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Rod's Euro 2010 - Trip Report 6-Sep-2010 At 2:04:27 AM rod

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Followed the evening at the Branson boulders with a run on the sandstone/pebble boulders at Salvan, a tad slick due to some residual humidity but a quite a bit of rehearsal on some trav boulders that ended up pretty brutal on the tips. Next day was intended to be a rest day but getting wood organised for winter I suddenly realised that the tips weren't hurting, it was drier and that I had a shedload of energy and motivation...back to Salvan to bag a 6C, 6C+ and 7A then put in a couple of working runs on a crimp fest 7B. Sandpapered the fingers that Thursday evening in quite a content mood thinking I'd probably sabotaged the sport route projects for Saturday.

Rest day Friday, tried getting an early night...didn't happen and when I did get to bed I had movement patterns going through my head for what seemed like hours so I didn't get much sleep.

Saturday: fatigue, laid on the couch reading snoozing waiting for Regis...who woke me around 12:00 saying he'd be late. Result, straight back to the couch!

Headed off to the project zone an hour later - onsight route warm-ups in the 6a+ to 6c range then set up the clips on the first overhang face/arete before chucking a warm up lap: first 2 cruxes were a stroll, I was breathing comfortably at each clip move and totally poised..."Regis, getting here in this level of comfort is a first, I'm giving it a shot"...scratch my way through the start of this crux's balancy, palming moves into an overhanging pinch, jamB to the point of drawing blood, pull up on the jamB, lock off, reach high with the left hand to a crappy pinch, cut the feet loose and re-establish them on not much 20cm higher, launch right for semi sloper, pull as hard as I can with the right arm trying to buy time to find something, anything, to use for the left foot, then scrap my way a metre higher before JUST latching the thank God flake...I was pumped to near oblivion from those 3m but with a good minute's shake out available could get the pump back to controllable levels then smear, heel hook and sloper my way through the next few metres to a great set of lateral holds before the final crux cracks. Techniques learnt on the sandstone mantles last weekend were then put to good use: mantle as far up as I can get, latch a side of the crack and layback another couple of overhanging metres before reaching the final launch pocket...smear the feet, pull hard and dyno to the horizontal crack just under the chains. Clipped, sent, stoked.

Lowered off and chalked the key sequences for Regis then sent him off on a lap, he did really well. Got shut down just after the third clip but pulled through and worked his way to the finish then practised the toughest section on top-rope on the way down. 30 minute replenishment break and off he went, nearly fell 3 times but just managed to stick it/recover enough after each major error to bag it after a very desparate tilt through the last section starting with the mantle. He was pretty juiced whilst being lowered off - it's the first time I've decoded something that's hard for both of us and offered it to him, usually its the other way round. He was one happy lad and told me to chuck another lap just for the fun.

Inspired I gave it another run using a more difficult sequence after the jamB section and nearly got it...slightly missed the finger placement on the last crimp and made a nice impression of a 75kg bomb.

I cleaned the pitch and Regis decided we may as well bag the other arete as well - except we didn't. The rock had gotten warm enough to mean a little sweat on the fingers and that lead to lots of falling, swearing and generally looking like the heavy weight old blokes we are being taught a lesson in humility.

We finished the session with some sprint laps up 6a's

Beer and bullshit time...got to bed pretty late.

Today we went to Salvan and bouldered in the forest until the tips gave out, even taping didn't help by the end. It was great to have Regis there, usually what works for him can work for me so we tend to get things done faster when we climb together. So it was today. The 7B came together nicely, most sequences I'd worked out went fairly well for both of us but in a moment of inspiration he improved one sequence through the 4th crux and watching him on the final crux I could see the necessary variation in the foot sequence to compensate slightly for the cooked feeling in the shoulders and hands. Now we both just have to go back relatively fresh on a cold day and link the monster.

Regis has some photo's, if anything decent turns up I'll post it...meanwhile, "up yours!"