Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Making it stick!

18 May: eZemvelo! Such an unbelievable place. After making a bunch of trips to the boulders, I was finally able to climb and open my first 8A, Total Reflection. I spent 4 days working the problem before being able to send it from the sit start. It is an extension of Third Reflection (7B+) that adds another 5 moves to the standing start which are each absolutely gut-wrenching. Pulling off the ground on the first two crimps is painful and powerful till your right heel can latch a very small hold high above the ground. After that I had to pull into a gaston and then match. There is a very big move following this which sets into motion the remainder of the problem.


Total Reflection 8A

Both Falco and PW repeated the problem after I opened it and Falco confirmed it to be 8A.

Next up was Aminal Arete, a problem opened by Wesley Black. I flashed it with different beta to Wes so it felt 7B to me instead of 7C, but I can admit that if I would use the same beta as Wes then it would likely have been 7C. Spoon (7C) was next on the chopping block. I nearly flashed it, fell off the finish hold pretty much. Took a few more goes to get the details narrowed down and send. While everyone else was working Spoon, I opened Spork (7B), which starts of the same holds but forks right instead of going straight up. We spent a few burns on Deadly Mosquito (7C) at the end of the day and I fell off with both hands on the finish jug, next time...


Spoon 7C

19 May: I spent the evening at the boulder cave. The object was to boulder for 1.5hours doing very specific power problems. I set 8 problems, not longer than 8 moves each (foot tracking) which forced me to move to maximum reach on crimps and slopers. I only climbed open-handed with 3 fingers. Afterwards I did 30 minutes of dynos and some campusing.

1-3-5-7-9
1-3-5-7-9
1-3-5-7-9
1-3-5-7-9

1-4-6-9 L
1-4-6-9 R
1-4-6-9 L
1-4-6-9 R

1-4-7 R BIG SUCCESS HERE!!
1-4-7 L failed on 7

Doubles skipping rungs 2x

21 May. Ilse, Frankie, Alex and I went to Wigwam where we met up with Dirk, Marc, Dewald, Werner, Alex and Gustav. Was a really fun day. Spent a great deal of time working Running Bare and Squall Play with no sends on either, typical wigwam day for me. Gustav did manage to snap this really awesome pic though! Ilse, Alex and Frankie were all very close to sending tomahawk but no joy (not till next weekend when Ilse and Alex both sent).


Hanging out on Running Bare (31)

The week held lots of training for me...

Sunday: Program A --> Maximum effort bouldering. The idea behind this is to set a problem that is absolutely maximum effort, no straight pulling. The goal is to develop strength in unusual positions that are not always trained or even found on a normal route. I worked with open hands to make sure that I was needing to put in the most effort to hold on. If you get stronger open handed, then your crimp strength will increase as well. I can already hold on to pretty much any crimp in a static position, but I am trying to develop my contact strength so I can catch small holds on the fly.

Afterward, I did an hour of campus work using a mixture of staggered hand positions to increase my reach and my lockoff strength.

I would start at 1 move left to 4, move right to 3, then bounce right to 7. I increased difficulty but moving Left from 1-4, Right then 1-2-7. I did this for both hands with 2 min rests in between. The idea is to rest fully so that you are able to give maximum effort behind the attempts rather than develop power endurance wherein one would repeat the moves back to back.

Monday I spent in the cave again. Program B --> 20 move boulder problem with 2 min between attempts is the goal. I made it a little harder. For the first 3 I rested 2 min, from 4-6 I rested 1.5 min, the last three I didn't rest between attempts, I simply walked back to the starting holds, put on chalk and started again. I set the problem with a weight vest of 7 kilos, otherwise the problem might end up being too hard by the end.

The campus board saw me again. This time the goal was power endurance. The aim was to stay on the board, climbing continuously for 45 seconds. I worked my way up to it. I climbed up once. Then I climbed up and down. Then I climbed up, down, up. Then finally up down, up down, up which too 50 seconds. I was simply climbing 1-3-5-7-9, so that it was not too difficult.

Tuesday. The Bedroom. I started off with a 15 minute warm up

Min Type of hold Exercise Sec/Rep
1 Jug Drops 5 rep
2 Medium Edge Drops 2 rep
3 Small Edge Negs 5 rep
4 Pocket Pull-upp 5 rep
5 Medium Edge Hanging 20 sec
6 Jug Pull-up 10 rep
7 Medium Edge Hanging 20 sec
8 Small Edge Hanging 20 sec
9 Medium Edge Pull-up 5 rep
10 Jug Hanging 40 sec
11 Medium Edge Hanging 25 sec
12 Medium Edge Hanging 25 sec
13 Small Edge Pull-up 5 rep
14 Small Edge Hanging 20 sec
15 Jug Hanging 1 min

Then moved into PROGRAM A for Finger Strength. This is very challenging and a bit time consuming. It takes about 2.5 hours to complete.

Grip Goal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Slopey 3 finger pocket on left 5 2.2 4.1 3.8 4.6 5.6 2.7 4.8 5
Slopey 3 finger pocket on right 5 2.1 3 3.7 2.2 4.8 5.2 4.6 3.3
Devil Left on ring and middle finger on tiny crimp 5 1 3.1 3.3 4.1 5 4 4 5
Devil Right on ring and middle finger on tiny crimp 5 3.1 1.2 4.1 4.3 5 2.3 2 5
small crimp on Right. Left pinky helper 5 3 2.5 3.5 4.2 3 3.4 4.3 4.3
small crimp on Left. Right pinky helper 5 1.2 3.5 5 3 2.8


Right front two pocket 5 2.3 3 3.8 3.1 3.3


Left front two pocket 5







Rigth half crimp 5







Left half crimp 5







Right big crimp middle of hold 5







Left big crimp middle of hold 5







sloper hang R with thumb in pocket 5







sloper hang L with thumb in pocket 5

















I ran out of energy, so I did not finish (not to mention that my middle fingers were starting to fatigue). But you can get the picture. You should rest 2 min between maximum attempts and your goal is 5 seconds. If you can hang for 5 seconds, choose a smaller hold or add weight.

Wednesday I did some light bouldering to get the blood pumping.

Boven Baby! Left for Boven Saturday morning with Flex and Dirk. Spent the day climbing in the sun at Tranquilitas. Flex crushed Pit Fighter (31). I tried it too, figured out most of the beta, one move stumped me before my skin encouraged me to move on... Climbed Atlantis (26) once and tried Inca Trail (27) SANDBAGGED!!!!! Andrew... Your legacy lives on...

Sunday I tried Psych Ward (31) a few times and got the beta from Flex. Then spent a few hours rebolting Jabberwocky, well 2/3's of it anyway. I have to go back and get the last few bolts still. I moved a few of the bolts to make clipping easier, I hope no one minds, none of them moved more than 50 cm but I think it makes the route far better than before...

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