Benchmarking

So a mixture of summer holiday family time and the small matter of a bust ankle has caused unhelpful weakness to pervade my being. What causes more concern is that the imminent arrival of  the new bouldering guide has stirred feelings of loss...

I have nothing new to work on dammit! admittedly I did give away a whole load of stuff, Cae Dafydd, stuff in Aberglaslyn, all being worked now by local devotees.

In an effort to produce some psyche and lift the malaise, I had a two venue day yesterday. Firstly I went to the Caseg boulder for the first time. I thought that visiting what is widely though to be the finest 6C in Wales will help me get my own forays into perspective. The Caseg Groove was very useful to me, It expose large gaps in my game (open handed strength, core, power endurance) and I could see why it was admired; lovely position, good rock texture, just enough features to work. I did think it was a tad morpho though, and knowing the first ascentionist was somewhat taller than myself cushioned the blow that I couldn't get more than 1.5 moves in (for 40mins).

Following this I visited James' Boulder, this was due to there being a hard project there still to do, and being fairly minimalist, I knew I could compare today's progress to previous attempts.

First up was repeating the Filling to compare to Caseg Groove:

While very enjoyable, the venue lacked the aesthetics of Afon Caseg, and is probably 6B+ rather than 6C, it does suit me more than CG, but still. This would make James sit down 6A+/B

The Skdoosh project felt very uninspiring after Caseg, being neither stand nor sit, and very brutal in execution. I'm nowhere near, but managed a 1 second of controlled hanging on the starting holds.

Its a start.

The patio is one of the first I produced and is a bit ropey, If I can be bothered I may give it a make over and try to make the project more of a sitter...

I need fresh pastures!