Good day, bad day!

Been down to Camp Butters a couple of times this week - had a good session all round on Monday and walked away pleased with myself. Tried to work the top and middle tier problems and made some sort of progress but the general steepness and some seriously ragged skin did me in towards the end of it.

Today was the opposite - I got on the hardest Font 5 in the world to warm up and got shut down with a vengeance. It was like the first time all over again - no power, no footwork and just bloody awful really. Sat back on the mat and to be honest I was just puzzled - I have this bloody thing reasonably wired now so where had all the progress that I had made in the previous weeks gone? Decided that I wasn't going to let it get to me and had another go with slightly better results but things were not looking good so had a radical rethink and just concentrated on doing the middle section (which is the crux for me) as smoothly as possible. Eventually called it a day about three hours later - skin was shot again which is starting to become an issue but at least I had done something instead of walking away in a fit of pique. Next time I get on it there is hope that the end section will be that much easier as a result of the work that was put in today.

Also got a bit of beta on the middle tier problem which seems feasible - it certainly looked easier than the way I was trying it on Monday so that is something else to look forward to.

Camp Butters

Been down to Camp Butters (formerly known as Rubicon) for the last couple of days. The hardest Font 5 in the world is getting easier and while it is still nowhere near a certainty every time I did manage to chalk up half way through it. A minor success as linking into other stuff still seemed a long way away but I felt tired yesterday so not that disappointed about that. Also had a play on Dragonflight Traverse - the moves don't feel that bad but the pain in my feet was excruciating - hopefully this is down to the shoes needing to break in a bit more.

Back again today and warmed up, did the 6a+, some variation going direct to the penultimate sidepull of the former problem and then played about on the Three Tier Traverses to the right. I had thought that these were all 6b but a quick look at the Peak District Bouldering website soon knocked that idea on the head - from the top 5+, 6a and 6b+. At least that would explain why the lowest one feels monumentally hard and the two above not quite so bad. Finished off with a couple of attempts at Miller's Dale - going again to the crimp with the left not a great idea when your skin is trashed - it hurts - a lot!