Motivated Squirrel: The Crushing Continues ...

Autumn has finally arrived, the temps have come down significantly since last week and the friction is getting better and better :) Jamie is on a great run at the moment, after knocking off Barry's Problem 6C+ and Black Art 6C last weekend I took him for a quick session in The Scalp on Wednesday afternoon, it was his first time to climb there and he thought the problems were quality, unfortunately we forgot the camera this day so no Scalp pics. After a quick warm up he jumped on LDF 6C+, a lovley steep line through an overhang on ledges and crimps with a big power move backwards to a lip and a little slopey traverse before an easy mantel. After a while figuring out the best places for the mats to go and few awkward falls he committed to the big move and latched the lip held the swing and saw the the top out through, cool looking problem ...

The length of the bristles on your boulder brush is directly proportional to your rate of sending :)

... after this we headed over to Dark Angel 7A, I had done the problem earlier in the summer and had all the beta for J, after a few goes and a hard fight he did the stand start version which is about 6B then he sat down to try the sitter which adds a very fingery and tough pull off the ground on a pinch and a slopey crimp, when you pull your ars off the ground you throw for a sidepull jug and into the stand start position. He tried it a bunch of times and kept slapping at the jug but not being able to hold it, we had about 10 minutes left before we had to leave and it started to rain, the sense of urgency made J try harder than I have ever seen him try on a problem before, he pulled off the ground and threw for the jug barely catching it but his left hand flew off the slopey crimp and he spun into a huge barn door, it was feckin' mad lookin', he had only two points of contact on the rock his right hand and right foot, he spun right around as if he was trying to look at the road behind him, I saw his face and he had the demented look of a man possessed in his eyes, he let out an almighty power scream that would put Adam Ondra to shame and slapped his left hand back on to the rock and proceeded to dig deep and fight his way up, every move looked like it would be his last but he kept grafting and topped it out, it was such a titanic surge of effort we just burst out laughing for about two minutes at the beastliness of it all, fun little evening was had.

Eoin Fighting On White Arrow 6B

This evening Eoin, J, Adam and meself headed down to Glendo. There was a blustery wind and cool Autumn air and the conditions were minty fresh :) Eoin had another session on White Arrow 6B only to fall on the last hard move, literally tickling the victory jug ... next time man. After a quick warm up I hopped on Pokery 6C for my fourth session on it, all the holds felt much easier to hang and I finally put the problem away, I had to work hard for this one so I was delighted with the send. I didn't have the tension in my foot to stay on the hold so I had to deal with a wild swing when I hit the jug and stab my foot back on before keeping it together on the top out moves, a great little steep nose problem, I enjoyed this one ...

Me fighting on Pokery 6C

... I heard about a problem called Another Duffy Problem 6C+ that was hidden in the scree behind the ruins area, after finding it we thought it looked cool and worth a go so we headed over for a session on it. It's an impressive problem, the opening move and crux is a huge throw from a matched crimp to a decent sidepull and a steady traverse involving heel hooks and another deadpoint to jugs and an easy top out. Jamie kept his good run of form going by quickly figuring out the moves and getting the job done. The first move felt well hard for me and I couldn't get close to it, mabye I was tired from my Pokery seige, Adam could hit the first move but his heel hook was making his shoe fall off and he couldn't finish it, he tried Jamie's shoes on and they were tighter and now he was ready to do it but it grew late in the day and we were benighted ! In the pitch dark, in a midge filled cave Eoin whipped out his mobile phone torch and it was just enough light for Adam to see the targets he was throwing his hands and heels towards, he gave it one last beast effort and made it through the crux and to the jugs, he fumbled upwards in the mirky dark, rocking over, feeling blindly for the good holds at the top, a fine battle and persistant attitude earned him this send and his first Glendo 6C, he was chuffed, good job lad !! It was so much fun boudering by torch light, we are deffo gonna try some Glendo night time bouldering sessions this winter.