Sat in the forest at Apremont, having a conversation with
some locals about British Climbing. We expressed excitement, how quality the
gritstone is and how awesome the lines are. The recipients of this excitement,
at first, appeared shocked at how we described it, then they began to get
intrigued and eventually keen to visit. It wasn’t long before the word
“weather” was mentioned…excitement soon evaporated. British weather is a huge
topic and there was a fantastic article in this months “Climb” magazine about
the weekend warrior and that by Wednesday, the forecasts and being checked and
the discussion begin.
It’s very true, British climbers have a very small window of
opportunity to get decent conditions to be able to climb in, especially on the
Gritstone.
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| Finishing off Westside Story at Burbage West |
In 2012 we spent a significant amount of time in Font and
managed to climb for about 14 of those days (Here’s a link to the last Font
Blog http://climbersblogs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/little-french-beers-pan-au-chocolats.html).
It was time to put those daemons to rest. Our two weeks in Font was booked very
last minute, based on the weather forecast and it paid off. We had about 1.5
days of rain, which meant we had about 1.5 days of forced rest. It was
fantastic to go to the forest with no training or expectations. It was stunning
and a good break! Although Font is very close to civilization, it is a truly magical
place and offers something different every time you go. I’ve been lucky enough
to preview Out of Sight 2 where Jackie discusses the fact that the climbing in
Font is a turning wheel. You discover boulders which may have been first
climbed over twenty years ago…but lay untouched for years. So next time you are
in the forest, go for a wonder, go and get lost…you’ll uncover some gems!
Here is a short video of our trip:
Watching Out of Sight 2 also got my heart racing about
climbing again, and I could not help but smile all the way through! I know in
the last blog I said I was back…but I really am J I had a lot of positive response to the last blog,
so thank you to those who persevered and read it. Since then I’ve become a
supporter of Climb Out. Climb Out is a medium to help people discover that
anyone can climb or enjoy the outdoors, anyone can make their dreams a reality”.
If you want to read a little more about it, check out their facebook page here:
The weather since we have been back in the UK, has been less
than ideal.
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| Cow & Calf should be up there somewhere |
I’d like to say we are lucky to live where we do, however it
was a conscious choice based on crag locations. So we are so close to many
amazing places. Including the Lake District. So with a forecast of fog filled,
damp weekends, we got away back to Carrock Fell and managed to pull these two
of out the bag:
With the forecast not looking to improve in Yorkshire, I expect we’ll be looking to explore bouldering around the Lake District some more.
Whilst I’m not training as much – taking a “pick n mix” / “take
it or leave” it approach to climbing – which is amazing, sitting here, curled
up with the dogs, eating jaffa’s totally guilt free. I’m still keen to aid my
recovery (no mention of the jaffa’s!). I tried out the Whey Protein before,
which Marco also tried. He’s since stopped taking it for the next month to see
what the difference is and he’s noticed a significant different in that he is
not recovering as quick. I finished my stash of the Whey so I decided to try
the Collagen Protein.
I chose this protein as not only do I want to recover
quicker, I also have some serious skin issues. I’ll do a day of climbing and my
skin just flakes away. The Collagen protein is designed, among other things, to revitalize skin, so I’m looking to see how this promotes skin repair. So watch
this space! (PS if you want 10% discount
to give some of the stuff a try use discount code “jenwilby” … cringe!)
Now it’s time to wait.
Happy Climbing!
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