A Great Day!

5 years ago in summer 2005 I 'peaked' with my climbing and was climbing harder than I ever had before. The following winter I injured my shoulder/neck area in a kayaking accident and couldn't climb at all for a solid year.

It took a year and half until the best shoulder/neck consultant in the north (I was told) diagnosed my strange injury. His 'bedside manner' was non-existent and after hurting me several times quite brutally and with no warning, he very coldly and matter-of-factly told me that it would take years to heal. How many years I asked; he said it was impossible to predict but could take a very long time. I asked what I could do to speed it's recovery - he told me that there wasn't any evidence to suggest that anything I did would make it any better or worse. I went home in a pretty black mood that evening. Laying in bed, I started to think about the implications of my injury and figured that I may never fulfil any of my climbing ambitions. I had never realised how much my climbing dreams meant to me until that evening, when the thought of losing them brought me to tears.

That was my lowest point on this journey and luckily, it was uphill from there.

A year after that, in 2007 I probably only climbed twice and on very easy stuff, climbing pretty-much one-handed.

By 2008 thankfully my injury was getting alot better. In fact, it was nearly gone, but I was a car-salesman, had little time to climb, had put on weight due to the job and had climbing shoes that didn't quite work for me. I also had a lack of climbing partners. All those things together meant that I didn't climb to the standard I had in the past.

In the summer of 2009 I had an opportunity and a desire to get back up to the standard I was at back in 2005. I made some mistakes though - I wasn't going climbing enough for a start and such was my desire and impatience to climb the grades I used to, I pushed myself too much. Out at the crag, even if I hadn't climbed for a couple of weeks I would get on climbs that I was nervous about, unwilling to accept that an easier climb was more suitable for me on that day. Consequently I scared myself alot. Pretty-much every climb I got on I got a bit scared. This eroded my mental tolerance and also my technique. I also had those crap shoes! By the end of the summer I hadn't acheived anything special to me and, climbing-wise, I was basically a complete mess.

When a good-weather spell came around last April (2010) I managed to arrange a solid 4 days of climbing in a row. I also had a pair of shoes I was much more comfortable with. I had been getting down the wall a fair bit and had a reasonable base-level of fitness and strength. Those four days were fantastic. Climbing every day meant I could make a progression. By the fourth day I felt like I could pull chunks out of the rock and was moving smoothly and felt fantastic. All this culminated in an onsight ascent of The Mortician, HVS 5a at Black Crag, Borrowdale. It was a monster pitch of 35m and I failed to ration my gear. I got very excited after completing the crux moves comfortably and didn't realise that I had an awfully long way to go. The climb kept coming at me all the way to the belay and by the time I got there I was really quite wired and had very little gear left. The climb though, represented a big step in the right direction.

Since those 4 days I've been really really psyched for climbing, been getting on the rock quite alot and, when I haven't had the opportunity to do so, I've been making sure to get down the wall on a regular basis to keep up my strength.

I also made some major decisions in how I would approach my climbing in general to avoid the horror-story of last year. I didn't want to waste another opportunity. I realised that it was best for me to take the simple approach I took back in 2005. And that is:
1. get out climbing as much as possible,
2. when at the crag, just do climbs that I feel comfortable taking on and the lines that I find inspiring - good lines that I think 'oh yeah, that looks GOOD'. 3. if I'm not progressing grade-wise, no matter - it just means that I'm not climbing enough. If I want to climb harder grades, get out climbing more and apply the above approach.
4. enjoyment is paramount. That may come from climbing harder grades and the sense of achievement that comes from that, or it may come from great company or great climbs and locations etc etc.

Simple! And oh how it works.

In the last few weeks I've made repeat ascents on the slate, climbs I've led in the past - a F6a+ and an E1 5b. I also got on some slate micro-routes up to E2 6a, not done cleanly and they had bolts in them and I felt happy to push it and take some falls. My time on the slate did wonders for my confidence for reasons I don't entirely understand. I've been keeping strong and today represented a mile-stone in my efforts this year.

All those years waiting to recover from injury and then doing the wrong things, getting disheartened, then this year doing the right things. I've been progressing NATURALLY, no big mind-games or 'tricks' (they don't exist by the way) - just applying the approach I decided on. I've been having an absolutely great time, made a few new good climbing partners I like being around and the milestone I feel I've reached today is that I did my first E1 5b onsight since 2005. It felt fantastic. It's an indicator that I'm pretty-much back up to the standard I was at before my injury FIVE years ago. I'm not quite there, but nearly, and I haven't led an E1 with no bolts in, since 2005. Incredible how it's been so long! But when you break each year down it's easy to see why.

I'm so so chuffed today. It's not just about achieving a standard I've not been at for 5 whole years, but it also opens up so many more climbs that I've been wanting to do for SO MANY YEARS! I had only been in the Lakes for less than a year when I injured myself and now I have the opportunity to enjoy so many more climbs that I previously couldn't do. Also, the fact I can climb harder now means that the climbs get better! Dave MacLeod once said that as the grades get harder, the climbs get better. When I read that, I realised that he was right and it was something I hadn't realised before.

I had a taste of that today, the E1 was just a fantastic climb with fantastic positions. Steep, exposed climbing on excellent rock. Superb climb, excellent views, great company. In my book, things just don't get much better than that.

This photo is a view from that climb, "Harlot Face", E1 4c, 5b, 4c, Castle Rock of Triermain, Thirlmere, Lake District.

If you read all of that - thankyou!