Psicobloc Update - Berry Head antics!

Over the last three weeks since my last blog post, I have spent a great deal of my time deep water soloing at Berry Head due to the really good run of sunny weather we've had. Making hay while the sun shines, so to speak! Some long trips along the classic Magical Mystery Tour and plenty of climbing on the steep routes at the White Rhino buttress were undertaken to help improve my power-endurance, prior to our Portugal DWS trip in a few weeks time. The fact that these routes are my favourite climbing spots at Berry Head is an added bonus! 
During this time I hooked up with a few climbing friends to guide them along Magical Mystery Tour, and of course the superb Rainbow Bridge. It was on one of these trips along Rainbow Bridge with Gil Wood and her friend Gary, that I had another crack on the 7a+ crux pitch, having almost given up on it the year before because I got fed up of falling off the thing all the time. Anyway, because I was expecting to fall in I was actually super-relaxed climbing it, and just focused on doing the next moves rather than trying to get to the end. This approach worked really well, and I made it all the way to the last big sloping block before the crux finishing jug, just a few metres from the rest at the bottom of the finishing groove, before falling off. This positive progress inspired me to give the route a really good go this season, in the hope of finally sending it and gaining the full Rainbow Bridge tick! I installed a knotted rope at the Crystal Cave so that I could try the crux pitch repeatedly, without having to swim all the way back to the Great Cave and climb the first few pitches each time. This way I only had to swim a few yards back to the Crystal Cave, where I could change into fresh shoes and re-chalk for another go! This worked great, as the moves were much fresher in my mind for a second attempt after I'd fallen in, and in fact on my first visit after installing the rope I shocked myself by actally climbing right through the crux to latch the finishing jug and on into the corner rest on my second attempt of the day! :O Holy moley, I'd climbed the 7a+ crux of Rainbow Bridge!!! All I had to do now was climb the easier 6b/6b+ finishing groove to the top. Surely it couldn't be that hard?!? After much too short a rest, and with immense pressure on myself to 'HAVE to climb this now', I set off up the groove, finding the climbing to be quite technical with poor footholds on the most part. This all resulted in me getting mega-pumped out after a lot of faffing about to get through the bulge, up the vertical cracks, and past the small crimps near the top of the groove, and I finally fell off after failing to latch the huge juggy pinch at the top of the groove. Dammit!!! To say I was rather annoyed would be a massive understatement!!! I was furious with myself!!! Now I had to do it all over again!!! Grr!!! On Thursday the 5th of September I returned for a re-match with the Rainbow Bridge crux pitch! I started off climbing smoothly along the first few easier pitches, focusing on my feet and trying to take the majority of my weight on them, which allowed me to gain the Crystal Cave without really getting pumped at all. After successfully making it across the crux pitch again after utilising a nice rest at about the halfway mark, I made sure I had a good rest in the niche at the bottom of the finishing groove before setting off for the top. This strategy worked really well for me, and this time I made it up through the groove and latched the juggy pinch, before climbing the last few steep moves to a good rest at a large thread. From here I traversed off to the right and climbed the broken corner to the top of the cliff, topping out whooping for joy with a massive smile on my face - I'd finally done it! Woohoo! I was SO happy!!! :D To get the full tick, I then down-climbed Eight Ball and climbed the Rainbow Bridge extention, through The Wave and all the way along the 6b section into the zawn, finally stepping off onto the Terminal Zawn white ledge at the official finish of the amazing Rainbow Bridge! I was SO chuffed and it meant a lot to me to have finally completed it! It sure felt good! Yipee! :D 
Looking forward to our Portugal DWS hols more than ever - super psyched for it now!!! :)
Photos, top to bottom: Whoomze got der Keys to Me Beema, 6c, Crossing the Tea, 7a, Cave Woman, 6c, and Cod Tympani, 7a+