Cold Fusion Blog

On Sunday Lindsey and I went for a walk up Ben Macdui and Cairngorm. The weather was clear with a chilly wind but luckily there was very little snow on the ground. The ascent took us past Corie Lochan and I found myself remembering my cold ascent of Savage Slit with Niall McNair back in 2004. Looking beyond I could see the line of Hoarmaster another winter line I’ve been keen to climb. Hopefully this winter I will fit in a few days winter climbing. Our walk to Ben Macdui continued without any encounters with the grey man. In all it was a fairly long walk, but easy in terms of ascent by beginning at the ski centre car park.

Lindsey looking like the first Muslim on Mars on the ben Macdui plateau.

We also took in Cairngorm on our return which gave us a few spies at Sheltered Stone crag which has some good adventurous routes and bouldering at its base. We returned to the carpark directly down Corie Cas past the unsightly steelwork of the Cairngorm ski centre. Given the reducing season of such activities in Scotland surely such a unsightly mess must be struggling to justify its existence. Since snowboarding abroad in Tignes I’ve never ventured back onto these busy, Icy, overpriced and overrated slopes and definitely wont again.

Although efforts are underway to restore the Corie Cas Ecosystem this does nothing to remove the obtrusive visual impact of the ski development.

Its been six years since I’ve trained regularly on my campus board. A combination of factors such as too little time, motivation, good weather and winter light has meant I’ve never really rekindled my old form. On Saturday I finally decided to do something about it and set up some external lights for the campus board. For as little as £11.70 and an hours work I can now use my campus board through the winter months. The results were staggering, but sadly my performance was poor.

Campus boarding outside at 10pm in late October.

My week off after Suirana, liberal diet and poor exercise left me feeling very fat in the ass. After warming up I struggled up 2-4-5 and took several goes to manage single 1-4-6’s and 2-4-7’s. My shoulders ached instantly requiring constant massage to keep cramp at bay. Performing set’s of 1-4-7’s as scribbled in my old log seem a long way away, however I’m sure I can reach this level again within the next couple of months. Surely an advantage of being so weak is that improvement is guaranteed. To map my progress I’ve created a new campus board log.

Last week I spent a week sport climbing out in Siurana with Edinburgh climbers Sam Clarke and Iain Moody. Being my first foreign climbing holiday in a couple of years I wanted to climb as much as possible and keep redpoint attempts to a minimum. I have been keen to visit the Catalonya area of Spain for some time, finding the thought of steep limestone routes in an un-trashed state very appealing. The picturesque area of Siurana certainly didn’t disappoint, benefiting from easy access, lots of route styles and favorable October weather.

For accommodation we decided to stay at the cliff top refugio which had its own indoor crag well before the likes of Ratho. The guardian is none other that local activist Toni Arbones who set up home here over a decade ago. Suirana has become a true home to him with his partner and parents helping to run the refugio and campsite.

The cliff top refugio at Siurana sports an indoor rockface and the best view for eating your morning cornflakes in the area.

The initial plan was of attack to have a two part trip: first to visit in October, then again in November, leaving 4 weeks for training in between. This would give me the chance to find some projects to train for the second visit.

On the first day we did some climbing on the valley crags at sectors Can Marges and Cam Piqipugi but rapidly found it was too hot to climb anything above a 6 in the sun. We retreated in the evening to the valley crags and some steep short routes at sector L’olla. Here I dispatched Ya os Vale F7c 1st RP. I also tried Tick I Tock F8a+ along side it succeeding on all but the final move. Both of these routes I found suited my small fingers giving me an advantage for once! After some rain I returned the following day to dispatch Tick I Tock 2nd go which felt excellent puffing away like a steam train to the LO.

Having climbed some routes I then went on to look for a harder project to try. For this I choose to try Migranya F8b, an excellent steep roof traverse with hard moves. After an initial stick clip up the route I decided the style suited me. A hard move in the middle and easier climbing above, suiting one with as little stamina as me. I returned a day latter to try the crux but was unable to make the move off the two finger pocket to the jug. I’m making excuses about stature again but couldn’t help feel that a bigger span could help on the crux using the three pocket to the right. Sadly, I couldn’t see myself doing the route in November and would have to find another project.

More rain heralded a move further north so we travelled to Terradets, a crag renowned for its steepness and hard routes. Arriving at the crag my worst fears were confirmed, there weren’t any short routes! I decided to try something easier and went for an adventure up the crag classic Occident F7c. I was surprised to find no hard moves on the route, a line of jugs leading to the final crux though a tufa pipe curtain. After a while dogging around I found a sequence I was happy with and lowered down for a redpoint.

I knew the journey upwards wouldn’t be easy, but somehow I managed to fight my third bolt pump all the way to the final crux which was surprising. Sadly next go I had nothing left and the lightning storm around us was enough to shatter my confidence. I dogged up to strip the draws and LO just as the tufas started to stream with water. I definitely plan to revisit the route and crag with some fitness. It’s a wonderful wall to push ones hard onsight grade.

Terradets, funky jug pulling with routes mainly in the F7c+-F8a+ region. If your fit you could walk away with many hard OS’s.

Dry cool weather the next day allowed us to return to Cam Piqipugi where everyone was psyched to try and onsight or flash the classic power endurance route Anabolica F8a. I had no such plan a quick redpoint would be sufficient. Sadly on dogging up the start I had a problem with a long reach at the third move off an undercut. After several tries I found I just couldn’t do the move and lowered disappointed. After the others tried I decided to have one more go and finally found a foot hold that allowed me to slap for the pocket. Suddenly the route seemed more achievable and I pushed on to work out the top section. The moves up the initial wall seemed ok. The two cruxes through the bulge were also ok. However, the traverse between them on poor smears seemed pumpy and was where a German climber trying the route was failing. With a final day before returning home I decided Anabolica could wait.

German climber on the crux of the classic power endurance route Anabolica F8a.

On the remaining day we all ticked through as many 6’s and easy 7’s as possible on sector Siuranella. I was glad to dispatch the classic looking 7a up a steeping orange wall. This was the first onsighting I’ve done in ages and it was actually a fairly enjoyable fight. Before leaving I also managed a reasonable flash of Valga’m deu quin patir F7a+ of at sector L’olla. Efforts not worth shouting about, but at least it was good to know my OS grade hasn’t gotten any worse over the years. Next year I might even set a target of 7b, that would be something.

The final highlight of the last night had to be at the campsite cafe when Toni Arbones dad played us one of his top shelf climbing movies. I’ve never seen so many fit women before climbing F8b. One was even equipping a new route in a cave hanging acrobatically upside-down with a hammer drill. Eventually though, the crowd grumbled for a Sharma video to be put back on.

For my first climbing blog post I suppose I should start by discussing my motivation for beginning a weblog. In the past I was never a diary person so I’ve no idea what possessed me to put pen to paper for the first time. What is clear from the first entry In my first climbing diary is that the context was training rather than climbing related. Over time the entries have changed to better represent days spent outside trying different types of routes, as well as specific training for them.

Recording days spent climbing/training has always been important to me.

I’ve been holding off on starting a weblog for a while now for various reasons. I’ve been getting psyched recently by reading the growing number of climbers blogs on the web. John Watson’s and Dave MacLeod’s blogs are two good examples. I guess I’d like elements from these in my own blog, but first most I’d like to bring those old diary entries into the 21 century.