Spain

Home at last, well when I say home I mean Spain. Lisa and me after dropping Ed off at the airport drove down yesterday and now we are at Montgrony and sat at the restaurant after a nice morning's climbing where Lisa found a project for her to ork and send.
Since the last time I checked in we first went to bus les baronies and climbed around there after a morning taking a wonder around the local morning market, at baume Rousse I warmed up and then got the draws in a route I had seen last time I was down this way, the route Les Secrets de Regine 8a felt ok with a hard move at the start and finish went ok on the third point after falling from the top move on the second burn.

From hear after Steve sent his second ever 8a on his fourth point a sterling effort, we headed to St Leger where after a a few days of sweating and saying it far to hot so many times I lost count ( iv never sweated from inside my ear before) we have as I said come to spain.

Week one

With a nice but quite long drive down thru France we arrived at Ceuse, with camp set and a few beers looking at the crag from the safety of the campsite we got t planning the climbing the following day.
Walking up the hill the next day in the full sun was quite fun but ok at a slow pace, climbing on the other hand although the best ever was quite hard work falling off a 7b+ something that's not happened for quite some time! I think the last few weeks plus the drive has taken a bit more out of me than I think.
Another day on followed by a rest day and it all starts to come together feeling like I can climb recover on good holds and get stuff done. Having been hear a week I think it's time to move on try out new crags and get projects done so heading west before turning south yet again !
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Week one

Week one
With a nice but quite long drive down thru France we arrived at Ceuse, with camp set and a few beers looking at the crag from the safety of the campsite we got t planning the climbing the following day.
Walking up the hill the next day in the full sun was quite fun but ok at a slow pace, climbing on the other hand although the best ever was quite hard work falling off a 7b+ something that's not happened for quite some time! I think the last few weeks plus the drive has taken a bit more out of me than I think.
Another day on followed by a rest day and it all starts to come together feeling like I can climb recover on good holds and get stuff done. Having been hear a week I think it's time to move on try out new crags and get projects done so heading west before turning south yet again !

The List

Adrenachrome, Lulworth 8a
Pump up the beast, lulworth 8a
Windowchrome, Lulworth 8a+
Christine, long quarry point 8a
Cutlass, Berry head 8a+
Balance of Power, Portland 8a
San simeon, pembroke 8a
The Wizard, pembroke 8a
Jaws, pembroke 8a/7c+
heal hook look, north wales 8a

This is I think the list of 8a and above DWS's in the uk, up until recently having done a few of them I thought would it be possible to get them all done?
So the mission started but where to start, I'd done three of the ten one being a harder version of Adrenachrome also on the list, But a strong team and fair weather saw me headed to pembroke,a good as place to start as any!
So jaws it was to be then and it was in the best condition I'd ever seen it, I thought I'd chalk it up from a rope then have at. Two goes later standing on the top of the route thinking well there's four of the ten done I might just manage to do this challenge I set myself, so off to bed to mull over the day and hope for good weather and the wizard.
Well rain the next day put pay to the wizard so with a quick weather check Devon and Chistine was calling, so five hours later and a small sleep we went to long quarry point.
I'd tried the line before ground up so keeping with theme Bob and me took it in turns to have a play, a few splashdowns later I got to thinking that some chalk on the holds might help so down I went with brush and chalk to have a look! Well from a rope it made no sense as the roof is so 3D, so I slapped some chalk on things that might be holds and came back out to continue playing from the bottom up. So again with many splashdowns but making progress each time I finally made the crux slap followed but a flick to a jug and glory.

The Azores movie

http://vimeo.com/13281696
Sent from my iPad

New times ahead

Well it seams that I'm not very good at keeping things up to date so iv come up with a plan, I'm going to do a monthly update this gives me a nice deadline with witch to keep things moving along.
Im going to start as from now so I'll give you a brief overview of what iv been up to up to this date in time, since I last posted iv been to the Azores looking for new DWS ( I'll post a vid) as always been working a bit but had a week off chill last week and headed to pembroke for a bit of solo fun, I got on Jaws an 8a first put up by Timmy Emmett iv wanted to do this route for so long and it was supper cool to finally get it done. From hear a day of rain saw us headed south for a nother route that's been on the list for I wile Christine down at long quarry point at Ansteys in Devon,

Spain and Skymasters

Well with the send of Tuppance in the bag i packed my bags and headed to spain to get some Spanish sun! Dave and myself landed in sunny Mercia and drove up to the Blanca and wildside getting there in the dark finding a dos spot we parked up and got to making dinner and bedding down for the night thinking that the stars re out lets try out my new sleeping bag under said stars, well a few hours later and putting the tent up in the middle of the night in the rain things were not looking good!
So a lazy morn and climbing in the rain on a damp and cold wildside we decided to head back south chorro hear we come. five hours of driving later and again finding a dos spot on the top of a mountain and cooking dinner in the dark we settled down to sleep and not learning from the first night i slept out under the stars, dave not risking it and opting for the tent.A dry night saw us having coffee the next morn with the best view but shortly after we found the nice looking but very very wet crag of loca.
this pattern followed for the next few days moving around finding some nice crags but climbing the dry rock ie stuff in the sun was trashing our skin as was to hot and out of the sun it was wet.
we found ourselves passing thru chorro stopping to do afew routes then going up to Displomlandia and finding a route i try'd a few years ago but failed on so again went looking for a nice dos spot and found it in the form of an Olive grove, we bedded down hear fingers crossed for good red pointing the next day. So Mar de Ortigas 8a i went up working the moves and warming up all good so far, i came down jumped around a bit to stay warmed up and ten miutes later tyed on to have a go, a further five minutes later i was at the top thinking why dident i do that last time its not so bad! so coming down i thought why not try the 8a+ to the right iv not done two 8's in a day before so moved the draws over and started working the moves on that. So two redpoints later and first falling off a big move near the top and the last move with arms feeling spent i was close to calling it a day when dave said just try one more time so a coffee in town and a nice rest saw me not only sending it but in a fine style.





So back home a few days work first route setting in dublin then building a climbing wall closer to home, also a few comps first CWIF at the climbing works a wicked boulder comp, and then Skymasters at the outdoors show at the NEC.
now getting the van ready for another trip down to spain to get amongest the Spanish boulders of Allbracin happy days...