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| Burbage North |
We’ve been up North for just over a year now and the time
has flown by, it’s been awesome. However, over the last few months we’ve
noticed out lifestyles have changed dramatically. Whilst that sounds obvious,
it wasn’t and it took some months of being inactive and waiting for the weather
to understand what was going on.
When we lived down South, if we saw the weather was poor for
some outside climbing we would head to The Castle. Which is an awesome climbing center in London with floors of bouldering – enough to keep us entertained for
hours and hours and hours. So on wet day’s we would still come away from a day’s
climbing feeling totally exhausted…a good exhausted.
Up here, no plans are made until the day, watching the
weather then spending some time driving around to see what’s dry and climbable.
We might climbing for a couple of hours, not really doing anything and battling
with poor conditions. That can be frustrating and after a month or so of doing
this – in my case, you begin in feel lost and not fit to climb. However, you
believe that that is the life style and what comes with moving up North. It’s
all about the outside climbing.
It’s not though is it?
I read a very good blog recently by James McHaffie (http://www.jamesmchaffie.com/caffs-blog/the-pro-climber)
and it got me thinking. We have a choice and recently I’ve been choosing to try
and climb outside as much as possible, even if I know I’d be better off doing
something else.
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| Marco at Superbloc |
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| Sunset at Almscliff |
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| A cold Burbage North |
Today is a Saturday, the sun is shining, the snow glistening…sounds
like perfect grit stone conditions right? Maybe…but not for me. That’s a lesson
I have learnt from, sometimes cold is too cold. I’ve spent the last few weeks
trying to climb being unable to feel my extremities. So today, I checked the
weather and decided to do something more productive and catch up on all the
back log of stuff I’ve left untouched. Do you know what? It feels good!
Tomorrow, with the winds still forecast to be high, I’ll
head to a wall somewhere, a new one and try to find something which can make me
feel how the Castle made me feel after a session and stop sitting on my
backside looking outside the window.
It’s time to reset the ideals and goals to reflect this new
life style. Climb Out is a group of people who are getting out
and enjoying the outdoors. For 2015, they set the “Climb Out Challenge”
I’ll be adding some new goals for this year, just need to
sit down and go through them and not let another 12 months go by just seeing
what happens.
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| Some of my challenges |
It’s been two months since my last blog and we’ve managed to
get out a check out some new crags (new to us!) and finish off some blocs,
check out the vids if you want to:
Red Barron Roof: https://vimeo.com/116002052
Parker Sit Start: https://vimeo.com/116000888
Phil’s Wall: https://vimeo.com/115999307
Crimpy Roof: https://vimeo.com/115952977
Rachael’s Box: https://vimeo.com/115869908
Sulkly Little Boys: https://vimeo.com/115484325
Parra Rapper the Rapper: https://vimeo.com/114441467
That’s all for now.
Happy Climbing!
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