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!



 

Chromosomes with wings

Had a bit of a shock over the past week going from the hilliest place in Europe (Chamonix) to the flatest (Cambridge). And from very rarely thinking about fly genetics to thinking continuously about fly genetics. I was on a Wellcome Trust Genetics and Genomics course which was very good and worthwhile if you are into that sort of thing!

It was based at Downing College which again is about as far as accomodation can get away from a Quecha pop up tent, so I had to remember to do things like keep off the grass and eat with table manners. By the end of the week I think I had managed to re-educate myself back into being a socially acceptable person (maybe), which can only be a good thing.

Kings college appearing from over the riverbank

Other good things were meeting fellow friendly Drosophilists, learning lots of potentially very useful information that I am trying hard to remember and being able to get enough exercise in so that I hadn't totally lost my alpine fitness. Training activities included going for long very flat runs, occasionally experimenting with going fast just to mix it up a bit, bouldering at the Kelsey Kerridge centre where some friendly locals (thnaks) showed me some of the problems and punting which is a prime cross training activity. Another highlight was being fed custard most nights (essential training food!).



Girls punting day out





More punters...



Me at the helm

Extreme running terrain along the River Cam, if I lived in Cambridge I would live on one of these

Really tasty blackberries!



One of my favourite kids books was called 'The Cow that fell in the Canal' and it ended up in a cheese market in Amsterdam. I wonder where this cow has been?



Vite et leger le part trois - wacky races on the cordier pillar

Clare 'Emergency veterinarian' Muir and well known car mechanic Hazel Findlay perform complex mechanics with wire and tin foil

Our next objective was to be the Cordier Pillar, which is evidently quite a popular rock route reaching the summit of the Grand Charmoz from the Plan des Aiguilles side. Despite its popularity it seems to be a difficult task to find any decent information on the route and Office de haute Montagne were even pretty vague as to which guidebook or even what mountain it was on. Eventually we found the topo (in the old Piola book) which was pretty basic and lacked any written description. We also scoured the internet where several people suggested the need for one or maybe even two (!) No. 4 Camelots. This was a problem, as we didn't have one and we definitely like placing gear above our heads, especially on offwidths.

Our efforts to find said piece of gear were successful and not only did we get a cam but a fab girly night in too (thanks Sandra, Hazel and Maddy!!) and a crash course in improvised car mechanics. And so we set off on our last foray into the mountains. We thought that maybe as there was no info on this route that maybe no-one did it except maybe british people. We were wrong. There were three teams already insitu at the bivi situ on the Plan des Aiguilles (all wanting to look at our topo then realising it was the same crap topo that they had). A much more worrying problem was the constant stream of rocks falling down the Nantillons glacier. It would have made a pretty good geography video 'Erosion in action' or something like that....

We swapped the tent for giant silver blankets this time....

Climbing! On the pillar

Surveying

One team decided to pack it in after watching the rocks but the other two thought it was fine and there was a relatively safe route to the base. We were pretty anxious about it but decided to stick to the plan; most of the rocks stop short of where you cross and in the morning it would be pretty stable so we would just have to do one 'dodgy' crossing.

Abseiling!!

Clare climbing up to our highpoint.... this time in the sun

So we made it and started climbing out of the chilly bergshrund with some spanish guys infront and some friendly poles behind. The climbing was totally ace and certainly the hardest pitches we had climbed so far. Hence, we didn't make it to the top because we just couldn't climb fast enough and we had a bit of route finding faff but it was great fun anyway and a good recce for next time! We packed it in the evening and abseiled back down and then had the totally gripping trek across the glacier. Arriving unscathed back at the bivvi site was a big relief, especially after watching some impressively large blocks tumble from really high up on the blatiere. Despite not reaching the top again we both felt like we had learnt alot from the experience and are totally keen to come back and do it again! Also, our sagely route finding wisdom that we dispensed to the new arrivals at the bivvi site obviously stood them in good stead, as 10 the following morning they had already embarrassingly reached our highpoint.....

After surviving the nantillons crossing

Looking up at the monster glacier

Our sagely route finding advice is (obviously this only applies to the bottom third of the route): At the start its very easy route finding as there is a fixed rope up the first two pitches (tied off to the second belay). After about 5 pitches you arrive at some broken ledgey ground. Here if you want to keep to the good rock and fixed belays go up and right. If you want to climb an easier but loose gully with no belays go up and left. Both  ways are possible but the righthand way is probably more desirable. Then after maybe 4 pitches up the righthand way at some point the route then goes left (after a stuck cam I think) and that is as far as we got. Losing the route is quite possible, one team went into the gully and made it to the top but chucked quite a few rocks down in the process and the other guys missed the left hand turn and climbed into no mans land and retreated a little before us. The only other piece of advice I could hope might be useful is if you are planning on rice and tinned fish as bivvi dinner do not choose fish in an 'ancient mustard' sauce and if you do try very hard not to spill it on your trousers.

Le bon sunset

Bivvi site

So we had a sad final descent back to the valley the following morning for a poco loco and ice cream breakfast. I finally got a bit of triathalon training in, doing 10 widths of Lac du Passey, where the water is way clearer than padarn (so you can see the fish, big fish!) and then we had the roasting drive home....

Triathalon training Lac du Passey - big pikes watch out!

New feature - Holiday Recipe of the week (courtesy of Sandra)

Ingredients
semi thawed frozen raspberries
sugar
yogurt

Method
Mash together!!!