font 5 finally

The last couple of weeks have been busy.

Had team training a couple of weeks back. Saturday at the Works and Sunday at boulder UK. Ian and Jamie had set us a mock up world cup (5 qualifiers and 4 semi-finals) which we tried 5 mins on and 5 mins off. This was hard but really good fun. They even set a problem on pockets (uuum nice!).

Friday was the last round of the climbing works league. I found it hard to get psyched and climbed pretty badly. Never mind. It was good fun tho.

Just had a session on our board. It went well. I managed to climb "throw in the dowel", my first grade 5 on the board. This is the 3rd ascent after Leo and Dan. Dead chuffed!!

I also managed to run my ipod through the washing machine the other day. Was gutted, but after drying it out for a couple of days it works fine again!

Long Day

Was going to go to the wall today after lectures as it had been a while since i had done any real training. However i got persuaded to head out to the plantation.

Had a potter about and managed to do Boston Mess from matched on the lowest undercut. Did Deliverance and Brad Pit again, and spotted Andy as he got really close to Brad Pit.

Stood below Carless Torque and got psyched for it again. It is amazing. It was too warm and we only had 2 mats so didn't try it.



After this i went to the climbing works. Tried some of the Earl's problems (these are hard) and went on the campus board. Finished off with some fitness/PE.

Font

Anyone who tries to tell you that Font isn’t the best bouldering venue in the world is wrong (i think).

Went out there with a strong team (including Dan and Gangle amongst others) after exams for some chilling and some dispatching. It was amazing.

Day 1)
Nightmare getting there. Arrived late afternoon after about 2 hours sleep in an F1. Felt rough but we all got so exited and ran around trying everything we saw at Bas Cuvier. Had a few attempts at La Balance. Me and Gangle got kind of shut down. Dan did it fast.

K-Unit on La Balance

Day 2)
Psyched. Blue sky again.
Had a few attempts at Karma in the raging sun. Didn’t get close at all and felt pretty rubbish. Arms were not firing. Dan did Misericorde in about 10 mins and Gangle was really close but had to throw in the towel to save skin.

Misericorde

I think it was today that we went to UBIK as well. Dan and Keith had a play in the sit start moves, then Dan said “I will have a quick go from standing” 3rd go he was standing on top! Amazing!

UBIK

Day 3)
Psyched. Blue sky again!
Went with Chris Schulte over to Hip Hop (8a+) which he wanted to look at. It was right in the sun and really hot but looks like a cool problem. Then went and did Sale Gosse (as did Dan) and Jet Set. Then did arabesque and should have done eclipse, but my arms had given up.Tom was knocked out by some viscous cold and couldn’t climb but he still came out and gave out beta and psyche. Good man.

Day 4)
Psyched. Blue sky again!!
Cuvier once again. Settled the score with Le Balance, and did it again without the chip (given 7c+/8a but no harder than with the chip to be honest). Went to look at Neverland, but some weird people were filming some Sinbad style film/drama. Were loads of weird men in capes with swords and a camera crew and I was told to go away!

Le Balance

Dan and Gangle did big boss. My arms were tired and i couldn't do it. Moved over to Haute Tension (in the raging sun). Gangle crushed it while me and Dan had to find a new sequence. But did it in the end. I was mega chuffed as it is very un-ned. The crux is pulling on a little crimp. Nice.

Day 5)
Psyched. Blue sky again!!!
Felt beaten, skin was thin and really couldn't warm up. Gangle suggested we have a go on Neverland as I had been babbling on about trying it since we arrived. After 20 mins not knowing what to do, we worked out a sweet sequence of knee bars and clamping. Felt really close to doing it but the key knee bar was tearing my knee up. It hurt too much to try. Was going to sack it off, but Tom suggested tying a sock round my knee over the graze to pad it out a bit.
The sweaty sock worked, and i grovelled over the top. Sweet. Keith got some footage. If its any good you might get to see it one day.

Gangle