English man in Font

I just made this very short clip about Kjugekull for my friend that I went with, then I decided that I may as well post it on here so you can have a tiny glimpse of the area. This isn’t supposed to be a bouldering video, or anything other than what it is.I don’t know the names/grades of any problems so there are none in the video. The problem at the end is very good though and the sitstart is also fun (but uses a sharp hold!).

http://www.vimeo.com/1609959

Enjoy.

“This is an extraordinary moment in climbing film, in my view, and one that deserves real recognition.” – Mountains and Water

“A brilliant tribute to one of the most beautiful and magic climbing venues in the world.” – Climber Magazine

Between The Trees – In Spring 2009 Tyler Landman went to font with no expectations, only goals. This video is the result of his journey through the magical forest, surpassing all of his goals and reaching new levels in his climbing. Check it out. Be inspired. Go climbing.

Between the Trees features something for everybody. It features the very hardest blocs in font, alongside the esoteric gems and the most classic problems that Fontainebleau has to offer. It captures a pivotal time for Tyler Landman, who was making his transition from world class boulderer to King of Font to semi retired. This film is an honest representation of our days in the forest. Still waters run deep, and whilst it may appear that you are watching a young man cruising around on wonderful blocs you would be wrong. You are witnessing an incredible climber at the top of his game despatching some of the hardest problems in the world with consummate ease. Never has one individual come to font and done so much. This is a fact and the bar has been set. Now sit back and enjoy the film. My greatest hope is that it motivates you to either visit the magical forest or just get up and go climbing. Climbing is the bond that ties us all together. Enjoy it.

The Purchase Options;

Firstly, there is the physical DVD option, delivered straight to your home for your viewing please. By going with this option you’ll end up with a beautifully designed digipak case containing not only the full film, but also some little extras. There were a few problems that didn’t make the film along with a lot of Tyler’s thoughts/philosophy on climbing and other unrelated activities, along with some out takes. It makes for amusing viewing in my opinion. Postage will be available worldwide… there are no outposts of the globe that unclesomebody doesn’t want to reach. [This DVD will play in both the UK and USA]

The second option is a download only option. What you lose in tactility you make up for in availability. You’ll be missing out on the feeling of seeing your postman/woman walking to your door with an envelope which you’re sure contains Between The Trees. You’ll miss out on furiously opening the envelope, ramming the DVD into your system, and sitting back to enjoy the show. If you can live with that, then there are also some advantages. For a start, the download option is available in High Definition 720p. This is a big plus as the quality will be far superior to the DVD. But as with most things in life, there’s a price. If you have a very old or slow computer, it’s likely that it won’t be able to play HD. If you’re unsure it would be wise to download this test file and see if it plays smoothly. If you’re choosing HD download option, I suggest you read the info on this page to avoid any potential issues.

And now there is a third option. Some people have emailed me asking if I will be offering a package deal on both the DVD and the download, and being such a gent I’ve decided to also make this available. If you’re the type of person who spends 15 minutes deciding between chocolate and vanilla, only to go back afterwards and get the other flavour, this is the option for you. You’ll get the DVD delivered to your home/office/board and you’ll also get to immediately download the HD version for watching on your computer/PS3/home media centre. You get the best of both worlds!

So now you know the difference, you just have to make your choice. Whatever you decide, I really hope you enjoy the film. If you have any issues, or don’t understand something, just get in touch with me and I’ll do my very best to help you out. Head over to the Products Page to make your purchase!

UK – Lulworth Cove – Adrenechrome 8a
UK – Malham Cove – Raindogs 8a
Sweden – Hylteberget – Abstrakt 8a
Belgium – Freyr – God Save the Queen 8a
Spain – Baltzola – Black Kongi 8a+
Spain – Baltzola – Illuminatis 8a
Spain – Margalef – Sativa Patatica 8a
France – Gorge du Tarn – Barbarattique 8a
France – Buoux – Reve du Papillon 8a
Switzerland – Voralpsee – Alaska Kid 8a
Germany – Pfalz – Magnetfinger 7c
Germany – Frankenjura – Slimline 8a/+
Poland – Sokoliki – Hrabia Drapula 8a
The Czech Republic – Dolni Zleb – Skruti Beh 8a
Austria – Schleirwasserfall – Have fun on top 8a
Austria – Bachhexe – Electric Avenue 8a
Slovenia – Misja Pec – Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic 8a
Italy – Arco – Gameboy 8a
Italy – Val di Mello – Slot Machine 8a

A little trailer to whet the appetite;

I arrived at Neil’s house and immediately drove down to Buthiers to get up close and personal with some wonderful sandstone. Just touching the grippy, dry, sandstone under my tips made me happy. It really made me feel good, which is probably very strange in the eyes of some people, but I really love climbing here in the forest. I’ve always wanted to try Big Bang, 8A+, but I’ve never seen it dry so I thought that it might be a good bet for the middle of summer. Not even after weeks of dry weather was it dry! There must be some sort of water channel down half of it from some shrubbery up above because one of the holds was wet, green, and beyond recovery. I wasn’t too bothered though because I was more psyched to go riding!

We headed out to a place we found whilst scouting a potential new crag up near Ballancourt sur Essone. It turns out we’d been the butt of an april fools, but after coming across an amazing set of trails we are the ones having the last laugh! There are some huge gaps, huge jumps, huge transfers, wall rides, berms, and a half built northshore section. It’s clear that a group of people have put in a lot of work to build it and it shows so well after riding it. The transitions are so smooth and it’s really well thought out. We got some footage and Neil put together a very short clip of some of the stuff. What really struck me though, is the amount of fun I had. It pretty much rained for the few hours we were there, sometimes light, sometimes heavy, but constant. I was out in the rain, having fun jumping around on a bike. It felt like a completely different world from that of climbing. The battles were completely different, first mental, then skillful. Basically it was about trusting the fact that I used to be able to ride a bike quite proficiently some years ago and then not hitting the brakes on the run in’s. It felt good to just have fun without the pressure of the send… and I’d definitely ride a lot more if there was somewhere so good near my home. In many ways this just reminded me that climbing is something I love but it’s not the be all and end all. Some people have told me they couldn’t live without climbing but I’m quite sure that I could. Life wouldn’t be as good because, even without climbing hard, I do love climbing but it would go on and I’d do something else. Riding today was fun. Here is Neil’s video of the day;

http://www.vimeo.com/1594494

It goes without saying that the gaps look tiny in the video, but one of them was actually quite large, probably about 10-12ft from the top of the take off to the top of the landing. Some of the drops were also quite large, but it all looks paltry in the video. This made me realise that when you see guys going big on video it means they are going REALLY BIG in real life!

In order to try and capitalize on my final day in the wood, we headed out somewhat earlier to have a whole day at the rocks. I guess my logic was that more time at the rocks woudl translate into getting more done. It was very flawed logic, as I spent ages warming up and doing nothing, then decided to have a go on Jack’s Broken Heart, in order to finish it off. My fingers were aching a lot whilst warming up, and my skin was on fire, but I figured it would be a one go affair. I’d pretty much done it the other day but dabbed the boulder beneath it at the end, so I knew I could do it, but needed one go to seal the deal. We went over, I cleaned the holds, chalked up, and set off. I knew it was going to hurt my skin, but I’d told myself to fight through it. Before I set off I reminded myself of all the beasts in the world crushing hard blocs, trying desperately to grab on to any piece of inspiration I could. I got to the crux, which is seating the heelhook well, and my body was stronger than my mind. Both hands just let go from the pain in my fingertips. I couldn’t push through… it was too much. With that, I knew I wasn’t going to do it and accepted the fact. I felt pretty lame, because I was having to walk away (again) from something that was clearly within my ability, but that I’d failed to do. It’s not a nice feeling to be honest but one that I can deal with. It’s hardly the end of the world. I just didn’t to stop climbing though… I felt like trying more stuff, but I knew I couldn’t deal with any sort of sharp hold. With that in mind, I headed over to Voigas. Last year, I’d failed to do the first move after many, many goes. As I wrote previously, I knew I was in better shape this year, but obviously not climbing well, so I didn’t know what to expect. Within a few goes I’d done the first move without a problem, and it was so unexpected that when I went for the jump move to the finishing jug my foot popped off! Unbelievable. That sums up my climbing this year in Magic Wood. Amateur. Feet should never fall off 1cm sized holds. It’s lame. Anyway, I knew it was on, so I set the camera up and starting trying again. A few goes later I latched the first move again, set up for the jump, leaped, but managed to miss the finger sized crack/jug! I just floated past it and my fingers simply missed completely. More punter behaviour! I was rather shocked that I’d managed to jump and not get my fingers in the hold, to the point that I would have bet that I would not drop that move. I’m glad I didn’t. After this, I started trying again, but with the pouring rain and the disappearance of the sun the first hold very quickly turned into a big black greaseball and I couldn’t hold on. I accepted the fact that I’d just puntered this problem and I packed up. I was once again disappointed in myself for not being able to execute when it was called for. The whole idea of a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters sprang to mind… Clearly given enough goes on a problem I will certainly succeed in the end, but my ability to execute well on a given go is very poor. This is why I’m a punter at rock climbing.

I then started thinking about why this occurred in the hope of finding the solution and then implementing it. Although I didn’t find a clear solution (apart from simply becoming a better climber – which is not a solution in itself), I did find some answers when reading Lorenzo’s blog. Basically, I went to Magic Wood this year because it was hugely convenient to do so. Neil had an apartment, there would be food, a hot shower, and rock climbing. It’s an attractive proposal, but as most of you know, my heart was in Branson, under Radja. Desire is the motivating factor for me, and I desire that boulder problem so much, but there is nothing i desire in Magic Wood. There are a couple of things that I wanted to clean up, but nothing that I was madly psyched for. Once again I didn’t feel happy when I was completing boulder problems… and this was because there was nothing I truly desired. Why did I go? I suppose it was a mistake in some ways. I should have stayed at branson, slept in the dirt, eaten stale bread, crapped in the woods, washed in the river, and put all my energy into Radja. Failure from that wouldn’t have been bad, it would have been a joy because I’d have been chasing a dream. It’s a shame I didn’t realise all this three weeks ago, but it’s great that I’ve realised it all now. Whilst driving from Magic Wood to font I was listening to some Jay-Z (who is really great) and I heard this song lyric which tied in wonderfully with what I was thinking;

“But I will not lose, for even in defeat
There’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens it up for me”

- Blueprint 2

I had two rest days with the intention of having good skin today so I could go and crush Jack’s Broken Heart. My only concern was the state of my shoulders, as they are constantly aching and even pouring the water out of kettle is painful. But it’s a pain that’s not at all magnified from climbing. I’m sitting here typing this after a session on the rocks and my shoulders feel no worse for it. I have a strange suspicion that it might be the bed I’m sleeping on, as this has made a difference in the past. Anyway, I went to the rocks with the intention of climbing if I felt alright. After a bit of warming up on Bruno Block (where Neil crushed Supernova) we went up to Jack’s Broken Heart. I had a couple of goes but fell at the usual place when my heel popped off, but then my fourth go was more successful and I was through the crux move and on the way to the top… until my foot popped and I dabbed the boulder underneath it. I continued for another couple of moves, but I knew the dab was a bit sketchy, so I just dropped off. Unfortunately, my skin had had enough by that point! I pulled on one more time to do the top out but I was finished by then. My skin was screaming. Not too bad a session, I managed 4/5 goes! I think this is why it takes me more than one session to get things done, even though in reality the total go count is rather small. But this is an area that needs improvement. Being able to climb well and also very quickly is something that I don’t do, because I don’t place enough importance on it. I think I will start thinking about it more though, and concentrating on getting things done quickly and efficiently. It’s a waste of time spending multiple days on something that I could have done in 1 session if I’d climbed more efficiently or moved better. I’ll definitely work on it.

I have decided not to return to Martigny because shoulders are one of the things that need to be very strong for Radja. I’m fairly disappointed about this but this is the way the cookie crumbles. I’m going to try and return in September for 10-14 days with the hope of getting it done, but we’ll see how that pans out. I’ve got to get my head down in the books for my exams in October so if I don’t manage to come back in September it will have to wait until October 14^th! The most important thing is that I remain motivated, focused, and dedicated to getting it done. I don’t want to relinquish this goal even though it’s a fairly lofty one for my climbing so far. I’ll be leaving Magic wood in a few days, so I’m going to finish off Jack’s Broken Heart then try to have a quick tick session on some other things along with getting a bit more footage from Magic Wood to put in the archive. Sunday I’m going riding in a crazy looking place in font, so I’ll hopefully hang on to the bars long enough to get some funny footage which I’ll post up next week when I’m back in the UK.

If yesterday was a micro session in preparation for today’s send fest, then today’s session was a pico session! I ‘d planned to go up and do Jack’s Broken Heart then move on to something else, but that wasn’t what magic wood had in store for me. After a slightly longer warm up, maybe 15-20 minutes, I had a go. I got to the heel hook move, after which the problem is in the bag, but my heel fell off because I hadn’t placed it well enough. My skin was already hurting, but I knew it was only a matter of the heel staying on for one go and it was in the bag. My next go was unsuccessful for the same reason, so I then changed shoes in the hope that it would give me the edge. It didn’t, my third go resulted in failure and that was it. My skin was screaming, to the point where I just couldn’t pull on again. Even I was dismayed by this abysmal performance. I hate being held back by my skin, but it’s a feature of rock climbing that I have very little choice over. I’ve whinged about it before, but this is one of the things I was alluding to when I was saying that climbing can’t take all the energy I have to give. I did try to go and climb on slopers afterwards, but even they were too much for my weak skin. It is frustrating in many ways because I enjoy rock climbing more than I enjoy resting, but I appreciate that resting is also an important part of rock climbing. I think I just need more and more time on rock to try and improve my skin as much as I can. When I come off the back of training for weeks on end on my board, it’s foolish to expect my skin to hold up well on rock. I just need to find the optimal balance of training and climbing to nurture good skin so when I go away it’s not the thing that is holding me back. That or find some secret magic formula! Tomorrow is now scheduled as another rest day, in the hope that my skin is ready for an assault on Tuesday. Then I want to leave to go back to the Martigny area for a few days before having to return to the UK. I just want to have another session on Radja and also a go on Permanent Midnight because it is one of the best things I’ve seen.

I feel like 2007 was a year of failure for me in Magic Wood, but 2008 is more the year of punterdom. I’m simply not climbing well, even though I feel strong, stronger than last year. That is why this year isn’t a year of failure, it’s a year of punterdom.

My shoulders are also absolutely killing me today. They really aren’t in good shape and if they’re not better by Wednesday I think it will be a waste of time going back to Martigny, which is a real shitter. Damn my weak body!

My hardcore rest was not enough and today I woke up with seriously bad shoulders. I don’ know what I’ve done, but it feels like a combination of wrestling with Bigfoot and trying to hold an iron cross for 60 seconds. I can only compare it to the last time I had major issues with my rotator cuff. I don’t know what has brought it back, but both shoulders were very sore today. I was unsure if it would be good to climbing on them and try to loosen them up, or to have another rest day. Unfortunately my energy for climbing was too great, and after watching the incredible men’s 100m final I left for the rocks. Conditions seemed good and I was happy to be at the rocks again after yesterday’s ceaseless downpour. I just wanted to do a bit of moving on rock, assess how my shoulders really felt, whether they needed rest or a bit of stretching. I’ve fallen into a bad habit of warming up by campussing around on holds and just doing 5 minutes of deadhangs. This is not something I wish to continue as I really don’t think it’s a good idea, but it seems to be doing the job at the moment. I think it stemmed from the fact that some days there just isn’t enough dry rock to warm up properly, except now I do it even when there is plenty of dry rock around. I wanted to have a quick go on Jacks Broken Heart, 8A+, which I spent a day failing on last year. I just wanted to re-familiarise myself with it and make sure I knew what to do on each move so I could climb it efficiently. Today was successful in just that respect. I met a nice local guy called Today who had good info on the problem so I did all the moves, then did it in two overlapping halves, then packed up and left. I only had 3 or 4 goes, but that was enough for me, because I didn’t want a proper day out climbing, I just needed a micro session. But it wasn’t all smiles… because as I was unpacking my stuff I dropped my ipod, which bounced about 6ft down the hill then down 10ft into a big hole. I thought it was either lost or definitely broken, but after moving some rocks, then finding another entrance into the pit, I recovered it. I was thinking about how I gave Sara shit for breaking my old ipod by dropping it off a table, and here I was, having carelessly dropped my ipod down the hill and then into a huge hole. I was hugely relieved to find that it turned back on and actually played from the disk! RESULT!

However, the highlight of today was watching Usain Bolt win the 100m race, by quite a margin, and it marked a new era in 100m. I sent my friend a text earlier in the day stating that Bolt would run 9.6x and I think most of the world probably shared this thought. The style in which he did it was something I’ve never witnessed. He was jogging towards the end with his hands in the air, and he still smashed his record. I have no doubt that when he decides to actually finish running he will probably break the 9.6s barrier. He is so far above everybody else in the world that it made me start thinking about the limit of human performance. He is probably one in a billion, someone who is incredibly gifted, both genetically, psychologically, and in the training he receives. The sprinting world has never seen anything like it, but now that it has witnessed his domination, it has set the new level. He has single handedly raised the bar in his sport. I’m sure this happens in other sports too, and Michael Phelps is another example. His domination is truly incredible. Impossible is nothing to that guy. But what would happen if this happened in climbing? Climbing is not like many, many, many other sports in that it has very little that is actually measureable. Grades are an attempt to quantify difficulty, but they fall short in so many ways. What happens when the climbing world is witness to the 1 in a billion individual who is perfect in every way for rock climbing? It isn’t difficult to imagine what might happen if that individual is outside the climbing scene. The bitchy, negative old climbing world order would simply refuse to believe what they were hearing. This has already happened in my opinion, and probably several times. Perhaps we have never seen the 1 in a billion individual, but we have seen exceptionally gifted individuals torn down by the ideas of the old climbing world order, people without the ability to open their minds to just what is achievable. We probably can’t imagine what that 1 in a billion individual would be capable of doing in terms of rock climbing, because we can’t see so far beyond what has already been achieved. Will this old mentality in rock climbing ever be changed, will climbers one day stop trying to pull people back down and instead encourage them forward? I really hope so. Johnny G, if by some miracle of God you read this blog, then I hope you continue to advance rock climbing in your own way. I also hope God grants me another miracle by sending the world’s top climbers to the lakes to try some of his “holdless” test pieces.

I feel frustrated because I have so much energy that I can’t put into climbing. I don’t know if this needs explaining, but basically, climbing isn’t something that accommodates all the energy that I want to give it, due to physical constraints, and that is both sad and annoying for me. It could certainly take a lot more energy than I give it, but it couldn’t take it all. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, and just a physical limitation for me in climbing, but I’m not sure about that yet. It’s just a thought…

What Happens when a rest day turns into a climbing day? I don’t know if you’ve seen a theme to the posts from magic wood, but since the readership of this blog is so damn high brow, I’m sure you’ve not missed the common theme. Since tomorrow is forecast for more rain I decided to hit the rocks with my broken body in the hope of just getting some climbing in. I certainly didn’t have any expectations so after a brief warm up by campussing on some 7b traverse (which in reality is about 5+) I headed up to the darkness roof. I was right in the notion that it was dry (well, the left hand exit was dry) and a little surprised as to just how dark it was under there. There was another guy trying it so I got the beta and went for my flash attempt. It ended rather rapidly as I fell off the second move, which is all about locking off a 2 finger crimp and reaching into a 2 finger pocket, whilst hanging as much weight as possible off of a jug heel hook. I didn’t really expect to flash it, but I’m of the opinion that it certainly can’t hurt to try and you never know what might happen. In this case it didn’t pay off, and to be honest it never has, but I’ll keep an open mind. I then pulled on from the crimp and the 2 finger pocket and climbed it to the lip. It seems to me that the crux is moving in to the pocket, and I did try 2 more times but I didn’t manage it, but I did manage the rest of the moves again. I had to stop after that as the holds have a sharpish lip and it was shredding my skin. I really didn’t want to end up back under the Bruno block, but I knew there were people down there, which meant pads and spotters. More importantly, I knew it would be dry. I did have a gander at some other things that I desire to climb, but they were wet so I plodded on down to the Bruno block. My left index finger was still throbbing from my previous attempts on N.E.S.2. so I really didn’t want to try it again, but my other options were even less appealing. I did really want to try N.E.S.1 but my body was such a wreck today that I thought it would be a complete waste of time as I wouldn’t learn anything from it. In my opinion there is often little to be gleaned when trying a hardish problem when your body is not in good shape. I finally decided to have a few tries on N.E.S.2 and try to close my account with what is now very much a nemesis! My second go was promising, but I slipped off the move to the ramp and the chap spotting me practically missed me so I nearly took a swim and bashed my elbow pretty hard. Not to be deterred I sat down and munched some delicious dried figs. I’d already taped over the wound on my left index finger, but pus was seeping through and it was ugly. I knew that I’d have to make every go count otherwise this was simply a pointless exercise in punterdom. I had a few more tries but I was now finding the first move hard, a sure sign that my body was not in a good place. I was getting rather frustrated, but externally I was smiling and shaking my head in dismay at my dismal performance. Why has this problem turned into a nemesis? Is it some sort of psychological barrier? Am I just not executing? Am I not climbing it well? What? I really don’t know. I got a text from Sara, who some of you know is in India. She basically said that she’s a bit ill and laid up in bed with a fever, but she concluded with wishing me luck crushing the blocs. With that in mind I decided to try my hardest to crush this boulder problem with Sara in mind, in the hope that maybe, just maybe, some universal mechanism would kick in and my ascent would cause her white blood count to rise and she would miraculously recover. I pulled on, reached the first crimp (finally getting it further right where it’s better), and before I made the second move, it all slowed down for a millisecond and my thoughts turned to Sara. Nothing specific, just a random thought about Sara, which then disappeared as I returned back to crushing the bloc. Perhaps it was just the return to consciousness that caused me to concentrate a little more, perhaps I was more aware of how I was climbing but, after nearly falling off the ramp (for the nth time), I continued upward to the top and felt hugely relieved. It was a similar feeling to the one I experienced when I topped out Fata Morgana. I felt relieved that the epic was over, the nemesis slayed, and that I won’t have to try it again. This bloc felt difficult for me, and I still don’t know why. I did find some slightly better foot beta today for the top, but overall I would say that I puntered my way to the top of this problem. Crown me now, King of the Punters! Tomorrow, I will do some hardcore resting in an attempt to get my body back in shape for Saturday at the rocks!

This whole epic has returned my mind to something I’d been thinking about, and had talked about briefly with Dobbin and Ned. I don’t lack the ego to say that I know my own ability is fairly high. I know I can do hard moves and climb hard blocs. I know that when I apply myself, and in a somewhat specific style, I can pull fairly hard. However, I would say that my base level is much, much lower than my extreme level. This is what I talked about with Ben and Ned. Basically, everyone has a base level and an extreme level. I’d say ability is distributed something like the right hand side of a normal distribution curve. At the very right hand end you have your absolute maximum ability, which would comprise of the perfect problem for your strengths, perfect conditions, and ultimate psyche. At the left hand end is the level at which you can boulder day in, day out. I feel like there is a huge gap between my base level and my extreme level. In many ways, I would describe myself as a 7C/7C+ climber who can climb much harder with some work. I think this huge gap comes from what motivates me, which are hard moves. I’m mainly concerned with the hardness of the move, and in many ways I’m in search of the hardest move (yes, yes, I know it’s something by the G). If I raise my extreme level then I’m happy, and a side product is that it also pulls up my base level (but at a slower rate). However, Ned was of a different opinion with regard to his own climbing. He enjoys doing things quickly, or flashing them, and he doesn’t enjoy the process of spending 5 days (or more) working on one thing. In my opinion, this results in his base level being much higher. His base level of ability (comprising the climbing skill set of strength, technique, knowledge, etc) is great, and everywhere he goes he can do 8A’s quickly. By increasing his base level, it will have a knock on affect of increasing his extreme level, but perhaps not as quickly as my way of thinking. What’s better? Well, I don’t think there is a “better” per se, because both schools of thinking have their advantages and whatever motivates the individual is the best for that individual. For me, it’s the search for the hardest moves I can do on rock. I enjoy hard moves and I don’t enjoy (as much) the feeling of linking lots of easier moves. But this is all personal opinion and so there is no need to search for answer as to what is best. The question of what is best comes in the form of “what is best for what I want to climb?”. Maybe it’s a return to the question of 100 8A’s or 1 8C… you know my answer.

I have no doubt that when I do eventually climb Radja (oh wicked beast, you will be slain!) my base level will probably still be around 7C+. This is why I have the canny ability to be able to punterise 8A’s whilst still being able to occasionally do some hard moves. N.E.S.2 was an example of me punterising a 7C+/8A, even though I am clearly capable enough (existing on the right hand side of the curve) to do it. Perhaps psychologically I am closing the gap between base and extreme level, but in reality that level may not be decreasing as rapidly as I would like to think. For the time being I’ll just continue doing what motivates me, the search for the move.

I felt somewhat rough this morning, with a small ache in my fingers and definite tightness in my shoulders. It’s a good thing I always do at least a little stretching after climbing otherwise I’d probably be irrecoverably sore after days on. I spent the day once again under the Bruno block, and I would like to emphasise the word under. I couldn’t try the second part of the Never Ending Story because my finger was too sore from the finger jam, and so I thought I’d try Nothing Changes. This quite simply didn’t happen. I warmed up on Supernova, which was totally stupid as I just got a very pumped left arm. Thanks to the fact it was also a flash pump, it stayed with me for the entirety of the day. After sitting around for ages I decided to have a flash go on Cote de Sechuan. I’d never tried it as it looks a bit like you have to battle from hitting the block behind you whilst climbing it. This turned out not to be a problem due to incredible levels of body tension (or just large footholds). However, my flash go came to a sudden halt when I ripped off one of the holds rather violently. Now I was nursing a pumped left arm along with numb collection of fingers on my right hand. I sat around a bit longer then decided to have my second go which ended when I missed the jug at the end by a few inches. Epic! This wasn’t going well but I was all smiles as I found it hilarious. I don’t know if I’m just climbing like a punter because I’m in Magic Wood, or because I find the climbing difficult here, or because I’ve just had a few bad days. I really don’t know. I do know my skin isn’t absolutely killing me which is great news. I also know that things will improve and when they do I’ll be over the punterdom of these few days. After more sitting around, after declaring my account with cote de sechuan closed, I reversed the decision and decided to have a 3^rd go. Normally, these failures spiral out of control and it’s easy to get sucked in with one more go. Luckily that didn’t happen, and my 3^rd go was successful. So, that’s the account opened in Magic Wood, but with a fairly easy 7C it wasn’t the way I intended it to opened. Still, it’s a positive that it’s opened and i’m really hoping that it will be a catalyst for the end of punterdom and the start of beastdom!