It has now been 6 weeks since leaving Cornwall and I've been so busy that I've not had a chance to update my blog, so I thought I should head to my office (Wetherspoon's) and get some writing done.
In short, since I returned to Manchester I have done naff all climbing outside with the way the weather has been, it's either been too hot or too wet. I did manage to get a quick session in at Hobson Moor Quarry with Dan about a month ago where I flashed a bold slabby E2 and then during the hottest day of the year we made the foolish mistake of trying to climb on the grit at Gardoms in the Peak District. Weather wise, it was a beautiful day out, but in terms of climbing it was terrible as I got spat off Moyers Buttress and The Eye of Faith. That is the last time I try to climb on grit when the temperature is above 25 degrees.
The good thing about living back in Manchester is that with all this crap weather at least there are plenty of climbing walls to get some training done. Until last week I was getting three indoor sessions done per week and feeling fairly strong. Then on Tuesday disaster struck. I had headed over to Stanage to go bouldering on my own and I decided that my first objective would be the Green Traverse 7a. After only about 15 minutes on it, it was almost done. I had a good rest and wafted the midges from face and decided to go for it again. Another climber had come to join me on it so we had 4 mats down, he offered me a spot but stupidly I declined. I powered through the first moves feeling at ease and came to the finishing holds pretty quickly. As I pulled round onto the slab feeling pleased with myself for completing it and looking forward to a whole afternoon of climbing, I let my concentration (and foot) slip. I clattered off the rock sideways from about 5ft up and landed on my left hand side, across a rock, completely missing the mats. The air was instantly knocked out of me but not wanting to lose any pride I quickly got up and told my fellow climber that I was fine. I lifted my shirt and saw that I had a large graze to my hip and I had some pain in my chest, I decided I should go to A&E. After waiting for 3 hours and convincing myself I was fine, I was called in to see the doctor. A quick feel and he told me I had broken 2 ribs. Gutted! I now have to give the climbing a rest for up to 6 weeks (hopefully only 1 or 2 though).
Despite the lack of climbing I have been able to get out to the hills nearly every week for the last month and I have had two great days in North Wales both by myself and with Ciara, Rois and Bruce. I've also got up to the Lakes with Dave a few times doing a monster of a walk across Helm Crag and High Raise and a boiling hot day on the Gables.
The instructing work is slowly starting to pick up and I've just had a great, if slightly damp, weekend in the Peak District leading a beginners climbing course. We spent the first day at Froggatt and tried to shelter from the rain on the Sunset Slab before heading to Curbar in the afternoon for some bouldering. The following day we headed to Stanage and amazingly it stayed dry and we managed to get in a good morning of bouldering in the Plantation before heading up onto the main cliff for some top roping and a discussion on gear and its uses. The lads were great fun to be with for two days and they seemed really keen to come back and attend an improvers course in July which I will hopefully be leading.
So now I'm just looking forward to recovering, getting lots more climbing done, lots more work done and getting my ML assessment completed before the end of summer.
Roll on August and a week in Scilly and a week in the Cairn Gorms!
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