Its getting colder...

Its getting colder...  Hopefully this is it - the late beginnings to the season.  So far, there's been a few forays into the mountains, checking out this years projects.  Despite a pretty poor partnership between skin and rock, things where getting close.  Maybe with the change in the wind, we could be cooking on charcoal.

I think retaining psyche when your mad keen and the weather is not good, or when its mint and your spending days on end on the road, three weeks down, and one hour of pulling for your efforts.  I think all you can do is to keep the weight off.  I had a stomach bug this week, so that helped.

I'm hoping that this weekend, despite turning into a hunchback from all of the driving, I should be ready to pull - I'm reckoning that either the rocks have 'drip-over' from the melting snow, or we'll be lucky enough to see a freeze in the Welsh mountains.  I need to get this latest one sent as the walk is only interesting for a while, then becomes a chore (over an hours walk up into the hills is a fair pop to me at my age).  Still, its keeps you fit and once there, each and every time it blows my mind!!  I am feeling the urge to move on though, as there are various pieces of unfinished business right now, and powers are good.





So, I guess on Sunday there may be something worth reading about on this page of mine.  Stranger things have happened, and either way, I'm feeling sparky.

Emotional Landscapes - so amazing.

The Crossover - I love this move! To match the crimp for the jump is nuts.

This move is a stunner - 8b from a stand 

There is always something that gets in the way of a well thought out plan.  I carried out the planning and the training schedule as well as I could.  On arrival the weather was looking conducive to pulling on the rocks.  And then the inevitable - humidity and rain…

On Monday, I awoke to pristine skies, a cold wind from the north and reasonably cold temperatures (around 5 degrees).   This was by no means perfect, but at least I could session the moves properly for the first time in seven days.  It was amazing, the friction on the otherwise sugary smooth granite had become apparent, and the moves now seemed possible.  At last – the jump move was really close now, and the swing seemed to be slowing down.  So, very close indeed to the two crux moves, which link all of this together.  The top out campus crossover was still pretty tricky though - Klem had made this look pretty easy!

I’m pretty optimistic as a person, and in my mind had already now convinced myself that the climb was potentially on.  Sat in the tent on the mountainside later on that evening, running through the moves and the possibilities, I was pretty psyched as if the trip turned out to be successful, I would have indeed climbed one of the worlds hardest problems in a single trip;  and then the rain…

I’ve never been on such a trip where the weather has played such a bad hand.  The clouds and the mist had rolled in (you are normally above all of this at 1500m here), and the temp’ was now at an all time high of 12 degrees – impossible now.  The usual colour of the rock here is an off white/light gray.  It had now all blacked out.  I went for a walk up into forest to have as look at the damage, and as expected the boulder problem was totally blown out.  Myself and Dave session-ed the moves just incase, but where there had been friction enough to function well earlier there was now no chance at all that this was going to go.

Last time I visited this area, to try another boulder (The Power of Goodbye, V13) it was -9 during the day and -26 at night.  I was successful here, and got the first British ascent of this one (one if just six in total over 10 years including Slovenian, American and Austrian ascents).  At the end of the trip, I tried Emotional Landscapes briefly and was amazed by how possible it all felt.  Unfortunately when you add around 20 degrees, the probability drops off in spades.  I waited for another day and a half for the weather to turn around, contemplating the success and the failure of the trip.  During this time, I had a conversation with a team of Italians and a local guy (Andy) within which it emerged that a certain strong American (Daniel Woods), had arrived last year in perfect conditions, and had failed on the crux moves also.  Daniel has climbed the same grade in other countries in one day, and put forward that in his estimation, that Emotional Landscapes was by far the hardest.

Looking at failing is a difficult thing.  I chose to be a slightly more adjective, and look at how close I was to succeeding.  Basically, in one decent session I had achieved a level higher than my standard current form.  I climbed better and harder.  If I could have had the same conditions that I had on the one day it all came together (or even colder), then my chances of success where very high.  I was pleased that I hadn't unconvinced myself of my own capabilities and I will travel back next February when I know it will be cold enough to send the thing.  It is very apparent why Klem Loskot named the climb as he did:  the rollercoaster experiences when you are pushing yourself to your physical limits day in and day out is unreal, and to keep going back when everything is against you takes determination and patience.  Driving back home, a 25 hour, 1200 mile journey.  To keep the chain of thought, to keep the drive and maintain psyche is very difficult, but I will go back and I will succeed.

I had the same issue with a problem in Cresciano some years back, and travelled back and forth in my trusty Volvo V40 four times.  That’s over 8000 miles to climb four moves on a piece of granite.  I knew I could do it and I did.  So the moral of the story: 

Don’t give up – ever.  If you want to do something, just do it – you can.  


A huge thanks to Mabel from Boreal and Matt Wells from Outlook Expeditions for helping me out to get here, and hopefully I can do you justice in 2012.  Also, big ups to Lee, Stuart and Rich at Prana and Metolius.  Next time guys, next time!!

Right then, it seems to be taking a while to push this one forward. I'm still pleasantly suprised as to how hard this is, mostly due to the fact that lots of people claim hard ascents abroad (including me!), that just are'nt that difficult. This on the other hand, is proper nails. To give you a picture, Jon Gaskins' 'Heart of it All', but beatiful and more of it. Enough said...

I had a session yesterday after two days on and a rest day, and things are moving on well, but slowley - three weeks would be great! Three cruxes which keep moving - the first move is bloc 8a in my head, and a hop match on the photo to get this crimp ready for the jump - harder. The final one is the jump, but this is just conditions to move confidintley, and a good core. Currently, I'm sat in a cafe drinking Gussser, which is Gut, Besser, Gusser - but obviously this will not help my six pack function!!

Last time I was here, I formed an affinity to these three trees.  I was trying Power of Goodbye, and each tree became a move.  Basically, we camped in front of of these for two weeks in -26.  I liked the way they looked, and felt that they where very significant for some reason.  I'm here again now with another three, and I hope that if they are watched long enough, with the right chain of consciousness the same may happen.

Difficulty aside, I still believe in Santa, and the tooth fairy is real.

Emotional Times

So, we finally made it here - Malta, Austria. The project in mind revealed: Emotional Landscapes 8b+, and worth every ounce of the grade,

It has been a long haul from training at The Mill, to getting onto the problem, and its stunning. The drive was epic as usual - 1200miles in the the 98' 106 and fair play to the bronze beast, it got us here in one piece.

After having spent 2 days working the problem , on first aqaintance it was apparent that this is the real deal, Klem was indeed very strong, and the moves are nails!! I'm glad - cheap ticks are not worth the petrol, and its great to get stuck into something quite special and very hard.

So far, success has been minimal, but I'm starting to feel the moves, the power is seeping in and I have a sequence. I have no idea ast this point if I can get this done in such a short amount of time, but I am as always optimistic.

The snow has fallen today, and it has forcast minus degrees, so hopefully the holds will remain white, as opposed to blackening out after two seconds on the rock. A rest day today, down in Gmund, will hopefully lead to the stand up being done tomorrow. Temperatures are so important at this stage - the problem basically centres around 8 very powerful moves, all of which are very hard to link.

As ever, I love it, and am happy to spend the next few days on my pad, looking at the boulder and trying to move and link on this amazing piece of climbing. More soon.....

I think that after this long wait, that its time to hit the road. The picture shows the road I'm hitting.  I've spent a fair while now training to the point where wood is no longer good (well, thats a lie!).

But... it is time for granite, and a travel. The Mill has done its job, Indy has played a part, The Cave has had a resurgence, but really - none of those places are where I have wanted to be for a long time.

Soon, I'll be waking up, brewing fresh coffee and brushing holds.  Slowly warming up into the day - nothing in the way of the concentration.  The smell of pine, the breeze as you wait for that moment....

Next Sunday, thats it.  1130 miles from my house to the problem. Its time to try and realise what I have been thinking about for 6 months, to try and live a bit of a dream really. I watched a video of the 1st ascent earlier today, and WOW - I'm gonna do it!!

WATCH THIS SPACE... (or not!)...

A Sudden Urge and a Long Wait.

After having been training now for the last four months with a further two more to go, thinking about getting over to my destination for the start of it all still seems like such a long wait.

I was listening to a fair bit of music today, and most of it seemed to lead my mind astray into thoughts of wanderlust.  Its been a fair while now since I last went on a trip (maybe three years), with the last one giving me Power Of Goodbye over in Austria as a prize for my efforts.  Even Daisy was playing Manu Negra upstairs, reminding me of trips to central America nearly fours years ago.


After a few weeks of injury, I went back to the wood expecting to have been totally shut down.  Surprisingly enough, it was quite the opposite, and I had my best session since I began the whole thing.  If your reading this, then I guess your probably getting pretty sick of ramblings of wooden boards and sanded, sloping 2mm footholds (tension - hell yeah!).  Believe me, I can't wait until I can write about sweeping granite formations in awe inspiring, mountainous settings.  Tales of bravado, perseverance, wasted nights and massive success rates.  Well, despite the sudden urge, I too will be waiting until October 16th to get over to attempt Plan A, and in the meantime keep on plugging away.

Work is soon to get in the way of the whole thing, so I guess its a matter of maintaining current form, and maybe dropping a four or five of pounds (not much - skinny doesn't get power).  I can just about deal with real life for this amount of time.

The draw of waking up in the wild, next to the rocks is begining to eat at me.  Brewing a strong fresh coffee, staring out over the mountains and wondering - will it go? Genius.

The Power Returns!

As suspected - it was all about fatigue.  Its amazing how you can convince yourself that it's all going terribly wrong when the trend is in play.  I'd just burnt myself out following some crazy persons training routine (which has actually worked - well done Dave).


I always feel happiest and at my functioning best when I am projecting, as I really can't seem to pull anything out of the bag any-more when faced with uninspiring lines, tried purely for a quick tick or ascended for the just for the grade. 


Nope, sometimes all it takes is a beautiful line with great moves and amazing positions and your back in motion.   

Today, I felt nothing short of super human.  Having skin left (unfortunately) is not one of my super powers, so I'll have to wait a day or so before I go back.



Brilliant.