Winter Sessions Part 2

This fantastic winter weather continues but today is an enforced rest day - I have no skin and have to wrap up some Christmas presents!

Yesterday though was amazing!!! Richie, Ben and I headed out to Rieff in the Woods with a car stuffed full of boulder pads! On the way the psyche built up with talk of repeating of the Main Issue, font 7b, a Richie Betts classic...

We arrived and it was freezing... Many of the boulders had frost covered top out so we brushed it off and did a wee warm up circuit. There's some really funky problems here!

A forsty morning (pics from Betts)

Still quite cold but even more psyched we went to try the Main Issue. There's a bit of stigma around such a great line - It was unrepeated (as far as we knew), it's high and scary, we all know Richie is the king of the dyno and it took him a few trips to stick the jump! But the friction was excellent... It took a few goes to be able to fully commit to the dyno because there's a tree and a boulder to land on. Soon, I stuck the move but had a bit of an Ethan Pringle moment topping out - my excuse was the small sloper you use to pull over was covered in ice!! I think the frost had melted a wee bit when we brushed it off then turned to ice... Luckily, I had my hold brushing bitch (sorry Rich!) on hand to clean the hold and topped out rather shaken. Ben did it soon after, topping out in a far more manly fashion!

Dunno if that works so here's a link: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=5707079817429080123

We then tried a new problem by Lawrence just left of the Main Issue which seemed pretty tough! After working out the top part I came so close to sending it falling off holding the last jug! doh!

We moved round to try a V6 arete called Clach mheallian where I fell off the last move again and was thinking this just wasn't my day for topping out! Worst of all I started bleeding from my finger tip which made me sooo upset, but gave it another shot and sent it to hell!!!

I decided to give up for the rest of today and take photos. We went across to see the Crack, font 7a+. Rich managed it and I got psyched to flash it and with that and good beta and encouragement, I topped out first try.

Betts sending the Crack

The way home was eventful - we heard Murdoch had an accident winter climbing (Get better soon dude!), saw a guy crash his car and it was on fire, and decided a night time boulder sesh at Scatwell was a good idea!!

It was very dark and spooky, especially when Richie told us there may or may not have been a massacre here...

The friction was mint. Ben and I were psyched to repeat 2 unrepeated Betts classic in a day and set to work on The Road to Domestos.

The camera flash makes it look like day time here...

I found it pretty tough (all worries of sore skin were gone - we were psychedd!!!! haha) but Ben did it quickly and set to work on the Catch. He made the crux look easy but struggled to find a short person sequence for the top...

Ben on the Catch

Click here for a vid http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8615597734113067337

We did Scatwell Massacre which is something of a superb problem! Then I decided it was time I took my tampon out and at last managed The Road to Domestos! We then tried Flytip Lip, a good problem but we couldn't really see what we were doing so called it a night!

That's probably all blog updates for a while, so to all blog fans - have a good Christmas!

Mike

Brin Video

Had a bash at making a film of today... the main problem was neither of us could seem to climb whilst being filmed... So its a bit pieced together and jerky... Enjoy!!

Brin Winter Sessions (Part 1)

Brin Rock - what a place.

Ben at Brin

This is the Magic Wood of the North and has some really cool funky boulders. Ben and I were dropped off by our mothers and trekked across the field at dawn on the extra frosty morning. We warmed up with a dose of Hit Me then went project hunting! First we found a nice vertical wall, 20m to the left of the Block which, faces up hill. We did 2 new lines Business Time V4, the left arete, and Part Time Model, V5, climbs the middle, both from sitters. Then we went exploring deep into the wood, running around and checking anything that caught our eye. There's lots to do...

When we found an amazing overhanging roof we decided to start here and work our way back. This boulder is obvious if you go 10m further along than the den and look up hill, it looks like a Crocodile's snout...

The Crocodile Boulder

Beneath the roof we climbed a crimpy V8 testpiece from two opposing crimps, throw up a heel and crimp your way to the snout. I named it Crocabot... But the main project takes the right hand side and looks very hard indeed.

Ambiance

Then it was up hill and right slightly for a super cool blunt arete problem...

Old Love, V6

Then more hiking through the forest...


...To the big overhanging arete project...

Project...

It's big and bold, do-able but maybe only just...

Then more walking in the woods and back to the happy boulder where I retro-flashed Spirited V5. Then, we gazed in awe at the big black roof project... The King Project...

Home Again

I'm up the road for Christmas now which is excellent - food, warmth, and more than one place to climb at... WOO!

Only bad thing is I dropped my phone on the way up the road but luckily my amazing girlfriend cath found it and and is bring it to me this weekend. So if you need to get in touch phone my home number or leave a comment or something...

I suppose the so called secret sport crag is out on Scottish Climbs so I suppose its ok to tell those with their ears to the ground that I went to Moy Rock today. It has a good spread of grades and some popping pebbles but managed to flash the 5 routes on the big flat face which was quite strange... I haven't gone a day without falling off for a long time!

Brin Winter Sessions look set to start with great temps for sending hard projects. To my mind Brin is the best bouldering venue around, despite one comment that "its the Mecca of places which are close enough that your mother doesn't mind dropping you off at". This kind of attitude is part of the reason Brin hasn't received world class status, the other part being that it rains, its midgey, its boggy, the landings are bad, the problems are covered in moss... BUT the cleaned problems are ace!

Brin Winter sessions - be there or go to Torridon with an O.G.

This is me all alone in the flat: I'm wearing my blue dressing gown on top of my clothes, its pretty cold in here - we keep the heating off. I'm eating my dinner which is not going down very well - I've decided to try and not shop from now until I go home on Saturday... I need to rethink this, I'll either starve or throw up from combining foods that definitely shouldn't go together (I'll spare the details). I'm listening to a random selection of music on my comp. Just now, the Beatles - Girl. Nice.... next, The Saw Doctors - N17. Excellent!! I'm reading the Deep Water book. It's really good, it's been a long time since I've been so absorbed in a guide. The Master plan is to go Portugal in august/September and tear it up with the sun, sand, sea, rock, cheap flights and an airport transfer to the crag! The second master plan is to go to Swissy in March and get a tour of Magic Wood from Ben who spent a few months there last Easter. Ben says he loves it out there, psyched. This means training. By now I've discarded what remains of my "meal" and chalking up for a fingerboard sesh. Guide book left open... Breath visible in the cold... Song - "If Tomorrow Never Comes", Ronan Keating... err...