Party's, Spain and Switzerland

December was a crazy month!! It was a month of party's, drinking socialising and not much climbing. The first party was Sheffield's finest underground Techno night STI where Gus and I have played there twice before. Decembers gig was amazing, my best set at STI so far, the club was ram ed and had a great party atmosphere. Then came the Plastikman night in Manchester where 25 of us filled a small mini bus and headed over from Sheffield to the Manchester Acadamy. The Plastikman show was incredible, a ridiculous light show and laser extravaganza with about 2000 people going off!

Then came the big one The Climbing Works 5th Birthday Smash at a new club in Sheffield called FWD. It was so good, the club was full all night with a great atmosphere. I DJ'd from 2 - 3.30am and then The Gusenator tore it up until 5am.The rest of the other DJ's all smashed it up including an amazing debut set from 'THE HORSE' aka Minimal Man Si Wilson.There was usual after party scenes and next day pub madness, what a great weekend.
With a great Staff meal and Christmas Day meals at mine and Lucinda's parents all in all December was a quality month.

One of the few times out on the Grit, here soling Entropy's Jaw at the Roaches, photo: Simon Wilson

Through the Xmas period the weather was horrendous, our Australian brother The Rubber Chicken was over for a 6 week quest around Europe and we had climbed outdoors twice in 2 weeks and he was desperate for some rock action ( me too). Lucinda was suffering from a bad dose of Flu and was keen to get rid of 2 frother's that needed to go climbing. We headed to Spain the next day.
As I was with the Rubber Chicken who is not psyched for sport routes I needed a plan ASAP. I did some research and got some beta from Jordan on a small local bouldering spot near Murcia ( close to my folk's old farmhouse). We checked out the area which was about 30 Min's from our house and we were pleasantly surprised, the area consisted of about 4 steep caves with problems from 6a to 8b. Plenty to go at for 3 days. We both dispatched a couple of 7b's a 7b+, 7c and 7c+ and the RC did a really cool 8a. I was very close but ripped off the last jug taking half of my finger off in the process, game over!

RC dispatching the 8a.

We had new years eve in a curry house on Camp O Sol, (a massive housing resort full of ex pat Brits)It was so bad that it was good!!! The curry was great and we had a quality night people watching and getting lashed.

Curry house scenes.

I headed back to the rain in Sheffield and the Rubber Chicken quested off to Madrid to see number 2 ( our good Spanish friend Unai ), then on to Portugal for a week and then Switzerland.
Lu had finally got over the flu and was psyched to go to Switzerland, we fly out from London Luton and met RC at Milan Malpensa airport. We drove for just over an hour to our very nice accommodation in Claro and got psyched for 12 days of crushing. The weather was amazing we could have climbed every day if we wanted. I climbed 10 days out of the 12.. After the first week we had a surprised visit from the Dizzy 9 (Harry) who had just got back from 3 weeks in South Africa ( there summer ) and was keen to do some climbing and catch up with the crew. We all had a great time drinking 30p pint cans of FinkBrau and bouldering nearly everyday.

Tough guys :)

View from our Crib...

We had a few days warming into it at Chironico and we did a few 7b's and 7b+'s, then quested around looking at some other area's. It was at the end of the day when we found a great looking problem craply named Arete with Pocket 8a. We tried it for about an hour and worked out a few sequences. We came back the next day re-worked out better sequences and I dispatched it finally after dropping the last move a few times.

 

Arete with Pocket 8a

Molunk probably one of the best 7c's in the world.

The Crew

Then we headed up to Brione, passing the 220 meter bungee jump off the world famous dam, that I jumped off on my Stag Do 3 years ago. It brought back some quality memories (the ones I can remember!!). 20 minutes up the road leads you to a totally amazing unspoilt little village where there lies some secret quality bouldering. Me and RC dispatched Molunk which is probably one of the best7c's I have ever done. Then we went down to an awesome boulder next to the river to try some very steep looking problems. Frogger on the left was wet but Fake Pamplemosse 8a was bone dry. We figured out a pretty basic sequence which basically involved pulling really hard. Rubber Chicken dispatched it in about 3 go's and i came close but didn't have enough beans. Lu worked out on the moves and then we headed back down the valley.

Harry cranking in the dry cave,.

The next day we woke up to a bit of rain and snow, undeterred we headed up to Chironico to find some dry rock. We found a couple of caves with some excellent steep problems on good holds.
As the snow had fallen quite heavy over night we decided it would be a good idea to stay lower down in Ticino so we headed up to Cresciano to meet up with fellow Brits Ben M, Ben P and James F. It was pretty warm and very busy with locals, including Cresciano's own Adam Long! This guy new all the problems and didnt even have his own mat he just followed us around and then asked if could try the problems we were trying and then walk up them like they were nothing. It was a great day and everyone at the crag was very friendly and super psyched.

Ben on Stinky Pete, High ball 7b

not sure whats going on here..

 The weather had improved loads so we quested back up to Chironico to check out some more problems. Harry found this amazing looking 7c called Slimeline, the boys set to work on sorting out the sequences and I was supposed to be resting as we were going back to Brione the next day. They did all the moves and Harry checked out the top, it looked amazing, I was psyched to have a go!!! I pulled on the start and smashed through the crux and keeping it togeather toped out with very cold fingers.

  

Flashing Slimeline 7c

After obviously drinking a load of FinkBrau's the next day we went back up Brione as I wanted to finish off Fake Pamplemoose 8a and we all wanted to try Marilyn Monroe. I warmed up and went straight to try F.P. I did all the moves to warm up more and then crushed it 3rd go.. I really enjoy these power style problem's as they just boil down to pulling really hard and trying even harder. Next up was Marilyn Monroe 8a, its a great looking problem with some nice features. At first it feels desperate until we unlocked the beta. RC crushed it first and then I did it straight after. This is the first time I have done 2 8a's in a day and I was over the moon! ( its a good job we got that extra slab of FinkBrau! ).

Check out Video of our swiss trip here:http://vimeo.com/36132010

Fake Pamplemosse 8a

Marilyn Monroe 8a

RC's now back in the Gramps in 35 degree heat

Here is the list of the problems I did, Chironico: Swinger club 7a+, Triade 7a, Slimeline 7c flash, Palpatina 7a+ flash, The Loneliness of long long distance runner 7b+/7c flash, Super otti 7b+, Doctor med dent 7b+ flash, Teamwork stand 7b, II volo del collbri 7b+, Birds 7c, Papa razi 7a flash, Arete with Pocket 8a. Brione: no name 7a, no name jump 7a+, Fake Pamplemoose 8a, Marilyn Monroe 8a, Molunk 7c.