A VERTICAL WORLD....: Nicola's first climb..

Monday, 19 August 2013

Nicola's first climb..

As the days tick by to the Matterhorn trip I find myself getting more and more psyched to be stronger, better and ready for my attempt, other than a slight hicup with an ankle injury my training is going well, I'm currently in the gym 5 days a week, climbing at the indoor wall and also venturing into the outdoors at the weekends and packing in as much fitness and climbing as possible. My weight seems to be high at the moment though and with the scales tipping 14.5 stone I'm a little concerned, its really hard to balance my training, it seems the harder I train the bigger I get, this is amazing if you want a men's health cover body but for a climber not so good, I just need to make sure I keep my strength and stamina up so the weight doesn't effect my climbing. A mixed selection of climbing and training was had this weekend, Nicola managed to get the day off work Saturday and for some time now she's been mentioning that she would like to try climbing, so what better opportunity to introduce her to the world of climbing, With it being her first time we headed to the well known beginner area of Hedbury, she seemed very excited and keen to get on the face, Secretly Inside I was wondering weather this would change once she got a few feet off the ground, I put a top rope up on some of the easy grade 4 routes and she sailed up them no problems at all, and considering she only had normal trainers on it was pretty impressive, after a bite to eat she wanted to try something harder so I put her onto a grade 5, again she sailed up it with no problem, We decided to call it a day due to bad weather coming in, she was so excited and happy and spent most of the walk out talking about her climb, if honest I was quite impressed and very proud of her.. It was nice to share a day doing what I love with someone that means allot to me.. Sunday Was a little more tiring and challenging, I headed into the long steep walls of Wallsend with Dan Fletcher & Tom Powell, the walk in wasn't the greatest and I was a little shocked and the amount of landslides that have occurred in the area, and judging from experience I think there will be many more over the next few months, so please if you are venturing out tread with caution. We warmed up a long 30m 6b called "No place for Mamba's" , A really good route which packed allot of different styles in, other than feeling a little pumped none of the moves troubled me and I managed the onsight it, we then stepped up and jumped on a couple of 7a's, The first being vin chaud, this is an awesome line, due to heading to the Matterhorn in a few weeks I only played on it with the rope already in but didn't feel to bad and I'm sure as soon as I get back I will get this ticked, Tom did well and managed the onsight, we then tried another 7a called "Acid Jazz Disco" this seemed allot harder than the first one with a tough crux, but with a little working out of a sequence seemed fair, with time ticking we had to pack up... I'm psyched to get back down here though, there are hundreds of amazing lines and I plan on getting super strong and spending allot of weekends down here ticking the lines off. For now though its back to the gym and lots of running, must be strong for the mighty toblerone.....