Monday 20 April 2015

Work, Wilton, Work, Bolts and More Work

A very full week started with some route setting at ROKT on Tuesday.  A half day re setting the Summit room was a welcome rest from the 21m Lead wall.

On Wednesday I had some coaching work in the afternoon in Bolton.  I decided to head over early and head to Wilton 4 to finish off a route I tried last time, but was dirty.  I was glad to get there so early, as the weather soon started to turn.  My commitment was rewarded with solo ascents of White Horse E4 6b and Teacher's Crack E4 6c*.  Teacher's being a seemingly rare repeat.  As the weather crapped out, the coaching session with Bolton Boys School was redirected to Climb Rochdale.  this worked really well, as we did a focused session of steep group.  The lads did really well working through a set of moves they don't normally use.
The EB Baroud crag sac getting a run out

On Thursday I went back to Troller's Gill to finish off Tinderbox 7c+.  After warming up I climbed through the new crux, only to pull another big hold off.  I then spent time seeing if I could still do it that way, before binning it,  Looking around, I found a way to the right using what was left of the original flake.  This gave some awesome climbing and I managed to do the route this way.  What would have been a day tick in it's original condition, turned out to be a proper challenge of perseverance for me.

Over the weekend I have been running an SPA Training course in the Peaks.  Dry and sunny weather made this a pleasant weekend that the candidates have taken a lot from.  I hope to see them back at the end of the summer for an Assessment.

Saturday 11 April 2015

Busy Week

It has been a busy week.  I finished setting the lead wall at ROKT and managed to get a bit of bouldering at Almscliff yesterday with the family. 

Almscliff was more productive than I thought it would be. I ticked of a few classics I hadn't done for a while, and also put the Keel 7c to bed.  I found this as hard as ever, but managed to get my toe and heel to stick.  On the only other time I'd tried the problem, this was the thing that stopped me ticking it.  Rose got involved with some cheeky slabs that would be challenging for someone her size.  She definitely has the Hughes rockover climbing genes.  We met Dan up there so I did a quick couple of route to E4 with him before heading home.

The keel


Rose sending large

Today I went sports climbing for the first time this year with Ben to Trollers Gill.  After yesterday I was pretty tired. So after warming up, I thought I'd swing around on Tinderbox 7c+. It was coming together well, but the original crux is no longer then hard bit. The lose of a crucial flake means a new harder crux comes straight after the original one. Once sussed, I managed all the moves, but could only lead it in 2 today. Much higher in the grade now, but hopefully it will go next visit.