Review of Wide Boyz

Merry Christmas!

Finally finished writing up my masters thesis and plucked up the courage to switch on the computer again. Instead of watching the traditional Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Were-Rabbit I watched the Hotaches film WideBoyz and wrote a little review below. In short I thought it was fab and blew Odyssey out the water and my mum liked it too. I beleive it is on a par with Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which makes it a definite winner in my opinion.



I really, really enjoyed this film and would recommend it to climbers and non-climbers alike. I think the reason it appealed so much was, that unlike a lot of climbing films it follows a story. Two guys on a mission, going from training on homemade plywood cracks in a basement in Sheffield to the hardest offwidth in the world in the american desert. It’s the climbing equivalent of the Alan Sugar ‘I started out selling windscreen wipers and look at me now’ sort of inspirational ancedote. An assurance that persistence and creativity wins out over even terribly inconvenient goals.

Offwidths are a very unusual speciality and I think they make good subjects for filming. Many films following good climbers see them climb many impressively difficult routes, more often than not they make it look so easy and graceful that you begin to doubt whether it was difficult at all (until you go seek the route out and stand underneath it). This is not a problem with offwidths – Tom and Pete despite their considerable skill are still visibly, physically trying hard. There are also some seldom seen moves pulled out the bag such as many foot-in-crack-above-head moves. I must try that sometime.

This is a great motivating film for anyone that likes training, as it features a section devoted to Tom Randall’s inventive training basement and the number of exercises you can create using a selection of plywood cracks. Finally, unlike a lot of films it is about a successful climbing partnership and their eventual success seems like a proper team effort and I think this is something every climber can relate to.

So watch it. Anyway, hope everyone had an excellent Christmas and I hope to get back on the blogging wagon in the new year now the thesis is over.

 

Escapism at the Olive Branch

My most hotly anticipated birthday present was a trip to El Chorro with the indefatigable Dr Bevan, from which I have just returned... I was pretty excited at the prospect of possibly being able to take my jumper off after the north walean summer and being able to leave the downie behind for the first time and it was hot hot hot!

However, it was possibly too hot, be warned there are virtually no shady crags so if you are not adapted to desert living then it would be wise to go a bit later in the year. We were only around for 6 days so we wanted to visit as many different crags as possible and explore. This meant trying to flash or get second go as many routes as possible which was a fun challenge. In the lead up I had been concentrating on lobbing practice to reduce that above-the-bolt phobia and also trying some redpoint projects where I had to move more dynamically than I do usually. Along with having an awesomely supportive belayer this led to some primo performances and being able to push much closer to my physical limit than I have before. For someone who has always struggled with 'head' issues this was a welcome break ( I am sure this isn't the last I will hear of them though...).

Conquests included: Little Brown Baby (7a+) at Sector Castrojo - an amazing pumpy route that is easy on your finger skin and in the shade at about 4. Failed.
Cono paco at Sector Suizo (7a) which has a rep as being easy for the grade but its more cruxy than easy (which is frustrating if you can't do the crux). Success!
Poema de Roca  at poema de roca (7a) - is the super classic of the area, looks totally amazing but had bees drinking from the tufas.... this is not a hazard I had encountered before and I insisted it would be fine until my face was six inches from a whole herd of agitated pollinators. I had images of the whole hunger games type thing and decided no route was worth dying of bees. It is also not in the shade until 4.30 despite what people may tell you!! Failure.
El truco del almendruco (7a) at Los Albercones - caught our eye as a three star wall climb, which is what tiggers do best. It is a wall climb with a hard and hard to read crux. Gets into the shade when it gets dark. Success!
Everything (almost) at Buena Sombra Desplomilandia - is in the shade all day hooray! Although you need to make friends with cars to get there and back. Highlights of the crag are Buena Sombra (6b+) which is cool tufa climbing, Coconut yoghurt (6c) for which the Hole of Creation is probably the best training. Incidentally I tried eating tesco coconut yoghurt the other day and I'm not sure about it. The route is better than the food stuff. Viejos y puretas (7a) the hard bulge felt bunchy, good if you like being bunched. Success, success success!!
Zepplin (6c+) in the gorge, 10 pitches of generally full value climbing. Not in the shade, start early! I remember being dragged up this in my second year of university and having to stand in slings to aid the main pitch (and actually most of the hard pitches), so it was a good progression to come back and lead it clean (clean is relative - both me and Ruth had a bit of an aid on the roof pitch and a bit of a pull on a draw to get off the belay on the 6c+ but other than those minor indiscretions....). All of the tricky pitches feel full value for the grade, esecially with the sun and multipitch kit. The traversey nature of some of the pitches makes it a good idea to carry prussiks! Memorable day out... Success!

Morning in the gorge before Zepplin!

The not enough footholds 6c roof

Looking down over the railway!

Last tricky pitch on Zepplin!

We were camping at the Olive Branch which was an excellent base. It was set up by accident four years ago by Mel and Gary, neither of whom knew about the climbing in the area at the time. They picked up some hitchhiking climbers who happened to want to rent a room and who the started recruiting more climbers to come and camp on the floor. They had the nouse to realise this had potential and turned it into what is now a very busy little hub of climbers, with a plush bunkhouse and a terraced garden for camping. There is a really friendly atmosphere, with everyone keen to go out of their way to help out and lend stuff and improvise to solve any problem.

The must do rest day activity of the area is the Caminito del Ray - a walkway built in the 1920s along the gorges. It is still standing in the main and has turned into an exciting via ferrata type activity. The second gorge is especially narrow and beautiful and makes you feel like you are on some sort of Indiana Jones style adventure.

Looking back over at the train tunnels

Bridge worthy of slate quarries...

Having crash landed back in normal life again, with two months to go until the deadline for my masters thesis I am beginning a bit of a month long hibernation. At least its November. I will largely be found in my windowless airless office or at the bouldering walls. I am hoping to fit bouldering in around my thesis. Partly because power is currently my biggest weakness and also because indoor bouldering is pretty time and faff efficient and will detract the least from my writing. This also means a bit of a break from blog writing so will hopefully be back on it in December! Adios!

A successful redpoint....

I was very happy yesterday to escape my windowless office and decamp to the Orme, I was even happier to send a route that I'd tried sporadically for several years! I was reminded of how enjoyable redpointing can be and the good feeling you get when you prepare for something properly and it pays off!
The successful mission started last weekend, when I was struggling to find a climbing partner for Sunday even though the weather looked perfect. I phoned up Murdoch to have a moan about my lack of partners, which was a bit unfair as this pails in comparison to having a non-functional leg. However, being the gentlemanly sort of fellow that he is, he offered to belay on the proviso that we didn't really walk anywhere. Marine drive was then the obvious choice of location for a broken belayer as you can pretty much belay from the car. I 'warmed up' on Anchovy Madonna (E3, 5c), which had been recommended me as a warm up by Sohphie Whyte. I could see the logic (it is easier than warming up on any of the sport climbs) but it was still too hard for me to onsight through the bulge, and I ended up sitting on the bolt until I discovered some new handholds. Further up it turns into a lovely exposed trad climb which I did alright at except for being a bit sloooow.

Next up was a return to Homo sapien, which as well as having a wonderful zoological themed name, is less burly than alot of the Orme sport climbing and therefore suits me a bit better. I put the clips in with a clipstick like a big wuss, as its hard enough for me that putting the clips in on lead would probably require draining all my physical and mental reserves. Once I had done this I could learn the sequence again, especially neccessary to get through the very fingery start. It was pretty satisfying as the holds are tiny and bobbly with lots of thumb dishes, so initially they seem really poor but they get better and better as you learn the exact position to hold them. With a bit of trepidation we pulled the rope and I had a try on lead before the sun went down. Although I didn't get it, it broke a couple of mental barriers and instead of finding the whole route scary it was reduced to a couple of scary moments and a whole lot that I could do just fine. It suddenly went from impossible to imminantly possible. All it needed was some fresh arms and fresh skin.

Sophie working Homo sapien

However, if I took too long to get round to it I would have to relearn it all again so I set the arbitary deadline of my birthday (this Sunday) to get it done by. I made an effort to rest my arms properly, flaking on all my pre-arranged wall sessions because my shoulders were still sore (sorry partners!) and reminding myself of the moves whenever I got a moment (on the loo, having a tea break). Friday brought a breif weather window and everything was lined up - cold temps, supportive belayer, rested body. I had a bit of a shock when marine drive was desterted except for one team which appeared to be on my route, how dare they get on MY route, just when I want a go!!! Misplaced anger over, it turned out they were Sophie and Owen and they were actually on the route next door. It all went to plan - I put the clips in and had a swing around on some of the moves to warm up - it was very very cold! The pulled the ropes and got on asap before any cooling down could happen. I had that nice feeling on moves that had seemed at my limit last week were now comfortably within it (who could guess, practise makes you better at stuff?!) and despite feeling quite nervous made it to the chain without incident. Lots of whoops and grinning!

Is it a pot of gold? No, its Brian.

While I had been having fun, Brian had been slowly dying of hypothermia so it was time for some payback and we went over to String of pearls and he had a pop at onsighting it placing draws (a brave enterprise) but was spat off thankfully above the scary bit by some totally soaking rock. At this point it started raining and we all retreated into Llandudno for some celebratory cake and lattes.

DIY Information
All routes are on marine drive - park by the route but its a toll road so you have to pay the man £2.50

Minding the wooden spoon at work for a month...

Anchovy Madonna - E3, 5c but also has three bolts on the steep bit. Lots of good wires on the rest of it!
Homo Sapien - 7a+ big arms not required but strong fingers a bonus!
String of pearls - 6b+ but more like E3, the clips are not where you most need them (in my opinion)!
 Coffee - Fountains cafe/bar. Nice and cosy, range of cakes and coffees!

The Hole of Creation

Sophie beholding the wonders of the hole....

Yesterday me and Sophie went for on an expedition to the Hole of Creation. Similar to Phileas Foggs expedition to the Centre of the Earth it took us quite a long time to get there and was filled with perilous encounters (generally with grass slopes in our case).
Once we had found the appropriate perilous grass slope we could behold the wonders of the Hole of Creation! We were amused to find it somewhat resembled a giant sculpture of some female genitalia... not deterred by its unusual appearance I started flippering up the side of the slimy bulge, trying fairly unsuccessfully to seat wires in the mouths of cavernous pockets. Despite it being steep and taking the notion of 3Dimensionalness to another level there are a reasonable amount of large jugs to aid progress so it is more weird than hard to get into the 'hole'. Once inside the hole the climb continues past some insitu threads - the top one being a massive jug. However to reach this hold some very strange reverse bridging needs to take place and it took several retreats into the hole for me to get my head around it and some excellent efforts by my calves and glutes. Eventually, after some more patient belaying by Sophie, I reached the lower off in a state of confusion and the Hole of Creation was ours!!

DIY information
The Hole of Creation is situated in a secret location on the Little Orme. It is given E3 6a, but generally considered very soft for the grade and the hard bit is definitely very safe. (I still found it very tricky....)

Starting up the hole, shortly before I decided to
take my helmet off!

In the hole - what do I do now??!!

Sophie being 3 Dimensional

The grass approach!

The Great Orme looking great....

Not so trad swim

Given Sunday's apocalyptic rainfall, there seemed to be one obvious option for a suitable outdoor activity. My housemates are members of Not so Trad, the southern gay and lesbian climbing club who were up on a club trip and they had planned a big gay swim across the lake. Ben Tibbets and I formed a heterosexual splinter group, Ben looking the most flamboyant of anyone in my pink wetsuit. Getting across the lake went pretty much to plan, but the squall hit on the return journey with those in boats having to fight hard against the windage.


Unfortunately, other than being flamboyant, my wetsuit was also cutting off Ben's airways, meaning that heterosexuality took a bit of a beating in the unofficial race.


A pretty cold looking Padarn and Ben not quite escaping the picture

Ben 'I'm comfortable with my sexuality' Tibbets

It was also on Sunday that I discovered my new favourite food of the week! There are lots of very ripe mangos in the supermarket at the mo and I really like buying them but then forgetting to eat them, so finding a new way to eat mango was great.
You take mango, milk and yoghurt and process well in blender to give great tasting and proteinaceous mango lassi!


Me donning my 'I'm a triathalete hat from the other week'

The Robinson Round

For the first time ever my OMM running partner from last year is keen to do the event with me again and we met up recently for our annual training jog. With me living in North Wales and Jenny hailing from Glasgow the sensible place to meet was the Lakes and even though I was slightly grumpy to leave my bubble and drive somewhere (I have become pretty lazy having all the nice crags and mountains to hand), it was actually a very worthwhile experience getting out in someone else's mountains. Rocio was keen to come along too and witness the preparation for this important sporting event. Our formula from last years training weekend (go for at least one long run, make some dinner, drink wine and talk about boys) seemed to work well so we stuck with that and we shall see where it gets us this year.

Picking up some uphill speed??! Go me and Jenny!
Photo: Rocio Siemens

The weather had conspired against us to provide us with a stunningly sunny windless weekend, weather that will be nothing like the actual OMM weekend. Although on the upside it did encourage us to run for longer and take some lovely photographs.
I had left little time to plan an actual route but in my hasty planning session I spotted a hill with my name on it and it therefore seemed logical to base the route around it!

So, the Robinson Round (as it shall henceforth be known...):
Start in Braithwaite
Up Grisedale Pike (791m)
Eel Crag (840m)
Along to Sail Pass
Down and up to Ard Crags an along to Knott Rigg
Up Robinson (737m)
Along the edges to Dale Head (753m)
High spy (653m)
Maiden Moor (576m)
and then wiggle along roads back to Braithwaite

It worked out at just over 25km and quite alot of up and down, but it is a good runnable route!


Jenny slogging up my namesake hill - Robinson!

Robinson on Robinson
Photo: Rocio Siemens

End of the day jog down and out where cider and crisps await!
Photo: Rocio Siemens

We were staying in Helvellyn Youth Hostel, which was inconvieniently located near the summit of Helvellyn but after a long potholey track we finally arrived to cook fine splodge and drink fine cider.

Day 2 was somewhat more lackluster and we ambled up High Street and back down to Patterdale to sit and gossip outside the cornershop while Rocio found a friendly farmer to take her back to the car. It being stunning weather I probably should have felt some guilt that I wasn't out climbing, but I had forgotten that running in lovely weather is extremely enjoyable. And there is something satisfying about being able to move 10km in a similar amount of time that it would take me to move about 40m when trad climbing......

Anyway thanks very much to Jenny and Rocio for a lovely weekend, and I am now pretty psyched for the OMM. Bring it OMM???

Traditional Horrowshow Training Programme.

Last week I had the opportunity to return to Tremadog and do battle with the classic HVS 'Strapiombo'. Over the past few weeks I've been trying to push myself on things that I don't normally like doing and I flagged this route up as something I probably wouldn't like doing;  'Struggle up the flared chimney in a state of physical exhaustion and abject horror' says North Wales rock. In the past I have been frustrated by my ability to climb techy E2 walls quite nicely and fail completely when faced with a traditional ledgy thrutchy VS. I have since realised that I am never going to get better at thrutchy VSs by climbing harder techy walls and constructed myself a bit of a traditional horrowshow training programme. I guess this route belongs to that programme.

Essentially I was going to cheat, using black diamond's largest camelot creations, to get runners where no self respecting hobnail booted fellow had got them before.

Some patient belaying from Owen later, I was 'established' within the fissure and commenced slow and painful upwards progress. For those climbing from a purely fitness perspective I would estimate that squeeze chimney climbing probably burns more calories per unit of rock ascended than any other kind of climbing. It is also a true unavoidable test of endurance, more than once I had the impulse to sit on the rope, always skittering the camelot up beside me but if you were to relax and 'rest' you might become irreversable wedged in the narrower back of the crack only to have to extert more effort to get yourself out again. The human equivalent of a cam 'walking'.

I reached an impasse near the top where upwards progress began to seem impossible. Then I realised, I was trying to climb the chimney like a wall again. I then adopted a technique not dissimilar to the video below with much more success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpWATMtTPkk



Must squeeze harder.....

I was thoroughly disappointed when Owen cruised it on second, as I was maliciously hoping he struggle as I had done and save my ego...... it evidently isn't actually as hard as I just made it sound.

Previously in the day we had basked in the sunshine on Hardd (beautiful, not hard in welsh, although it is hard), on Carreg Hylldrem and finished off with Silver Crow, on Pant I Fan.



Owen across the funny tremadog ramps of Hardd

Me leading downwards off the belay, to avoid extreme excitment on second the in situ anchors mean the second
can backrope although this may lead to confusion when the leader is belaying out of earshot....

Thanks very much to Owen Samuels for a fun day out and all the piccies!

I have had a request to include the grades of stuff so here is a graded list:
Strapiombo - ungradeable
Hardd - E2
Silver Crow - E1




A slow week for ice creams.....

Waiting for the rush at South Stack

It has once again been a mulled wine weather week in the north of wales. Undeterred me and Rich headed to Gogarth on thursday for some sunshine. There was very little sunshine but to make up for it there was a whole lot of wind.......
For once we had Castell Helen to ourselves and headed down to do Kalihari. I had never looked into that area before but its quite a cool/intimidating place. We warmed up up Atlantis and then due to intimidation/ tiredness/ complete lack of time management on my part thought better of it and headed up True Moments/Freebird.

Crag hits woman in face

This was an uneventful, enjoyable experience apart from a cam levering a rock off into my face halfway along the traverse. Must not look at gear when testing it....

Next up was Tremadog Saturday with Ruth, who was once again about the multisport action, combining festival number 6 with a days climbing. It was a momentous day for Ruth as she had apparently spent 10 years trying to locate Stromboli buttress and we finally managed it!

Where could it be?

Once reached, we climbed Stromboli which was an ace example of Tremadog tecchy 3D weirdness, featuring an entertaining V chimney. We then totally failed to find Helsinki wall, but if it takes 10 years to find a crag then you can't expect to find all the routes on your first visit.

Ruth emerges from the jaws of the chimney

So we walked all the way round to Pant I Fan. I have somehow developed an affection for chimneys, even though I'm no good at climbing them and had my heart set on Strapiombo, but Ruth sensibly opted for Falcon, possibly the loveliest of all Tremadog E1/2s and we did that instead. (But I will be back....).

The next day was my team triathalon debut, as the swimmer for the Test Tube Triathaletes in the anglesey sandman. Having woken up with the world's dodgiest knee, I was not psyched to hear they had moved the swim due to poor conditions and we would have to run there and back. However, after a bit of self-physio, stretching and giving my knee a good talking to I was back on form and away to the swim. This was one of the weirder things I have done, the waves and chop were pretty big and there were about 200 swimmers entering the water. It was like swimming in a super-pod of uncoordinated dolphins, without being able to communicate ultrasonically you were doomed to crash into your fellow swimmers, significantly slowing progress. Anyway, I made it and then discovered my niche in this sport. My swimming had been fairly average but running in a wetsuit - this is my sport! I overtook about 50 people and arrived at the transition area like a packet of boil-in-the-bag rice.



Orca. Like a whale..... Thanks to Robbie for the picture and Rob for the wetsuit

Despite the howling wind, driving rain and continous repeatitions of 'We're live, we're racing' from the commentary booth it was a fun and sociable day. I am extremely grateful to Chloe and Johnny for letting me use their base camp van and to John and Ffion for our fab performance! Maybe one day I will learn to cycle and really get into this sort of stuff!

Top weekend was topped off with a chilled, slightly limpy run over Moel Elio with Brian (amazingly the stern talking to was all the knee needed!), and then a mission planning session with OMM running partner, Glasgow superphysio Jenny. The OMM is once again scarily close, better get running (and dust off the compass again?)!

Jamming weekend!

Following the nothingness of the past week I was expecting a nothing weekend, but thanks to some psyched friends, reinstalled immune system and some good weather it ended up being action packed! Saturday dawned super lovely and I headed to the Cromlech with Sophie and Jonny, where we explored its lesser known reaches. We warmed up up the Thing and then scrambled to the top to abseil in to Grond and the Monster.



Mount Marshmallow towers over Llanberis




Jonny takes on the Thing




Sophie preparing mentally physically and emotionally for Grond, possibly the most undergraded route on the Cromlech for the non-American?



After wibbling up Grond after Soph, I didn't really fancy my chances at the other mid-grade offering - the monster, it being a tech grade harder. However, after having a look, it didn't look anything like Grond and it turned out to be a whole whack easier. Despite having a definite jamming element it had other useful features such as footholds and the odd jug to aid progress.



The Monster - fab position!

It was pretty nice to escape the crowds up the top, but we had left our sandwiches down at the bottom so we couldn't stay up there forever... Next it was on to Ivy Sepulchre and then Sophie did Foil to finish, demonstrating how hard the top is for the short - I'm so glad I can reach the top from the good holds!

Inspired by the jamming efforts of the previous day on Sunday me and Ruth went up to Cloggy to try  Pigott's Climb. The rain radar was looking ominous so we started early, although not quite as early as intended, as I had accidentally spread my rack all over Llanberis. By the time we were at the top of the first pitch, the sunshine had deteriorated into cloud, but as there seemed to be insitu ab stations on every belay we decided to carry on regardless. The route is great, with some lovely climbing on every pitch, culminating in another energy sapping jamming corner. I must admit to finding this pitch particularly tricky, doing lots of wobbling, getting feet stuck and even sitting on my gear. Despite this I would still thouroughly recommend it, it was a fun fight. 2 hand size cams are very useful!



Ruth about to go for the fish finger and guacamole sandwich



The last metres of the climb, udge for glory!




Gorrillas in the mist

 Timing was almost pefect with the rain only appearing on the walk out, but it did feel pretty dark and wintery by the time we got back to the village. Maybe the mountains can squeeze out another dry day for us this season?

A nothing week

Summer made a belated appearance in North Wales last week and its sods law that this coincided with a load of work problems and the Llanberis lurgy.....
I have learned many, many times over that when I'm stressed and ill I strangely want to climb things that are hard for me (because it feels like that might solve my other problems). This however normally ends up in tantrums and tears because however much my ego would like a boost, body and mind are just not up to it.

So last week I sensibly managed to stick to Vit C and Zinc, bouldering, running and sleeping.

There is dubious evidence that vit C has any effect once you have caught a cold, there is even less evidence it can cure work related stress.....

Bouldering included Sophie's continuing efforts to teach me how to top out properly, to avoid getting stuck in semi beached whale position as I often do.... Unfortunately I forgot to take any pics because they probably would have been quite funny, but progress was made and hamstrings destroyed.....



Energy levels somewhat recovered for a leisurely jog up Moel Elio, view towards the Llyn (?). The previous week in the same spot I was greeted by a herd of 15 Shetland ponies, how random!!



Way back down

Every time I come home there are more plants that look like tryphids in the garden....

Just goes to show, even in a nothing week, there are a few bits of something.....

Back to business in beris

After all the excitement of the holidays it was still suprisingly good to be back in North Wales dodging the showers again! Ages ago on a trip to Ceuse, I had asked a guy what it was like living in Grenoble and he had said 'it is nice, but there are no seals in the alps'. This was not the first inconvienience I would have come up with, but since this conversation I have begun to greatly appreciate the presence of these blubbery sea dogs in my life and as a result have spent most of the past weeks by the sea side. Sea side destinations have included the Orme to start redpointing Homo sapien, Rhoscolyn to follow Sophie up Godzilla (and get rather stuck under the roof again), Gogarth to have an adventure up the dusty rock snakes of Mousetrap and the ruined brickworks near Bull Bay to go and swim in some phospherescence!



Sophie takes on Godzilla!

 



Rich heading through the window down the south stack lighthouse steps - we ended up abseiling from the other side as the sea was too rough to get across

   


 






Finding the way through a sea of rock snakes on pitch 1



dusty chimneys on the second pitch



Escaping the trap!



The brickworks the morning after phospherescent swimming!
My camera is not good enough to capture the phospherescence itself...



Back home for the weekend - some more open water training.
Have bought the brightest hat I could find, I may not be fast but at least
I am visible!