Tick Report - March

Well I guess I should start with the most significant news of March:

The scans have confirmed that No. 4 is not No. 4, 5 & 6... Sam's been wanting another one for a long time now, but after the Twins rocked our world, I was keen to wait until the boys were all in school full time. Super psyched as (shock horror) kids are cooler than climbing.. 

This has meant while Sam has been in the knackered, nauseous, and ...Irritable stage, my adventures have been curtailed to 4hrs each Monday and Friday morning. Now if the Welsh weather is not cooperating, then I get a little crabby myself. Its due in September so this will have to be factored into the planning, there will be a sweet spot in the summer where most success can be had.

First of the months adventures was a trip up to the Marchlyn Grit. Yep, seems the pillar's of Elidir are some upturned seabed, so its sedimentary folks. 34 mins up with pad and scooter. I used a bit of patio improvement to use as a warm up, its almost a one pad venue now. Sent the Tumbleweed stand and moved into trying to work the sitter. Remember the Welsh weather, and those limited windows of opportunity? well I went up in the spotting drizzle, which turned out to be snow at the boulder (the joys of 600m) this meant the easier warm ups were collecting snow and wet. Attempts on the direct sit were informative but ultimately useless, as while I did manage to get my bones off the ground, my flesh was still sat on the deck. It is quite hard, and involves core, opposition and compression off slopers. exposing new weaknesses to work on, and reminding me of old ones; namely marginal slopers.

It took 8-9 mins to get down with a pad on my back, but Logan's scooter took a battering in the process. I'd melted through the flimsy brake, and this had grooved the back wheel... Off to Ebay for some upgrades.. it was certainly fun pimping his ride..

But I couldn't keep hammering his scooter, so I bought my own!

The pimping bug still lingered, because I'd bought a budget model, and it was ace apart from the wobbly cheap headset. One upgrade later, not only had I learnt to replace a headset(using the freezer and a wooden mallet), but my scooter was smoking... Only 2.8 kg too. I can see that in a years time it may have few original parts, but like my grandfathers axe it will still be my old scooter...

The other events of the month was physio. I have passed up the chain, and now have a punishing regime to follow, made worse by my current golfer's elbow. I'm having to leave the core workout I've been promising myself until they've got a handle on my back issues, so no more progress at Marchlyn for a while (but some team trips may occur to clean up satellites). and I've been sacking off actual climbing until my elbows are under control.

So the Next Month:

between body limitations and most of the month being the Easter hols, I'm limiting myself to three targets next month.

Tosheroon - There's a tide window lining up with my prescribed playtime on the 24th of April.

Non Climbing exploring - the Llugwy reservoir road needs the scooter test, and there might be some little gems left beyond the reservoir. I'm also doing some Clegir tours.

Twll Mawr - I'm super psyched to get this project done, especially as more sport has popped up on the back wall.

Watch this space.

Cwm Uchaf a Fi

Things have been a bit tricky this month, between the weather, work, life and physio. Golfer elbow, and a need to knock off the core training whilst the physio sorts out my hips and back, has meant I've had to rein in my desires for hard ticks, or much climbing at all really. More in the end of month report, but for now, did I let it get me down?

Hell no, I went for a walk!

Those that know me will understand its a little out of character, but as most of my recent bouldering has been above 600m, where there's a will there's a way. Last Friday's mision was to resolve some queries over various sightings in Cwm Uchaf. These were Giveaway projects for July '13, August '13, and December '13. Basically, a walk up there fired me with ideas based on rocks that were far away, and I was going to try and get something more concrete.

Looking up the hill, bit snowy up there

Looking down the new ugly hydroelectric pipe, shouldn't they be burying this?

Some nice looking boulders level with the base of the Skull etc. I'm sure they've been prospected before?

Ahh. July's giveaway, looks good here Eh?

Oops. bit broken, and well... Small

Did I mention small? bit dirty too.

Augusts giveway, clean and good climbing, only small, barely highball, and a bit to easy to warrant it. as for December's giveaway, the jury is still out as it was too high and snowy. Definately one to scope from Crib Goch, might make a sherpa trip and combine it with a Llechog descent and shufty. Might need to breakout a map for that one...

Not all grey skies. Another bloc found to join the Dinas Mot Summit Boulders. Almost enough up here to tempt a pad trip, although I reckon a good spotter could make padless attempts possible, and therefore tempt a route boulder combo.

Found this cave above the Hall of the Mountain king on my descent. paddable and lighter than that cave but maybe not quite as class.

So tick 14 remains elusive and kind of fills the A.N. Other spot. Two new things on my radar that may fill that hole, one involves my new scooter (more in the March report) the other I spotted on this jaunt:

In the centre of your screens is a big mahooosive roof, just left of Alchemy et al on Equator Walls. No further info as yet, but investigations are underway (I've texted Big G)

Keep Questing..

Patio Therapy

With projects like the Cube becoming more reliant on group management, I was keen in my remaining small windows of opportunity to develop stuff I can get psyched for solo trips.
Thus I chose to bite the bullet, and venture back to Marchlyn Mawr to construct a more managable landing. That and try out Logan's scooter from the top of the dam road.....

Marchlyn Bach lit up nicely, the ribs are all much of a muchness, but the end stubs in shadow often give some bouldering potential. There's also a groove and arete high up on the left worth seeking.

34 mins up and I was astonished to find the boulder in Sun (tardy time, must do better)

My new boulder approach takes in this random erratic deposit

The Bike shed, I didn't feel the need to drag it all the way to the boulder..

I arrived to find the tide in. Those wishing to boulder here, had better wait until after the breakfast leccy demand to let the boulder dry out. It must be lapping on it around 5 or 6 in the morning...

So I arrived at 11 and by home time at 2ish, my patio / retaining wall was certainly looking adequate. Very satisfying. Another foot of height and it could even be a 1 pad venue, but I was pretty knackered  by it today. I can see why there's a fair bit of crossover between drystone walling and uber wad climbing. I may also have found a sequence to join the Tumbleweed finish from below, creating a super tick.

Watch this space...

...Oops, almost forgot the ride back. 10 minutes Dam to Car, no wipeouts or wimp outs but stood on the brake a fair bit, certainly room for improvement. Thought I was going to melt my shoe at one point, but no damage done, although the hollow deck and mudguard brake did mean I filled up with gravel....

Tick Report - February

So things are beginning to kick off...

The month kicked off with some throws at tick 7, I think the failure came down to a lack of back up, its so hard to push on on a lone trip like that, once I'm happier with the fall then even the central line might fall, just go to give it some. Its frustrating also that my commitments to work and my beautiful family, meant the next window of opportunity would be the 27th, some three weeks later. 

so I schemed and hit the training..

On the slivers. The plan was pull up, drop off times 3, 5 mins rest, repeat three times. So a running warm up, 100 easy moves, three pull ups on the beastmaker 1000 jugs, rest. three on big slots, rest, 2 more sets on reducing sizes, finishing on the beastmaker 2000 small edges. I then surprised myself by cracking out three on the slivers. 5 mins rest. then 4 easily. 5 mins off, then I did 5....

Knocked it on the head, I knew I was going at it like the randy dog I was trying to avoid, but it felt so satisfying. At least i could get a few days rest in before trying again..

Ooops

I ended up setting this rather fun F7a+ the next day as we needed a cash prize problem, and we wanted to get this sexy volume on the wall. My elbows didn't thank me. Time to hit the bottle. So 3 weeks to get the rehab on the go, my ongoing self repair included a trip to a mighty fine NHS physio to assist in kicking my shoulders into shape. learnt a new exercise as well, and we're targeting an area that may have been originally aggravated by a crucifix into a gaston at Eldon square in '96...

The weeks advanced and the 27th was a sure fire sun trap, then a stormy day with snow, then a cloudy day with drizzle. By the night before, the body didn't ache much, and a posse was forming. Not only that but pad offers were trickling in...

 The last pick up, 300m from bus stop. with two spotters and 7 highbll pads already in the car, this one travelled on the roof, with Derw securing it out the window..

And the sun shone as Derw got us organised... but the walk in was rather comedy, and unfortunately we were too busy stumbling to photo Mark the cuboid snail with three DMM highballs clipped together in a block, and Ben with his leaning hightower of Pod.

First job on arrival was to abb the line and give it some chalk. I spent a lot of time thinking about this over the last month, and given all the tasks I've set myself, and the fact that the wife Forbade me from breaking my legs, meant I was going to give myself some help.

Glad I did because the winter has loosened some of the flakes (the line follows twin crack/seams up the middle of the wall) and rather than being spat off bleeding onto my head, I was able to remove the buggers, and blunt off any knives. Slate can be like that, and while the top got a bit harder, a couple of jugs opened up lower down. It wasn't going to be F7A anymore.. but it would be safe.

We also forgot to photo our warm up antics at Suncharm ledge, where we duly crushed the Escape Groove and Flock of Flying Butt Monkeys, were chastened by Maurice Chevalier, and I also got up the Groove of Smooth...

Looking at the line, I like this photo due to the fact it shows the whole route up to the finishing jug rail.

Setting up for what turned out to be the crux, although there's good food for thought in the last two moves...

Getting High.

Again the photo is useful as it shows the quality of the slate either side. these are free of the cracks Neverfall follows and will clean up to be nice and hard. You can also see my random chalking up and pink tick marks, slate often only unlocks in the climbing, so I wasn't going to risk a vital hold being overlooked.

OK. Tick; The main tick for me was to get Neverfall done, especially after all that ground work, I was keen for some paydirt. But with all the ticks on the list, there's minor ticks (Frontside arete on tick 7 come to mind), main ticks (Neverfall and Tumbleweed on tick 8) and super ticks.
These would be the lines either side of Neverfall (Derw and Muskrat are super keen), and the front face of the Cube (Gleaning the Cube). I think every tick has its super ticks, ones I'm very happy to hand over, but maybe, just maybe....

Upcoming action for March..
Tides are rubbish on my main days off, but Benllech and tick 5 are definitely on the radar as Ben's psyche rises. Off to Dyffryn Mymbyr next week if the weather's nice so a brace of ticks up there.
and there's also tick 1...

I Never Fell

So Ben, Derw and myself went and did the Deed Today...

Job one was chalking the line, which went well until I started brushing the holds off. Turns out the winter had loosened some flakes, which in the cause of self preservation, I removed and made right. This deleted the jugs from the top section and added some in the middle. Hard bottom, steady middle, thin top. and a grade reduction, Happy days.

Job two was warm up at Suncharm Ledge. Derw and Ben hadn't played here before, so it was a chance to introduce them to Maurice Chevalier...

Job Three.

Three Ascents. No Falls.
Neverfall F6B+! M.Dicken 27/2/15

Three strikes and yer off...

Beautiful day today so went up to the cube, on my lonesome (boo hoo)

My plan was to try a snow platform, my lake of shovel didn't put me off... fortunately the remaining snow had hardened and as it had never been trodden on, was easy to peel off the heather in huge chunks.

when I arrived the pit was looking ouchy with that big boulder..

soon buried under hard snow...

I then started working the Backside Arete project (should that be Goofy Arete?) and it certainly was exciting. No falls but plenty of jumps. Failing due to being too scared is a hard thing to accept, better to back off due to it feeling too difficult to attempt safely. I know, its a fine line.

Here are my last three attempts:

I think I won't be returning without 2 spotters and maybe 4 more mats.. I don't think I can get back up this month anyway, so if anyone wants to make use of my snow platform, be my guest.

Tick Report - January

Well happy new year folks, I wish the weather would make up its mind...
My first tick report has good news; Tick no. 8 has given me an ascent! Of course this leads me to want more...
The direct sitter is blatant, and a better problem, and a lot harder. Things to do: Patio, after last time I'm not repeatedly hitting that landing. Also, try a scooter rather than a trike for the descent. I'm not in the mood to patio right now, so 8 is on the back burner unless someone joins in.

As an aside I'm a little happier that the grade of Tumbleweed is somewhere between 6C+/7A. This is due to a lovely weekend with a sadly aging Fatneck (at a rate of 60sec/per minute no less!) I ventured past Pwllheli for the first time in over 2 years to enjoy the boulders of Rhiw, mucking about at the Shelter Boulders (invert off a wing) and flashing Gwefus Ddreinog 6C+ and eventually getting Berrial 7A after 5 goes. lots of fun to be had here, although Mr Hayward has hoovered up most of the plum lines..

Looking along Berrial at Mr Crouch dwarfing the Ddreinog boulder. Given that these are being bigged up as a class venue, it makes me even more proud of the blocks of Dyffryn Mymbyr, which definitely withstand comparison...

Right this month has not all been about Tick no. 8, I also visited Tick no.12 lounging near the bottom of the list. I got agonisingly close to this once, only to be thwarted by elbows, so I was keen to asertain exactly what I was up against.

A respectable angle

These are the starting holds people, a bounce off poor feet off to the side latches another poor hold (did this once), matches and bounces again for the boss on the lip, mantle, and sip champagne.

Working Title of the project: Skadoosh

 As ever with fatherhood...

We really want to see those fingers folks

Specifically, we want to see them stronger, now with all the shoulder stuff going on at the moment, I want to have to maintain form as perfect as possible, and work intensity for as little as possible. Hence I screwed these slivers either side of the Beastmaker at work:

Shaped for as open a grip as possible (no thumbs!) I can hang them long enough to pull up, but not lower down. 3 reps and I'm done. Unfortunately, I've been so busy at work, there has not been many safe windows to do this, but I'd prefer a long term slow gain, rather than, going at it like a randy dog and breaking myself.

Other schemes and plans. I get a window to play, most Monday and Friday mornings, so a dry day goes through the plan sorter. If warmer than 10 degrees, get a posse for Neverfall, if no-one about then reccy Tick no. 14. If colder than 10 degrees, get a posse for the cube, if not enough peeps then go to Georges crack; to my shame I still haven't done it....

Slow start, but a positive one.