting to be outdone Jakob promptly did the same.

Having dispatched that, attention was turned to "For A Few Beagles More" which prompted a few raised eyebrows with the guide book describing it as a highball and following a quick consultation regarding possible sequences Jernej was off.  He floated (almost literally it seemed) as far as the top break on the flash attempt before dropping off as it was more than a little dirty but after a quick brush that too was added to the list of problems done with ease and Jakob then did the same in (I think) two attempts.

Me? I just stood there and wondered what the fuck had just happened - two of the hardest problems on The Eagle Stone had been done in a total of six attempts! It was a bit of a shock to say the least.

They then looked at a The Bright Concept as a final possibility but the line wasn't that clear and it looked to be suffering a bit of run off so I suggested that we go and look at the hard classic of the crag - Flatworld - instead. I was hoping it might provide a bit more opposition to Team Slovenia but Jernej gave me barely enough time to get the camera out before he flashed it with what turned out, in retrospect, to be a duff sequence - a conclusion arrived at after he had done it a couple more times to provide beta for Jakob. As it was Jakob gave it more than a few good goes but even with the beta he couldn't get it sent though that was down to sore skin more than a lack of talent.

 

After a flash of the rather scrittly slab to the left by yours truly we had a look at Fatworld which I still can not figure out how to do. I have pretty much ruled out the high foot method as just feels totally wrong to me so I played around with the smear up the face method.instead which doesn't feel any easier but at least it feels possible. Jernej and Jakob both did it and both said that it was never Font 6a which led onto a consultation of the BMC guidebook grading charts. Now I have always worked on the assumption that V3 was somewhere about Font 6a but the BMC put this round about 6a+\6b which goes quite a long why  to explaining why I am regularly getting shut down on problems of that grade. Moans about grade conversions aside they seem to be consistent across the board so it is just a matter of adjusting ones sights accordingly and getting on with it.

Having solved that we set off to The Ultimate Gritstone Experience and by the time we got there I was really up for the problem and was convinced that the extra SYKE from Team Sovenia would be enough to get me up it. After a couple of goes to get the sequence refreshed in my head it was back up to my usual highpoint and I was feeling really solid on the bottom section. The foot swap was going really well with no sign of cutting loose and the moves were feeling about as easy as they have ever been to me. Third or fourth go I actually had both hands over the lip and realised that I had no idea what to do so I hung in desperately trying to figure out what to do before descending back onto the mats far quicker that I had got up there. From then on it was a matter of getting back to a similar point and trying something slightly different every time in an attempt at unlocking the top section and while none of them met with success I think I have a reasonable idea of what to do now. All that is required now is the small matter of doing it come round 1059...