Cold Fusion Blog

I was aware on returning to Siurana with Dave MacLeod that the focus of this trip would be different from the last and would focus on the tricky game of hard redpointing. Arriving in the valley we joined an inspiring community of the worlds best sport climbers with similar plans. The gossip at the bar was that Yuji Hirayama, Chris Sharma, Dave Graham and Dani Andrada were here to try amongst other things the La Ramba Extension F9a+. It turned out that we were not the only Scot’s in the valley when we bumped into Blair Fyffe and Murdo Jamieson who were also out for some winter sun. My initial plan was to climb Anabolica F8a early on in the trip and concentrate of harder things, though it would turn out that a number of factors would conspire against that simple plan. Dave’s plan was to try and redpoint L-odi Social F8c+. We would then also be joined later in the week by Dave Brown and Paul Diffley from Hotaches who would be filming material for a new project.

Toni Arbones attempting Kalea Borroka F8b+ on Sector El Pati.

On our first couple of days at Cam Pigipugi we were shocked by how small a window for good conditions we had in between blazing sun out of the shade and early winter darkness. It took me this time to tick Isadora donde estas F7b. On the lead in the sun I felt quite pumped making me wonder if things would go according to plan. On Monday evening after the weekend crowds had passed I got back on Anabolica. The moves up to my previous half way point felt easy enough and I quickly worked out a sequence for the top section. Before dark I had a quick redpoint but failed trying to hit the big pocket. On lowering off I was sure I could return the next day to tick the route.

It turned out that things didn’t pan out that simply on the route leading to a long wait until Saturday morning before I finally felt the relief of clipping the chain of Anabolica (ninth redpoint!). As the week progressed I just couldn’t understand what was wrong. I had ticked a F8a+ 2nd RP on the previous trip. After a months training I was expecting to make good progress on a F8b/+. Why the hell was I taking so long to do this supposedly easy F8a.

Crux sequence 1 of Anabolica (Images courtesy of Hotaches).

The final redpoint was fairly close to the wire. The first redpoint of the day using a new sequence I dreamed up the night before worked taking me higher and within two moves from the rest. My right shoulder had other plans though and it throbbed painfully from the crux move looking to end my trip. After an hours massage the pain had subsided enough for one final fight which lead to the successful ascent. More than anything else I wanted to complete the route to justify the effort I had put in over the week. Giving up didn’t really seem an option but I dreaded the thought of going home after a week having climbed only one route.

Crux sequence 2 of Anabolica (Images courtesy of Hotaches).

I think my poor efforts on the route boil down to not having trained enough endurance before the trip. No amount of power or stamina on the route could save me from fading in the 15-30 move region. This is something I’ll definitely need to address for future trips by doing more interval circuits. I feel that I’ve taken away a lot more psychologically from Anabolica, it really has been an exercise in pride, determination and self belief.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 12:40 am and is filed under Sport, Foreign, Endurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.