Raven Tor April 2013

            As the good weather is arriving I have been looking at opportunities to get outside on some real rock. All this training indoors can send someone crazy if they don’t get outside. Train booked and an early start on Sunday I was off down to chesterfield to meet Gracie Martin and Billy Ridal to head off to Raven Tor.

                                                  Photo - Alex Coley

            Once we arrived at the crag Orrin Coley was already there and on one of his projects, Bens Roof. I soon set to warming up on the little variation boulder halfway down the crag and then came back to Weedkiller V8. I had not been back on this problem since I had a bad fall on it so it was important for me to get back on and do it. I warmed up further by re-familiarizing myself with the moves and then went for it. I pulled on feeling really strong and arrived at the end. Pulled and got the finishing jug easy. Sweet. Finally got the tick.

                                                   Photo - Alex Coley

            Then headed down to Powerband V9 and had little play. Managed to do most of the moves quite easily but there was one move on it that felt desperate and another that felt pretty tweaky so I decided to leave this and move on. I started on Rattle and Hump V7 and found it suited me quite well. I managed to work out some pretty techy beta, which really suited me. Two finger gaston crimp. I soon did this problem and started on Powerhumps V8. I came really close to this but might have left it a bit too near the end of the day as my skin was feeling trashed.

                                                  Photo - Alex Coley

                                                    Photo - Alex Coley

With a hole in my pinky I called it a day and was pretty pleased with what I had done. Effort to Orrin for getting Powerband V9 in about 15 minutes and Gracie Martin for cruising Weedkiller V8. Psyched for more outdoor escapades soon. Kilnsey in June hopefully. Peace.

Training Session Down At The Station

Gorges du Loup 2013

            For the past few years I have gone on an annual climbing trip with a group of friends. Usually this has been in February time but because of university I was unable to do this trip. Never the less, I was invited on a trip with a group of climbers from the south. This was to Gorges du Loup where we stayed in a friend’s house near Nice. It was really cool staying in a big house with a big group of friends and the psyche was high despite the weather looking dodgy.

            Flying out consisted of a very early start and a short drive to the airport for out 6:00 AM flight. Once we landed in Nice we sorted out the hire cars and drove on to the house. A quick bite to eat and we were off to the crag for our first days climbing. Deverse was the first crag on the agenda even though there were lots of rumours that it was seeping. It was. There were three dry lines on the whole crag. One of the dry routes was “Mechanik Destruktiv F7c”. I was psyched to get on this and got it sent 3^rd redpoint. I was happy with this on the first day at a crag that was limited by wetness. One of the other routes was “New Power Generation F8b” which would really not have suited me so I decided to leave that for another time. I had a quick play on “Super Mechanik F8a” and got all of the moves sorted pretty fast and had one redpoint attempt. It wasn’t to be today but will be back to get this route another time.

            Second day saw us at a crag called La Turbie. It was situated just above Monaco and overlooked the whole city. A pretty incredible view. The climbing at this crag was very limited due to the seeping of the rock so I didn’t really get much done on this day. “No Place For Geckos F6c+” was the first route I did. An amazing route which was really exposed and about 37 metres long. The first time up this route we managed to get off route and do some variation of the ending which was about F7a+. I then did a few more F6’s in the afternoon before we got rained off. Not the hardest days climbing but was still a pretty good day. Not every day you get to climb straight above Monaco.

            Third day on and we were off to Mesa Verde. Once we arrived this crag looked like it would really suit me. I eyed up a few routes at the start and began warming up. First up I got the onsight on “Willy Wanca F6c+” which was a really good route. Good holds but quite big moves. Next up was “De La Terre au Ciel F7b”. I have never really done that much onsighting outside so I thought this would be a good route to go for. Sweet. My first on sight of F7b. It was now time for today’s project, “Petit Poucet F7c+” I pulled on with nothing to loose and went for an onsight. I dropped it pretty high up but was happy with what I did. As it turned out I was only six moves from the easier finishing terrain. With the moves worked. I went for a redpoint and came off two moves from the easier ending. 3^rd redpoint and I latched the jug rest before the last few hard moves. After a brief rest, I pulled through and got the chain. Good route that one.

            Fourth day on and I was back at Mesa Verde. “Castle Rock F7a+” was first up and is one of the most popular lines at Mesa Verde. I dropped this onsight but pulled back on and got it second go. After this I wanted to get on “Same Player Shoot Again F7c”. It was quite my anti style as it was powerful and not very sustained but this is what drew me to it. It took me a while to work out the top section, which was really pretty hard but got the moves done and it was just a case of the link up. On my 1^st redpoint I came off the hardest move on the route, which was a big move to a crimp. 2^nd go I dropped the same move but it was foot pop. 3^rd redpoint was closest to the move but dropped it again. 4^th redpoint I latched the hold and managed to keep it together and finish the route to end the day.

            Fifth day and as the weather was shocking I decided to have a rest day. A few of us headed into town for a wander, and then headed back to the house and drank a lot of tea…

            Sixth day saw me back at Deverse to try and link “Super Mechanik F8a”. I had got the moves worked out so it was just a case of warming up and going for it. The route was really powerful and was basically a F7b+ into a V6. 1^st redpoint of the day and I came off the boulder problem. 2^nd redpoint saw me falling one move further but still mid boulder problem. 3^rd redpoint was the same again. And once I had done the 4^th and 5^th attempt I was shattered. It was obviously not meant to be this trip. I wasn’t too bothered by it though as it must have been good training having this many goes on something so hard for me.

            The last day I decided to go back to Mesa Verde as the weather was nice and I fancied a really big mileage day of sendage. The “advanced team” (as we were known) got up early and headed off to the crag whilst everyone else was still sleeping. We arrived and went for speed. First up was “Pas de Bras, Pas de Chocolat F7a” which I got the onsight on. Second up was “Contrat Premier Envol F6c” I got the onsight on this and then went for the onsight on the extension graded F7b+. I got past the hard move only to be spat off the easier top section due to wetness. I dogged it to the top and retrieved my draws. I didn’t fancy getting back on a wet route. Third up was “Ma vie en l'air F7a+”, I had to grovel a bit on this but again, managed to get the onsight on this. Fourth route was “Hopi Birthday F7a”. This route was a bit wet in the middle but I managed to pull past this missing a couple of holds. Got the onsight on a pretty sick route. The fifth and final route was “Plat de Resistance F7b+” I went for the onsight but came of a move in the middle. After this the route was done so I came down and got back on to send it second go. Really happy with the last day of routes with some good onsights.

Petit Poucet   F7c+   3^rd redpoint

Same Player Shoot Again   F7c   4^th redpoint

Mechanik Destruktiv   F7c   3^rd redpoint

Plat de Resistance   F7b+   2^nd redpoint

De La Terre au Ciel   F7b   onsight

Ma vie en l'air   F7a+   onsight

Castle Rock   F7a+   2^nd redpoint

Pas de Bras, Pas de Chocolat   F7a   onsight

Hopi Birthday   F7a   onsight

Willy Wanca   F6c+   onsight

No Place for Geckos   F6c+   onsight

Contrat Premier Envol   F6c   onsight

Hardcore Route Setting

Two days ago on Friday down at Rockover, I was setting some hard routes. 6x V8+/9’s to be exact. After setting these problems in the morning I had the strenuous job of testing these beasts. I felt super strong on and them, which was a surprise. Training must be paying off… With the problems tested move-by-move it was time to try a few of them to get the full link up. Sweet. I had managed to link two of the problems. Psyched.

CWIF 2013

           Last year I decided to do the CWIF for the first time and I thought it was a really good comp. It is a really laid back competition but at the same time, has super hard problems, big cash prizes and international beasts crushing the hard problems. I decided I was going to do the comp once again and try and better my performance last year. I was also asked by one of my sponsors if I would be on the PrAna/Metolius team. Still unsure how we got on…

           As I was competing in the afternoon time slot I didn’t have to get up really early. Psyched. I hopped in the Rockover Climbing Centre mini bus and we headed down to Sheffield. Traffic was a nightmare but we got there in the end. Effort Brett. Once I got there I started to warm up and get ready to start the comp. I had a look round some of the problems and was feeling good. Once I got on a few of the easy problems, the initial nerves disappear and I was just having a laugh with my friends. I started to move onto the harder problems and found them pretty tricky. A lot of the problems were really technical and sketchy and really easy to fluff. I did mess a few up on my first go, and even a few on second go. But I did manage to get a lot of these problems in the end even though I didn’t flash them.

After a long three and a half hours I was nearing the end. I was pretty shattered and beat up after all of the problems I had done or tried. With a quick scout round at the end to double check I hadn’t missed anything I was finished. I was really happy with how I had done. I had managed to do quite a few of the problems (even if some of them were 2^nd or 3^rd go…), which showed me I have the ability to pull pretty hard at the moment.

I finished with a score of 156, which was just over half way. A way off the semi final qualification score but I wasn’t expecting to be near that so I was happy with what I had done. Onwards with the training and will hopefully be crushing on routes soon. Gorge du Loup in three weeks time now so I am getting really psyched for that.

Good effort to the rest of Team PrAna/Metolius

Nathan Phillips finishing in 10^th

Dave Barrans finishing in 2^nd

Rachel Carr finishing in 8^th

Training Routes

New training routes I set the other day at Rockover Climbing Centre.

Orange F7c
Pink F7c+/8a
Orange into Pink F8b (50 moves)

Get ready for the pump...

New Year. New Plan

          This New Year brings with it some new challenges. After being dropped from the GB Climbing Team (for the moment...) I was faced with a decision at the end of 2012. Do I stop competing and focus on other things in my climbing, like climbing more outside or do I decide to train harder than I ever have done before and get back to competing. Here is how I decided...

          When I got the news that I had not been re-selected to be on the 2013 GB Climbing Team, to say the least, I was gutted. It made me think about what I wanted to do with my climbing and where I wanted to take it. Up until now I have been really focused on competing, training and trying to climb as hard as I can. Having been on the GB Team for the last two years, to have the news that I suddenly wasn't took a couple of weeks to get used to. 

          I was really down for a couple of weeks and had to get my head sorted. I spoke to my coach (Tom Randall) and he told me some really good tips and things to help me get back on track. Convinced me that every athlete has set backs and it is how they deal with these set backs that makes them an "athlete at the highest level". After the discussion I felt a lot better about the whole thing and was ready to make my comeback. Just one of his suggestions was to read a book. With this in mind I was straight on the internet. Book purchased and in the post. Whilst I had a little break towards the end of December I read this book and it really taught me a lot. Got me motivated to train hard and cleared any doubts out of my mind that may have sunk in.

          With all that I had thought about over the last two to three weeks, I came home, met with Tom, sat down and made a plan. A New Year. A new plan. I will have six months to train harder than ever before and compete strongly in the July comp to show why I should still be on the team.

          In the lead up to the comp in July, I also have now booked a trip to the south of France for the first week in April. I am really psyched about this trip and should be in good shape to get some hard red points done and boost my outside climbing grade up.