Power to weight!!!

Incredible week for climbing! 8c+s, by a little girl which just boggles the mind. Having taught english for a few years and teaching loads of 11 year old kids I find this incredible not merely because physically 8c+ is f**king hard but because it is also so mentally and technically challenging and most 11 year olds iv'e met are still little, little kids fighting over using the other kids rubber, spilling bogies everywhere and laughing at everything that has the word bottom in it!

How can an 11 year old girl climb as hard as adults who have dedicated 10s of years to training or basically to the best female climbers in the world?

Pushy parents? Psyched Kid? Naturally amazing power to weight ratio? Environment (loads of psyched climbers)? Coaching?............ The list goes on.

Ondra flashing 9a! Awesome, amazing skills he definately makes you feel like you need to pull your finger out and try hard!! haha

Then you have the other side of the coin, Edu Marin's dad does his first 8b+ at 60..... incredible.

Climbing is amazing it is so complex, thats what keeps it fresh and always inspiring I suppose.

Psyche resurge

Unbelievabe psyche resurge today, went climbing in the wall, did some boulder problems for the first time in the last 2 months and my finger didn't hurt at all!!! I know now it's time to be responsible and not go mad on the rock and try some 9a+ but I must admit i'm fecking psyched. I totally believe that having a break sometimes is a good thing and I definately feel like I have a renewed energy.

Check out these routes which look absoloutely amazing and that are at my local crags!!!!

                                                          Nit de bruixes 9a+ Margalef

 

                                                   Fight or flight 9b Oliana

 

                                              And a video of me that always gets me psyched because it reminds me of good times, hanging out with good friends and trying hard in the cave.

finger issues, fitness training

Well, things don't always go the way you want them too! The summer break in the UK was meant to be for hard core training ready to come back and crush Catalunya's awesome crags, instead it turned into injury riddled rain dodging and feasting on really healthy food like fish and chips, haggis and litres of irn-bru.
Being back in the Spanish sunshine is amazing and great for the body and soul, my finger is healing up well after spending the last couple of months doing very easy climbing and making sure not to crimp anything. The last week I spent training in a cool little wall in les avellanes the village next to Santa Linya, I must admit, it feels weird training indoors when the sun is shining and the cave is just around the corner, but it is what needs to be done. I have been doing some fitness training, going running and the last week I was doing 100 move circuits and doing 1200 moves in total finished off with sets of pull-ups rounding upto 200. Its actually pretty cool just being able to train and then hang out in the sun.
With rain forecast for the next couple of days I'm going to head down to a friends climbing wall in Lleida to do a bit of training and then time to get on rock again.Psyched!
 Having this time away from being able to go and try my hardest on routes has made me realise just how much I enjoy it and how difficult I find it to be cooped up inside, how stunning the places where we go climbing actually are and how much I love the process of having a project in mind and running through the moves in your head last thing at night.

Harry hitting the booze

 

Bielsa

 

 

The new wall at Les Avellanes, work in progress.

Kiu

chilling in the campo

Camarasa coffee break

Dinner time

The best beer out there!