Gogarth Boat Trip part deux

Well, I spent the day at gogarth, not climbing but arsing around in a boat praying for perfect light that never arrived. I did however managed to get the shots we needed. Essentially we needed a slight closer in shot of the right hand end of main cliff and to extend a topo left of mousetrap so the layout looked better.

We caught the swells off north stack and south stack and just managed to get past the range before it went off as well. I have to say I am glad as we got what even the skipper described as big air off one wave. I guess that is what you get going 28knots over the crest of a freak wave.

Anyway this in one stitch from the day it is off most of main cliff. It won’t be used in the guide. I also had a slow drive by of other areas so have so great topos of trinity house walls areas. This won’t be in the RockFax guidebook, but will be in a list of places I need to climb and hopefully find some virgin rock to get my own new route on.

If you’d like to go for a powerboat ride round Rhosneigr then I can recommend Brian from Total Outdoors Rhosneigr.

Main Cliff - Sorry its small but

 

 

Climbing and Belaying

Looning the Tube
Looning the Tube

So managed to get out a bit over the last few days, although lots of climbing indoor. I had not been outside for a while. With a weekend off, I managed to socialise on friday night, so there was a slight disconnect between my body and mind when we headed up the slate. Llion led Looning the tube to open the slate account for the Autumn/Winter season.

A grand day out
A grand day out

I then tried A Grand Day out and was shut down on the initial slab. Although my excuse was that it was so hot, I was nearly blinded by the amount I was sweating. It was an OK route, but not as good as combining a few existing routes up through the levels.

Sunday, I got up and headed to Milestone butress for belay duty, as caff was trying a new route left of The Wrinkled Retainer. It looked incredible but a little too hard for me. Caff worked it on an ab rope and then went back up to try placing the last runners. He then waited some more and after filling his tip down having split it on his second practice, he headed up the wall. Complaining how ‘rinsed’ he felt having been trying the beast down at The Diamond yesterday. He quickly made it to the crux, which looked like it was placing an RP2 and Rock 1 for a very tenuous position.

He seemed to take forever to essentailly fail to get the RP but clipped it anyway. Then started complaining that the split tip was bleeding badly and making the crucial hold sloppy. Managing to get the rock 1 in, he looked set but was ejected.

More rest and some tape on his split tip, caff didn’t seem very confident, but he chose to leave the gear in situ, and made rapid progress and not having to hanging on forever placing gear he made it to the top. E8 6c was his reckoning.

The Ambassador - FA Caff, E8 6c
The Ambassador – FA Caff, E8 6c
Caff Working The Ambassador
Caff Working The Ambassador
Super Direct, something to do why I was waiting for caff.
Super Direct, something to do why I was waiting for caff.
More Super Direct
More Super Direct

 

Training, Working and DIY

Clare following the classic One Step in the Clouds, Tremadog.
Clare following the classic One Step in the Clouds, Tremadog.

Life in the paint pot continues unabated. I have painted downstairs ready for the window and door to be fitted which is happening around me as I type. Hopefully it means I can move onto project flooring next so I don’t have to walk over the concrete floor down stair for much longer. Although I need to put in underfloor heating that won’t be plumbed in for a good few months.

I have also been doing a lot of climbing coaching of late, with a few days a week of lead climbing coaching for various people. As such my jumaring is second to none. I am also heading into work at the weekend.

I have also been investing a lot of time in the RockFax guide that is nearing completion and the deadline is approaching fast. As such finding time to blog has seem to fall by the wayside. However I hope by the beginning of september that normal services may start again.

Whilst I have managed to get outside, I took a friends rather grown up daughter climbing at Tremadog earlier this week. As she hasn’t really gotten into dragging. I think she was rather surprised by the fact that we dispatch three routes in about 3 hours. All classics – One Step in the Clouds, Merlin Direct and Boo Boo.

In the evenings which are now rapidally drawing in I have been heading to the beacon and even maanged a session and the all new indy climbing wall, which is great BTW. It seems I am finally getting over my tendonitis as I have managed to climb a few V7s and nearly managed a couple of V8s. So training for the winter looks like it could be a good one if I remain injury free.

The New Look and Feel Indy Climbing Wall
The New Look and Feel Indy Climbing Wall

The Fear Test: More fesatures on iCoach

In June I wrote and article for Climber Magazine called the fear test, the article gave an overview of how fear and anxiety effect performance. More importantly I added a test so you could identify just how fear effects you. I did this because I firmly believe we are all individuals and each person is unique.

So what works for one person won’t work for another. The test helps you find out what may help you to overcome fear as quickly and effectively as possible. I like the article but even before it was written I had coded it up for iCoach but getting it published meant that I held off on turn the facility on on iCoach Climbing.

Having had half a day I tried to rapidly get a few more functions online. One was the mobile logging app the other was the fear test. To find out more either get the back dated copy of Climber Magazine or visit this info page. Like all the free tools on iCoach you need to register and be logged in for them to work.

Lots of Rock

A shot of one of my clients leading Mentil Lentil in Vivian. As they wanted to visit the slate.
A shot of one of my clients leading Mentil Lentil in Vivian. As they wanted to visit the slate.

Over the last few weeks I seem to have been working on loads of climbing courses, nearly all of them teaching lead climbing. Either to introduce people to what I call proper climbing, in that they are making their first trad leads or some form of performance coaching.

As such I have managed to get a fair bit of climbing myself rigging ropes and then re-jumaring the lines. Last week that included a day in the Moelwyns, a day at tremadog and a day at Castell Helen. I have a few days off, well not off as I am out taking pictures for the RockFax guide as well as putting the finishing touches to the guide. I also have some images to take for a booklet by the BMC of training for climbing.

As such even days off are work days. Still i get another few days rest from the cimputor next week with another rock climbing course. Looking forward to jumaring again!

A climber passes us on Lighthouse Arete. Castel Helen
A climber passes us on Lighthouse Arete. Castel Helen

 

The Trinity House Ship resupplies South Stack Lighthouse
The Trinity House Ship resupplies South Stack Lighthouse

The Team atop the main pitch of One Step in the Clouds. What a The Team atop the main pitch of One Step in the Clouds. What a great day out