Ankle, knee, ring finger, wrist & shoulder are all at some level injured. Most of these were just minor tweaks or reoccurance of tweaks, but the shoulder is the latest and most significant injury after making a horrid tearing/crunching sound last weekend.
Fingers crossed the noise originated from the belly of one
of my shoulder muscles and wasn’t a proper rotator cuff or SLAP tear? Only time
will tell…
To pass the time I’ve collated some photos from the last 8
months;
January:
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| Simon half-way up the French Pillar, Jebel Mischt, Oman - scorchio! |
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| New Years Eve 2014/15 - Me and Simon on the summit of Jebel Mischt, Oman, having climbed the 1100m high French Pillar, f6b+/E3 5c. |
February:
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| In the Summit shelter of Ben Nevis having climbed the "most famous ice gully in the world" - a 0430 wake-up call meant we got first dibs on the route :-) |
March:
April:
Old and new cars: i then proceeded to fill the boot of the new car with bouldering mats
for multiple lamplight sessions in Parisellas cave; a highlight of which was getting up Trigger Cut (avec la knee).
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I supplemented a work trip to Detroit and Houston with a
long weekend in the Red River Gorge. The climbing highlights were doing Angry Birds, 13c
2nd go and getting spanked by the brilliant Paradise Lost, 13a on a warm day (below). The bourbon is pretty good too!
I really want to go back to the RRG this Autumn, but manky shoulder might have different ideas? Upon returning from the USA I took a nasty tumble off my mountain bike whilst in a jet lagged fugue, and this was the start of a month off any serious climbing; first from the resulting 2 week concussion, and then another fortnight of chest infection and anti-biotics.  |
June:
I injured my fingerwhilst trying the crux of Mecca when it was a bit damp, so had to resort to other forms of climbing, including limestone roof crack masochism
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| The dodgy gaffer tape jamming glove I improvised to get up Licking tarmac (AKA Fisting Katy) f8a at Cheddar. |
July:
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| Much of the month was spent hanging off bits of wood with varying weight dangling off my waist whilst rehab’ing my finger; i.e. avoiding all crimping what so ever. |
I made some great progress upping my max hang from 27 to 43 kg over a 6 week training cycle and deployed this new finger strength back at the Tor on the only route that doesn’t have a crimp in sight.
However, after succeeding on Mecca Traverse and Mandela at Kilnsey, I set to working Guns in the Sky, 8b+ at Kilnsey and started to experience some knee pain from repeated heel/toe cams with my left foot, so it was a refreshing break to go down to Dorset for some time off from projects.
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| Something completely different! (Indoor rifle range in an old road tunnel at Lyme Regis). |
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Crazy Notion, f7b DWS at a sunkissed Lulworth Cove. 24 hours before my shoulder self-imploded.
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