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| Corridors of Power 7C+ |
Well basically everything changed. I lived in a village of a
couple hundred, now I live in a city of a half million. I studied in a school
of 800, now I study with 80,000 around me. I’m living in student halls and not
at home. Surely this must have affected my climbing? Well yes it has.
Studying physics can’t be done all the time, it’s too
intense. This caused climbing to turn more into a relaxation from the work, a
time to chill out, let my mind wander and body do all the work. I think
climbing is great for this as you can’t think about anything else when you try
your hardest. I’ve also met lots of other climbers on my course. I love
climbing with them as it gives me the balance of working hard to achieve goals
and just enjoying climbing because it’s the best. It’s weird how most the
climbers I’ve met have been doing physics, maybe it’s because we are all niche
people but climbing no longer is that niche what with the Olympics and all
that. Perhaps it’s because we like solving problems, well after many years of
climbing the tricks to things come quickly. I think it because we need to get
out our heads and it’s a perfect way to do that.
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| Flick of the Wrist 7C+ |
The main crag we visited was Malham which has many famous
routes like, Raindogs, Predator, Bat Route, Rainshadow. I wanted to hit the
ground running but doing Bat Route and Unjustified in a weekend came as a happy
surprise. The next visit I tried the project to the right of Cry Freedom. This
was originally bolted by Aaron Tonks and had thrown of attempts from a few
talented climbers over the years. I tried it with Ted Kingsnorth, who is one of
the most psyched climbers I’ve ever met! The route is about an 8b until a high
rest on Cry Freedom. Then you blast out right onto a steep wall to do a 7B
boulder before reaching the chains. I fell on the top multiple times, each time
I was nowhere near fresh enough to do the crux. A week later fortune favoured
us and the crag was in the best condition it had been all season. I fell again
at the top on my first two attempts. On the third I rested a lot more, I’m not
sure why I didn’t do this on previous attempts but it is always good to make it
harder for yourself. This go I had the beans and battled through the crux to
clip the chains. Although it wasn’t a massively long project the fact that it
had never been climbed before gave it an aura to me. Hence it was without a
doubt one of the high points of my climbing career and one of the biggest
buzzes I’ve had from climbing.
I should maybe mention the bouldering side of things. I’ve
had opportunity to push myself, with a lot of hard boulders close by. I’ve
climbed the ones with beautiful moves, ones with savage moves and ones with
lots of moves. Each one has been enjoyable in its own way. I’ll pick the
problem which I was happiest to do. This was New Noise 8A at Tanygrisiau
boulders. The setting is incredible, beautiful mountains scared by black slate
quarries. The place is made even more rugged and raw by how the landscape has
been ruined by industry. The climbing there mimics the setting especially New
Noise, being brutal yet oddly beautiful. The problem boils down to one basic
power move. It works everything: the core, the fingers and the arms. Nothing
can be weak and it was awesome to have everything work well enough to stick it.
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| Something for Nothing 8c |
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| New Noise 8A |
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