Rock Atrocity

I had my first attempt on Rock Atrocity (Parisella’s Cave, V9) last autumn.  I quickly progressed to getting all but the last move.  I could do it, but not after the rest of the problem.  I found the whole problem quite tiring and clearly needed more endurance.  The central cut loose and adjusting afterwards was sapping my strength.  In hindsight I should have also explored possible alternative ways of doing the last move, as the way I was doing it probably wasn’t the most energy efficient.  I was using a right toe and knee lean/bar.  This resulted in a sore bruised and grazed knee after a few attempts which was quite literally a pain.  It was one of those problems that I knew would gnaw away at me as I was so close.

I eventually returned for a second session last Wednesday evening as I happened to be in the area.  I was a bit concerned about climbing on my own, mainly as I’m such a wuss when climbing outside (and inside at times).  I was armed with 2 mats and there were only two points that needed protection; the mid swing and dropping round to the last holds.  The rest of the moves are unlikely to result in awkward flights towards the ground.

I did a few pull-ups and the mid section of left wall traverse to warm up, then jumped straight on and got to the last move with a pumpy right arm.  Stupid right arm hadn’t even done many moves.  The moves felt easier than last autumn and it wasn’t scary doing the moves without a spot (otherwise I wouldn’t have done them).  I felt secure and there were people around off and on.  Maybe I was stronger.  I’m clearly not carrying any more endurance.  I tried the last move a few times and worked out a better method with a left toe and roll in.  I jumped back on to the beginning way too soon and got to the last move again and repeated this a couple more times.  It was turning into a bit of a nemesis move.  I was impatient and in need of someone else to have a go in between to distract me!

I put my coat on, laid on the mat and chilled out for a while, listening to the dripping onto the mat next to me and the sounds of the coast bouncing into the cave.

I stood up, took a few deep breaths, then did all the moves one after the other.  Yay.


Rock Atrocity - Parisella's Cave from Peter Jeffery on Vimeo.

What next.  I had a look at Lou Ferrino.  I think it may need quite a lot of sessions and some dry weather.  It really doesn’t suit me and will be a big challenge and likely some other problems in between.  Maybe an extension to RA or something somewhere else.

It would have been good to sit on the wall around the west side of the Orme and soak up the atmosphere as the sun set, but it was back to Sheffield for tea for me.

Bloc Party 2012

Training last weekend entailed 3 days climbing based training.  Friday was at the Foundry working steep hard sustained problems.  Saturday was at City Bloc for the Bloc Party competition.  Forty qualifier problems put me in second place behind Leah.  I topped 2 out of 3 of the final blocs to stay in second.  I was close to the other final problem, but couldn’t get past a volume to the last hold.  Leah showed me how it was meant to be done afterwards – so much easier when you know how!  I also found that I wasted attempts on one of the blocs choosing to do an easier move that left my feet in the wrong position to progress.  When I committed to the harder move (that went just fine, despite me thinking it may not) I proceeded to top the problem.  It was a valuable training session with endurance, technical, and mental elements worked on.
Sunday afternoon was spent at the Climbing Works attempting the new pink circuit.  It’s good to keep throwing yourself at lots of different problems sometimes, going for the flash each time, rather than working a bloc.  It can help to physically and mentally get moves correct first time.

I spent the beginning of the week preserving what little skin I had left.  I did some pull-up work on the bar and had a rest day.  By Wednesday I had enough skin back to do a power endurance session at the Foundry (although I was almost side-tracked by the new campus board).  I did 5 sets of 5min on/5min off, having little to no rest between attempts during the on time.  I was typically completing 3.5 problems per set on the elites/level 3, but had to slip in a level 2 at the end of the 3rd and 4th set as I was so pumped.  I tried to pick sustained problems, preferably requiring dynamic moves at times, and mixed up the terrain a little but mostly kept it steep.  I feel so much stronger than I did a fortnight ago.

Inspiration turned up on Thursday in the form of a delivery from Boreal.  Thank you so much.  Another pair of Kintaro climbing shoes as they are so good, along with some approach shoes and a pad.  I was bouncing of the walls with excitement to be honest.

Now go away rain.