Backlash

I title it so, because I think it's my body getting back at me. I'm a little ashamed to say I haven't been particularly healthy lately. Because of work being massively busy, and me having to be on-site all the time, it's hard to have a packed lunch or to even think about what I'm going to have because I never know where I'm going to be. Convenience food, therefore (obviously) is the way forward. That doesn't excuse what shit I've been eating at night, but then again I get home late and can't be bothered cooking and it's all such a trial and bah, I doesn't feel good.

For the longest time, I've not been on a diet as such, or specifically trying to lose weight, but I build up a mental picture of my diet in my mind and try and stay on the right side of healthy. It was easy, years in fact, not to eat crap. I didn't become super skinny but I stayed at my weight for ages. These last few months have changed all that. I've been eating crap. And my climbing, and willingness to climb, has actually suffered for it too.

It's a backlash, because after being lazy and not climbing for two weeks (terrible, I know), I went to MY wall with my cousin last weekend. I was tired, not quite with it, but I went to that wall with her specifically because I knew it, and I sort of wanted to try and surprise her with how my abilities have improved. Fail.
I was doing a climb which hung backwards. An overhang type thing. Anyway, I was trying to reach a hold I needed momentum for, twisted myself to it while quite tense, and put my back out. Fucking bollocks.

I laid down on the mat for about 10 minutes doing what I thought was helping my back out - You know the type of stretches you do when you don't actually know what you're doing. I think it was just muscle, because I did eventually get up and climb a bit more even though it was hurting. Not much, though, and I left feeling a bit beaten, tired, and upset with my performance as a whole. The next day was worse, though, as I struggled to get out of bed. Getting up off a chair from the bus, it took me 6/7 strides before I started walking normally. I had to get the strongest painkillers I could find and battle through 2 days of pain before it started to ease off. All this because I'm eating shit and didn't climb for two weeks.

Basically, on the run up to Christmas, I've become festively plump. It's happened, I'm willing to admit it. And, even now I'm still feeling bad, I'm not going to stop. I've signed up for a triathlon, and by July next year I'm going to be the fittest I've ever been, ripped like a whores dress and strong enough to move the world. All this will improve my climbing by about 300% I should imagine, at it's worst. So, basically, until Christmas is over and I start to actually do some exercise, I think climbing is off the agenda.

Feels bad yo.

Holy Crap!

My mate, Leo, who I introduced to climbing, has made a blog of her own. Don't worry, it's not about climbing, so my status as Chief Excellent Blogger Of Climbing Fame isn't under threat. However, she has reminded me I have my own blog, and haven't written in it at all.

That's because not a lot has happened. Except my arms have got bigger, my chest seems to have gotten broader, and now people that go climbing are asking me how to do certain routes - that last one feels particularly wrong. Me? I'm new. Don't ask me, I've got no idea. Just do this that et voila. Holy shit I'm awesome.

Oh, and also I signed up for the mens London Triathlon. That's pretty exciting except I don't have a bike and I'm super unfit, which in the grand scheme of things to have/be aren't encouraging. But, that means I'll have to train, and that means I'll lose weight, and it reminds me of something my dear cousin Rebecca once told me. She said, about a pro climber, that the 1 thing he did to get to the "next level" was lose weight, so that's all gravy.

I'ma lose weight AND be a Triathlete \o/

Oh, Christmas soon, have fun everyone!

p.s. Leo's blog; http://futuresphoneless.blogspot.com/

I'm BAAAAACK

Thank Christ for that, I've been to the wall again. It's been so, so long (a whole month) since the last time and it's good to be back. This time was slightly different however, 'cos I took a mate of mine. We had recently met up for a mutual friends Birthday and I got onto the subject of this awesome new sport I've been playing at, and it turns out she's scared of heights. Unperturbed, I told her she should most definitely come along to the climbing wall I go to and give it a shot. I think somewhere along the line we suffered from mis-communication because I think she was expecting ropes. And, come to think of it, I'm not too sure whether that was a good thing for her or not. If there are ropes, it's stands to reason that you're safe from falling to your death (or at least should be). But that in turns suggests you're going higher than you would bouldering. Either way, she turned up and was a true soldier. A trooper. She did totally awesome and it was one of the better trips to an indoor wall as a whole. Leonie totally rocked it, even if she did panic a little bit at the last climb. But before the last climb she did 7 others and two circuits of the traverse wall.

So, this post, I'm going to give you Rick's Top Tips For Trying To Climb When You're Afraid Of Heights.

Quite basically, the fist thing you've got to learn is how to jump off a wall. Not fall - jump. I made Leo go up 1/4 of the way and then jump down. The mats are soft, but if anyone is anything like her, it's the feeling in the belly that really gets you - and whenever you feel that you associate it with danger and therefore hate it. For most of us it feels weird but I don't even think about it/feel it anymore when I'm on a wall. It's a non-issue.
She did that a couple of times, and then I made her go 1/2 way, then 3/4 etc etc.. By the last climb she jumped off right from the top. Granted, it wasn't through choice that she did that. She got up there, was tired, realised she couldn't climb down again without letting go of some hand holds, had a little panic, and then just did it. She hated it. But she did it, and now knows that jumping from that height is safe as long as it's a choice! I don't expect her to be jumping off the top of all the walls she climbs but now she knows she's at least safe.

Edit - Dunno why I didn't post this when I finished it last time. This was my return pust too! anyway. Leonie has now been back 3x to the wall, and I reckon she's going to buy her first shoes pretty soon. I'm happy about this.

My hands, my hands, my haaaaaaands

They're so raw right now. Haven't been this raw since 'Nam (if 'nam was when I first started to climb) - And I reckon it's cos I've got new chalk. I dunno about this chalk, it's new and I'm not used to it and I don't like it as much as my old chalk.

What's in a chalk I hear you cry! Well, truth be told I don't know. What makes one chalk expensive and one chalk cheap? Packaging, more than likely, but there's probably a bit of science behind it too. All I know about chalk is they come in different packaging. I shall go into detail about this: now.

This is a chalk ball. It is a sack made of material that you can fill (witch chalk (or something else if you wish))

Loose chalk. You can use this as is, or even re-fill your chalk ball (see above) with it.

This is a generic picture of a man rubbing his hands with chalk. This shows you what to do with climbing chalk.

This is a chalk bag. You can put your chalk ball in this, amongst other things (marbles, possibly) There are handy to keep chalk off your other climbing gear.

Riveting, I'm sure you'll agree.. However mundane and boring it might actually be, though, chalk is quite a nice tool to use while climbing. It dries up your hands if they're moist. You don't want moist hands on rock. You could use something known as "pof" but I have no idea what that is so I won't bother going into it.

Anyway, tldr: The chalk I bought is different from my last chalk and my hands hurt and I think it's the chalks fault but I can't be sure.

I love climbing.

I miss..

Climbing. I haven't been for a few weeks now since i lost my job (you know, saving money and all that good jazz) but now that i have one I'll be able to go again, and thank god for that because im becoming a podge again. I miss the wall! and winter is coming

Equipment!

In very basic terms, all you need to do bouldering are these items:

The big yellow thing is a bouldering mat. That will hopefully protect you from broken ankles when you're climbing a boulder with a landing spot that has uneven ground. It's also a lot more comfortable landing on your ass on that mat that it is on the floor.

The "pod" bag contains chalk. I have a chalk ball in mine, other people prefer just loose chalk. Either way works, it's down to personal preference. You use chalk to dry your hands of sweat and allows your fingers and hands and skin to grip better onto rock surfaces.

And then you have the rock shoes, as discussed in a previous post.

The grey thing hanging out of the bouldering mat is jut something to wipe your feet on before climbing. It's nothing special and not essential, it's actually just a feature of that particular bouldering mat, so nothing to worry about.

But that's basic items. If you did what I did, and go camping for 4 days, you need a lot more - and if you don't put thought into it before hand and just throw things in a bag assuming all you'll need is clothes and a place to sleep with a bag to sleep in like I did, you're wrong.

FOOD AND OTHER SHIT

You need:

• A mess tin or something to eat stuff from. You don't want to have to buy multiple plastic plates like I did, just to throw the majority of them away
• Eating utensil to eat stuff with. See above
• Mug or something to drink stuff from. Plastic ones don't hold coffee or other hot drinks so well, which is why I ended up borrowing a mug every time I wanted a coffee. Kind of embarrassing.
• Stove. Not everyone will have a stove, and even if they do, it's much nicer using your own fuel for things like coffee and hot drinks. If you're all cooking together a big stove will be a big help, so discuss this beforehand. Either way it's a handy thing to have if you ever go for a climb by yourself and fancy a cuppa'. You can get really small stoves that are perfect for such a function
• Knife to cut stuff. Try and make it a utility knife like a Swiss Army or a Leatherman. That way, you'll have multiple tools for multiple uses all nice and neatly tucked away (Can/bottle opener for instance)

I had none of these things, and I wish I had. Especially the mug. It's a bit annoying watching everyone drink coffee while you can't, and then have to borrow someone elses after they've used it. Or, equally, you drinking your coffee really really fast and burning yourself because you're using someone elses shit.

COMFORT STUFF

You'll want

• A chair. That's right - I didn't think, while packing, that I'll want to sit on something other than the ground for the whole 4 days. *shakes head*
• A pillow. See above.
• A head torch/torch. I actually had one of these, and it's very useful for going into dark woods for a late night piss.
• Tent. Clearly. Try and get one with an outer shell in case it rains.
• Washing up liquid. 
• In car cables for any essential electronics like a smartphone, because they die in a day.

Back to font

Yo yo, guess who went back to Fontainbleau? That's right, me baby, me. I find it kinda cool that people spend years climbing before going outdoors and I've been 3 times in 5 months. Anyway, this time was different from the last time for a few reasons. Firstly, I went with 4 other guys. 3 of them are at a much higher level than me, the other being my mate Ross who, although climbs, never really did much bouldering which means I had a climbing partner, woot.
This time I also had more climbing experience behind me which meant I attempted and completed a load more climbs than I had tried previously. It's pretty cool what a few weeks at a climbing wall can do to someones confidence, ability and stamina. I recommend it before going anywhere!

Things I learnt in font:

1: French supermarket checkout people are so ridiculously slow you might as well sow the seed and reap the rewards yourself. Possibly over-exaggerated but really, honestly, it's a painful experience.

2: When you're with a group of people trying to do everything together, as a unit (like, for instance, buying food together) you need to make compromises and not be so picky. If you don't want to work as a unit, or a team, then don't. Discussions are the enemy, they take so fucking long and no-one is ever happy. Basically a discussion (especially between men) is everyone trying to get their own way.

3: Warm up - I went straight for a hard, pumpy climb on the first day and totally fucked my elbows. I think I have tendonitis (Tennis Elbow) now because I didn't ease myself in. I had to take Ibuprofen to numb the pain when I climbed - It worked but I didn't do as many climbs as I would have liked, just because of the sheer dull agony you have with inflamed tendons.

4: Go camping prepared. I didn't have eating utensils, cooking utensils, drinking utensils. I didn't have any utensils. I'm going to do a whole post about what you will need when you go camping. It's all really really obvious stuff and I took absolutely none of it, fool that I am.

I've taken quite a few pics from this trip and I've got some pics stored that I want to use. I'll hopefully go through the blog and trim the fat and add pictures of things I've been talking about soon. I just have to find the motivation after work. Either way, watch this space.

Rick

Woah here yet!

Dear blog, I apologise for being away for so long! Between being busy at work and playing computer games while im at home, I sincerely haven't had a chance to be bothered to update you.

Well now that the apology is out of the way, its time for a post. Oh wait, I forgot the third reason I haven't written anything in a while - I have very little to offer. At the moment my climbing is all about improving with the techniques I have. Boring to write about and probably even more boring to read.

But there is news. Next week I'm off to font again (yessss) and I think I'll take lots of pictures of good climbers and of techniques so I can update my blog with visual...stuff.
Also I had my first uncontrolled fall on Wednesday at the arch. That means I wasn't expecting to fall so I didn't push myself away from the wall. Woosh! Happened so fast I didn't even get time to react. A blur of wall with coloured streams past me as I hit the deck. I was so close to either balling or chinning myself on a hold on the way down the dudes I was climbing with stood in stupefied awe.

Well that's it. Look forward to pictures!

Laser

Saturday climb with le David

I felt pretty bad last week. I've signed up at the climbing gym for 3 months and was planning to go like, 2x a week so I can get a lot of out of, but it's gone from 2x to 1x a week and last week I almost didn't go. That's bad. I still want to climb, that isn't the issue, but I can see that if I get lazy and not go on my usual schedule I'll just end up not going because.. well.. I dunno why, my brain is weird. I swear sometimes I'd rather not do something I enjoy just so I don't have to make the effort to get there.

So yeah, I hadn't gone for 5 days or something and wasn't planning to on the Saturday until David rang up and asked if I wanted to go with him. I said sure! It's a lot easier to say yes when you know you're going to go with someone instead of by yourself. And what did I learn?

Not a lot.

Sorry.

However, I did complete a route I've been trying to do for weeks - That's progress for you. All you need is pateince and time, and suddenly something that seems hard at first isn't actually all that hard after all. Although I'm still stuck on that motherfucking yellow. Oh, which reminds me, I got another compliment *although it wasn't meant for me to hear* from some guy who is a lot better at climbing than me. I was tryign to do the yellow, and I asked him if he could. Eventually he did complete it, but not before trying several times and while watching me, turning to his buddy and saying "I'm beeing shown up by a new starter" because I'm getting so close to completing it, and was closer than him to doing it at the start.

So yeah anyway, ego boosts come thick and fast from fellow climbers it seems.

Trust your feet, dudes.

Smelly Yoghurt

This is very much unrelated to climbing, but my workmate is eating a yoghurt. In my experience yoghurt shouldn't really have a strong smell, you know? I know it smells, but it's not the kind of smell that travels, and yet I'm sitting here about a foot away from him and I can smell it. It's not a bad smell, don't get me wrong, it's just a bit strange. Yoghurt shouldn't be smelly from over a foot away.

It's weird. I'm weirded out by it. I wish he would hurry up and finish his yoghurt.

Elbow Lock

I don't really know what to call this. I'm sure there's some other climbing term that describes it better, but it's a useful technique that I'm just getting to grips with.
Excuse the pun.
Actually no, I won't apologise for it because I found it hilarious.
So yeah, a novice like myself tends to hold close to the wall via bicep strength. If there's a good hold in front of me with a lot of grip, I'll use SO much of my strength to keep myself on the wall and keep my arm bent and tensed up. Imagine walking around a supermarket holding your basket up by your hip instead of letting it hang by your thigh. In a very short amount of time, your arm is going to start to hurt, get weak, and then ultimately just fail on you. When you just let your basket hang and rely on your grip to keep the basket off the floor, you can hold it for a lot longer.
I know this seems like a very simple concept, and in reality it is, but it feels sort of unnatural when you first get on a wall. When you're worried about falling off, your muscles tense and you use more energy. When you're not worried about falling off and you know your grip will hold, you just straighten your arm so you're not using any bicep strength and just let your grip hold you against the wall. Sometimes the hold is high above your head so you can hang on it like a monkey. Sometimes it's a little bit lower so your body sort of hangs away from the wall but you do learn that your hands are stronger than you realise. If the grip is low in your center of gravity, your feet should be taking your weight and your hand/arm should just be there for a little of the support, not a lot of it.
This technique becomes more advanced when you start to use it on the horizontal rather than the vertical. When you're using it horizontal, you need a lot more refined balance and weight management, and also more forethought for the next move. You can't just do a chin-up for the next hold. I've yet to do a climb that requires this, although I have seen it done and it looks pretty cool.

My list of Things I Have Learnt is starting to dwindle now. There is a lot more stuff I'm sure, but I've got to learn them first. Most of this stuff I have written about was learnt by looking and trying out techniques myself, but I reckon I'm coming to a plateau. This means I've got to practice what I've already learnt and hopefully hang around the right people who can show me some cool shit.

Next time: Barn Door (seriously)

Wednesday

I did actually go climbing last week, but have been so busy at work and home that I haven't written anything about it. But, to be honest, it was quite uneventful. I was late getting to the wall because there's a game on the Xbox I've been playing too much of, so it was mostly about the two routes I was trying to crack. I got pretty far, I'm getting more confident on the v3 yellow I've been trying to do. Actually, there was another climber trying to do the same route. He's far more advanced than I am and he said it's the route giving him the most trouble too, so I don't feel too bad. In fact I think got a little bit further than him. It's a weird route that requires a lot of balance stretch in an awkward position. He introduced me to a v4 he says is a lot of fun - I can barely to the sit-start :<

Another route I did had me stumped for a good 10 minutes. I was standing there looking at it not knowing how to start, the positioning was so strange for the holds. I also don't know when I can use the wall and when I can't, I just figured if I'm not using the holds I'm not doing the climb properly but I don't think that's the case. I asked a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing to help me out, to show me how to start. After some consideration he showed me how to use the arette to start. But he got to a point half way up the route that he couldn't do so he jumped off. After he showed me how to start, I breezed up it straight away and found it quite easy. That gave me a bunch of confidence, doings something a more experienced climber couldn't do - he was showing his mate how to climb too, bet it wasn't too fun for him. Shucks.

Ngh

Well fuck me, I feel like I haven't been climbing in ages. Thinking about going tonight but I really need to wash some clothes -_- I can't do both, and I'm not going to the cinema tomorrow for the usual Orange Wednesdays. So, that means, I could go home tonight and do my washing and then go climbing on Wednesday. And, then, I'm working on Saturday which means not getting pissed up on Friday night, which means I can climb instead. Besides, getting pissed up is off the cards because it's Save Money Month.
I feel like I'm putting climbing off and I feel guilty for it. Not sure why. I want to go do those V3's I was trying last week.
I shall climb tomorrow. Tonight is washing night. Get it out of the way!

Ok, decided.

Hobo

I literally, 100% guaranteed got chased by two homeless people tonight. I have no idea where I was, but I ran incase one of them stabbed me with a needle carrying HIV. Somewhere along the line i got a taxi home,travelling south of the river, for about 40 quid. I would be upset about the expense but at the end of the day I dont have aids. £40 seems a small price to pay. London is a fucked up but interesting place. And through all of that, my taxi driver was a legend.

Happy travels, Londoners.

Rick

ps, bend your fucking knees.

"Crimpy" holds

Crimpy holds are the kind of holds you get your fingertips involved in. Instead of being able to use the whole palm of your hand like you're holding onto a large outcrop of rock, you're restricted. These, as a beginner, are the types of holds I dreaded because I had an idea in my head that my fingers weren't strong enough to pull up my body weight. I wasn't wrong - I can't pull my whole bodyweight up using just my fingertips on a tiny slither of outcropped rock. Apart from them not staying locked in place under 12st of weight, it really really hurts. The edge of the rock will start to dig into your skin and, well, it ain't pleasant. However, I was going into these climbs with a: the wrong mindset and b: the wrong technique.
First off, don't try and pull your whole body up with just your hands on a crimpy hold when you're a beginner. One of the climbs I did in Font taught me just that. I used one leg with my bodyweight shifted over that foot to push myself up the rock, while my hands took maybe 40% of the weight just to aid the the move. When I first started the route my ass was pointing out so I could look at my feet (no idea why I wanted to see my feet), my fingers were trying to grip crimp with my arms bent and my leg pushing me off the wall instead of up the wall. It's kinda hard to explain, but there are a few golden rules to follow.

1: Keep your ass in - the closer you are to the wall the less effort your arms have to make to keep you on it. Keep your bodyweight as vertical as possible. If your face is close to the wall, and your feet are on the wall, and your ass is out so you look a bit like this symbol: < then your fingers/hands/arms are going to really struggle to keep your weight. If your body looks more like this symbol: | then your fingers are only used to keep you on the wall, and the bigger and stronger muscles in your legs can do the lions share of the pushing while your arms just keep you in and your fingers are just anchors.

2: Slow and steady - Sometimes it just makes sense to go slow. If you're on a precarious piece of the route and all it will take is the lightest of zephyrs to unbalance you, go sllooowww. It's more effective than I thought it would be. I surprised myself that I can actually push and pull my weight up slowly, I don't have to explode upwards, and I think other beginners will be surprised by this too. Shifting weight, keeping your grip and being poised will improve over time (I hope) but until then, slow and steady wins the race. Completing some routes has come down to how fast I try and stand up on a foothold. If I go fast I get unbalanced and my hands rip away from the wall and I blame my strength, when really all I did to complete it was slowly move and carefully shift my weight so that my fingers weren't put under too much strain and voila. The sense of achievement is amazing.

3: Get your nails involved - I learnt this last week at Font. Stop being a pussy, stop assuming you're not strong enough, and just get your nails involved if you need to. Find that little bit extra. Take the pain! You won't regret it. It's unlikely you'll break the skin, and it's unlikely your nails will rip away from your fingers and leave you bleeding and squealing in pain. Man up! One wall I did, David nailed it first time. I couldn't understand how he got such purchase on his fingertips. I gritted my teeth, turned my hands into claws and forced them downwards into a gap until I could feel my nails gripping and then tried the ascent again using my legs to push up 80% of my weight and using my arms to pull up 20%, and voila. It was easy to get up that first stage that was previously hard for me when I wasn't trusting my fingertips and using my nails. So, do it. *nod*

4: Use your face - Ok this isn't strictly something you should do, but I have used my face to get up a route in the past and I plan to in the future until I don't need it any more. Just use anything you can to get yourself up. It feels so good in the end to stand on top of a boulder.

5a: Trust your grip - A lot of the time I've jumped from a route because I think my foot is going to slip off. It feels like I'm being held up by my arms alone and the very tip of my shoe won't stay on the rock if I put some weight on it. It feels that it's going to slip. Just trust your grip, you'll be amazed what your shoes will stick to. Sometimes I feel like my toes aren't even on the rock and it's a little bit of rubber holding me up, but that's fine. Your shoes are so tight that it might as well be part of your body. Even shifting 10% more weight onto your foot can mean the different between success and failure. If your foot does slip you can just keep your body arms length away from the wall as you fall and land on a crash mat. Simples.

5b: Bend your legs - As you land on a crashmat

5c: Exit Strategy - I have not come off a wall yet that I didn't expect to. That means, I haven't been climbing and confident of staying on the wall and then suddenly fallen off it. I've always known I was going to come off, and prepared for it. Had an exit strategy in my mind. This way it's all expected, I know where my body will shift, I know which hold is likely to come off first etc. I bend my legs. I keep myself away from the wall so I don't hit it with my face. I enjoy climbing.

6: Heroism - If you don't wanna do it, don't do it. Don't be a hero, you'll only be hurting yourself. Confidence is a massive part of climbing - If you try something really scary, fail and hurt yourself, you'll take more than just a physical knock. Easy routes are fun, and if you're on the harder routes, have an exit strategy from the wall. If it goes too high and you're not confident, just jump off - you can always go back. If you don't like the top out, jump off before it, the top-out is the highest point of the climb. Especially with crimpy holds because you can't trust sheer brute strength, it's more about finesse and skills that pay the bills

7: Clean your shoes - Sand, water, foliage, anything on the bottom of your shoes will mean less grip, so make sure they're clean!

Yet another wall of text. I thought my posts would be shorter after the first ones, how wrong was I. More of what I've learnt later.
Peace out fellow beginners!

Rick

Lesson 1

Shoes

Climbing shoes vary from climber to climber. Some climbers like shoes that are comfortable to wear for long periods of time. Some climbers like shoes that can only be worn for about 10 seconds before being reduced to tears because of the agony (possible over-exaggeration). Personally, I've gone for the in-between shoe because I'm new. Didn't want a shoe that would give me a false sense of comfort but didn't want a shoe that would destroy my feet.


The purpose of a climbing shoe:

Grip - Just like slick tyres on a race-car, rock shoes are flat rubber with no tread. This means the surface area of the bottom of the shoe is optimised when climbing. The rubber is soft too, not hard like on hiking boots, which means.. well.. it means it grips better, ok?

Shape - Rock shoes shape your foot while they're on. It's a little hard to explain with words, but I'll give it my best shot. Basically they cram your toes together, and point them all to the same place. So instead of your toes being straight out, they're all pointing to a… point… Girls with high-heels will probably be able to grasp this idea better than us guys, but the whole point of it is to make your whole foot more rigid, and for pressure to be directed to a smaller surface area - namely your big toe. This aids climbing, take my word for it. More aggressive shoes also bend the arch of your foot so that it works a bit like a bridge over a river or a talon or something. Unsupported bridges use an arch and a keystone, the same idea goes with aggressive climbing shoes - it means more weight can be applied to a smaller area at the expense of comfort.

Coolpoints - Talking point amongst climbers comparing how aggressive their shoes are. May as well measure penis length.

I've learnt to rely on my shoes a lot, and believe that the grip is enough to hold up my full weight. A couple of climbs now I've had to trust that my feet (the grip and the strength of my feet) will hold me, and they have. It's a bit of a leap of faith but you have to take it, so you know what grip feels like. Last night at the wall I had my full weight on a tiny hold with just the tip of my climbing shoe, like a ballerina on tippytoe. /feelsgoodmang - didn't complete the climb /sadface but still, awesomeness.

Malarky

I tell you what, this blogging thing is all of a sudden getting quite complicated. What the hell is FeedBurner and what it is used for? I don't understand it. I'm trying to find a way to link my twitter to this blog so that when I post something new, twitter followers will know about it. And I still don't know what the hell RSS feeds are actually supposed to do.

I need to get my head around this shit, really. Maybe some other time.

Going climbing tonight, yeeeah! I'll buy myself some nutbars for fast energy because I love wasting money.

Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau, also knows as "Font" is one of the most loved and possibly famous bouldering sites in Europe. It's south of Paris (in France(in case there are any Americans reading this(gotta love racial stereotyping))) and is pretty much a town near a forest containing really, really big boulders. Me, Rebecca and David drove there from England in about 6 hours on a Sunday morning, so when we arrived and set up our tent we got a bit of climbing in before sunset. The travel distance between our campsite and the bouldering areas is easily done by car, but it might take you a little while if you're on foot.

I learned a lot about climbing in the 4 days I was there. First off, I have some natural ability. Some of the moves I do to get myself up routes are a lot more advanced than they should be considering how little I've climbed. Apparently certain things climbers have to learn to do come naturally to me. That's pretty cool, coming from people who have climbed for 4 years longer than I have. Some of the routes I did with David and Rebecca really, really surprised them. I remember one route that David was working on for about 15 minutes. After he worked it out and did the climb, I completed it 5 minutes later. Rebecca (mostly because of her height I'm sure) couldn't do it. That particular route didn't require a lot of strength, but what it did require was fluid movement and balance and weight distribution on a very small amount of rock. I didn't have a lot of experience with this type of climb but it seemed, once I knew how to do it, quite easy.
Originally I was all about powerful moves that required a lot of arm strength. I've always been pretty strong naturally, because I've got the same build as my father, so I've always felt comfortable pulling myself up something with pure strength, will and determination rather than careful planning, balance, poise and grace. But after a few of these routes, powerful or "pumpy" ones seem less and less fun to do and impossible for a beginner like me to sustain such physical activity for a whole day. So we started looking for other types of routes, described to me as "crimpy" - These are so much fun and so scary. When you're 6ft in the air and all you have is an outcrop of rock an inch wide and 3mm deep to stand on while you're basically spread-eagled, you have to be calm and slow and good at shifting your weight. If you had a good hold it doesn't seem nearly as worrying. I did a route like this after working at it for a good 15 minutes. I tried it after David, but the position his route put me in was impossible for me to shift my weight onto my other foot. After Rebecca attempted it, she worked out a new position for my left food which would enable me to shift my weight, blah blah blah. So after that bam, just did a (for me) really fucking hard, flat route that when you look at seems impossible to climb.

Fontainebleau is full of routes that will test beginners to professionals, and I can't wait to go back. Pretty much love french bread and cured sausage and cheese for lunch too, mmm.. So yeah, I'm now hooked. Can't wait to get back to the walls in London Bridge and go do some crimpy climbs that I avoided before. I'm looking forward to writing down what I learn, what I find interesting, and what is now my Official New Hobby. After these massive paragraphs I don't think the posts are going to be as long. There's a lot more detail that could go into these paragraphs too but it's pointless really. I'll do a round-up of what I've learned already in my next post.

Peace out, no-one!

The Arches, London

The Arches is the climbing wall I go to, located in London Bridge. It's built inside one of the railway arches of the actual London Bridge overground and therefore infinitely cool. Rebecca and David live in Reigate so their "local" is craggy, which means when I go to the wall, I go alone. Still, I've only been going a grand total of 4 weeks and already bumped into an old school friend who climbs so that's a start. I'm hoping to get to know the people who work there and the climbers who go there more frequently. 'Cos I like doing photography I might also even get a chance to go with people from the wall on trips they do around the country. Maybe get some of my pictures posted up online, on something like Flickr (I signed up recently (today) for that very reason) or even on their website. Or even a magazine. That would be cool, though I realise it's aiming quite high. I have aspirations for being a Climbing Photographer in my spare time, when I'm not in the city rolling out Mac systems to massive corporations.

It's a cool place to climb, I reckon, though I've not been to any other walls in the City. I hear that Castle smells though.

The Deep End

I'm going to pretty much disregard my first three times climbing for one reason: I didn't actually learn anything. Those times on the wall were on very easy routes that were a little bit like ladders for me. If anything a bit harder came up in front of me, I just used strength to get around it and I was done. I guess the only thing I could take from those climbs is that I'm not scared of heights and I don't get vertigo. Pretty sweet thing to know if you want to be a climber - but I already know people that climb that don't like heights. It's not a deal breaker, it just makes doing routes a lot more exciting I should imagine.

So, the deep end for me was The Roaches in the Peak District. Rebecca and David both trad, so they're the ones going up first and laying down the anchors while I wait at the bottom and watch. It's ok when you're in a group of people because you can talk while you wait. I didn't realise that climbing was such a social sport until that point, because we were all just chatting away while Rebecca was doing the hard graft. When it was my turn to climb up the gritstone, David suggested I put on a pair of rock shoes. They were his old ones that were "my size" and they're more grippy than the hiking boots I was wearing. I thought that was fair enough, and put his shoes on. And then immediately took them off. For those that don't know, climbing shoes are tight. Apparently some climbers go over 2 sizes smaller than their normal shoe size for some climbs because it gives them better grip. At the time I thought david had bare-faced lied to me about his shoe size and was trying to make himself more manly or something in font of his friends, because he couldn't bring himself to tell me and therefore everyone else that he was actually a girly size 6. It turns out this isn't true, but anyway I just said I'd climb in my hiking boots. And that's what I did. It was an easy climb, there was a top rope so if I fell nothing would happen, and besides I had my hands and that's all I really needed to climb with. So up once, down once, then wait for everyone else to do the climb too. That wasn't what got me hooked though.
I am an amateur photographer and while Rebecca was doing the beginners route top roping, David and some other dudeface decided to do another face of the rock which was a lot harder and more suited to him, Rebecca, and the other climbing buddies that were with them. While I was waiting for my next turn on a different route I grabbed my camera (Nikon D60) and went on a little hike around the back of the rock face so that I could get to the top. From here I hoped to get good shots of the people climbing.
Mostly, when climbers go climbing with their friends, the only shots they get of themselves doing routes are from behind, and below, which means that basically they get a lot of photographs of their asses. I wanted to get some facial shots and movement shots and reaching shots and all manner of other shots, if I could, so I had to get myself in the right position. Because I'm an amateur photographer, doing these extra things isn't a chore for me, it's pretty fun getting a great picture. So anyway, there I was lying down on top of a massive rock outcrop like a military sniper taking shots of the climbers trying to get up this rock face. It was high an really windy and a little bit damp so not ideal for climbing, but if you're at the roaches you for a weekend, you fucking climb. The smoothness of the rock face they were climbing on stunned me. I had no idea this "style" of rock climbing existed. I thought it was all big holds that you can swing out on and hang from like a monkey, not this tiny slither of rock that isn't much wider than a 1p coin holding the full weight of a fully grown man. I got a few shots of the footholds and the handholds they were trying to reach for while trying to get the scope and the height of the rock face in view. That was all before 12am. That's not what got me hooked.

After a spot of lunch (my arms already felt weakened because of the climbing I had done) Rebecca and some other chap wanted to go out and do something called "bouldering" - I was up for anything so I went with them and they taught me what the idea behind bouldering is. I did a few routes in my hiking shoes (to the amazement of them both) but most of the things were just too hard for me because the footholds and handholds were tiny. The chap, let's call him Frank, explained to me that the shoes help a lot because of how you can use them on the rock - That's when I realised that if I wanted to do any "proper" climbing this weekend I had to stick on those David's tiny shoes. His shoes were a size 8, and I'm a size 9, so just imagine getting a normal shoe a size too small and cramming your foot into it so your toes curl up at the knuckles. That's totally normal for a climber to have shoes at least 1 size smaller so I decided, the next day, the Red Chilli's (the rock shoes) shall be worn. I can't really remember what we did for the rest of that day. I think me and Rebecca went shopping or something, but I don't think I did a lot of climbing afterwards.

The whole idea of bouldering is that you do everything any other rock climber would do, but in a very short distance. For instance, the hard route the other climbers were doing while I was taking pictures was really easy at the beginning, but the last bit of the climb was where it got very very difficult to do. If you can imagine exactly the same route on a big-ass boulder about 8ft high, missing out the beginning bit, the hardest part of the climb is lower to the ground and therefore you don't need a rope to do it because if you fall, you'll just land on a nice cushioned bouldering mat. But you still have to do all the technical stuff to complete the climb. Ok, it's not high, but climbers don't climb solely to get high up in the air, otherwise they would just use a ladder. Using your muscles and your fingers and toes and brain and braun to get yourself up something that looks impossible is where the fun lies. And that's where I got hooked, on the boulders. It's so accessible because all you need is shoes, chalk and a crash mat. You can do it alone or with a big group. You can do easy ones or you can do really difficult ones.

During my time in The Roaches I attempted maybe 15 different routes, most of which I didn't complete. But while I was doing them, everyone was watching me and cheering me on and were really, genuinely exited when they saw a novice trying a route. They were cheering me on to grab that next bit of rock that is only an inch away. They were genuinely proud of me for retrying the same thing over and over again and never actually making it. I would watch them hang upside down from holds no deeper than soap dishes while swinging their heels over and pulling up their full body weight to grab a hold a good arms length away above them, or see them slowly go up a vertical rock face using only their toes and fingertips. And the whole time there was talking, laughter, pictures being taken and the spirit of really really good natured competition between the climbers. That's what got me hooked. I drove home after that weekend and maybe two days later got myself some bouldering gear and that week signed up to a bouldering wall in London.

Really, really fucking fun.

A word on the title

I suppose a brief history on my climbing experience is in order. I don't know all the dates accurately, this isn't a CV, but I guess anyone that would read this should at least know how far into climbing I am at the point of starting this blog.

1st climbing experience: Dordoigne, France, on a school trip with my primary school. It was sport climbing if I remember correctly and I think I only went up once because there were like 20 classmates right behind me waiting for their turn. Uneventful, didn't really do much for me at such a young age. Wanted to go and shoot arrows.

Though, really, my first climbing experiences would've been much earlier and frankly I would've been climbing for many years prior and after that event. Really, when you're a kid, climbing is as natural as knocking on neighbours doors and running away. Walls, trees, fences, rocks, drainpipes, side of buildings, in and out of windows. It's just, as a kid, the obstacle was never the wall or the tree, the obstacle was whether you got into trouble for it or not. The thing on my mind would've been plausible deniability, not whether my hands could hold, if my fingers were strong enough, or what to do once I got up whatever I was climbing.

2nd climbing experience: NZ - I was staying in a hostel called the Green Monkey (Sunny Nelson) and I was bunking with a few people that went climbing some evenings. They seemed like a good bunch and one night they asked me if I wanted to tag along. The walls were high and I did some sport climbing and learned how to belay with a grigri. This time I enjoyed it quite a lot, because it put my strength to the test more than anything else. I asked why there was small wall with holds, and got a pretty offhand response that it was bouldering - a type of climbing that requires no ropes. I didn't see the point in it at the time and thought it was a sort of easy way out of REAL climbing. The type of climbing you do with ROPES and METAL CLASPS and HARNESSES. You know, the dangerous Cliffhanger type climbing that will get you killed if you're not totally skilful and amazing and strong. The person who was "teaching" me said I was a natural. I actually got quite a buzz out of that but then thought, pessimistically, that she probably tells everyone that to give them a sense of achievement and more confidence.

3rd climbing experience: My hippy cousin Rebecca (hi if you read this, lookin' forward to permaculture thing in the park) and her babydaddy David are climbers of about 3 (±2) years now. They invited me along to David's birthday where they had rented out the Don Whillans Memorial hut in the peak district. I said yes because, after coming back from Australia/NZ I had a bit of a traveling/outdoorsy/photography bug that would lend itself perfectly to the north of England, a place I had never been to before. It wasn't because I wanted to climb all that much. That long weekend in the peaks is the point in which climbing turned from something I had done a bit of in the past to something I wanted to do a lot more of in the future. The scenery was epic (I get a bit patriotic when I see green, rolling hills of England. Bring me my spear of burning gold etc) and the weather wasn't terrible and I was outdoors doing something a bit dangerous. Rebecca is an instructor so she put up a top rope while I and other waited down at the bottom. This was a little bit tedious because the wait is so long, and eventually when I did the climb I found it quite easy (Rebecca (Rebel, as I call her) knew we were all beginners so found an easy climb, I'm not some climbing savant or anything) I had fun, don't get me wrong, but I didn't know of any other type of climbing. Anyway, this is all getting far too fucking long, so basically one day we did bouldering as a group on gritstone and I was hooked. I got back from that weekend, signed up to The Arches climbing wall in London Bridge, got myself a pair of rock shoes and a chalk bag and I've been climbing there at least twice a week since.

Climbing experience 4: Last week I went to motherfucking FONTAINEBLEAU with Rebecca and David. They had it planned for ages and I just rocked up with them. I've been climbing less then 2 months and I've been to The Roaches and to Fontainebleau. I count myself very fortunate that I got the opportunity to go to such amazing places so early on, and I think it has set me up for many future years of epicness.

So yeah, back to the title. In the Don Whillans Memorial Hut, there is a plaque erected there by Don's wife. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was along the lines of "To Don, a True Man of Grit" - The type of stone up in the roaches is Gritstone et voila, I want to be a man grit too. So this blog is going to document my METEORIC RISE TO CLIMBING FAME (probably not) and I'm going to fill it with anything and everything to do with my climbing experiences. I want it to be informative, interesting and hopefully funny in some places. I want anyone who reads up about climbing and wants to start it themselves to stumble across this blog and enjoy reading it from a real beginners point of view, instead of being written by a pro looking back and trying to remember what they didn't know back then. I've got a few weeks to catch up on obviously, but that shouldn't be too hard. Stuff I have learned already is still fresh on my brain.

So, to anyone that stumbles across this - really, really sorry about the wall of text. You don't have to read it, it's not exactly important, but then this is my blog so screw you for being bored.

Here goes.. I'm off to find the grit.

Rick