Easy as that...

Hi Everyone,

It’s been an interesting week! TV appearances, articles, leading ladder and a nice day at Bonehill…

Last week I did the leading ladder at DartRock, and after onsighting all but the 8a in the last round there, I was keen to do better this time. The routes all looked crimpy, balancey and technical, my kind of thing! All the routes up to 7b were absolutely fine, although the 6a was solid for the grade!! The 7c looked to have one long move about halfway, and looking at the bolt spaces at the ground I knew that my feet would have to come off, so set off a bit apprehensive. When I got to the move I just committed straight away, stuck the move and got to the top. I’d matched last round, which would have been good enough. Looking at the 8a, it really didn’t look that bad, some rubbish holds at the top looking like the only problem. While I got 1 piece of beta wrong about halfway, I reversed a few moves and got it relatively easily, then on to the top! Technically my first 8a onsight, although I’m not going to count it because it felt a little bit easy for the grade, a great route though. My first 200 in the leading ladder, lets hope there’s a few more like this!

I recently appeared on Spotlight, and I don’t think I did that badly!! We got a call from the BBC on Thursday, and I missed the last 2 lessons of school to go for an interview at The Barn. We were expecting a 15 minute thing where he asked us a few questions, but instead we ended up filming for 2 and a half hours! It ended up coming together quite well, and I was quite pleased really!

Yesterday I had a nice little day up at Bonehill. I did Slopey Traverse and Rippled wall, both great problems which I’ve done before. I was bouldering with a few people and was told about some micro routes that were worth soloing, and thought that I’d take the opportunity of a few pads and spotters to give them a go. I did the E1 arête without a problem, so decided to give the E2 a go! It was defiantly good moves, but the top out was something I wouldn’t have done if it was on the ground, never mind 8m up! It was a horrible rounded thing with not a crystal to speak of, so I made the decision to traverse off, but the lower moves were hard and it was really scary, defiantly more so than the E1, so I’m taking the grade!!

You Cannot Be Serious V3 6a (E2/3 to solo) To the right of the arête is an obvious large hold. Start on this, go direct above, then move right at the top to finish steeply on big holds. Finish direct - scary and high. Wimps can finish direct into the groove (which is still scary!) or traverse right to step onto adjacent ledge. 

Been a great week!

Happy Climbing,

Alex :)