Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Friday, 27 April 2012
Competitions
Well where do I start, competitions are HARD! Months of dedicated training session's before work all for 45mins to try and shine against the world's best. The last 2 weeks have certainly been an eye opener for me! 8c crusher's making it no where near the semis let alone the finals and random nobody's smashing hard climbs, weird! From 29th in Slovenia last weekend I was hoping to better my score this weekend but sadly it wasn't to be. I'm not one to make excuses BUT i was feeling pretty rough in the isolation zone before going out to climb which is definitely something that sapped my psyche! Until coming out to see my first climb it looked like my bag, double dyno to two big holds. 1st go fail. 2nd go fail. 3rd go easy, why did I not do it first?!?! The same happened on problem 3, and the rest is history as they say! It seems like the mistakes were well punished in this competition. So I find myself asking what do I now, the answer is obvious................ sneak into the Russian and Austrian training camps like a ninja and spy on them, what the hell do they do to have such high consistency on the comps.
All in all Slovenia was good and Vienna was bad for me, not because of the setting but because of my performance, that is that! I definitely feel motivated to come home, get back to the drawing board and have another go. Signing out, Gangle!
All in all Slovenia was good and Vienna was bad for me, not because of the setting but because of my performance, that is that! I definitely feel motivated to come home, get back to the drawing board and have another go. Signing out, Gangle!
Friday, 30 March 2012
Out and About
Recently iv been gearing up for the world cups starting at the back end of april in Slovenia, I started training at the beginning of January with a new training programme that my friend Arron Deakin kindly put together for me. Its full of new things iv never done before so im putting alot of faith in the programme and hoping it works.
Good practice for the comp season has also involved doing the Northern Indoor Boulder Leagues (NIBL) and the CWIF down in Sheffield. I came second overall in the NIBL and was beat by pocket rocket Dave Barrans and managed to make the finals in the CWIF to finish overall in 6th place which was good for me!
Iv had to sacrifice all climbing outside this year so that I can make a good crack at the world cups but I managed a rare outing the other day with David Mason the Andy Jenning's to Brandrith to try a brilliant arete put up by Dave Sutcliffe called 'Heaven in Your Hands', after a quick warm up I lanked my way up it in horrendous style but it saw me to the top so whatever! It felt nice to be on the rock but I couldnt enjoy the feeling for too long cos I has to be back at the depot for training!
Currently out chilling out at mums pad in Spain. Its fucking awesome out here, the spanish have some good rock lucky bastards!
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Of Late
Iv been up to a few thing of late, 95% of those things consist of training. I have managed to get out on the Grit to test the training out recently, and it seems to of worked, however no amount of training can prepare your skin for the battering grit does to it. Iv always been against going to Almscliff as I think its a bit dump so you can imagine my surprise when I had a good session there the other week, I did some quality blocs like Dick Hymen 7c+, Slopey Traverse 7b+ and Canine 8a http://vimeo.com/31462616.
A few days later, a bunch of us ended up at the chevin near Otley, I went to scope out Tom Peckitts new climb, Fluid Dynamnics, a quality 8a+ arete on crimps. After a bit of work I did the stand which we thought was hard 7c+, but my skin was to shot to go from the start.
Yesterday I did the first round of the NIBL competition at the climbing hangar that I won, which was nice :-). From there I headed over to wales for a bit of cave action that occurred today. After warming up and doing an un-named 7c+, myself and dan knight had some burns on louis armstrong, quality problem. We managed all the moves, so its one I need to get back to to try and complete.
A few days later, a bunch of us ended up at the chevin near Otley, I went to scope out Tom Peckitts new climb, Fluid Dynamnics, a quality 8a+ arete on crimps. After a bit of work I did the stand which we thought was hard 7c+, but my skin was to shot to go from the start.
Yesterday I did the first round of the NIBL competition at the climbing hangar that I won, which was nice :-). From there I headed over to wales for a bit of cave action that occurred today. After warming up and doing an un-named 7c+, myself and dan knight had some burns on louis armstrong, quality problem. We managed all the moves, so its one I need to get back to to try and complete.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Wales
Adam Watson, Dave Jones and myself had a team trip down to Wales this weekend just gone. Although the weather was predominatly rubbish, we still managed to get some good things done. First up was Clyde, after a couple of goes I was getting to the final move quite quickly but kept dropping the hard finish move. I had a look in the guide at the picture of Jordan Buys on it and realised I was using the wrong beta. Therefore the next go with new beta ended with me at the top of the climb.
After this we decided to check out the new (ish) area called Crafnant. Once the steep walk in was complete the first problem we got stuck into was Special K. My foot popped on the first move on my flash attempt. I sat down chalked up at went again all the way to the top. Big man Watson stepped in after me with an impressive flash. This problem is so much easier for the tall and therefore was a completly different problem for DJ. After a bit of work he smashed it rather impressively with a different sequence to adam and me. After this we quested around the other side of the bloc and did a very crimpy wall with a tricky mantle. I don't know whats its called but it looked good with moves off crystal crimps up to a ramp. Tres Bon
Next day the weather was some how worse so the cave was the only option again! This time was the High Life. Its hard to grade this once because it like 30 moves. Anyhow after a bit of work I got up it quite quickly then watched Adam get robbed on the last move of Broken Heart on his flash attempt. That didn't seen to phase him too much though as he then went on to do it second go!
After this we decided to check out the new (ish) area called Crafnant. Once the steep walk in was complete the first problem we got stuck into was Special K. My foot popped on the first move on my flash attempt. I sat down chalked up at went again all the way to the top. Big man Watson stepped in after me with an impressive flash. This problem is so much easier for the tall and therefore was a completly different problem for DJ. After a bit of work he smashed it rather impressively with a different sequence to adam and me. After this we quested around the other side of the bloc and did a very crimpy wall with a tricky mantle. I don't know whats its called but it looked good with moves off crystal crimps up to a ramp. Tres Bon
Next day the weather was some how worse so the cave was the only option again! This time was the High Life. Its hard to grade this once because it like 30 moves. Anyhow after a bit of work I got up it quite quickly then watched Adam get robbed on the last move of Broken Heart on his flash attempt. That didn't seen to phase him too much though as he then went on to do it second go!
Friday, 17 June 2011
City Bloc Competition
So I decided to have a bosh at the city bloc competition over the weekend. This was just a small competition but I decided to give it a go for the crack, so upon my arrival I was kinda shocked to see half of the british bouldering team there :-(. Anyway I got stuck in and ended up climbing quite well to qualify in 3rd place for the finals (6 went through to the finals).
The isolation zone was a little nerve racking as the commentator gave us a good idea of where each competitor got to, so each of us had a rough idea how good we had done on each problem. Anyway The final consisted of 3 blocs (after 40 qualification climbs), I flashed the 1st and the 3rd one but got totally shut down on the 2nd one. This however proved enough to get 1st place and win a cheeky £100. The money was well spent on rent and my girl friend!
Me sticking one of many big moves on the first final problem.
Me getting a lucky flash on problem three.
Thanks to Seb Smith for the photos.
The isolation zone was a little nerve racking as the commentator gave us a good idea of where each competitor got to, so each of us had a rough idea how good we had done on each problem. Anyway The final consisted of 3 blocs (after 40 qualification climbs), I flashed the 1st and the 3rd one but got totally shut down on the 2nd one. This however proved enough to get 1st place and win a cheeky £100. The money was well spent on rent and my girl friend!
Me sticking one of many big moves on the first final problem.
Me getting a lucky flash on problem three.
Thanks to Seb Smith for the photos.
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Bardon
Iv been trying to get out and about when possible between work when I can at the moment now the weather has finally started looking a little spiffing! The main attraction of crookrise seems to be 'Jasons Roof' which is well impressive, because of this it seems 'Sideliner' to to right of it seems to get overlooked. This is a brilliant 8a on crimps put up back in the day by Tim Clifford (legend) and a full on gem! After sussing out the beta I fired the problem off pretty fast, total quality
Recently Steve Dunning put up a new climb at Eastby crag, although there isnt much there this climb is a total classic and I would recommend to all, I can't actually remember to the name he gave it at the moment but will provide some pictorals. Im not going to comment on the grade of this puppy because is rather morphilogical and we all know morpho problems simply do not count ;-)
The first picture obviously hows the stunning boulder problem is and the second picture obviously shows my not so stunning face :-(
Recently Steve Dunning put up a new climb at Eastby crag, although there isnt much there this climb is a total classic and I would recommend to all, I can't actually remember to the name he gave it at the moment but will provide some pictorals. Im not going to comment on the grade of this puppy because is rather morphilogical and we all know morpho problems simply do not count ;-)
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