Life’s about good days and bad days, good weeks and bad
weeks. If I’m lucky the bad days and weeks will slowly fade from my memory but
I hope some of the best days and weeks – those filled with climbing, exploring
and learning; with bright sunshine; with perfect climbs and good mates – will stay
with me for life.
I came back from the BMC International Meet in Cornwall keen
to get back on some unfinished business at Anstey’s Cove – my home away from
home. After a week of long walk-ins with a rucksack, long sunny days at the
crag and long evenings drinking mead and making friends I was feeling fit and
well rested.
First session back at the Cove and Pet Cemetery was feeling
good; the fitness that I had built up on the starting section meant that I
could arrive at the crux feeling relatively fresh and I had got my head around
the intricacies of the crux section – which for me involves hissing “crimp,
crimp, crimp” at my right hand for the duration of the move. All that was left
was getting though the crux with enough beans left for the top 7 moves.
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| The crux. Photo: Justin Timms |
Soon I found myself eyeballing my right hand mid crux and
slapping with my left, I hit the hold and swung onto the jugs for a ‘rest’.
This was a new high point for me and I was trying, and failing, not to get too
excited; the route was by no means in the bag and I had failed on this the top
section of Cider Soak back when I was trying that route. A few moves later and
I was slapping, with rapidly fading strength, for the finishing jug. My fingers
hit the back of the hold but flatly refused to close and my body transcribed a
perfect arc through the air with the marks of scraped off chalk on my right
hand the only memento of my redpoint attempt. The rest of the day was a lesson
in diminishing returns and my next session at the Cove nearly a week later was
a lesson in how badly I can climb first day on. Rest days are the devil’s work
I tell you.
Then I had some good days – a two day coaching for coaches
course with Neil Gresham and his Masterclass Coaching Academy. The course I was
on, courtesy of The Quay, was Module 1 of MCA’s coaching scheme focusing on
technique and learning structures of teaching technique to intermediate and
experienced climbers. Learning more about climbing, the science behind it and
better ways to teach it is always a fascinating experience and when you combine
that with learning alongside some of the best climbers and coaches in the South
West and being taught by a top climbing professional who exudes psyche it makes
for a very good day indeed. Day two of the course was even better than day one
with a focus on routes as opposed to bouldering and we spent the latter part of
the day filming ourselves on onsight attempts at our limit and reviewing the
footage as a valuable coaching tool.
I left The Quay to make my way to back to Anstey’s buzzing
with psyche and vowing to follow Gresham’s advice that I needed to train power.
It had been a great day and there was one thing that could make it a perfect
day but I was too psyched to worry about success or failure, I just wanted to
climb stuff. With a brief warm up and the luxury of someone else putting my
clips in I was soon chalking up at the bottom of the climb. A small eternity of
climbing later and my hand fell into the top jug, with the grip of someone
trying to strangle a lion I clipped the final draw and relaxed.
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| The Jugs! Photo: Justin Timms |
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