Truckstop

Well thank y'all for tuning into my blog once again! If you haven't tuned into my previous post I wouldn't blame you, but I have had a sore finger over the past 10 weeks, hence why I haven't really had the motivation to put together a decent blog post.
So better late than never I say!
As it turns out my self diagnosis was pretty close. That popping noise I heard back in May was a VERY upset A3 pulley. The pulley was partially ruptured which basically meant I couldn't pull onto a wall let alone hold small holds for close to 3 weeks. When I came back to climbing after that brief period, I could manage simple boulder problems which consisted mainly of slopers.

Bloodshot(30) Photo: Aaron Doull copyright

This simple training procedure continued for most of June and July, every week I would notice subtle improvements and I slowly began loosening the tape. I think the hardest part of being injured is being disciplined and in my case not allowing myself to crimp and wrap that thumb over. Man it is a hard thing to do!
To keep it short and sweet I think my recovery has been coming along quite well. This previous week I have been able to crimp properly for the first time since May.

Its a fine line,  I am sure that I could have pushed my finger harder earlier but to re injure the pulley would be another major setback. Now I am particularly cautious, tape that pulley every time I pull on and avoid tweaky little two finger pockets at all costs.

The weather has been excellent over the past month in the Blueys. Dry, cold south westerly winds have been hitting the cliffs and although it is not the most pleasant for some, I have to say the conditions are bloody superb.
I have focused a lot of my attention towards upper shipley over the past month, which for me is a pretty rare thing. I would normally avoid this crag at all costs in the spring and summer, however during the winter the cliff is exposed to sun all day and in a lot of cases is one of the only warm options going.
Shipley is also the home of the almighty Pooferator, a proud line that perches its self high on the baked orange wall. Pooferator is graded 31 and remains a good little test piece for most climbers that try it these days. From my experience and knowledge the route has a reputation for always being the route that is so close but for some reason quite difficult to link the bouldery power endurance crux.
Althought this line is very appealing to me, the big picture was always going to be Truckstop 31 which is Zacs link-up that climbs the crux of Pooferator into the crux of Equaliser(28) via a bouldery little traverse.

Our Backyard

Initially linking Pooferator was giving me a little bit of curry(more than I would have liked). I was trying to use a sequence that avoided using a left hand crimp(which most people use) however this meant I had to do four extra movements before I could blast out to the juggy gaston that more or less symbolises the end of the poof.
To cut a long story short, after falling off thrutching for the Gaston about 10 times I cracked the shits. I decided whether my finger be ready or not I was going to use the crimp sequence and bone down with my left. Sure enough the next day Pooferator was complete. The part I most enjoy about this route is that once you have climbed the difficult part it is quite pleasant cruising all of the way to the top of the cliff. Full sun on a cold winters day with the wind blowing through your hair, life is good!
On this particular day I figured it would be beneficial to spend the rest of the day running some laps on Equaliser so if by chance I was able to link through the truckstop crux, completing the route should not be too much of a task.
Equaliser is not too bad, however just recently a large hold was broken off before the crux. Although I don't think this changes the grade of the climb, it does make resting a little trickier and therefore you enter the crux feeling not quite as fresh. All in all personally I think the route climbs a lot nicer and is more consistent with the undercling gone...yipeee.
Anyhow the following week after a little bit of crux tweaking and some brilliant winter weather, I found myself sitting at the big jug at the end of the Pooferator crux. Full sun, cool breeze and shaking my mildly pumped forearms. It is an awesome feeling to be on link with no expectations(something that I rarely experience) talking myself through the Truckstop sequence and listening to myself breathe. It didn't matter If I fell because technically this was the first time I had tried to really link the route even though I spent some time on the Pooferator section. So as I leave the jug I remind myself that if everything is done perfectly on the traverse Im in with a chance. 30 seconds later I am into the Eqauliser section of the route and to my surprise I am feeling good. Matched on the Equaliser rail I took a couple of token shakes and completed the crux sequence of Equaliser.....Phew. It was a nice feeling to climb this route and now I'm quite psyched on trying Bens recent extension, Keep on Truckin'.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, ha the next post will be a lil more exciting....promise:-)
Truckstop pics will be up soon.
Norry

Is the Honeymoon over??.....

Hey guys, just keeping you updated on what has been cracking in the bluies of late.

Since my previous post, I have not really done a great deal of stuff ! However I have managed quite a lot of training and frothing about all the routes I want to climb.

A nice cold morning out at Narrowneck

It seems quite pleasant in the mountains at the moment, a great temperature for sending and the rain appears to have eased off. I have started working 5 days a week again to try and save some extra cash in hope of getting to the Frankenjura(Germany) in September. It has allowed me to do some more structured training and buy more expensive coffee!

Awesomely cold conditions.

I think I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had been trying a route called Alpha Leather. Such an awesome little climb, nice and close to home and a classic at that. I came pretty close to nailing this route on Anzac day in awesome conditions, in fact it was handed to me on a silver platter, anyways came very close but no cigar. Quite the shame as it is quite conditions dependant and this particular day was incredible. Anyway, on this day I tore open two finger tips on the route, my index finger was a small split and my ring finger was more of a gash. Frustrating, yes! But nothing I hadn't done before. I taped my fingers and trained on them for the remainder of the week and decided one sunny Saturday afternoon that I only needed one shot and it would be done! So, it was off to Blackheath Mitre 10 for some cheap super glue. I was a genious, why had I not thought of this before?? It had worked on routes in the past, but this time my skin was a lot worse. To cut a long story short, the glue didn't help me get up Alpha Leather and I got a gnarley infection on my index finger, this meant I couldnt train properly for a while. To make things worse I think the glue must have reacted to my skin and it still has not fully healed.

What to do when your skin can't handle Blue mountains sandstone?

Nowra

Oh yes! It's that time of year. In fact maybe my season started a little prematurely as I hadn't planned on heading south until July.

I was frustrated and stressed, every time I would pull onto something remotely sharp at home my fingers would just start bleeding again and I needed a break from training at the BBC. It was then as I reached in to the fridge to devour a snack, I looked up and saw “Attack Mode” written on my hit list for 2012(these are the advantages of a fridge front hitlist!!)

Perfect! Big fat underclings, smooth rock and Uuber classic line.

I was instantly on the blower to Gavatron Phillips, and there we were skipping our way down the rungs to Planet Cock(its actually a crag) on a cold friday morning!

Start of Attack Mode

Awesome, butterflys in my tummy and slightly over caffeinated I stood underneath Attack mode(32), the route that had shut me down 13 months ago. Over the summer this route was in the back of my mind flailing about, just thinking about clipping that draw made my biceps melt. I didnt really know what to excpect this time, but one thing was for sure it was on my all time “to do” list. 

We had set a side two days at Nowra and made the decision to climb both days at PC. Last year I had spent a day on Attack Mode playing about and trying the moves. I remember thinking   although I could do all of the moves, I was far away from linking the route to the fixed biner(anchor). In my mind I guess this particular climb always had an ore about it, and a year ago I probably considered it not my style.

So, on Friday we just soaked up the Nowra atmosphere for a while, warmed up briefly and jumped on the Mode. 

To give you a brief run down, the route is probably 8 to 10 metres long, consists of three clips including the anchor and the majority of the route is probably no higher than 3 metres from the ground. The first section involves busting through some powerful undercling moves, and making a bit of a desperate clip. Then climbing a short flake with some hardish moves to the anchor. The first day just involved familiarising myself with the moves, and yes punching through the underclings still felt desperate! I decided rather than throwing myself at the underclings over and over I would try and dial the tail end of the route first. I knew that If I could climb the second half of the route with confidence I would be in a better mindset for the underclings. After watching Chris Webb on smitten  I had found a much easier way of clipping that draw using a deep drop knee. I then successfully linked from that clip to the anchor. By the time I had worked all of these subtleties I was pretty smoked, we made the decision to call it a day and I was hoping I would have the steam to pull it off the next day.

After waking up to a bunch of Kookaburras at 6am the next morning we smashed a coffee at North Nowras local "Nice and Naughty"coffee shop! (So stoked North Nowra finally has coffee shop and I couldn't have named it better myself) 

Once again we warmed up, and I went for a burn up Dude Food(29) a great climb, if I could have 3 wives this route would certainly be one of them! 

I jumped on Attack Mode again and holy shit it felt hard today, any thoughts I had of red pointing the route on this day had just gone out the window. Smashed on the underclings once again, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to climb the route today, but there had to be something I was missing. I tried every body position, different feet and screaming as hard a I could until after about 30mins the penny had dropped. Muscle memory engaged and I was linking the underclings. Once again after I had worked the route for nearly an hour I was too boxed to link it.
It was back home to Blackheath and I was already considering making another day trip,  I was a little bummed, but at the same time quite excited.
The following Tuesday I decided to make the long haul from Blackheath, climb for 4 hours and then head home again. It doesn't sound too bad, but 6 hours of driving in a day is pretty taxing(for me anyway).
I'm not sure who was more shocked Gav or myself, but my first attempt was surprisingly good. Without thinking too much about the task at hand, I pulled on to the route, linked through the underclings, made the two clips and fell on the second last move.
I was frustrated that I didn't send the route but certain It would happen next shot. Well, so I thought. As it turns out the first attempt of the day was by far the best, my following attempts I struggled to get through the underclings and drove home empty handed once again.
On the fourth day I fell twice with the anchor staring me in the face. After a couple of hours rest, a Tuna snack and half a bag of jelly beans I decided to give it one more lash and happily sent Attack Mode. I must say it was a nice feeling driving home having climbed this route. Happy Days.

I remember as a young boy sitting on my bedroom floor in front of  pedestal fan watching the blade spin in fascination. I would watch it for days over the summer and wonder how fast the blade was actually spinning. My small fingers could fit in between the wire caging around the blades, I was always overly curious. Could I pull my finger in and out fast enough with out getting cut??? Mum knew what I was up to and despite her warning one day I built up the courage to have a crack and you wouldn't believe it! Blood everywhere, crying young boy with a sore finger.
What the hell does this have to do with my Blog???
Well, a few days after Attack Mode totally frothing, Evan and I headed down to the ole local Centennial Glen. Lovely coolish morning, awesome Autumn conditions and on a high it was time to try out Better than Life(32). We'd fondled on this before and played on the moves in horrid conditions but I was always particularly worried about the small tweaky two finger pockets. Although the wall is not steep at all, there are a couple of moves that made my fingers feel ultra tweaky. On routes I have tried in the past if something doesn't feel right or the potential for injuring myself is there i'll normally lay off it until I feel ready for it. Not this day! The first attempt was good, sorting out the moves quite quickly and realising that the climb shouldn't be too much of a task was a good feeling. The crux consists of moving between a few crimpy two finger pockets and bearing down quite hard to a bad edge. Most of the moves are done with a good left heel position then once the crux is complete its a cruise to the top.
So, only one thing left to do and that was to stop hesitating and start giving this crux some curry. Before the second attempt my finger felt a little sore and maybe a tad tweaked, it was hard to tell because my hands were a little cold and suppose I was just in denial. Like the boy who 16 years ago shoved his finger into the fan, I wanted a lash.

Mooching under the Main Wall with a sore finger

Without going into too much detail, feeling strong on the moves and really wanting to climb Better than Life I tried the crux again. Heel on, take the left hand pocket, bone down hard, flag to the coin slot with my right, tuck my hips in and move to the edge.....(CRACK)! Ouch.... no climbing for me for a while. I was pretty certain that this did not happen to Saxon Johns in the Comin at ya Hyper Video.  Bit of a pulley rupture to say the least.
A big thanks to Evan for sacrificing his lunch container for my finger, luckily there was an icy waterfall around the corner to take refuge in!
Hehehe, learn from my mistake and if you feel tweaky lay off and go climb one of the hundreds of other routes around. As I type, its probably been about 10 days since I hurt my finger and I think with lots of Icing it is healing pretty well, but it is still a mega setback for my training and climbing coming into the best conditions of the year. Hopefully climbing will be on the menu again soon.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and sorry if I carried on a bit more than usual but to be honest until I can train I am BORED! Rock On!
Norry:-)

The fun begins.....

Hey guys just a quick blog update on what I have been up to lately, hopefully this post will be a little more exciting then my previous couple.

The Underworld

So, if you haven't been following my blog, I have gone a little quiet on the sendage side of things over the summer and have spent a fair amount of my time training. The summer was very wet in the Blue Mountains, which although can get a little depressing turned out to be a good thing for me because it forced me into an 8 week training routine. Over this time I tried not to think too much about climbing outside and focus on what was stopping me from doing the routes I wanted to do. The first 4 weeks were great, 2 hang board sessions a week, 4 boulder sessions and maybe go outside one or two arvos a week to maintain my route fitness. This was tops until my fingers started to hurt, and then it became a joke, every session I had a new finger niggle. I laid off the hang board for a couple of weeks and bouldered on slopers until I felt I could at least crimp again. It got super frustrating occasionally when the sun would peer through the clouds. Usually on a Saturday I would run into half a dozen friends at the coffee shop psyched because the sun was out. "Where are you climbing today Norry??" I would be envious of their  psych and jealous that they were getting out. I would  reply "i am training at the BBC today". then they would look at me as if I had two heads.

My Mechanical Animals simulator @ the Bowlo

Coin slot crack.....oh the pain!

Anyways, I first tried a route called Mechanical Animals(33) back in July last year. I will not forget this day in a hurry. I had spent the last two years climbing all of the routes around it and every time I would get to the Tripe rest I would stare at the crux holds below me. At the time I found the Tripe(30) crux hard enough, let alone linking a V11 boulder problem into it! Basically I threw myself at the crux for 3 days, before realising and admitting to myself that at this point in time I was not strong enough to climb this route. Individually I could stick the moves, however linking the boulder problem together was a different story. I found the crux to be quite intense on my right shoulder, for this reason I was quite hesitant to give the route some real curry. I decided to give it away and went back to the old default setting. "oh well this route just isn't my style, I'll just push it away under the mat and forget about it".

At this time I was about to head to China and it was coming into summer so I guess I almost forgot about it all together. I guess I felt demoralised by this route I didn't want to except the fact that I was going to have to step up to climb it. Hehe it probably sounds funny to somebody that doesn't climb but this ate away at me and every time somebody would mention Boronia Pt I would cringe.
  On New Years day I wrote out a bit of a hit list for 2012 with Mechanical Animals being at the top, followed by a dozen or so classics that I really want to do. I also started a training log and decided that this summer was going to be the turning point. I returned to the route almost 2 months later with stronger fingers and a better mindset. I could climb the route in overlapping sections. It was another two months of rain, more rain, bad skin and psychological epics before I clipped the chains of what is my hardest route to date. It seems so strange, something that I had thought about and obsessed over for nearly 8 months was all over in a matter of a few minutes. Such an awesome line! So psyched to have had the chance to climb it.

Hashish(32) The Underworld        Photo: Aurel Gelot

A few days later I was feeling good and my knee was feeling better after a long break(from heel toes). While I was on a high I thought it would be cool to try and keep the ball rolling. Hehehe this doesn't happen often but when it does its great. It was unfinished business for me at the Underworld! I instantly fell in love with this climb from the moment I first set eyes on it, 25 metres of steep/ roof climbing, I injured my knee badly on the route in December and to be quite honest I did not think it would heal for a long time. As it turns out my knee was fine(at least on the route), It just needed a couple of months rest from heel toes:-\. I think I have gotten a bit stronger since the last time I tried the route, the moves felt a lot easier and the route flowed nicely. Hashish(32) basically links the crux's of two awesome routes together via some additional(radical) roof moves. I know it is a big call but I would have to say it is the best or at least in the top 3 best routes I have ever climbed. The final crux is a unique boulder sequence that more or less puts the icing on the cake, I won't give away anymore you'll have to get on it and see! It was a great feeling to come back stronger and send this route, especially after it kicked my arse 3 months ago. A big thanks to Aurel for snapping some cool shots:-)

Thankyou for taking the time to read my blog, hopefully i'll have some more good news soon. I'm looking forward to spending the next month at Diamond Falls and getting down to Victoria at some stage.
My flatmate Allie Pepper is currently in Nepal, where she is about to climb Manaslu and Lhotse in the same season. If she is successful she will be the only Australian woman to climb  two 8000 metre mountains back to back. check out here web page www.alliepepper.com it's a great read.GO ALLIE!

Moonshadow

A big thanks to Simon Carter for snapping a few shots recently(and also thanks to Monique for the belay). Here are a couple of pics on Moonshadow(33) @ Centennial Glen. Check out Simons Web page www.onsight.com.au or click the link to the right.

Larger Than Life

So it would appear that this week I have altered my training schedule just a little. I managed to sneak out in between thunderstorms and do a bit of climbing at the Glen with a friend Jonas. Not sure if this was wise but, I really enjoyed it! Despite the wet humid conditions, we had fun and hopefully it helped maintain a bit of route fitness. I have been obsessed with my fingerboard sessions lately, so much to the point I have been waking up in the middle of the night with aching fingers. So I thought that laying off the training for a week wouldn't hurt. I have been having an early morning boulder for a couple of hours than hitting the crag after 4pm. I tried a route called Larger than Life(31) and Jonas nailed Brutal and Wrong Movements(27) quite quickly, so the pressure was on for me to send this route. Larger than Life is an incredible line, I remember almost 3 years ago when I first visited the glen, standing underneath this route in amazement. It basically climbs a 40 metre traverse and finishes out 2 roofs. This style of climbing is pretty rare in the mountains, the only accept ion being the Amphitheatre at Diamond Falls. The first 2 days I tried the route, a lot of the important holds were quite damp and some were even wet. Fortunately when I returned on the third day(i'm not quite sure how) the holds were slightly better, making it sendable. Even though the final jug is a monstrous hoofer, I nearly came off clipping the anchor due to the huge amount of rope drag and the rock was slick and damp. Luckily I held on! Such an awesome route, just remember to pack long slings and roller biners(unlike me):-)

Day Dreamer

 A nice day at fort rock, Blackheath.

This definitely is not my most exciting post I have ever submitted, but to be entirely honest I haven't really done anything worth blogging about. So I'll keep it short and sweet! Since Christmas I have been trying to be a little more disciplined and actually try and do some slightly more "structured" training. Prior to New Year I was spending a bit of time at the Underworld with Benjamin, keen for an awesome line called Hashish(32). It Basically links the crux of two awesome routes into one, via a really cool roof traverse. Pumpy with a technical crux. I was pretty psyched until I injured my knee trying a little too hard on one of the moves, this is not good considering the route has 5 heel toe moves leading up to the crux. In the end there was no question about it, any heel toe position was excruciating. Unfortunately I wont be climbing this route for a while. Quite frustrating, but it will heal and hopefully by then I will be strong enough to climb the route with ease.
This little set back also gave me the opportunity to get back to a route called Mechanical Animals(33) at Boronia Pt. No heel toes in this sucker, so I didn't have any excuses! Despite conditions being rather average, I think I managed some pretty good progress on this line. It took me probably 3 days of work before I could do the crux sequence, and then I overlapped the route on a couple of occasions. It went from feeling totally impossible to very doable, in a short period which is exciting. Since then we have had 3 weeks of crazy weather, pretty well rain on most days.

Rogue Echidna joining the action at Boronia 

Anyway for the past 3 or 4 weeks I have just been training quite a lot at the BBC, and hang boarding at home. It has worked out rather well, because it allows me to work more and train harder. I think a solid block of training over summer is not a bad thing, especially when the conditions are terrible. I really enjoy running at the moment especially in the mountains(when its not raining). I did a lot of cross country running as a kid and then gave it away for probably 8 years. I seem to have forgotten how good running makes me feel, its awesome.

Unfortunately Larger than life is larger than my quickdraw collection!

This time of year is once again very frustrating. Do I persevere with the bad conditions and risk not getting anywhere on a project....or just cut my loses and train solid for the remainder of summer. I made the mistake last year of throwing myself at routes that were at my limit in 99% humidity and although it was fun, I think a lot of it was a big waste of time and could have been better spent training. I keep on dreaming of rocking up to the cliff on a beautiful cold autumn day with a new level of strength. Crushing that crux that demoralised me last season and sending that project in 3 shots instead of 3 months. I think it is probably this thought alone that drives me to train harder. I Can't wait to climb these routes!!

 Jammin with Danny & Ben at Waragil

That pretty briefly sums up the past month. I look forward to posting some slightly more exciting blogs very soon. This year is going to be awesome! Thanks for reading my blog :-)