although forgetting the camera was the wrong side of dumb - and a bit indicative of my mental state (or lack thereof) at the moment.
Claire was working yesterday so I went and ran (quite hard) the short river circuit; in about 19 mins which is pretty good actually - got a good sweat on and it felt good to be out. So today, with Claire off for the week and us both feeling shattered, we headed to Dumfriesshire and a lovely bit of coast that we know.
The forecast was luckily wrong - lets hope it stays so for the rest of the week and we had a lovely couple of hours stroll along by the sea. We had brought wellies so were not too concerned where we wandered...that coupled with a nice lunch was a very good start to the week.....shame about the camera though!!
Monday, 30 May 2011
Saturday, 28 May 2011
On holiday again...
so; no posts for the last couple of weeks....this is because it has been a) So hot and sunny in Cumbria I have been out on the hills every day; b) Life has been quiet and dull; c) neither of the above...
Oddly; the answer is c) - the weather has been, frankly, shite and life has been total chaos. Apart from doing a few weights at home; the only real exercise I have done have has been a couple of strolls down by the river with Claire and one trip to the Keswick wall last Sunday. Part of this has been due to Claire's parents being up here - which was REALLY nice btw - and Claire having a bad cold; plus working 1-7 this week.
I have also been running round like a madman trying to find a school to do my GTP training in next year. After two mad weeks; I am going to see Richard Rose on Wed 8th June...hopefully they will offer me a spot - we shall see.
It's now half-term and the forecast for everywhere is rubbish until wed....hopefully it will pick up after that; also we can use the time to get some jobs done as well...oh and there is one more little thing, which I'll blog about later if it happens...
Hope you all have a good bank holiday w/end.
Oddly; the answer is c) - the weather has been, frankly, shite and life has been total chaos. Apart from doing a few weights at home; the only real exercise I have done have has been a couple of strolls down by the river with Claire and one trip to the Keswick wall last Sunday. Part of this has been due to Claire's parents being up here - which was REALLY nice btw - and Claire having a bad cold; plus working 1-7 this week.
I have also been running round like a madman trying to find a school to do my GTP training in next year. After two mad weeks; I am going to see Richard Rose on Wed 8th June...hopefully they will offer me a spot - we shall see.
It's now half-term and the forecast for everywhere is rubbish until wed....hopefully it will pick up after that; also we can use the time to get some jobs done as well...oh and there is one more little thing, which I'll blog about later if it happens...
Hope you all have a good bank holiday w/end.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Climbing with Claire...
today was the first time that Claire has climbed in many years....she took to it like a natural.
Our venue was Goat Crag, in the Watendlath valley. This was the place that I had been to with Luke on Fri, and our chosen route was The Slab, the only route we actually got up!!
Without wishing to embarass certain people, our ascent today was a little quicker than on Friday!! It was another lovely day with next to no wind at the crag and, once again, no-one there!!.
A quick re-hash of belaying for Claire, and a run through of the various climbing calls...I then led the route. I placed 3 pieces of gear, one which was rubbish fell out (it had stayed in on Friday but we had two ropes then so there was no angle for the rope to stretch across. Once on top I set up a bomb-proof belay and Claire set off. Claire climbed the first section (probably the technical crux) very well indeed. There was a bit of worry about the quite exposed step across onto the other slab; however once this was accomplished then Claire was on-top in very short order. Even better, this ascent was done in trainers (although she is now in possession of a pair of rock-shoes!!); with excellent footwork - all boding well for the future.
We had a nice ice-cream at Keswick and a quick 20 min play at Carrock Fell for the new shoes to be broken in properly.....now full steam ahead for Scotland in 3 weeks or so...
Our venue was Goat Crag, in the Watendlath valley. This was the place that I had been to with Luke on Fri, and our chosen route was The Slab, the only route we actually got up!!
Without wishing to embarass certain people, our ascent today was a little quicker than on Friday!! It was another lovely day with next to no wind at the crag and, once again, no-one there!!.
A quick re-hash of belaying for Claire, and a run through of the various climbing calls...I then led the route. I placed 3 pieces of gear, one which was rubbish fell out (it had stayed in on Friday but we had two ropes then so there was no angle for the rope to stretch across. Once on top I set up a bomb-proof belay and Claire set off. Claire climbed the first section (probably the technical crux) very well indeed. There was a bit of worry about the quite exposed step across onto the other slab; however once this was accomplished then Claire was on-top in very short order. Even better, this ascent was done in trainers (although she is now in possession of a pair of rock-shoes!!); with excellent footwork - all boding well for the future.
We had a nice ice-cream at Keswick and a quick 20 min play at Carrock Fell for the new shoes to be broken in properly.....now full steam ahead for Scotland in 3 weeks or so...
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Tour of Blencathra...
https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/TourOfBlencathraMtbRide# has the pictures from today's ride - another amazing day in Cumbria. I am beginning to have nice memories of 1995 and the endless summer that began with a drastic improvement in conditions over easter and then didn't rain for 3 months...hopefully I have not jinxed it...
so; was hoping to go climbing today, however Luke has reacted badly to excercise!! at least more than going up the stairs to get a cup of tea! so he cried off. I elected to take Marvin out for another spin to assess what state he is in; and to make the most of the lovely weather.
The actual ride was a little worrying...I still feel weak on the steep climbs such as the one to the Blencathra centre - its like there is a slow puncture in my energy tank and when I go to it there is not much there. That being said; I got a bit further on the technical ascent up to Skiddaw House which is good; and rode quite well on the journey back. The journey back was into the teeth of quite a strong wind which made the journey quite testing. Even hitting the road section back from Mosedale was not as fast as usual as I was riding right into the teeth of the wind. By the time I got back to the car I was feeling it more than usual...not good at all.
I am slightly worried as to where all my energy and strength has gone. I feel quite good yet there is not much there when push come to shove...
so; was hoping to go climbing today, however Luke has reacted badly to excercise!! at least more than going up the stairs to get a cup of tea! so he cried off. I elected to take Marvin out for another spin to assess what state he is in; and to make the most of the lovely weather.
The actual ride was a little worrying...I still feel weak on the steep climbs such as the one to the Blencathra centre - its like there is a slow puncture in my energy tank and when I go to it there is not much there. That being said; I got a bit further on the technical ascent up to Skiddaw House which is good; and rode quite well on the journey back. The journey back was into the teeth of quite a strong wind which made the journey quite testing. Even hitting the road section back from Mosedale was not as fast as usual as I was riding right into the teeth of the wind. By the time I got back to the car I was feeling it more than usual...not good at all.
I am slightly worried as to where all my energy and strength has gone. I feel quite good yet there is not much there when push come to shove...
Saturday, 30 April 2011
The rest of the pictures from yesterday..
https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/ClimbingOnGoatCragWatendlath#
doing a few things around the flat today - hopefully back outside tomorrow and Monday....:-)
doing a few things around the flat today - hopefully back outside tomorrow and Monday....:-)
Friday, 29 April 2011
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Some images from todays climbing with Luke. The original idea that we had was to go to Grey Crag in Buttermere - however by the time we left Luke's it was about 10 and we were both tired so elected to have day on Shepherds getting some mileage in. However we soon discovered that we were not alone in that thought....so we used our back up plan - Goat Crag. There are several Goat Crags in the Lakes. This one is nearly at the lovely hamlet of Watendlath and that is about all I'm going to say about it as I'd like to go there again - and we saw no-one at all day. This was probably just as well given the way that the climbing went. Luke and I were both suffering from not being out on rock too much - and I still have a massive aversion to trusting my own gear placements - although they actually are quite good!!!!
It didn't seem like that on the first route, a lovely Diff slab that I duly ascended in nice style with two good runners. It's actually a route I soloed later in the day and is very pleasant indeed. After a bit to each I tried to do a Severe - a crack line that Luke had done on his previous visit to the crag. I will freely admit that crack climbing is not my forte at all - I am much happier on slabs and open walls. My footwork was actually ok; however I didn't seem able/willing to trust my gear placements (which we clearly good as Luke lowered off them after his attempt). The key move was a couple of high steps which seemed to be committing i.e not able to reverse; and without an obvious handhold. Looking down from the top (we had to abseil for the gear) the handhold is obvious - Luke did very well to lead this when he was last at the crag.
Luke had a gear at the other severe on the crag - which I say to was yet another crack and was probably undergraded too. An interesting sequence up a greasy pod with holds for the hands only on one side (which Luke decided to make interesting by arranging for all his runners to leap out when he was climbing it!!) brings one underneath a wide crack with an obvious jug out of the reach of all bar basketball players. He arranged so bombproof gear and set to work. On my attempt it proved really arkward; everything was there one just needed to re-arrange one's body in a variety of strange ways; two left feet would have been a distinct advantage for example!! Added to this it was seriously hot and the move was clearly a 'do or fall' and my cowardice came back to the fore - grrrrr...
It is noticeable that this crag does not have an awful lot of gear on some routes - there being a lovely E1 that I would have attempted (the reachy open face climbing being my kind of thing) were it not for the fact it was basically a solo with a revolting landing....the three climbs we did all had good gear it should be said....a very interesting crag though and a great day out. Learning to trust gear is my biggest weakness and one that I need to overcome if I am ever going to really progress in climbing again. I have not had a leader fall since my return to the sport in 2008....I have never really felt I was going to fall off on any of the routes I have done. As I noted earlier; the irony is that my gear placements are usually pretty good...quite why I have a distrust of camming devices I don't know as one did its job perfectly all those years ago on Right Unconquerable on Stanage. In the best interests of aversion therapy I will probably have to eschew some lovely open face climbs for some more cracks I expect. Back when I was going well I found Kipling Groove on Gimmer ( a hard HVS) much easier than the top pitch of Gimmer Crack ( VS)...just suits my style I guess.
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| Goat Crag in the afternoon sun |
Some images from todays climbing with Luke. The original idea that we had was to go to Grey Crag in Buttermere - however by the time we left Luke's it was about 10 and we were both tired so elected to have day on Shepherds getting some mileage in. However we soon discovered that we were not alone in that thought....so we used our back up plan - Goat Crag. There are several Goat Crags in the Lakes. This one is nearly at the lovely hamlet of Watendlath and that is about all I'm going to say about it as I'd like to go there again - and we saw no-one at all day. This was probably just as well given the way that the climbing went. Luke and I were both suffering from not being out on rock too much - and I still have a massive aversion to trusting my own gear placements - although they actually are quite good!!!!
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| The Slab - Diff |
Luke had a gear at the other severe on the crag - which I say to was yet another crack and was probably undergraded too. An interesting sequence up a greasy pod with holds for the hands only on one side (which Luke decided to make interesting by arranging for all his runners to leap out when he was climbing it!!) brings one underneath a wide crack with an obvious jug out of the reach of all bar basketball players. He arranged so bombproof gear and set to work. On my attempt it proved really arkward; everything was there one just needed to re-arrange one's body in a variety of strange ways; two left feet would have been a distinct advantage for example!! Added to this it was seriously hot and the move was clearly a 'do or fall' and my cowardice came back to the fore - grrrrr...
It is noticeable that this crag does not have an awful lot of gear on some routes - there being a lovely E1 that I would have attempted (the reachy open face climbing being my kind of thing) were it not for the fact it was basically a solo with a revolting landing....the three climbs we did all had good gear it should be said....a very interesting crag though and a great day out. Learning to trust gear is my biggest weakness and one that I need to overcome if I am ever going to really progress in climbing again. I have not had a leader fall since my return to the sport in 2008....I have never really felt I was going to fall off on any of the routes I have done. As I noted earlier; the irony is that my gear placements are usually pretty good...quite why I have a distrust of camming devices I don't know as one did its job perfectly all those years ago on Right Unconquerable on Stanage. In the best interests of aversion therapy I will probably have to eschew some lovely open face climbs for some more cracks I expect. Back when I was going well I found Kipling Groove on Gimmer ( a hard HVS) much easier than the top pitch of Gimmer Crack ( VS)...just suits my style I guess.
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| Watendlath (next to the tarn) |
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