Friday 24 June 2011

To Do List - Lemmings

·         Get up
A bit of a challenge, my aches and pains from a couple of days of climbing have united to create an overall sense of tiredness and a general feeling that it’s best to stay in bed today.

        ·         Eat
Ugh it’s breakfast time again, that meal comes around with a startling regularity. Maybe I should mix it up a bit, start the day with a roast dinner or a good chocolate pudding?

       ·         Buy sparkly shoes
Ha! I am a girl!

       ·         Climb
Back to Anstey’s again today, like a homing pigeon with a masochistic nature. It’s a lovely scenic crag, overhanging limestone looking over a quiet bay, with just the tweeting of the birds and the blood-curdling screams of coasteers throwing themselves into the sea (strange race the coasteer, must be related to the lemming).

Looks like the pocket on Cider Soak has dried out; good news as I can spend the day falling off a route I might be able to climb one day instead of falling off routes I have no hope of doing or falling off routes I have already done.

Climbing today is a bit of a challenge, it’s one of those days where every time you look down there’s a spare leg hanging in space doing nothing, you can put it on the rock but next time you glance down another leg is floating about. It’s an endless battle to keep the majority of limbs attached to the rock and it’s one that I inevitably lose. Despite this I manage to link a few moves and almost clip the third bolt before wimping off and going for the shiny quickdraw shaped hold. I could climb past the bolt to a good hold but I’m sure it’s easier to get stronger than to get braver.

I think I’ll leave the red-point for another day or preferably another person... Why can’t it work the same way as football? I could be an Adam Ondra supporter and every time he onsights another 8c I get to spend the afternoon in the pub celebrating my team’s success, starting fights with Sharma supporters and growing a beer belly... I think it might catch on.

Monday 20 June 2011

To Do List - Pancakes

 ·         Plan adventures
It’s all coming together, albeit slowly. At the moment I’m trying to match up people, places and crags like a giant game of snap. But I can plan safely in the knowledge that wherever I decide to go it’ll rain.

No van as yet, but there are a few local candidates to check out during the week.

·         Pancakes
The perfect breakfast food! I’m not very good at breakfast; mornings are far too early for eating, apart from chocolate obviously. I can eat chocolate at any time of the day or night, it’s like a superpower.

The only solution to the breakfast conundrum is pancakes... or nutella... or both. Sorted!

·         Climb...
It’s not raining, I have a belayer, life is good. Anstey’s is the crag of choice today and Devonshire Cream is the route; 16m of exquisite climbing with the first bolt at 8m, just after the 6a crux. It’s considered to be bolted by a manic or genius depending on your outlook on life.

·         Warm up
A lap or two of the traverse to get the blood flowing...


·         Reacquaint myself with the moves
Forgot the clipstick but remembered the boyfriend so got the first bolt clipped. I had a feeling I was going to find the crux hard... I try it and it feels easy... I try it again thinking it will be easy... it’s hard. I strip the clips (‘effics’) and sit down for a long hard think.

My thought process goes along the lines of:
“I quite like my legs, don’t really want to break them”
“Easy solution to that, don’t fall off”
“But what happens if I freak out? Agh I’m scared!”
“Man up! Anyway you can downclimb from right before
the crux and once you’ve done the crux it’s all over”
“Umm... I still don’t want to do this but I’ve run out of arguments”
“Perfect, let’s do it!”

·         Crunch time
The tricky part is always the decision making; after that it’s just the follow-through...

It goes without a hitch, no broken legs, no emergency bails into the thorn bush, no panicking, no gibbering. And the best bit...? Knowing I never have to do it again...
...until Sole Fusion
...bugger.

Thursday 16 June 2011

To Do List - Quit Job

·        Quit job
Well that was easy, one brief email and one triumphant post on Facebook and I’m free (apart from the whole working the notice period thing but that will give me time to do the rest of the list)

·         Make celebratory brownies
Made and eaten

·         Buy van
Hmmm... more tricky, gumtree and ebay aren’t showing anything amazing (by amazing I mean cheap - and preferably with all its wheels). Quick check in the post office window doesn’t come up with much either, lots of kittens for sale though... could get one of those, cheaper to run/feed and definitely more cute, won’t get me from A to B though... unless more people pick up hitchhikers who are holding kittens, surveys should be done.

·         Find dry rock
Impossible. I managed to get about three feet from the car before it started raining. Maybe it’s not actually impossible, I’m fairly sure that Gully Wall or Pixies Hole will be dry but sometimes I find it hard to get inspired for dingy, polished limestone circuits. Call me picky.

I saw a thread on UKC  http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=463027&v=1 suggesting there might be an access issue at Chudleigh, I drove past earlier but couldn’t see the sign, maybe the trolls are out. I’m not sure I could live without Chudleigh... maybe I should get out more.

·         Tidy my stuff up
Never gonna happen, don’t know why I bothered to write it down.

·         Get strong
Well if I can’t climb I might as well get strong instead and the fingerboard is calling to me (maybe that’s a bit strong, more like heckling me). Do you think Tim Emmett would mind if I made miniature clones of him:
To the fingerboard...