Cold Fusion Blog

Saturday 1st – Sunday 2nd September. With the late arrival of the Azores high things have been quiet on the weather front across most of the country so at a push I agreed to a trip to Kilnsey and Steall Hut crag this weekend.

On Saturday I headed back to Kilnsey with Iain Moody. After last weeks defeat Iain was hungry for success on Metal Guru which he dispatched first redpoint without incident. I got back on Full Tilt which looked temptingly dry, a light wind fending off the humidity. Firstly I tried the crux using the small pocket which went first go in the cool air, an improvement on last weekends defeat. The move still felt sketchy through the barn door left but the pocket held. Further up the knee bar felt terrific and I managed to get the complete hands free (at the expense of a now lumpy knee). First redpoint I got spat off moving right on the edges from the third bolt. Pulling on from below I managed to link through up to the jug but suddenly got pumped and couldn’t get into the knee bar. Trying the link to the chain from here I kept on failing on the hand shuffle on the right, three moves that take you no where. Deciding that I definitely blow it here on redpoint I persevered to find another method. After a few goes I found I could crimp the foot hold in the groove to conveniently cross into the pocket saving two moves. With the improved beta I felt I’d squeezed 90% out of the route. Psyched I made another two redpoints but again failed on the crimps moving right. Considering that I’d got passed these moves back in June I was getting very frustrated at the lack of progress despite two months of training. I found another hold to play with but still couldn’t find a smooth sequence to get me to the crux every time. This would have appeared to be the remaining 10%. Each way I tried my left foot always ended up too stretched, when I needed to walk it through. It later occurred to me to try using the crimp to move my feet, or to bend my knee more when using the edge. Further up I’ve been thinking about moving straight into the knee bar avoiding the 6b move to the pocket. I guess I’ve got another frustrating wait to find out which works best.

Mike Tweedley findng the hands off rest on Stolen.

On Saturday I headed to Steall Hut crag with Mike Tweedley. Although I kept promising people I’d make it here this summer I’ve just never found the time. I was keen to try Dave MacLeods new route Stolen which takes the ambitious line on the left side of Steall Hut crag, zig-zaging between obvious weaknesses. I was surprised at first to hear that Dave had climbed the route first redpoint and offered such a low grade. Mike had already tried the route so I let him jump on for the demonstration. After a powerful start moving left (F7c) a hand free rest can be had, a novelty for a Scottish F8b. From here steep powerful climbing leads further left to a series of good underclings. Moving back right is hindered by the lack of footholds sapping crucial strength before the final crux. Just when you think your done a further technical traverse left blocks access to the belay. In all a truly epic adventure similar in character to the existing Steall routes where undercuts and sidepulls with polished off cracks are the norm. On my turn I managed all the moves and some short links. After one session I was aching and done for the day, muscles aching from exotic moves I wasn’t accustomed to.

Gearing up for Stolen on Steall Crag.

I can’t help feel disappointed at my progress this summer. Despite training much more and varying my training I still can’t seem to improve to the level I want and get those elusive routes ticked. I’ve not been seeing the progress I would like from my PE training but know that there is no other way to improve this aspect. I know I shouldn’t have plateaued only after a couple of weeks after changing from power to PE training. At the crag I’m feeling the dreaded performance spike where I warm up, peak then feel tired very quickly. I think these two problems are occurring because my fitness has dropped as I’ve had no remaining time or energy to train this too. This week I’m going to run every night and make sure I get those laps done on the board. Here hoping for a break through.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Sport, 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.