I suppose this is good Training for Something

After being pretty wiped out for the last couple of days from my recent cold/flue thingy, I decided that I needed to get out the house for some fresh air and do some training. So today I arranged to meet up with Ines, Charly and Hans for some mixed tooling action at Newtyle quarry (Dunkeld).

When we arrived at the cave, Ines and Charly where pretty taken aback at how big and steep it was. But none the less they were keen to get stuck into the hard technical routes that this awesome venue has to offer.

It was Inspirational to watch Ines warm up on and flash the hard M10+ “Fast and Furious”, which she made look about M5. After she had done this it was my go, and the pressure was on to try not to get shown up too much at my local training venue.  Thankfully it all went smoothly and I also got the route clean on my first go of the day (phew). Next Charly had a go, but as he had never done any continental style mixed routes, he found it a bit hard to get his head in gear for the steep yards and fig of fours. So he worked the moves then came down.

It was Ines’s go again, and this time she went for the steep M12 crack line “Training for Something”.  This route was a little easier to read but it is also a lot stepper and has very big powerful moves at the start. She seemed to be cruising the route, until ¾ of the way up her axe ripped and she was left dangling in the air, and asked to be lowered to the ground. Again it was my turn to get cranking, so I also opted for the steep crack line. Unfortunately my fitness was no match for the former multiple world mixed/ice climbing champion, and I fell off halfway up the route. Even though the route was pumpy and hard, it definitely felt doable and I feel that I have just opened a new project worth training for.

Charly then had another go on “Fast and Furious” and came unbelievably close to ticking the route on his third go, but it was not to be as he was sent flying through the air when his pick ripped.  Ines went on to have a second go on the M12 and came off only a few moves from the chain when the foot holds ran out and the arm pump was too much. After a couple more laps on “Fast and Furious” I decided to call it a day. Charly then said he was going to give it one last shot, and much to his surprise he cruised the route all the way to the chain and lowered off with a big beaming smile on his face.

All in all it was a good day and everyone was happy to salvage some mixed climbing even though the mountain routes are in bad condition. We weren’t the only people that where grateful for the quarry, as Andy Turner was also there. He was mostly on the easier routes today, continuing his mixed climbed course, but popped into the cave to say hi and to see what was going down.