Mini road trip!

So I just got back from a short trip to Wales and the Peak district I went with two mates of mine Ben and James!

I think the first night was the most eventful. we arrived at the little field that was supposed to be a camp site at about 1.30 on Friday morning after a 6 hour drive. We got out of the car to put the tent up and realised it was so windy that we could lean into the wind it was so strong. it was amazing! we heard the next morning that it was like 80-90 mile an hour winds!!

Anyway we started to put the tent up. by the way this was one huge tent. it had a kitchen to bedrooms and a living room. massive! so we got the ground sheet down all pegged up and everything. we were all thinking " wow this is actually going pretty smoothly". but we were so wrong. we took the tent out of its bag and strait away it ballooned up like a big kite. two of us held it down while on person tried to peg it down. so we had all the poles in it. all we had to do was get a few more pegs in it, suddenly a gigantic gust of wind tore the whole thing out of our hand, over a barbed wire fence, all the way across a another field and got stuck the side of a barn. at this point we thought "bugger we are going to have sleep in Ben's small Renault Megane." to cut an even longer story short we somehow managed to get it off the side of the barn back into the "camp site" and put up on a big slope next to wall. it had holes everywhere. tried to sleep but couldn't so just lay there!

We stayed in Wales for two more nights. we went for the bunk house option instead of the camping one. the climbing was really good. I'm not a great fan of limestone but i actually really enjoyed it. we bouldered in Llannberis pass for the first day and went to Perisella's cave on the second day. I didn't feel I was climbing my best on those two days. I managed to do quite few problems in the low sevens but nothing harder. oh well it's not all about the TICK it's the experience!!

so then shot over to the Peak on the third day. It was a pretty cold day and friction was feeling good. my skin wasn't though! we had a good session at curbar where I spent a lot of the time trying a problem that was put up by Kook it's called Super Size Me 8a+. it is a very low start to another problem. I found it very hard and I think I need a little more core strength but very psyched to get back on it at some point! On the last day we went to Burbage valley. first Burbage west to try West Side Story which is a 7b+ wall climb, highball. had no luck with that either but once again a very nice problem! Then we shot over to Burbage North to try this problem called The Terrace 7c+. it is this really cool over hanging prow with annoying heel hooking business. I actually did have some luck with this one. got it in about 45 mins think it might be a touch soft but still super cool.

Swizzy

Switzerland is a funny place. There are a lot of little things you take for granted in Briton that just aren't there in Switzerland. Cash machines in supermarkets are one, seems like a sensible place for people to be able to withdraw cash but not in Switzerland. I also always took for granted the fact that the I could go climbing and pick up dinner on the way home in the UK, but again not in Switzerland because things seem to rarely be open. For a nation famed for its efficiency it seems frustratingly inefficient of the supermarkets to close up just as people finish work!

Anyway, just a little update of Swiss to date. I've been opening accounts all over the place. Got a few that should hopefully go quickly if my skin holds up and some that might go if I'm lucky enough to wake up with good skin, good conditions, good co-ordination and low gravity.

At the moment my skin seems to be having a problem adjusting to the rock. It keeps splitting and little chunks of it shear off. For example, I was trying a problem with my girlfriend called Marilyn Monroe (8A) and had a sequence worked out. I'd already split my tip on a nasty spikey little hold at the start on the previous week , but thought if I could bosh it out quickly I would be fine. Pulled on, split my index. Damn! Then for some reason I thought I could do it on my back three so I pulled on again, split my middle finger. What a muppet.

Needless to say my tick list has taken a re-juggeling with crimpy sharper problems being relegated to the bottom or not at all pile. Apart from skin issues its been pretty sweet here in Ticino. The weather's been good, I managed to bust out one of the prettiest problems I’ve ever seen (Conquistadores 8A+) which made me a very happy man. . .for a while. I was so psyched for it at the time. A single block with an awesome line on it, situated in a random beach in the middle of a river. On my first proper session on it I worked out a sequence and started red-pointing. For a while I thought luck might be on my side and might manage to muddle my way through fairly quickly. Unfortunately I kept falling at the same point for about an hour and a half.

The next time I went back it was slightly spitting and I only had a few goes before I realised I was getting half as far putting in twice as much effort. I was properly psyched though so I rested, grew some skin and Mina and I got up especially early (9-ish) to try and get good conditions. As we arrived at the block I was feeling fairly confident it would go, until I saw that it was fully was in the sun. I tried for a few hours and gradually it came into the shade. I lost more skin and got weaker, still failing at the same point, a high slap with the left hand from a rubbish sloping pinch with the right. Always a centimetre out on the link. The next evening I went back and after a brief warm up bumbled up it first go of the day.

At the moment though It's raining, which is why there is another blog so soon after the last. Still it'll enable us to grow some skin and recover in preparation for (hopefully) another week of good weather.

The trip has begun!

I can actually climb on real rock and will be for a long, long time. F*%*%in Get In! After locking myself away and pulling on wood (-en holds) for a while my girlfriend and I finally departed in blue skies for font.

Unfortunately every time I drive round Paris a thunder storm seems to materialise from nowhere, which for some reason really excites the French making them drive closer and faster than usual, so we arrived in a very wet font a little shell shocked. I don’t thi

nk I’ve ever been to Font in good conditions though so I proceeded to run around trying various projects over the following couple of weeks in conditions that ranged from hot, wet and humid to hot, dry and sweaty. Needless to say that although I stuck my finger in a fair few pies and lost a lot of skin I didn't have a massive ticked list when we left.

I don’t really mind too much as I was looking at Font as a warm up introduction to pulling on real rock after a few months of being locked inside. Anyway I'm a try-er and enjoy the trying so the poor conditions meant I got to try that bit harder. I did manage to pull a few things out the bag which I'm quite chuffed with.

Neverland (8a), because I'd always wanted to try it and when it went it was 22 degrees, humid, and the problem was actually wet. I love a bad conditions tick, me. There's something very satisfy about pulling it out the bag despite the odds. The other thing I was quite chuffed with was a 7C+ plus high-ball. Mainly because its a cool line but also because its a high-ball and 1. I’m a massive fairy when it comes to high stuff and 2. I’m quite good at falling off the top of things. Part of me admits the only reason I did it (after my girlfriend made me get up early to get the slightly less worse conditions) is that she danced up it first and the male pride kicked in. Needless to say I spent the afternoon in a small coma recovering from my early morning, near death experience.

Apart from that and another V10 Font passed in a blur of camp fires, good friends, red wine, wet rock, sweaty rock and sore skin. It also gave me an opportunity to witness the wonder that is Barney in action. I wish I could ,move on the rock like him. A truly natural climber who managed to pull two 7c's out the bag on the last day of his trip. Not bad for a ginger ;)

Next on the list is Switzerland. Much more my kind of style and better conditions. The rock actually has holds in Switzerland. We have been here a couple of days and have two months here. I have a very long and ambitious tick list, which I’m sure will inevitably lead to disappointment. Still, aim for the stars, hit the moon. Or something along those lines. Anyway the trip has started off well with a surprisingly quick dispatch of one of the 8a's on the list and a promising first session on another line. Time to step and get shut down I guess. As Mr Katz once said to me, “you've got to enjoy the process”.