It has been a while since I last blogged –
this is for two reasons. One is that I injured my finger on the 1st
of December. Two is that all the rock in the South East has been wet in the
last few months (dam winter!). However, both of these factors have begun to
change in the last few weeks…
First of all the injury. While warming up
on a font 6b at Craggy Island my foot slipped off a hold – unfortunately my
hands stayed on the holds. The result was a hyper extended couple of fingers –
manly the ring finger on my left hand which I have injured before. This is a
bit of weird injury (not to mention annoying – injuring myself in the warm up
for goodness sake!) and at first I was not sure about what action to take. As
it timed with the run up to Christmas, I basically took the month of December
completely off to rest the finger. Since January I have been easing back into
climbing, gradually progress through the grades up to about font 7a. At times I
have questioned whether I am going to fast or too slow, but experience with
finger injuries have left me with a pretty good sense of what is an acceptable
ache and what is worrying pain. My methods seem to be further confirmed in Dave
Macleod’s new book Make or Break that I have
been avidly reading since its recent release (pictured above). Injuries are also a great time to
re-focus on technique – when I last injured the same finger two years ago I saw
a huge improvement in my slab techniques and footwork, which paid dividends
that summer on the sandstone. Hopefully the same will ring true this summer?
Anyway the finger is almost there I think – at least I feel closer to where I
was in December (although much weaker obviously!).
This brings me on to number two – the
weather. Winter and climbing on the Southern Sandstone don’t really coincide.
While I watch videos of youths sending Careless Torque or Voyage on the
gritstone, all we have down south is some wet sand (literally in some places!).
However, as the winter draws to a close and following some rare sunshine this
week I managed to head out for the first time this year. This was also
motivated by my desire to try out my shiny new orange Metolius Session crash
pad (picture below) which arrived this week! One of my favourite ways to kick off the Sandstone season is to try and
repeat the multiple classic problems on the North Boulder at Harrison’s Rocks.
I caught a couple (Original Route font 5+ and The Sheriff font 6b) on video from this year, which I have posted above. Not only
do these problems dry fast (good tip for those who are also looking to get out
in the coming weeks!) but they also remind me of the importance of footwork on
sandstone.
