Hajj and future projects

Hi folks I thought I would write a few words about my experiences on Hajj 8c at the Tor. A UKC Report from a few weeks back has the details but I though I would share a few thoughts and reflections on top of that and show a few of the photos, video stills and some of my own tripod footage that I have accumulated. Climbing Hajj represented a big milestone for my climbing and was a culmination of a lot of effort spread over 7 years at the Tor in trying first Mecca in 2007, 2008 and 2009 then the 3 extensions to it (The Extension, Kabaah and Hajj) in 2012, 2013, 2014 and this year.

 David Pett's Video 'The Outdoor Office Part 1' of Hajj

Hajj closes a chapter for me and my involvement with Mecca, although I intend to keep doing it for training. Its time to move on to pastures new, even if that might only be 20 feet to the right to Evolution! I didn't like to think about what I would do after clipping the chains on Hajj as I preferred to focus on the challenge at hand. Now it has happened, the last few weeks I have been busy getting stuck into my next projects. These are True North 8c at Kilnsey and Evolution 8c+ at the Tor. It has been such a pleasure to seriously try such an amazing historic line as True North while fresh on my first day on on a saturday. For the last few years I have usually devoted my freshest climbing days to the Tor and while I don't begrudge that at all as it was all for my long term goal of doing the trilogy of Mecca extensions, the fact was that the years were going by and I wasn't getting a chance to try hard routes at other crags as much as I would have liked. Now I am free and it feels great!

Video Still courtesy of Jon Clark - the crux of Hajj

So, what made the difference to doing Hajj in the end after trying it extensively last year? Well, as always, the devil is in the detail. I will try and explain below the small things I found this Spring when approaching the route with fresh eyes after 6 months away from it that together put me in a position to send it.

 My own video of an attempt from last year

After coming back to Hajj in June off the back of my trip to Smith Rock this spring, I noticed it was easier to step my left foot up earlier before (rather than after) slapping into the first undercut for the left hand on the crux. This seemed to make the crux move feel a little easier going into and standing up into the right hand undercut. I had to press my feet a little harder into the tiny smears but once I got the engrams after repeated attempts, I was happy with the end result. Such a small change in beta but such a big difference! Also, I decided to sack off the long quickdraw on the crux and clip it short with my right hand off the undercut to the left of the Extension top pocket rest. As the foothold here is quite big, the position is not strenuous and you clip on your way up to the next handhold anyway. Suddenly the crux move felt easier as I found that before I was making it harder than it had to be by stepping round the rope in a position of some difficulty! My right foot now shot out quicker to the smear out right before I did the big reach up to the final crimps.

Video Still courtesy of Jon Clark - Gaining the 'Horn' on Mecca by the 4th bolt

Ally Smith helped me to put in a new dogging bolt on the top crux which enabled me to work the crux moves directly off the rope whereas before I always had to climb into them from 3 moves below as the bolts were all 1 metre off to the right. As soon as the bolt went in, I realised that it was possible to take the undercut slightly lower with all four fingers engaging directly into it and the index and ring fingers biting into the best bit. Again, this made the crux move feel a few percent easier, not by much though.

Video Still courtesy of Jon Clark - Getting into the first kneebar on Mecca

Also, I found that I could use the most miniscule of intermediate pinches for the left hand with a crucial, sharp thumbcatch to help get stood up into the undercut, which I had found on an earlier, too hard method of climbing the crux more to the right but had since discounted (we are talking tiny here, don't get your hopes up!)

Video still: The first crux on Mecca

 After failing at the upper crux from the ground five more times in June, I decided to try a new approach doing links from the top down. Two weekends before I did it, I had a massive breakthrough and managed to climb from the 4^th bolt to the top and then from the 3^rd bolt in the same session. I would recommend the top down approach to anybody looking to get past a sticking point on their redpoint project. I realised that in all my attempts from the ground last year and this year, I had never been from the 4th to the top. Doing this link was a big psychological step. I realised I was now getting fitter on the route, I could feel it on my link goes where I would flick hands between moves just to get a little bit back. By really looking closely and ticking up the best part of the left hand undercut on the crux (which is uneven and quite crozzly but with a better bit for 2 fingers at the bottom of the hold) rather than just getting it any old how was the key to getting the right hand undercut successfully. As you must semi-dynamically slap into the hold, it is tricky to get this right but it certainly made a difference.

Just before the first undercut on Mecca

Taking the first lefthand crimp on the main crux of Mecca

I found a funny, contorted double kneebar at the Mecca belay which took about 20% off my bodyweight I estimated, which all helps up there. I fine tuned my rest at the top Extension pocket and made sure I stayed there for only 1 chalk of each hand. Its not that great a rest as despite the pocket being massive, the footholds are off to the left and its quite draining to stand there for more than a few seconds.

Getting ready for the crux jump (for some!)

Catching the horn on the Mecca crux

So, what's next? Well I am excited to move on to new horizons and am having fun trying Evolution and True North. For the former, I may have to raise the bar bouldering-wise as a vicious V11 boulder problem over the roof left of Chimes of Freedom guards the top wall (which must be around 8b in its own right). Not even a spot to chalk up on the entire route, tough stuff! One thing for sure, this route is a considerable jump upwards in difficulty from Mecca, not many takers for this one. True North is a little steeper than most of my projects that I have tried but it motivates me to try and get better at this style, which is more Euro style, pumpy endurance cranking rather than straight crimping. 

Jerry Moffatt on Evolution 8c+, Raven Tor

I leave you with Jon Clark's excellent video from last year, which contains some earlier footage of Hajj from last year and sums up the psyche required for climbing at the Tor in December! Thanks for reading and good luck on all your projects out there!

Jon Clark's Raven Tor Video

Attempts on Just Do It

I have now been back 6 weeks since another amazing trip to Smith Rock in Oregon. After climbing To Bolt or Not to Be last year, I always wondered what the other famous Jibe Tribout route at Smith, Just Do It, would be like. Climbed back in 1992 by Jibe, this legendary line was the first 5.14c or 8c+ in the USA. I had heard that it is a very different animal to To Bolt as it is similarly vertical in the bottom two thirds but leans back considerably in the upper third of the route. The climb goes up the west face of the incredible Monkey pinnacle, which has to be one of the most impressive rock formations I have ever seen. The top section of the Monkey has a distictive band of purple rock and this is where the meat of the climb lies. The bottom part is a recognised 13d (or 8b) in its own right with its own chains. The upper part, which is mostly in the purple rock is considered to be 14a (or 8b+). I had seen the excellent videos of Ryan Palo and Drew Ruana crushing the route before my trip so I had some idea of what to expect. The route is long, at 35m+ it is a 17 bolt monster!

Me on Just Do It at the upper shake out (I'm wearing a black T shirt about 15 foot into the purple rock)

It was obviously going to big a major challenge for me and with only 2 weeks available, there was limited time to get stuck in. With this in mind, I decided I would focus completely on the route as there would not be time to do other easier classic routes, although there are no shortage of them round these parts. I teamed up with a good friend of mine, Richard Waterton, who was also keen to have a go. We were joined on the route by Mike Doyle, one of Canada's top climbers fresh off his send of Necessary Evil 5.14c in the Virgin River Gorge.

The Team! (at Redmond Airport). Me and Richard

After touching down in Redmond airport, the next day, despite the jet lag, Richard and I headed up to the route via some warmups in the Aggro Gulley and got stuck in. The bottom part turned out to be surprisingly unsustained with an initial 5 bolts of hard, crimpy 8a+ climbing involving a very tweaky, almost slabby 2 finger pocket move leading to 3 bolts of much more moderate climbing of about 7a+/7b with 2 very good rests on jugs.

Mike Doyle on technical edge cranking by the 3rd bolt

Mike on the crux pocket move of the lower part by the 8th bolt

The crux of the lower part is at the 8th bolt and is a desparate deadpoint off a 2 finger pocket to a distant finger sloper which you must stick with perfect timing which leads to an excellent rest by the 9th bolt bridging on smears in a vague groove where you can hold onto a small ledge with the heel of your hands. (This is the famous 'Sharma rest' where he took off his jumper mid redpoint during his quick repeat back in 1997). This tricky move took a while to figure out but by my 3rd day on the route I had managed to redpoint the initial 8b. On my second day, I was able to do all the moves of the upper part so once I had got through the 8b section for the first time, I had a go at redpointing as far as I could get to and nearly made it to the 13th bolt so I was psyched.

Me approaching the shake out at the 13th bolt

The first moves of the upper section are not too hard and involve pumpy 7b/7b+ climbing with one big lock move to a sloper leading to some massive flat jugs by the 13th bolt, where you can shake out with your heel out left on a sloping ledge, although it is pretty strenuous to hang there for long - this is your rest before the upper crux.

Mike approaching the purple band, at the 11th bolt

The next 30 foot section is by far the hardest section of climbing on the entire route and is 8b in its own right. Off the flat jugs, some basic pulls on flat crimps lead to a desparate crank off a sika'd edge for your right hand to a terrible sharp 2 finger crimp for your left hand way out left, which is difficult to catch as you have to deadpoint for it. From this crimp the hardest move of the route is a massive and powerful lunge to a tiny toothlike crimp for the right hand which allows you to stretch left to what we christened the 'Jibe rest'. This is a hole which would be a decent hand jam were it not for the fact that a chockstone has been irretrievably wigged into there so those with sausage fingers (myself included!) can't get their fingers more than a couple of joints in; also you are only on smears for your feet. Off the Jibe rest, there are 11 further hand moves involving powerful slaps between two 2 finger pockets, some diagonal edges and finally some better holds before the easier top out moves (This last section alone could be a tricky 2 bolt 7c+ if it were on Peak limestone)

So basically to do the route, you must do a long, technical, vertical 8b to the Sharma rest, a further 7b+ to a steep shake out on some flat jugs followed by a steeper, short and powerful 8b. If the route is broken down in this way, it begins to sounds almost manageable, however redpointing is the only way to test this! I have put together this 10 minute video of Mike on an attempt on the route just to show what its all about:

 Video of attempt by Mike Doyle

Me just before the flat ledge and the upper 8b

On my 4th day, I managed to get to the flat jugs by the 13th and pressed on into the crux, surprising myself by reaching the sika'd edge by the 14th bolt and slapping out to the 2 finger crimp (there is big whipper to be had here, around 20 - 25 feet with rope stretch, as you can't clip the 14th bolt and are forced to skip it!) On my second burn, I managed to stick the 2 finger crimp but it was like hitting a brick wall, the tooth seemed miles away! I was encouraged by getting this far though and it seemed like I might possibly be in with a shout of cracking the route by the end of the trip.

Mike about to go for the lett hand 2 finger crimp at the upper crux (14th bolt) with the Jibe rest up and left

However, the moves leaving the Jibe rest are critical to getting the route done and on my link goes from the 13th bolt I hadn't managed to find a reliable method, even straining my right bicep in the process while extensively working the moves (there are 3 methods from the various videos to enable you to use a poor 2 finger pocket for the right hand take an awkward left hand gaston and then stab into a good 2 finger pocket again for the right hand). I think it was on my 5th day on the route that Mike pointed out a crucial footmatch and outside left edge on the sika'd crimp (used as a handhold earlier) which made a big difference. As we had found it was essential to take a rest day after each day of attempts as the nature of the climbing is so intense, my 6th session on the route would be on the 11th day of the trip, leaving only one further day of attempts -  nothing like a bit of pressure to spur you on!

On the 6th session I again got up to the 2 finger crimp but still failed on the lunge for the tooth, although it was feeling closer. I had a concerted effort to finally do the link of the upper 8b from the flat jugs by the 13th to the chain and got quite close to getting through but didn't quite make it to the good 2 finger pocket. In retrospect and with more time on the route, I should have concentrated more on doing this 8b link before I made any attempts from the ground. As it was, it was tempting to have 2 full blooded redponts from the deck every session, which meant that I never managed to do this crucial link, which would have been a massive psychological boost.

The Monkey, never ceases to amaze!

I decided to take 2 full rest days before my final, 7th session on the route. It wasn't meant to be though. Although I got up to the 2 finger crimp twice from the ground and ticked the tooth before the Jibe rest, feeling not a million miles from sticking it, though no cigar! Obviously although it was a little disappointing to go away without the tick, I was happy to feel good on the initial 8b, to have had 8 good attempts in total failing at the 14th bolt and to have finally found a good method on the upper exit moves. I was feeling a lot of soreness by the end of the trip under my left shoulder blade at some 'trigger points' in the rhomboid muscle, where it joins on to your ribcage and I decided to get this seen to by a physio as this could have been holding me back on the crux move to the tooth. (I have had 3 sessions so far with great results). There is always next time and having written down a full beta crib sheet on the plane home, I am fully amped to return for another crack as soon as I can armed with full knowledge of what the route entails and some specific training.

Sunset at the Monkey Face

Thanks for reading folks and I can fully recommend Smith Rock to anybody looking for incredible technical edge climbing on stunning faces and aretes, get to it, you know it makes sense!

Last morning onsight attempt on Scene of the Crime 5.13b/ 8a

Higher on Scene of the Crime

Bouldering in the Cave and thoughts on training

After getting back from Spain in January, it was time to focus on training in preparation for the forthcoming routes season. I have been listening to a few podcasts of late, in particular the excellent Training Beta podcasts https://www.trainingbeta.com/trainingbeta-podcast/ with people like Jonathan Siegrist, Carlo Traversi, Angie Payne and lately Adam Ondra interviewed which got my thinking on how I was going to improve my climbing for projects this year. I don't pretend to be remotely scientific about any of this and decided to stick to what seemed to work quite well last year, i.e. doing lots of fitness laps at a medium grade at Stockport wall along with some fingerboarding, sessions of 100 pullups and as much bouldering as possible.

Working Lou Ferrigno V10 in the Cave

Which leads me onto a key debate, how should a climber who spends most of the year doing stamina routes prepare for this? How much of the year should they spend bouldering? Personally, when I came back from Chulilla, I felt pretty weak bouldering wise. I felt I had to get back on track with busting out some V9's and 10's. Parisella's Cave on the Orme near Llandudno is the perfect venue for this as there a lots of linkups and hard boulders like Rockatrocity and Lou Ferrigno to test yourself against. After stringing together a few saturdays in the Cave, I was soon back on track and whilst not feeling as strong as I used to feel 5 years ago when I was purely bouldering, I was not far off. I must admit at times, thinking back to those days in 2009, the thought did flash across my mind of getting back into exclusive hardcore bouldering. I would like to do a V12 and reckon with sufficient training and focus it might be achievable. However, I love routes too much and being an allrounder, you have to put the hours in on a rope indoors (or doing circuits) to have any chance of keeping a cutting edge come the spring. So, a compromise was reached and over the last nearly 3 months I have been bouldering saturdays and sundays and doing 2 routes sessions in the week at Stockport with fingerboarding or pullups on a Tuesday morning, just to keep it real ;0).

More Lou Ferrigno action!

I have since learnt that this is a 'non-linear' approach where the disciplines of stamina and power are maintained simultaneously. Necessarily, unfortunately it is not possible with this approach to generate significant peaks of performance at desired intervals in time (for a trip away for example). However, as this excellent post by Steve Bechtel on the Mountain Projects forum suggests (see midway down), modern athletes need to be fit all year round and there is a risk that by sacrificing stamina training for a punt on increasing one aspect of performance (i.e. power), overall fitness may suffer.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/block-periodization-linear-periodization--non-linear-periodization/108438729

This has been the reasoning behind my loose 'non-linear' training approach and has been the source of many interesting debates on the way to the Cave recently. A friend of mine says that ultimately, to get stronger, it will be a case of having to knock fitness training on the head completely and work on power alone, maybe next year! Here is a video my friend Dan Cheatam made documenting some Cave action! This shows me working on Hatch Life High, a cool V11 which I managed to bag in February and captures the atmosphere of a good Cave session I reckon.

Training in the Cave - Video by Dan Cheatam

I am currently working on Lou Ferrigno sans Pocket, an upsidedown V11 with lots of compression and clamping along with Hatchatrocity, another meaty V11 link into the classic Rockatrocity V9. Fitness will get you nowhere on these beasts! Here are more vids of some forays to Tremerchion, an excellent roadside craglet of immaculate, crimpy limestone where several extremely cold sessions were had. Top tip, you can't fail to get mutant fingers cranking here, the holds are tiny! (Apologies for readers who have already seen these on Facebook).

36 Chamber Font V9

 22 Chambers V9

A raid down to Dartmoor earlier this month yielded a tick of Jungle VIP, an excellent bloc-style V10 or V11 (depending on who you talk to) at Burrator Reservoir, along with a second ascent of Alex Waterhouse's excellent new V8 slab, Aurora at Combeshead Tor, see these vids:

 Jungle VIP and Others - Dartmoor Bouldering

Aurora V8 (second ascent)

So, how much should a stamina climber boulder? I have no idea! but for me I have decided to try and maintain a decent level of power whilst still majoring on fitness like I did last year. For the future, maybe the rope will be put on the shelf for 6 months in exchange for a sustained period of power training but not just yet, did someone say Malham and the Tor were nearly dry, I'm there!

Chulilla and Visit to Costa Blanca

Hi folks, thanks for stopping by. I have just returned from a highly enjoyable two week trip to Chulilla and the Costa Blanca with my friends Haydn Jones, Sam Hamer and Jose. We spent 9 days in Chulilla over New Year and then travelled south to stay at Gaz Parry and Kate Mills' house near Oliva in the Costa Blanca for a further 4 days. For the last couple of days, we visited Jose in his home city of Murcia.

After the obligatory enforced layoff over Christmas it took a couple of days to find our feet but we soon acclimatised to the style of Chulilla, which generally offers long, vertical to gently overhanging wall climbing with most pitches being up to 30m or more in length. It seemed that half of Sheffield was visiting the area and it was cool to spend time with friends from familiar home crags. We lucked out with our accommodation and managed to get rooms in the same apartment as Matt Segal, of Progression fame. Most evenings were spent arguing the toss over grit highballing ethics with Matt and his mates. They cooked us up a proper banquet on New Years eve (see pic) as well, result!

 

News Years Eve banquet with the Yanks

The ancient village of Chulilla with arabic castle

So, what about the routes? I was psyched to spend some time on-sighting for a change and tried to be disciplined to move onto another route without redpointing it if I fell off. With whole sectors sporting endless 30m lines of 7c, 7c+ and 8a, who needs a first redpoint when there are onsight dragons to be slain! I was pleased to get two 8a onsights and some 7c+'s as well. My attempt to onsight an 8a+ called La Buena ended at bolt 5 of 18 unfortunately, you can't win 'em all ;0). We only took one rest day in 9 days which made a refreshing change to the many double rest days taken before redpoints on home ground. I am looking forward to spending more time on this style of climbing in the future, the other side of the coin to sieging. Here is my ticklist of 7b+ and above:

Chulilla Ticklist

8a+ 

La Buena (El Balcon) - Redpoint

8a

El capataz incapaz (El Balcon) - Onsight
El agente naranja (El Balcon) - Onsight
La boca de la voz (Pared de Enfrente) - 1st redpoint

7c+

Plantea Namek (El Algarrobo) - Onsight
Ramallar (Pared de Enfrente) - Onsight
La quebranta (Pared de Enfrente) - Onsight
El rey de la palanca (El Balconcito) - Onsight
El Bufa (El Balconcito) - Onsight
Tequila Sunrise (El Balconcito) - Onsight

7c

Hipotermia (El Algarrobo) - 1st redpoint
Nivelungalos (El Algarrobo) - Onsight
Bricopaco (El Algarrobo) - Redpoint

7b+

Nikita (Competition) - Onsight
Andromeda (Competition) - 1st redpoint
Ca La Marta (El Algarrobo) - Onsight

La Buena 8a+

El capataz incapaz 8a

                                        

  Tequila Sunrise 7c+

In fairness, New Years eve in Chulilla had been a relatively tame affair so when the opportunity presented itself to party a bit in Valencia with Jose and his friends, we duly obliged. After a few beers, it seemed like the evening was heading to a close at midnight but then the cocktail bowls and bottles of spirits were busted out and an impromptu visit to a local club took place. The Spanish tend to stop out a fair bit later than us English folk, all I would say is sometimes you need more of a siesta than a fiesta! ;0)

With the party scores now settled, it was time to crank again and we were all excited to check out Gaz's local crags. Gaz and Kate very kindly put us up at their home just outside the small town of Oliva, which is not far from Alicante or Valencia airports. Situated amongst orange groves in some beautiful countryside just south of Gandia and a stone's throw from the Penon d'Ifach and Sella, this would make an ideal base for anybody looking to explore the Costa Blanca. I know Gaz has a room to rent so drop him a line if you are looking to spend time in this superb climbing area and soak up some rays!

Another grim day on the Costa Blanca

Gaz and Kate are both animal lovers and have a stable with some horses as well as some very friendly cats and dogs. The dogs include those unlucky animals who are unfortunate enough to have suffered an injury or simply have no home to go to. One of the dogs was my namesake which guaranteed some moments of confusion each morning before coffee had been consumed.

Some Spanish podencos

Feeding time

We were all excited to check out Gaz's local crag 'Sector 45' where his now ex-project Supersonico 8c+ is to be found. David Petts joined us to film the ascent with the aid of his awesome 'quadcopter' or drone which was buzzing around the crag filming the action from all sorts of angles. The days of hiring a helicopter for filming for £10,000 an hour are now a thing of the past. We were all very impressed with the gobsmacking hanging arete line of Supersonico and indeed the futuristic 9a+ project to its right, which is currently being worked by Spanish hotshot Primo. We all took the opportunity to tick the classic 7c 'Luz de Sol' that Gaz bolted along with the quality 7c and 7c+ tufa lines to the left with their tricky traverses on slopey tufas under the massive roof.


                         
                             Haydn on Luz da Sol 7c                                                                                                                                                         Jose on Adios Sol 8b

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

On the last day of my stay, we had spent the morning resting and arrived at the crag at half 3 to take advantage of the cooler evening temps. Conditions definitely felt a lot better than the previous days of working routes and after Gaz did a massive link from low down on the route to nearly the top, I knew a send was on the cards. It was very inspiring to see Gaz on his ascent which was obviously the culmination of a lot of hard work and dedication.

Gaz post crux on Supersonico 8c+  

Haydn on the7c+

After Supersonico went down, riding on a wave of psyche, I managed to redpoint the third ascent of the excellent 8b 'Adios Sol' of Gaz's which has some cool Oliana-like tufas on the bottom section leading to a rest before the final, very thin wall. In fact, this section is so thin that it very difficult to stop and clip on the final moves, perpetual motion upwards being your only hope! There is significant potential left at this crag not to mention the other crags littering the surrounding area, those after a new route fix need look no further.

Not a bad view from the crag

Celebrating that night involved a mega 'all you can eat' chinese buffet complete with sushi and a chocolate fountain dessert, washed down with some San Miguels, after all we were on holiday! The next day, I took the coach to Murcia to rejoin the lads who had travelled down a day earlier with Jose. After a further night out, including a visit to a club in an old bullring, we lapped up our last rays of sunshine at the quality crag La Boveda near Orihuela. After the crag cooled down at around 5, I managed a flash of 'El Grinch' 7c+ as my final send of the trip and we were airport-bound. What a trip, I hope you all enjoy your own Spanish adventures soon!

El Grinch 7c+ on the last day around Murcia