One more go...

At last the rain has stopped and this week has been perfect grit conditions. I got so fed up with the weather that I even went to the Depot twice last week. Unsurprisingly training on the Beastmaker board made my elbows a bit tender so I bought some dumbbells and did some recuperative eccentric wrist curls. Due to a miscalculation of the weight I was using the first few times I did these were a bit harder than they should be, but a few more with less weight and 30-40 mins of icing worked great.

On tuesday I went to Brimham but despite the sunshine and breeze a lot of stuff I wanted to try was wet so I ended up at Crimpy Roof again. First go was probably the most determined as I fired backwards off the crimps heading for the slap. I really think this is going to be very hard for me as it's a long long way. I'm too much of a wuss to use the razor sharp intermediate crimps though.

My middle RH finger was a bit tender so I had a rest and went out to the cinema with Nicky on wednesday and then today headed to Earl. Conditions were perfect: sunny but no wind. After a quick warm-up I headed to Grape Nut. This has been a bit of a nemesis as the only time I've held the jug (starting from the floor) I bottled the move off the gaston above. The first time I pulled on I hit the jug and tore a bit out of my finger. I taped up and 2 goes later held the jug and then once again couldn't commit to the move off the gaston.

Each subsequent go resulted in hitting but not holding the jug and 2 more flappers and it was all looking like another failure session. But a bit of MTFU when I held the jug and a scary rockover and I was at the break with just the slightly green top-out to negotiate. A good thing really as I doubt my hand could have taken much more.



After that I had a couple of goes on Andy Brown's wall but didn't get near hitting the top. I think the problem with this is because one time I was at Earl I tried this with the whole of the ground beneath it covered with pads and a good spotter and still didn't hit the top any subsequent attempts have been a bit half-arsed. I then went down and tried the Flakes and Lager Lager Lager (or Dave's Groove). The Flakes is still a massive reach and I wasn't getting anywhere but I made some good progress on the other problem (whatever it's called now!). By crimping the back of the first sloper hard with my right hand I could get my foot in the slot and cross my left onto the sloper - no idea what I'm going to do next though! After that I went for a walk to check out the 7A+ arete in the quarry in the new guide but it was covered in ice and then went back for a couple of pathetic goes on Underpants which reminded me my tips really were pretty thin. A great day though and the best conditions all winter - the sort of day that really used to make me depressed when I was in the lab.