Sun, sun, sun!!

Things are looking up - in two weeks time I will be in Kalymnos for some climbing bolted limestone with the sun on my back followed by just laying about in the sun and finishing off with a beer - get in there!

Now in an ideal world I would get down the wall every other day and work on getting some finger strength built up at the very least but working nights is getting in the way at the minute. Still hopefully I can get another bouldering session or two in and that will have to do - in all honesty it is not the best preparation really but it will have to do and I am just going to have to get on some technical slabs inbetween steeper stuff. Eeek!

Ah well if all else fail it will be a nice training trip for the second trip - Sardinia!

Now this is one of the things I love about climbing - a mate drops you a mail and the next thing you know you have booked flights to go climbing somewhere. I must admit to being just as psyched (if not a little tiny bit more) for Sardinia. The island has limestone (nice) granite (awesome) and basalt to climb on - now the first two I have climbed on before and know what to expect re: movement over the rock and the like but what is basalt like to climb on?

I suspect that it's probably nowhere near as exciting as I currently imagine it to be but one of the plans for this year was to climb as many different rock types as possible and so the opportunity to add another one to the list has to be taken. It is also the chance to buy more guide books which is a good thing - they look impressive all stacked in the bog!

Ennui...

The urge to blog has been somewhat lacking at the minute but then there has been very little to blog about. I think that I have attempted to go climbing twice in the last month partly as a result of working nights (and generally being fucked as a result of it) but more than anything just not being motivated due to the crap weather!

Currently it would seem that I am the beloved of all the rain gods, not just some of them but every last one of the utter bastards, and to prove their love to me they follow me where ever I go in the form of rain be it showers, drizzle or just a good solid downpour that seemingly lasts for days. God it's depressing. 8-(

Anyway, as a result of this seemingly magical property I have to make it rain I am offering my services to those parts of Australia where they have had next to no rain for years. Within a week of my arrival I can confidently predict that it will rain and most likely in truly biblical proportions so any random Aussies reading this and wanting rain please get in contact and I will come over for the price of my flight and a few beers.

Assorted musings...

What does this blog do?

Does anybody read it?

Am I just sitting here and outputting my assorted musings into the ether in some vainglorious attempt at defining something that I don't fully comprehend?

Do I care if all of the answers to the above are nothing, no and yes?

I suppose not actually - my own experiences of the world both climbing related and otherwise seem to generate a whole slew of topics that I want to write about or probably more honestly try to write about and that is what I am planning to do over the next few weeks and maybe, just maybe, some of it will make sense.

Parisellas

Parisellas - permanently dry even in the face of the worst that the Welsh climate can throw at it is, in a nut shell, a bloody steep limestone cave with a floor that is a combination of dust, chalk and goat shit!! Now the floor alone should make it a desperately unattractive place to spend a day in Wales regardless of the weather but it is actually rather good featuring some quality problems and even two or three that I have a remote chance of completing within my lifetime. I will certainly be going back there if only to get Split Traverse in the bag. I flashed the opening 3/4's of the problem and then got to the hard bit - the drop down onto the big square block and move around the arête at which point progress ground to a very sudden and rude halt. Eventually I managed to work the move in isolation but subsequently fell off the final moves when my foot slipped off a polished hold on my penultimate attempt attempt to link it and just didn't have the power in the tank to make it on the last go...

What would Jerry have done in such a situation - probably not go to the pub like me but I needed a pint. I must say that it was a bloody good pint but it would have been a truly rad and syked pint had I linked the problem beforehand!!

Plan B

Well in the end we went for Plan B and had a few days in North Wales. The weather was largely kind to us and on the one day that we got godawful weather we just went and paid homage to Parisellas or as it is better known "The Cave of Justice" - a subject that I will deal with in another post.

What was most enlightening about Wales was that there is some many different sorts of rock to climb on - in the course of 5 days we climbed on Rhyolitic Tuff, Limestone, Slate, Rhyolitic Tuff\Breccia and finally Quartzite and we never got near the Basalt, Rhyolite or Dolorite that are in the Pass somewhere. The downside such as it is of having all these different rock types is that you have to figure out how to climb on them and how they can be protected to the best advantage but it is a wonderful journey of discovery and one that I wll have to go back and explore on more detail over the summer assuming of course that it ever arrives...

Of all the routes that we did the most memorable would have to be Tennis Shoe - the first and last pitches are as polished as the guide makes out but between those you have the most amazing slab that it's impossible to make a hard move on even if you decide to miss out all of the decent holds. Just keep climbing and throw in the odd piece of gear until you get to the end of the rope then build a belay and repeat.

Weather II

So far the quest to go climbing in the Lakes has been thwarted by the weather and it doesn't look too good for the next few days either. In fact getting any climbing done over the next few days is looking like a dubious prospect but it might clear towards the latter part of the weekend.

Plan C has now been thought of anyway - sack it off and go back to work on Friday and rearrange the proposed climbing holiday for later in the year. OK it's not a very good plan but at least it doesn't waste valuable holiday time sitting looking out of the window and wishing the rain would stop.

Anyway the plan for today is to go for a stomp with the dog and have a look at Plexity - a 3 star HVS 5a in the North Bay at Millstone which has been recommended to me. No chance of getting on it but a look at the line will hopefully get me psyched for it later in the year.

Weather

Tomorrow I am due to go to the Lakes for 12 days of climbing but the weather is not looking like it is going to play ball for the first three days at least - the weather is forecast for showers\rain. In an effort to combat such problems I had already thought of plan B which was to go to Wales, Scotland or Northumberland but these are also set to see rain so now it is time to think of a plan C that can accommodate the weather forecast.

What to do...