Form - It's a game of Snakes and Ladders

 Over the last year I've had some high points of really good climbing but also stints of injury that have completely stopped me in my tracks. It seemed that no sooner had I reached a good level, I was back down at the bottom again, just like in the game of Snakes and Ladders.

I finished 2010 with a great week of climbing. Despite the oppressive heat in the Grampians I managed to send "Breathing Gasoline 30" 3rd shot (1st shot putting the draws on that day) at Millennium Caves, "Eye of the Tiger 29" (all time mega classic) 2nd shot at Muline crag and "Tyranny 29" 2nd at Spurt wall, not a bad 3 days of a 5day trip. By mid January i had a finger injury and i wouldn't climb again for another 2 months.

Not even a 85minute walk in 40 degree heat could stop me from sending "Breathing Gasoline"




Warming up at "Bell crag" on an unnamed "24"

By April i was back in the game and sent "Devils Circus 30" 3rd shot at Bell Crag, May saw a trip to the Grampians, the form was good and the weather not to bad at all. I made a quick ascent of "Contra Arms Pump 30" on Sandinista wall (an old HB classic that was cutting edge back in the day). I was then able to put a good few days of work into a rarely repeated route on the Amnesty International wall. "United Nations 31/32ish". A blank wall with with pockets and a long reach to a mono at its crux, what's not to love??. I tried hard, maybe to hard. A under cling above my head had hurt my shoulder on my first day on the route. The moves taxed my shoulder. I pushed on in hope. Unfortunately i didn't send the route, but worse i had done damage to my shoulder.

Attempting "United Nations"  

A week later back home and i went out for just an easy day at the crag. After laps at Centennial Glen i was actually walking back to the car when we saw some friends climbing at Shipley and went to say "hello". The conditions were good with a strong breeze blowing across the cliff and the gear was on "The Pooferator 31"  I can't resist good conditions, tied in and was on. Man I felt good, beside the shoulder the form was great, I cruised into the crux, crushed the holds and grabbed the good jug, when something happened in my shoulder.  I couldn't lift my arm above my head. It was a classic 1 move to many, I had landed on a snake and was headed back to the start of the ladders again.

Damage to the rotor cuff would result in 3 months on the side line and a lot of rehab exercises.Back to my youthful passion, bike riding & running. I raced a few rounds of the Sydney Duathlon series(run,ride,run), I finished 6th. When it came time for the presentation they called out 1st place in the 35years and over category, Andy Richardson. Far out, it just dawned on me that I'm not a youngster anymore!

September i hung the bike back up and got the rope back out. I started working my way back up the ladder  again. I did some great classic easier routes  and some obscure rarely repeated adventures.

Winning my first club race in about 20 years!






"As Tall as a tower 26" A campus start gives instant exposure 


Mid October the form was coming back. I did the first ascents of a short bouldery route at Mt Victoria. "As Tall as a Tower", a 4 bolt 26 and "Fluidity 28" at Bungonia Gorge.

November was kneebar school at Mt Coolum, but i felt i was climbing well and getting stronger again as the month went on.

In December, Diamond Falls with plenty of test pieces was a great place to test the form. I learnt a good lesson one busy day at the crag. When the routes that I was hoping to train on were all taken, I decided to get on "Mr Meaner 30". I had tried the route 3 years earlier, got punished on one of the moves, tore a big flapper and wrote it off. Some tricky footwork, a drop knee and static to the jug, no chance of a flapper and a day later the route was done!. I also noticed a line of holds to my left, the next day at the crag was accompanied by the Bosch and I've got a new project.

January brought some poor conditions, so it was a chance to focus on training properly. With my eyes set at the top of the form ladder, everything was going great, unfortunately WAS! Australia day and a session of laps and Sydney Indoor Climbing at Villawood was on the program. Carlie has set some stellar routes that are perfect for the training that I was wanting to do. After a good warm up I focused on the "runway wall". The plan was 3 laps on the "30" then 3 laps on the "28", both super sustained and awesome bottom to top. The first 2 laps on the "30" went great and the third was going better.....until, ....click, what was that in my shoulder????? I must of landed on a damn snake again.

So it was off to see my physio Rob then to the radiologist for some scans to find out what is actually going on inside. Hopefully I'll have the answers in a day or two now. Fingers crossed that this time it's just a little snake and not a Giant Killer Python!!

Andy

Europe 2012 Update 3

The Red House, Brione

Molonke 7c

 Looking out over snow capped  mountains from our plush apartment in Claro, only minutes from Cresciano, it is hard to imagine a more beautiful, serene or picturesque landscape. The Swiss have pretty much got it all under control. The place is spotless, the water crystal clear, everything is meticulously organised... Oh and outrageously expensive. Good on them I say, this place is untold. The bouldering is superb too, just as an aside.
We have been here for a week now, each day offering slightly better conditions than the last. It hasn't been over 5 degrees and the friction is incredible. We have climbed at Chironico most days, but also had a day at Brione which is higher up in the mountains and also happens to be one of the most amazing places I have ever climbed. My finger is just about 100% now, so hopefully I will be able to bear down a little more over the last few days of climbing. Sam, Lu and I have done loads of volume, but I haven't really been able to grip anything quite the way I would like to with tape on my middle finger...

7b+

Sam made an impressive last go psyche ascent of the aptly though boringly titled arete with the pocket problem, which is indeed an arete, that also contains a pocket. It goes at 8a, but is pretty long and goey. With any luck I'll do it tomorrow, but we shall see. We both did possibly the world's greatest 7c in Brione, called Malonke. A classic Fred problem, so it must be good. I managed to do Fake Pamplemoose 8a, which is essentially a three move power piece. So good... If only the world had more of these, I'd be a very happy man. There are just so many hard problems to do here. The rock seems to lend itself to relentless hard moves. At every crag there are problems of 8a and above. It's like paradise. I'm pretty sure this place is going to be locked in for a re-visit in the very near future. Well, that's pretty much it for now, off to do some serious chilling, as it's a rest day.

Fake Pamplemoose 8a

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Australian Youth Camp January 2012 by Carlie and Rob

We have coached the Australian Youth Team for the past three years. This year the Sport Climbing Australia Board implemented a new Youth Selection Policy that raises the standard required by our young climbers to be able to compete at the annual World Youth Championships. We held a training camp last week to prepare the climbers for the new selection criteria. The new policy is aimed to push climbers to a higher level and ensure a greater achievement at the WYC. 

Monday morning and 22 youth climbers from 5 states assembled, somewhat nervously SICG Villawood. Some were veterans of previous Australian Youth Teams, but most were first timers. Day one started with 5 routes that had been set at the same level as they will be on the Selection Day, March 17. To make the team, the climbers will need to flash 3 or 4 routes between the grades of 25 to 27. The climbers were able to try themselves out against the expected standard

The next two days were training days. Completing two training sessions per day, we gave them a sample of the workouts they need to do to achieve these grades and make the cut on the Selection Day. The workouts emphasized building the athletes’ stamina and resistance. Our first priority is to increase the amount the young climbers climb, they need more hours on the wall under their belts. All sport science indicates that to become an expert at any complex task (and what’s more complex than rock climbing?) you need to do 10,000 hours. So kids, it’s 10,000 hours of laps! This combined with two mental training sessions, stretching and social aspects of the camp made for a great few days for the athletes as well as ourselves as coaches.

We would like to thank the climbers who participated so enthusiastically and did everything we asked of them. Thanks also to Matt Klein who opened his house to the campers, the other coaches, James Kassay and Rob Parer, who assisted in the training sessions and the parents that helped out with the catering logistics. Thanks too to SICG Villawood for use of their amazing facility.

We hope to see them all in back again in March, crushing and hanging on forever!

Full Of Myself by Johnny Dawes A book review by Rob

 With Summer here, a tired body that needs rest, and family and beaches to visit, I was very happy when Santa brought me a spanking new copy of Johnny Dawes’ recently released autobiography ‘Full Of Myself’.

After reading the first few pages, I was totally lost, but pushed on and eventually it made some sense. It was a tactic I used often. Johnny’s fairly eccentric, so sometimes his ramblings are hard to follow and don’t make a lot of sense to me, but I found that by reading on and letting the words wash over me gave me sense of him, even if I didn’t understand what he was on about.

It’s the classic ‘rags to riches’ story in reverse. Johnny goes from being born with a silver spoon in his mouth to working in a fruit and veg store by the end. Along the way his famous routes and his unique perspective on climbing make really interesting reading. Johnny is an ardent traditional climber and, as expected, has a few swipes a sport climbing being only about strength and fitness but he shows great respect for the great sport climbers of his generation (although a somewhat begrudging respect for Ben and Jerry, his main British rivals). Johnny entered one climbing comp with pretty ordinary consequences, his father’s one line response to watching this is a classic, but given his movement skills, his flexibility and mantling ability, I think he would have excelled if the current boulder comp style was around at the time.

But the best thing is that unlike most other climbing and sporting biographies, Johnny loves climbing, and is as keen to climb, as much at the end of the book as at the start. He talks with such passion about his current projects and secret crags, about visiting Buoux in recent years and catching up with Jibe Tribout and Antione LeMenestral and about his personal transformation over recent years.

In my opinion, it’s a must-read. Get a copy!

The long hard year Carlie is relaxing in Raro!

Training in the Coconuts

We’re currently spending two weeks holidaying and hanging out with my dad and family here in the Cook Islands. Since Dad moved here I’ve been come over this way once a year for almost 10 years now! It’s great to see them and have some chill out time with nothing but relaxing! but there’s always lots of time to swim and read books. This time Rob and I brought a slackline, so we could perfect our skills and keep up with the kids at the gym. We set it up on the beach yesterday, the sand is great for landing on when you’re a bumbly slackliner!

Reel Rock 2012!

Simon's Euro update #2

Thanks again to Unai and Sara for looking after me in Madrid, I had a fantastic time there, climbing lots, eating lots and speaking non stop Spanish for my entire stay. It was awesome. We visited another fantastic area that I had been to before, called La Pedriza. This place is incredible, a maze of granite set in a forest by a beautiful river and true to form, brutal on the skin. Both Unai and myself had a great time there, doing lots of highballs and tricky (scary) mantels. I didn't do anything particularly hard, mostly just high quality lines, plus it hurt like hell, as did all of the areas near Madrid. From Spain I hopped a plane over to neighbouring Portugal to meet up with an old friend Barti and his super cool girlfriend, Tabea. Even though they're from Switzerland, they will be in Portugal for the whole time that I am there, which is where I am now, waiting to board a plane to Milan to meet up with Sam and Lu. Chamon...

Anyways, Portugal, what an interesting/weird place. Even though it's nearest neighbour is Spain, the language is completely different. It sounds more like Russian and a gutteral Russian at that. It is home to some beautiful seafood and some sweet surf, the occasional bit of good rock and a whole lot of the shit variety. Barti and Tabea surfed each day, near Lagos in the South where we stayed. I wasn't that psyched, mostly because my skin turns to paper in the water and I was keen to keep it as solid as possible for Switz. However, this was not to be, pulling on to some undone line in a shitty cave above a nice beach break I broke off a hold and slashed my middle finger good and proper. You're shitting me right? My first thoughts were of Switzerland as I watched blood run freely down my finger.

Ah well, you still have to push on eh? So, I taped it up and off we went to Sintra, a beautiful world heritage area just outside of Lisbon, where boulders and waves are in abundance. We finally found some decent rock after driving around for half a day and got to check out some nice waves. The climbing was surprisingly good. I have no idea what we did, but safe to say, it was a lot of fun. Barti and Tabea went surfing in Colares, a nice town ten minutes from Sintra, whilst I watched with much amusement from the beach as a steady stream of Portugese surfers, mostly body boarders, went through their warm up routines on the beach. There's not many sights sadder, nor funnier than a fat man doing yoga in a wetsuit, though the sight of 20 different guys doing so in rapid succession is a real treat. Righto, my flights been called, so off I trot, off to Chironico.

Enjoy Simon

Simon hits Europe....

It had to happen I suppose, but I wasn't prepared in any way to endure such poor weather. I had ridden through Sheffield on the back of my golden ticket for three previous visits. I don't think many people have had such a fine run with the weather, but it's over. Officially. Four hours of climbing outside from ten days. After training, eating, drinking, hanging out with amazing friends, Sam and I made a spur of the moment decision to depart to The Spain House. Why the hell didn't we think of it earlier. I love that place so much. Good weather, great food, no people and new boulders. Ok, the South of Spain isn't exactly world famous for it's pristine bouldering, or pristine anything for that matter, but we had a trip to Switzerland to think of, and of course, free accommodation. Venga!!! We spent five days chilling, flexing and schmooling, three activities that seem very similar to the uninitiated, but are actually very different. In between reading, visiting the beach, eating and drinking Finkbraus (a waddage cheap beer) we managed to do some hard problems in some odd locations and also to visit one of the worst areas that I have ever seen, but hey, take the good with the bad. The best area is called La cabeza gordo, which translates as the fat head. Sandstone, would you believe, in the middle of a heap of limestone areas. On the first day we did a 7c (V9) and 7c+ (10), which were pretty cool. We tried an 8a, but didn't make much of an inroad, so we retreated back to the casa to further chill... Next came New Years Eve, which was celebrated in a rather surreal environment, a curry house, full of Brits, in the middle of nowhere, served by authentic Indian restauranteurs from England. At one point the house DJ played the Deliverance theme and I thought things were going to get hectic, but after calming my maniacal laughter and retreating to the car via another English pub, we laughed our way home. A great way to bring in 2012. On the 1^st we rested, went to the beach, ate and walked to some random crags, but afterwards, we returned to Gordo, as we had business to attend to. It took me about an hour to figure out a killer sequence for the 8a and then I dispatched it in a couple of shots. It was a really odd mixture of technical and burly. Even I couldn't believe that I worked out the crux, a dragging toe hook as you take a boff undercling, followed by a step through utilising the same toe hook. Bam, first 8a of 2012, chamon. Unfortunately, Sam ripped his finger to shreds catching the final jug and that was the end of Murcia for us.

Next up, Madrid with my old friends Unai and Sara. I am sitting on their couch right now, listening to Salmonella Dub and drinking a nice cold cerveza. Today, we went to a cool granite area outside of Madrid, called Zarzalejo with another Madrileno, Pabi. We had a great time and did some absolute classics, including an awesome 7c, called un mundo feliz, a really long arete, which climbs onto a steep face and finishes with a big deadpoint. Amazing! There is so much rock around Madrid, it's actually quite strange that it's not more famous for its bouldering. Unai and Sara are about to open a gym similar to the Works in Sheffield. The Climb is unique for Spain, where climbing long, easy, tufa ridden, shit routes is practically a birthright. The Climb is going to change all of that, hopefully producing a stack of new boulderers to prepare the way for my next visit. Ha. Really, it's a cool place and should be a fantastic business for these guys. Buenas Suerte!!! Anyway, Happy New Year everyone, I hope y'all had a great time. Big ups to the Sheffield Massive, it was great to catch up with everyone. Can't wait to make it all happen again. Next up, Portugal and then Switzerland. Hasta Luego.