Masterclasses

I am now doing masterclasses in association with Manchester climbing centre, the next one is on Sunday the 29th of November.
See my website for further details.

New Website

I,ve finally finished my new website, after months of messsing around and cursing internet explorer(anyone who develops web pages will know exactly what i'm on about!)

Two weeks in Font.........and only two days of rain!

Just returned from two weeks in font, and finally had some decent weather to wear my skin to the bone in! The first week involved back to back cold sunshine with a good breeze to keep the temps down, unfortunately my index finger split on the first day (it had been threatening to do it for about a week before!) so i maned up anyhow and taped it, still manging De Vita Beata - 8a, Isatis and my first 8a+ in Font with Papillon at Petite Reine, a cool prow/arete which i was probably doing wrong and spent most of my time looking at some areas i had not been to before. Once my finger had heeled it was time to resume battle with Kheops which is still managing to elude me despite having had several days on it, although i did feel more controlled on it this time but still feeling like i should have sent it! I'll get some video footage up next week.
I'm back in the UK for a while, now with a van which has decided to try and kill its gear box, could be very expensive! Anyone got any work?

The summer

Since a slightly disappointing 2nd at the BBC's missing out on a frustratingly reachy last problem, i have been predominantly sport climbing at Malham, Kilnsey and Pen Trwyn. I'm starting to feel properly fit for the first time in my life, Having onsighted another 8a in the form of Over the Moon Direct at Lower Pen Trwyn, and sent several other 7c+ and 8a's first redpoint, the highlights being Zoolook at Malham, and Vorsprung Durch Technik at Yew Cougar. I even dusted off the trad rack for a perfect sunny day in North Wales to do Right Wall, glad i was fit enough to really enjoy such a class route.
The main focus of the summer, well as focused as i get on sport routes has been Power Ranger at Malham, having had a very frustrating day of redpoints on a hot day in August, falling off after the crux three times on the trot, i decided to leave it alone for a bit, it since having got wet or being too hot to even contemplate. I have also being trying Northern Exposure at Kilnsey, an incredibly bouldery short route, much more my style, here is a vid of a frustratingly close go, where i ended up with the wrong three fingers(back three) in the hold at the top, arrh, 8b+ seems to be very elusive!

slack blogging! world championships

definatley been a bit slack on the blogging front, especially with everything that has been going on. First up was the world championships held slap bang in the middle of china and no where near any climbing, Xining in the qinghai region to be precise. Qualifiers where held on the tuesday, i felt pretty tired and my legs where really stiff, probably from the travelling, but managed to hall myself up three out of the five problems to qualify for the semis in 19th. With the semi-finals not till saturday i would hopefully manage to recover and do some stretching!........but thursday night saw me reproducing my dinner at a high rate of knots out of both ends! not a pleasant experience. Friday i managed a small plate of dry spagetti for lunch and not much more in the evening leaving me expecting to be last in saturdays semi-final. Saturday morning i felt really strong and light......... for two moves before all energy seemed to desert me! How ever it seemed that my new found pre-comp tatics worked quite well as i did three out of the four problems, coming very close to the fourth one and i'd qualified for the final in fifth place, maybe it was th jam that made me feel at home!
So to the final, i felt much less nervous than i had felt in Vienna, probably as i didn't expect anything.
I did all four problems but in less attempts than the two Russians leaving me in third place, although in hind-sight i should have flased them all and been world champion, but thats comps for you.
Here's some pics of me in the final,



So that was the world championships, a totally unexpected result, and Britains first medal at a world championship, awesome!

World cup - Eindhoven

i have just returned from the final round of the world cup in Eindhoven. On reflection 25th isn't bad considering i've been fighting a bought of man flu for the past week, leaving me feeling pretty drained and having no power on the steeper problems. i earned a few more valuble points and finished in 21st place overall, not too bad considering i only did 3 out of the five rounds.
It was awsome to see ned make the final, his first and the second British finalist in two comps! Heres Ned in the final.


I now have just over a week to stop the flow of liquid coming out of my nose (nice!) before flying out to China for the world championships.

final time

Finally i climbed to my potential in a world cup semi-final, to make it through to my first world cup final, in first place! Unfortunately in getting there i pulled a muscle in my shoulder, making it a real effort to lock off on my left arm, though it didn't seem to effect me too much, that was more due to very thin skin and wet finger tips, making it very difficult to stay on the tiny crimps involved in the 2nd and 3rd problems. It was slightly disapointing to finish in 6th, having climbed so well in the semi's, although i still enjoyed it, thanks to Jamie for a great set of problems.
Here's a pic of me in the qualifiers.