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Over November/December 2007 and January 2008, I was working on the ropes (rope acess work) down in Kent. Not much fun and very little climbing - only three days in the whole of January. By the end of the first week in February I'd had enough and told the boss, I wasn't going to work in Kent any more. I wanted to start climbing again and get some strength and fitness back for the coming year. My time off coincided nicely with the two weeks of perfect gritstone conditions and I was only stopped climbing by sore tips and tired muscles. Over the next month, as I started to get stronger, I managed to tick a lot of the problems I've wanted to do in the peak for a long time including:
The best for me being The Storm (hard 7B+ at the plantation), a flash ascent of a new peak problem; Mossatrocity (soft 7C at grindleford station), and the hardest boulder problem i've ever done Tsunami (7C+/8A at rubicon). I intend to boulder for the next week and then my focus will shift to routes before going on a three week trip to the Gorges Du Tarn in the south of France. This trip will hopfully get me super fit ready to do some routes I want to do in Britain, weather depending as always! |
Words by Neil Mawson