2014 Round Up

The end of 2014
Here we are on the eve of a new year, so it's time to look back on the last 12 months and see what has been going on.  2014 has been quite a tough year really, and I won't be too sad to see the back of it.  Various family tragedies and sadness have put a bit of a downer on the year, and I'm very much looking forward to 2015 being a year of happiness.  But let's put a happy spin on matters and see what positives 2014 gave us:

January
Quiet month, got out running a fair bit.

February
Grizedale UltraTrail 26  43.6km  1183m ascent  5:46:59
A fun day out in less than ideal conditions.

March
I grabbed a day out at Cadshaw and nailed two first ascents, Rakkety Tam (a great 6b+ dyno) and Outcast (a fun 6c/+ traverse with a really nice slopy sidepull).

April
I spent a couple of hours at Denham, did two 7as (R-man's Living Next Door to Acid and my own Snap Derision) and added a sitter to Hypno-TOad, at 7a-ish.  Very pleasing day out!
I also ran the Yorkshire 3 Peaks for fun and training:  38.6km and 1442m ascent, in 6hrs 28mins.

May
Howgills UltraTrail 26  42.5km  1153m ascent  5:58:41
UTLD Recce - Pooley Bridge to Ambleside  46.2km  2000m ascent  7:40.  Ouch.

June
Three Rings of Shap, my longest event to date.  104.5km and 2008m ascent in 20:12.  Took my feet quite a while to recover from this one.

July
UTLD 50 80.9km, 2774m ascent, 17:17:16.  Really enjoyed this one, and it felt OK.  I'm sure it won't after doing the first 55 miles of the hundred next time around.

August
Got another year older, and had two weeks in France.  Our holiday was rather disrupted by the death of my father in law and my wife's ankle injury and huge reaction to oysters, but we still managed some really good days.

September
Not a lot really.

October
Rivington Trail 26:  43km and 1229m ascent in 5:48:46, slower than last year.
The Lancashire Bouldering Guidebook arrived too, which has been long awaited and very well received.  I'm not sure it'll make my fortune or if I'll become a celeb, but it looks good and has some fantastic problems in it.

November

UTLD Recce - Coniston to Buttermere.  42.5km and  2057m ascent in just under 9 hours.  Much slower than I had wanted.

December
Had a really good day with the family, which felt very relaxed, despite another bereavement on Christmas Eve.  Best Christmas dinner ever!!  Great set of presents all round too.




Aims for 2014
So what of the aims for 2014?  Rather a mixed bag really:
 
1.  Use the board at least once a week.
Running got in the way somewhat, but for a while I was on the board regularly and feeling stronger.  Slipped a bit recently but very keen to get back on it and get stronger.

2.  Boulder 7C or harder. 
Not a chance.

3.  Reacquaint myself with Silverdale after two years of not visiting.
I didn't visit this year, and I've only been out on rock a handful of times.  Again, running has taken over.

4.  Do some trad with Nik at Work.
To my shame (and the cat eating all my trad gear), this never happened.

5.  Tick two problems from the last few years Aims For lists. 
There's a theme developing here.....

6.  Run another hill marathon or two.
Grizedale Ultra Trail 26, Howgills 26, the Three Rings of Shap 100km, the Lakeland 50, Rivington Trail 26 and UTLD recce.  6 hill marathons ticked this year.  I've run 1009.4km this year, with 18,266m of ascent.  Wow.

7.  Find some new rock and do a good FA.
No new rock yet, but 3 FAs which is pretty good.

8.  Do at least twenty new Wainwrights.  
No new Wainwrights at all this year!  I've run past a lot though.

9.  7b in Font.
Err, no.

10.  Read ten more books from the BBC Big Read top 100. 
Didn't manage ten, but I'm up to 44% read now and still trawling through Middlemarch:

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie





So what of next year?
As I mentioned on UKB, I have 2 aims for 2015:
1.  Don't die trying to do the Lakeland 100.
2.  Get back to climbing after the Lakeland 100.

The UTLD 100 makes me nervous, not so much because of the distance but more that the cut off times a quite tight for a slow runner like me.
I'm looking forward to getting back on the rock, and the new Lancashire Bouldering Guidebook is there to give inspiration.

More than anything, what 2014 has shown us all is that life is precious and rather fragile.  It's too short to get up tight, and to worry about minor issues.  It should be lived to the full, taking any opportunity going and wringing all we can from it.  I'm very lucky to have a fabulous wife and step-children, and such a great home life.  Not everyone has that, and I'm realising more each day how lucky I am.

So here's to 2015 - let's make it a great year.  Happy New year everyone.

UTLD Recce No 1

Sunday was the first Lakeland 100 recce, Coniston to Buttermere:  the first quarter (ish) of the hundred.  26 miles, 2000m ascent.  I had vague hopes of getting round in 8 hours, so that a 10 hour stretch from Buttermere to Dalemain would give 22 hours to get round the second half of the course.  Oh dear.

I arrived at Buttermere at 7:15 and parked up on the verge a fair way up Newlands.  The coaches were later than planned  and got to Coniston for 10:00.  It was raining a lot and the becks were overflowing.  My plan was to try to get each checkpoint ticked in 2 hour lumps.  First checkpoint at Seathwaite sub 2 hours.  Great.  Boot in 4 hours.  Great, although underfoot was horrendously wet.  Wasdale Head 5:40, great.  I was at the top of Black Sail before dark, but then teamed up with a guy from Manchester for the last bit in pitch black with loads of stars now the rain had eased.  Two women in front of us went straight down from Scarth Gap, going totally off route.  We were slower than I would have liked but finished in just under 9 hours.  I'm sure in better conditions and going at my own pace I can knock a good half hour off this time.

Timings may well be tight on the day, I'll have to see how things go with the next lot of events/ recces.  Gulp.

Stony Edge video

Short video of Stony Edge from a couple of weeks ago.  Couldn't get it online any sooner due to utter computer death.

Nice venue with lots more to go back for.  Grow some skin first though.....


Stony Edge from GCW on Vimeo.

UTLD 50

The Lakeland 50 started at 11:30 yesterday. I've looked forward to this for months, and after doing 66 miles for the Three Rings of Shap I was confident too.  I had intended to do this event to see how it felt with consideration for looking to doing the 100 in the future.

5:00 -  my alarm went off and I was up, showered and eating breakfast and coffee.
6:30 - left home with Iron Man heading to Coniston to check in.
7:15 - realised last check in was at 8:00 and we were an hour away.
7:58 - arrived in Coniston and the Iron Man got into registration.
8:05 - I was weighed (88.4kg fatty), kit checked, I paid for Iron Man's new waterproof as his failed the kit check, and we were in.  Phew.
11:15 - we clapped though a load of 100 runners whilst we awaited the start. Impressive.
11:30 - after the excellent briefing from Marc et al we set off.

What can I say- it was HOT and I suffered. We got to Howtown in 2:23:39, topped up on fluids and got ready for my least favourite part - Fusedale. On the recce I had my ass kicked on this section because it was too hot.  Same today.  I suffered on this ascent despite dousing my head and cap in streams, but we got to Mardale Head in 3:22:31 (total 5:46:10). Here was the Spartans tent where we had carrot and coriander soup, flat coke and sugary tea. Really great checkpoint, despite the bodies everywhere.

The section over Gatesgarth pass was slow. My legs weren't up to the job, I could only trudge slowly but stubbornly upwards. Once at the top we ran down the valley. Very frustrating but I think the heat had me. After the next brief up and over, the descent to Kentmere went well. 2:29:23 for this section (total 8:15:33).  I had pasta and tea and coke, lamented that the parking charge here has gone from £1 per day to £3 and off we went.

It won't come as a surprise that the Garburn Pass kicked my ass too, 40 minutes from church to summit. However, after this we ran all the way down. The short cut over to Ambleside was a lot of up again, but near the top it began to piss it down and quickly I was soaked. Despite being around 11pm Ambleside gave us a great welcome, and the checkpoint was another good one. Bodies and foil blankets everywhere. Butternut squash soup, amazing at this point. Sarnies and crisps. A real boost. 2:46:01 for this leg, 11:01:34 total.

Off we went for Chapel Stile. This section went well despite the dark and occasionally tricksy nav.  Another amazing marquee, with a brazier outside and sofas inside. More tea, beef stew and a map check. 2:07:36 leg, 13:09:10 total.

Our next target was the self check on Wrynose. We managed to navigate past the worst bog and self checked after 1:47:32 (total 14:56:42), then ran a lot of the section to the Tilberthwaite checkpoint 50:23 leg, (15:47:05 total). Here, we had tea and little else and got on our way up the sting in the tail. Steep and technical ground led to the summit, and then steep and technical ground led down the other side. We were back at Coniston in in 1:30:11 (the toughest 3.5 miles ever?), to complete in a total time of 17:17:16. Slower than what I wanted, but great nonetheless and great food for thought.



We started the drive back, but needs 40 minutes sleep before the M6 so we got back around 7am to find my fab wife was up with breakfast and Bloody Marys for us, what a great welcome.

If I'm going to think about the 100 I need to invest a lot of time and effort. I suspect my bouldering goals will mean a lot more to me. I need to relax and have a good think. In the meantime rather happy.

Test embed

Monday's run, just an attempt to embed the GPS trace from Strava:

Results

Results now out. 

Ring One 5 hrs 5 mins

Ring Two 7 hrs 25 mins

Ring Three 7 hrs 42 mins

Total: 20 hrs 12 minutes

104.5km and 2008m ascent. 

Three Rings of Shap 14.06.2014

On Saturday I found myself in Shap for this event.  I wanted to go under 20 hours on this to get an idea of how to approach the Lakeland 50.

The event started at 8am, and the first ring went along Wet Sleddale to Mosedale Cottage, then over Branstree and Selside Pike before heading back to Shap via Swindale (where you can see J Mascis from a distance, a problem I've had on my list for a while).  I had wet feet from the Selside descent so changed socks at Shap (under 6 hours, ahead of schedule) (wet shoes though) and set off on Ring 2........

The second ring was my least favourite.  It involved a lot of ups and downs through grassy fields and lots of stiles plus a couple of sections where I had to fight through fallen trees and nettles, cross felled tree plantations and go along river banks covered in roots.  Feet soaked again early on and I had the start of good blisters by the time I got back to Shap.  Oh well, only 20 more miles to go, and still ahead of schedule......

I changed to my dry road shoes and fresh socks.  Ring 3-  I headed out on my own with two hours of light.  A lady caught me up and ran/ walked with me- she knew the route.  We both plodded round, getting past the first tricky section before dark.  We managed to get through the Nature Reserve in the dark without getting lost, despite it having started to rain heavily.  After the checkpoint at Great Asby, we struggled getting to Gaythorne Hall - this involved heading on a compass direction across open land for 900m to hit a stile.  After using the GPS we were back on track.  My companion was obviously flagging, actually falling asleep on the move.  My feet were pretty caned by now, but there was no way I wasn't going to finish.  We kept going all the way back to Shap, bedraggled.  I think it was around 20 hours and 15 minutes, but the official time is awaited.  Disappointed, but it was tough and I couldn't have left my colleague alone.






I started driving home, keen to be back in bed with my wife, but I was falling asleep, so I stopped at Killington Lake services and had 45 minutes sleep on the back seats under the sleeping bag.  I was home by 7am.

Yesterday my legs were OK, but my feet weren't.  I've had some fun driaining the worst blisters.  Bring on the Lakeland 50.  If that goes OK, where do we go next????  Maybe back to bouldering.  Or have a good think about foot care.

Howgills UltraTrail 26

On Sunday the Iron Man and I had a trip to Sedburgh for this event.  The Howgills are an area I have neglected in the past, quite wrongly it turns out as they are really nice hills- round, rugged, craggy, and good views.

The route is basically a big up in the first 5km, then up and down.  Underfoot varied and was generally quite technical.  Strangely, this felt the hardest of the three UT26s we have done, although last weekend's run may have something to do with it.  I came in under six hours, which was my aim.

Rivington UltraTrail 26  3/11/13  43.9km  1016m ascent  5:39:36
Grizedale UltraTrail 26  23/2/14  43.6km  1183m ascent  5:46:59
Howgills UltraTrail 26  25/5/14  42.5km  1153m ascent  5:58:41

Incidentally, in 2014 I have run 535km and covered 8899m ascent, which is more than the height of Everest and was one of my aims this year.  The other running aim remains unspoken.....

Lakeland 50 Recce Pooley Bridge to Ambleside

Did this today with the Iron Man.  Really, really, really hot.  And tough.

46.2km
2000m ascent
7hrs 40.

Hard, but the 50 is a reality.

Woo hoo

A big clap for Ben as he helped significantly in his team's Under 10s cup victory in today's final.  He played really well, made two great saves and was generally awesome.  Nice one Ben!!

Denham Quarry 28/04/2014

I went back to Denham on Monday after a recent trip where I did nothing. I had noted a possible sit start to Hypno-Toad, but since I didn't get close to Hypno-Toad stand up I dismissed it last time.

This time I warmed up at the left end and managed to do R-Man's nice wall of Living Next Door To Acid (stand), so I thought I'd have another look at Hypno-Toad.  It took ages to do the stand up, it's a weird move.  The sitter adds one fairly OK move, but it's then harder to do the slap.  I managed to link it after a good few goes.  Very morpho, but I suggest 7a-ish for now.  I then managed to do Snap Derision after not even managing to pull on last visit.  It's about 7a now the broken hold has stabilised and is usable.  When I did it originally, there was a crimp higher up and it was 7a+.  When I snapped the crimp off, the sequence became harder and used a foul 2 finger sloper below the new hold (this is in the video below).

Video of the four things I did on Monday, plus some old footage from 2008 to 2011:



Denham Quarry Bouldering from GCW on Vimeo.

Yorkshire Three Peaks

Today I ran these three hills.  It was very windy and visibility wasn't great, especially on Werneside where I fell headlong and hurt my left shoulder.  I got a tad lost going up Ingleborough and was held up by various parties Long the way.  However, I did car to car in 6:28:24, which I was very disappointed with. I had hoped for under six hours, but it wasn't to be. Nice route, shame about the runner.  38.6km and 1442m ascent, in 6hrs 28mins. Poop, doesn't bode well for future events.

So here's some old footage of St Bees from Nik and I. Shit video I'm afraid, first outing with new software.


St Bees Bouldering from GCW on Vimeo.

Cadshaw Video

Cadshaw and Baby Denham from GCW on Vimeo.

Aims for 2014 update

I finished Tess of the d'Urbevilles last night, just started Crime and Punishment.  So here's an update on Aims for 2014:

1.  Use the board at least once a week.  So far so good......
2.  Boulder 7C or harder.
3.  Reacquaint myself with Silverdale after two years of not visiting.
4.  Do some trad with Nik at Work.
5.  Tick two problems from the last few years Aims For lists.
6.  Run another hill marathon or two.  Done the Grizedale Ultra Trail 26, just the Howgills 26, the Three Rings of Shap 100km and the Lakeland 50 to go.
7.  Find some new rock and do a good FA.  No new rock yet, but 2 FAs one of which is pretty good.
8.  Do at least twenty new Wainwrights.  Not yet, but I'll get some done when I train for the Lakeland 50.
9.  7b in Font.
10.  Read ten more books from the BBC Big Read top 100.  Tess of the d'Urbevilles and Bleak House this year so far.


39 out of 100 read.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Cadshaw

Yesterday I popped out for a couple of hours in the morning.  I initially went to Stanworth, and got shut down on the first move of Backslash Bash which was irritating as it felt OK two weeks ago when I was there with the Pasty Lord.

I moved to Cadshaw.  River blocks- wet.  Giganticus- got nowhere.  Red Wall.......

Now Red Wall is somewhere I have battled with a fair old bit.  It's oddly conditions dependent, very fickle.  Yesterday was the best I've seen it. I did Brian Jacques second go, RoB stand second go.  I had a brief look at RoB sit (the old starting foothold is gone) and I don't think the breakage makes a huge difference for me.

I then looked at an old project - start in Brian Jacques, traverse the foul edges of RoB to dyno to the right arete jug and then carry on rightwards.  Only one move I didn't do......

But then, what about a low traverse?  This took quite a bit of work (and Skin) but once I'd worked out a tricky knee scud and a weird kneeling move, I managed to link it after a dozen goes.  Outcast 6c+??.  Quite pleased.  

I also did a new dyno to the right of Hawkeye, going jug to jug.  Great fun.  Because it goes round the overlap it's a bit of a funny trajectory, which makes it all the more enjoyable.  I'll call it Rakkety Tam 6b+ for now, sounds quite dyno like.  I have a better video, but my PC is playing up so it's a 'phone video for now.

The LankyTwat is back..........

Grizedale Ultra Trail 26

The Iron Man and I did this today. Heavy rain and some wind, and quite a tough course. The GPS gave 44km and about 1400m ascent. Watch time was 5:46:38, so quite pleased as I wanted under six hours.

Howgills next. Then the longer stuff.....

Yorkshire Lanks Part 4

Usual Suspects, but it's Brimham Rocks this time.

Murky Rib 6a+, Murky Rib SDS 7a, The Anchor 7a+, The Big Green 7a, The Grouch 7b, Dolphin Nose Low Traverse 6b, Dolphin Nose Low 6c, Wall 6b, Double Dyno 5+, Black Chipper Arete 7a+, Hanging Flake 7a, The Lost World 7a

Climbers:  Nik at Work, Rick Ginns, GCW
Music by Fleetwood Mac:  Dreams, Go Your Own Way



Yorkshire Lanks Part 4 from GCW on Vimeo.

Yorkshire Lanks Part 3

I've had a few sessions on the board over the last couple of weeks.  Feeling stronger than before and finally managed five of the original problems I set.  Plenty more on the to do list though.  I have noticed an improvement in core as well as finger strength. What I need to do next is get out and do some problems so that I have something to benchmark against.  Oh, and get the BeardyBeast and Pasty Lord round too.



Here is the next in the Yorkshire video series of re-edits.

Nik at Work, Rick Ginns and GCW at Widdop.

Red Edge Right 5+, Red Edge Right no arete 6b, Red Edge Right one handed 6a, Red Edge Left 6a, Red Edge Traverse 6b+, Scoop 5, Secret Seventh 6c, Splashdown 6b, The Shelf 6b, Wall left of Splashdown 7a, Arete 4+, Wall and Crack 7a, Blunt Arete 6a, Dam Traverse 6b+, Fight on Black 7b, Pickpocket's Crack 6a+, Four Square SDS 6b, Grumpy Old Men 6b, Nasty Eliminate 6b+, Pickpocket's Wall 6a+, Pool Traverse 6b+

Music by Jeff Buckley:  Grace, Forget Her



Yorkshire Lanks Part 3 - Widdop from GCW on Vimeo.