Night Sessioning at The Classroom

Managed to get off work relatively early yesterday, well early enough to head up to the classroom for a night session with Marijus and Calvin. I've been working "Exam Stress" (8A) there, and although I was rather close to the send last year, it didnt quite work out. The problem has a hard slopey match move which is probably the crux, and is basically the last move before the top out. So I warmed up and re-acquainted myself with the moves. Managed to get the crux match from a standing start, as well as do Marijus's version of the topout, which seems to be better. The trick for me seems to be the pain threshold at the moment. After some crimpy starting moves, you move into a slot, which is directly above you. So at first you get pretty much nothing out of it, and only after you adjust the feet you actually get something out of it, and then move through two left hand crimps, and a biggish move into the sloper match. So the problem seems to be that your pinky gets twisted and crushed in the slot, while you're trying to pull as hard as possible, so it really seems to mess with the moves. Anyway, my fingers haven't hardened up yet after being sick for three weeks, but they're getting there. Nothing a Rocklands weekend shouldn't fix. So I'll be back at the classroom when I'm feeling nice and fresh and hopefully it'll go down. I really should just send it, its not the nicest line to work. My fingers are feeling tweaky, and the tendons are aching here and there, so a few rest days before the weekend are in order.

Getting ready to move past the crux and into the topout via the sloper in the top left corner. Photo by Calvin Kemp.

The Razor Crimp Showdown Project

On Sunday Marijus and I headed up to topside for the day. We decided to take a slightly different walkin, a much more direct walk which was pretty much straight up to the top of the mountain. After getting shut down on some supposed warm ups, we decided to get cracking on an old project. I had never been on it before, so I was quite psyched to see what the moves were like. It looks really hard, and all the moves are not too big moves on really small and sharp crimps. After doing "Black Demon" the day before my tips weren't exactly amped for sharp crimps. Luckily the crimps dont rely on friction much, so I ended up just taping all my right hand tips up. There seems to be one really hard move so far, which is basically a move off a micro undercling crimp up to a small sharp crimp. At first we couldn't even put much weight on the undercling crimp, but after working out a special way to hold it we managed to actually release the right hand and start it moving towards the next hold, so it's a start... Now the tendons and fingers need to get really strong. The next obstacle is the pain. There are so many small sharp crimps in the end that its gonna be so ridiculously painful going through so many moves. But we can worry about that when we get that far, as so far we haven't really linked many moves at all. Maybe one at the start.

Photo by Marijus Smigelskis

So the plan is to return to the project for a good few sessions, and hopefully some progress will emerge. Definitely psyched to work this, and hopefully my fingers will be up for the challenge.

Black Demon

Robbie and I went back to Redhill today, hoping to dispatch our projects. The conditions were good, a nice dry day with a bit of a breeze, and not too warm. Robbie was looking to send "Black Hoodie Rap" (7C) and I was hoping to send "Black Demon" (8A). Robbie dispatched his line on his first go of the day, after warming up on the final dyno.



After that, I started working on "Black Demon". I was hoping to do one more move on the problem, the move from the crimp match to the good slot. After warming up and doing the top out, I worked the move from the crimp match to the slot and it went quite quickly. So then I started from the start, only to battle with the heel toe, but when I finally got the heel perfect I sent.

Down with the sickness

Being sick sucks. After nationals last month I got bronchitis for two weeks, so had to stop any climbing, then just as I was finished with the antibiotics the Cape Town winter gave me flu for another week, just for good measure. So now I'm finally feeling better and have managed to get a few training sessions in at the UCT wall, feeling rather weak and fingers are tweaky. I always find after taking a few weeks break from climbing it always puts strain on my fingers, which I guess is understandable. So the usual process is to tape my fingers for a few weeks, and slowly tape less and less until my fingers are crimping hard without any pain whatsoever. When that happens its pretty awesome. Watched "Frequent Flyers" the other day, and there's a scene where a guy is crimping with two fingers, and really pushing himself, until you hear two loud cracks. He snapped something in his finger and whatever it was it sounded pretty horrific. Either way I hope I never have to deal with an injury as severe as that. I think most of my injuries are light, and go away fairly quickly if looked after, and I hope it stays that way.

So the past few weeks have been busy for me. Got a new job, and it has rather unusual work hours, from 12 till 8pm. Today was sweet as I got to leave work at 2pm, so my first thoughts went to bouldering. I decided to head out to old redhill for a session. I wasn't too phased on what I tried, I just really needed to get on rock. Robbie was keen on "Black Hoodie Rap" (7C) so I figured I would try it as well. It was super misty and rather cold at Redhill, so the conditions were good, although there was a bit too must moisture in the mist. Firstly we practiced the finishing dyno to warm up, then after that I almost sent it first go. It went 3rd go, and felt pretty good. Robbie managed all the moves only to fall off the dyno at the end. Seems really close though. After that I was psyched on trying "Black Demon" (7C/8A?). The problem is super crimpy. I had tried it once before in poor conditions, only to get shut down horribly. So this time I started from the one good slot in the middle of the problem, and managed to do all the moves from there onwards quite quickly. The start is another story, as you basically move out of a little overhang into two sharp credit card crimps, and then into the slot. I realised that the only way i could hold the small crimps was to close my crimps with my thumbs and just taste the pain. So I managed to go from the start and match the sharp crimps and move towards the slot. So I just have to hit the slot and hopefully I'll be able to give it some go's from the start. The question is whether the problem is actually 7C or harder. I think its harder than 7C, so either 7C+ or 8A, possibly the latter depending on how hard it is to link the two halves. The problem was opened in 2005 and has yet to receive a second ascent. After working all that, I managed to flash "The World Is Out To Get Me" (7B).

Johannes Schlemper on the FA of "Black Demon" (7C). The really small crimps are in the first and third frames. Photos courtesy of Cutloose Boudering.

So I'm feeling psyched to get strong and hopefully climb as much as I can in the coming months...