What's been Cranking

So then after the last few months since my last post a lot has been cracking with my life/climbing.
 

First off we carried on the siege down at Dorset and had some great days out in the sun enjoying some cool low 7 grade routes.

The main one would have to be when I went down to newquay for my stag doo. First off me and my Friend drew headed down a day early to do some climbing at the amazing crag of ansteys cove. This place is so cool almost like being abroad. We both had our eyes set on climbing the main 7b line down there "Empire Of The Sun", after a quick warm up on not much I had a bolt to bolt go on it to see what the crack was. I had a rest while drew had a good blast at it and then had a burn myself. Surprising my self I was one bolt from the lower off not 100% knowing what to do, I tried and tried but eventually fell off. After a good rest I tied back in and had another burn and got to the chains with success.
 
Drew then advised me to try something harder so we went round the corner to try a 8a but sadly I was NO WAY near it. As we returned back to Empire so drew could try it again we arrived at the bottom of the route to find that some bastard had nicked my rope, rope bag and my Gri Gri. What a great start to my stag doo. Luckily drew had his rope as well so we could get the gear back and go get messy in newquay with the rest of the gang.



 My new belay bitch

 
 
 The big day was due so i got out a few more times and the took the Plunge.

Now i can start setting my seights onto what i want through my climbing life and plan a big trip to do some big things, but for now its back down to portland tomoz for some bolt cliping.

here are some pics from a recent trip bouldering....

 

 

 

Photo : Tommy Harris



Power Screams

With another amazing day ahead we headed back down to the same spot THE PROMENADE.

I have had my eyes on a section of routes down the far end of the crag where the grades shoot up and the routes shoot out horizontally. We warmed up on the usual stuff and I watched Tommy dry hump his way up a 6b+. I then wanted to get on my route "Rise of the Robots" (7b+). Ive never done a roof climb like this where you could clip most of the bolts with a clip stick from the deck.

I pulled on to look out at 6 quick draws free hanging thinking "here we go". It wasn't long before I took hold of the clip and pull up on the rope. I thought I would get the rest of the clips in and went bolt to bolt working it roughly as I went up pulling my way through to the lower off.

After a rest and watching Tommy try a 7a+ I jumped back on not really knowing what was going to happen. Before I knew it I was giving it some and a couple of power screams came out. I carried on fighting the power pump and just pulled it off on my first RP.


What a day it has been i just love this place and this sport.

Thanks to Tommy Harris for photo's

Getting it done

Another weekend of amazing sun, sea and steep routes. I headed down to the promenade again this week to try a route drew tried last week called electric circus 7b+. After meeting up we stomped down to the crag, had a quick warm up on a 6a and jumped straight on it.

I climbed up to the first bulge where the main crux is to soon find myself saying the same old words every one hears at the crag “Take”. After trying to figure it out I went to the top from the bolt and found the rest of the route ok with a couple of pulls off crimps and then onto jugs of glory.

I had another go and found the beta by dropping the knee on a low foot hold. I then had a couple goes at leading it with a few slips; I then finally caught the crux hold and pulled my way through to the jugs with success. I haven't done many 7b+’s but this one felt just as hard as some of the 7c’s I’ve done, either way I was psyched I got the route done in a day and am looking forward to this weekend.

Where to go????

PROMENADE…..

setting sights on ???

Ive had a wicked few weekends out with the start of it being bouldering. I always used to say bouldering was a load of crap and I had no time for it at all. I will never say that again after the winter spent in the boulder field and in some new venues Ive realised Ive got alot stronger and been able to open doors to the routes I wouldn't of been able to do before.

I headed down to the Promenade with drew this weekend, somewhere Ive been say to him that I wanted to spend my summer climbing. I didn't really know why I wanted to do this or weather I was good enough to spend lots of time here. when we arrived the waves were down and the sun was out, so our psyche was on a high. after warming up we walked round looking for routes to try and we found a few power routes that would suit our bouldering strength. we started on a 7a which I managed to onsight and a bit shocked that it felt not that hard. next up was a 7b+ and after working out the crux it soon went down and I was just thinking about what a amazing day this had turned out to be. drew had done another 7a wile I was on the other route so I thought I would give it ago with the beta and soon found my self flashing it and lowering off.

I will defiantly be heading back to this mega venue.

I got asked a question at the weekend on weather I had a route that I would like to do this year and I honestly didn't have a clue just because I never thought that I would be able to climb hard grades and super cool routes. I think I will have to start searching through the guide books and setting my sights on something.

Things are on the up

It has been really good weather in the past week and it started with a Friday down at Portland with a man on a mission.

I headed down there looking to do some first ascents on some boulders my friend drew found. I headed down bright and early ready to hit it with Drew coming over later that day to meet up with some friends in a new area. After arriving at the boulders in the sun thinking how much of a nice day it was, it wasn’t long before I was hoping it would cloud over and cool down. I was dumping rocks everywhere making a flat landing, pulling ivy away and cleaning mud of the top outs.

Once it was all done I laid in the sun for an hour waiting for drew to arrive and also so I could have a rest. He turned up and we both managed to climb all the problems available with high hopes for something hard we ended up with just a handful of v2’s and one v4.

We then headed over to meet friends in a new spot with lots of potential hard problems, maybe more to come soon.

I headed over to Winspit on the Sunday with temps a bit colder then previous days. I had my eye on a 7b+ called rev head highrollers, a cool line that has a steep start and a really good finish up a arête. I had tried this a couple of times the week before but had no luck on it thinking that the roof was just too much for me, after going up bolt to bolt to get the clips in I pulled the rope and psyched up to just go for it and see what happens. Before I knew it I was through the thuggish roof and at a ok rest, with not much more to go I went for it and ended up clipping the lower off with joy. My first 7b+ of the year.

With my psych on a all-time high I’m heading to cheddar gorge on Sunday to get some on finished business sorted out and head to lion for some hard steep limestone.

What to do next

With the Swizzy trip being a successes and getting some personal best out there with a font 7b+ flash and some 7a flashes I thought it could be a good time to start focusing on the hard sport lines that I’ve always wanted to get into.

I have made a rough plan on what routes I would like to do this year and what sort of level I want to be at for the end of the year. I know with doing this it can cause un wanted pressure but I have only made this plan a rough guide line.

With the weekend on its way I was thinking on what to do and were to go, boulder, sport.

It ended up with me and some friends heading down to Winspit, a limestone quarry at Swanage. I had a few routes in mind and was hoping they would be dry after all the rain we had in the last few months. We drove down with temps being around the 5° range and with a little bit of wind, so conditions were looking to be prime. After a short walk down we arrived to find that the most of the planned harder routes were wet but one stood out that was dry “rev head high roller” 7b/+.

After warming up on some easy routes I was starting to think weather I could do it as I hadn’t been on a rope for a long time and endurance was down. After a few goes on top rope Drew and I had managed to work out the crux. The only thing was now it was the end of the day and we were both spent. I will defiantly be back for this route and the others as the positions you get into and the moves you have to do are more suited to me at the moment after bouldering for the winter.

This weekend will be a hard one to choose as I have so many things to do and am so psyched I don’t know where to go first.

Roll on some actual training and more climbing.

swiss day one

After an eventful drive we arrived in Switzerland, to our supper cool swiss house. We made plans to head to the local bouldering area for the first day Cresciano, we rocked up the hill to finally find the sectors and instantly everyone was running about looking at cool problems. Once everyone was warmed up Steve found a good looking problem called XP f7c. Me, Steve and Dan had a go once finding the beta we all managed to pull our way through. We then headed to sector 5 to try some fun slabs with a classic problem called never ending story a hold less slab that starts with a step up mantle and lots of giggles.

We had a quick go at franks wild years f8a+ but after sore tips and tired arms not much got done so headed home for food and sleep,

Rest day today and lucky enough its raining so nothing lost