UK Trip June'09

I attended a Kinesio Taping course in Manchester last weekend and decided to stay for a few days after the course had finished. I visited kilnsey and Yew Cogar and climbed the following routes:

• Urgent Action 8a+ (one of the best routes I have ever climbed)
• Dead Calm 8a (flash)
• Love Sculpture 8a+ (2nd go)
• Vorsprung Durch Technik 7c+ (flash)

I am really enjoying climbing loads of things at the moment but ready for some real red-pointing.

Eindhoven World Cup

Back from NL after the World Cup in Eindhoven. Cool event that has left me more psyched for comps than ever before. The British Team did really well:
Ned 6th (final!)
Dave 25th
me 27th
Diane 15th
Leah 25th
Mina 27th
It feels really good to be part of a team of focused and psyched climbers who want to climb well at international events...next year will be interesting.

I am a little dissapointed with my result because although I felt like I was climbing ok, I lacked focus costing me a few top-outs. I need to work on this before the next event.

I am really looking forward to the BBC this year, just need to find some reasonable flights back to the UK for the weekend.

Boulder World Cup Wien

Went to Wien on Thursday for the WC. The qualification round went really well and I qualified for the semi-final. The blocs in the semi were really cool with all different styles of climbing. I was well psyched on the 3rd bloc that involved a fight with some massive volumes. I climbed two blocs and finished 8th, my best WC result to date....well happy.

Driving out to Averstal on Friday for the weekend...I hope it's not too hot.

Weekend in Averstal

Just back from a great trip in Averstal with Sabby and Eli. It was pretty warm, but still managed to climb some great boulders. Looking forward to going back. Here is a quick tick list of the trip:

NBL Stand 8A+
Electroboogie 8A+
Rythmo Brachial 8A (flash)
Jack the Chipper 7C (well good)
FightClub 7C (Flash)
Gollum 7C (Flash)

Next weekend is the WC in Wien....Vollgas.

Japan

Bouldering at Shiobara: Heiko

The Team above Tokyo City: Babsy

Sabby bouldering at Shiobara: Nalle

more info about the trip coming soon......

Chironico

Amazing 2 day trip with Sabby in Chironico.

Day 1: Sabby really wanted to climb Dr Pinch (V11) so we drove out to Chironico on Friday for a quick trip. We warmed up by climbing a mega highball slab, Hans Jorg would of been proud! Sabby worked out moves on doc pinch and after an hour climbed the problem (check out her blog for some pics etc), respect Sabby. I really wanted to climb Boogalagga and started work figuring out the moves...amazing. I had the moves wired and was pretty sure I could do it. I had 2 attempts on the first crux move and felt the dreaded feeling of a split tip (so typical). I decided to leave it for the next trip and climb the V11 to the right 'Walker on Earth', involving a mono...was loving it.
Day 2: We woke up to goats surrounding the car, was pretty scared because one was bigger than Sabby, not exactly hard to achieve, but still scary. Today was going to be a day where we were going to climb as many blocs as possible. We climbed so much, but some highlights include a flash ascent of 'Serre moi Fort' (V11). Was echt a whansin, Gu gave me the beta and I got pretty psyched...cool topping out...totally surreal. Another highlight was 'Les Cliques a Claques' (V9); a classic problem. I think I have finally improved my slab skills thanks to Heiko's coaching.
Going skiing now

working, training, working, training

The time is passing so fast this year, can't believe it's nearly march. Training is going really well, started campussing and climbing loads of blocs, and I'm feeling really fast. Sabby is looking strong, never seen her so strong. We are both looking forward to the WC in Japan, will be interesting to compete and climb on the surrounding rocks. I had a quick trip to switzerland last weekend with the Oetztaler team and some Innsbruck guys...was really cool. Managed to flash a V10 in cresciano and we climbed some hard slabs. This trip was a little unusual for me, normally I want to tick something hard and I put a little pressure upon myself, during this trip I just climbed loads of blocs and was more interested by the technical blocs. I did, however, have a quick look at Dreamtime, I really want to climb this boulder in the future. I have also decided to stop updating my 8a.nu logbook because it doesn't interest me anymore and I find the whole thing a little strange. On a sad note, an old climbing friend of my Dad's, Brian Roberts, had a walking accident and died a few weeks ago, really sad but at least he died doing something that every climber loves...been in the mountains.