Stepped it up a gear

Tyler wrote recently in his Moon blog

Today marks the arrival at a new level in my climbing. I am not sure how I got here, or when, but I know that some transformation has occurred recently

Well, whilst i am no where near his league, i feel like something has come together of late, certainly bouldering wise. I seem to be feeling stronger than ever (even at 29) and psyche is at an all time high. (And i have been climbing 16 years!)

Over the last five years i could never understand why i couldn't climb V11/8a. I was certainly strong enough, as people kept saying. Even traveling to America to just boulder didn't produce any magic grade ticks. It took another trip across the pond for my first V11.

Now, grades i hear you say. Well yes, but as climbing isn't about competing against each other, you need some kind of yard stick to measure by. For me this is the grade of V11, or 8a.

So i finally did my first one. Then managed another early this year. Which may only be V10 in the end. Who knows, who cares. Now over the last two weeks i have climbed 4 V11's. None of which are thought to be soft.

So whats going on? suddenly something clicked? Who knows...

Anyway, today i went out and climbed Pot of gold at Longridge. Its a Ryan Pasquill V11 dyno into a cool v9. The other day Smitton found a static way of doing it and i was keen to try it. I set up the pads, warmed up, worked the V9 again and pulled on. First few tries i didn't do the move. I then stuck the move and fell off the V9 bit. Next go it was in the bag. I won't go into detail as the video below speaks for itself, including the lovely mono move ;-)

Pot Of Gold - V11