The Lockdown Diaries - I've got 99 projects..

And I can't climb one.
That has been the situation in sunny Wales. I made a moral choice to respect the BMC's request that we pause climbing for now. This was due to feeling a bit unjust when there was the masses who couldn't walk to their boulders, and not wanting to make the BMC's position harder.

Can't touch this 

Well actually I think climbers being climbers, especially in the North Wales scene, I think they have. To be honest I can't blame them. Lowball esoteric lumps barely gazed at by man abound in this area, my blog is littered with them. Judging by the viewing stats, it appears that people have cottoned on to this too. So with my backwater projects preyed on by bloc hungry freedom fighter's what's a man to do? 

I started with what I was allowed to do. I noticed that the national park had moved their no play zone back south to Nant Peris. This meant I could wander from my house to the mysteries of Fronllwyd. 

And have a gander into Penrhyn

Even gaze into the Carneddau (which has always remained open, lucky Bethesdarites) 

The road ahead is uneven and frustrating. Tonight our prime minister has allowed Englanders to drive to their "unlimited" exercise. This week gone, the BMC's advocated bouldering and top roping as phase 1 appropriate.

The stable door is open to the masses, and keeping my bouldering mat locked away won't save any lives. Obviously I don't want to go anywhere anybody else is (I never do really). Also the science is beginning to indicate that if someone gave my boulder cooties, it wasn't likely to give it to me. Certainly less likely than the trolley at Tescos. 

Controlled and polite rebellion may save minds as well as lives. 

Stay safe. 

The Lockdown Diaries - Painting

As the Rolling Stones sang; "Time is on my side.."
What this means for me is that I've been able to really get back into painting. This is something that I used to do passionately alongside my climbing. However, it's time intensive, and my wife was far more interesting, and then the kids etc.
I'd recently restarted, dabbling in my lunchbreaks at work as an alternative to candy crush.
Lockdown and crag ban has meant its been a useful tool for focusing my random energy.
I'm quite a comic geek, and my painting is heavily influenced by the inking an colouring styles of the comics and graphic novels. I'm not a natural drawer type person and accepting of the fact that I'll probably never be arsed to get better. Therfore I employ a projection technique I appropriated from a art student back when I was living in Farnham. This means I can sketch / trace the bits I want from an image I've captured.
I thought I'd use my last painting as a case study to explain the process.

This is the wall outside our kitchen. 

Having projected an traced the interesting bits I proceed with inking the shadows. 

Inking complete 

I then start playing with colour. I'm not really a realist, but I tend to build a palate from the subject and muck about a bit. Also, I like to think about the close up little things and the colours hidden and inside and unseen.. 

Hence I end up with a mess like this (this is at work) 

I then try an fix it.. 

And re ink as I go along 

Eventually it starts to work and I try to balance the 'movement' and sharpen the impression of detail. 

Sort of almost finished (bar minor tarting and rewrites) 

This is my latest subject. A well weathered post stump in between Caffi Gwynant (best caff in Wales) and the start of the Watkin path. 

The projection stage. 

The end of the sketching (beer o'clock) 

So one sort of finished and a new one underway. Wholesome distractions until the plague passes.. 

Stay safe

The Lockdown Diaries - The Wishing Jar

The Wishing jar was an ideas my wife picked up to help the kids cope with lockdown. By looking forward to the future, and naming those things you want to do. The kids wrote these things down and popped them into the jar. After all this is over we're going to open the jar and work through the list. 

It's been a moody moo week and I haven't been psyched to train or interact that much with the outside world. I realised I have yet to put anything in the jar! 

1.

Go upto the Marchlyn boulder and bag a few more lines

Just before lockdown I bagged the first of the harder lines up there. This turned my mind from can't to can and I've been mulling over the remaining projects. Got to keep training if I want a chance though.. 

An alternative veiw up to Marchlyn from one of the walks near the house. I've struggled with this as I don't really do conventional, however there are some weird spots near my home. 

2.

Do all the coastal fist list blocs on the lleyn in a day

Through chats with other obsessives, I'd realised that although I'd almost completed all the inland bouldering cracks, I hadn't made a dent in the coastal's. The bloc's in question are sheep shelter, maneater, nefoedd wideboy and jellybowl crack. Only 2 are tidal and on opposite coasts, 2 hours between respective tides. All possible. 

A previous attempt on sheep shelter, I started in the wrong place. 

3.

Climb George's Crack and Pinocchio Crack and The Tosheroon 

I'm embarrassed I haven't succeeded on George's yet, basically I'm not flexible enough. Pinnochio Crack is a Pritchard offwidth with (I think) only 2 ascents, for this I need more bravery, and maybe some more in my toolbox hence this:

Always something new to learn 

The Tosheroon is my jabberwocky and I'm keen to slay it once and for all. Its awkward because you can't work sections, every attempt is ground (or bowels) up. 

So there we go. Three things in the wishing jar, three things to train, get flexible, and get sneaky for. 

What's in your wish jar? 

Lockdown Diaries- Opening Entry

So the world is on fire with itty bitty flames and I'm fighting by staying at home with a 4yr old princess, the twin monkeys of CAMHS chaos, a bolshy pre teen, a (obviously) wonderful wife, 2 ducks 5 chickens and 3 rats.
It a been emotional folk's.
What's a man to do? I started like most fathers by tidying the shed:

 Following that I installed a pull up bar in the kids bedroom, as the ancient and Chalk free fingerboard in the kitchen is crap for actual pull ups :

Then I went crazy.

Being without climbing, especially outside, although with the wall where I work closing inside too, I was without means of release. Feeding the rat, blowing off steam, call it what you want. I have lived for the last 33 years with adventure on tap, and was now cold turkey. It isn't just a case of addiction, as addicts can get clean. This was a need. N Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs were engineered without the ability to produce lysine so they were dependent on their captors. Well like those plucky dino's I was determined to find a way around it. I made a decision to comply with the no climbing request from the BMC, despite my Esoteric tastes and such blocs being 40 minutes walk away. It would be sneaky, and even though nobody else would touch the same holds, there were thousands of us not so lucky, and we're all in this together aren't we? 

My first attempt to get past this was a pull up challenge. 100 a day for 5 days. As my 45yr old body protested, I included 100 press ups and squats to balance it all out. 

This didn't hit the spot though, if I enjoyed exercise I would have become a sport climber. 

Ethan, one of my chaos monkeys provided the solution. He wanted to search for a bomb crater from ww2 that was purportedly on the other side of the conifer plantation on the corner of our lane. He also decided that the best approach was through the plantation... 

This is not a well maintained plantation. Its about 400m square, or 16k hectares. 

I'm not as small as Ethan.. 

We went about 50m without touching the ground, indeed we we often a couple of meters off it. 

Sometimes we were quite close.. 

However, this mini adventure was just what we ( oth) needed. You can see Ethans grin, mainly because of the scratches and twigs in my hair.. 

A more open section, wandering over the pile of grubbed up tree roots. 

We did make it out eventually, even though actually finding the bomb crater is an adventure for another day.. 

Other dad jobs include making bows and teaching them not to stab their legs with knives.. 

Even surprised myself with a not totally rubbish flight for the arrows.. 

Another way for me to improve my serenity has been to start painting again. Before marriage and kids I did loads (even sold a couple) and it seemed to click with my climbing head space. I'd recently started again as I found an unfinished painting, and resolved to complete it in my lunch breaks at work. This was as an alternative to candy crush. That one completed, I started a fresh one of the stone wall outside my kitchen. Come lockdown I retrieved it from work.. 

Obviously with my house full of chaos, there wasn't going to be much painting time. My wife and I needed to a) not kill each other and b) have some down time. So we arranged that once a week, each of us could escape to a room for an evening and not deal with kids or each other. Tonight is my night (hence the blog) and I've taken a fresh pic of one of the stones.. 

It's getting there by baby steps.. 

I'll report next week whether I'm still keeping it together. 

Stay safe! And adventure will still be out there.. 

Digging in

Worrying times. My place of work is closed, kids all at home, and a lot of fear is rolling over everything like the fog in, well, Stephen King's The Fog.
We're all hunkered down in a house we share with my parents, trying not to do anything that may bump 'em off. There's only so much Boss Baby a dad can endure, and I took an opportunity today to seek solitude up at my boulder at Marchlyn.

The fear is not overwhelming however, I had a nice friendly chat with a elderly (socially distant) lady who was walking her dogs as I set off, curious as to whether my pad stack was so I could stay up there indefinitely. Then a worker on the lower reservoir offered me a lift to the top! (I was wearing gloves, no one coughed).

My samaritan driving off. 

First time for everything and I actually had to do a bit of a warm up at the boulder rather than trying to cool down. At first I found the Connie's a bit slick, a mixture of temps, dampness and glassy skin. I fell off Tumbleweed once and took a few goes to get Ledgehammer. However the regular start to Seamus went promisingly, feeling pretty locked on the crimps. 

Seamus Low has been a project of mine for a couple of years, and it has been always tantalisingly close, with no cigar. 

Today I think I was just a bit more aggressive, and the simpler 'go big' beta I worked on last year meant a little grrr went a long way.

Success vid below(Andy Popp watch to the end) 

As always with this boulder I'm unsure of the grade. Conditions and Psyche seem just as important as fitness. It seemed easier than previous tries, but I'm having to spin on a one arm lock off... I've always thought it would go at F7A+ so I'll go with that. 

Who knows what tomorrow will bring, in the words of Theodore Logan:

"Be Excellent to Each Other" 

The Hunt for the Baboon

Another month, another brief weather window allows an adventure. It has long been an ambition of mine to climb the Baboon, ever since its first mention on the North Wales Bouldering blog. It's inclusion in NWB2 and a friends successful adventure, has spurred my efforts, both with initial forays in 2018, and this month's hunt.
My approach was as usual non standard, as I was combining trips with further pebble scoping. Hence my unorthodox approach over Cwm Bleiddiaid.

This did, however, afford myself great veiws of what appeared massive boulders. 

On closer inspection these were a little disappointing, the rock was mainly pillow lava and covered in jugs. Chatting to learned friends I've also discovered that a rare fern resides hereabouts and loves the rock, so no gardening folks! 

Not all the rock was disappointing. This fine finger may please someone. I was without a mat, however, and not interested in such diversions, I was on a baboon hunt. 

Behind a steep boulder I made my incursion back into the forest. I had a Google map pin, location on, and a can do attitude. I soon also had wet feet, as my feet had discovered an insinuating rivulet. This was in fact a boon, being bordered by swamp willows (easier to fight through) and leading straight to the Baboon! 

Willows and an insinuating rivulet. 

The Baboon! 

As with all these things, the fun was in the hunt. The actual quarry (meaning prey, not stone extraction) was a little damp and slimy on the left, meaning I had to be fairly selective with my hold choice.

I was dimly aware it had been done from a sitter, but a combination of no mat, concern of an impending battle, and a massive jug just above my head, led to a standing approach.

The first attempt went badly as I hit some slimy holds. It felt quite high and I became jittery about the state of the top out. 

I descended and sort out the down climb so I could assess from above:

Having sat on the summit I could have left it as that. Especially as despite clocking a jug just below the lip, the top would certainly involve some sketchy Heather pulling.

But... 

I sort of pulled on one last time. I've left this unedited for the full giggle :

There you go, adventure is out there. For the prospective repeaters out there, here's the pin:

53.0098430, -4.1461270

Enjoy. 

Those Wile E Coyote moments...

There a definitely some openings for new words in the dictionary. The emotion uprising when  the mud has sucked off one  wellie, and the other starts to sink (soulsquelch?), or the feeling that you have fallen for more time then you had accounted for..
This was my experience during my last window of opportunity in Cwmffynnon (falling, not the wellies, I have the approach dialled).
It was an excellent morning with wintery sun, and inversions in the valleys.

I chose to warm up on Troubles Braids, I'd forgotten what good value it was at a highball 6a. No snappy holds, but certainly wakes you up and set me up for a highball day. 

Frank's Wild Years was next. Softer in grade at 5c, but a few fragile holds and unusual moves requires a steady highball head. 

After that it was off to the days objective. A highball crack I'd spied on the walk last month. 

Unfortunately the crack was still wet from last nights rain. However, I was drawn to the wall to the left. Vertical with a slight scoop around halfway, the top edge was looming at around 5 and a bit meters. There were a couple of edges, but the majority of the climbing was on harder mineral slivers jutting out of the volcanic tuff. Ace when they're bomber, but the odd one occasionally goes bang. Certainly exciting for a highball. With trepidation I sussed out the first few moves, and spied out some form of line. The climbing was tensiony and surprisingly powerful, and this urgency of movement delivered me 3/4 up the wall to a good pinch an no real recollection of how I got there. 

My sequence to this point came in from the left and I realised I had no knowledge of the various nubbins being offered as footholds for the last moves to the top. Slowly getting horribly pumped I poked each nubbin in turn with my boot. Hey ho. I had to commit.. 

Unlike Mr Coyote, I didn't hover in the air as the pebble ejected from the wall. It was a moment mid flight that my moment came, as I sort of assumed I would have landed by now.. Although I did soon enough. 

Slightly giggley and no worse for wear I contemplated my situation. I could call it a day. However, I was so close and if I left it there was an infinitesimal chance some other nutter may do it first..

I'm pleased I persevered, as the moment I blindly slapped for the top sloper is now burned into my psyche, fond memories. 

I named it after a blog post I made on a similar topic; "The Cutthroat World of Esoteric Bouldering" and I guess it's between F6c+ and 7a. I certainly had to dig deep. 

Hope you enjoy the video (I included the fall) and I'm sure there's more to come. 

I'm getting rather overtly keen actually.