It always happens at once! First of all I felt finger pop at the climbing wall and have knackered my tendons. Disappointing as it means I can’t climb for a while. Then, on Sunday I went running up at Glen Shee. Was a good long run but struggled a bit (probably still hungover!). Got back to Dundee and on getting out of the car realised I had developed alimp. Foot so sore! Must have gone over on it at some point during the day.
So, no training for a while. Enforced rest: can’t be a bad thing!
Had a pleasant bimble up Dreish and Mayar in the Angus Glens today. Although the weather forecast was a bit pants, it turned out to be sunny with clear blue skies! Put a heavy pack on to make it a worthwhile bit of training. Felt good!
Went down to the Peak District at the weekend with Ian, Simon and Ali. We intended on staying at the Climbers Club Hut beneath Froggatt but it was hoaching so we camped at North Lees beneath Stanage instead. Clearly the time spent indoors traing has paid off – in the scorching weather I led two VS’s to warm up, two HVS 5a’s and finished on Mississippi Butress Variant Direct E1 5b. Chuffed!
Weather was pants on Sunday, disapointingly, so we came back up north after trying to evade the rain in Northumberland to no avail!
I have been going to the indoor wall on a regular basis – twice a week, and this has really been paying off. Also been doing a lot of fell runniing in the Lake District and up in Scotland. Feeling good about things so far.
The major training run in the Lakes was a leg of the Bob Graham round. Did this with Pete and it has possibly inspired us to consider training for doing the full round – 72 miles, and 40 peaks in 24hrs. Gonna hurt!
Noticed the grades going up while climbing indoors. Not been able to get out much which is dissappoining, but I’ll manage.
The general training runs are feeling good too. Started going out with a loaded pack (a 60m rope) to take it to the next level.
I finally have a real life job! After searching a number of different avenues that were available to me I have decided to stick with being an architect and now have a job with a small Dundee firm called Andrew Black Design. This is ideal as it fulfills all the criteria I want out of an architecture career – working in a small practice and getting involved on jobs in a much bigger way. Good people there too.
So that’s it. I dropped Andy off at Charles de Gaulle after a night in Fontainebleu adn made the journey home. Picked up some fresh croissants on the way for Dad’s birthday present.
It had been a fantastic months climbing, and an important one too. After spending a lot of time away from climbing because of work, it’s been the ideal way of getting back into it all again.
Picked Andy up in Milan without any hastle and made our way to the Malga Ciapela campsite, where we stayed last year, beneath the Marmolada. We had approximately 8 days of available climbing, so we did our usual of cherry picking the classic routes. And what classics they were! We seemed to spend most of our time in corners. Not so bad as were excellent at bridging now! We also had a couple of days at the smaller crags and did some reat sport routes. OUr day of via ferraa was a long and hard one, totally different from last years of the same grade.
The weather caught up with us by the last couple of days and after driving through some horrendous storms (never driven in rain as heavy) we decided to use the bad weather as a travelling day and head back to Chamonix for some cragging. A scorching day at Servoz saw us climbed out and ready to head back home.
Sam has left Chamonix and I have a couple of days before picking up Andy at the Airport in Milan. Time to soak up the French lifestyle and drink coffee in the afternoon and beer in the evening.
After a short walk from the mid-station of the Midi lift we began the route. An absolutely stunning rock route in a fantastic situation. Bits of everything involved, from slab to overhang, from pinch to jam. Really enjoyed the climbing and let Sam led the lot (I could tell he was really enjoying it!) After a quick abseil back to the floor it was time to head back to Chamonix and round off the time in the Alps with the gratuitous consumption of strong French lager!
‘It’s always nice to relax after a route and prepeare yourself mentally while snuggled in your tent in the early evening. Train of thought gone: what was that crack, thud! And why is everyone looking our way. Let’s just ignore it, probably stonefall. Got to get up in a few hours anyway.’
And so we did. After a leisurely evening and half decent nights sleep we dragged ourselves out of the tent at 2am to begin the trudge up Mont Blanc. We new that it was just going to be an inane slog all the way, but I kind of like that sort of thing. There’s something about just switching off all unnecessary parts of the brain and just getting on with it.
The crux section on Mont Maudit was longer and more technical than expected, but after a lengthy wait in the long queue and with cold feet, we got on with it and carried on towards the summit of Mont Blanc. Although we were clearly moving slow because of the altitude, we were certainly making good progress. We summited in about 5 1/2 hrs if I remember correctly. A personal best for Sam and a satisfying time for me. On top we bumped into Tom and Jason, our friends from the campsite, purely out of chance.
And so began the descent. A fairly swift one which saw us back at the tent in good time. It also revealed the crevasse that had opened up between the fly sheet and inner! So that’s what the noise was yesterday! It looked as though our tent was holding the glacier together! Anyway, time to head back down to civilization and get a beer.
