Tales From Wales

On Tuesday morning I was on the computer when my friend Scott asked me if I wanted to go to wales, it was a completely random proposal but after taking a couple of minutes, I decided that it was an awesome idea to head to Sheffield and go. Nobody was in my house... except I had my bag ready to go to Wales. My dad returned from the shop and I said ''I'm going to Wales with Scott for 5 days'', he was fine with this and then I started to get excited. I got a lift to the train station and I was away! all within the space of 2 hours. The feeling of ''adventure'' (as some might describe it) felt slightly new but refreshing. At around 8pm that day we set of to Wales, LLandudno to be precise, or actually even more precise, Parisella's Cave. The first morning was immaculate, clear blue sky and hot sun. Seeing the cave for the fist time was amazing, it was like my dream climbing venue. I tried a lot of stuff that day but only managed to send one hard-ish problem which was Clever Beaver Font 7a+/7b, which is a pretty cool problem with big slaps and toe hooks. The first night we drove to LLanberris and stayed there, although in the morning it was raining, so we headed back to the cave!

The second day I was feeling a bit tired from all the previous cave action, although I managed to flash my first Font 7a, however it wasn't actually in the cave it was up the road at 'Pill Box Wall'. The rock on that wall is really good, and the Font 7a, which is called 'Pill Box Original' , is a really nice problem. I tried 'Rock Atrocity '- Font 7c afterwards and managed to do all the moves really quickly, I was a bit disappointed not to have done it, I could almost do the whole problem, except by the time I was trying it right from the start my arms were becoming a bit tired and I was getting pumped more easily. It's an awesome problem and I will defiantly do it next time I visit there, which will hopefully be at the end of this month.

The next day, in LLanberris, I warmed up but found that my arms were absolutely shattered from 2 days of full on cave climbing, so I rested and explored some of the hills and collected beta for ''Jerry's Roof'.

Then, the next day, which was the fourth day, I finally got on Jerry's Roof after collecting beta. There was only two moves which I didn't do first go, one being the crux, and the other being this pressy move in the middle, I did those two moves with two attempts, I did all the other moves first go, so yeah, I was feeling good. Eventually I could do the whole problem from just two not-even-very-hard moves away from the start, except by this time, my arms were just so wrecked, even though I had one rest day, those two days in the cave just blasted my arms. Although the weather was awesome all day and it was fun to just relax in the sun in the mountains, which provide some amazing scenery.

The next day, Sunday, the last day, the weather was amazing all day, not a cloud in the sky till about 3pm, and from then it was only really small white ones. I tried Jerry's Roof again, but my joints in my arms were really aching and I was loosing power on the problem so quickly. We climbed with Johnny Dawes from a couple of hours, after persuading him to join us on Jerry's Roof he had a couple of goes at the crux and then we talked to him for a while, it's easy to just sit there and listen to him, and just recognise and understand what he's saying. He talked about 'Shape, Sound and Face'. Where you imagine the different shapes that your body has to go into, whilst climbing the problem, to explain this further he talked about imagining like hot air balloons, except shaped like people, and imagining them scattered across the problem in the different positions, and then you have to try and fit into those positions as best you can. The sound, is kind of the vibe which the problem is giving you and the vibe your giving the problem, there are different vibes for different problems just like there is different sounds, and you have to understand the type of sound, or feeling, that the problem has and kind of recognise it, and work with it. And the face is the way that you act on the climb or problem, you have to act differently on different climbs. like some may require you to get angry and aggressive, but some you may just have to relax and breathe more. If you can understand all of that and use it I personally think it would help anyone that's reading this, I've never really thought of those things, but it does make sense. I think what I've written is a fairly accurate interpretation of what he was trying to say. But yeah, hes a pretty cool guy that really does understand climbing to a different level.

Basically.........I slept in a van with Scott and Martin for 5 days in North Wales, I flashed a 7a and did a 7b and got really close on two 7c's. Scott did 3 Font 8a's and one Font8b/V13, which was Malcs Start next to Jerry's Roof, however there has been some people, as usual, doubting that he actually climbed it, so if you are one of those people and you are reading this, you kinda need to just calm down because I saw him do it. All in all, despite being crammed in a van with two oher people and eating porridge without milk or sugar every morning and not having any dinner and waiting all day everyday till the evening to eat again, it was a really awesome trip, my most favourite so far, Wales such a nice place, and I want to go back soon, back to the training for now, after at least 2 days of hardcore resting!

Psyched

Yesterday it was the BMC Leading Ladder final at The Foundry, I didn't enter it but I did go to there for a session, to boulder and train.. I've been climbing indoors a lot lately, every other day, and my skin is always bad, I never really have fully repaired skin. But it doens't stop me, yesterday at the Foundry I had a right killer session, I even had red tips on my thumbs. Dan Lane was in the Final, and was ready to represent Red Tips, we tried not to both wear the t-shirt near each other much, as it might of looked a bit, well you know.

I'm planning on sleeping at Raven Tor & Rubicon Wall next Saturday for five or six days or so, a few friends of mine will probably come as well, hence the reason why it's been dubbed the Red Tips Rock Trip, see thread here> http://red-tips.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/538903-red-tips-rock-trip

Buy the Red Tips T-shirt here: http://www.redtipsonlinestore.bigcartel.com