That Pesky Cave

Its been some time, due to this and that, since my last post.  Last season was mostly spent training and falling off my project line, and off the back of this I decided that enough was enough - time to change the mind set.

I had a random session a few weeks back with Dave (aka Polish Dave), and it really changed my focus and the way I have been applying myself both physically and mentally for a fair while now.  I was massively impressed by the sheer will and determination on show (how strong can fingers on a 13.5 stone guy be?!), and also mainly the positive aspects and attitude towards the sport and trying hard.  On returning back to Wales, I kinda put everything into perspective and changed my entire view and approach to how I was operating, and guess what - it worked.

The simplicity of it all after self analyzing?  I wasn't trying hard enough, had radically changed the way in which I train and what has worked for me for the last 10 years or so, and had convinced myself that maybe I didn't have the strength that I thought I had - indeed, the complete opposite.  The good news is that I am now on fire, and have a plan.  This began on Monday with my first new Cave ascent for some time - The Last Stand.

The Last Stand 8a+

I dabbled with this new line some time ago, and last week after having sent pretty much all of the hardest moves in the cave i.e. Undercut Move, Louis Armstrong Crux, Crucial Times etc (which all felt great!), I turned my attention back to this.  The moves itself is pure:  pull on, stabalise, and flick.  Power and precision just as it should be.  Once matched (which felt hard to me!), I dropped off having achieved my goal.

Its a funny one for me, the cave, as its all about the link-ups these days as opposed to test of strength as ti was back in the late 90's.  So with this is mind, I camer back on the Monday to repeat the feat and link it into the Left Wall Traverse to give the full Last Stand at 8a+.  Good Job, and much more to come very soon!