Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. - Eddie Rickenbacker

As usual no photos - too busy climbing!

What a weekend - Dave & Caroline, legends. Sean, Kev, Trish, you're up there too. I've handed my final assignment in, praying it's up to scratch, and can now focus a small bit more on having a life. Not a full one, just yet, I've still got a few more weeks to make it through, and some official ticks to sort out along the way, but I'm close.

So, to help this along the way, I bailed over to visit Dave in Wales for a couple of days cragging at Dinbren. The experience has proved that I've the physical strength of a low-8 sports climber, and the stamina of a mid-7 one :) An imbalance that I'll work on restoring in the coming months. to be honest, I'm just chuffed that I haven't lost the edge on lots of things, partly cause it seems like a lot of work to have to deal with getting strong AND fit again :)

Anyway, part of the stamina thing was just from the sheer number of routes. Saturday involved arriving to the crag about 12-ish, then a 6b, 7a+ x 3 (one with a fall), working the moves on an 8a+ (two-move wonder, but two very hard moves!), two goes on a 7c (sustained pumpiness, I didn't have fitness for them), and finishing off with working a super-technical 8a+ (insanely technical, completely blew me away). Oh yeah, I almost forgot, finishing with a hilarious attempt at a 7b(+?) - my arms gave up on almost every hold on the route, I was wasted. It was one of those days, I'm overwhelmed with movement, beautiful movement. Yes, the routes are short, but so technical so much fun, it's like physical ballerina dancing - tons of foot movements to go nowhere, all the while hanging off small edges. No wonder Dave and Caroline are climbing so well, this place MAKES you get stronger and technically better.
So all in all a good day.
Sunday involved a 6b, 6b+, a quick work of the final 7b+ (felt much easier with some rest, but still stuffed it up), and two goes working an 8a which for a change was fine except for one single little section at the beginning. Granted this one little section involves about 10 foot moves to actually move up 10 inches but I could see it going with some more practice.

As for everyone else, well they can write up their own great sends - suffice to say, everyone is climbing strong - ticking serious levels and the Irish climbing scene is in great shape right now! It's Monday, my forearms actually feel great, but I think that they're in denial :) My back and upper arms agree with me. Hope everyone had a super-cool weekend, positive vibes to all!

p.s. can you tell I've handed in assignments from my writing? I know I can, no moody dark posts like the previous one :)

Pembroke, and a bit of confusion over E-grades

newly resoled rockshoes with the One True sticky rubber from FiveTen

Dave has posted about last weekend in Pembroke so I'll just rehash my own perspective of it. Firstly, don't always believe the forecast! Every single one predicted rain, lots of the stuff and boy were they wrong. It rained three times, once on each night for a short period, and once on Monday morning as we packed up. The Climbing Gods were obviously in a good mood so I'm not complaining!

Other than that, Pembroke is always somewhere fun to visit and it was a quality weekend with a great bunch of people. I've spent only a few weekends there over the years so still find the zawns intimidating for some unknown reason, but am completely at home on the main sea cliffs - I guess they're comparable to the cliffs back home.
I'll be honest, and I'm sure many will have noticed, I don't do much trad anymore. And I especially don't do hard/bold trad anymore - I just don't see the logic of the risk. Of course, that's my own perspective so if you love trad and it's your passion, keep it up - I'm honestly in awe of ye :) Anyway, Dave persuaded me into a go on Ghost Train, an E7 6b in one of the zawns. I'd only one top-rope on it, and a truly interesting experience. As always, the E7 grade intimidated me, and I was relatively gripped before even pulling on. I blew a foothold about 4 meters up which instantly decided for me that I would never lead it - the rock was crumbly in sections, even if the movement/climbing was excellent. I also stepped off about half way up to scope out a move - I could tell that the route was only about 7a+/7b climbing by then so checked out one of the mid-point sections, a pocket I missed sorted out what felt like a truly difficult move. It was an easy top-out from there, just keep moving steadily.

So, it showed my confusion over the E-grading system. So, I'm going to use what is a more logical system for me by taking what the difficulty is on the route and then bench marking it for whether it's safe (no letter added to grading), it's really bold with potential for injury (an 'R' after the grade), or whether you just don't want to fall off (an 'X' after the grade). It's called the American grading system :)
In that system, I'd give it a 5.12a R. It's funny, when I see it written as that, it's not a difficult route at all and I genuinely feel open to climbing it, but with an E7 grade on it, I've no interest in touching it, and would never have even considered top-roping it! So, from now on, I'm abandoning the use of the E-grade system, trying everything I can on top-rope and re-grading for my own use with sports climbing-style benchmarking - focus on the physical difficulty and not on whether it's bold/dangerous. I hear Master's Edge is only 7b+/5.12c R sports climbing so must have a go on a rope at some point.....
Obviously if the 'R' turns to an 'X' for going-to-die-if-you-fall-off then it'll be automatically be discarded for a potential ascent :)
That's my thoughts on gradings right now - I think I'll just leave it at that, as I know most don't see what I'm on about :)

Other than that, it was a great weekend ticking off lots of routes between 5.8 and 5.10 (VS to E3 - he he he :) - all super-safe, super-fun, and in fantastic situations. Actually, sorry, I can't so I'll regrade some of the classic routes I was on - The Butcher which is an E3 is a 5.10d (french 6b sports route) - doesn't even get a letter, it's super safe. If I'd known that before I tried it, I wouldn't have wasted so much time at the crux wondering about whether I was going to fall off or not :)

as ever, Pembroke though lived up to it's fantastic reputation - beautiful limestone, long routes, and an amazing situation above the sea. Naomi was cruising also - she looks like she'll have a good summer in Europe, and Matt gets nicest-location-for-a-lead with his final morning climb of the classic E1 at Mother Carey's - I've blanked the name of the route.

Do I've any photos? none, I was distracted by climbing so you'll have to put up with the solitary photo of my newly resoled shoes courtesy of Feet First shoe repairs, near Sheffield :) Hope everyone else got out climbing!