English man in Font

Fontainebleau, as many of you know, holds a special place in my heart. It’s perhaps the one bouldering area in the world where I always feel good and sometimes it takes me by surprise. I remember my first trip to font many years ago with a very young James and a very benevolent Neil. We went hoping for some 8A’s and we left with 1 7A. In reality this came from a real misunderstanding of our own ability rather than a discrepancy between grading. We were young, naive, but we had great fun. The seed was planted during that trip and every year since I have been to font for at least 1 week (and sometimes a lot longer!).

Earlier this year I was in Font with perhaps the best climber I know and at the beginning I really wondered how it would unfold. I didn’t know if Tyler would find his chi and crush everything in his path, or if he would struggle with the style, conditions, and abundance of fresh pain au chocolat. After the first day it was clear that perhaps something special was on the cards, and after the first week it was all but confirmed. The following weeks brought hard ascent after hard ascent, and whilst I stood on in dismay I was also running as fast as I could trying to not so much keep up as be inspired.

When success is all around it drips into you and it pulls you upwards, allowing your imagination to run wild and sometimes your body blindly follows. This was how it was for me spending those weeks with Tyler in Fontainebleau. Nothing seemed impossible, only difficult. Although, for Tyler it seemed as though nothing seemed difficult, only mildly challenging. We quested around a lot of areas as I showed Tyler what I consider to be the best of bleau, and he mopped it all up. Some problems were added to the list and some were inevitably erased, but the result is a whole host of 5 star problems.

We tread the well beaten path and we also cut our own path through the ferns, searching out the hidden gems, some of which can often lie in plain sight. What’s that about wood and trees? Well, Fontainebleau certainly has a lot of both! What outsiders perhaps don’t appreciate is the breadth and depth of what Fontainebleau can offer, from the first timer doing their first yellow to perhaps the best boulderer in the world doing every extreme problem in succession.

This film will hopefully represent the very best of Fontainebleau. The classics, the hidden gems, the hardest, and the most beautiful. There is footage of a great number of hard problems, some of which have never been seen on film, so I expect that everybody will see a problem that they either don’t know or have never seen climbed. Once again, the bottom line will hopefully be inspiration. Inspiration to go climbing, to visit font, and to have fun in pursuit of what we’ve all chosen to make a big part of our lives. If it manages to do that then it’s measured as a success in my book.

Here is the first teaser, and more will follow in the next weeks, so sleep with one eye open. Enjoy. Be inspired. Be Excellent.

[click through to vimeo to watch it in HD]

Teaser 1 from unclesomebody on Vimeo.

Ned and the Californian arrived a couple of days ago so they dragged me away from my computer and to the rocks. It was nice to be out again but I’ve really not been climbing very much recently, so it was with very little expectation weighing me down that I drove up to the Zillertal.We had Emi on board too, so with all the local knowledge we were hoping things would fall into place a little more smoothly…

Up first was an appointment with Incubator at Ginzlingwald. Now I thought this was the classic hard problem of the Zillertal, being 8B and also being quite famous. In fact, it was pretty much the only problem I wanted to really do in the Zillertal, and I was prepared to put in a siege as 8B is still hard. After figuring out the moves Dave pulled on and fired it off, much to his own dismay and to our great joy. It was a super fast ascent and really showed what can happen when you do each move correctly and avoid mistakes… it’s not the strength that often lets us down, it’s the faults we have in our game. I persisted and tried to follow suit but the more tries I had the greasier it got. I was hitting the hold on the crux move every go, but my lower hand would grease off so it just wasn’t meant to be. I was a little disappointed not to have done it, because it was very much for the taking. I’m also a little disappointed because it’s not very hard. I expected to fight a lot for this thing, but in my opinion it’s too easy to be 8B. Perhaps an easy 8A+ would be more accurate, and this opinion comes from someone who’s really not bouldered in a long time. I was invigorated though, because I remembered just how much I enjoy bouldering, so the thought of getting back on a rope seems to be fading away. Maybe a hard redpoint will have to wait until next year… Or maybe I’m taking the easy option by returning to bouldering and returning to the familiarity of something I’m ok at rather than persisting with routes, which I’m incredibly bad at. I guess I have to mull it over in the next week.

From Ginzling we headed up to Breitlahner, to try an 8A called El Guahara. I’d seen a photo of this problem and decided I had to do it. It looked incredible in the photo…

Copyright Zlu Haller

I’d then been up in the summer with Neil to have a look at it and realised it was a very impressive bloc and line, but it was on horrifically sharp and small holds. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to return to do it. The line pulled me in and the holds pushed me away. Dave and Ned were psyched so I decided to get in the game and off we trekked. It’s so nice when you can hike into a boulder muching wild blueberries all the way there, but it unfortunately doesn’t make any difference to the sharpness of the holds. I decided I might as well try since we were there and after 20 mins or so I’d done all the moves, including climbing it without the first 2 moves which are on sharp holds but luckily aren’t all that hard. The jump move to the lip is amazing and this movement makes it a worthwhile bloc in my opinion.

Pictures copyright Emi Moosburger

I had a few tries from the start but my skin was beginning to torque on one of the holds so I resigned to leaving it for another day. I’d climbed what I decided was the good (and hard) part of the problem (jokingly christening it el guava) and so we did the only thing left to do…and doesn’t it look like SO much fun!

Pictures copyright Emi Moosburger

But the harsh reality is that 1 hour before sundown, swimming in the shade isn’t the most joyous experience in the world… but oh does it feel good when the blood rushes back to your extremities! Thanks to Emi for coming and taking great pics.

Some pretty funny guesses, and there was in fact a correct one. It turns out that not many of you read The Guardian as dobbin informed me that this was published in the weekend paper.  I thought Jasper’s guess was hilarious, although perhaps it should be “1,000,000 pull ups, 1,000,000 smashed faces: How I made it”.

So, the big revelation… the wise/funny/ridiculous (or otherwise depending on how much you glean from such things) came from none other than 50 cent. It’s an excerpt from his upcoming book, and so in that respect I guess those words were not penned by his hand, but that of a ghostwriter.

Regardless of who penned them, it’s clear to me that people who reach the top of any discipline share the same drive, desire, and motivation. All successful people have it, and I’ve often wondered whether they have it because they got there, or they have it because that’s what it takes to get there. It’s a classic case of unresolvable causation/correlation. There are perhaps many people who have the same outlook on life but haven’t made it to the top, but their presense is all too easily discounted from the statistics. Who knows?

All I know is that whatever helps you get to where you truly want to be is a good thing. If it’s phrased in terms like “Turn shit into sugar” then all the better. Atmosphere released an album called “When life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold” and I think this is an exceptionally good view to hold. Not in the sense of self deception, but in the simple sense of making the best from every opportunity. There is no such thing as guaranteed failure, only giving up.

Since I’ve been editing the font footage I’ve been reliving my quest to climb Gecko Assis. I was so close. So ridiculously close… there was one go when I’m certain it was in the bag and then my heel just popped at the last second. That split second could have gone differently, my heel could have stayed on and I’m certain I would have made the top. But then what? I would have another goal, another project, another struggle. As things stand, I still have my lemon and it’s awaiting me in Fontainebleau. As soon as the weather’s cold I intend to go back and paint that shit gold.

I came accross these 10 points this morning and was shocked by the context in which I found them. It reminded that I should never underestimate anything or anyone. I present them here, and tomorrow I’ll post up who wrote them/where they’re from. Feel free to have a guess in the comments, although I can’t imagine anybody would guess correctly (don’t google for it)!

1. See Things for What They Are – Intense Realism

Reality can be rather harsh. Your days are numbered. It takes constant effort to carve a place for yourself in this ruthlessly competitive world and hold on to it. People can be treacherous. They bring endless battles into your life. Your task is to resist the temptation to wish it were all different; instead you must fearlessly accept these circumstances, even embrace them. By focusing your attention on what is going on around you, you will gain a sharp appreciation for what makes some people advance and others fall behind. By seeing through people’s manipulations, you can turn them around. The firmer your grasp on reality, the more power you will have to alter it for your purposes.

2. Make Everything Your Own – Self-Reliance

When you work for others, you are at their mercy. They own your work; they own you. Your creative spirit is squashed. What keeps you in such positions is a fear of having to sink or swim on your own. Instead you should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependent on others for power. Your goal in every manoeuvre in life must be ownership, working the corner for yourself. When it is yours, it is yours to lose – you are more motivated, more creative, more alive. The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.

3. Turn Shit into Sugar – Opportunism

Every negative situation contains the possibility for something positive, an opportunity. It is how you look at it that matters. Your lack of resources can be an advantage, forcing you to be more inventive with the little that you have. Losing a battle can allow you to frame yourself as the sympathetic underdog. Do not let fears make you wait for a better moment or become conservative. If there are circumstances you cannot control, make the best of them. It is the ultimate alchemy to transform all such negatives into advantages and power.

4. Keep Moving – Calculated Momentum

In the present there is constant change and so much we cannot control. If you try to micromanage it all, you lose even greater control in the long run. The answer is to let go and move with the chaos that presents itself to you – from within it, you will find endless opportunities that elude most people. don’t give others the chance to pin you down; keep moving and changing your appearances to fit the environment. if you encounter walls or boundaries, slip around them. do not let anything disrupt your flow.

5. Know When to Be Bad – Aggression

You will always find yourself among the aggressive and the passive aggressive who seek to harm you in some way. You must get over any general fears you have of confronting people or you will find it extremely difficult to assert yourself in the face of those who are more cunning and ruthless. Before it is too late you must master the art of knowing when and how to be bad – using deception, manipulation, and outright force at the appropriate moments. Everyone operates with a flexible morality when it comes to their self-interest—you are simply making this more conscious and effective.

6. Lead from the Front – Authority

In any group, the person on top consciously or unconsciously sets the tone. If leaders are fearful, hesitant to take any risks, or overly concerned for their ego and reputation, then this invariably filters its way through the entire group and makes effective action impossible. Complaining and haranguing people to work harder has a counterproductive effect. You must adopt the opposite style: imbue your troops with the proper spirit through your actions, not words. They see you working harder than anyone, holding yourself to the highest standards, taking risks with confidence, and making tough decisions. This inspires and binds the group together. In these democratic times, you must practice what you preach.

7. Know Your Environment from the Inside Out – Connection

Most people think first of what they want to express or make, then find the audience for their idea. You must work the opposite angle, thinking first of the public. You need to keep your focus on their changing needs, the trends that are washing through them. Beginning with their demand, you create the appropriate supply. Do not be afraid of people’s criticisms – without such feedback your work will be too personal and delusional. You must maintain as close a relationship to your environment as possible, getting an inside “feel” for what is happening around you. Never lose touch with your base.

8. Respect the Process – Mastery

The fools in life want things fast and easy — money, success, attention. Boredom is their great enemy and fear. Whatever they manage to get slips through their hands as fast as it comes in. You, on the other hand, want to outlast your rivals. You are building the foundation for something that can continue to expand. To make this happen, you will have to serve an apprenticeship. You must learn early on to endure the hours of practice and drudgery, knowing that in the end all of that time will translate into a higher pleasure—mastery of a craft and of yourself. Your goal is to reach the ultimate skill level—an intuitive feel for what must come next.

9. Push Beyond Your Limits – Self-Belief

Your sense of who you are will determine your actions and what you end up getting in life. If you see your reach as limited, that you are mostly helpless in the face of so many difficulties, that it is best to keep your ambitions low, then you will receive the little that you expect. Knowing this dynamic, you must train yourself for the opposite—ask for more, aim high, and believe that you are destined for something great. Your sense of self-worth comes from you alone—never the opinion of others. With a rising confidence in your abilities, you will take risks that will increase your chances of success. People follow those who know where they are going, so cultivate an air of certainty and boldness.

10. Confront Your Mortality – The Sublime

In the face of our inevitable mortality we can do one of two things. We can attempt to avoid the thought at all costs, clinging to the illusion that we have all the time in the world. Or we can confront this reality, accept and even embrace it, converting our consciousness of death into something positive and active. In adopting such a fearless philosophy, we gain a sense of proportion, become able to separate what is petty from what is truly important. Knowing our days to be numbered, we have a sense of urgency and mission. We can appreciate life all the more for its impermanence. If we can overcome the fear of death, then there is nothing left to fear.

I’m now in full editing mode with the font film. It’s currently untitled, I have lots to do, less time to do it in, and I’m excited. This bit of footage won’t be making it into the film as I don’t think it’s worthy (which is why it’s basically unedited/uncoloured). It’s not proud, it’s not beautiful, it’s not big, and it’s not hard. Whilst I don’t think this is a bad problem (the jump move is fun!), I simply don’t think it’s one of the very best which is why it’s here and not in the film.

Deux Faux Plis en Plats Réels, 7C, Fontainebleau from unclesomebody on Vimeo.

I want this years font film to showcase only great and/or classic problems. Usually there is a correlation between great/classic but more often than not there are a whole host of problems which are great and most definitely unknown.

I’m sure this film will have a problem in it that you have never seen climbed, and I’m fairly confident that this will apply to every single climber out there (except Tyler and I!).

All my editing woes of the last few weeks are over thanks to a late night moment of inspiration/desperation. WOO HOO! So stay tuned for sneak peaks that will be leaking out in the next weeks.

This was always going to be an interesting weekend as I was entering into a domain which I’ve had zero experience and also one which I held no expectations about. I went there knowing that I would give it everything I had as anything else would be a waste of time. I also knew that whatever the outcome of the fitness tests, this would represent a base level for me under which I doubt I can go (unless I stopped climbing completely for several months).  It’s also a fact that I haven’t bouldered more than the odd day here and there for something like 4-5 months, so I was a little unsure about where my base level would be.

Saturday was a day of fitness testing and Sunday would be a day of climbing comp style boulder problems in a comp format. I was apprehensive about the fitness testing from the point of view that after a few tests I would quite simply be destroyed and start performing very under par. My session fitness is not something which I view as being very good. I tend to peak after a good warmup, but my peak is not particularly long and when it begins to decline I rapidly lose any semblance of climbing ability.

The fitness testing comprised of various one arm deadhangs whilst stood on scales, to see how much weight we could get off the ground. The problem was that the holds on which we were hanging were all holds which I could do a 1 armer on. They involved a 35 degree sloper, a small edge, and a 2 finger pocket. However, the scales were not directly below the hold, so as we pulled up our feet came off the scales but to the side, which ruined the test. So we ended up having to pull as hard as we could, whilst still pushing down with our toes on the scales so we didn’t leave the ground. Even though the test wasn’t particularly scientifically rigorous, it was at least uniform so results were reference-able between sets. That much was good, and since our method was the same between different holds the results were applicable, so it was possible to see which grip type was our strongest/weakest.

From there we moved on to an assisted one arm pull up test, using 15% of our bodyweight as a counterweight on a pulley. I managed 12 (or 13 depending on who was counting) with my left and 9 (or 10) with my right. Not particularly great I thought, but this is what I have to face after not doing any boulder training for a very long time. You (the dear reader) should try it out if you have access to a pull up bar, a pulley, and some weights. What I was constantly reminded of during this test was that Rich could do more one armers than this without a counterweight. Still the strongest climber I’ve ever seen. From here we moved on to a jump test which was pretty funny as I’m sure I looked like a complete fool jumping as high I could with my hands on my hips looking as camp as Michael Barrymore.

From there we did some campus testing and then the final event of the day was the rowing test. This involved getting on a rowing machine and going all out in 30 second intervals for 5 minutes. 30 seconds on, 30 off, 5 reps. It doesn’t sound too hard, but we were expected to go all out and the fact that Nick and Dom (manager and sport science dude) were warning us that passing out was possible (verging on likely). They also placed a rubbish bin next to the machine for the sole reason of collecting vomit. Ned went first and put in an amazing effort. I was simply stunned by how hard he was trying and his face communicated an intense level of commitment that I wasn’t sure I could try and match. His first 30 second stint left him with a distance of 176m so that was the score to beat. I didn’t want to beat Ned because I wanted to crush him, I wanted to do better than that because to do so would require me to try as hard as he was trying and that would be an incredible achievement for me. If I could try as hard as Ned and push myself like he had done then I would be supremely satisfied. My first stint passed in a brief moment, but the score was 177m. Now I just had to keep trying as hard as I’d seen Ned do and maintain something like that. I expected a non linear drop off, but I was commited to going all out. I was struggling to breath, but every time to clock ticked round and another set began I just closed my eyes and tried to push as hard as I could. The 4^th set (162m) was really hard and the 30 second rest gave me nothing resembling a single decent breathe. Before the 5^th set started I had a flashback to a presentation Nick had given us earlier. In it there was a slide of Lance Armstrong with the quote “Pain is only temporary, quitting is forever”. I was pretty out of it at this point, probably as a result of not having enough oxygen in my body for how hard I was pushing, and just before I started the 5^th set I unconsciously mumbled “Pain is temporary, success is forever”. Then I closed my eyes and went for it. At this point I lost feeling. I couldn’t feel my body moving, I couldn’t understand that I was on a rowing machine, pushing, pulling, pushing, I was simply doing. All I could hear was the encouraging shouts of all the other team members and I just pushed and pushed. When there were a few seconds to go I opened my eyes and saw the last second tick down. I couldn’t speak and I simply pointed to the foot straps. I then tried to stand up and my legs buckled underneath me. I could barely breath and nothing was in focus. It wasn’t strange, or scary, or odd. It was nothing. I had no comprehension of what was going on… all I could try and do was breath. Dave was carrying me around and was talking to me but I couldn’t really understand or think clearly. I managed to say “outside” and he took most of my weight as I hobbled outside. I still couldn’t focus or stand up on my own. I felt like I was about to pass out at any moment but Dave brought me some water and I poured it over my burning legs. I still wasn’t able to breath properly and each time my eyelids lazily closed I could feel myself blacking out. Dave picked me up and carried me over towards the river, at which point I started vomiting out all of the pain. 10 minutes later and I was returning back to earth and another 15 minutes later I felt normal again. Dave, I owe you for looking after me!

I was deeply shocked by just how far into the pain zone I’d gone and just how painful that zone was. If I thought running was hard then I now realise it’s nothing in relation to the bigger picture. The rowing exercise was the hardest thing I have done in recent memory and the thought of doing it again at some point doesn’t fill me with joy. It does make me realise that the running James and I are doing in Innsbruck is nowhere near hard enough. However, we’re not runners, we’re climbers, so thanks to Frank for pointing me back in the direction of my true goals. The problem is I hate mediocrity so if I’m going to go running I want to run well. It’s like a disease… I have to try hard. I have to give it my best. What an affliction…

The team training session was something that was interesting to me, especially from the point of view that I’ve mainly trained on my own in the past. To have people to train with when they are genuinely positive and want nothing more that to see you succeed is incredible. But jealousy and wanting to burn others off often create a facade of genuine encouragement but veil nothing but negativity. I’ve seen both sides of this coin and have spent many enjoyable evenings with my friends whom I want to succeed with all my soul, but I’ve also seen the dark side when people will go to ridiculous lengths for inane objectives. I felt like this weekend was the former, with an air of genuine encouragement. Personally I want everyone on the team to get fitter, faster, stronger, and reach a level where they can all kill it on an international level. I want the same for myself and I felt that that feeling was reciprocated which was fantastic. I wasn’t sure I’d be saying this, but I’m looking forward to the next training session with great excitement as I see an avenue to improvement that I don’t think I’d undertake on my own.

The bottom line is that I now have a reference for my base level. This is where I’m at without having bouldered for a long time, so after I do start bouldering again I’ll be keen to see how different the values are in all the tests we did. But for me the true measure of how well I’m going is represented by the level of difficulty of the boulder problems I’m doing outdoors, and perhaps how quickly I’m doing them is also a measure of my ability to transfer strength/power into rock climbing. I’m looking forward to the cold weather and to get back in the thermals and concentrate on nothing more than 7 moves. For now though it’s back to Innsbruck and back on to the route climbing for a little longer.

In between all the editing James and I have managed the odd trip to the rocks, discovering some of the limestone around Tirol. A couple of days ago we went to a crag called Nassereith, which is a small overhanging crag near Imst. Now, I’m not a fan of limestone but I went with an open mind, and from the road it looked kind of cool. We got up there and bumped into Stew and Sabby, who were just leaving. They gave us the lowdown on the crag including a selection of what routes to try. Stew, modest as ever, had just crushed an 8c there and said that he thought I would really like it. I was dubious. I’ve not tried a hard route yet and quite frankly I still don’t feel ready. I don’t see the point of trying something which you really don’t have a high chance of doing, unless there are other factors involved.

We warmed up on a genuinely terrible 7b. It reminded me of why I dislike limestone, with nasty holds, generally horrible climbing, and polished rock. A bad start, but I wasn’t ready to give up. James then set off up a very bouldery 8b+ called Blasius (click for video),  but dismissed it after reaching a sharp undercut. He pressed on a bit further but didn’t enjoy what he was climbing on so came down. I wanted to do a 7c to the right, but in the spirit of friendly competition and intrigue I set off on the 8b+. The crux is lown down, and involves moving off an undercut to a poor hold and then one more move to better holds. I managed the undercut move after a couple of tries but the next crimp just felt terrible. In the video it seems like an easy move so either my fingers really are very weak or my skin was bad or it was just too warm. After that I did the moves to the top and stripped it on the way down. It’s a very bouldery route and one which I’m unsure about. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, or whether I want to try it again or not. I’m reserving judgement on it for now!

After this we were cursing our choice of limestone and decided we should stick to the granite that lines the valley’s in the other direction! Before leaving though, James decided to quest up the 8c that Stew had recommended. He went up, did the moves, and then for some unknown reason I decided to have a go as well. Probably something to do with being allowed a 50cm family size pizza (or two regular 36cm diameter)  to myself if I could do something extraordinary. Quite why I decided this particular route would be my first attempt at an 8c I don’t know, but it looked like a boulder problem in the sky. It turns out that’s exactly what it is.

The lower wall is somewhere between 7c and 8a, after which you get a semi rest (one that I probably couldn’t use for much more then a bit of  chalk and a few deep breathes), then into a boulder problem which is around the 7B+ mark. The boulder problem is quite good, involving another crux move off an undercut, and I managed to climb that section after a few tries. It was funny because my mind was telling me that I should be able to lock the moves statically, but my body was telling me something different and I was having to slap! I’m thinking with a strong mind and climbing with a weak body!

It’s actually an allright route, certainly not the worst 8c I’ve seen in these parts, but also not the best. I do think it’s one that I could do but whether or not that changes from a thought into reality remains to be seen. I think I’d need a bit more fitness but with a concerted effort it could fall before winter. Good effort to Stew for doing it in 5 tries, a confirmation of his good form! I had a distant dream of making a certain 8c at Buoux my first, but that seems like a lofty goal at the moment… but aren’t the best things in life worth waiting for?

Overall I felt good on the rocks again and that was welcome. I didn’t feel like a total and complete punt so perhaps the valley floor is now at an end and I can begin the hard journey upwards once again.

Food for two (followed by ice cream in town)… note the concept 1/3 calzone bottom right!

The last week I’ve spent many, many hours editing so I could have the final(ish) SSRT film ready for today. I haven’t been sleeping all that much since I’ve been aiming for a high efficiency rate, which meant getting up through the night to start a new render, or some other process. Unfortunately at 6am I arose to find my render crashed and some horrific memory errors. So there I was at 6:15am reading some web page about hacking the Sony Vegas dll files… by 6:30am I started off the process again and went back to sleep. At 8am I was back up and was facing another error. This was more problematic since I was leaving at 9:30am for the airport. No problem I thought… there is always a solution! I set up a vnc server on my main editing machine, set up my render queue, set up my ftp client to automatically upload the finished videos, and hit the road!

Innsbruck, Munich, Munich Airport, Birmingham, Derby. I arrived at home, set up my laptop, vnc’d into my editing machine in Innsbruck, and somewhat amazingly it worked. I then started finishing some jobs and got another low memory error. A quick restart to fix things and BOOM! Something went very wrong at this point. Either the machine hung up whilst restarting, or my IP address changed (which I don’t think it should since it’s static), or someone broke in to the flat at the exact moment and stole my computer. Whatever the occurrence, the outcome was the same. No more remote access. So now I’m basically wasting the next 3 days in terms of editing which is really annoying for me. I hate being unproductive and this is a totally unproductive few days as far as editing goes.

However, it may prove to be productive in another way. As some people may know, I got an invitation to be on the British Bouldering Squad. The “squad” is like the poor man’s “team”, the B to the A. I accepted as I think it’s a potential avenue to learning more and developing my climbing both on the rocks and on the plastic. There is something to be learned everywhere you look, as long as you are looking with the right vision. So this weekend it’s my first training weekend with the team and it’s a whole load of fitness testing. Joy.

I haven’t bouldered for a few months so it would be foolish for me to expect to do well in these tests, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing to be gleaned from them. I’m certain that I’ve lost a chunk of fingerstrength, but where I’m at now represents in my mind the absolute base level of my ability. What I exhibit in these tests will be a platform below which I won’t go, it will represent my base level of strength after 7 years of climbing. That will be interesting in itself, but it will also be fascinating as I am planning a full on return to bouldering in the next 6-8 weeks. Questions about how quickly I’ll see a return to form and what that form will be are things that pique my curiosity.

Mood Management

I’ve written little of my recent climbing escapades because quite frankly I’ve had nothing worth writing about. As of 2 weeks ago, each day my progress, or should that be regress, have spiralled outof control. Every day that I go climbing I seem to be worse than the previous session. I’d like to believe this is due to hitting it so hard that I’m not giving my body time to recover… but unfortunately I know what that feels like and this isn’t it. So what is up (down)?

I have little idea, but I think it may be something to do with a small bout of being ill. Since leaving for my brief jaunt to England, I’ve basically woke up feeling rough every day. I’m not one to whine (unless I’m very ill – so keep clear in that case) and so I haven’t wanted to be the weak cog in the machine. James has been pushing through his mountain biking injuries which seem only to be stunted by the fact that his bike is now broken (thank God – or any other divine/non divine power that you may or may not believe in), so I had to pull my weight. Pulling my weight… this is what climbing is all about isn’t it. You pull your weight upwards, assuming you aren’t on a gentle slab in which case you’d push it upwards. Well, each day that has elapsed I’ve felt like my fingers and arms have gotten weaker whilst my weight has increased by another 5kg. I’ve been on the scales daily (you call it obsessive, I call it informed) and apart from a small rise after Neil’s wedding party, I’m still relatively light for my current built, hovering around the 71-72kg mark.

It’s not possible to suddenly become weak, so I’m simply not able to tap into what strength I may have. I just feel fatigued so quickly and I’m now desperately clinging on to the hope that it’s because I’ve been under the weather. I even took a couple of complete rest days to try and recover but they didn’t seem to help.

A couple of days ago we tried to go climbing, but since there is always a first time for everything, I arrived at the car to find I’d left the lights on and had a dead battery. All the people I know were off climbing somewhere, and the local taxi drivers didn’t seem too concerned about helping us. The locals who did want to help were unable to because of a lack of jump leads so in the end we gave up and headed home. With this defeat fresh in my memory I decided we should at least go to the climbing wall for a bit of a session. I don’t know why I arrived with expectations of greatness, but they were shot down with the most massive missile known to man. I fell off a 7a+/b, not pumped silly, but simply out of energy. I found it a little hilarious but also a little worrying, so I decided I should have another go to satch it up. Then I fell off. Third time’s a charm right? Not quite. Third time was a pathetic effort that was adding salt to my already open wounds. Well, that was that. I tried another route of the same grade and fell off it, at which point I decided I really must be under the spell of some force of illness.

The middle ground is not a path I’ve ever wished to tread. I sometimes ask people what they would do if they had 2 slices of hot toast but only enough jam to cover one slice. What would you do? There are only a few options, but I’ve always been of the opinion that it would be best to eat the first with nothing, then really enjoy the second as it should be. The middle ground is not somewhere I wish to be, so for me it’s a matter of trying really hard to get above it.

In the last week I’ve felt like I’m in the middle ground of sport climbing whilst at the same time having slipped back towards the middle ground with my bouldering too. It’s frustrating, because I know full well that to improve at sport climbing I need to persist, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be losing some of my strength. I’m also aware that these feelings could have come from the fact that I couldn’t one arm a small edge about 10 days ago, which came as quite a shock. It’s been a long time since I felt that weak. I know that I have hugely disparate sessions at home, with one day feeling invincible and others feeling scheisse, but when I can’t do a one armer on a small campus edge then there is a problem. So what to do about being in this middle ground? Mix it up and try to get both stronger, fitter, and better all at the same time.

With that in mind, a couple of days ago we put up a fingerboard to try and redress some of the lost power/strength issues. The first session was bad. Really bad. James and I were both rather dismayed at our own (and each others) lack of anything resembling strength. In fact, it was appalling. I simply can’t believe that I’ve become so weak so quickly… but the results speak for themselves. You can’t argue with (properly conducted) science.

Today’s session was better. I have refound the ability to one arm a small campus edge, but not on a smaller hold, which is still pretty poor. Progress at least came forth like a much needed hug from power itself, so the psyche was lifted. After loading myself up with everything of any weight I could find around the house I managed to tip the scales at 102kg. Not heavy enough but we had nothing else. So with an extra 30kg I did a bunch of pull ups on a campus edge and strangely enough they became easier after getting through a few sets. Perhaps my arms are remembering what it is to pull?

After getting all adrenalized up on the fingerboard I had a wave of overpsyche and decided it was time to go running. I asked James if he was coming and his morose reply was “if you’re going then I’m going”. Wonderful! The psyche was clearly affecting my judgement as I decided we would run 10km today. I’ve wanted to do this for a while and I simply keep putting it off but before leaving the house I decided today was the day. During the second kilometre, or thereabouts, my muscles starting aching and I became acutely aware of the task I’d mentally undertaken. I tried to switch of my brain and just run, but that didn’t work, so I simply focused on positive thoughts and put one foot in front of the other. I’ve been using a program called Sportstracker on my phone to measure the distance and the time on our runs, but today I couldn’t bear to look at the phone. I had a definite goal and I didn’t want to know how close we were to it, because I knew it was far more likely to be disappointing news. So we just kept running. We ran further out of Innsbruck than ever before, and then I realised what was going to happen if 10km was going to become a reality.

All I could think about was a scene from Gattaca, where Vincent and Anton are playing a game of chicken by swimming out into the sea. You can watch a horrifically low quality version here, which should give you an idea of what’s going on (if not the cinematic beauty);

I knew that to make it to 10km I was going to have to run as far as I could before looking at my phone, and turning around at 5km would have been foolish. I wouldn’t have made it back. So I simply kept running. When we were far beyond any known point I decided we must be at around 7-8km and I looked at my phone to find we were only at 6km. Oh God. So I just kept on running, thinking about saving nothing for the run back. If I could make it to 8 or 9km before turning around I was sure we’d make the 10km mark. Unfortunately the path we were on petered out into a grass track, then into a mud track, and then eventually into a field, so we were forced to turn around at about 7.5km I guess. So now the run back. I just kept going, and going, all the while desperately trying not to look at my phone. When I did glance at my phone and it said 8.5km I knew we’d make it. I hadn’t looked at the time yet, worried it would be so bad that I may quit all together! Soon the 9km mark fell and sure enough we hit 10km without all that much drama. I’d made this the big goal, and whilst I wasn’t feeling anywhere near collapsing, I just stopped for the pure reason of reaching 10km. After a quick high five I sat down on a bench, looked at the time, and was quite surprised to find we’d done it in 44min. It’s not a fast pace, but I thought we were running quite slowly so I was happy about that. After a minute or two we realised there was no real need to stop running, so we pushed on and ran the rest of the way to our river bathing point. I guess we probably did about 14-15km all in, but there was a 2 minute rest at 10km so it doesn’t count.

Now I expect my legs will feel a little sore tomorrow which I’m hoping won’t affect the climbing too much, although I have no idea where we’re going or what we’re going to climb. Lots of unknowns. I do know that the editing has finally taken a turn for the positive so if I can get a couple of final pieces of the puzzle together then the TNF film will be finished and work can resume on the font film. I’m hoping to get the font film (as yet unnamed) finished by the end of month, so expect a trailer or two in the next couple of weeks.

Apologies for the word intensive post.

Time is somewhat short at the moment as I’m spending all of my time editing. We did go climbing the other day but to report on it would be to disgrace myself even further. However, I haven’t forgotten that every peak has two valleys…

The SSRT film is coming to a close and my seemingly never ending epics with HDV files have perhaps finally been resolved. If only I’d come up with this solution earlier, I would have saved many days of lost work. Anyway, life is a learning process and I expect that I’ll be learning until the day I die… now if only I could find a way to learn faster!

Here’s a bit of footage from the “cutting room floor”, which I thought I’d share. It would be easy to assume that Gaz and James are being somewhat facetious, and the only thing that makes me think otherwise is the fact that I consider them both good friends. I like to think that they really do hold the thoughts they share and I guess I also like to believe that I also think them. Positive affirmation. Think it and it shall be yours. So enjoy this little (and perhaps stupid) snippet… click through to vimeo to watch it in HD if your prejudice against SD.

Ice Cream Challenge – Arco from unclesomebody on Vimeo.

Unfortunately today’s rock adventure was cut short as my car battery was dead due to me being a total dimwit and leaving my lights! Once again, live and learn.