Vive "the Resistance"! - what is being reflected on, and learnt, from the Siurana trip



Old picture from Siurana



What came out of this trip to Siurana (previous blog post) was a really interesting expierience in relation to performance on routes in general after this winter of bouldering non-stop. Pretty much since the last summer (and even before the lead comp in mid-October), I haven't tied into a rope at all. And to top it off, I've had very little time out on 'real' rock - regular damp weather not to mention that crazy December we had, and commitments at weekends due to regular commutes to Ireland.

Probably the biggest and most noticeable issue that occured, and is plainly evident anyway(!), is that I was really lacking time on rock. Yes, you do get a lot of strength gains (usually a lot more than you can gain easily from just climbing routes or boulders all the time) and climbing movement from just climbing on plastic or wood, but it's just not the same as the technical requirements of actual rock, be it limestone/gritstone/granite, whatever. It was also noticeable from the point of view of comfort above draws and falls. I'm usually pretty chilled out about taking lobs, but the first few times you end up above a bolt and are facing a lob, you're not as composed as you should be - but again by the end of the trip, I was considering skipping bolts, etc like usual!

One of the biggest things that was evident on the first day or two was the lack of instant vision in seeing foot placements, that familiarity of the friction of rock, the multitude of hold and foothold choices, etc. All things that lead you to climb much slower than you do when you just don't think about it and it happens naturally. You don't think about how your feet touch the ground and balance when walking down the road, and when you're on rock regularly it can be the exact same - all you have to do is focus on the difficulty of the moves. There is a huge time delay and it was evident in how slow I was moving, with a major lack of fluidity on the early routes - I just wasn't 'seeing' how to climb the routes.

Even with 12 years of climbing, it takes at least a few days (I'd say it took me four full days before I was feeling fluid) to get back into the flow of things. The obvious big lesson is to try and get out on rock (and ideally routes) to get familiarity with the routines before a trip. Obviously, being in the UK or Ireland that is easier said than done at this time of year but I'll be making sure to go and spend some time on routes before the next trip!

One of the interesting things is that I've been doing some regular laps on the system board at the Climbing Works. There's routes from 6b to 8c on it, I've been spending some time lapping the 7b+ and playing on the low 8's. The flaw in this type of training though is that some of the gains you make are through familiarity of the holds and movements, but not in pure fitness. Little things like having to stop and clip draws are things you don't have to do while on a lap of a board so they're times where you're body just isn't adapted to it. I noticed this a lot on on-sight attempts early on in the week - I had to climb continuously but was really struggling to just shake out like I normally do when I get to a good hold.

Of couse, the big benefits that were noticeable was that moves felt relatively easy - in comparison to just bouldering on an indoor wall, the moves just aren't very hard. The only thing is that this doesn't really matter if you can't keep up 'the resistance' - on Anabolica, a local Spanish climber who was noticeably weaker on all the early moves to myself was still getting a bolt higher than I was as he looked like he just had more route mileage than I did recently. As he described though, he'd been bouldering a fair bit at Albaracin recently, so even he was suffering from "no resistance" so we both had some work to do there :)

It was very evident was that I was seriously lacking in the skill/habit for climbing multiple mid-level difficult moves continuously over 30 meters. You just can't get on and pull as hard as you can as you'll pump out!

all of this is pretty evident, but I'm guessing there's a few people who have trips planned away in the coming months so hopefully this gives a few of you incentives to get out on routes, or at least even hit the indoor lead wall to get some route fitness!

Venga venga!

mmmm.....Siurana.....and my first swearing at a route in a long time!

To be honest, I’m so glad and lucky that I’ve been able to fund myself enough over the years that I’ve been to Siurana 6 times now in 12 years. I can only be grateful for the fact that I’ve been able to work it into my life that I could, and still can, take these opportunities to get to locations such as this!

Photos will come in the next few days (although there’s not many as there was only two of us meaning it’s tricky getting shots) once I can get them off Naomi’s camera - side note, if anyone is looking for a new camera, you’d be doing well to consider the Panasonic Lumix TZ10 - stunning pictures from a compact camera and with a ridiculously good zoom to go with it.

Amusingly, things most definitely did not go to plan from a climbing aim point of view. Many months ago, I listened to an interesting interview with Irish hurdles runner, Dervil O’Rourke and she described how as a short-distance runner, she hadn’t run more than 250 meters in a single go while in a training session (at minute 8:10). I’d known that I was focusing heavily on bouldering (and indoors at that due to time constraints this year) so I’d been essentially doing the same as this since returning to Sheffield last September. I only realized at the end of the first day that the last time I’d even put on a harness (bar using one in the house for hanging weights off) was the lead comp back in mid-October! So evidently, my physical conditioning for climbing long distances, and the efficiency required for such feats, was not on par with my own keenness for such pursuits.

It came with this: my ideas of ticking getting back on L’Men’s just didn’t make sense with only 6 days to spend in Spain and it being Naomi’s first time in Siurana, what was the point in going to a different location? For other reasons, it also didn’t make sense but I’ll get to them in good time :) To be honest, I had no real ambition of even really trying to send the route (I didn’t have time) and was only thinking of going with the idea of gauging fitness for such a route, and to re-familiarize myself with the moves for a good attempt at Easter. As it happened, I didn’t need to go to Monstant to get that idea - it was fairly evident from the first day of climbing that I was seriously rusty when it came to route climbing!

On the first day, after ticking some 6’s and low 7’s to remind myself of the climbing style in Siurana (vertical to slightly overhanging and crimpy), I jumped on Mandragora for an attempted onsight. For those who don’t (and those that do) know Siurana, it’s the most amazing looking orange streak of rock you can see as you drive into the Siurana valley - 35 meters of 7b/7b+ climbing (getting upgraded now due to polish). So I thought it would be an ideal test but that I should crush it (weirdly, I’ve never really been on it before - bar climbing the first two bolts years ago to retrieve draws) - I was pretty confident in my fitness for such an outing.

Boy was I wrong!

What roughly happened was I decided to climb it at about 4pm in the day in full, blazing, sunshine - which only an idiot would do on this route as, it being an ultra-classic, is heavily polished (as it turned out). But to top that off, I cruised up the first 3 bolts and started to notice a strange sensation in my arms (I think it's called a savage pump)....so climbed straight into the crux section......realized I’d made a hash of it as I was going the wrong way and on too tiny credit card edges for holds.......so bore down (like a boulderer) and down-climbed to the half-rest......and realized I’d climbed about 5 meters in total....and climbed like a boulderer.....so my forearms completely seized and I ran away to hide and have a re-assessment of my plans for the week. I’m not kidding, I couldn’t climb for the rest of the day after it, my arms were that solid. Muppet :)

You can see the theme of the week though, my body was conditioned for bouldering mode, and it took me 4 whole days to un-do much of this conditioning and climb in the way needed to get up sports routes (a beautiful balance of power and efficiency). So I spent the following few days showing Naomi around some sectors, and I used the time as an excuse to get back on an old classic I'd tried a few years ago, Anabolica. Last time I tried this was not in the frame of mind for projecting hard routes due to other issues distracting me in life, so it felt time to jump back on it and see if I could use the bouldering strength to send it and kill an old acquaintance.

• Worked the moves at the end of day two.
• Tried it twice on day three (refining sequences - trying to work out how to do the final red-point throw in a way that seemed like it might be remotely possible when I got there pumped after climbing the first 5 meters :) - no go, couple of slips threw me off.
• Took off a day to relax and actually have some chill-out time.
• 4th day, felt really strong, tried it in blazing sunshine and got really excited that I’m still learning about movement in climbing and how to stay efficient after cruising the first crux and falling from the traverse. I love climbing for doing this, I’m still learning so much! Started to get stressed a bit as only a day left of climbing but why not give it a go on the last morning?
• 5th day - stuffed up the first crux and fell off. Not happy! Rested 20 minutes and got on again, arms were gassed and collapsed spectacularly at the crux once again. Started swearing at the route and had a full-on rant (anyone remember me ever doing this before? I can’t!). Tried to climb it clean to the chains but could barely pull on. Mad. Still though, it took out my frustration to do it and I walked away clear of conscience from it. It’ll be there again......

Anyway, to finish off, thankfully Naomi had the good idea to head back down to the valley to finish off our last evening. So on-sighted some 7a’s and finished off with a 7b+ on-sight in really nice style. So at least the week of punishment on routes paid off and I’m back to where I want, give or take.

Honestly though, I shouldn’t feel frustrated as it is only the first bit of sports climbing this year and my first time of routes, but I was genuinely hoping to start off on an amazing note this year. Such is life though, and as always the routes will be there again in the coming months/trips/years ! The realistic, rational person in me recognizes that I shouldn’t be expecting miracles on the first day so I’ve done the important thing, figured out all the positives from the trip, what needs to be sorted out in the coming weeks ahead and move on. Psyche!!!!

Siurana

The amphitheatre at Monstant - climber is on Hidrofobia (8a), L'Mens goes up to the left of this.

Since Dave mentioned it too, I should acknowledge that I will be in Siurana for a week. Training went amazingly well for about 2-3 weeks before it, and then died in the past two. Blame work! But such is life (good timing with Dave MacLeod's blog for that matter :), and I'm keen to get out and play on some routes again anyway, it's been months since I was on real routes so it's all good.

If I get a day up at Monstant I'll jump back on the 8b+, L'Mens, again to see how it feels. Who knows, I'm strong enough for it now (I did the moves on it a few years ago anyway) but might be lacking regular sports climbing fitness now for an epic such as this. If not, there's always the route in the photo above to have a go at (again if time and the stars align).

I always struggle a bit to get my head fully into gear after being off 'real' rock for so long. I'm well capable of ticking the routes, but have learned from experience that getting my belief system to the point of doing it can't just be switched on for me. One of the nice parts is recognizing the little things that trip you up at peformance and finding ways to override it. What do you find affects you when going for harder routes? Don't feel strong enough? fit enough? psychological belief about your capability?

Of course, it'll be a week in beautiful Siurana anyway, one of my favourite areas anyway, so it'll all be good!
Happy climbing all :)

looks like the climbing scene is waking up!

Just a friendly discussion - we're all a bit younger than these guys but it's essentially what is happening with people discussing. Add a pint glass and this could be Ireland :) Image credit: flickr.com


It looks like it's that time of year again - the winter is starting to close and people are starting to wake up from the winter slumber, cause the Internet is abuzz again with discussions and chatting! :) I've can't remember who started it all off but Dave, Trish (who wins the award of "Best Newcomer Irish climbing Blog in 2010" in my eyes) and (especially notably for the last post) Pierre's blogs have been having some great, fascinating discussion over the topic of achievement and voicing said achievements.

Like Dave already said, Pierre's post is the classic of the lot, but all this discussion is valid for many other reasons. Firstly, when can people remember as much discussion going on in a very public manner on blogs before? Don't get me wrong, climbing.ie has been doing forum chats for years (with some fantastic debates at that too) but a blog is a much more public domain, people are openly commenting and writing (and recognising) people's activities which I feel is relatively unheard of in the Irish climbing scene. So something feels like it's changing, not just in the fact that (also as Dave alluded to) that there is a new generation of climbers coming through that seem to be shaking up the scene with hard sends both in the bouldering and trad scene (ignoring those who are pursuing sports climbing abroad - Caroline, Dave, Eddie, anyone with the letter F next? :o). Will we call it the Facebook effect, that everyone is just more willing to write thoughts online?

There's definitely a line that can be crossed about talking, or maybe emphasising, about grades too much (I'm sure if I bothered to go back through this blog I'd find I've done it myself) but 'normal' climbers showing that it's possible to push yourself to new levels (be it 5a or 9a) leaves a sub-conscious mark that can feed other people's own activities. At least this is my belief anyway!

I mentioned this on Dave's latest post that I essentially had two reasons for starting this blog back in March of 2006 (jeebus, 5 years next month!!!!!!!)
- one: because my job at the time was looking at new tech and I've a natural fascination with the Internet for communication/discussion/chatting
- two: (which is pretty obvious from the first post) I wanted to share my motivation for climbing. I imagined that it would promote and hopefully motivate others to get out and be active themselves. I remember around the time of late 2007 when I planned my first trip away (And when I really started writing a lot), the Irish scene was very quiet. Yes, there was people climbing (and at all levels), but there was just. no. motivation. So I stuck my neck out and started writing, and posting to climbing.ie what I was doing. In many ways I wanted to show that I was pushing myself really hard but also that staying motivated (either for pushing grades, or just for staying really active in the climbing scene) was critical to enjoying climbing over the long term (who remembers when it was seen as strange to campus and use a fingerboard - it wasn't that long ago!). I also hoped that it would be an inspiration to get others to get out, and also to promote what they were doing.

At the end of the day, who cares what arbitrary grade you're climbing so long as you're enjoying it, and other people know you're enjoying it. But I do care if people are really motivated and talking about what they're doing! I may keep an eye regularly on the mainstream climbing news, but I'd much rather hear about the 'local' happenings as it's more relevant.

If all these blogs posts and comments are a sign of the healthy motivating scene that exists now, long may it last!

As ever, take all of this with a grain of salt - I've been writing too long to have a clear perspective anymore :o)

Go forth and happy climbing everyone!!!!!!!