Training Days

The big boys have been in town, well I hear they have. I never actually saw them, mostly because I avoid the areas that they climbed in, ie. the cave, and I can't think of anything much worse than traipsing around the Gramps with a slew of loud hangers on. Their visit has had some great benefits though. They polished a bunch of undone lines, found a bunch of new problems and generally got a load of people enthusiastic about putting up new problems. If you know the Grampians, you'll know that there are very few of us actually interested in putting up new lines, most venture only as far as Hollow Mountain, and have never been further South than the Campground Boulders. Will be great to check out some of the stuff that was done down near Buandik. Anyways, enough of that. The last few weeks have been pretty good. Being on holidays is a good start and generally means that a few things get done. I ventured out with the Raven for three days, which was great. Got up and polished off a few of Big Al's new lines on his boulder near Zeus, the best of which is a steely little number, Inca Steppa which Alby gave V9. Just quietly, this is easily 10, confirmed by the Raven too, who went on to walk up Butcher's Choice on the same day, even though he couldn't drag his bum off the ground on the starting holds of Inca. Rehab has been going really well and have managed quite a few training sessions in between tearing my hamstrings in weird and wonderful ways. I managed an ascent of Fabio's Route 29, second shot, which was pleasing,especially since I haven't tied in for months. Have also done a heap of problems upto V10 in the last month, which has me very excited for the end of the year and my six week European bouldering adventure. Included in that list are Oyster V8, Inca Steppa V9 (V10), Dave Jones Traverse V9 and a few repeats, such as Monkey Bars. Anyways, until then here is a few pics from the last month or two.