UKC

With 2019 all but on us, I wonder what plans/aspirations (even dreams) are in the sightlines of UKC sports activists.

Mine is to return to fitness/weight levels of 25 years ago, and to get on the now modest stuff that has been on my personal tick list for such a long time...Red Edge (Esk) and Concrete Chimney (Gogarth) to name a couple of sore points from long ago!

In reply to Greenbanks:

I have a pretty ambitious plan for 2019

a.) alcohol free all year (previous best was getting to the middle July in 2016)

b.) Redpoint 7b

c.) simply climb loads more Trad than I usually do

d.) trek/hike 500km in the year

e.) run 500km in the year (previous best 885km, so should be fine as long as I don’t injure myself once again)

f.) live my life much more environmentally and ethically aware. Reduce my impact as much as I can.

 

All the above whilst trying to strengthen my 53 yr old groin and rehabilitate/strengthen my perpetual rotator cuff injury.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Yeah, aims for 2019 so I can check back at the end of the year.

 

Climbing specific. I’m spending the whole of Feb in El Chalten, so climb stuff, come back safe. 

In UK would like to climb Great Wall on Cloggy and Savage God at Blackchurch, plus finish a few local projects. Also get back into running fitness for second BGR attempt. 

Moreover, spend lots of quality time with my wife and my family and my friends. 

A few work goals. 

Get lots done on the house. 

 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Yes. I plan on to climb come next year. That would be really sweet. 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Having had an absolutely sh!te 2018 due to personal and partner health problems I am hoping 2019 will be better!

No.1 is to see Mrs Alx healthy again and back doing work she loves, followed by:

- holding the straddle planche on the floor

- handstand push up

- the hefesto

- achieve i-sit as a progression towards manna hold

- finally achieve the roadkill splits

Unfortunately climbing is going to have to continue to take a back seat until I can afford a wall membership, weekends are kept for walking and wildlife photography.

My outdoor ambitions are to go see and photograph capercaillie, otters, and sea eagles in Scotland.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Mine are simple and if I achieve all 3 I’ll be delighted.

1) Stay uninjured running. 

2) Do more biking.

3) 1,000 pull ups in sub 4 hrs before end of Jan.  

 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Hike the GR20 in Corsica, become comfortable at the next trad grade and work less.

In reply to Greenbanks:

1) Climb 300 routes 

2) On sight E1

3) Exercise on 75% days

4) 79kg at some point during year, currently 85

 

 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Stay fit and healthy

Train for and complete middle distance triathlon. Only competed in sprint distance so far.

Climb more often. Be comfortable on sport 6a and trad VS

Climb more with my children.

Quality family time!

 

In reply to Greenbanks:

I’m 60 at the beginning of 2020, so I need to do

1-4-7

by the end of 2019. Everything else is enabled by that sequence.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Simple aspirations for me; 

1  Better work-life balance.  Last year I didn't climb for eleven and a half months because of work, so I am determined to ensure I get out on the rocks every week.  Climbed yesterday in the rain and have been out several times in December, so the omens are good

2  Lose six kilos over the next three months

3  Work at some sport climbing as a way of improving general levels of fitness.  Never taken it seriously, so onsighting 7a would be reasonable and perhaps work something, though the idea is a bit counter to the way I play at climbing

4  Build some power.  That's the bit that has really fallen off as I have aged.

5  Get about a bit with my midweek buddies.  Plenty of stuff to do all over the country.  Complete some E2s and E3s that I haven't got on before. 

In reply to Greenbanks:

1.  Keep my cancer at bay for another year; stay "feeling well"

2.  Get through a hip replacement and rehab back to pre-arthritic mobility

3.  Transition my woodworking from fun in the garage to finished items in the home

4.  Lead my annual E1 tick!

In reply to Greenbanks:

In no particular order:

1) Get stuck in on Scottish V, maybe even VI for mixed, hopefully including some classics like Orion Direct.

2) Winter climb in the NW Highlands, Beinn Eighe, Liathach.

3) Get completely solid on E1, comfortable-ish on E2, maybe crack a soft E3. (not purely for grade chasing but because there are lots of incredible looking lines at this relatively amenable grade)

4) Get some classic alpine routes done.

5) Get my motorcycle license.

In reply to Greenbanks:

1. Get good enough to surf a short board consistently

2. Lose half a stone 

3. Eat less meat

4. Use less plastic

5. Eliminate all my enemies.

In reply to Greenbanks:

10+ x 6a sports routes

10 x VS Multi Pitch leads

5 outdoor climbs a month

Development coach training....

Hopefully more than that but I think those are achievable! 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Font 7A maybe 7B for me

New years resolution is not to lower of a trad route, lowered off more routes than i topped this year which is sad as I've not lead or attempted anything harder than E1 lol

Other lesser goals - strength seems to hold me back, being relatively big and heavy - my bouldering would improve no end if i could lock off - so im training that specifically alongside other body movement stuff on the rings and parallets

In reply to GoneFishing111:

If you can boulder 7A, you should piss E1.

In reply to Greenbanks:

2019's main outdoor goals are (in roughly chronological order):

- Learn how to ski. First set of lessons 2 weeks ago ended with me in the hospital to get 13 stitches (The centre acknowledged the instructor was not up to par [multiple people quit his course] and so gave most of a refund).

- Lead an ice pitch. I need to do a lot of mock leads first, but looking forward to it.

- Mileage, mileage, mileage of alpine routes.

- Attempt to onsight the Grand Wall (5.11a) (!) - I'll need to train really hard, as I'm currently onsighting only 5.10c, and only single pitches at that. I have until September before I'm out of Canada, so may not happen.

- Lead some of the classic trad routes I never was quite good enough or had a chance to do in the UK when I get back. Cenotaph Corner, Dream, Sloth, FBD and a full traverse of the Cuilin are my main goals (weather depending). If I've managed to do the Grand Wall or at least got solid at 5.10c/5.10d then I might have a crack at Left Wall (!).

- 2 months (at least?) spent in NZ tramping around the South island with soon-to-be Mrs SB Hopefully she'll let us do a bit of climbing too.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Areet Derek! You have my number.

In reply to SenzuBean:

Make sure you have a pop at the grand wall it's amazing and the 11a pitches are safe I wasn't climbing much harder than solid 10c d when I did it with a good partner.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Oh, and since I did this year my #climbmyage boulder challenge, so I climbed the amount of my years in every Fontainebleau grade group (3 and 3+ are a group, as are 7a and 7a+) from 3 to my too grade of said 7a+.

 

But now all the low hangin’ ones are climbed, so without extensive travels I really can’t hope to repeat this. 

 

So perhaps I’ll simply aim to climb 39 6a or harder routes onsight. And even this will not be easy, as I’ve done most of the close by stuff and have a few other routes I wish to try or finish. 

In reply to J Whittaker:

7A seems pretty doable to be fair, regularly climb V7/V8 indoors.

The problem is with trad is i have zero head game, just terrible in fact.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Oh, and I can also confirm my off-and-on dalliance with Three Pebble Slab will perhaps continue.

In reply to Greenbanks:

I don't know about these statements of good intentions. I remember Julie Andrews telling everyone who'd listen how she was gonna "climb every mountain and ford every stream". Yet more than 50 years on, and she doesn't exactly figure in the list of Piolet d'Or nominations. She's not even done much on grit.

In reply to Greenbanks:

1. Carry on climbing indoors in the usual semi-structured trainingish way until spring so I've got decent levels of strength of fitness when the interminable dampness ends and the sun comes out again (hopefully)

2. Do some good routes in the Lakes - some of the big E3s like Prana, Nazgul, White Wizard, Air on a Bowstring, Humdrum, whatever comes into condition

3. Carry on doing a bit of indoors training throughout the summer, since last year after all the good weather I got very fit from walking up hills with a big bag, but rubbish at climbing by late summer

4. Climb a couple of E4s in Pembroke

That'd be a good year. Not exactly aiming high, but fairly realistic. Some of those Lakes E3s remain remarkably stubborn though, been on the list for years: ticking them all off is going to be a slow burner.

 

In reply to Andy Gamisou:

You were going so well until that final sentence

 

In reply to Greenbanks:

Happy to belay you on Red Edge

In reply to Greenbanks:

1) Climb in the Lakes. Had a week there in 2015 and it was brilliant. Keen to go back.

2) Lead an E7. It’d have to be a route that completely suited me and be extensively pre practiced...but despite the cheating I feel it’d be an interesting experience having a proper trad project.

3) Boulder 7A outdoors. Have always been much stronger in the head than the fingers or biceps and find bouldering absolutely nails!

4) Go on a peak bagging alpine trip. Would really like to do some mountaineering style routes rather than technical climbs for a change.

In reply to Greenbanks:

I had an extremely good 2018:

- first ever f7c, subsequently followed by another two!

- first E5 lead since 2008 and surprisingly solid on E3

- first ever V7 - I rarely boulder outside and it was a traverse anyway, but still good

- Cuillin Winter Traverse plus another ten grade V/VI winter routes

So, bettering that in 2019 is going to take some effort. No specific route goals but the following will do to get on with:

- more f7c sport

- actually attempt more E4/E5 trad

- keep plugging away on the elusive front-lever

- consider actually doing some finger boarding (but probably sack it off as too much like hard work and an easy way to get injured)

In reply to OP:

I'd like to take some exploratory trips for winter climbing in Lebanon (Bcharré) Algeria (Chrea) Lesotho (Oxbow).

Then some rock trips to Tunisia, Burkina Faso and East Timor.

Add a few more Alpine 4000ers as I'm pushing half way.

Can't persuade any of my partners for any of this so if someone is reading and prefers somewhere different to Rjukan send me a message!

In reply to Greenbanks:

Climb 8a and then another one

Actually start to plan my round the world motorbike trip

Work out how to delete to the right on my MacBook Pro without a delete button

In reply to plyometrics:

 

Nice.

New objective there! 

In reply to Greenbanks:

I'll be happy climbing outside this coming year.  Maybe 7a or E2, if I'm doing well on the day. That's it. Simple. 

In reply to Run_Ross_Run:

Cheers. Perfectly pointless, but weirdly psyched for it. 

Managed a steady 600 in 1hr 40mins a couple of weeks ago, so feel pretty positive if I can stay out of trouble!

In reply to Greenbanks:

Isn't it interesting how  many goals are number related as opposed to route specific? Is that a modern phenomenon do you think?

For me, I really want to climb Belly Full of Bad Berries. 

The more I read through "The White Cliff" though, the longer my ticklist for this year grows!

In reply to Greenbanks:

Ah Concrete Chimney first  time I did it we couldn't decide who had the best pitch  so we did it again but in reverse order.  Just hope to see in 2020 without losing another old mate from the climbing world. 

In reply to Greenbanks:

I'm kinda half tempted to go into full self destruction mode in 2019 as it's been a few years since I last did it. Get sacked, bin the girlfriend off, end up without a roof over my head. This brings the best out of me climbing wise. All this comfort has just made me fat and lethargic. 

Apart from the that I still need to redpoint the approach to scafel crag having collapsed last time I tried it. I have the beta now tho so fairly sure it's going to go first redders. 

In reply to andi turner:

I agree re the numbers and if I hadn’t quit climbing a few years back my targets would be specific boulder problems or easy alpine routes.

Whilst it was, and always will be, beyond my capability, I’ve always been captivated by Dominator in Yosemite.

In another life perhaps... 

In reply to andi turner:

I'd agree regarding 'The White Cliff'; an excellent addition to my library and one of the catalysts for returning to Concrete Chimney (which, when first named, I thought what a useless, utiliarian name...how wrong I was!)

In reply to snoop6060:

Haha. Just make sure to put it all up on youtube, editing the downward spiral towards poverty and chaos into an aspirational generation y fairytale. 

I do laps on it now.

In reply to Greenbanks:

Tower ridge in the summer

Forcan ridge in wintrr

Modest ambitions but hopefully achievable 

 

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Argh yes, the locals pleasure of running laps on your 4 year project. As I say I have the beta now but if all else fails I'll work it step to step. Doing it in 3 overlapping sections, ready for the big send day when the ideal conditions arrive and I'm at peak phase of my training.  In any case I worked out I defo need to at least wire the first bit out of the carpark before I can concentrate on the final slog up to the actual crag

In reply to Greenbanks:

Try and convince more people chalk is a waste of time

Have fun.

Hopefully not injure myself.

In reply to krikoman:

If I didn't use chalk, I'd have quite a lot less fun and be far more likely to injure myself unless I very significantly dropped my grade.

In reply to Greenbanks:

(1) Stop feeling guilty and racked by FOMO over my loss of winter climbing psyche - so far making good progress

(2) Replace winter climbing with my psyche to get up even earlier to be in the right place at the right time in the mountains to take better photographs.

(3) Hopefully have a good rock climbing year and go well enough to tick some long sought after routes in the mountains and Hebrides.

(4) Avoid, if possible, the depressing prospect of having to venture south of the border to climb (apart from maybe the odd early season trip to Northumberland, which barely counts as south of the border anyway).

(5) Make a second trip to Fair Head to do the routes I was psyched for but didn't get around to on my first visit last summer.

(6) Tick adequately high numbers on a euroclipping trip or two to justify the air fare.

(7) Have a couple of successful planned adventurous climbing trips abroad

(8) Redpoint the green 7c on the Justice Panel at Ratho before it gets taken down (carried over from 2018........... )

Edit: I'd be prepared to make an exception to (4) to climb on Scafell which I've somehow never done before

In reply to Greenbanks:

I'm planning to get back into some easy trad. If my partner picks up some skills too we may be in shape for some easy Yosemite stuff on holiday this autumn.

Also need to shift a stone or so of fat off my gizzards, probably by starting jogging again and cutting down on the beer.

Also hoping to get my first 300km flight in the glider, fly a competition and gain a basic instructor rating. Summer weather, work and a bit of luck willing.

Jk

In reply to Robert Durran:

 

Aren't these two contradictory, or are you just talking about climbing in Ingerlund? 

In reply to Doghouse:

Sorry, I wasn't clear. It's the process of heading south to climb in England and Wales which I find a bit depressing (the climbing itself can, of course, be excellent; it's just the getting there and the being there....... ).

In reply to Greenbanks:

this: Barra Head Games (E3 5c)

I've done Voyage and Prophesy so this would complete the trilogy

In reply to Robert Durran:

Fair enough
I'm not saying it's for everyone.

In reply to Run_Ross_Run:

By way of an update, managed my pointless little challenge today and quite pleased!

1,000 pull-ups in 2 hours 48 minutes

Bit early, I know, but anyone else ticked off any of their 2019 objectives yet..?

In reply to Greenbanks:

My targets are:

• recover fully from two years of cancer treatment (and hope it can stay away)
• become the jamming god I always knew I would be
• take up scuba diving (again) with my daughter while I can
• not to be so scared of Cornish granite
• enjoy life even more

Easy!

In reply to plyometrics:

Mighty impressive - well done.  Quite inspiring in a way.

It is a bit early, but I have lost two of my targeted six kilos and in less than a month.  Despite being fairly busy with work managing to keep some consistent training going.  Getting out on rock when I get the chance despite the winter weather.

I am adding pull ups to my regime. though finding them a lot harder than they used to be!  

In reply to plyometrics:

I meant to ask, in what sort of sets did you do the 1000?

In reply to plyometrics:

Well, I’m already 108km into my trekking target of 500km

However, after climbing indoors three weeks ago my “Redpoint 7b” goal appears to be a million miles away. I have, mind you, joined a gym, had some PT sessions and my shoulder is holding out so I guess I’ve got 11 months left yet. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek. Ended up doing 167 sets of 6, on the minute, every minute. Had a quick loo stop every 40 sets. Seemed to work quite well for me. 

Astonishing the think that the one hour pull up world record is over 1,000!!! 

 

 

 

In reply to Giles Davis:

Suspect you could easily increase your trekking goal to 1000km!! 

Good luck with your 7b target too, like you say, plenty of time left yet. 

In reply to plyometrics:

Wow! I can do 6 pull-ups on the minute for one minute. Then I have to stop. I'm not terribly strong. 

Anyway, my aims are fairly modest for this year. I've a ticklist of boulders in the 6b-7c range at crags within about 15 minutes drive of my front door and I'd like to get out when I can and tick as many of them as I can. Peak 'classics' basically. I came very close to ticking one of my 7B hopefuls in the first week of January, so I'm pretty optimistic for the year. 

Get out on the mountain bike a bit once it warms up. It's a really fun activity that I've neglected for a few years and it will be nice to have something that isn't 'goal oriented,' to just enjoy not for the ticklist, or the Strava or anything else. Just fun.

With two young kids, just getting out for an hour or two in the Peak here and there is a treat, and one which I hope to enjoy plenty in 2019.

 

In reply to plyometrics:

My record back in the 80s was 1500 in about 3 hours. Started with 50 straight off then dropped to 20s for a few sets before settling into a routine of 10s with a minute break between sets before persformance dropped at the end and was doing 5 or 6 every 2 or 3 mins I was still crap at climbing mind! 

Thankfully there are some better ways of getting in shape for climbing these days. 

 

In reply to Kipper-Phil Smith:

Definitely better ways of getting into shape, but pull ups are easy to fit in around working at home.  It is also a basic strength that I seemed to have in the 80s that has really diminished (perhaps a correlation with a gain in weight) to the extent that I really notice the lack when climbing nowadays.  I used to do 100 on a tiny edge (sets of ten), but probably would struggle to one set of ten on a bar nowadays!  A bit of work needed 

In reply to plyometrics:

Useful to see the approach thanks.  I think I will aim to build up to doing 100 in sets of 6 over the next couple of months.  Even that feels like a pretty difficult target in my current shape!  

Just realised I have extended my original list, but hope this is an enabler!

 

In reply to Kipper-Phil Smith:

Bloody hell!!!! That’s a seriously good effort! Agreed, no real translation to climbing, but it’s not done Stevie Haston any harm!

You’ve inspired me to do a bit of work on bigger sets now and try and nail 600 in an hour. Cheers!

In reply to Derek Furze:

If you’ve got a pull up facility at home, try “greasing the groove” by just slotting random sets in during the day. You’ll be amazed by what a difference that makes. Good luck!

In reply to plyometrics:

The mind boggles.

In reply to plyometrics:

Good advice thanks.  I have tried it today - not doing it as part of my usual exercise, but doing a set when I am passing.  It already feels more reasonable than fitting it amongst hangs on the fingerboard.  

In reply to plyometrics:

Further report to follow through on your guidance.  Your tips have definitely helped and I am building up reasonably well - trivial numbers on your level, but two weeks in and now doing 50 a day using the fingerboard slots.  I can see the target of 100 being achieved by the end of the month as it is definitely getting smoother.  'Greasing the groove' very effective at making it possible.  Set intervals at 2 minutes now.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Great stuff! Always good to hear about positive progress like that. Keep us updated and look forward to hearing about your pull-up century!

In reply to Greenbanks:

At opposite extremes: something respectable in the alps for the first time in decades and tick the whole of Aldery Cliff!  

In reply to Dave Garnett:

The latter will have changed a bit if you've not been there for a while

In reply to Greenbanks:

The bit of the alps we’re going to has changed even more!

In reply to GoneFishing111:

Try bouldering a few grades lower, well within your comfort zone but without a mat.