2.4 Pascals and The Project Process

For the last month and a half I put all me eggs in one basket and concentrated solely on trying to climb one of Glendo's finest ... 2.4 Pascals 7b/+ . Its a majestic line and if it wasn't such a quality problem I probably would have given up ages ago !!  After 17 sessions on it I finally sent it yesterday morning and moving through the sequence from bottom to top for the first time was something special ... it was bleedin' rapid man !! :)

Jamie at full stretch on The Fuckin' Original 7A

Jamie and Adam have been having fun too. They both got The Fuckin' Original 7A a lovely power move from a small crimpy undercling, it was at J's full stretch so he fought hard to get it and it was Adams first 7A in Glendo, nice work beasts !!

Workin' 2.4 Pascal 7B/+ in the dark

Working on 2.4 Pascals was a learning experience and a big step foward for my climbing, I felt like when I was a 6 year old boy and I was first handed a rubix cube, I knew I had something really cool in my hands but I hadn't got a clue what to do with it, everytime I turned all the dials and worked hard to get all the colours on one face to match up I would smile thinking I had cracked the puzzle only then to realise to my dismay that none of the other faces had matched up too, there was much confusion ... and so it was with Pascals everytime I figured out a new easier way of doing a certain move a new link-up move that I couldn't do would appear, over and over again this would happen.  Some days I would make zero progress and occasionally I would go backwards, these days would leave me feeling dejected !!  I was like a mad scientist, there are so many holds on this thing and I must have tried almost every combination of moves before I finally found my intricate path through the maze. My sequence ended up having a whopping 16 hand movements, a lot for such a small face climb !!

It took me 14 sessions to figure out and tweak the sequence, the stand start went within an hour, so all those sessions were spent trying to figure out the first half of the boulder problem. One of the issues was that my fingers basically just weren't strong enough, the granite crimps and pinches acted as a fingerboard and over the weeks my fingers adapted to the moves and all of a sudden moves I had dismissed as way to hard became possible.  I spent three days trying to find a sneaky neat techniquey way through the crux move, trying to reach the crimp rail, only to finally settle on dynoing to the crimp rail.  One of the other major obstacles was my reach, this is a problem which deffo gets harder the shorter you are, I'm about 5' 7'' and anybody smaller will have a wretched time on this thing. To make the accuracy move to the crack slot easier I had to shuffle along on tiny holds to the far right of the crimp rail and use a little smear to hit it. Eventually I had a savage sequence and now it was time for the final hurdle, trying to stitch the sustained monster together. This is were bouldering is at its best, you have a sequence, you know you can do it, but its nalis hard for you, the ground up attempts become all out nuclear warfare and you haven't got a clue whats going to happen next, greasing off unexpectantly, fingers unfurling with the pump, foot slips, making silly mistakes, epic recoveries, moments of weightlessness and hitting everything perfect, all the hard work paying off, growing as a climber and topping out to glory !! :)

Pascal the Robin

Jamie and Adam kept me company working the problem with me on night sessions and I had a couple of fun days working out moves and sharing beta and psyche with Dave Ayton on it, but when I was on my own working away I was kept company by a little robin !! we named him Pascal, he's little and he has a big fluffy belly and he likes peanut butter and banana muffins and he is cute, by the end he was coming up and eating out of my hand !! :)

I am utterly chuffed with doing this Glendo classic and its always nice to push the grade. My first 7B/+, I said a boom boom boom a let me hear ya say Wayooo !!  It has capped off a brilliant years bouldering nicely, a little bit of mileage will be nice now before settling into another project :) Happy climbing folks ... beast it, beast life