The Other Side of 50

 I seem to be using Instagram far more than dipping into writing on the blog. Although I can see a time when this effectively transfers across, it still ain't dead yet...

The idiocy that is the Padshaw!

This year has been one of introspection. This started with the race to condition my body into something stronger and more robust before I entered my second half century. On the whole this has been successful, with more careful monitoring of the feedback from my body and a more scientific commitment to consistently nudging it forward.

Never thought I'd lift weights

As a metric for this, I had the whimsical notion of climbing something a grade harder than I've previously accomplished. I've climbed a few things given F7B, so decided to try and find a F7B+ boulder to work on over the year. I knew I needed something that played to my comfort zones of technique and finger strength ( there are no jamming boulders of that grade locally), and after discounting some aretes ( balance not so good) I'd settled on Ultimate Warrior.

The move eludes

Since that first visit back in February, I've had 8 further sessions. Apart from one where I learnt the value of gaining good conditions, it has been steady if microscopic progress. Every session teaches me something. I've learnt about connecting a heel hook through the core, targeting minor muscles to provide dynamic movement in awkward positions, and the importance of rest. 

I get about 10 goes at the crux before I'm rolling down the downhill slope. When a hard boulder is as cruxy as this you can really tune into the subtleties of movement. Once I'd started touching the target hold, I had a crisis about what was going to allow me to keep hold of it, worrying that my heel skills were too clumsy. However, another session came and I was able to see it was the coordination of arms and shoulders that will bring success.

My fiftieth birthday came and still no ascent. I did however have a great session on another project..

What this space on that one.

So what have I learnt?

That consistency in training keeps you climbing. 

That if you pick a project that's really hard you have to be patient.

That some of the climbing I've done trying unclimbed projects was probably harder than 7B.

Hopefully Ultimate Warrior will happen before Christmas, I'm certainly now allowing myself more time on other projects, but I also hope I keep learning. Not a bad mindset to take into your second half century.

Conditioning Culture

 So.

Six months after coming to the realisation that I had to change my climbing mindset, I think it's going ok.

I'm doing things I'd always cocked a snook at, like weighted pull ups and regular targeted fingerboard sessions.

My fingers are feeling healthy, I restarted outdoor climbing in November, visiting Mindhorn with this Wad

I then didn't get out again until January when this wad invited me to slog up a mountain

In between these sporadic micro adventures, I've been chipping away at my weakness indoors, getting volume and trying to get some consistency in my bouldering. This far that's meant doing a lot of 6C/+ with some low 7's occasionally being gifted.

As previously stated, this year I turn fifty, and I'm keen to make myself into a more robust bouldering machine. Further to that I am aiming to climb harder than I have done before because of this.

To that end I have set myself the goal of climbing a 7B+ before my birthday in August. I have nominally selected Ultimate Warrior as a target as it ticks the following boxes:

 ✔️ Its a very good problem that looks pretty

✔️ It's been 7B+ for ages

✔️ I'm not shit at bouncing between crimps on a slightly overhanging wall.

✔️ The hard bits at the bottom 

Yesterday's weather was a rare window in the rain and I decided to take my first visit. Due to the wonderful logistical set up I have in North Wales I was able to spend an hour warming up at the wall, then jump on the new bypass and be putting on my boots and hour later.

It was a very still day and the north facing wall hadn't shed all it's dampness. I was unsure as to whether I should pull on, but gave the holds a good feel, and was happy the handholds were dry enough to use without damaging them ( I know it's dolerite not grit, but being such a famous problem I was a bit paranoid).

 There is a hollow foothold out right that I excluded from my attempts on the stand as it looked to damp and fragile. I think it would be really useful for my attempts at the full thing, but I can work that into my sequence in better connies.

A bit of beating and a brush on a walking pole and I was ready to try. In my slightly brash thinking in my head, I'd decided to give it full beans and go all out for the flash on the stand version.

I arrived at the lip and got a bit scared, grinding it out on my knees. However, another mini goal ticked.

The whole thing is another kettle of fish.

Another climber called Tom arrived, and it was really cool seeing him get the stand also. We spent some time playing with the full version, and I started pulling on with one hand on the stands rail and the heel in. 

Once it was lunchtime I decamped to another hillside to open this year's account on a couple of other goals for the year. Some long term projects near Dutch Trance. I was pleased to climb both stand versions ( I couldn't last year), and also pleased that the moves I had done in the past on the full versions looked no harder than those on Ultimate Warrior. I don't think I'll be double sessioning these venues again for a while though.

This is the middle bit of Gabber Gabba

So all positive and good motivation to get back to conditioning.

Watch this space.

Crafting Contentment amidst Caca

 It's actually been a pretty ok year. On paper it looks utter dog shit of course.

Having to move house, stress at work, serious family illness and the day to day struggles of neurodiverse kids have meant the minor snatches of adventure have been gold dust. Both in value and scarcity. 

To top it all off a niggling wrist flared up and then POp another pulley injury. Quite possibly the cortisol contributed.

So how's it been ok? Well I've found treasure in the small things, prior to temporarily disabling myself it was easy days bouldering with friends, daft mini adventures with the kids. Post injury it's the planning...

Next year I turn 50. I'm a little fed up with the last two years of injury, and have decided to do something about it.

All my life I've saught adventure, when the going got hard I specifically excersised to overcome the chosen objective, but there wasn't a culture training as we know it. 

Consequently I'm ashamed to admit there's many gaps in my climbing game, and it's quite possible that as I'm no longer "just climbing lots" I'm cashing cheques I can't write ( flip I'm showing my age). 

First I asked a physio to hold me accountable with bi monthly check ups.

Secondly I goal set; to get back to 7B and hopefully beyond by my birthday.

This means infiltrating my life with a culture of training. Not sure what that looks like yet.

Thirdly, as I can't climb yet, I need to have alternative adventures!

Cue digging Binky the Wonder Boat out of storage..

The target was Craig y llam, the site of my first ill fated coasteering session, and source of a massive niggle of unfinished business. I'm sure there's some projects waiting for me.

First thing I learnt was I've forgotten how to row. It may not have helped that the electric pump didn't quite have the guts to get it totally rigid, so the oar holes were flapping a bit.

It took quite a lot of whirligig type buffoonery to get round the fishing rock and to the cliff proper.

Some signs of DWS potential 

Ahoy! An offwidth memory from 14 years ago 

All I have to do now is work out how to pull on. Water seems deep enough and walls are all at least vertical. The chimney extends to an unknown depth within the cliff.

I didn't want to risk popping Binky trying to row to the back. It just occurred to me that I could have swum in, but I had nothing to moor to in any case.

Basically I need to visit in the company of fellow adventurers. Unfortunately being a very birdy cliff, this probably means next autumn.

At least I'll be a 7B boulderer by then.

Keep Exploring 

Punch Drunk but Happy

Once I get the bit between my teeth, I tend to doggedly pull myself along towards death or glory. I will admit to being a little obsessive in that way. I was keen to get this crack done, I didn't want to distract myself with a myriad other projects. Get in, get the job done, then move on. First I had to get the crack clean, that meant cutting the log out. I borrowed an old pruning saw and went back with Ethan and Dave Fidler, a good man for boulder esoterica.

Ethan got a rope around it. It didn't pull out, the rope was a natural fibre fat hawser of shipping detritus. It got stuck.

We sent Ethan up with the saw. It was slow going. After we all had a go we stomped off to find something less frustrating to do.

Next month I was back with Dave, some large cams, a grigri and a shiny new pruning saw..

Unfortunately, the rope had been mashed by the tide into all sections of the crack. Cutting the log out was the easy bit. The rope was slow going, and I mashed my knuckles. Eventually it looked like we could tuck the worst of the rope out the way and have a go.

Buggrit, yet again the rope was found to be still in the way. One key jam was blocked. I was pretty cut up. Literally in fact. The blockage of jams meant my attempts were mainly leg driven, and the enevitable back and footing shredded my back. I checked the tides and gave myself a month's peace for psyche and skin to re grow.

May saw me furiously watching the forecasts. My supposed perfect tide day was at the end of a dry spell well enough. However, the rain was a-coming. It would be just my luck to put all that effort in only to be rained off. Taking inspiration from Caff, who'd managed a successful winter of first ascents by going to bed dead early, then sending in a series of weirdly dry dawn raids. I vowed to emulate this to get a tide window when the kids would be sleeping and easy for my wife to manage.

The rope was still a bugger, and the early morning dew had yet to completely evaporate, leaving the reversal of the down climb to set the cam a little eerie. The rope was hard to reach but I was able to remove almost all, and expose a key jam. I was on my own this time, and was a little perturbed that the pebbles had dropped again. Well, I'd brought all four of my pads, so I'd better make them count.

This was the first go. On reflection it was a good thing as since as far back as following my accident on what became the shard, I've been nervous about proper awkward lobs from height onto pads. Well this was that, and I coped. 

I was going to leave that as that. My analytical brain however chose to blame my left tape glove, which had gotten chunky through reuse and reapplication of tape. Out came the shears and I jointed and butchered it, and rebuilt something from its guts. I also realised I've fallen on my most squidgy highball, pad, so swapped it over, bringing the newest pads in my most likely fall zone. Comfy now eh?

Round two:

I called it Cherry Bomb, because it was fairly punk and rowdy. Also the beach is Porth Ceiriad. That, and Ethan is a big Guardians fan. 

I think 6C+ to fit in with other boulder cracks. It's easier than Tosheroon and requires less precision than Randy Roof, harder than Big Bad Bari and Maneater. Probably similar difficulty to Nefoedd Wideboy. Boulder crack grades seem so compressed with a world of difference between 6C and 7A. Maybe if there was more of them it would spread out a bit.

 

So happy and content, I can hobble away, wash away the blood, and look for my next fight. Probably a little closer to home.

There's Treasure Everywhere 

Burying the previous year

 So another silent 6 months has passed, I've popped the odd thing on Instagram, but not really felt up to splurging on here. .

Rewind to October:

By this point I'm trusting my ankle, having good sessions at the wall, I even started to try this new crack project..

Then got carried away.

Basically, while I was dealing physically and mentally with my bust Achilles, I had stepped away from climbing.

This meant no maintenance, no conditioning, I needed to compartmentalize that away.

When I returned to climbing I was surprised by how little form I'd lost, possibly something to do with how long I'd been maintaining at a certain level of form. However what hadn't stayed the same was my connective tissue. 6 months of stress free living had made my pulleys soft.

Lesson learnt, a little maintenance goes a long way.

One finger max density hangs have been a real eye opener. I use bungies and a home made edge so I can just make myself uncomfortable. I consider these exercises key to my recovery. 10 seconds of pulling in half crimp, then rest a minute. Repeat 5 times.

I did this twice a week for two and a half months. Now I just do it once a week as conditioning and will do indefinitely.

In the meantime I was going for the odd adventure with the kids, like exploring the woods 

I even got an opportunity to walk up a mountain looking for cracks 

They're a bit tall, not sure if they will be highballs or trad. I've not really tradded for 5 year's or more, so that might be interesting.

Finally this weekend Ethan and I returned to the crack

Unfortunately, it was a bit wet and the tools I'd brought to remove the stuck log were insufficient. Even our make shift swing didn't pull it out.

Still, I had a good play, and was reassured that my fingers were back up to this sort of shenanigans.

Something for another visit.

I'm really enjoying these adventures with the kids though. They have very little filter so are quite forthright and refreshing.

Adventure awaits 

Back in the Saddle

 So six months (ish) have passed. Lots of baby steps in physio, lots of little exercises. Walks and wanders, dreaming and scheming.

However, today I have returned to my love. Our of the asylum and back to the wilderness; boot and pad in hand.

Mr Fidler ( soon to be Dr no doubt) joined me in returning to a tentative loose end, found while on Deep Recon on the A487. The dolerite dominoes of Llyn Cymystradlyn may well be sandstone (I'm sure a geologist will tell us), but semantics aside, I can assure you of there provision of quality entertainment.

The approach for starters, takes in an inordinate array of bracken and bog. It wasn't until our retreat that the local fishermen imparted the arcane knowledge that boulder hopping the shoreline was a lot drier and ultimately swifter then balancing hummock to hummock across the sprawling bogs.

Once there, Dave got stuck into the big prize while I tentatively pulled on my comfy boots and looked for a lowball to toy with:

I was amazed how much I had to fight on the lowball, so low it probably deserved a ¡ After its lowly 6A¡.

Dave fought hard to make links on the giant roof, but settled on its soaring arete, which jutted proudly over a jumble of distant death blocks, definitely a !!

We had only taken a pad each, as we both had aspects of crippled on. These we placed under the bits where they could actually make a difference, leaving the void to take care of itself. Fortunately the finish was fairly straightforward. So he tells me. I didn't even attempt to pull on.

This became Brithyll Saithliw 6C!!

All the while I kept flailing on my slopey ground hugging traverse, eventually it relented to give the Inconsequential Traverse 6A¡

Amazed at the heady heights I had achieved after only 6 months of semi-recumbant woodlice husbandry, Dave had a go:

Both flushed with this success, we retired to the lower tier, where I quickly scored another prize.

This time it was Slopey Topscrittle; a lurchy F5

I then spent some time trying to be a wad, by brushing the holds to its right. This was mainly in vain. Although it did help to spur Dave onto furthering his efforts to cross the horizontal steepness:

Long video, but Well worth it for the banter.

In between banter, I jolly well got another first ascent- This ones called Moby Dick (there's a whale..) another 5 probably.

 

Laughter. That's what characterized this trip, that and joy, and bog. Plus a bit of choss.

At this point Dave pulled himself together and climbed this:

He called it Throwing Sheeps, due to my mistaking a herd of sheep for seagulls, and claimed it was 7B. I suspect he was being modest.

We finished up a delightful afternoon by hunting for signs of the mysterious G Mawr, and stumbled on this rather pretty boulder that shows signs of cleaning:

 If it hasn't been done before, you can call it Eog and it's about 6Bish ( the jumble of dominoes is in the background). It was too high for me to risk, and has a bum puncher block at its base. Shame really, if it was dug out it would be 3 stars good.

A great first return, I still have to be careful, lower my expectations, as well as the risk and the height. However, I'm reassured that by keeping a steady pace I can be back to being a loon by next spring.

A happy place.

I (still) Ate'nt Dead

 I'm just over 4 months into my recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon. I think I will be able to safely return to climbing in August, maybe.

It's been a bit of an emotional journey with lots of dips. I thought I'd be able to return sooner, once I could fully weight my toes. However there's more strengthening to do and a rerupture would be back to the beginning again.

Well reasoned words. What actually happened was I tried to climb, I even sneakily pulled on some holds outside 

Nothing serious, just a damp visit to Porth Howel. All excited I went to my physio the next day.

"Returning to climbing would be a bad idea"

What does he know. . I'll text a bouldering physio..

"Not yet"

Next climbing physio.

"Keep strengthening "

Begrudgingly I aquiesced.

So it's been quiet on here, quiet on my Instagram too, just pictures of my distraction hobby; isopod breeding.

It's the invertebrate enthusiast equivalent of pigeon fancying, very geeky.

Other than that I've been trying to score parenting points, took one of my boys for a wild camp.

We got wet.

Other than that, micro-exploration continues. I have even made a second cleaning visit to This 

I was surprised to find some of the holds still clean

Has anybody done the second ascent? I'd love to know, I've never been sure of the grade.

Ho hum. Hopefully more news next month