UKC

Kicking off so you can start thinking about what you did (or didn't) do in 2020... 

I shall hereby give no answers but pose lots of questions to aid your thinking

• How did you progress against goals?
• What were your favourite routes?
• Biggest spankings?
• Peak achievements? (climbing, DIY and life...)
• How did you pivot your expectations in a pandemic?
• What was the surprise win that you never would have thought of this time last year?
• Has your mental game changed?
• What are your hopes/goals for 2021?

We've all had some pretty big adjustments to make so above all BE KIND TO YOURSELF!

Last year's round-up thread: 

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_2019_roundup-...

Thanks

My goals set when I rejoined in January were;

- Visit lots of new crags (South Lakes lime, West Yorkshire grit, Bowland, Lancs quarries, Cheshire sandstone, N Wales lime, Snowdonia)

Quite a few good visits to new crags in South Lakes lime and Yorkshire grit, plus a few to N Wales lime. Pandemic cut other Welsh opportunities back a lot and I just haven't really had a good enough combination of psyche and weather for the others. I did have my first visits to Harmers wood, Parbold, Longridge, and (in over a decade) Brownstones though. Overall I'm happy with this. Edit, also a good visit to a new crag in the Lakes.

- Keep up a reasonable rate of progress with Ft 7A/Bs outside (unless I find a harder project that I want to focus on) 

Meh. I've done 10 7s this year. Had a good run in early summer but was slowed down a lot since then by injury niggles and bad conditions combined with pandemic cutting my flexibility a lot. However I do think I'm stronger now than I was a year ago, allowing for injuries, and have felt like I could have made short work of a couple of 7Bs I've been on in different circumstances.

- Do a long-ish Ft 7B+

no, not tried anything. Pandemic and injuries cut opportunities.

- Lose 5 kg (starting point ~78 kg) 

I lost 3.5-4 kg at the best point but have since put a couple back on. About 76-76.5 kg now I think.

- Do some power endurance training - maybe aim to complete one of the crimpd ancap fingerboard sessions at the correct weight (80/70% of max) as this is currently way beyond me

No. Trying this contributed to my finger problems. Repeaters on a lattice edge seem to really f*ck with them unfortunately. Far worse than max hangs.

- Go on a week's bouldering trip abroad (probably Font with the family in autumn) 

We were lucky to just get in a trip to Northumberland before the second wave really kicked off. Had a good time seeing friends and did a few good problems at crags I've never visited before. Favourite day was at Bowden.

- Build a woodie? 

Yes! Big success this one, it's really good. Might buy some more holds in lockdown 3...

Overall, not a brilliant year but I'm happy with it given everything that is going on!

Edit; there were more questions!

What were your favourite routes?  Best boulder problem was probably J Mascis (7A+) in the Lakes.

Biggest spankings? Hmm not sure, there have definitely been a few things that should have felt doable and didn't! They usually involve tiny holds. Biggest failure has been getting injured.

Peak achievements? (climbing, DIY and life...): building the woody, working from home ok, keeping climbing in a way that worked with family. Had some really good days at Woodwell, Longridge, Earl, Bowden where I felt like I was climbing well.

How did you pivot your expectations in a pandemic? Never really consciously thought about this. It has affected my climbing less than most because I mainly bouldered on my own anyway. However the lack of contact has definitely got to me a bit eventually. And obviously goals in Wales have had to be curtailed due to travel bans.

What was the surprise win that you never would have thought of this time last year? My board is better than I would have ever found time to build outside of lockdown 1. Working from home gives me more time to train.

Has your mental game changed? Don't think so.

What are your hopes/goals for 2021? Get my family through the pandemic, fix my finger injury and don't collect another, climb with some new people, do more in Wales and the Lakes, do five 7Bs including at least one traverse that requires some power endurance.

Thanks Rebecca. Does this mean we can look forward to seeing you back in the weekly?

Journal of a Plague Year

Jan to March: learned to ski. Good.

March to April: Lockdown One. Remained sane, achieved some gainz on the beastmaker. Could have been worse.

May to August: came out of lockdown more motivated for movement in the mountains than for sport climbing. Did some hiking & a couple of decent alpine routes, but a planned trip to the Dolomites was stymied by weather and an injured partner. Frustrating. 

August to September: easing my way back into sport climbing. Discovered a new (to me) fantastic crag in Ötztal where I definitely want to spend more time. 

October: made it to Kalymnos between lockdowns. Barely maintained my performance level compared to previous years, but in the circumstances that's not a terrible result. More importantly, spent time with a marvellous group of friends & did plenty of excellent routes. Highlight of the year.

November-December. Lockdown II. Walls closed, but good weather in November meant I got to know one of my local crags a lot better. Got some decent onsight mileage in plus progress on a nice little project. Worse weather in December started to get more depressing.

Right now: attempting to face the prospect of another two months lockdown with equanimity. Largely failing.
Otoh, in March I thought my chances of making it through to vaccination without contracting covid-19 were probably minimal. But so far, so good.

I listed a few things I wanted to achieve in 2020...

1, Have a whole year of healthy elbows, shoulders, knees and fingers (i.e. keep up plenty of (p)rehab)

- Pretty good result here. Some minor elbow grumbles were quickly dealt with after starting to climb on my new board. Groin strain/tendonitis/whatever the f*ck it is continues to grumble along.

2, Climb 5x new sport routes of 7c or harder

- Blimey, somehow actually managed this – newbies have been a definite motivation for the last couple of years:

Social Distance (7c+) Route extension to boulder problem Swing of Fire, March

Lockdown Fatigue (8b), roof epic at Kilnsey, May

It Takes Glue to Tango (7c+), Devils Gorge, July. Probably my favourite FA this year - it felt so unlikely as i pieced together the moves, then bam, 3rd tie-in and I was staring at the chains :-D

52% Believed The Bear (8a), Devils Gorge, July

You Don't Make Friends with Salad (7c), August

3, On-sight 7c again

- Very unlikely given cancelled Spanish trip. Think I managed a solitary 7b OS at Kilnsey this year.

4, >bodyweight 1-handed deadhang on the BM2K lower middle rung (even if it’s the “easy” Chapel BM2K – good all-round aim as it's an enabler for the next 2 aims and will need; improved shoulder strength & coordination, some weight loss and of course, increased finger strength)

- Strictly speaking a failure, but edging ever closer. Just 1.5kg assistance needed on my home board, with rotation being one limiting factor.

5, 8A not in Parisella’s

FAIL. 3 proper sessions on The Joker (f8A); best go was a little swing on the jug. Completed a single (soft) 7C outdoors this year. (Admittedly, ran laps on cave 7C’s, did Halfway House 7C+/8A and managed a dozen Moonboard benchmark 7C/+’s)

6, 8A+ on link-up style limestone

FAIL

7, Stay happily married

BIG WIN: Not only happily married, but now also father to a cute baby daughter.

Didn't have any goals going into the year but sent routes I wasn't able to before, explored new crags and sustained no major injuries, some slight strains here and there, though!

The Arête (VD), my first trad lead. Memorable as I didn't intend to lead it, and had little gear to place. Had a splendid time making an anchor with a single 240cm sling.

Ysgo Crack (V1), absolute banger.

Reptile Smile (6a+), the route itself was nice, cool features. The memorable bit was when I somehow unclipped the 7th draw from the bolt while trying to clip the rope, while pumping out my wee bouldering arms!

The Terrace (f7A), great moves and a stiff crux. Very pleased to put it away in one session at the end of the day.

Hawkeye (V7), took many sessions and got quite stroppy, but perseverance yielded a clean topout.

Tierdrop (f7A+), still not done this one, fallen off the crux move 15-20 times now, taking the full lob each time. Amazing problem though!

First 7A+, and less than a month later my first (and currently only) 7B, though apparently the long of arm only get 7A

Didn't cope well with the first lockdown. Was too demotivated to train, it was quite a dark time. Once we were allowed out again I enjoyed early pre-work sessions as the weather was really good. A bit upset about cancelling Font trip but nothing I could do about it.

Hawkeye (V7), I looked at it last year with some mates and never thought I'd be able to do it as it's really not suited to me. The only reason I started trying it is because it was only a + grade harder than what I had previously done, and it's dead safe to try on your own with minimal pads.

Especially towards the latter half of the year, I've started to focus more on a few specific projects and some training too. Trying to take a more systematic approach to when I should try projects - especially those an hour or more away - instead of just throwing myself at them mindlessly.

Don't get injured, clean up some projects, find some new ones, if covid permits then enjoy some far away rocks too! Also hopefully build a board as we are looking to buy a house!

With microAJM so young I’m not sure I had a firm idea of goals at the start of the year. There were some vague ones - some training goals, wanting to do some decent stuff in Southern Sandstone in March, retaining some vague competency in other areas, some DWS - but nothing very precise.

Obviously most of the holiday goals got cancelled. The arbitrary training goals changed a bit but I do think that over the first lockdown I was moderately disciplined. In terms of outdoors:

- I barely did any trad at all. Not unexpected but even less than I might have hoped

- I came out of lockdown as relatively unfit as I’ve ever been, I think. I had plans of staying fit but as lockdown extended onwards and the possibility of holidays receded I gradually switched my focus more onto strength as the time passed. Which is fine, although it has to be said whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my dws season I barely got any hard new ticks in partly because I could barely shake out on a sit down ledge. Projects abound for next year, so keeping fingers crossed.

- it’s been one of my best years ever for bouldering, which is surprising given I didn’t touch rock until June at all. But a good long trip to Northumberland plus doing more bouldering with miniAJM around home means I’ve had a pretty solid year. Potentially the rolling 12 months ending this June could be one of my best ever, lockdown #3 permitting of course.

I had a great weekend at the start of September where I played tour guide for a friend on some Portland DWS with perfect tides and great weather. I mostly repeated things, although I did also do Russian Roulette, but the chance to do a really good volume of really fun climbing made it really cool - Crab Party, Ixtlan, Russian Roulette, Spittle and Spume, Temporary Lifestyle, all that good stuff.

Monty Pythons sit start obviously gets a nod for being a great problem and the hardest I’ve bouldered in years, but actually I did so many great problems in Northumberland - a bit like a kid in a candy shop. Neb Roof, all the stuff at Aretelands, all the things at Kyloe, some great stuff at Bowden and Back Bowden, and so on and so on.

I feel like I should have made more progress on Swinging Nineties. I had a bit of a head melt at Berry Head. 

I’m not sure it counts as a spanking so much, but it would have been nice to get my Portland project tidied up and obviously I’ve mentioned my terminal unfitness above!

Climbing - the bouldering, really.

DIY - the campus board

Life - surviving all the crazy of this year without anything massive going wrong, and getting to see more of miniAJM and microAJM growing up than might have otherwise been the case.

In the first lockdown, fairly well I think in that I just knuckled down and did some home training as best I could around the madness of working and childminding and so on.

Bouldering with miniAJM. I had originally assumed that I’d mostly get out climbing this year during the week when they were at nursery or at weekends when grandparents came to visit/babysit. Given the latter hasn’t been an option for much of the year, the realisation that miniAJM actually quite likes coming out to the crag with me has been amazing, both in terms of us getting to spend some quality time together but also for allowing me to do so much more than 2020 might otherwise have afforded me.

I think the time pressures of children had given me some of this already, but the pandemic has given me further reflection on how much I benefit from just being outside climbing, in terms of its ability to relax me and clear my head. Makes it easier to put aside any dips in actual performance 

Arbitrary training goals:

- 1.5-x-5 solidly on the campus board, then 1-x-5

- L sit to Tuck Planche on the paralettes as a marker point for having worked on a weakness

- 5x5 @95kg, and actually do some stuff on offsets

- some progress on a front lever

Climbing goals:

- make use of continued working from home and hopefully greater tolerance of more remote working in future to do some longer hybrid climb/work trips (not ridiculously long, but extending beyond the usual 2 week mark)

- make the June-June 12 months my best period of bouldering yet

- climb 7c/+ again

- work on my “why haven’t I already” and “harder local things to try” ticklist

- nail at least one of my Portland dws projects, try mark of the beast, and do some more stuff at Swanage and in south Devon.

Garage for the win!

When we were moving last year I ruled out loads of options for lack of board space, but it was well worth it come lockdown

Garage would be nice, but we've made the discussion and a spare bedroom would do the job suitably and is much more likely to end up in our budget. We've found a house we like the look off and the spare room will perfectly fit a steep 8x8 board. Not going to splash a million quid on any big commercial boards though, the house will be expensive enough!

Nice one for kicking this thread off Rebecca, thanks.

At the start of 2020 I set my year goals as:

Scottish tech 7 -Tick (The Stirling Bomber (V 7) -probably a bit debatable whether this has a tech seven move?!)

Run the Cheshire Gritstone Trail -Nope

Weighted pull-ups >+15kg 3RM -Tick (+18kg)

Two alpine routes off my hit list -Tick (Fil à Plomb (TD) and Supercouloir (ED1 6))

Ski tour Drumochter munros -Nope (TBH, this is unlikely to ever make the cut whilst I live so far south, as if cons are good enough to tempt me north I'll be climbing not skiing!)

Jaz &/or Hidden Dragon -Nope (Only one session at WG between lockdowns, and Jaz felt easier than any previous season, but still too sustained for my weak, weak arms!)

Run 25km vert -Almost! (so close: 23km vert, so would have smashed this if initial lockdown hadn't meant six weeks of road running or December hadn't been written off with a crocked ankle).

Run 1000km -Nope (680km, but not too worried about this as I decided early in the year that distance wasn't actually a big priority for contributing to my overall mountaineering goals and I was more interested in the height gain of my runs). 

50+ days climbing -Tick (Just! Got my 51st climbing day on Dec 31st!)

So, a good year despite the general doom and gloom and the challenges of restrictions. In some respects the general bad vibes of 2020 may have contributed to me getting out more, despite the fact I stuck fairly closely to the guidelines throughout, as climbing and running became more important in keeping sane.

Best Boulder:

Not a big year for bouldering, just 34 problems and only up to 6A+. 

The best problem was actually the lowly graded Tweedledee (V0) -just such nice moves, high enough that you can't really afford to drop the tricky top moves, and done on a day when I climbed all of the Harmer's aretes -banging!

Best UK Trad:

Tough one to call -only clocked up 50-odd routes but they were almost all absolute gems!

Be Brave (E1 5b) was definitely a contender for the top spot -awesome moves, a bit committing but very much my fave style. Honourable mention for the New Morning pitch of Heart of Darkness/New Morning (E1 5b) which forced me on to my old nemesis of steep jamming, highlighting that working weaknesses does actually produce results.

Best Non-UK Trad:

The main (climbing)casualty of the restrictions -no summer alps trip.

Best Sport:

Probably should have done more this year, so feel like I could have pushed the numbers further (and yes, sport IS mostly about the number!) but really enjoyed Smack the Juggler (6b+).

Best Scottish Winter:

A slightly sparse year for Scottish winter (the one true form of climbing?!) but still had a few nice days out. The Stirling Bomber (V 7) was short but pretty sweet.

Best Winter Alpine:

Supercouloir (ED1 6) -lifetime tick after reading Nick Bullock's account in On The Edge 142 and seeing the pics in the midi lift station of Ueli Steck on it. 

Best Grudge Match:

No scores settled this year (don't even talk to me about Jaz!)

Best Enchainment:

A glorious failure! Attempting all of the Cairngorm classic rock routes in a day, running/shuffling between them. Although we were way too inefficient to fit all the climbing in (doing the easiest three of the six) it opened up my eyes to how much distance you can cover in the hills.

Best Solo:

On paper, this would be Californian Arete (E1 4c) but actually this was less satisfying than anticipated, despite being a long term to-do-list route. The true best solo was Squareface (VD) on our Cairngorm classic adventure -just beautiful. 

'Best' Spanking:

Haven't had any epic shutdowns per se this year -maybe I haven't been trying hard enough. Or maybe my mindset it changing and I'm embracing redpointing tactics more for things like Heavens Above (D7+) so that getting shutdown doesn't seem so much like failure -wow, is that why people sport climb?! 

2021 Goals...

Hmm, need to give this a bit of serious thought! See next week's Fit Club...

Turns out I can’t add up. Strava just told me I ran 740km not 680km. Happy days, although still a way off the 1000!

Well remembered Rebecca, thanks!

My goal was 7c.

I only got on two. One was a possible in a day target. I'd seen a climber on it and it looked well easy. It turned out they were really very good and that was actually an onsight go and it was way beyond me. The other was Sunset Boulevard (7b+) which i had a couple of sessions on. I was a bit freaked out by the style and just not fit enough for the hard finish. 

My motivation wasn't really there and we spent the climbing season visiting lots of different crags doing quick mid to low 7 quick redpoints. We went to lots of new places and i learnt a lot.

I managed to get back into the training (enforced during lockdown 1) and then put a good period together before xmas for a planned trip that fell through. It would have been good to see where i was at but never mind. I have got the training habit back into my life now and it is the new normal to train. I've learnt where and how much i can fit in and am keeping it going.

2021 goals are:

1) 8a - current contender for an early season hit is Kleptomania (8a) 

2) 7c in a day

3) 7C - still searching. I have Trowbarrow 10 mins from home so something there would make sense.

 There will be some trad happening this year too (did 1 day in 2020) but it'll just be for enjoyment of being in the mountains rather than any goals.

I decided "do five 7Bs including at least one traverse that requires some power endurance" was a fairly lame goal and I need something more inspiring to get me through to the spring, so I've made a list of some specific problems I'd like to do:

Vitalite (V6)

Big Marine (V8)

Maybe a traverse at CyL.

The Flakes (f7B)

Fight on Black (f7B)

A couple of those in Silverdale area on Biscuit's list eg Ned's Problem (f7B) or Voodoo People SS (f7B)

Try Texas Hold Em' (f7B+) or The Cad (ss) AKA: Not Bad Dave (ss) (f7C) again if I'm going well.

Maybe try Coconutter Start (f7C)

Chiggers with Attitude (f7A+)

Pill Box Original (V6)

Left Wall Traverse (V8)

The Witch (f7B)

Toe Dragon into Dog Shooter (V7) or Toe Dragon into Kingdom of Rain (V8) (and fall off The Pinch (V7) again while I'm there)

Most of those are problems I've tried before. I'd also like to visit the following crags but without a specific problem in mind at the moment:  Carrock Fell Crag, Eskdale Fisherground, GOP Cave bouldering,  Rhiw Goch Boulders,  Crafnant bouldering.

That's quite a lot more than 5 7Bs, I think I better get myself in shape for a busy year after spring! (I did more than this in 2015 and 2016 though so it should be achievable if I have a good run.)

Can't really comment on the others, but if you're going to  Rhiw Goch Boulders I'm keen to get on Moria (f7B) at some point. It's in Grimer's new BB guide as well.

Cool, that's one of the ones I was looking at there. I'll try to remember to let you know when I'm thinking of going.