A Weekend at Topside

So after sending Accountant's Project last weekend I was feeling pretty psyched to get onto the next thing. Next on the list was Mintberry Crunch (8A) up at Echo Valley. There are so many lines to be done there, its crazy. Just project after project. Anyway, Mintberry Crunch went rather quickly once Marijus got me to use his beta, although the topout almost had me. Check out Marijus's video below:

Woody at Echo Valley from Cutloose Bouldering on Vimeo.

So after having too many drinks at the Power and the Glory the night before, I wasn't feeling too amped for another session on Sunday, but at about 3PM I felt the urge.

We headed out for a night session at the Cinema in Topside. There were a few lines I wanted to get on here, but first in line was Cloverfield (8A). This line has some awesome moves, and although it doesn't take the line it originally intended to, its still great. The original line does a bigger move further out left, and was opened by Paul Robinson as Zodiac (8A+). I'd love to do that line too, but it really pushes the reach. Cloverfield went quickly, which was a nice surprise. I've had about three or four sessions on the line over the past few months. While I was there I did the right hand variation War of the Worlds (7C), which is also a cool line.

Marijus on the FA of Cloverfield (8A). Photo by Paul Robinson.

Next up was Paranormal Activity Stand Start (7C+). This is a cool line, short and quite crimpy. It felt fairly hard the last time I was on it, but not this time. I quickly got the wierd toe squeeze move, and started working out the top. The problem has a bit of an arb finish, but basically you just wedge yourself into this big gap and catch your breath for a few minutes.

Paul on the stand start part (7C+) of Paranormal Activity (8B+)

Went back to Echo Valley on Tuesday with Marijus and Julia as I was really keen to send Midnight Barber (8A), but alas, the two days on of climbing on the weekend had taken their toll and my arm started giving out. Marijus got the send though. Pity I don't have any pics, its a really cool line. EDIT: Check this sweet clip Marijus put together of him sending Midnight Barber (8A):

The Midnight Barber from Cutloose Bouldering on Vimeo.

Apparently my left shoulder is slightly imbalanced, and so after too much climbing everything tires out and starts transferring the load down to my elbow. Anyway, nothing a physio and a few days rest can't sort out. Unfortunately I was too hung over to attend my Physio appointment. Work dinner got way out of hand the night before.

Accountant's Project

8A in the bag.

NBL 2011 & Alicedale

The finals for National Boulder League were held in Grahamstown this year, and turned out to be a rather successful event. After weeks and weeks of hard sessions of Boulder League every Tuesday night, it was time to make the trip and meet up with strong climbers from all over the country.

Out of the top scoring Cape climbers, myself, Duncan, Robbie and Clara were heading to the finals in Grahamstown in my car. So in preparation for the trip, I decided to make sure that my car got a service, and was in good working order for the 800km odd drive out of Cape Town. So bright and early I drove to pick up the rest of the gang, and off we went to Grahamstown.

We made it to Grahamstown safe and sound, and set up camp at the local camp site. Early the next morning we headed to one of Rhodes University's sports halls where the comp was to be held. Paul Bruyere and Wesley Black had been hard at work setting the problems for the whole comp, and had done a rather sterling job. The wall was great; mostly overhanging, not too high and had been stripped specifically for the comp.

The Rhodes wall.

 

Paul Bruyere setting away.

The turnout for the younger age groups was amazing, which is likely a result of the strong schools leagues that have been in action for the past two years. The high turnout meant long waiting times between rounds, which is never fun, but inevitable nonetheless. Trying to keep fingers warm while waiting is always a schlep. The qualifying rounds were great, and resulted in a nice split in the fields in preparation for the finals.

Duncan, Benj, PW, James and myself made it into the mens open finals. After some fair and well set problems the field was split, except for some tie breakers. The method used to break the ties was unusual to say the least, and I'm not quite sure where the method was taken from. The tie breaker used was the amount of time one took to get to the bonus hold on each problem, and then the average of that over the final problems. In the end the results turned out fine, although personally I was rather annoyed with the end result, mostly due to the fact that after I had placed second, the judges and organisers failed to record my result, and I had to query the final result at the end. As it turned out my scorer failed to mark my flash of one of the final problems on my score card.

On my flash of the second Men's Finals problem.

At the same time as missing out on a prize, I was rushed through to the drug testing procedures as now I was required to submit a urine sample (having another man actively watch you pee is not cool, I can assure you). I would like to give my support to the organisers for a great job, but at the same time we are trying to meet international competition standards to be granted membership of the IFSC, and so we cant really let errors like this slip through the cracks...

All in all, the comp was great, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. A huge thank you needs to go out to Neil Margetts for his dedication to the SANCF and the organisation of this comp and also to the route setters Paul and Wesley, and another huge thank you to Tristan who (i think single-handedly) provided all prizes for the competition. Hopefully all of Tristan's generosity will soon return to him.

 

Rachelle de Charmoy cruising the ladies problems.

 

Benj on the second Men's Finals problem.

Benj sealing the deal with his flash of the third Men's Finals problem.

After the comp we all headed out to the sports bar/hall for a couple drinks, which then turned into a good night out in Grahamstown.


Final Results:
U15 Boys
TRISTAN SWART
DAVID MUIR
BYRON CROFFORD
BRANDON VAN HURTEN

U15 Girls
ERAN WALDECK
TSAI-NI KU
RACHEL SEALY-FISHER

U17 Boys
EVAN MARGETTS
DEVIN MURRAY
TRAVIS GILLESPIE
DILLON VAN STADEN
JORGE GONCALVES

U17 Girls
SAMANTHA STAINTON
GILLIAN BESTER

U19 Boys
JASON  SALT
CALRIN CURTIS
DYLAN VOGT
STEFAN LUTGE
ROBIN SHERWOOD
GREGORY OUDHOF
KERN LEASK

U19 Girls
EMMA PINNOCK
CLARA GRANT
LORNA BORN

Senior Men
BENJAMIN DE CHARMOY
ANDREW WOOD
JAMES BARNES
PIETER WILLIAM
DUNCAN FRASER
ROBBIE FRASER
MATTHEW SCHNEUWLY
DAVE SCOTT
GREG  CARTER
CARL BURTON-DURHAM
NKOSINATH NAMA
MITCHEL PINDUEAS
JOHN WESSELS
GARETH BERRY
JONATHON HATTING

Senior Women
ILLONA PELSER
RACHELLE DE  CHARMOY
CANDICE BAGLEY
LESLEE SALZMANN
JESSIE PEARSON
EMMA JACKSON
LINDI FRYER
DEZ BENOIT

Alicedale was on the cards for the next day. I had heard good things about this area, and had seen topo's while drunk the night before. The topos looked really good, and had a surprisingly large amount of problems listed. So after a short drive out to Alicedale, as well as a fairly short walkin, we were there. The area has very nice rock, a fairly rough sandstone that varies from sandy and flaky to super rough to glossy smooth.

 

Unfortunately the day after a comp isn't the best day for some hard bouldering. I had multiple tweaks in my fingers and was taping them a lot. We still managed to get on some great problems, only to be rained out before we got a try an awesome looking 7B slab...

Cape Nature & Rocklands

I was lucky enough to be present at a meeting with Cape Nature with the intention of communicating the management plan for Rocklands and Truitjieskraal. The focus of the meeting was on Rocklands, as there are currently little to no structures for managing almost anything in the area.

(c) climb.co.za

First of all, CN are committed to getting the Kliphius campsite back on track, and they envisage it costing up to R1m in terms of infrastructure etc, and the funding required isn't an issue. The main issue at the moment it that they need to create a new post for the area, i.e. a new job role that requires new funding. As the meeting was getting under way they found out that the funding for the position has been frozen temporarily, but they did commit to resolving the issue internally so that they could move forward on the management plan. So the primary issue at the moment seems to be that CN need to get someone working out there to supervise and manage everything going forward. The costs around that are tricky, as funds obtained from managing permits effectively in the area do not translate to extra funds to be used in the management of the area at all. Hopefully CN can resolve the issue.

(c) climb.co.za

The next item that was brought up was the zoning of Rocklands [when I say Rocklands I'm only referring to the CN land], and this is something that is still being decided upon. The land will be zoned as "Wilderness" or "Nature", where wilderness is more sensitive, and nature is less sensitive. Nature allows more visitors and classifies the area as a more casual experience, as one would expect to see many visitors there. In any case CN stated that the zoning would not ultimately affect anything, as if the area is classified as wilderness it will be given a special zoning to allow the use that it currently sees. The issue that most of us were very concerned about was the impact assessment that CN made of some of the bouldering areas. Some of the areas in Rocklands have been worn down and cleared to quite an extent, but as CN believe that the impact is very localised to the favoured boulders it is not likely to spread and is not an immediate problem that requires anything to be changed. If problems do arise, the first step will be to limit numbers in the areas via permits, which will be monitored much more if CN have an active person in the area.

Some slacklining at the Kliphuis campsite...

There was some concern over how the expansion of the bouldering areas would be managed, and it seems that CN will basically designate areas that allow bouldering, and if expansion passes that then CN would be consulted and they would give their judgement. This was still very much up in the air. The last thing brought up was the education of all visitors to Rocklands; hopefully through more signage and a better CN presence in Rocklands there will be greater communication on how to look after the areas and respect the more sensitive ones.

So there was a lot of good feedback from the meeting, and it definitely seems like CN are keen to get back into the picture in Rocklands, and hopefully we'll be able to camp at Kliphuis in the near future... Right at the end I did ask about fee's etc, and the fee structure for Kliphuis will likely be R180 per site per night, with 6 people permitted per site, so it definitely seems like it'll be good value. Now we just have to wait and see if CN get going with all this...

Easter Island...

Went to the easter island sector of redhill a few weeks ago with Micky and Calvin. Still feeling rusty outdoors, but hopefully that is soon to change. Opened a nice new line that goes up a slightly overhanging and quite tall boulder... it felt around 7A+, called "the hand that feeds"...

Redhill

Some cool pics taken by Calvin of Duncan and I bouldering at old redhill.

Feeling the Psyche

Went up to Echo Valley on Saturday to join the Rock n Road bouldering day. I managed to work some awesome lines, and basically only touched problems that I hadn't ever tried before. I tried Marijus's Heart Feels No Bass (7C) with not much luck, but a sweet line with some fun climbing. Then I was in my element as we had some go's on a two move project with a horrifically small crimp. It was close to going, but the last move is a bit of a dyno to a finishing sloper, off the micro crimp, but hopefully it'll go next time. After chilling for a while as the RnR climbers started heading down, we went to a rather large boulder just off the path to find an amazing, possibly 8Aish line with some ridiculously awesome climbing. I counted a total of 4 heel toe locks; I was loving it. On a fresh day perhaps we'll be able to put in some solid effort on it.

Last Sunday we headed up to the Cinema in an effort to open some new lines for the RnR bouldering day, which didn't end up happening there. Nevertheless it was a rad day of climbing. We opened various cool lines, and managed to get some time in on the awesome Cloverfield project. It's big and burly all the way, and gonna take quite some effort, but wow, its gonna be so awesome. So for now its back to work and training during the week, until next weekend...

Some rad photo's of the day at the Cinema...

All photo's by Calvin Kemp.

Sharp Crimps

Hitting the gaston crimp on "Gripped" sit start (7B+). Photo by Calvin Kemp

It's been ages since my last post, as my climbing has been suffering somewhat. I have rather poorly adapted my post student lifestyle to my desire to climb hard. Working till late doesn't help my cause, and even though I only go to work at 12, I cannot bring myself to climb in the mornings. I have however managed to get into a routine of training regularly at CityRock, which I have found immensely helpful in my quest to keep in good climbing form. Now its also a matter of committing those oh so valuable weekends to climbing, which I am slowly feeling a greater desire to do so.

So the other weekend we headed out to try the razor crimp showdown project, an epic line that has been a project for quite some time. Paul Robinson had been in CT for the past week or so and Marijus was keen to show him the line to see what he thought. He was rather psyched on the line when he saw it, and quickly pieced all but one of the moves together. Marijus and I were also picking up on Paul's beta and trying some of the moves, but boy did they still feel so hard. I felt an inkling of progress on the previous session on the line, but my finger joints simply couldn't take the epicness that was those holds for too long. The holds are so small and sharp. I have tried to focus on crimping hard lately, as my fingers are feeling great and just need to get stronger.

Paul cruised the crimps, only to fall at the dreaded underling move, although he was rather close to sticking it. It's inspiring to see how possible the line is, and it has renewed some psych for me to train hard, and hopefully climb hard in the coming months.

So we had been hearing about the bouldering at Paarl for quite some time now, and so Calvin and I decided to head out there for a good day of climbing. I brought plenty skin, yet still ran out. My skin has never been so wrecked in a single day of climbing. The climbing was good though! Surprisingly different, and although painful at times, there are some rather good lines. I did quite a few problems, a cool 7B+ sit start called "Gripped" and another 7B called "King Joker".

"King Joker" (7B). Photo by Calvin Kemp

 Later on I opened up a project on the same boulder as "Gripped", which was really rad. It has a really crimpy one handed stand start, and has some balancy moves up an arete, with a scary topout.

"Dry Ice" (7B+). Photo by Calvin Kemp.

"Dry Ice" (7B+). Photo by Calvin Kemp.

"Dry Ice" (7B+). Photo by Calvin Kemp.

It felt fairly hard, so maybe 7C, but possibly 7B+. I'll have to see what everyone else thinks. I opened another cool line which involves a big jump to a large slopey jug, and an awkward mantle using a crimp and a heel to stand up on the jug. A fun move, but a scary top out due to a below average landing. It was probably around 6C+ or 7A. Called it "Self Trepanation".

Marinus working "Eva Green" (6C), a fun crimpy line. Photo by Calvin Kemp.

There are many lines there that have epic topouts and death defying downclimbs, that definitely bump things up a notch. So next time a rope might be in order. But for now, a week of indoor training to let the split tips close. Definitely going to be heading back to Paarl soon.

Climbing is awesome...

3 Weeks ago...

Went to Rocklands for the weekend, ended up being a good call. The temperature was down, a vast improvement on previous trips. So I spent the first day at the fortress with Marijus and Arjan, who were both working "The Vice" (8B). I spent the first while warming up on some easy problems, one right hand finish to "The Vice" and then "Colin The Librarian" (7A+) to the left. Both pretty cool problems, but I had to do a few laps in order to warm up, cause it was sooo damn cold. But when the fingers warm up the friction is great. So I moved on to try "Desperado" (8A), a slightly eliminate problem, and very short. It's pretty much one hard move, with a hard left hand crimp lockoff and a reach up right to a small crimp and then a quick slap into a juggy hold up top. I managed to send the problem quickly, on my 4th go to be exact. The problem was somehow opened at 8B, but I guess based on your own personal strengths grading a single move problem, just like a dyno, can be really tricky, and I think these moves suited me quite well. I had doubts about whether I would be able to have enough power, but I guess I did, and in the end I think it helped that it was crimpy. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any pics of the line, but it's not very aesthetic in any case. After that day we made a quick stop at campground so that I could try "Tea With Elmarie", but I definitely wasn't feeling up to it, so it looks like its gonna be a few more weeks of getting climbing fit before I stand any chance at that line.

On Sunday I was planning on having a relatively chilled day, and pretty much everyone had decided to go to Roadside, which was actually rather cool. There ended up being quite a few strong climbers there, all locals too, and so everyone was feeling quite psyched in general. We started off with "Sunset Arete" (7C), a line which I had tried a few times, only to find the moves really hard. This time around Benj showed me a smaller, but sharper crimp which he had used for the line, and so on my first go I almost made it through the crux moves. The new crimp made the line feel so much easier than before, and on the next go I sent, although it was a bit messy with a few cutlooses, but I held on for the send.

A silhouette of me on "Sunset Arete" (7C). Photo by Luke Gregor.

Feeling psyched, I decided to get back on "Pendragon" (8A), a line which I think I can send, but just need to be feeling fresh. I'm having trouble with my foot sliding out on the second move, but other than that I'm close to doing all the other moves. So after a bit of work on that line, it was time to move on.

Working "Pendragon" (8A). Photo by Duncan Fraser

We went on to work "Caroline" (7C), which is pretty solid for the grade, I found getting all the moves done was fairly straight forward, it was just the effort of linking them all. Its an amazing line, with some very cool moves, and in line with my style I guess, with smaller moves on smaller holds, although the holds aren't too small. So lacking the energy to send, I had to leave the problem for next time. The starting move had completely numbed my index finger, as the start I was doing relied on a two finger lock which squeezed the gap in between the knuckles. Arjan and Flex sent the line in rad style. So my tweaky finger was beginning to complain about the punishment I was putting it through, and so I decided to lay off any harder lines for the day. I joined Robbie and Duncan who were trying "The Secret To Olives Preserve Cupboard" (7B), and I managed to flash that. A nice short, fun line. Other than that I jumped on "A Laise Blaise" (7B), which other that being sharp, had some cool movements, and went second go. I also checked out a dyno variation which skips the tricky crux moves, but is pretty tricky itself. That seemed to be the method of choice for Duncan and Robbie. All in all it was a good weekend out, but now its back to work....

Last weekend...

Shaun, Marijus and myself headed back to Rocklands for the weekend. I hadn't been training and keeping fit as I had hoped over the past few weeks and so I was mostly keen to get in lots of climbing to get everything working again. So on Saturday we headed to the Fortress, as Marijus was keen to get on "The Vice" (8B), as he had been making some progress lately. Once again it was pretty cold in Rocklands, but really good temps. It was still sunny, so working problems in the shade was perfect. We decided to warm up on "The Rack" (7B), and it only served as a reminded that I was super unfit... So after that Shaun and I went off to try "Stargate" (7C+) which seemed like quite a nice line. We had a good sequence going, thanks to Shaun, and I managed to link the moves quite quickly. I worked the final crimpy face, and just had to link the two parts through a tricky hop to a crimp in a really awkward position with a powerful lockoff. The move spat me out a couple times and my energy began to fade, so hopefully next time. On Sunday we headed off to Roadside, and I got back on "Caroline" (7C) hoping to send, but not having any expectations. The moves felt fine, and Shaun helped me tweak my sequence with the sickest drop knee's ever. In isolation I could do the moves so statically with the drop knees, but as usual by the time I got there my shocking endurance had kicked in. So looks like its another one for next time.

So in an effort to feel strong again I've committed myself to do some solid training during the week, Marijus and I are gonna be training at CityRock twice a week hopefully, and judging by what we did today, I think we'll be getting pretty strong over the next few weeks.

So I woke up the next day feeling so wrecked... my elbow tendons have been aching, not in a bad way, just in a really stiff needs some recovery kinda way. It think it was all the campusing we did, it seems to work the arms hard. So as part of our new weekly routine we were planning on heading out for a night session on Wednesday night. I was quite keen to check out an area in Cecilia forest that was still quite undeveloped. Its a boulder called The Den, with quite a few hardish lines, set on a slope in a forest of tall Pine trees, with a view of the horizon on the side. Pretty rad location for a boulder, although the landings are a little sketchy, but nothing we can't handle. So we started out by trying to warm up on a 6Cish line on the front of the boulder. It ended up feeling more 7Aish with a cramped crimpy start, and although we chickened out by topping out slightly left, there is a sketchy direct topout using some very shallow slopey pockets, it'll definitely be interesting. So we moved onto one of the harder lines, which is feeling about 7C if not harder. We sent the start stand fairly quickly after chalking up holds and stuff, that line was opened as "Sonic" (7B), but the sit start moves seem pretty hard. After no success on that line we worked on a cool line that travels up and right along the boulder using big crimps and some large underclings. Was quite an effort, and although we were pretty trashed from training it felt about 7B.

Marijus on "Night Vision" (7B). Photo by Calvin Kemp

Me on "Sonic" (7B). Photo by Calvin Kemp

So I'm not gonna survive training on Thursday, really need a rest, plus I'm back in Rocklands this weekend, so a 2 day rest should have me feeling fresh by the weekend....

Anyway, I had to opt out of going to Rocklands for the weekend, it seems that training gave my elbows such a shock, and I've just had to rest them, but I managed to get a light training session done at CityRock on Sunday, get the blood flowing again and I'm starting to feel ready to climb this week.

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...

Training

I came across quite an interesting topic the other day, whether stretching before a workout (climbing in our case) is actually worth it. I became interested when I read the line "In the last few years, several studies have found static stretching before playing a sport makes you slower and weaker." This seemed to go against the usual idea of stretching sufficiently before a climbing session, static stretching in particular. Stretching was always one of those admin things you "should" do before a workout, but never actually feel like it or get around to doing. As it turns out we're actually doing ourselves a favour by forgetting to stretch. When we stretch, our muscles try to react against over-stretching and contract and become tighter, this in turn results in the muscles becoming weaker and incapable of moving as fast or as freely. Its like we are destabilising our muscles and putting them at greater risk of being pulled. So all this goes against the conventional wisdom of stretching beforehand, but it doesn't diminish the value of stretching in general, as it can be very effective when done on it's own. Yoga makes perfect use of this, and the benefits are widespread. On the other hand, active stretching, which is basically movement incorporating stretches, are still meant to be beneficial before a workout, but I'm not sure who actually stretches like that. Apparently this research on stretching has been around for quite some time, its just that people have never really taken too much interest, and so the usual ideas around stretching remain. All of this doesn't mean that we don't need to warm up before a session at the wall or outdoors, as blood flow to all our muscles and joints is very important for maximising performance as well as minimising injury, with the fingers being vitally important.


Pre-Work Out Stretching by Maria Cheng

Me stretching out on "Spoon" (7C) at Ezemvelo. Photo by Calvin Kemp.

On another note, I've been trying to boost my power in my bouldering, its something that I've wanted to do in order to give me that boost on those harder problems. Sometimes my slightly shorter reach makes moves that much more difficult, but hard dyno problems also feel out of reach. I've managed to get the technique right for dynos, by staying close to the rock, and trying to engage the arms and legs fully, I just lack the raw power to go far enough. So the best option to get there at this point in time is hyper-gravity training, which is basically just training with a weight belt. This isn't a very good idea if you have any finger or muscle tweaks, and is best done when you're feeling in good shape, and now after a season of boulder league I think all the components are in good enough shape to handle the extra weight. I have been training at the UCT wall with a weight belt here and there, trying to repeat boulder league problems with the added weight of 4kgs, which certainly makes everything harder. The belt doesn't sit at your centre of gravity, and so on more dynamic moves you can get thrown off quite a bit. The article I'm talking about here mentions three ways to boost strength through hyper-gravity training, and the one I'm most interested in are the basic weighted pull ups. All it takes is adding sufficient weight to your weight belt so that you can't do over 20 pull ups, and then doing three sets to failure, with your third set probably failing at around 10. If you can't do 20 pull ups its probably best to start doing them without weight, and building up until you can do over 20. So all this sounds like so much fun, and I'd rather go to the wall or even outdoors for a night bouldering session, but end of the day it can be a very quick session at home on a pull up bar that can get you strong quickly. When you lack that time during the week, and have to try fit in everything you want to do after work, it can really help.

Developing Uber Strength by Eric J. Hörst

Luke Gregor hitting the dyno on one the the Boulder League problems at the UCT Wall. 

Photo by Calvin Kemp

National Bouldering League

The upcoming weekend (24/25th April) is the Finals for the National Bouldering League that we've been going to every week. This year was a cool season, the league is great for getting in shape and getting strong. This year we had Benj join us in Cape Town for the Western Province League. It was really rad having another strong climber to climb with, and it added that much more competition. So on our final round of boulder league we had some pretty cool problems, I decided to spend most of my time working no. 14, a low balancy sloper sidepull chuck to a thin incut jug. The move seemed pretty hard at first, but after working out how to place my fingers exactly, I managed to get the distance, but then it took a good few tries to get the accuracy and actually stick the move. Then once the move stuck, I managed to stuff up the next move by catching a two finger pocket with my ring and middle finger tips, and in doing so pulling one of my tendons. Its a light injury, and is already feeling better, but with finals next weekend I hope it'll let me climb hard without holding me back. The injury is a flexor unit strain, which pretty much means that the force I loaded on my tip transferred down my finger tendon and into my palm, which is where the tendon has strained. It can vary from anywhere in the palm and even into the forearm, and the most common finger which gets injured in this way is the ring finger, primarily due to its length relative to the middle finger, as in many open hand positions the middle finger remains comfortable, while the ring finger is maxed out. So this is a reminder for me to train my deadhangs and improve that open hand tendon strength, but it won't be as important in the coming months as I'll be climbing on plastic less, and more on rock.

I got my new Mad Rock shoes the other day, a pair of Conflicts. They are quite aggressive, with a nice down-turned toe but a softer midsole. The shoes also seem to have a good fit, but they seem to have an unusual twist in them that puts my big toe right at the middle of the front of the shoe. Hopefully this is what was intended, but either way I think it'll work. So far I've only had the chance to try them on plastic, but I'll be using them at Nationals so I need to make sure I break them in sufficiently during this week. All in all a pretty rad shoe.

So to avoid using the finger this week, I'm gonna have to focus on doing some training at home, which pretty much means some weighted power-pullups, one arm negatives, pushups and leg lifts. That normally sorts me out pretty good. The hard ones at the moment are the one arm negatives, it entails doing a pullup with opposing hand grips, and then locking off on the arm facing inwards, and lowering yourself down on one arm as slowly as possible. The first try is normally pretty solid and slow, but after that it deteriorates rapidly, and one needs to make sure that you're properly warmed up, cause it's pretty easy to injure a shoulder doing this.

After Nationals hopefully the focus will return to rock, and Marijus and I were talking about spending most of our weekends during May in Rocklands, which will be rad, and a great time to tick off some projects hopefully. In terms of local projects there are a few things I need to tick off soon, but never seem to be getting around to them. Benj sent "Captain Graffitti" (8A) the other day, which reminded me of that project. Shorter people have slightly harder beta on that problem, which involves hitting a two finger slot when you're almost horizontal, and then eventually crossing over to the finishing jugs.

Working "Captain Graffitti" (8A)

Other than that project, I need to get back on "Exam Stress" (8A) at the classroom, and then "Storefront Cemetery" (8A) at redhill. Hopefully some recap sessions will sort those out, and some lower temps. On another note abour redhill, Marijus mentioned getting closer to figuring out the sit-start to "Pandemonium" (7C), which will probably go at around 8A, bringing the line back to its original grade. It such and awesome line, and would have been harder if we didn't find an extra crimp that makes the topout that much more doable. 

Working the slopey topout on "Pandemonium" (7C)

So I'm looking forward the leaving for Joburg on Thursday, spending about a week up there for the NBL final and the Lead comp, and hopefully we'll be able to get out to Ezemvelo for some good sessions too.

Botswana Bloc

During July of 2009, a group of us UCT climbers went to Pretoria for the SASSU climbing comp at The Barn. After the comp was over we had planned a little excursion into Botswana to check out some clusters of boulders we’d heard about and seen pictures of. So off we went in my mom’s green kombi, pretty unsure of what to expect. The trip turned out really well, and we managed to find some rad bouldering on large blobs of featured granite. We put together a short clip of the trip, so here it is…

Back in Rocklands...

We arrived in Rocklands on Thursday night and set up camp at De Pakhuys. First stop in the morning was dihedral boulders, as Benj was keen to have a session on "Ray of Light" (8B), a super hard problem, but he's already done all of the moves, it's just a matter of linking them all, although it's going to be a mammoth task. Duncan jumped back on "Jaws" (7C) and managed to complete the final move quite easily, and just has to link it from the beginning. I chilled for most of the time, but ended up deciding to head to the fortress with Marijus so I could finish off "Cedar Spine" (7C) and try out "Desperado" (8A) and Marijus was planning to get on "The Vice" (8B).

"Cedar Spine" (7C) Photo by Calvin Kemp.

When we got to the parking we were chased away as we didn't have our Wildcards with us, and so we opted for Campground, and set off working "Rasta Roof" (8A). It's not the most aesthetic line, but it has some cool moves. Marijus and I worked the crux moves for a while, and although we made some progress and found beta that seemed to work, we seemed to lack that extra notch of strength, and so we were done on that. We headed to "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+) so I could give it a go, and to my surprise I managed to get through the first moves on my first go, and it actually felt quite good, but my next two tries only deteriorated. So back to camp for a good supper and checking out some of the footage we had taken of the day's climbing. Matt managed to send "Black Velvet" (8A) quite convincingly, his first 8A, and a pretty awesome one at that. So on Saturday we decided to head to Campground, and the first problem we headed to was "The Woody" (7B). It ended up being just my style, nice and crimpy.



Then after heading back to the car for some lunch and a slackline we headed up to "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+), but this time I planned on just doing the left variation, called "Teatime" (7C). It runs through the same crimpy leftward moving crux on the boulder, only to go left and then up instead of finishing directly up the face as for "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+).



After sending that quite easily and feeling really good on the crimps, I felt re-psyched to get back on it for the direct finish. I had a few goes which got me close to getting into the sidepull/crimp on the face, but not close enough. My fingers were feeling great on the crimps, without a tweak anywhere, which is such a nice relief after having dealt with so many finger tweaks over the past few years, its great to see them improving and getting stronger.

Setting up to hit the sidepull in the face on "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+). Photo by Duncan Fraser.

So hopefully "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+) with be possible quite soon, with some fresh tips and strong crimps. Benj did the stand start called "Teatime Direct" (7B+), which is the problem I need to do after the crimpy crux, and it's still no walk in the park, with a painful left crimp to pull yourself to the top.

Beaverlac

A few months ago myself, Luke and Megs went on a camping trip to Beaverlac, just off Picketberg (on the way to Rocklands). I never really had the intention of going bouldering, but thought I'll take my pad incase, plus it makes a sweet couch for chilling around the campfire. So we went to Beaverlac and I kept my eyes peeled for any amazing bouldering, but as usual nothing caught my attention. On the second day we decided to take a short hike up to some pools, and the one we ended up at was quite secluded, but had a rather large boulder. After a quick inspection I noticed some definite lines going up either side of the boulder, and despite the rock being smooth from the water flowing through, the friction actually seemed pretty good! So I ran back to camp to fetch my shoes and pad. In the end I opened a few lines, some easyish ones on the boulder next to the large one, and a 7B "Lumo Cougar" on the right side of the large boulder.

"Lumo Cougar" (7B) Photo by Luke Gregor

The line follows some two finger pockets up and right, and then you set up in a good left pocket and a right gaston, then its a fairly big slap around the arete to a slopey jug. The topout utilises a wedged rock on your left, as it looks too hard otherwise, but maybe that line can be opened at a later stage.

Project. Photo by Luke Gregor

So the main attraction was this line. It has a perfect start on the inside, in two good pockets, with a cross to a perfect pocket which lets you do a fairly reachy slap around the corner to some good holds. So then you set up heel hooks on both sides of the corner, and move up some slopey holds and up to a crimp. This is the tricky part, as you can either set up the left or right on the crimp, but either way, the next comprehendable hold is very far away, and its a small crimp. So unless I can find another "hold" I think its gonna be a very hard move.

So other that those lines, I think there may be an assortment of easy lines up the river, and maybe a few mid range difficulty ones. I'll have to see on the next trip. With the current spree of Rocklands trips I'm not sure when I'll be going back, but hopefully I can fit a trip in sometime soon. Then with time I think a nice topo can be put together, for what could be a nice little area. Anyway, its Rocklands later tonight, till Saturday night, got the HD camera from Arjan so hopefully some vids are gonna be coming soon.

Rocklands

I've been heading out to Rocklands quite a bit lately, for the past three weekends in a row actually. It's been great to get out there, and despite the high temps its not too bad, as long as you manage your climbing properly, by climbing at the right times as well as on the right problems.

So I managed to get a taste of some of the harder problems in Rocklands, like "Quintessential" (8B), "Derailed" (8B+) and "Ray of Light" (8B). All of which are brick hard, and way out of my league at this point in time. What I did notice when trying the moves on these hard problems is how inspiring it is to know that these moves are possible, and that they hopefully will be possible for me one day. Quintessential feels particularly like my style, i.e. short and crimpy, and so later in the Rocklands season I think that's going to be in my sights, although my fingers are going to have to be in superb shape to handle those forces. So last weekend in Rocklands I managed to send "Who The Fuck Is Minki" (7C), which is actually a really cool line, with lots of body climbing, and a sweet left hand cutloose at the end.

"Who The Fuck Is Minki" (7C) Photo by Duncan Fraser

I got super close to a send on "Cedar Spine" (7C) only to fall off on the last holds... Next time I plan to give the top-out a better look so I'm a bit more efficient on it. Otherwise it was so much fun progressing on that problem, and the height keeps you on edge when you're doing those moves up top. Another line to finish on one of the coming weekends is "Kingdom in the Sky" (7C), but I think after mastering some footwork that line will go down fairly quickly.

"Kingdom in the Sky" (7C) Photo by Duncan Fraser

Duncan almost sent "Ulan Batar" (7B), after getting through the initial moves, so hopefully that'll go on the next trip. He also worked "Who The Fuck Is Minki" (7C) and managed to do almost all the moves, so that send is looking close too. This last weekend was really relaxing and enjoyable in the end, after lots of laughing with friends, and taking some time to simply enjoy the experience of being out in Rocklands. So on Thursday night the plan is to head back out, and my plan is to finish off "Cedar Spine" and hopefully get onto "Desperado" (8A) at the fortress, which is apparently short and crimpy. But for now it's to Stellenbosch for the WP Boulder League, we set some rad problems the other night so I'm keen to see how they go down, and hopefully the mats are back, otherwise we're gonna need some amazing spotting...