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Here's some updates and a video from Katherine Schirrmacher, a busy girl by the sounds of it and as keen as ever!!! August 10th "As ever it’s a very busy time for me and next week is the culmination of 2 year's and 2 month's work. I have my MIA (Mountain Instructor Award) assessment at Plas y brenin. All that time ago I could barely read a map and now I’m facing 5 days of climbing, teaching multi-pitch climbing, rescuing, scrambling and navigation. Nerve racking is one way you could describe the prospect. Terrifying is another.
Because of this I’ve devoted much of the last 2 months to commuting weekly to North Wales where I’ve met my array of internet guinea pigs (captured from Trail magazine website and UK climbing) to climb or scramble. I’ve put in a hell of a lot of time and effort – I am a believer that hard work pays off. We’ll have to see.
As a result my climbing has been rather infrequent to say the least. But perhaps because my mind has been diverted elsewhere, hence being more relaxed and I’ve got quite fit marching up hills, I don’t seem to be climbing too badly. Perhaps on paper my efforts don’t look amazing but climbing ‘Why Me’ (7c) in Cheedale was a highlight. Don’t be fooled by the grade. This climb is utterly desperate and has stopped me (and many others) in my tracks many a time before. But this year I just got on and did it. 'Lightweight' and 'Stone the Loach', both also 7c and in Cheedale have also gone down quickly.
In between tidal pressures at Rubicon I’ve also been playing on Caviar 8a+. Initially this seemed something to just have a go at, but it has become a project of sorts even though I barely have the time to try it. There are 15 crucial hand movements and a week and a half ago I had my first redpoint touching hold number 11 just before the grease got the better of me. If I can get 12 I should be more or less in… We’ll have to see but this tropical weather is far from ideal.
So time will tell. The MIA and Caviar are hanging in the balance. Until the next instalment… Sept 1st "Since my last blog, I can report that I passed the MIA. That's a big relief, not just because it was an incredibly stressful week but also because its been a lot of effort over the last 2 years.
I rather keenly rushed straight back into climbing after not giving myself enough rest and a mysterious shoulder injury appeared. So I gave myself just a few days off and surprisingly on Bank Holiday Monday I pulled off a font 7c at Raven Tor 4th or 5th go. Its a direct on Weedkiller traverse. I guess I've been improving my finger strength on Caviar.
Still Caviar is my priority right now if I can get on it - what with flooding issues and finding partners. Finally after 3 weeks not going on it I had another go on Thursday but have reverted back to links not knowing how much strength I'd lost for it. I managed the biggest link you can possibly do without starting from the ground so there's still hope.
On Tuesday I head for Lundy for a week, we'll see what that brings, if not lots of rain. I forgot to say I have a video of the boulder problem here: http://www.lovetoclimb.co.uk/video.php?videoID=4 Sept 10th "Lundy was a washout - we went down but never got the ferry - weather too bad - so mucked about in Devon. Hung out with James Pearson and saw his unbelieveably incredible project - that is the most inspirational new route I've seen in a while.Caviar is flooded again - but there is a stack of pallets around so there might be hope - will check it tomorrow!"
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