Its been a wee while since I last blogged, sorry about that, but I’ve been insanely busy of late! The past few months have been pretty intense with competitions, coaching, travelling, trips and lots and lots of training in between! To start of with, I was training really hard up until June/July for a big trip to Ceuse (an amazing limestone crag in France). Ceuse is the glimmering, crown upon a majestic mountain top set deep within the heart of Southern France! Its sparkling, orange glow can be seen from miles around and can easily be spotted from the neighbouring town of Gap. My adventures here started when I was 17 years old, and although I’ve done nearly all of the easier stuff between 7b and 8a, there is still plenty of stuff there to get stuck into in the higher 8’s! This year, I travelled with Natalie Berry (Currentbody team member), Eleanor Hopkins, Jonathan Field and Gabby Stewart (First sport climbing trip abroad), all very capable climbers. When I’m climbing outdoors, particularly in places such as Ceuse where there is not many easier climbs closer to the harder stuff, I struggle a lot warming up… what I have found out though, is using my trusty compex, sticking it on a warm up setting or light endurance session, I can build up a really good forearm pump without actually getting on the wall which give me a really good warm up! Up until Ceuse, I had been focussing largely on localised forearm endurance. To do this, I had a very intense regime of climbing orientated training as well as lots of cappilarisation and endurance sessions on the compex!
Anyhoo, our first few days in Ceuse were spent just getting back into climbing outdoors and adjusting to the mega walk-in! This is probably one of the hardest parts of climbing at Ceuse, the walk-in is pretty intense and if your not careful you can exhaust yourself before you even get to the crag!
Ceuse in the light of the sun!
In my first few days, I got quite a few good ticks in, including an onsight of a very nice 7c+ called “Bleu Blanc Girophare” and tried an 8b called “L’ami de tout le monde“! “L’ami” was an intense route which seriously shocked me. I was expecting more of an endurance climb, instead, I got stuck with a hard bouldery route with some pretty intense climbing through steep terrain and very little rest, but it was an incredible route! I could have completed it, but as we only had a short period of time, I really didn’t want to spend any more than a couple of days trying it. In the end I got it with three rests, which I was happy with, next year I will return for the whole summer and complete that amongst many more!
"L'ami de tout le monde" 8b
The rest of the trip was spent enjoying the amazing climbing Ceuse had to offer and meeting up with friends. Our friend Neil Gresham came to meet up with us and do some climbing for a few days. Neil is probably Britains top climbing coach and being a coach and training nut myself, I always enjoy catching up with Neil and discussing new coaching and training strategies. The time Neil was about certainly made the walks to and from the crag a lot more interesting! One thing we discussed in depth was warming up before training and in particular, at the crag. It is such an essential thing to do, to prepare your body for exerting such high levels of physical performance, and if not warmed up correctly, it can lead to injury, poor recovery and lower performance levels. This is why I thought the compex was such an amazing tool to have with you in such situations. One of the best days I had at Ceuse, was after making sure I got the best warm up I could possibly get. We got up extra early to make sure we arrived at the crag and did not have to queue at all to get on easier climbs. I did 6c+ and 7a twice to get a good pump going, after that I did a 7c to get rid of any flash pump remaining and to get an early burn on something with harder moves and then I did some one armers on a positive jug at the bottom of the wall to recruit some power!
Recruiting Power!!!
That day I went on to come agonizingly close to one of this years big goals: Onsight 8a+!!! It was obvious that everything that happened in that day had lined me up perfectly for the best performance of the trip! In the end of the day, even though I didn’t get massive amounts done, I still had an amazing experience, learned lots about myself and my climbing, and in what areas I need to focus on for my next big trip!
The crux of the 8a+!!!
After France, Nat, Eleanor, Jonny and I were straight back into hard training! The British team were having a training day at EICA: Ratho along with the French team. This was incredibly intense, especially after 2 weeks in France and not even a rest day in between the two! As well as training, the meet also included an Open event (Scottish Open) which the french team participated in as well! It was great fun, unfortunately for me though, the senior team who were at the event decided not to compete on the day as they felt they weren’t fit enough (crazy if you ask me?) which left me in a category to myself : ( But the routes where amazing and I still competed against the french and british juniors who were only a year younger than me anyway. Our first route was only 7b, which all but the lower part of the category topped. Our second route was an amazing 8a+ going straight through some of the steepest sections of the comp wall! I fell right at the top going through the final roof placing higher than most of the junior category apart from two french guys and another brit.
The first qualifier "7b"
In the finals, we where up against a spicy 8b heading straight through the right side of the comp wall. On tiny edges at over 45 degrees overhanging, this was a formidable climb! I headed out of isolation as the last competitor, not knowing what was ahead of me, I had heard the cheers of the crowd from the last climber, he had been out quite a while, “he’s probably got quite high on the route”. I walked out into the crowds towards the wall, I gave it a quick route read and got suck into the route…
Falling flying out to catch a terrible crimp, I was off… to find out though that only two french and two brits got further left me content. I was pleased with how I had climbed and I look forward to what the future brings in competitive climbing!
Crouching Climber Flying Robbie!!!
The next big thing is of course the Youth World Cup!!! As I am not competing I have opted for commentating, which should be good fun and something new. I am very much looking forward to it and I think it shall be an experience I won’t soon forget!
My next big trip is Kalymnos (Greece) in October. The last time I was here was 2007, so I am really looking forward to this! I am going here for 6 whole weeks, basically from the start of October to end of November! The first two weeks I will be with a big group of guys, after that I will be meeting Neil again and hopefully, I might get to do some bolting of my own and establish some first ascents! One thing I really want to do, is climb a bunch of new routes bolted and climbed by Neil. He has an 8b, 8a+ and 7c+ in a sector called “Jurrasic Park”, they are all insanely steep, long and exciting tufa and stalactite climbs, I can’t wait!
7c+ Onsight from 2007
So training for Kalymnos is pretty intense right now! I am climbing only 4 days a week, but the days are incredibly intense and I include fingerboard and campus board routines as well as compex on all my rest days. A typical day for me right now includes a morning campus board/fingerboard session along with circuits or bouldering, resting in the afternoon and from 4-5 oclock the second session starts including either routes or bouldering as well as circuits, campusboard and fingerboard again!!! I need my rest days to be proper rest days otherwise I won’t be able to recover properly. Right now I see my biggest weakness as finger strength and short term anaerobic endurance and this is what I am concentrating on. I’ve been doing a lot of campus board power endurance which has been seriously hard work but I will see the benefits. The compex has been invaluable on my rest days to help recovery and warming up before my home board sessions as well as keeping my forearm endurance topped up whilst i’ve been focussing more on strength.
Right now I see my goals closer than ever, I have 6 weeks in kalymnos and I am super psyched to see them through. I want to climb more 8b’s, onsight 8a+ and get 8b+ or 8c (if I have it in me) ticked! It might mean sacrificing more time at home and spending it abroad, but I don’t have any problem with that : P. After Kalymnos I have Christmas and then Spain which I think should be another big turning point in my climbing and again see new levels in my climbing than ever before!
Livin' the dream...
Keep livin’ the dream guys…
Robz