Cold cold cold….grit grit grit.

Bloody hell it is freezing out there. Literally. What a cold snap - it’s oscillated between -2′c min and 4′c max for the last several days. Now the clouds are more present it’s proper bitter.

And I rather like it. Hard frozen ground, ice instead of puddles, permanent frost, the searing chill in the air in every breath you take in. The subtle light whether it’s the pseudo-warm glow of the arcing sun of the almost monochrome deadness of the cloudy haze. Everything is crisp and crunchy….mmmm winter. The highlight for me has been out in some woodland, watching the veins of fog-melded frost on the tree branches, tinkling off with a gust of breeze and scattering the floor with crystalline shards…

The other thing of course is OMG HARD GRIT FRICTION CONDITIONS!!! etc etc

Actually it’s a bit of a strange one. There’s a lot of frost so some places are frozen up with that and/or have hideous top-outs. The bleakness has actually made it feel too cold in other places, especially exposed to the wind - sometimes it’s hideous trying to warm up.

BUT.

In the right places, once warmed up, it’s been proper good. I’ve even kept my t-shirt on! I’ve been out a couple of times bouldering in the last week, with no particular agenda other than feeling the grit - although once I’ve been out, feeling the winter has been just as important :).

I’ve been on Stanage slabs getting my footwork up to somewhere near “tolerable” (which was fun), at the Secret Garden very nearly doing the sloper traverse with little warming up (it felt great), at Gardoms doing a random one move wonder and spotting a friend lobbing off the top of the “snapball” Suavito (both good experiences), and briefly at Burbage North doing Life In A Radioactive Dustbin in a few goes with little warming up (something I’d never even looked at, but it felt good).

My current unusually chilled mode has meant I haven’t been motivated to go hard and push it with my own plans, I’ve just enjoyed hooking up with others, and randomly finding something inspiring that I hadn’t really considered before. Through all of this I have been feeling the grit. Which is nice. I’m getting into it and it feels good. The weather may not last but I’m ready to get back into it whenever, I think

Oh yeah…

…SYKED!!