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.....