Malham

How do you warm up on a cold January day at Malham ? I need to figure this out next time. Most things were sopping wet and so a re-match with Puddlejumper wasn't on the cards. The ever dry Consenting Adults was the pick of the day.

I'd never been on it before so spent some time on a bolt to bolt ( sorry Johnny ). I'm quite happy that the sequence i came up with seemed to be the way to do it. I felt much more comfortable than my first day out last year where my feet seemed to belong to someone else. I felt sharper and more accurate and decided it was going to go down quickly.

I wanted to link to the 1st bulge and then rest before going to the top, just to make sure my sequence was correct. However i buggered up the easy stuff at the bottom and had to rest for longer than i anticipated. Happily I got up the rest of it no problems though.

I then lowered back down to the 2nd bolt and did the whole thing again on top rope. Now surely if i am fit enough to climb it 1 1/2 times i can do it next go, can't I ?

I waited too long though and got cold. The next 2 goes saw me flailing, failing and falling attempting to get over the bulge. I forced myself to rest a decent amount of time and gave it another go. It was all groovy right up until getting to the hold for the 4th clip. That move, which had felt hard, now felt impossible. Another fall taken and major disappointment.

Some extra beta later ( from watching Simon lap it 5 times ) and i could see a much easier way to do the move with a sneaky left foot placement.

Away we went again. I got to the same point and couldn't for the life of me find where Simon was putting his foot. He was sticking it like it was a jug but where the f*&k was it ? I climbed up, down, around and everywhere before reverting to plan A and trying it the hard way. Not a chance. This time the fall was made a bit more spicy as i had let the rope go round the back of my leg. School boy error and i really should know better. A decent fall ended up with me inverting and hitting the wall with my hip. Once the adrenalin wore off it really hurt. The journey home was agony.

I tried pretending to my wife i hadn't hurt myself but fell over trying to get into bed and cried on the floor like a baby. Did i get sympathy ? Did i chuff.

Anyway enjoy the vid. It has some bad editing where i rested, and some bad climbing. I'm going to take the positives; I am in a much better position than i was last year, my fear of falling seems to have been ground down and I only failed due to beta/tactics not fitness. That's a bonus as i haven't done any fitness work for a couple of months.

Next week sees the start of getting strong. My rough weekly plan is:

• Performance pyramid boulder session - preferably outdoors. To top out at 7a+ (V7)
  
• 2 sessions on a board - got 2 to visit. One set by a 6ft+ friend and one set by a 5ft4in friend so should provide variety
• Roped fitness session to keep that ticking over and lead head intact
• Fingerboard session(s) once i am into the swing of it
• Campus boarding ? Not sure yet.