Monday 28 January 2013

Stepping it up a bit now


Climbing 'Malsonando', Gandia.

During the week in Spain I have been doing some 7b and 7cs onsight just to get into the flow of climbing again, but I was also keen to see just how far away from recovering my form on harder routes. So I tried an 8c called Malsonando at Gandia.

I had no idea how I’d get on. Before coming out, since starting climbing again I’ve had 6 weeks or so of some indoor climbing and started from a very low base of fitness and very gentle climbing on easy ground at first. I did manage to climb the 8a endurance circuits in TCA Glasgow and in the past I’ve found that if I can do 8a indoors I can usually do 8c or even 8c+ outdoors. Folk sometimes find that weird and don’t understand it. Partly it’s because my hands sweat quite a lot and so climbing outside in cold conditions allows me to climb a lot harder. However, the main reason is I’m not that strong and so struggle more indoors where I can rely on technique more outdoors.

Anyway, the rule held true and yesterday I was able to climb Malsonando in pretty bad conditions which I was very happy with. My endurance is still barely off the baseline level and I got quite pumped well before the crux, but it’s definitely a good place to be 2.5 months after the surgeon was drilling into my Talus.

Today was good too, an 8b first redpoint, another 8a and a 7c+ onsight.

On the way home from the crag, I began to think that I could start to set some firmer climbing ambitions for the coming year now. 

5 comments:

  1. Dave, I'm sitting here feeling a bit sore after an arthroscopy today (linked to an unforunate incident in Font). As ever, you're an inspiration mate! Stay well.

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  2. You are my hero! You are so inspirational.

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  3. Keep the recovery updates coming and get well soon! I am a big fan of your "9 out of 10" book and it has influenced my climbing greatly for the better. Looking forward to you being back to 100%.

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  4. Well done Dave. I visited Gandia only once in 2008, nice crag, very sunny so good for winter time.

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  5. Your a beast! I hope for your continued progress.

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