Airtime.

Airtime, the antithesis of climbing, yet without the fall, looming or experienced, it would be a boring 2-dimensional exercise whereby half the fun would be taken away. If you aren't risking falling off then you aren't trying hard enough, but imagine if there was never the risk of falling? Top-roping classic routes in imperfect safety, just working out the moves and being fit and strong, except it wouldn't matter, you would just go for the most obvious sequence and if you couldn't do it, who cares?. Falling is a big part of climbing, and I like it that way. 

As with everyone, I find the thought of falling scary at the beginning of the season, but I enjoy climbing a lot more once I am comfortable with falling, and truth be told, I do quite enjoy falling. Big whippers, whilst scary are FUN!

A brilliant yet slightly naughty form of fall practice is bridge jumping. On a whim, and after we had exhausted our supplies of stale bread to throw at unsuspecting drunks, Livingbone, Bubbles, Ollie, Harry and I went and found a bridge, set up a suspect hauling system and a dynamic rope to jump on. Despite others' 100% psyche levels, no-one was keen to jump first, so I stepped up to the plate. I was apprehensive tying in, I knew the dynamic set up was fine, but the hauling system was unorthodox to say the least. Climbing over the railings, I was a bit scared but I knew I just had to commit. A split-second of control and it is out of your hands, you are falling, flying through the sky and suddenly, the rope catches and you swing around for a bit, as you are pulled up by your mates. 

This time was different, I jumped and fell; as usual, was caught; as usual but looking down, I grabbed the static but it was dangling underneath me, not above!? 

"What the F***!" 

Was my first thought, asking the guys above if it had snapped, they seemed to think it hadn't, though they weren't sure. In the end, they agreed with me so I asked them if they would be so kind as to lower down a new bit of rope? They obliged, and whilst I waited, I realised I had stopped swinging. Usually, whilst bridge jumping you are hauled back up before you stop swinging, but now I was dangling, hoping the hauling system would work and that I wouldn't have to be rescued (embarresing much?) Luckily, it worked and I was soon standing on solid bridge...phheww!

Jump psyche... Also putting on a brave face as I'm not sure if my pants are still clean...
(c) Tom Ripley

Seeing it safe, the rest of the crew jumped, without mishap, though Ollie and Harry did take a while to man up and jump, though Bubbles put in a commendable effort and went quick, unlike last time when he requested to be 'thrown overboard' as he couldn't bring himself to jump.

Remember kids; think carefully about eating that last biscuit cos' ropes snap sometimes...
(c) Tom Ripley 

After some amount of sleep, Eugene and I went to Penmaen Head on the A55, to go sport climbing. I wanted to get some early season mileage in, though was feeling ache-y from hauling people up and tired from the late night. First up we boshed a couple of Fr6a's; Helyg Crack and Red Handed, these went without mishap and so I decided to have a go at onsighting a 6c, Top Secret taking my fancy. I felt pretty good and confident, I was getting pumped, but I was working out the moves too. A tricky sequence to a bolt passed, I moved up and could taste success, spotting a good crimp rail, I grabbed it, unfortunately it was sloping, but I matched and tried to press on but fell. DAMN! De-pumping I carried on up to the top, chastising myself for not reading the sequence correctly. Eugene had a go but fell at the second and third bolts, came down and boshed it. After some lunch, I did the same, confidently flowing through moves I had been much more static and slow on before. Getting to the crux, a quick shake and I boshed the right sequence right to the top, Woopa! Next up, Eugene had a go at The Gimp Crimp, 7a after a slip low down, he boshed on to the top but came to a hault at the last bolt, unable to foresee a way to the chains he passed over to me. It looked desperate, so I didn't hold out much hope, but I went up and tried my very best, passing the lower crux, I rested well in the middle, got up and committed to the laybacks and slapped for the finishing jug! As I held it, I realised I'd left the quickdraws on the ground, so fumbled with my belay device and screwgate, getting a bit pumped and gripped, but psyched to have got it first go.

On Wednesday, I got the call from Mason that he was going for an evening Parisella's Cave hit, and did I want to join him and Laura? Yes I did, despite having had an Indy session the night before I desperately wanted to close my account on Left Wall Traverse (V8/Fr7c+). We got there and after a short warm up in Split Infinity (I always feel like such a punter not being able to warm up in the cave), I boshed Flake start to be sure I knew I could do the end of the full thing. Anyway, there were loads of beasts there trying some hard shit, and Mason added himself to that mix with some really brilliant links on Lou Ferrino, a powerful, steep, V10. Anyway, I had a load of mediocre efforts including one stupid one where I slightly messed up with my feet and let go thinking it not worth it! That last stupid little fail did not sit well with me, and I found myself in a very determined mindset. After a short rest and a banana (Thanks to Al and Laura for that one) I was pandered to by Laura who kindly brushed all the holds and got chalk ready at the halfway rest while I got focussed and booted up. This time up everything fell into place and I just focussed on getting the next hold, then the next etc, any mistake and I just kept going, trying to eak another move out of the attempt. Suddenly I found myself through the crux and starting the last tricky sequence down to the rest. My right foot wasn't quite correctly seated but I pressed on, all of a sudden my left hand popped (I didn't let go) and I found myself trying to grab a handhold whilst lying on the pad. One move away from the rest I had fallen, although it is not totally in the bag at that point, it is a hands-off rest so I could have rested until I felt fresh enough to finish. However, a brilliant triumph for tenacity! After this effort I could barely pull the starting moves so called it a day, but a great bit of training! Thanks to Al, Laura (espesh) and all the cave beasts for being so supportive!

Here's what I've learnt recently;

Give everything you have to give, and you will be rewarded with a fulfilling experience. Oh and don't fear the airtime ... just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride...

Gotta keep on, keeping on...

January and February have been pretty crappy months in the big N.W, unfortunately. We've been plagued by really crappy weather, too warm for the winter-ey whiteness, but too wet for the rock. On top of this I feel increasingly weighed down by uni work, I can feel my energy and psyche being drained and this just makes me feel worse. Being of a positive mindset I have tried to fight this, and I'm still a happy chappy on the whole, but the last couple of months have definitely lived up to their depressing reputation. I keep trying to remember that you gotta have the lows to appreciate the highs...

If you feel like this too, then I recommend you watch this video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/srikumar_rao_plug_into_your_hard_wired_happiness.html

"Happiness" is something I seem to be more obsessed/fascinated/intrigued by than many people, well I'm probably not, but I am very conscious that YOU are responsible for your own happiness and if you aren't happy then YOU have to do something to change your current predicament, no-one else can, should or will do it for you. So if you feel down in the dumps, watch the vid and think about it, I hope it inspires you. Pass it on to others too, if you feel it would help them too. It's not necessarily easy to make the change, could take some real balls and commitment, but if it'll make a difference then why not go for it? Happiness is the key, or else what is the point? Have a good hard think about what makes you happy too rather than just believing society's set path to happiness, as although it may work for some it won't work for all, we are all different and that's the beauty of life; variety!

Anyway, back to climbing. As I said the weather has been real bad, but I have been trying to get out, honest! I have had a couple of okey-ish trips to Porth Ysgo, on the Lleyn Peninsula. The first trip was dry when we arrived and I managed to bosh out a soft unnamed V6 which was fun, and also started working on my first V7; Perrin's Crack Sit-down start. Then it rained and I don't think I did anything else after that.

Chris on the send on the un-named V6

The second trip, we arrived to find the rock wet! So we sat around and played on the 'Ysgo Challenge; Lite', which is an axel with two wheels on each end left over from when the area was a port or 'Porth' in welsh. The actual one is a lot heavier, but I still couldn't do the light version. Bubbles beasted it though, as did Miles, Ballsford (managing to hold it one armed above his head, and press it out 15 times with two arms), Dyllan and Burdy who made t look like it was made of polystyrene! I don't think I did anything of note on this trip though we had a good play on a damp Popcorn Party; V6, which I did last year but is always a joy to climb on, beautiful rock and tricky technical moves.

Bubbles completing the 'Ysgo Challenge; Lite' GRRR
(c) Nikki Sommers

Pulling funny faces on Popcorn Party, V6.
Classic of Porth Ysgo. (c) Miles Hill

In preparation for a trip to Scotland which thanks to a poor forecast never happened, Bubbles took me out for a day of getting used to wearing crampons, for a day up Bristly Ridge on the Glyders. This was actually on a beautiful day, and I felt like a kid in a sweet shop, just so excited to be out having an adventure, learning to climb again (almost), taking me back to my early days in climbing but without my crippling fear of heights.

Bubbles showing just how Alpinists prepare before a winter route... eeerrrm?

Tryfan, and the Carneddau... B-E-A-Utiful.

That was a while ago, but yesterday I got out and tied on for the second time this year! Off to the Orme with Al Mason, we met up with Sam Radcliffe and Tom Livingstone. We nipped off to do a Fr6c above Parisella's Cave, instead doing the 6a+ by accident, though it felt stiff at that! We then headed back to their route, to find Livingstone having a top-rope on a bouldery 7a called Jerusalem is Lost. I was encouraged to have a go, so I pulled the rope down and went for it, but failed on the start of the crux. Lowering down a few inches I was back on the floor, and after a few more attempts like this, made the crux move and clipped the second bolt! Then with misremembered beta being thrown up at me, I got to the top, Huzzah! We then went up to the Firefly area for some trad (gulp!), I was a bit gripped knowing it was all hard, E3+ sort of affairs and therefore the sort of thing I would find tricky at my best last year! Anyway, Mason boshed on up Firefly, with a cheeky rest on the bolt as it was wet. Leaving the gear in, I was originally just going to top-rope it, feeling tired from my previous efforts. However, Mason convinced me to go for the lead, so I did, slipping off on the second move I dropped back to the ground, and went for it again, this time getting it right, with the pump rising I managed to rest it off and carry on all the way to the chains, just by being confident and keeping on! The rain set in, and after Mason had a clean ascent, we finished the day off in the Cave. After Livingstone sent the 7a of earlier in the day, we boshed down to a busy cave. I headed for the Left Wall traverse, refining and remembering my sequence. I then had a burn from the start to see how I was going and surprised myself with my best link yet, getting through the crux and failing due to not quite being able to remember some moves.

Owain sending Jerusalem is Lost Fr7a, last summer.
(c) Owain Atkins

So if everything seems crap and pointless, keep on keeping on, and work out where you are going wrong and change that to squeeze some more happiness out of your life. Oh and take a chance every once in a while, it feels good, I promise...

Out of the woods??

The woods of injury were dark and scary; wondering how long I would be out for, whether I would tweak my finger again, how much I had set myself back if I want to improve and reach new (so far unset) targets? On top of this, everyone was keen to get out but I either couldn't as they wanted to climb hard or just plain and simply didn't want to! This time of year always sees a slight drop in trad climbing psyche, the dropping temperatures and rain meaning you have to pick your crag carefully and risk getting wet halfway through a route. I absolutely love trad climbing, but once autumn sets in, I begin to feel the psyche for bouldering grow, warm and fuzzy inside me.

However, the woods weren't all dark, scary and depressing; they gave me another view into my mountainous world through fell-running. I doubt fell-running will ever be as strong a passion as rock climbing is for me, but nevertheless it is always good to keep cardiovascular fitness up, and it allows you to go into the mountains when injured or its wet and keep in touch, maybe even check out new crags you've never been to before but normally wouldn't risk wasting a good, dry day on... Plus its just good, plain fun pelting it down hills and staggering back up the other side! By no means am I the best rock climber in the world, but with fell-running I am probably far worse! Still, maybe one day I will do the Paddy Buckley Round in the beautiful Northern Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park... A tough round, with roughly 100km of distance to run, and 8,500m of ascent taking in a lot of summits along the way, all in 24 hours if you can!

Check out the stats here: http://www.gofar.eclipse.co.uk/paddybuckleyround.html

The PBR makes up the Welsh contingent of the UK's big 3: The Lake district offering the Bob Graham Round, and The Scottish Highlands offering the Charley Ramsay Round. All of a similar distance and ascent. Some nutter called Mike Hartley did all 3 back to back in 3 days, 14 hours and 20 mins... RESPECT!

However, I have been doing some climbing recently, and some of it I'm even quite chuffed with! The last weekend of October I spent most of my time working, but on the Sunday after planning a wall session it brightened up beautifully over in Ogwen Valley so housemate Ollie, Rich "McLovin" Kemble and I went for a quick session at the Milestone buttress boulders. Not much actually ticked but I tried a few things, getting close on an unnamed V6 that Kemble crushed with an almost unavoidable 'dab' on the pad. I did manage Jez's Arete a highball yet shortlived crimpy V4, which got a bit gripping on the topout! Tried a few other bits but a nice afternoon out nonetheless.

Once the week ended the weather brightened up and I headed off to the Orme with Mason, Drew and Owain. We were destined for Pill-Box Wall, a short overhanging wall on the Northern edge of the headland. However, on arrival we were greeted by shade and a very cold wind, still we warmed up and started trying Pill-Box original, V6. Drew showed us the beta, Mason managed a quick repeat, whilst Owain and I had a slightly tougher time. After Mason and Owain valiantly tried Mr Olympia, whilst me and Drew played on Pillbox Original, we decided to head down to Parisella's due to some fabled warmth...

After running down to warm up, we set up our pads below Parisella's Original, a V6 first put up by Jerry Moffatt and Ben Moon back in the day. I had wanted to try this problem for a while, so suddenly got keen, especially with the amount of pads on offer! Mason stepped up and having done it before, despatched it first go, effortlessly revealing the moves for me. As nobody else had their shoes on, I thought I would have a go, expecting it to be a lot harder than Al made it look I grabbed the starting jug with both hands and jumped my feet into position. Moving my hands the way Mason had, involving a tricky crossover, I placed my right heel perfectly and stretched for the next hold... everything felt totally rubbish, but luckily I was directed into the good hold before I committed to one of the poorer ones. A hard cut-loose and a few more goey moves later, I was eye-balling the finishing jug, but could feel my strength dropping... I lunged and grabbed it, hanging there for a second to make sure I had actually finished and dropped off. Flashed! My first proper tick in the Cave and its a bloody flash! Apparently it's V6/7 but I don't believe that for a second, V5/6 more like, the holds are all good, and if you get the heel right and know where your hand is going it doesn't have many hard moves. Mason sent a V8 and a few of us had a play on the start to Left Wall Traverse, which is proper hard!

Sunday dawned bright once again, and Ollie Burrows, an Ogwen Cottage CA picked me up for a Roscolyn hit. As niether of us had been there before, it took a while to find it, but when we did it was totally sheltered from the wind and bathed in sunlight! To start we did Icarus a 2 pitch HVS, I led the easy first and Ollie the steeper 2nd pitch. We then went back in and I led Wild Rover, a brilliant little E1 5a slabby wall climb. The start was a bit bold, but the climbing was positive and open and soon enough the gear got good, and I began enjoying it. I dropped the ropes and walked back round to belay Ollie on it. Soon enough it was my turn to climb it again, it was just as good second time round! Despite racking up for Savage Sunbird, I totally wussed out and we pottered up a wet VS topping out as the sun set, so maybe lucky we didn't do the E2.

It looks like I am nearly out of the woods of injury, though looking back on it, it has given me another interesting and healthy aspect to my life, given me some rest from climbing and allowed me to crack on with some of my 3rd year work...

Then there was the BUMS Peak trip! First thing Saturday morning, Rich K picked me and Jess up from Glossop and we headed to Stanage Plantation. Rich and I then spent the rest of the day looking for dry rock, heading to Curbar, then "Burbage South" (Millstone). A few good easy problems were done but Trackside and Gorrilla Warfare were both damp/totally wet. So we headed off to somewhere new...

"Excuse me, nice lady, which bit of Burbage are we at?"

"You aren't at Burbage, you are above Millstone at Owler Tor..."

"Oh, right, woops! Thanks"

So yeah... but it all worked out good because we ended up at the Mother Cap, where Rich got on better with the Font 7b than Conan the Librarian, a tricky V4 (What the flip!?!). I got super inspired by Conan, getting pretty close to ticking it but alas it wasn't to be... I just couldn't quite latch the sloper after the small slopey crimp rail! Rich then put in a mint effort on a V6 sitter at Mother's pet but couldn't quite do the top out! We left the crag super psyched to return the next day, send our problems and then head on to Curbar for some trad...

Unfortunately after having a tame night out, we awoke to thick fog in Sheffield, so headed to the Climbing Works and bouldered our little hearts out. Not the perfect trip but not a bad one either, always good to get a good spanking!

So here endeth the lesson:

Don't rush through the woods of injury, but take the time to stop and admire the flowers and those cute little squirrels and rabbits along the way, just be careful not to rush out, as you may find yourself in deeper, darker woods... Sometimes you burn all the brighter in the sun having strolled through the woods a while...

Failure... and Inspiration

“Remember, there are no mistakes, only lessons. Love yourself, trust your choices, and everything is possible.” - Cherie-Carter Scotts


Ok so here is a bit of an abstract blog that can be applied to all aspects of life I guess, but for me is mainly climbing focussed.  


Failure. It's a word that has some big connotations, pretty much exclusively bad ones, in all aspects of life. For example; I didn't get the job, I couldn't climb the route, I didn't match my target time for my marathon, I failed my exam/driving test, I just broke up with my partner, etc, etc. All these are aspects of failure that are encountered in life, and usually looked upon negatively, and can sometimes even illicit negative feelings in the person for varying time periods afterwards.


For me the failures that I focus in on mostly come down to my climbing performance (I haven't applied for any jobs recently, I don't run, I am passing my exams* and am luckily still with my girlfriend) But I often fail in my climbing life... This leads to a lot of self-examination and soul-searching, often keeping me up for hours or distracting me from uni work. Looking back on my UKC log (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/showlog.html?id=70513), I have failed a lot since 2011 began; Cream, Sai Dancing, Poema de Roca, Yogur de Coca, Pilier Dorada, Stroll On, Bulling-747, just to name a few but I never try and hide my failures and always try to remain honest about them. However, in the past I have been guilty of not being positive or honest with myself about my reasons for failure. 


Since reading the Rock Warriors Way my outlook on failure has changed immensely. Whereas before I would blame coldness or whatever now I will try and look at what I did, the choices I made and work out where I went wrong and where I was just unlucky... This I think is a major breakthrough in my climbing, and one I have found has helped already. I went to the Orme this Thursday with Dave and he had a crack at Gritstone Gorrila, despite the freezing wind! After taking 2 lobs on the crux he got it 3rd go ground up. I had to second with the numbest hands ever, and knowing the crux was a stiff layback I was nervous to say the least. However, on getting to it I remembered why I failed to onsight the laybacks on Stroll On, got my feet high and kept the commitment up. I soon found myself holding the good hold at the end of the crux, though at this point I had to rest as I could no longer feel my hands! We quickly bailed round the orme and back to Mayfair wall for my first taste of Upper Pen Trwyn sport climbing. I chose Julio Juvenito, F7a for its sexual crimpyness. Psyched up for the onsight, I was cautious not to misread the sequence. However once I got into the meat of the climbing, coupled with Al Mason's shouts of; "Come on Dunc, Turn it on", I had to start moving quickly and was unceremoniously spat off. Realising the error of my way and that I had to do an unlikely looking boulder problem to gain good holds more direct, I was at the top and on the way down giving Dave the beta. He consequently crushed it... brilliant! Back up, I blasted on, threw the throw, then completely changed my original poor sequence for a more direct one, and it was done. Another F7a in the bag! I have decided that every time I go sport climbing I will try something of F7a or above, as this will be the way to improve and enable me to onsight F6c (and above) trad routes. I then tried to second Mason on King Krank, E5 6b and found out that english 6b is tres hard! With rain drops falling I pulled through the crux and got the gear out before a massive band of rain passed over! Phew!


Now back to revision I am beginning to gain inspiration from routes and people. Rob Greenwood being one of them, he does everything well, is mad for it and totally chilled in scary environments. Mikey G's positivity is also inspirational, and seems to be seeing him recover exceedingly quickly (along with the amount of sleep he partakes in). I'm beginning to see a trend of 'positivity gets you through sticky situations', which I have realised and put to use in a recent exam and it seemed to work... I am mega keen to put it to use on some hard (for me) trad, but at the moment with poor weather and exams in North Wales, I am focussing on maintaining my current level, so that once I finish exams I can have a couple of weeks of crushing before I head off to Squamish! Luckily the weather is absolutely rubbish in North Wales at the moment, so I hit the Indy yesterday in search of a good workout and some more training. The Indy, is a brilliant way of learning through failure as you can and will fail on V2s!! Unfortunately there was a lack of failure, so maybe no learning? Managed to bosh out my 3rd Indy V5 (albeit a soft one) thanks to some beta from Mr Carroll! I then set to work on what drew me here in the first place... FITNESS! A new circuit set at Fr7a+/b with a potentially 7c extension! After a rest I got on the 7a+/b and flashed it, I had looked at the moves and knew there would be a sting in the tail but once I got there, despite being mega boxed I kept pulling! It's probably more like 6c/+. Now the 7c? ext. This adds a hard, short bouldery section onto the 7a that I reckon might even be V3/4....uh oh. Unfortunately I failed time and time again pulling around onto the last section. I then ran (stumbled) home... today I feel broken and have eaten A LOT! But endeavor to keep doing a bit more than just wall sessions during exams and maybe beyond!


A few blogs to get you inspired: 


Scotch-wad Greg Boswell: http://gregboswell.blogspot.com/

Brenin-wad Davey Morse: http://davidmorse1984.blogspot.com/


So go forth and don't be afraid of failure, there is no other way to learn and become better at climbing/life/whatever you want to excel at... Dunc




*bar one which I will have to return to North Wales... DAMN... to retake :/