What happened in the woods this winter pt. 1
No more bouldering for this year. Time to get back on a rope. But what a winter of great bouldering. Helechal is a socialable space to boulder and met people from all over Spain. First up were some powerful people from Madrid. They’re leading 8c so they had a bit of power and stamina but were apparently a bit new to bouldering. I took them around a few of my dream projects. The lines I’m going to do when I get stronger 😉 Here’s the vid of them crushing or a least getting ready to crush some of my dreams….. But one thing these guys showed me was the heal. They were putting in heal hooks everywhere. I’ve been trying to do the same ever since.
Day’s of Power – how to have them and how to avoid an injury!
I had a day of power yesterday. I felt light and every hold felt large and positive. I felt I could climb anything. Projects were dispatched with ease and I felt a huge reservoir of power.
The last time I felt this excess of strength I did two 7A boulder problems and a 7B problem which had been eluding me for months and it felt easy. But I injured myself in the process and strained a tendon in my left index finger and my right pinkie. I was so pumped up that I didn’t really notice until the next day. The lesson I learnt is that muscles have a Day of Power, but tendons don’t. Tendons (for the thousandth time) take much longer to get strong than muscles. But when I was pulling on a two finger half pad pocket on the 7B and felt light. I had forgotten that.
But yesterday I remembered it. So I didn’t charge down to my projects and start ripping myself apart. I had a great day felt like a god but kept it mortal for the sake of the tendons, which have only just recovered 🙂
However for those who wish to ignore my warning regarding Day’s of Power here are the secret tricks. But you have been warned. My Day’s of Power always come after a couple of months of intense climbing where I can feel that I am over-climbing a bit and starting to ache. I then take a five days off and do one good day of climbing. But not exhausting. Then another five days without climbing. I don’t drink for a few days before and sleep really well. I didn’t do any other exercise apart from some yoga and antagonistic exercises like push ups etc. Then you will be ready. Basically exercise the opposite of your climbing muscles but leave the climbing guns alone for a few days.
Oh and eat plenty the night before and on the day itself never get hungry. Keep snacking so that body is full of the good stuff. Oh and a bit of protein at lunch seemed to help if you are climbing in the afternoon.
That’s what works for me:)
Outclimbed by Bernabé Fernández of Chilam Balam fame.
So I’m climbing in the easiest area of San Bartolo with my girlfriend Katja and her cousin from Switzerland. A man arrived after us with his pretty girlfriend who was a beginner. He seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place him. Every time I finished a route he came over and climbed a route next to me much better. I did harder and harder routes and the guy did them more and more easily. So I head towards the hardest route I’ve ever done. Dandy Con Laprones in Habitacion a 7a. I’m pretty confident he won’t be following me up this one, I thought. I struggle up, making lots of grunting noises have one fall but finally make it. The guy strolls over and asks if I’ve finished. ‘Uh yes. You are going to try it’ I say incredulously. ‘Yes I think I will give it a try’. He climbs it with stunning ease and then continues without stopping up another route above which is even harder a 7a+. When he comes down I congratulate him and ask him what is the hardest route he has done on sight. He tries to hide a smirk and gives me a grade which makes him one of the best climbers in the World. It is then that I place his face and realise that it is him on the cover of the main guide book for Andulacia doing the hardest route in the world !!!
To be fair to me…. He was a really humble guy and not at all flashy and he was climbing 4b and 5+ and then a 6b and then finally the 7a and 7a+ extension. But his technique was super awesome and he did every move with a new twist or movement which was like a masterclass for me. I’ve seen a guy doing the 8b next to Lamprones and watched him climb Dandy as well. His technique wasn’t as good as Barnabe. Oh and of course on the big question of whether he did Chilam Balam. For sure, the guys a climbing genius 🙂
Redpoint of Mako Blaster 7a, Los Buitres, San Bartolo.
So pleased to get this route in the bag. It’s one of those short bouldery routes with easy moves around a really hard crux. The grade for the these short bouldery routes always represents the one hard move. Whereas on longer routes the crux can be much easier especially on stamina/endurance routes.
But on Mako Blaster it really is a one move 7a. So it packs all its punch into that one move. And it is a move!! Personally I feel it is a hard 6A+/ 6B boulder move. But it always feels so different when you are climbing with a rope rather than away from a mat.
I’ve fallen off it twice in the past, just to pull straight back on and do it easily. But this time I actually changed my approach and really looked up at the actual crux itself and visualised how I would do it before I left the ground. This small mental effort made a really big difference. Once up there it all flowed and I got the sequence easily, even if the move still felt hard.
Tangerine 6C+
I tried this line for about five months over last Summer. Maybe longer. It’s really really thin with micro edges and small lumps for the feet. It’s not much better for the hands. It starts with a jump up to a slopper and then trends upwards and right along a line of small crimps and slopping holds to the end where you find a “medio bueno” (spanish for half ok) hold on the lip. Then to finish you have to do a really hard heal hook rockover for a great hold much further back.
The line might be harder than 6C+ but I haven’t done enough boulders at this difficulty to say. I think shorter climbers will find it harder reaching between the holds and footholds. But awesome moves all the same and really required a step up in my technique on both body position and feet to send it.
More Alcaidesa action.
This is another vid we made last year in Alcaidesa. It’s quite an easy problem but the move over the lip is harder than it looks as you feel quite bunched up and off-balance. The feet don’t go where you’d like so it’s hard to make it look elegant;)
We all agreed that it was probably a soft 6A.
Thanks to James who showed us the problem and cleared the vegetation around the base.
