Wednesday 26 June 2013

Limestone and Training

I have decided to get my own climbing blog up and running. The other Hamer blog will have new up-dates when Sam and myself go on a trip together. Sam is about to head off to Canada for a month and I will be sticking around training and getting ready for the upcoming Senior competitions. I think this will work better as I am supported by Sherpa Adventure Gear and Sam is supported by Berghaus and so both these company's kinda conflict when being labeled on the same blog. It gets a bit confusing.

Anyway, The last few days have been great. I decided to head down with Noble and Jo for a day to North Wales for a quick Cave session to try a few new links. It had been a whole year since I last climbed in the cave but it felt good to be back. After a good warm up I managed to send 'Hatch Life' 8A which is another great problem starting just to the left of In Hell. Next up was Beaver Cleaver Direct, after a few goes flicking from the jug and hitting but not holding the poor crimp on the lip, I managed to get it all right and stick the big move and climb to the top. I then did it from sit at around 7C+ and finished the session with Rock Atrocity 7C and Left Wall 7B 5 times. We all then headed down to check out Pigeons Cave which on arrival looked incredible. Its the most chalk up I have ever seen it and was slightly annoyed not to be able to try any of the routes as we had no lead gear with us. It high on the list of sport crags to go visit now. The day ended with Fish and Chips in Llandudno and a rather long drive home, but was worth it.

Here is a great photo taken by Nick Fletcher for the New Wild Country Boost Harness.

Since returning I had a successful day out at Rubicon where I managed the 3rd Ascent of Barracuda as a boulder. This route/boulder is very gnarly and has a rather desperate mono move to a sharp crimp. I had a play on it with a rope over a month ago and managed to get set up for the big move off the mono but didn't fully commit as it felt very tweaky. I decided to sack off climbing it with a rope as the quality of rock after the first boulder get really shitty and on easier ground finishing up Caviar. As a boulder I started down and left and with a few snatchy crimp moves which lead into the shallow mono and then the big move, finishing on an obvious jug for your left. Its not the best bit of climbing I have ever done but its something new to try at Rubicon which is cool.

The next day I had planned to meet Mina at the Tor as she was keen to try Evolution 8c+. She did all the moves easily again which was really impressive to watch. I think she has found it frustrating having to leave long gaps in between working the route as she has been fully comitted to the Boulder world cup competitions. She can without doubt climb the route but I think for a route like that its worth leaving it for when the cooler temps roll in. That same evening we had a great session at The Foundry where a whole new set of problems have been put up which are brilliant.

Thats all for now, Next stop GLASTONBURY!!!!!!!!!!! ;)


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