The Best way to End the Year- 'Guy Fawkes' Font 8a (V11)

After the Brean trip being cancelled on Thursday 27^th, due to the person who I was going with picking up an injury the day before the planned day trip, I was worried that I wasn’t going to get another outdoor session in before the end of the year. On Friday feeling a little worried about not being able to finish the year with a cool route/problem I decided to do some training and went out for a long trial run (with some of the steepest hills I’ve ever ran up). Later that day I received a text about a possible trip to Portland on Sunday due to a short window of good weather on the isle. So obviously I took this opportunity and on 30^th December 2012 I was heading to Dorset for my final session of the year.

After an early start and a journey into Totnes, to meet Dan and Andy, I was feeling very tired but extremely psyched to try and get the most out this session, especially because it was my last session of my first complete year of climbing (I started climbing February/March 2011, so only did 10/11 months in 2011). After a 2.5 hour journey I had finally arrived on the Isle of Portland for my first time climbing in Dorset. I had originally planned to try ‘Fighting Torque’ F8a but when we arrived e decided to just boulder (due to low temperatures and high wind speeds) meaning not too much time would be spent standing around belaying or spectating.

As we headed towards The Cuttings Boulder field I spotted a section that I had previously seen in photos, the classic ‘Stompin’ with Bez’ was. I knew that a problem which I have always wanted to do ever since I started climbing was nearby and maybe worth looking at. This problem is the very highball font 8a (V11)- ‘Guy Fawkes’, originally climbed by Jim Kimber in ’99 but has had big hold broken off since and was reclimbed by John Gaskins and then after a few more repeats was given benchmark 8a (v11) and supposedly the hardest established problem in Dorset. ‘Guy Fawkes’ was the first ‘difficult’ problem that I had heard about as I newbie so has always been a problem which I was quite keen to attempt when I got the chance to go to Portland. So we scrambled over the bank and had a look along that wall where Dan and Andy decided to try ‘Stompin’...’ and I was going to have a few attempts on ‘Guy...’ to see what it what it was like. To be honest my initial impression of the problem was that it looked rather hard and pretty high. I think that my opinion on its difficulty was due to the two awful hand-holds that were in front of my face when I stood next to the problem.

We decided to get warmed up on a nice looking traverse that the guidebook appeared to show as V2 but later we found out it was V8 (so not the most appropriate warm-up).  I had a few attempts on ‘Guy Fawkes’ still feeling a bit cold but thought it felt a bit hard. I decided to have a flash attempt on ‘Stompin’ with Biz’ but didn’t quite manage the flash, straight after my attempt Dan found new easier beta though!

Back to ‘Guy Fawkes’ and after figuring out all the moves but one (which I hadn’t tried) the rain started to pour down on us making some holds on the problem a little wet, I had a long rest while waiting for the rain to stop; eventually it did and I started to try the problem again. I brushed all the holds and thought they were now dry enough to use, this saw me back on the problem trying it from the start where I fell from the move that I hadn’t yet tried (a heinous move from a poor side-pull to a horribly polished crimp with left hand, while on an okay two finger undercut with the left). After around 2 minutes rest I quickly got back on the problem and stuck the move, now all I had to do was two hard moves and I would be on for the race to the finish. I did the first hard move... Then moved out comfortably left for the next hold, as I grabbed the crimp my hand slid straight off and I was now lying on my back on the floor. My screaming after that was compared to Adam Ondra’s when falling off of the La Dura Dura Project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stQhEZn4RE0).

After 20 minutes rest I went back on and stuck the move I had previously fallen from but as I did the first of the easier moves I popped and again had been spat off this problem. 

Feeling a little annoyed I went for a walk, thought about the problem and went through the sequence over and over again in my head. After 15 minutes I was back and ready to finish this problem! I did a little warm-up in between spotting Dan on an interesting problem that he was trying- ‘Fire starter’ V5. I put on my shoes, applied some Liquid Grip, thought through the sequence one final time and pulled on to the starting holds, into the undercut, side pull, switch feet, big throw over to the crimper, out left to the next crimp then high feet, drop-knee and big throw out to another poor edge. Cutting loose, I managed to hold the swing but didn’t quite catch the hold right and had caught it as a 2 finger half crimp instead of the 4 finger full crimp which I was hoping for but somehow pulled through! All I had to do now was remain calm and composed and climb the V5 section to the top. After a lot of hanging around and worrying I moved up feeling slightly pumped from hanging around on the pinch and crimp hesitating whether to move out to the gaston but I soon went for it and somehow pulled through and matched the soaking wet finish. I had done it, ‘Guy Fawkes’ Font 8a (V11), my last boulder problem of 2012 and a very good one at that!

Feeling very pleased I packed up and heading home. The remaining one day will not be used for climbing (mainly due to a lack of skin) but I’ll use it to train be going for a run and doing some core training. I’m very very excited about what awaits me in 2013 and I hope I and everybody has a great year.

Thank you to strong local climber and photographer Tommy for the photos.

Thanks for reading,

EllisJ

 

Images coming soon...

High Sports Boulder Competition and Liquid Grip UK

After several days rest due to an aching wrist, the day had arrived for the High Sports Plymouth Bouldering Competition. I had planned to arrive at the wall early to ensure a proper warm up and to encourage the younger members of the Dartrock Youth Climbing Team in the junior category whom competed in the morning… After various troubles I arrived at the comp around 30-45 minutes late and jumped straight into the competition qualifiers without warming up.

I set off feeling strangely nervous and quite weak but slowly worked through the problems and was soon attempting the toughest problems. Time went quickly; “30 minutes remaining” was soon announced and I continued to work on the tough ‘fluro pink’ problem which had a move which was bigger than my full span and I struggled greatly to get it done. Shortly after, time was up and I had three problems which I hadn’t yet done, one of which that I probably could’ve got first or second attempt- Leaving me 10/7 points less than I could have been!

I waited anxiously (with a huge amount of doubt) for the four finalists to be announced…

I soon found out that I qualified in second place. After a 15 minute break it was time to get on the problems. Apprehensively I pulled on and made a huge move to a small pinch and somehow, cutting loose along the way, stuck it. Then a few shouldery and powerful moves, I was eyeing up the last hold. Hesitantly I went for the two finger pocket and managed to hold a large swing and top the problem! The second was a horrible problem which featured one horrible move to a slopey rail from the most awful pinch I’ve ever used, sadly I didn’t top this but look forward to trying that next time I go. The final was a cool roof problem on good holds, on my first go I got quite close to sticking the crux which is around 8 moves in from two undercuts to a huge sloper but my span wasn’t large enough to hold the undercut and the sloper, so would’ve had to hold the sloper one handed which didn’t seem possible after climbing through the roof.

I had came second in my first proper senior competition! I was pleased to come second to Tom Newberry. Well done to everybody whom took part and thanks to High Sports Plymouth for running a great comp.

Two days later and I had received an email from Liquid Grip UK about a new sponsorship deal; I am now proud to be sponsored by Liquid Grip and am pleased to represent there company and there amazing innovative product which I would recommend to everybody! Check out their website; http://liquidgrip.co.uk/.

I have recently been watching the following video alot and found it very inspiring; so I thought it may be worth sharing the trailer:

Thanks for reading again,

Ellis.

First trip to Fontainebleau!

Day 1

Tom on 'L'Y'
Photo by: Martin Wright

After a late night of watching climbing flicks and preparing for the trip to Fontainebleau I woke up in Hackney at 6:00 am having had very little sleep. We (Myself, Martin and Tom Wright) quickly packed the VW and were soon on route heading for our first trip to Font’.

We arrived at the campsite at around 14:00 and hurried to set up the tent in order to have some daylight remaining to squeeze a couple of hours in at L’Elephant. Arriving at the area for around 16:30 we decided to jump on something easy to warm up on and get our first taster of ‘bleau sandstone. The main feature at L’Elephant is a huge boulder called Elephant (aptly named with its elephant-like features). It is a beautiful boulder with several low grade problems- Tom went first up ‘Trompe Elephant’ 4c; I followed with a great degree of difficulty almost dropping the top out! We moved around the corner to ‘Surplomb Elephant’ 6a+, I still haven’t done it… Next to ‘Surplomb…’ is ‘L’Y’ 6a which I fell off around 3 times before I managed to top it.

Barre Fixe 7b+
Photo by: Tom Wright

We then moved to the Lepreux boulder where I onsighted a nice 6a and quickly did ‘Le Lepreux Eliminate’ 7a. We then had a quick play on a 7b roof which revolved around a painful (but crucial) fist jam but swiftly moved due to the pain. We searched for some classics and found ‘Figure de Proue’ 7a which is a giant 8 metre highball slab and decided to skip it. I went to look around and found a really cool overhanging pocketed wall. After about 5 minutes of working I had topped it- I later learnt that it was ‘Barre Fixe Assis’ 7b+.

We jumped in the van, drove back to the campsite, ate and slept looking forward to the day ahead.

Day 2

I woke up fairly early feeling psyched to get back in the forest; I had a walk into the small town of Nemours to get some food, and then got back to get ready for the climbing which waited.

We got back to L’Elephant where Tom had ‘Barre Fixe Assis’ to finish off and I was eyeing up ‘Barre Fixe Droite’ 8a to the right which then links into ‘Barre Fixe’. I got on ‘L’Aiglon de Droite’ 6a and once again fell off another 6… It did go on the 3^rd attempt though. Then up a really nice 4c and then headed up to Barre Fixe. The sequence was fairly straight forward and simple but quite difficult to pull off. I had an attempt from standing and fell from just a few moves from the top, and then started to work the sit start, I fell from the first few moves several times but it soon went and I had done it. I’m not sure that it deserves 8a, 7c+ would probably be more appropriate.

Later that day we headed over to Franchard Cuisiniere. We had lunch in the car-park and headed to the boulders (getting lost along the way). The aim- ‘Karma’ 8a+ awaited, I quickly got in this desperate classic and fell from the first hold; back on and I found some better holds for my feet and gave a big throw up to the lower sloper and got close but not close enough, after around 20 attempts it became apparent that I was going to be too short to reach the higher (and better) right hand sloper, so I gave up feeling rather annoyed and helpless. Tom was trying a powerful 7a arête called ‘Bizarre bizarre’ to the right of ‘Karma’ so I did this in a few attempts then moved on and fell off of another 6a.

Day 3

We had decided that we would go back to Cusiniere and possibly check out the infamous ‘Duel’, a remarkable 8a slab which for most people involves finger-nail crimping. We made the trek through the woods and finally found it and decided to warm-up on some easy slabs in the other area; we rapidly rushed up several easier problems; ‘Dans la Patisserie’, ‘Sans Sucre’, ‘Cerise’, ‘Gateau de Noel’ and a very fine 6b+ lay backing arête- ‘Tranche de Lard’.

'Sans Sucre'
Photo by: Martin Wright

After this we headed over to search for ‘Beatle Juice’ 7a+ and ‘Excalibur’ 7a. Beatle Juice is a lovely boulder which a juggy roof to start and finishes with some crimpy side-pulls, pinches and a then to a sloping top out; to add to this, it is slightly pumpy too. There were several people working the problem so I watched and they later talked me through the beta which was my call to go for the flash attempt, I climbed through the first crux and felt okay then suddenly got very pumped and dropped it just before setting up for the final moves. I had a few more attempts on this but felt exhausted and extremely tired so moved on to try ‘Excalibur’, which I had a few attempts on but was feeling too tired to even get close.

I walked back up to ‘Duel’ with Tom (a friend from London whom I met at Anstey’s several weeks back) and we quickly found the beta which lead us 2/3’s of the way up the wall and just about to set up for the final move out to the top of the lip. Soon after; it started to get dark so we headed back to the campsite to rest for Franchard Istatis the next day.

Day 4

Another early morning and I followed the usual morning routine then headed over to Istatis where I wanted an easy days climbing because I felt very very tired and a little ill. So I did loads of easy slabs and a nice 7b+ roof called ‘Divine Decheance’ which many people were trying. I went looking around for some easy problems to do- Meanwhile Tom Wright was trying ‘Rataplat’ 7b which he later topped and claimed his first font 7b!

I continued to rush round topping tonnes of 5 and 6 slabs. I went to bed quite early that evening hoping to feel a little better for the final day of the trip.

Scoping the top-out...
Photo by: Tom Wright

Day 5

I woke up feeling really psyched and incredibly motivated to leave Font with some classics ticked and having thoroughly enjoyed my first climbing trip abroad- This day did everything to ensure that that happened…

We arrived at Bas Cuvier for around 11:30 and headed straight over to ‘La Marie-Rose’- The first 6a in the world. Sadly I didn’t get the on sight or the second attempt but did manage to send it on my third try.

I decided to check out a 7c classic named ‘L’Aerodynamite’, the problem started with a jump to the starting hold which is quite an awful sloper, then you have to campus to another (and slightly worse) sloper. After a few tough moves you come to the most horrendous top-out I have ever experienced! I had quite a few attempts on this but decided not to waste all my energy on it. I decided to have a go at a 7b+ just to the right called ‘Aerosol’, I set up at the base of the problem and soon had onsighted the problem- This was my first 7b+ onsight!

Feeling very psyched from the onsight I moved on to the famous ‘L’Carnage’ 7b+, this was the most painful problem with the awful condition that my skin was in, the holds on ‘Carnage’ are very polished and quite difficult to hold, they’re also really difficult to keep your feet on. After quite a few attempts, I had topped it and now it was time for the sit- ‘L’Carnage Assis’ 7c. This went fairly quickly after the stand start and was a very enjoyable problem to tick despite the pain of my rapidly diminishing skin.

We then headed over to a slab which I had liked the look of earlier that day, the slab has three difficult and technical problems on graded 7c+, 8a+ and 7c+. We cleaned up the left hand 7c+ and quickly got onto working it, after around 20 minutes of working Tom had topped the problem and sent his first ever 7c+, my attempt after Toms successful ascent saw me repeat the problem too. I was quite pleased to claim a 7c+ SLAB (probably my weakness) on my first visit to ‘Bleau.

After this we had a play around on some other problems and then as daylight slowly faded I felt this huge urge of motivation to do ‘L’Aerodynamite’ and make it my last tick of the trip. The sun started to quickly disappear and rain started to fall… Everything was against me to do this problem; I fell from the final move three times within around 10 minutes. I had my last opportunity to do it- It was now or never. I hit the penultimate hold and kept slipping from this hold, I fought with everything I had left and topped the problem! This was the best feeling I’ve had through climbing… It wasn’t the hardest problem which I’ve done but the chances of success were so little that when it went I was so pleased. Absolutely amazing!

'L'Aerodynamite' 7c
Photo by: Martin Wright

This was the last problem I did in Fontainebleau, the trip was now over and I was left feeling really happy and excited to return next Easter. I learnt a lot from my first trip to the forest and was very sad to now be leaving.

Thanks to Martin and Tom Wright for everything and making the trip happen.

Well done to Tom Wright on your first 7b and 7c+!

Thanks for reading,

Ellis.

'Five Days in Fontainebleau' video.

Video credit: Tom Wright

Leading Ladder Bronze

Yesterday I competed at the Final of the BMC Leading Ladder in Reading... It was a very early start- waking up at about 4.30; to make it worse I had struggled to get to sleep the night before due to excitment.

I arrived at Reading for around 8.30 and signed in and grabbed my competition t-shirt, looked at the routes and did some bouldering to warm up and jumped on route at around 10ish.

I started on a technical and rather reachy Fr6C, then to the 6B+ then 7A and got each of them onsight/flash. I was eyeing up the moves on the 7B and thought that it looked very technical and pretty fingery for a 7B, I had half an hours rest and jumped on it and pulled through the moves and kept pulling and kept going and I wasn't coming if, soon after I clipped the lower-off and I was on for everything on-sight... All I had to do now was onsight the 7C for the win.

After about an hours rest with 30 minutes until the end I decided to go for the 7C, at this point the route was starting to get busy. With 15 minutes to go, I finally got an oppurtunity to get on route, I climbed most of the route effortlessly until about 3 moves from the top when I fell pulling up slack to make the final clip before the finish. With 5 minutes to go, I got another chance and blew it with two moves to go, I was pretty sure that I would have finished it on my third attempt. Time was up. I finished in third. I later found out that the winner got the 7C on the fifth attempt and second place got the same score as me but beat me on round points.

Overall I had a really enjoyable day and was happy to make the podium in my first national competition(CWIF is international). Well done to everybody who made the final.

On the 7C

Photo Credit: Gary Willis

CWIF

On saturday I took part in my first larger competition, it was a great day and extremely nerve-racking morning within the hours prior to the competition.
As it was my first 'big' competition I said to my family "I will be happy with making the top 300; therefore 299th would be great!".

I visited the Climbing Works in the morning to watch some of the British Bouldering team and various other top climbers do some of the problems. I walked in and saw Shauna Coxey sending one of the problems; this was very weird seeing her, as I've watched so many videos of her at the world cup etc.

I then returned to the hotel and relaxed but all that was happening was a rise in my anxiety, as I ate some food and listened to music. I then got a taxi to the Climbing Works and after arriving I quickly started to warm-up and look around to see the do-able problems- As I looked around I believed that I was only capable of doing two/three problems...
I then found Alex Waterhouse and decided to go around with Alex trying the problems. I got on an easy-ish problem first and flashed it, then I got on a medium difficulty problem and flashed it too; this raised my morale and belief of completing more than two/three problems.

I paced through severalm of the problems before getting on some of the harder one's.

I left the Climbing Works, returned to the hotel and worried that I hadn't achieved my goal of making the top 50. Later that evening I checked the results and came looked at the bottom of the list and I wasn't there, so I scrolled up and found my name sitting next to the number 56; I had came 56th and missed out on 55th by one point...