Friday 23 November 2012

Start to 2012

Starting the crux sequence on Hollywood Playboy
So I decided to up my game this year, I started the year by Gradually building up my strength. This was was a great way for me to refine my technique and try to build up some finger and tendon strength.

So i spent most of the winter months bouldering and the occasional endurance session just to try and keep fit, which i found is harder to do without a belayer :). By the end of January I found out That Barmouth quarry was opened to climb in which was great for me as it was only down the road from where i was living, so i waited for a nice day and headed on up to clean loose rock from some of the routes. There was 1 obvious line which hadn't been climbed  a large diagonal crack line that resembled a lightning bolt hence why i named the route Zeuse,  so i abbed off tore at the wall removing large portions of loose rock and then tried the route on a grigri. getting to the top first go it felt like an E4 but it still had some loose rock on it. So a few days later i went back and ran round the crag ticking all the routes bearing in mind there was nothing harder than an E2 and whoever graded those routes was being ambitious. I also did The sport route that Terry bolted which are great lines, i then proceeded to climb my line which went well other than snapping a hold of at the start and jumping off back 2 the floor i think once it cleans up it will go at about E2 5c depending on if the other routes at the crag get downgraded or not. 

So i Had noticed a wall in the quarry which is immediately obvious, when you stand at the bottom it looks so blank and other than the pinscar fractures looked impossible. So i threw a rope down it and tried it on a gri gri, the route was so blank i thought it might be impossible tiny sidepulls and crimpers but i persevered and after about 3 sessions had worked all the moves on it. So i knew a sequence was possible but could not link the 3 cruxes on the route, but me being me i checked for gear found 3 bomber placements even if they where small bits of kit and thought it would be a possible lead. The only problem was 1 piece of kit was also a crucial hold and if you dont place it a deck out from 12m is possible, but i went for the lead anyway getting past the first crux and to the 2nd piece of kit i pressed on but fell on the hard crux crossover. i then dogged my way up higher until below the dyno where i also lobbed of on the first go but got it on the second once here you have to place a cam from a side pull in your hand hold which i found out was very hard and ended up hanging of the gear. Unable to get to the top I lowered off and decided i would try the route when i was abit fitter, the only problem was i found out theres a bird ban that lasts from march till end of june so that was it for the quarry until later in the year.

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