BLCC's 2013



 

The lead up to this competition was quite different to previous competitions in the past. Usually I would be stepping up my training in order to peak for the right time, but this was quite different. After my frankly abysmal performance at the summer open youth a couple months prior to now I had lost all motivation for route climbing competitions and in fact route climbing in general. I wasn’t even planning to enter the competition until a few days before when (thanks to Naomi for convincing me) I decided I may as well enter since I had nothing to lose as I would have been struggling to do any worse than last time.  I was a little concerned about entering though because the weekend before I had been attempting a fingery 8a called “The Sissy” at Rubicon and had been having a little bit of trouble with my finger since then.  Nonetheless I turned up to the impressive new Awesome Walls Sheffield for the competition, considerably less psyched than I should have been.

It was really nice to see everyone even if I was quite intimidated about climbing against them since their crushing in Euro and World competitions this year.  Looking at the routes, one looked pretty steady up a relatively flat wall on positive looking crimps. The other however took a daunting line up the ever steepening corner of the main roof. The holds looked poor and the climbing sustained - not good!  The first climb went smoothly like everyone else in the group who all topped it. Then came route 2, watching the juniors on it made me even more nervous as everyone, but the Canadian beast Elan, pumped out on various sections of the route. To make matters worse my finger was hurting more after the first route, and without having time to tape it up, I set off.

 



The start was pleasant enough, up positive holds. Then, quite suddenly it stepped it up a notch. The holds rapidly deteriorated, as did my non-existent endurance.  I wasn’t even half way up the climb, my elbows were out, my fingers uncurling and I was preparing to fall off.  But I just caught the next hold and then just got the next, and the next.  I thought I was going to fall off every move but I managed to cling on.  I reached the edge of the roof and with that came a slightly better hold.  I got a tiny bit back and managed to have a small breather. This gave me just enough time to register the shock that I was still on the wall; I should have fallen of three clips ago.  I carried on for a few more moves until I reached a drop down move onto a small crimp, the rope was in the way of the hold and I had nothing left to give, I fell off but I was ecstatic with my performance.  I had fully expected to fall off low down and have a repeat of last time; instead I exceeded my own expectations and made it into the final in joint third.

I didn’t feel any pressure about the final, I had more than achieved what I wanted to by reaching the final so what happened on the last route didn’t matter to me.  Plus the fact my finger was hurting a lot after my second climb and it was painful to pull on jugs in isolation. As I expected I didn’t do very well on the last route and I finished fifth overall.  But I didn’t mind, I was really happy with how I climbed. Even if it wasn’t my best result, it was my best result for quite a while and undoubtedly the hardest I’ve tried on a climb before.

This competition has massively improved my mentality towards competitions and routes again and has got me psyched to train hard and come back fighting for next year’s season. Unfortunately, after Carol kindly had a look at my finger she recommended a couple of weeks off to give it time to recover. I’ve concluded that I don’t want to specialise into one discipline, I enjoy all of them too much, even speed climbing after the speed championships the following day even if I did slip off in the first round! I can’t wait to get climbing again to compete (primarily in the Open Youth in December), plus it’s the grit season soon so I’ve got some projects that are going down this winter.  Until then ………         

Post Road Trip



Posing by Big Air

On returning from a month of euro sport climbing I was expecting to return to plastic and be the best I’ve ever been climbing on routes.  I was sorely disappointed.  First session back was bouldering and I felt very weak.  This I was expecting since I had done no bouldering for a month, but I wasn’t expecting to feel as weak as I did.  Undeterred, I went to The Foundry a couple of days later and found myself struggling on 7b’s and anything harder feeling impossible.  I didn’t understand, I’d spent most of the trip warming up on 7b’s and had been having less trouble with 8a’s then the 7b’s on plastic.  I was very concerned.  The moves just felt very hard when they really shouldn’t have been.

The following weekend was the Open Youth competitions in lead and bouldering, after my performance prior to them I didn’t have much hope of doing well.  The scramble format for the bouldering competition should have meant I could get beta from other people before trying the problems.  But me being me, meant I immediately got on one nobody else had and fell off.  I then got on another and fell off again.  By now I had already pretty much given up in my head.  I improved a bit afterwards but I had messed up too much and by the end of the qualifiers I was ninth. Frustrated I sacked it off and went home to chill out before the leading the following day.

Again I turned up to this one with little hope but I did have the consolation that the first route was flat and so it wouldn’t be too powerful which seemed to be the thing I was severely lacking.  It was going well enough until half way up, I was reaching over a lip and my foot popped.  It wasn’t going to be my day.  The next route I had the same issue as I had had at The Foundry, the moves just felt really hard and as a result I fell off very low again.  The only conclusion I can draw from what happened is that indoor routes generally are shorter and have harder moves so when losing a lot of strength and power from doing only routes I simply could not string together the difficult moves required for indoors competition climbing.  Not even bothering to look where I finished I enjoyed watching people crush in the finals, dwelled on why my climbing was so bad on plastic and looked forward to climbing on rock again in the Peaks with my friends the following week.

 

The Sunday of the competition had been Orrin’s 18^th birthday and as his present his parents hired out a cottage in the Peaks for us to stay for a week and go climbing.  It was an awesome week, we spent quite a lot of time at the Tor but I didn’t really get that much done due to how crimpy it is there, crimps have never been my strong point and after the strength lost from a month away it was dire straits.  I did Perverse Reverse 7b and Too Hard for Mark Leach Footless, supposedly 7b but it’s just not.  I spent a bit of time working Ben’s Roof and I got it all pretty wired except for the bit with the two crucial crimps which I just couldn’t pull on in my current state.  We also had a few hours at Water Cum Jolly which again meant sharp crimps and me being weak.  On the grit however I felt really strong.  Zippys Traverse 7b which I’ve struggled with for ages went in 15 minutes, and Trackside 7a at Curbar which previously I couldn’t figure out I managed second go on the day and every go after since I got the beta figured out, also Early Doors a more direct finish to Gorilla Warfare at 7a+.  All in all it was an amazing trip, good sends by everyone and some crazy stuff from Orrin, refer to Big Air.  The one thing I did learn from the trip was that although I still felt weak I was definitely feeling stronger, especially on grit.

A couple of days after I got home I went out with my dad in search of the Secret Garden.  This place was basically a tribute to how bad my climbing is at the moment, a place consisting mostly of bad slopers on grit should basically only be climbed in winter when it’s freezing cold and friction is high. Despite this I could still climb harder on it in midsummer then I could on limestone.  This is because although the climbing is still hard it can often be overcome using technique rather than actual strength and my technique seemed to be one of the only things I had retained after a month away.  I went there to do Dick Williams, a classic 7b+.  It starts off on a sketchy heel hook and then some big moves between rubbish slopers on a rounded corner so the holds can be held in opposition.  After this you have a grim, thin and super slopy top out above a kind of sketchy landing.  The top out felt okay if you pulled on half way up the route because there was still chalk on your hands and there was much more grip, but when it came to linking it by the time I reached the top my hands were sweaty from the sun and it felt impossible to pull on such bad slopers.  Eventually I managed to grovel over the top.  First 7b+ boulder and managed it off season on a route which is dependent on the right conditions.

After this I decided I wanted to get a few decent trad ticks in.  Since dad and I have slowly been working through the top 50 climbs in the Eastern Grit Guide Book, I decided to go to Froggatt for Stapadictomy, one of the hardest climbs in the top 50 at E5 6b. First though, my dad wanted to try another classic there Tody’s Route.  Stereotypical grit, you start by grovelling onto a block, then a hard rock over to get established on the face, then you teeter up an unprotected slab and sprint up a crack to finish.  After a bit of trouble getting onto the block at the bottom my dad cruised it, his first HVS!

From here we decided to get on another of the top 50’s - Valkyrie, a two pitch route starting up a notoriously unpleasant crack.  My dad insisted on leading it and set off up the crack.  At about 5 metres up he placed what looked to be a bomber nut, he continued upwards but slipped falling onto the nut which ripped.  He hit some nice sharp rocks from at least 5 metres up.  Fortunately he wasn’t badly hurt, some quality bruises though.  After literally dragging my mum up a route we headed over to Stapadictomy.

It’s quite a well protected route but after watching my dad’s gear rip my confidence in the protection was wavering.  Despite this, I pulled on going for the on-sight.  The first bit is easy enough up an arête where you then get a cluster of good gear although it’s a bit low to hold a fall if you fell from the top.  Then above this you get the first crucial bit of gear, it is solid but knowing there was a good chance of falling on it and not trusting gear as much as I did anymore I was not confident it would hold.  At this point you have to make a huge span across to a crack on the right above a roof; you then turn the crack and sprint up the arête to finish.  However, once you’ve done the span across your committed, you get to the top or you fall off.

After procrastinating a bit because I didn’t want to go for it I committed to the move, it was right at the limit of my reach but I managed it.  I turned the crack and then you have to place then next crucial bit of gear.  But in a very uncomfortable position, hanging on one hand was very hard and placing the gear even harder since you can’t actually see the crack.  I chucked in the nut but had no idea if it was solid or not.  Plus the nut goes in the best bit of the crack so suddenly the crack feels even worse.  Quite worried and getting pumped from faffing around with the gear, I pushed on knowing it was the only way to avoid a fall.  I got a couple moves higher, looked down to  move my foot only to see the nut coming out of the crack and tinkling down to the ground below (as seen in photo above).  Letting out a girly whimper, I ran to the top as quickly as I could.  Hearing a sigh of relief coming from me and my parents below I lay on the top catching my breath.  Looking back if I had fallen off even without the bit of gear that fell out I would still probably have been okay, but in that situation it seemed like if I fell off I would have been anything but okay.  Definitely the biggest buzz I’ve had from climbing and I’m psyched to do some more hardish trad in the future.  I’ve since done Jet Runner an E4 6a.  It’s pretty well protected if you class sketchy micro wires as solid pro; it was a cool route nonetheless.   

I’ve got a couple of weeks left of my summer holiday until I have to return to school for A levels.  I’m probably going to be climbing predominantly outside until then but when I’m back at school I’ll get back to plastic and start training again to try and regain my lost strength.

New boy band 'The Tor Boys' ;)

 

 

Sponsored by:

http://www.theclimbingstation.com

http://beyondhope.co.uk

Road Trip part 3 – Ceuse

 

After an overnight stop, we reached Marseille and picked up Alex’s mum and brother from the airport, then headed for Ceuse.  We arrived to find hail littering the ground and huge black streaks prevalent along the whole of Ceuse.  Not a good start.  We got our tents up and considered what climbing would be possible the following day.  We woke to sunshine and a lot less wet streaks on the rock far above and so teaming up with the Scots - William and Alexander Bosi and Robbie Phillips – we headed out.  This being my first time at Ceuse, I hadn’t had the displeasure of having to walk up to it but had previously been informed how grim it was.  Needless to say it did not disappoint and over an hour later we reached Grand Face, the sector we had chosen due to the fact it stays dry in the rain as the forecast didn’t look good.

The rock looked brilliant and was dry for the most part.  We started up a 6c+ with a surprisingly difficult start through a short roof and then easy, yet enjoyable, climbing to the top.  We then moved to an interesting and varied looking 7c.  It started on thin face climbing on poor crimps and precarious footholds, it then  abruptly changed as you reached a short roof which required a big span between decent holds and then an insecure toe hook to hold you in whilst you gained the good holds over the lip.  From there, there was a series of big moves between positive pockets that finally brought you into a draining final section on good but sloping sidepulls that lead you to the chain. After watching Alex on- sight it, I managed the Flash.  After a lot of procrastinating and chatting whilst eating lunch, Alex, William and I headed over to Lami de Tout le Monde an 8b which both I and Alex had our eyes on as a project for whilst we were there.

Each of us tried the climb in turn to work the moves and for me at least it felt very hard!  It starts full on with some big moves and bad crimps that move into what was, for me, the technical crux.  There is a good hold just above the second clip, from there you reach out to a terrible half pad two finger pocket which gave me just enough to fall into an okay crimp next to it.  From these two holds you have to lunge for a good three finger pocket but it is hard to hit due to the fact it is a small slot you have to get your fingers into.  Here you clip then make a big span up to an awful sloping edge and thump catch and then you’re supposed to come into an okay crimp before getting the huge jug rest, but my fingers just weren’t up to holding me on those holds.  After a bit of testing I found the only way that worked for me was a dyno up to the jug which was just in my reach, but it was blind as the hold is a long way back and you could easily end up grabbing bad crimps further forward making the jump much harder.  You could chill out here for a bit but the climbing before hand is not really long enough to get you pumped only to power you out which makes the next section much harder as it requires a log and precise move up to a good crimp of an average finger slot.  The move is not very hard in isolation but you are tired and it is easy to mess up.  After this you get a much worse rest on a flat shelf, you then get a heel hook next to your hands and swing up to a rubbish devil hang on two half bad sloping pockets.  Keeping as much weight on your heel as possible you throw up for another sloping pocket then cross to another.  Finally you reach out to an arête, get an intermediate then go for a good side pull.  From there, there are a couple more difficult moves before you reach jugs that take you to the top.  It took me a long time to work out the moves and after William and Alex had a quick go each to link bits together we found ourselves losing light.  Not wanting to walk down in the dark without head torches, we set off as quickly as we dared in the half light.

The Next day we opted to head for a less steep sector - Berlin.  I started by trying to on- sight Blocage Violent a notoriously difficult and pumpy 7b+.  I got pumped concerningly quickly as I tried to make upward progress on the sea of sloping pockets.  By the fifth clip (not helped by the fact that my five year old chalk bag had finally given up and snapped by the third clip) my hands were uncurling and slipping so I fell.  Alex got on and did it and then I quickly followed suit battling my way to the top as my forearms protested to the immense pump that this route induces.  By this point the crag had been invaded by young Americans, we quickly realised that they were all wads and I began to feel quiet intimidated and self conscious of my climbing as I was surrounded by a bunch of 11–16 year olds that had climbed up to 8c+!  

We chatted to them a bit and I felt more comfortable but still very weak comparably.  Merko, Ashima, Drew, Alexi and Shaun who along with being beasts were also great fun to play table tennis with.  I continued the day by trying Galaxy another supposed 7b+ which was nails.  After three goes I finally did it and Alex also managed Dolce Vita an 8a+ next to Blocage that he was trying.  Both knackered, we attempted the classic 7c Berlin which along with our fatigue, the stiff grading and the fact a vital hold on the route was soaking making any movement onto or off it nearly impossible, unsurprisingly we didn’t manage it.  The next day we rested, filling the day with ping pong and The Walking Dead.

The following day, we intended to get up early and head for the morning sector Cascade, this wasn’t all that successful and by the time we reached the rock the sun was already beginning to come round onto the face. Undeterred we quickly did the 7a warm up and then Alex tried Violent Illusion a steep crimpy 8b. Apparently the climb is basically a v8 into a 7b+ but with the time we had due to the sun coming around made it difficult to make much progress.  We retreated further up the crag to try to avoid the sun; I did Super Mickey on-sight a classic 7b which is easy climbing up to a pleasant crux at the top, on some positive crimps, making for an enjoyable route.  Finally, defeated by the sun we walked over to Biographie to chill in the shade for a bit. From there we returned to Lami de Tout le Monde.  I tried it a couple of times but the moves felt as hard as ever and I was having trouble keeping my fingers warm which was making the crimps at the start extremely painful to use.  Alex sieged the route having multiple attempts but was being shutdown by a move across into a small pocket by the third clip. Frustrated and starting to doubt whether he could do the move at all, it took him 15 attempts before finally getting through the move.  He got right to the last crux but with the amount of attempts he had, he was boxed and it wasn’t going to happen.

Day 5 at Ceuse and planning on returning again to Lami seeing as though Alex had got so close last time.  However on the way across we were distracted by some friends trying Lapinerie an awesome looking 7b that had a crux at the top which involved a big dynamic move to the finishing pocket. Jokingly I said I was going to static the move whilst chalking up and then doing a French blow. In reply Andy (a Scottish guy who climbs at Ratho) said “Eyebrow”.  I was confused by this statement.  He then explained that if someone makes a ridiculous statement and someone calls eyebrow then they must do what they claimed or they lose an eyebrow.  Now quite worried, I headed off.  Nearly dropping the start slab I made it to the overhang and got through the big moves leading up to the crux sequence.  With no idea what I was doing I ended up using a pathetic sloping crimp with an okay thumb catch in order to reach the pockets before the final big move.  I chalked up and did a French blow then desperately grabbed back onto the hold before I fell, I then looked up at the finishing jug and went for it static...ish.  I’d kept my eyebrow, just.

From Lapinerie we continued across to Lami but then got distracted again by the impressive overhang that houses Bourinator 8a and Slow Food 8b+ that Alex had tried the previous day. Psyched to do Bourinator I gave it a go but as expected fell on the first of the three crux moves at the second clip, getting more rope burn in the process which nicely restricted the movement of my leg. I pulled back on and did the move this time and after a quick rest on the rope climbed to the top through the other two crux moves.  Happy with how I had done I gave it another go.  The start is extremely steep, it starts by an awkward move into a huge undercut then straight away you have the crux move which is a big throw up to a sloping pocket, you catch this then jam a bomber toe hook in the undercut which holds you solidly to cross up into a better pocket and then go to a decent flat edge.  Fully extended you have to release the toe hook and take the swing which is quite hard.  Clip, breathe, then stick a heel up by your hand and reach across into a two finger pocket and then into a good undercut.  Stand up on the undercut and then another big throw to a good pocket.  On hitting this you have a couple more moves before a massive no hands rest.  Surprised I had managed to get through the hardest section on my second go, I continued through a couple of clips of jugs before reaching the final crux section.  You get a crimpy undercut and reach up to an okay pocket, reaching up into a terrible sloping dish as an intermediate and then give it everything to jump for the sinker jug that marks the end of the hard climbing.  I stuck comfortably and made it to the top at which point I took a victory jump.  After Alex had had a couple of goes on Slow Food and one on Bourinator, we found that after three weeks solid of use and having held multiple falls one, end of the rope was ruined with the core showing through in five places.  Switching to the other end we decided to try to get a bit of mileage in before we headed down.

We started on a flat 7a+ which perfectly followed up a blue stripe the whole way.  Alex did it first commenting on the fact he had had to use undercut monos to get through one sequence.  I set off but after a few clips, cloud descended on the crag and I found myself climbing in an eerie mist that restricted my vision to just a couples of clips.  It was an odd sensation looking around, I felt completely alone on the wall. It was extremely peaceful there on tenuous moves but easy enough but I was still aware of my surroundings and able to appreciate the feeling of being there, in my own little bubble.  The climbing was not the best in the world but the situation and the feeling whilst climbing it made this my favourite climb of the trip.

Lowering down the mist cleared and we moved on, but by this point the light was becoming quite thin.  I didn’t realise the next climb was as long as it was, so I didn’t take as many clips or a head torch with me as I didn’t think I would be on it long enough for it to get dark.  The climbing was really quite hard, big moves on sloping holds requiring high feet to reach long distances between the bad pockets, it felt quite exposed and intimidating, not helped by the fact that when I did get near the top I ran out of clips and light.  Missing out a clip on already run out climbing I continued blindly to the top hoping to find a carabiner to lower off so I would not have to down climb the moves below.  I found the chain and found a small but okay looking Mallion. Very relieved to reach the ground, it was Alex’s turn this time in the pitch black and only a head torch. The big moves made it difficult to read with light, so in the dark finding the right holds and right sequence was hard.  After some time Alex managed to dog his way to the top and remove the clips.  We chilled out for a while listening to some of Robbie’s extensive dub step collection whilst some people tried Lapinerie.

The next day we rested again.  We played a load more Ping pong, I learnt how to do a Rubixs cube, watched more of The Walking Dead and then finished the day with a barbeque.

Starting to run out of time, Alex and I were determined to finish off Lami.  We warmed up by doing Bibendum, a 7b+ next to Lami that I managed to on-sight.  Once you strip the route you can take a huge swing out and end up very high up in the air due to the steep incline of the hill.  We messed around on the swing and almost collided, then went to get Lami done.  Alex went first getting through the move he had struggled with before first go but still not fully warmed up fell off a couple moves higher.  Next up my go and managed to get a high point, falling off one move from the jug rest at the end of the bouldery start.  Dogging up higher I revised my sequence for the top crux which made it feel a lot more achievable, it finally felt like I could actually do the climb.  On Alex’s next go he fell off the very last hard move.  Furious he quickly got back on, it finally came together and he cruised to the top.  In celebration he took a victory jump, this meant I was pulled up on the belay and swung into the rock pile which is used to reach the start holds. Unprepared for the swing and wearing only flip flops I managed to cut my big toe open and create a massive blood blister under the nail of another, that was the end of my climbing for that day.  Unsurprisingly the walk down sucked, as did the walk back up the next day.

I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to climb on my foot the next day, so I procrastinated a bit before deciding to try Changement de Look, a popular and harshly graded 7b+. However as I waited in the queue to get on the route the heavens opened and we had a dumping of rain. We bailed to the Bourinator roof to shelter from the rain. With little dry other than Bourinator and Slow Food which both had wet top outs still after the downpour, I was not psyched to try anything and had a miserable day watching people try the two routes.  One good thing though was that William got eyebrowed after claiming he could campus two clips of Bourinator.  Impressively, after working it a bit he actually managed it.  The next day was forecast rain again, so we decided to sack it off - more ping pong.  As it was mine and Alex’s last night there and we were all quite psyched for proper food, we headed out to a pizza place nearby.  We stuffed ourselves on pizza and even had some desert pizza (in case you’re wondering it’s even better than it sounds!)  After food, conversation turned to a lake that some of the Scots had been to a few days before and a large concrete structure that they had jumped off into the lake.  At this point Robbie and Jay jokingly said they should go and jump off it “Eyebrow”.  Ten minutes later we were at the lake laughing as they jumped blindly into the dark water below.  This whole eyebrow thing was definitely starting to get out of hand.

The final day in Ceuse and yet more rain was forecast, looking up at the predominantly dark rock above most people decided not to bother walking up.  Unfortunately our stash bag with the rope and quickdraws was up there so we had to walk up no matter what.  Barely half way, the rain came.  Unable to shelter from it, we continued as the rain intensified and became hail, absolutely sodden and miserable we reached Biographie to some concerned stares and laughter from the Americans. The entire crag looked soaking and even after closer inspection we found only six lines even moderately dry, four of them were 8b+ and above the other two I had already done.  We grabbed the stash bag turned around and walked back down.  

All in all Ceuse had been a mixed bag, the climbing undoubtedly is some of the best in the world and when the weather is good it is a fantastic place to climb despite the walk in.  But when it’s the worst summer in 50 years there and there’s a thunderstorm almost every night it wasn’t the best.  The weather along with my toes being mangled up meant I didn’t achieve what I wanted to in Ceuse.   8b had been my goal for the trip and just as I felt I was getting close we had three days of rain and I couldn’t try it at all.  Still, something for the future…..

The last couple of days we spent in the Verdon Gorge where we intended to do some paragliding but yet again we were denied it by the weather.  On the last day, we sat on a beach enjoying the sun before I flew home and Alex and Phil set off for the European championships in Imst.

Although I didn’t achieve what I wanted, it was still brilliant to go to so many world class venues and sample so many different routes and enjoy it all with all the awesome people we met, especially in Ceuse.  

I want to thank Phil and Alex for giving me the opportunity to go on this trip.

Finally the three things I’ll remember most are:

Billy el Omnibus,
Jungle Speed,
and “Eyebrow!”.

None of them are climbing related and probably won’t make much sense -but there you go.

PS. Sorry about the lack of photos in this blog but without Phil there with his camera, we failed at actually taking any photos.

Sponsored by:

http://www.theclimbingstation.com

http://beyondhope.co.uk

 

Video of the start of the Road Trip at Baltzola Cave:-

 

 

 A less serious outtake - "Mouse Trap" !

 

Road Trip Part 2

To start with this blog is a bit late due to the lack of decent Wi-Fi in the second half of the road trip. Despite this I will continue on from where I left off.

Ego Centrismo 7c

So after a rest day of slack lining, blog writing etc, we returned to Ego Centrismo for the early afternoon.  We started on a cool 7a+ then I went for the on-sight of the 7c which is the sector’s name sake.  At about half height at this sector the rock type changed and from my experience on previous climbs at the sector the climbs became easier when reaching the higher rock type as it became more angular and juggy.  This climb looked to be no exception.  It begins full on with essentially a campus move off an insecure finger stack.  After this it’s sustained on crimps for a few clips, I had a bit of a scare crossing over into what looked to be a flat jug only to find it very sloping, fortunately as I fell away from the wall I bumped my hand again to find a good pocket at the back that saved me.  Trying to relax on a good hold I looked up at the next blank section of rock, the only hold was a good looking pocket high up, unwilling to go for it because I knew I was near the easier climbing of the upper section I attempted to lock it down and static for the pocket despite knowing the move would be easier as a dead point.  Tickling the bottom of the hold I fell away from the wall. Pulling back on and adding some dynamics to the move it was easy, as was the rest of the route. Cursing myself for such a stupid mistake I did the climb second go comfortably.



Alex on Les Cadres Regeneren 8a

Alex then finished the 8a he had tried here last time and then as the sun came round onto the rock we headed for Gran Boveda with the intention of getting ourselves pumped out our minds for training.  On arriving we found the 8a we wanted to get on, Coloseum, had a permanent queue. Instead we opted for another 8a to the left.  Alex tried it first and after battling with a sustained tougher section he was defeated by a big move into an undercut crack that frustratingly was just too small to allow you to properly get your fingers into.  He worked the climb to the top then I tried.  I didn’t enjoy the climbing and found myself not wanting to continue.  Demotivated for that climb and only really psyched to have another go at Coloseum which still had a long queue I decided to sack it off for the evening and belayed Alex a couple of times until he managed it.

For our final day in Rodellar, we both agreed we should return to El Delphin and finish of the impressive climb through the arch.  But first we decided to check out Bikini another of the morning crags there.  First we got on a 7a+ with the intention of warming up, it was nails and terrible.  Hoping this would not be a trend for the crag Alex tried a short 8b which was also terrible.  Concluding that this was an awful sector we left for El Delphin.  After trekking up the scree slope to the base of the arch I decided to go first in the hope of finishing it quickly so we could get on the other impressive climbing in the huge cave of Las Ventannas.  Again I did the first section easily as it is a line of sharp jugs.  Moving higher into the harder climbing I reach the final crux boulder problem to escape the intimidating roof you are on.  Annoyingly I fell from the same move as I had before.  Alex was up next and managed it.  After a short rest chatting to some Americans I tried again, I reached the crux feeling more tired than before but despite this managed to catch the small undercut that I had fallen off going for on my previous attempts.  Thinking the climb was done I slapped straight for the massive spike jutting out which marks a sit down rest and easy climbing to the top, forgetting an intermediate and with how tired I was I pealed off the slopy top of the spike and fell again.  More rested this time I again reached the crux boulder but was really quite pumped and felt even more tired despite resting longer, the big move up to the undercut threw me off yet again.  Frustrated now at how tired I felt and the shrinking window of time I had to finish the climb I began to think I would not finish it.  Finally after an even longer rest and a slightly altered hand position to try and make the move easier plus feeling psyched after watching Alex on sight Made in Mascun 7c+ I went for what would have to be my last attempt before time ran out.  Again reaching the crux I was very tired and assumed I was not going to manage it.  The changed hand position made the move quiet a lot easier and even though I was tired after four goes that day on the climb and ruined skin from the sharp jugs below, I just managed the move to the undercut, with nothing left in the tank I new I would not be able to have the precision to hit the small slot intermediate.  In desperation I slapped for the spike again, catching it better than before I held it in a crucifix position, let out a pathetic cry then grovelled my way onto the spike and sat there hugging the rock panting.  The hardest I’ve had to fight on a route and the most attempts something has taken me and I later found out to my dismay that it was low in the grade!

The next morning we left Rodellar behind and headed into Lleida.  Reaching the campsite we chilled in the pool for a while then went to check if Terradets would be climbable in the evening.  It was far too hot so we decided we would have to get up for an early morning session tomorrow.  We got to Terradets nowhere near as early as we intended and although the rock was in the shade it was still muggy and humid.  We did a 7a+ which we both nearly fell off the start of due to the warm rock making everything greasy.  Alex then tried an 8a there but after feeling bit odd in the morning I realised that somehow in 30 degree Spain I’d managed to get a cold!  This as well as the poor condition of the rock was enough for me to decide that it wasn’t worth climbing anymore.  Alex persevered but the greasiness was taking its toll and he was frustrated at how hard the climbing felt.  Not helped by the fact there was a bat in one of the route’s crucial holds.  Even after multiple attempts Alex couldn’t do the climb, so we left feeling a bit miserable and headed to our next campsite near Tres Ponts which we had more hope for since it is actually a summer crag unlike Terradets and most of the other climbing in Lleida.

Tres Ponts can only be climbed in the afternoon when the suns left the rock so we had a chilled morning in which I went for a swim to relax then we headed off to climb.  We started on a fantastic 7b that neither of us could work out quiet why it was so good but both unanimously agreed it was brilliant.  Then Alex – still desperately trying for an 8a on-sight tried an 8a which extended off a 7c to add some very thin mildly overhanging and slab climbing.  The small crimps suited him and finally after a lot of moaning that he would never on-sight 8a, reached the top of the 40m climb.  Psyched I gave it a go, I immediately fell off the first crux at the start still feeling very ill from my cold but after figuring it out I was more focused on the climbing and I forgot about feeling ill.  I climbed clean through to the top of the 7c and through the crux of the 8a before falling on a huge reach up into a bad undercut on nearly my full extension that felt very thin and droppable.  After figuring the top out I was happy with how it went and was psyched for my next go.  However the moment I stopped climbing and was not focused I felt very ill again and it took me a long time to recover to feel ready again and with how long the climb was it was becoming very time consuming to attempt the route.  Pulling back on again I felt terrible and fell off the start crux again.  Losing hope as I thought myself to be too ill I lowered down and tried again, this time I just managed it and as I got more in to the climbing I forgot about feeling ill again and could get on with the climbing.  I made a mess of the upper crux of the 7c but managed to get through it. I got to the 8a bit feeling quite tired but I went for it.  Almost all the moves felt like I was going to fall off the bad hand and foot holds as I just about pulled between them.  I got through the crux and the big move up to the undercut and reached some jugs.  Coming out of my bubble I suddenly found myself feeling ill again and very thirsty, concerned as I looked up at the relatively easy but still droppable section I thought that my loss of focus would cost me the route.  Fortunately as I got back into harder climbing I regained my focus and tentatively made my way to the chains.  After so long resting and so long on the lengthy route we were running out of time that day, Alex had a quick go on another 8a then we finished off.

Our final day climbing in Spain, we returned to Tres Ponts and again did the 7b to warm and were both disappointed that the moves didn’t feel nearly as interesting as before.  Next up we were looking at an impressive 8a line called El Segre.  However there were two other climbs spanning from the 7c+ start of El Segre that went through a big overhang. An 8a+ going of left from the 7c+ section was recommended to us so we decided to try that instead. Alex went first and as it was a 55m route and the top half was flat with good rests every few clips it took 40 minutes before Alex reached the top again on sight.  I was psyched and went for it but on reaching the crux of the 7c+ I tried to use a terrible intermediate on one of the crux moves and got myself stuck.  I pulled back on and used an odd sequence which involved getting a knee bar and keeping it in for 4 moves and twisting it upwards as you moved to hold you into the wall.  After that it was enjoyable jug climbing to the 7c+ chain and then immediately changed to grim sharp crimp climbing for a couple of clips which was not enjoyable.  By this point I decided just to go clip to clip to work the moves but the weather had other ideas, I could see a storm was closing in as horrendously loud thunder echoed through the gorge.  Trying to reach the top before the rain came I set off as quickly as possible going by any means but on reaching the 8a lower off the rain caught me and I was faced by another 15m of 8a+ on flat rock whilst having rain pound down on me.  Somewhat worried I kept going trying to focus on delicate moves but instead just getting very wet and wondering how likely it was that lightning above would strike me whilst having about twenty metal clips hanging off me as a conductor.  Just one clip away from the top I thought it was over only to be confronted by a sloping shelf which with no other holds around it I would have to mantel it.  Ordinarily this would not be too bad but the fact that there was a small river pouring off it was making it a bit more difficult.  I flung a heel hook up which immediately slipped back off, replacing it a bit more carefully it just about stuck, I thrutched my way onto the shelf and then massively relieved reached the top only to find myself even more exposed to the rain.  Not fancying threading in the current conditions I lowered off and stripped it as quickly as possible.  Although it was a brilliant route the weather had made it difficult to enjoy the climbing.  Looking at the time we realised it had taken us over 4 hours to do two routes each and needing to leave for our next campsite we walked out in the rain and made a break for the van in order to head off for our overnight stop before reaching Ceuse.

I’ll leave this one there for now and finish off the trip in one last blog in a week or so.

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Road Trip Part 1 - Turbulent Waters

 



Pizza!!

On the 23^rd of June I met up with Alex and Phil Waterhouse in Cambridge for a month long Road Trip across northern Spain and up to Ceuse via various crags on the way.  We were seriously psyched for crushing the European rock and getting some awesome ticks.  Alex and I poured over guide books searching for the ideal areas and routes to get on.  However before any of that there was the small matter of actually getting there!  Queue a 36 hour ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao in northwest Spain. That being a particularly exciting prospect, we loaded ourselves up with pizza and boarded the ferry ready for a non-to-entertaining journey.  Half hoping for a sketchy crossing to spice it up a bit, we encountered nothing more than some mildly turbulent waters on the first night. After exhausting the limited entertainment, we had to resort to partaking in Bingo (it was very dull okay and even bingo sounded entertaining) to no avail we even did a quiz in which I discovered I have an unwanted knowledge of songs from my mum’s questionable music collection: Kate Bush, Shakespeare Sisters, Abba etc.

 



The Huge Baltzola Cave

Eventually we reached Spain and the first stop was Baltzola cave.  Unfortunately it isn’t a very well documented climbing area and so we couldn’t find it in any guide books.  So after a couple hours of searching Bilbao for some sort of information we managed to find a rough GPS coordinate for it.  We set off and surprisingly found it relatively easily.  Now, when you think of a cave you may think of a large hole with a limited amount of climbing in it mostly bouldering height, like Parisellas maybe?  This place is on an entirely different scale to anything I have seen before.  It has in excess of 300 routes in it from 6b to 9a and towers over a colossal area from completely blank roofs to overhangs covered completely in stalactites.  However we still had no guide book and there were no locals to ask about the routes.  As a result we found a cool looking line and gave it a go whilst Phil went off to try and find more info about the crag and potential campsites for the next couple of days. The route turned out to be hard and after working it we figured out the beta and found that a knee bar pad was very beneficial for the upper section.  After a few goes Alex managed it  and although I was getting close one move in the middle of a poor crimp/pinch and a heel hook was stumping me as a kept missing the wide pinch that you had to grab as you fell away from the wall.

Eventually some Spanish climbers turned up and informed us that the route was an 8a called Blandiju confirming our suspicions of the grade.  Alex then wanted to try an 8a+ called Iluminatis, at the other end of the cave.  He worked the moves and thought it do-able and second go managed to latch both huge dynamic moves on the route and clip the chain - Effort!  Finally before leaving I fancied the look of what I thought was a 7b next to Alex’s 8a+.  It felt pretty steady except one section on a poor sloping pod that required a high heel hook to hold you into the wall whilst matching the poor sloper to gain more positive holds above.  I reached the last chain relatively easily and then moving into the last couple of moves which went into a hole in the roof.  Concerningly the route became extremely thin at this point and although I could see a huge juggy fin not far away it was still way out of my reach and there seemed to be little in the way of holds to get to it.  After a fair bit of procrastinating I went for it and dropped it due to the fact I had no idea how to negotiate the lack of holds.  Eventually I discovered two knee bars, the first being quite positive whilst the second was horrendous and relied totally on friction and felt as if it would slip at any moment.  Despite this I had to put my full weight onto it and trust it to reach the finishing holds and top out.  To my relief the locals then told me the route was in fact 7b to the last draw and the grim thrutchy finish I had fallen on in fact boosted the grade to 7c!  Calling it a day we headed for the campsite.

The next day I succeeded on both routes the 7c second go and the 8a fourth red point, worryingly on the actual ascent of the 8a I went to use the crux crimp/pinch only to find it was soaking wet, quickly reassessing my options I managed to complete the move using a slightly higher and even poorer pinch, relieved I managed to keep it together to the top.  Alex also did the 7c and then set about working another 8a+ which followed a line of stalactites through the heart of the cave.  Despite the good attempts he didn’t manage it that day. Returning the following day for Alex to finish of the 8a+ he finally succeeded. Happy with what we had managed there we headed off for the next destination - Rodellar.

 

As it was a pretty long drive anyway between the two crags we decided to go the slightly longer and more scenic route via Riglos a huge multi pitch destination of conglomerate rock. Its impressive size made for an interesting drive and eventually we arrived at our destination for the next week.  

 

 

 

Rodellar is impressive because of the sheer amount of world class climbing in such a small area.  It is a gorge so it is perfect for summer as you spend the morning on one side then switch to the other side as the sun reaches you so you can climb in the shade all day to avoid the heat.  There are twenty plus sectors in just the area we were in all within a 30 minute walk from the campsite.  

 

First stop was El Camino which is one of the first sectors you come across and largely used as the warm up crag.  We got on a 7b to warm up then Phil decided he would have a go on a 6a+.  The polish and unfamiliar rock proved to make the climb much harder than predicted and sadly resulted in Phil hurting his shoulder. Finally before the sun reached the crag I couldn’t resist getting the climb called Billy el Rapido 7a.  To make it more interesting we added a sit start to it, this was in fact pretty hard and would probably get approximately a V5 boulder grade.  I enjoyed the rest of the climb and actually got a pointless bat hang in for the fun of it.

 

 

 

 

As the sun moved around we switched to the other side of the canyon and went to one of the most impressive sectors of the area Gran Boveda which yields some imposing lines up to 40m on severely overhanging rock.  A classic 8a there is Coloseum but at 40m long we were unsure whether our endurance was up to the challenge, there was only one way to find out!  It is fair to say we both got spanked, running out of steam and pump dominating our arms and legs we fell off just half way up and looking at how far left we had to go on the route we gave up for that day.  Despite the fact I got some good rests in and yet more knee bars I got severely pumped likely due to the amount of time hanging around on the route, Alex for example spent twenty minutes on it.  Feeling unusually tied for the amount of climbing I had done I called it a day. Alex still determined not to get defeated by the crag tried another less steep 8a only to find the moves absolutely nails, we sacked it off for the day feeling deflated at how unproductive the day had been.

The following day we agreed to have a rest day due to how tied we both felt after the previous day. Despite intending to have a relaxing day we ended up filling it with some tiring slack lining. Also we followed a group of canyoners down the waterfalls and pools of the river, hopelessly ill equipped in flip flops we had a very good time negotiating the hanging boulders and rapid water that blocked the way; I even got in some pretty unsuccessful shallow water bouldering.

Third day in Rodellar and we decided to head to Café Solo an area boasting a variety of routes and an 8c called welcome to Tijuana that Alex wanted to try to see if it was a potential project for the future.  On getting there we started on a 7b to warm up, I started up feeling fine only to have my chalk bag fall off at the third clip (punter error).  I continued dubiously convinced that I would grease off a hold. To my surprise I reached the top without too much trouble.

Next up was the route Café Solo 7b+, not expecting it to be too hard I pulled on to be instantly shocked at the difficulty of it.  I battle through the full on climbing to the third bolt where unable to continue as I could not clip I fell and nearly hit the deck. Annoyed at the fact I had dropped a 7b+ so low down, Neil Gresham who was also there trying an 8a told me that the climb had a reputation for being hard and that he too had dropped it in a similar place. Feeling better I tried again only to fall again at the same place. Three goes later and I had finally done. Warning to anyone else who tries it that route is not 7b+ its nails at that grade.  Meanwhile Alex had been trying the 8a Neil was also on and after falling a few times at a huge span move for him he managed it. He then tried to work Welcome to Tijuana the 8c and as you would expect it was pretty hard.  He got half way up doing most the moves before we began to run out of time.  I quickly finished off another 7b before we left.

The following day we started at Ego Centrismo on a very hard 7a+.  First go I dropped it because my foot popped whilst clipping and after hanging one handed on a poor hold for a couple seconds I couldn’t recover.  Next Alex wanted to try an 8a on sight; he got most of the way through the boulder crux at the start but sadly dropped it on a thin traverse out left.  I tried it but was not psyched for the lower section despite finding the more technical traverse above very pleasant. 

Moving on we headed to El Dolphin. The primary feature to this crag is a very impressive arch which has an awesome 7c+ running up the centre of it.  I tried it and despite getting right to the end I ran out of footholds and, a bit lost as to what I should do, I fell receiving some nasty rope burn on the way down.  Next go I cruised up the climb and reached the last hard move still feeling fresh, frustratingly the move is a big throw into an undercut and I fumbled it a bit and didn’t manage to catch it right.  I intend to return and finish that one before we leave Rodellar.

That brings me to the present (2^nd July). We have two more days climbing in Rodellar before we move onto Lleida for another couple of days.  Despite there being masses of fantastic crags: Oliana and Santa Linya to name a couple.  They are mostly winter crags and so in the current heat they will be mostly unclimbable.  As a result we will only go to Tres Ponts and maybe Terradets before moving on.  

I plan to blog every week for the month that I am out here so I’ll keep you posted.

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