Work your weaknesses

The Simple Chick and I have made milling around at the wall, drinking tea and updating each other on life's ups and downs into such an art form that sometimes climbing becomes secondary to the experience. These very sociable sessions are great fun and often progress is made, but I sometimes find myself climbing the same old 10 vertical routes and shying away from anything that might be remotely challenging. I suppose I convince myself that I won't be able to do anything harder and on occasion, would rather drink more tea than actually try. Ultimately though, such an approach just leads to frustration and those horrible plateaux during which gains just seem never to be made and confidence begins to wane. 

The process of CWA consolidation did more than prepare me for assessment, those five months of hard work also, rather unexpectedly, resulted in many new friendships with people who climb far harder than perhaps I ever will. These people inspire me, but because they also happen to be climbing instructors, they have the innate ability to draw the very best out of me. The fact that Fantastyczna Cooka also feeds me healthy pizza, cake and ginger biscuits is a welcome added bonus! It was through these friends that I became inveigled into Main Wall Monday, a brilliantly simple idea which may very well result in my imminent death and judging by the full body pain as I hobbled about this Tuesday, I wouldn't be surprised if the Grim Reaper turned up and asked me for a belay next Monday night.

Views of the Main Wall

The Greater Main Wall (similar to Greater Manchester but with less hipster beards), is pretty much entirely overhanging, the premise of Main Wall Monday, to only climb the routes on it. I hate overhangs, I have no stamina and my technique is still pretty embryonic, for me, Main Wall Monday is like some kind of pump-filled torture, punctuated with cups of tea I can barely pick up. But, if it wasn't a challenge, it wouldn't be fun and although possibly still in the realms of Sir David Brailsford and his 'marginal gains', I think, some progress has been made, not least because after a full-on wrestle up the Main Wall, nothing else in the centre seems half as intimidating as it did before. 

Main Wall Monday, together with its younger siblings Training Tuesday, Weakness Wednesday and Features Friday, forces me to address a huge and gaping weakness in my climbing and try as I might, I simply can't do that while gossiping in the cafe - if only we could work out what to do on a Thursday...

Spot the Long Legs

Zen

It was the 11th route of the night but I knew, at that precise moment, that I was doing the best climbing I have ever done in my life. I had tried the route once before, months and months ago on a top rope and remembered thinking it was tricky. Now, on lead, everything felt so smooth and effortless, my head so uncharacteristically in the game that I reached a previously unknown state of zen, the moves just flowing as I floated over the lip and through the crux. As I stood up and shook out, I was so psyched that internally I was screaming an expletive ridden monologue of joy and it was hard to stop myself from bursting forth out loud. Clipping the chains, inside I was doing cartwheels and fist pumps, I may even have let off some fireworks. I was still buzzing as the Simple Chick lowered me to the ground, and, when a passing Campusman asked how our session had been, his eyes turned to saucers as he was hit by an unexpectedly excited, and enthusiastic, potttymouthed reply!

Having clearly reached the peak of climbing, I briefly went into retirement, however, this only lasted the weekend, before a good, solid session last night. On a new and ungraded orange, where there was huge gap to get over the lip, a similar, but lesser, zen state seemed to wash over me and I pulled some shapes and just went for it. There is no way I would have done that 6 months ago.

It is hard to explain what has happened to me or how I feel about climbing at the moment. I know I have worked really hard at it all through the year and I should be getting better, but I don't think this is really about technique, or power, or weight, I think it is about confidence. The people I climb with seem to have faith in me, they tell me things are 'comfortably within my grade', they encourage me to try that little bit harder. Last night my climbing partner, absent for 6 months, said it was as if I was a different climber now. 

Two years ago I gave up everything to move from an island in the North Sea to somewhere near Bradford. This year, climbing has helped me rebuild my life and to find the girl I felt I had left behind - it has made me happy. And because I am happy, my climbing is better and when I climb better I am happier still. Yes, I am a different climber now, but I think the change also goes deeper than that.

Good times on the island

First Aid

Although I have held a First Aid qualification for the best part of 10 years, I had never, ever, had to use it. Perhaps I had just been very lucky, but holding the qualification seemed to me to be more about ticking a box on the Risk Assessments for working on archaeological sites, or the requirements of my paddling qualifications, as much as anything. But then, as has been previously mentioned in this blog, I found myself involved in a life threatening climbing incident. 

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A few years ago, I distinctly remember doing a standard First Aid at Work course and saying, 'But where I work [in a field] there is no mobile signal or anyone nearby, what do I do?!' and so, when my current qualification needed to be renewed, I realised that I wanted to ensure the course I chose was more relevant to being in the outdoors; after all, even my PhD involves working in an area 2 km from the nearest road, at an elevation of 330 m O.D.. No longer living on a small island has its benefits and I was easily able to find a 16 hour Outdoor Incident Management First Aid Course based only 20 miles away in Leeds. This was offered by Underwood Training and was taught by Brian, an active Cave Rescue Organisation member and Helen, who had previously worked in intensive care and paediatrics but who is also a qualified outdoor instructor. 

The 8 attendees all had previously done a First Aid qualification so the information came at us at a fast and furious pace. However, there was lots of active learning thrown in, involving lying on the floor, progressively adding learning points with each roll play. Later in the morning we moved outdoors and had a go at assessing an unresponsive casualty in a slightly more realistic environment, beginning also to think more about terrain and access to help. Later in the afternoon we had to treat poor old Rescusi Anne who had yet again collapsed unconscious on the floor and was in need of CPR.... The next day started with some theory but we were soon back outside, dealing with more and more complex problems and casualties and discussing aspects such as group safety, group use, duty of care and access to help.  Could we walk the casualty out? Would it be safer to stay put? To whom did we have the greatest duty of care? 

Although there was a lot of information to take in, the scenarios proposed and discussed were all those that could easily happen to any of us or one of our groups and this made everything feel really relevant and directly applicable to all the outdoor activities I do (work, climbing, hill-walking, paddling, off-road running etc etc). Sometimes there were no right or wrong answers to our questions but it was really useful being able to discuss these aspects with people who had actually been in such situations themselves. I think the main thing I took away from the discussion was trying to recognise and be aware of developing situations (such as hypothermia or hypoglycaemia), the importance of insulating the casualty, the use and potential dangers of slopes and above all, that keeping them breathing until other help arrived had to take priority above all else. 

I really enjoyed the course and I hope, if faced with another serious accident, I will be able to draw upon this added training and again help someone in real need.