The Longer End of the Short Stick
Saturday and Sunday 4-5th February. It’s been hard for me to feel motivated after Spain. Training mid week after long days at work, limited climbing available outside, bad weather and small amounts of time have been severely grim. I had managed a couple of days at Dumbuck trying Devastation with my jummar but it was frustrating trying to link moves properly. With a day at Dumbuck and Malham planned I hoped to restore my motivation.
On Saturday I returned to Dumbuck with Lindsey who kindly offered to belay for the day. The forecast turned out to be spot on. Although everything was dry the wind was raw. I struggled to warm up on Tragically Hip and Twister which was made more difficult by a couple broken holds since my last visit. Holding a small amount of warmth a threw myself at Devastation. The first move felt grim until I refined the movement again. Third go seen me at the scoop. Pulling through to the crux I tried my three sequences again but couldn’t get any to work. I decided to stick with the low foot method and found I could hang the left heel and jump my right up before getting the undercut. My joy over finding a sequence was short lived when I found I’d been sitting on a tight rope. The links below and above felt better but frustratingly the crux foot swap still wouldn’t go. As the snow headed in we retreated back to the car.
On Sunday I headed down to Malham with Owen and Ruth. Arriving in the sun it almost felt too hot. Que cloud and more snow. As the snow fell it felt pretty peaceful like the closing of a huge white curtain. This didn’t distract from the action. I had planned on trying something slightly easier to get a bit more distance up a route for once. Sadly people had already staked out on New Dawn and Zoolook, so instead I got on the Maximum F7c+ again. Working up the start it felt just as hard as my last try nearly a decade ago. I managed to work out a short arse way to do the hard crux using the pocket, small right hand undercut and a press. After tones of practice on the top and a rest I went for it. Braving the cold I stripped to a T-shirt to save weight. It seemed to make a difference as I linked through the crux firmly minus some butt slippage on the undercut smears. I got a little back on the rest but continued quickly to the final moves. With something to spare i made the last clip but as my arms pumped I had to gurn out the final press. Reaching the final undercut I held my breath and closed my eyes not expecting to hold the barn door. I swung back in balance and with another move it was done. I let out a few whoops at the chain. It had been a great fight and it had come together perfectly. A hard 7c+ for shorties for sure. I had another couple of goes on Magnetic and worked a new foot sequence on the start. This seemed to work better and I finally got to the second bolt again after 8 years. The crux didn’t feel so good and I felt too stretched again. I’m still temped to try and move off the crimp but to date I’ve not got it to work. Progress till next time.
Hopefully there will be some progress on the way on Devastation. Its always good to feedback some mileage into the harder projects.