Radio Silence.

Not that it ever is actually silent on my radio. Whether it's one of the hundreds of DnB compilation CDs I've made, or that neat Proxima dubstep album, or digging up an old Carcass album, or getting psyched for Twisted's Darkside rave next weekend with some  Hardshock Festival gabber mixes or being thoroughly shocked when the Drum And Bass Confrontation CD I picked up for a joke in the Abington services turns out to be not a risible cheese-fest of Subfocus and Hospital Records drum'n'pop but actually a heavyweight compilation of early 2000 tech-jungle....there's always some noise on there. Sometimes enough to drown out the voices in my head, sometimes not.

Actually the quietitude of my blog is not because I don't have stuff to write about, it's because that stuff is so moany and boring it even bores me. And if I don't want to read my fucking drivel then I probably shouldn't inflict it on others (I can think of a few bloggers who should consider this too ;)). In summary, I went trad climbing, I sucked, I got a bit depressed, I frittered away some of the good weather because I was tired of driving a lot and being scared of routes, I got a bit more motivated just before the weather crapped out, and now I'm doing some focused training to depunterify.

Instead of the moaning, here's some routes I liked doing and some routes I disliked not doing recently:

Liked:

The Iron Chicken E3 5c ** Buckbarrow - warmed up with sore toes and hot rock on slabbier routes. This was steeper and juggier so less painful on the feet. Went really smoothly with some great "stepping out of an airplane door" moves out left above a bulge.

Question Mark E3 6a *** Vat O' Burn - A newish route I think?  PJ told me it was fine and for once the overly strong sandbagging shark was right, it was fine. Boulder problem start was good fun, bolder finish was even more fun. Just a really good route.

Apollo E2 5c ** Curbar - Apparently this is a bit of a testpiece? I must admit there was a tiny bit of matching the handjams where I had to focus and have faith, but it went really fine. Okay I do like jamming and the 3 move crux between rests played to my recent bouldering experience, but still it was nice to do something smoothly.

The Toy + Smoke Ont'Water E2 6a ** Curbar - Not either route per se, but just the experience of doing some Curbar horrors. Both retro-flashes from 10-15 year prior failures, the sole uselessly obvious memory of "those thin cracks were fucking horrible" giving me a clean slate to try again. Thin, rounded, bad fingerjams and worse footholds, hard to place gear and harder to do the cruxes afterwards, a sort of ridiculous but rewarding experience. Neither of them quite as hard as, say, Gouther's Castration Crack E3 6a **, but neither far off.

Violation E3 6a / F6c *** Tilberthwaite - Tight groove placing gear off a bicep wedge into footless cranking to a squatting mono rest into cutting loose on a jug and a jam to rock onto a slab into a blind toe-hook onto the jug and double fin pinching to rock back into balance - sounds like typical slate yes? Pretty bonkers route for it's size and really funky stuff.

Various E2 5c routes Attermire - Again not a particular route, nor a vast amount of unbridled pleasure, but a good trad training experience of local sandbags and lactic acid soreness. Comer was quite pumpy, the grade easier Brutus was both much pumpier and had a much harder crux, and Neon Crack was even more OTT, a Curbar horror with worse gear and a sketchier finish. Battling through that lot has to be good for something, right? Nice sunset too:

 Disliked:

Censor E3 5c *** Stanage - fiddled loads of bomber gear in the start, got well psyched, did one move up and foot slipped. Cue massive gear-throwing tantrum and 2 weeks of demoralisation.

Dextrous Hare E3 5c * Millstone - tried to warm-up going part way and downclimbing, then got back on it again. Flash-pump and numb fingers trying to get any suitable gear in before easy moves into easy corner. Lowered off with hands over head in case cams pinged out. Guidebook bullshit about RPs is bullshit, it's small cams and offsets. Crux of both grades placing gear. Fuck off.

Jealous Pensioner E4 5c * Millstone - climbed lower wall to ledge, using up crucial shothole hex in the process. Guidebook bullshit about gear at foot level because it doesn't mention it's shothole gear and nothing else so you can't use up shothole gear on the shothole-covered wall. Spent ages trying to hammer an over-large hex in, didn't like it. Moves were green, massively reachy and in the full sun. Escaped off.

Great West Road E2 5b *** - got 5m up, feet started skidding, no motivation, downclimbed and decided to give up climbing. For at least 2 hours.

Unreachable Star E3 6a * Curbar - committed to gear slot, reached up to bad smear sloper handhold, no way I could hold it let alone pull on it in +ve 'C temperatures, slumped off. Probably should have gone for the fall at least.

The Beer Hunter E3 6a * Curbar - backed off once before because it was far too windy. Backed off this time because it was not windy enough. Did all the usual faff with gear but although there was a fresh breeze on the rest ledge, as soon as I moved onto the sidewall it felt too greasy to trust the holds. Next time...

Woodland Ecology E4 5c ** Hawkcliffe - got to lower solo crux, seemed too dynamic, a bit warm, and target ramp was a bit green. Reversed a bit and jumped off safely. Landing very soft, need to go back with more time, a mate to clean it off, and a better plan of where to be spotted in case of a fall. Still thank fuck at least I didn't headpoint it like some massive UKC gaylords.

Jitterbug E3 6a ** Tilberthwaite - Looked hard, committed into flake crack, slammed in bomber wire, cranked up on a fingertip flake facing the wrong way and slate smears, and fell off inches from the jug. Kinda annoying as I did go for it and was so close.


And now:

5 x 5s on GCC auto-belays.

4 x 4s on GCC routes.

1 x 1s at Ratho.

Loads of falling practise everywhere.

Pissing around on local sport stuff to train my toes and tenacity, when it stops sleeting anyway.