Moving to a brand new place is pretty daunting, especially leaving your regular training venue, crags you know are climbable in the wet and your favourite restaurants. However to achieve bigger and better things you sometimes just have to suck it up and go for it. So when my fiancee got offered a new job in North Wales I didn't have a hard time thinking about it. I like grit, but I'm not its biggest fan, whereas mountain and limestone bouldering I am a massive fan. Therefore at the beginning of November we packed most of our worldly possessions and began our new life in Wales.
I have to say that moving from a pretty busy location to a tiny village has been so amazing and I love it. On the climbing front I haven't had a huge amount of time, but I did manage to get the cave classics 'Rock Attrocity' (7C) and 'Lou Ferino' (7C+) ticked nice and quickly. It was nice to have an outdoor venue that is actually not dissimilar to the beastmaker board...aka don't think and pull hard. After getting some classics done I began work on a problem I've wanted to do for ages...i'll update on this in the future.
Aside from that I decided to get my fingers stuck into something crimpy as climbing indoors a lot gets you good at pulling, but crimp strength disappears - bad news. Therefore I hit the pill box wall and after doing most of the problems below 7C I got involved in Chris Doyles 'Drink Driving' (8A+). This line is a crimping power endurance line on a 35-40 degree wall. After 3 working sessions (2 getting close), I was finally able to take it down yesterday in pretty good conditions. I'm really pleased and psyched to have done such a great problem and begin my North Wales apprenticeship! Feel free to check out my own website: www.dkclimbing.wordpress.com which will have plenty more media content - pics and videos.
Until next time. DK
Drink Driving (8A+)
Drink Driving (8A+) crux move
No comments:
Post a Comment