A few snaps from part one of the trip . .

El Piton, 8a+ - One of the most classic & intimidating lines at Rodellar


Photographer: Alastair Lee


Geminis, 8b+, Rodellar


Photographer: David Pickford

One to keep a certain, sports nutrition sponsor happy!

Photographer: David Pickford

The 45m high, 20m overhanging Kalea Borroka, Siruana (Spot me if you can)

Photographer: Dave Pickford


More Geminis . . .

Photographer: David Pickford

El Piton 8a+

Al Lee also captured me with a medium format camera on El Piton, 8a+ at Pince Sans Rire sector.

One of the most classic routes at Rodellar - a near horizontal traverse into a pocket you need to swap two fingers on your right hand to two fingers on your left hand before making a near full hands and feet off dyno to a jug on the lip.

Apologies for the extraordinarily ugly face! There maybe footage of this to come too . . . .

A day with Alistair Lee and Team

As previously posted, i had a great day climbing and got a load of it captured by Al Lee on camera.

here's a shot of me being shot on both a polecam and a second HD camera on the classic Delfin 7c+ :

So much climbing, so little energy to write . . .

It's been a full two weeks since i last posted, and i've done quite a lot of climbing that i have been very, very pleased with.

It seems that my efforts training indoors for the last 4 months have really paid off - i have, without doubt, broke into a new level with my climbing that can only be explained from some dedicated but really quite tedious training.

The training has translated to a couple of really good days:

1 Day: 1 x 8a/+ Flash, 1 x 8a Onsight, 1 x 7c+/8a (Retro Flash)

(this was all caught on camera or film by Alistair Lee and i can't wait to see the results!)

2 Day: 1 x 8a/+ Onsight, 2 x 8a+ First Redpoint.


So it was all going very well, and to be honest, it was about time that i got on something harder - so i've jumped on a few 8c's to see which i should project . . . more news coming very soon.

Riglos Video

A quick video shot en route while Stu and i were on pitch 5 of Fiesta de Los Biceps . . .

(Excuse the strangely shifting camera angle!)

Riglos

From EU Road Trip 2010

FIESTA DE BICEPS - 7 pitches of conglomerate climbing. 230m of 7a in total.

(If you look close enough directly above my finger, you can see the white chalk line that you climb up the route)

What a route.

I can honestly say that despite completely shitting myself standing at the bottom of the route before the first pitch, it is probably the best route i have ever done.

From slab to vertical to overhanging, technical slopers to holds bid enough to stand and even sit on - this route has it all. Every climber should experience this route.

My expression here with Stu on pitch 5 (about 180m high) gives away how i was feeling - a mix of fear and elation!

Rodellar

Day 1 of the (real) road-trip started in Rodellar and could not have been better.

The sun was shining, a team of 12 Brits were psyched out of their minds to climb and Sector Surgencia was calling.

I had a great first day; ticking a few 30/35m routes between 7b+ and 8a onsight and things were looking good for the next few days until the rain and snow travelled down to Rodellar.

Stu and I decided to head to Riglos to do something a little bit different. . .

EU ROAD TRIP 2010

Things have moved really quickly over the past few months. . .

Handing my notice in at work and leaving for a road trip around Europe in the summer and then to the US in Autumn seemed a really long way away . . . and now, i've already been on it for 9 days!

My plan was to head to the Pyrennes to do some trad big walls, then to northern Spain and the south of France to really push my grade sport climbing and then on to Rumney, Red River Gorge and Yosemite in September/October. However, the start has already turned out very differently.

On the drive down, expectations of the weather getting warmer as we drove south into France and Spain were replaced with the reality of snow blizzards in the Tarn area.




A weather report told us Europe was / (is) covered by an enormous area of low pressure that wont budge for a while. . . . we changed out route to Barcelona airport, parked the van and promptly got a flight to Mallorca - the only place where it was actually sunny, as Charlie Woodburn proves here -



After 5 days of complete and utter luxury i returned to Barcelona, picked Ste McClure up and headed to Rodellar . . . more coming soon.

Training

Tuppence Ascent - Anstey's Cove

Finally.

After one day attempts spread over about 3 years I am strong enough to cleanly climb Tuppence!

It is a truly incredible route- pure power endurance from the first move off the ground, and with perhaps the most interesting and weird crux move i have ever done - yes, you do have to do that bizarre drop-knee to have any chance of holding that tiny crimp!

It's also a route that has spat a lot of people off over the years - leaving people literally having to spend 10 years projecting the route because it is so difficult to link in one go.

Very, very pleased.