A weekend in Ceuse, now back to training.

Back in the spring I was on the fitness train, and it was going well. Arriving in the UK I felt good, climbed a few routes I wanted to do, including a new one at Gogarth. I enjoyed my trip to the UK, but although five weeks of trad climbing in wet weather was fun, it didn’t do much for my fitness.

Since arriving back in France a few weeks ago, I have been coasting along, working a lot, and climbing a bit, but not getting the ‘bit between my teeth’. I think it is good to by cyclic in training/climbing, and after a high point, it’s best to mentally chill out for a while. Okay, that’s enough chilling out, back on the fitness train.

To kick start the lactic acid I nipped to Ceuse for a couple of days with a fun team including Sandra, the golden girls Hazel and Maddy, the elusive Jude and the ever-young Alan. I managed to throw myself off the top of several 8as, which was somewhat telling in terms of endurance. Oh dear! But it was such fun!

The highlight of the weekend in climbing terms was seeing Maddy totally ‘killing it’ and climbing really well.

As my trip to the Himalaya is looming in only 6 weeks, I have a really limited window to achieve a hard rock route this summer, but I think I can up my game slightly, and get something ticked around Chamonix, if all goes according to plan. A five week intensive training mission is about to commence, but I need a project to focus on. Hmm, what to do, what to do?!

I think I will also have time for 1 more weekend trip to climb something fun, so psyche is generally high. Lets Smash! 🙂

A few photos:

Maddy cranking on an 8a+ to the right of Femme Noir. Looked really cool

Hit Girl Hazel Findlay on the 8c L’arcademicien. Smash time!

Although the trip was not a photographic one in any way, I was pleased to grab this snap of Alan Carne. Alan is always psyched, and a great person to climb with. Here he is just before taking a huge whipper off the run out 8a+ Femme Blanche – Go Alan!

Céüse sun-smash

October has kind of been a holiday month for me so far and first up was a trip to the wonderful limestone crag of Céüse.

Despite quite bad shoulder impingement I managed to climb 7 days out of 9 and have a great time in the boiling sunshine.

• More info on Céüse here on UKC and here on Rockfax.

It was fantastic to unplug from the internet for a week. The weather was so hot that it was only an option to climb in the shade of the late afternoon, meaning mornings were a splendid mixture of coffee, relaxation, shoulder exercises and poetry writing. How lovely.

Neither Jude or myself were on top climbing form, but we both managed some classics and had a brilliant time on the perfect solid limestone. I was still onsighting up to 7c, so can’t really complain too much.

Jude lowering off Femme Noir

Jude climbing the classic 7c Femme Noir. A toughie!