What a year

22 Dec 2011

So we’re not quite there, but it's more or less the end of 2011.  Christmas marks the point when it’s ok for your brain to melt a bit, body to over indulge and to sit in front of crap TV.  I’ve almost switched off for the year anyway.

  Vanessa helping with the tree

So that’s it, my first calendar year just about completed as a mum, trying to fit everything, that I previously did, into less time.  No big deal as that’s what all parents do but everyone has their own personal challenges and of course many are self inflicted such as climbing.  It’s a totally unnecessary past-time, we all know that, but one that most climbers will agree is something we can’t stay sane without.

So little Vanessa, for the time being, gets dragged along with Mum and Dad’s obsession.  She doesn’t seem to mind or so we think and fortunately has a good relationship with dirt and finds great enjoyment out of playing with the stopwatch.

She wasn’t that interested in the fact I couldn’t do a pull up in March and is even less so that I can now do 10.  But I’m pleased about that and I’m more than happy with how things have gone this year.  We’ve had three climbing holidays and experimented with different childcare configurations.  Finding a third person at the crag is winning so far.

I’ve redpointed 7c, onsighted (ok so it was more of a flash) 7b and E4 (it said E5 in the book but I’ll be more honest with myself if I admit the grade down) and climbed just enough to keep the jitters at bay.  Now I’ve embarked on a training plan I’m ridiculously psyched for the year ahead.  I’m back working again too and next year will I’ll have Fridays to add into the mix as Vanessa will go to a nursery on that day.

I hope that 2011 was good for you and if not, well there’s always next year!!  So I’m going to sign out for the year and wish you a wonderful Christmas break and see you again in 2012.

Women's Climbing Symposium

14 Nov 2011

Two Saturdays ago I attended the first ever women’s climbing symposium in the UK.  It was held at the Climbing Hanger in Liverpool and organised by top comp climber Shauna Coxsey and wall owner Ged Mac.

I was immediately keen to be involved as these types of events are really important.  I know for many women their ‘heart sinks’ at this type of thing, thinking it’ll either be lots of men bashing or ‘aren’t women great’.  It was of course neither.  The point is women make up the minority in our sport and in anything where there’s a minority it’s good to sometimes get together.

I went in my capacity as coach along with Lucy Creamer, Emma Twyford, Shauna Coxsey, Alex Puccio, Diane Merrick, Audrey Seguy, Kitty Wallace and Mina Leslie Wujastyk (who were all also coaches) and 96 attendees.  Shauna and Ged did an incredible job and the turnout was fantastic.

To start off with the British Team psychologist Vicki Cassel did a talk about how we can improve our climbing just by thinking about our mental approach.  Many things can influence whether we even get on a climb, let alone manage it successfully.  Sometimes women, certainly in this country, seem to lack that self belief more than men.  The circumstances Vicki talked about, that can influence us, include our previous climbing experience, other people’s encouragement or getting a boost from watching someone else you know complete a climb.

Then we all split into groups for some coaching.  My station was ‘arm strength’.  I set up some circuit training including push ups, lock offs and pull ups.  We only had 20 minutes per group so I thought I would give some tips while showing just how hard to have to try to make training work.  Anyway there was no doubting the effort everyone put in.  It was really impressive to see everyone working together and giving it everything.  There was plenty of huffing and puffing and red faces.  I wonder whether it being a women only group meant people didn’t care what anyone thought and went for it 100%.  Or whether the atmosphere the day created, meant people were on a mission to learn as much as they could.  Or probably it was both.

After lunch we did a Q&A session with the coaches and the audience.  I think we could have carried on for another hour at least.  The question that got things going was ‘do women have to be like men to be good’.  The answers depended on how you interpret the question and gave for good conversation!  But many people wanted tips on how to improve and I know that people found this a really useful session.

This was followed by a talk by top American boulderer Alex Puccio.  I was particularly interested to hear what she had to say.  She is known for her muscular physique as much as her climbing performance.  And she talked about her feelings towards her body, and how she felt the world/media perceives the ‘athlete’s’ build.  Until I had Vanessa I was very muscular.  Now my muscles have shrunk somewhat.  But I always felt very self conscious of them and have always been unsure of how a very muscular woman is actually perceived (it’s not always positive) despite the muscles have a clear cut function.  It was great to hear Alex so confident about her appearance and happy about how well her body functions.

And then suddenly it was almost 6pm.  Some carried on climbing, I had to drive back.  But all in all a very positive day.  I look forward to next year!

Colorado!

26 Sep 2011

In a very short space of time we’ll be flying off to the States, Thursday in fact.  First stop will be Boulder, Colorado to see my old friend Airlie.  Then Rifle and Nic’s old friend Dave and finally Jeff’s house which is somewhere in between.  There’s no doubting the amount of fun we’re going to have.  And Vanessa has no idea!  She’s pootling along with her everyday concerns of stuffing flat fish in her mouth, emptying the kitchen cupboards and sucking on the velcro of her new shoes.  Meanwhile there’s a whole world of packing going on.

For the first time ever on such a trip we’re just taking our climbing shoes, harnesses and chalk bags and hoping the rest will be provided.  All our bags will be filled with Vanessa’s stuff!

Nic and I have been building up our climbing and the one day a week at the crag arrangement is suiting us both very well.  Nic has done three 8bs this year (his first 8b in over 10 years) and last Tuesday I climbed Cry of Despair 7c at the Cornice in the Peak.  Following my recent ascent of Cordless Madness, a hard 7b+ and Bored of the Lies 7b/+ I’m going well.  I never thought it would be this well at this stage.  But the big question is whether my rapid improvements are going to be enough to keep up with Lynn Hill.  Or rather simply be able to climb on the same boulder as her.

Yes my big opportunity to climbing with the hero herself may soon be coming up.  How naff, I’m such a groupie.  But since Airlie is actually friends with her wouldn’t it be a bit of a shame to miss out.  Who knows what actual climbing we’re going to do out there, but there seems to be no shortage of every kind.  I will report back soon...

Meanwhile, if you're a female climber you may be interested in this event I'm attending in Liverpool at the beginning of November organised by top climber Shauna Coxsey: https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=154008164683587

Also I'm running a brilliant course at the Climbing Works in Sheffield at the end of Oct.  There's one running at the Castle in London too.  It's a one day course to kick start your training for the winter focussing on general preparation including weights, core, circuit training and technique: http://www.lovetoclimb.co.uk/climbing_coaching/22/Team+K+you

Giving birth to E5 in a year?

26 Aug 2011

Today is Vanessa’s first birthday!!  A whole year has passed by since she said hello to the world.  We’ve just spent a week in Lundy and we all faced a number of challenges.

Vanessa took her first few steps and we managed to balance being parents with adventurous climbing and a very full household.

We hired Millcombe House and I think probably Nic and I took the room where the Queen stayed.  I’m only assuming this as we had the best room, lucky us.  There were 13 adults and 4 children.  Wow!  Chaos was one way to describe things.

Nic and I took the climbing every other day approach and the first day was my turn.  It came as quite a shock to be scoping out blind loose tops in order to find our way down to the pristine granite.  Sport climbing and bouldering are decidedly low key in comparison.  For the first time the concepts of being a mother, climber and self preservation hit me.  On the crux of the first route, despite it being well protected I thought about Vanessa and my mind wasn’t entirely on the job.  As the week wore on I got used to things – I chatted to the other Dads, I’m not sure they feel it in the same way as a mother.

Despite a chronic lack of sleep I managed to climb really quite well.  I led three E3s and even an E5.  It was a soft touch more like E4, no doubt, but I give myself E5 for simply getting on it.  It was the end of my second day’s climbing and I’d already led two E3s, the second in the baking sun.  I hadn’t been sure if leading the second would use up all my mental energy, but I took the risk.  Heather and I laid out recovering in the ‘Battery’ a ruined outbuilding surrounded by old cannons.  We re-fuelled with water and food.

Supercharged... you can see how the water was coming in fast!

For some reason I’d forgotten that the route was tidal.  Woops.  We’d lost track of time.  As we headed down someone else’s abseil rope and hopped along the boulders I was shocked to see the water lapping up the base of the route.  Quickly we climbed up onto a ledge and I could gather my thoughts again.

I’d chosen to do Supercharged, a short slim groove, a recommendation from the rest of the team.  Despite talk of it’s soft touchness I was battling against my mind.  Giving birth to E5 in a year.  Was that possible for me?  I didn’t know anyone else who had done this.  Sometimes the external knowledge that something is possible makes it easier.

But above all my instinct was telling me to get on it.  It was well protected and if I fell off I knew I’d be able to aid it.  The whole time up the route I doubted myself but yet I found my body placing gear and climbing upwards.  It was really satisfactory to reach the top.

A month passes in no time

22 Jul 2011

I can’t believe it and as ever so much happens.

It’s been almost a month exactly since Ellie Rymer, who I coach, came third in the BRYCS.  She got the same position last year, but since all aspirant British Team members have to enter now, the competition was much fiercer.  If it hadn’t been for a mishap on an earlier boulder problem, which she got second go instead of first, she would have come second.  Big well done!  Proud of you Ellie.

I’ve been continuing with my traversing and Broomgrove and Rubicon are now ticked.  However the new challenge is there and back, so onwards and along...  I’m getting fitter and the improvement is noticeable week by week.  I’m aware that I’ll never experience this kind of meteoric progress again ever again, so I’m enjoying it while it happens.

Vanessa enjoying the ducks at Rubicon

I’ve been down the Cornice a couple more times.  Also Nic and I had our first 2 day and one night outing without Vanessa (thank you grandparents) and we headed to Clywd limestone near Llangollen.  Dinbren was our choice given the small walk in and sheer convenience.  It was great.

Dinbren, we had the place to ourselves, I'm in the middle somewhere

So more 7a onsights are in the bag and a few 7a+s, either redpoint or flash.  It’s probably time to get on harder stuff but it’s good to get the ticks and feel success rather than failure.

Failure is something I experienced in all its glory yesterday though.  And it wasn’t good.  But I would say it’s not entirely my fault.  I need to get this all down in writing before the film says otherwise.  Wild Country are over the course of this week filming for three films: one to promote the new Helium friends, one about Pete Whittaker and Tom Randell and their fascination with wide crags and finally one called Crack School.  The latter is where I stepped in.

Yesterday at Millstone, did they want to film me cruising up Embankment Route 4 (E1), Time for Tea (E3) or the ultra classic Regent Street (E2)?  Oh no, that would actually make me look like a competent climber.  No no, the plan, from the beginning of the day was for me (following the above) to climb Right Eliminate at Curbar (E3).  Now let me get this straight, I’ve onsighted this route before.  It is a notorious offwidth but down below you can bypass the difficulties by bridging up the groove and laybacking the start of the offwidth.  But in this instance I wasn’t allowed to do any of that.  From the deck, the point was to use offwidth techniques the whole way up (to simulate the glacially polished nature of granite cracks in the US which often have no face holds whatsoever).

Here is my American friend Jeff showing proper offwidth technique on Right Eliminate

Tom Randell (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/), crack expert talked me through the techniques.  I was genuinely interested in learning something new.  I’ve experienced the horrors in the US and often felt frustrated by my lack of upward movement.  So I remained open minded.  Then Tom gave a demo.  I should have paid more attention to the fact that he didn’t actually make it look that easy.

Then it was my turn.  Even after I’d shouted ‘take’ for about the third time I was still interested in what I was doing wrong.  I did actually learn one technique of fist jamming against the back of my other hand.  The butterfly jam was hopeless.  And my legs proved rather ineffective.  It was all in the right hip apparently.

With these kinds of wide cracks (5-6 inches moving higher to about 9 inches) you have to shuffle your one cam up as you go.  This was not particularly fun when you’re learning new techniques.  For anyone else in this situation, do top rope.

Anyway by about half way up the climb I was utterly exhausted and fed up.  At that point I just abandoned crack school and opted for my previous technique of laybacking and using the faceholds for feet.  I no longer cared about learning anything new.  And above, well I resorted to my old techniques of shoving my arms and leg in, which actually worked alright... until my cam decided to turn inside out.  Enough was enough. 

Oh yes.  When I did it some 10 years ago I don’t even remember the route being that bad.  I thought something was different.  The chockstone, which provided a handhold, foothold and sling, was missing.  Great.

My body is now in tatters, literally.  I guess if you watch the film and you’ll probably have a laugh.  And maybe you will learn something.  The key is getting out and practicing.  That’s the bit I won’t be doing.  Sometimes it’s good to stick to your strengths.  Offwidths aren’t one of mine...