Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it

Is what the Dalai Lama once said and working on that logic I must be succeeding right now; I have had to give up a lot of my free time because of the addiction I have developed, through a University module, for climbing training.

I'm now into the fifth week of training and there have been some amazing improvements in my overall climbing strength, power and fitness, but this has come at a price. I have spent little time in a boat or on the fells, but on reflection this has not been an annoyance. What has been an annoyance is the fact that I don't have enough free time to fit everything in: training, paddling and walking.

The theory behing a lot of my training has come from Eric J. Horst's book Training for Climbing, which has been a great help, and through reading this, experimenting with my own ideas and chatting with other climbers I have now found the ideal session structure:

• 20 minutes of continuous climbing as a warm up followed by a 20 minute rest
• 20 minutes of movement skills followed by a 20 minute rest
• 20 minutes of performance climbing followed by a 10 minute rest
• Some form of strength or power exercises broken up by five minutes rest
• A final 10 minute rest before ten minutes of continuous climbing as a cool down.

Most of these sessions are implemented whilst wearing a weight belt weighing in at roughly 5kg. This idea came from Horst's book and it is quite a basic principle really: if I develop my strength and power whilst wearing an additional 5kg I'll be stronger and more powerful when I remove the extra weight as my body will have come accustomed to pulling an extra 5kg.

I suppose all this training is in preparation for next year's summer project, but I am looking at getting out in the Christmas holidays to tick off a lot of the preparatory routes and problems I highlighted the other week before starting another phase of training so don't worry, there will be some interesting pictures and posts coming at some point. In fact there could be some next weekend as I've eventually got round to sitting my 5* Assessment. It's with Wild River so it is bound to be one good weekend of grade 3/4 boating.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

You wouldn't think...

Setting off on Bilberry Buttress (VS 4c).

That it was nearly the middle of November. I was out climbing down in the Langdales on Raven Crag Buttresses today with the university. It was one of the best days climbing I've had in a long while. We ticked off two multi-pitch routes during the day and climbed these in groups of three so we could practice client management and such like on big, long routes. I think the pictures do the day more justice than any words could.

On the first pitch of Bilberry Buttress (VS 4c).

Looking down the Langdale Valley.

Belaying at the top of the second pitch of Saverneck (S, 4a).

Heading for home after an amazing day.

More pictures can be found here.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

A couple of G's...

End of the World, Glenridding Beck.

After all I said in my last post on Saturday, the very next day comes and I wish I could be out boating. Typical. On Sunday it seemed that the heavens had opened for a good twelve hours and from the state of my phone inbox and missed calls register the Lakes was going off. However, I couldn't join anyone on any of their boating missions; I was inside climbing away whilst planning my training plan more thoroughly for next year's project. I was able to get out today, with paddle in hand, though.

Getting in below End in the World.

Having decided that everything would be off the scale I opened the guidebook, picked a beck I had never done before and decided that would be where we started our day. However, my logic was a bit flawed as when we pulled up at the top of Glenridding Beck there wasn't as much water as we had hoped for. Not to worry; it meant we had to get in below the main event, End of the World, and just bash on downstream.

Somewhere on Glenridding Beck before Underworld.

It was all pretty much read and run from the boat, but we did get out a couple of times: once to sort a swim; and once more for an inspection of Underworld, which we eventually decided to walk as there were so many ifs, buts and maybes when it came to the staircase of falls.

A tight squeeze, Glenridding Beck.

Once finished up - conscience of the time; some of the crew had to be back for lectures at 3pm - we loaded the vehicles and sped off for a quick blast down a very full Greta. It was big and bouncy, quick and fun, but it was soon over. En-route back to Penrith we called in on Glenderamackin Beck on the hope that it was still going; it wasn't. So it was back home for tea and medals.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

Puzzling...

I'm currently working my way through a 200+ piece jigsaw, which is graded as impossible. The grading isn't far wrong to be honest; you can see, in the picture above, that the majority of the pieces are white, there is little detail in the whole puzzle apart from word 'Milk' and five line drawings of a cow. Anyhow it's keeping me entertained on an evening.

Not only is this jigsaw puzzling, but also how my motivations for particular aspects of my outdoor life wax and wain so often. At the moment I feel my motivation for paddling is slipping away by the day. I don't think it is the actual paddling activity which I am losing motivation for, but the logistics behind a days paddling: the recruiting of a boating team; the sitting, waiting and searching for water; and the fact that paddling is so intrusive on your every day life. I know that it will only take one good day, or one good weekend away, to resolve these issues, but it just seems like it will never come.

I suppose this might come down to the fact that I've thrown myself into a very intensive training programme to improve my climbing. At the moment I'm spending roughly three days a week on a climbing wall working on improving my stamina, before I move on to strength endurance and limit strength training. It might not sound fun, and it isn't pushing my climbing abilities, but it is, for some strange reasons, highly addictive, but at the same time fun and rewarding. It is hoped that all this training will eventually pay dividends as I've now searched out my project for next summer.

The reasonings behind my project choice are very similar to those of Dave MacLeod in his awe inspiring DVD, Echo Wall, when it comes to climbing hard lines. The route will be at my absolute limit, where the chance of failing is as big as the chance of succeeding, but if I do succeed I will have tested myself to the full not only on the actual route, but also in the training for the route. Yes the project is considerably easier than Echo Wall, high up on Ben Nevis, but for me, it is as big a challenge as Echo Wall was to MacLeod.

The project is over in the Langdales, on Neckband Crag, and it's called Gillette Direct (E2, 5c). If it all comes off successfully it will be the hardest route I will have lead, but there is also a high chance of failing on the route. Will it be failure though? In order for me to even get on the lead on this route I plan to send a hand full of classic Lake District boulder problems, which are considerably harder than the English technical grade of 5c, lead Glorfindel (HVS, 5a), which shares a portion of Gillette Direct, and also top rope the project until I am happy with the moves, rests and protection. I'm also toying with the idea of getting some bolt clipping in at St. Bees on routes up to F6b+, which is marginally harder than English 5c. So if I do fail on the route, yes it will be upsetting, but the preparation towards climbing the route will have been rewarding and beneficial to my long term climbing development.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain