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.