March Update

Early March saw me notching up my 26th Solo Upper Dart run, followed by a sociable 2nd run with paddling mate Jez. Shortly after this the rains eased off and the river levels dropped, putting an end to all the river kayaking for the rest of the month. 

With drier weather towards the middle part of March, I turned my attention back to a spot of climbing for a bit. With the bird ban in effect from the 1st of the month at Berry Head, this rendered most of the best Deep Water Soloing out of bounds there, so instead I focused on a couple of trad routes at the Red Wall area instead - a great HVS 4c, climbing a shapely arete, called 'Cod', followed by 'Oggie', a HVD in the groove next to the arete. It was kinda weird climbing with ropes again and I didn't like having to put trust in 'equipment', so on the last steep section of Cod I just pretended I was soloing the route and blasted relaxed and easily to the top. 

In fact, there is a more direct version of Cod that goes at F6b+ as a DWS route, staying true to the steep arete all the way up called, funnily enough, 'Cod Direct'. About a week later saw my return, in a perfect weather window of high tide and sunny conditions, to climb the route. First I inspected the route on a top-rope and chalked up a few of what I thought looked like holds, as being both 14 metres high with a fairly small splash-down zone and at the end of winter with sea temperatures at their coldest, I wanted to minimise the risk of falling in as much as possible. Once off the rope I started up the steep lower part of the route, climbing relaxed and smoothly through a bouldery section, followed by some cut-loose jug swinging with a massive grin on my face, to arrive on a ledge below the last 6 metres of the route. I didn't hang around here for long, maybe less than a minute, before blasting on up the steep juggy arete to a nail-biting finish on slopers, as I topped out high above the icy cold sea. Woohoo! What a great route! :) Then I realised I'd left a sling on the sea-washed ledge at the bottom of the route, so I ended up abb'ing back down to retrieve it and climbing the whole route for a second time. Well why not, it was great climbing!?! :)

When I wasn't able to get outdoors climbing, ie; most of the month really, I spent a great deal of my time training on my home wall - doing power endurance circuits and lots of pull-up training. Regular sessions saw me racking up 48 minutes of 'climb-time' in the roof on the power-endurance days, followed by sets of over 260 regular pull-ups and 14 one-arm pull-ups, each arm, on the strength training days. Bring on the summer DWS!!! Yeeharr!!! :)

The other main focus for me this month was my van. Having decided to spend more time this year ticking off DWS routes here in the UK instead of abroad, to save money, I realised I ought to finish off getting my van kitted out so I'd have a nice comfy mobile home to base myself from. Already I have wired lights and power into the back of  it, finished off the insulation and padding in the roof and walls, sealed up the leaky back doors, and fitted a decent mattress in the back to facilitate a good nights sleep. Now all that's left to do is; fit a wind driven roof ventilator to reduce condensation build up, fit a window in the bulkhead to gain a bit of natural light into the back, and to carpet it out so it's nice and snug and cosy. Hopefully this will all be completed by May, just before the main DWS season starts here in the UK! Can't wait! :)

Well, that's all for now. Next month should see us, weather permitting, heading off to South Wales for a spot of sea kayaking around the stunning and dramatic coastline of Pembrokeshire, including a clash with the infamous 'Bitches' tide race. Super excited! Watch this space folks! :D