BMC International Sea Cliff Climbing Meet Day 2

A quieter day today (thankfully). Loads of people headed over to Chair Ladder because to tides were favourable. I am still climbing with Nimrod, which is great. we have similar outlooks to life etc. Again, I let him lead the first two routes, Diocese and the Hard Rock Route, Bishops Rib. After a quick bite to eat, we head back down where I led Bishops Arete, a route which covers little new ground (includes bits of Diocese, Bishops Rib and The Mitre), but was fun, nonetheless. Thankfully, Nimrod says he needs a rest, so its off to introduce him to the delights of a Cornish Cream Tea!

BMC International Sea Cliff Meet Day 1

Phew! What a day! I have been paired with Nimrod Nachmias from Israel. With the weather on the North coast looking iffy, we headed South to sunny St Loy, where I handed the ropes over to Nimrod. As he has climbed extensively in Wadi Rum in Jordan, he is used to 'trad' climbing and made short work of Cress Cendo, Chlorophyl Cluster and Monochrome Men. He then decided to have a look at Finesse, a very bold E4. Lets just say he did ok (a full body smear on the upper slab helped him over the crux!). We then headed over to Bosigran for the afternoon/evening and climbed Thin Wall Special and Bow Wall as the sun was setting. This has been the most extensive amount of hard climbing I have done in 10 years. 6 routes, 9 'E' points and sore arms! Everyone (60 climbers in all) said that it had been a fab day, with many of Cornwall's classic routes being done, from Diffs to E6. Bring on tomorrow.

BMC FUNdamentals etc

Just spent the last two days up in Bristol at the Undercover Rock climbing centre indulging in a little CPD. The British Mountaineering Council ran a couple of coaching courses, so I thought it would be a good idea to learn about what the latest ideas were on this subject. I learnt loads and will be putting it into practise next week on the BMC International Sea-cliff Climbing Meet, down in West Penwith. Thanks to Neil Johnson of Peak Mountain Training for facilitating the course. Right, must go and get packed....now where did I leave that Kyrgyzstani phrasebook??

Aussie Rules

Had a fab day yesterday down in Penwith with Gerard Healey, a visiting Australian on a whistlestop business tour of the world looking at green architecture. Having sent a day at the Eden Project, he wanted to sample the delights of Cornish Granite so we headed off to Bosigran. Despite rain the night before, the crag was dry and after nipping up the delightful Doorpost, Gerard led Little Brown Jug. "What a great place and super friction", he said. Gerard's stomping ground is Mt Arapilies in Victoria which is mostly a 'trad climbing' area, so he adapted well to our style of climbing here in Cornwall. Next it was off to Chair Ladder where we swung leads on Diocese before I handed the rope to Gerard, who ran up the classic South Face Direct. He's now off to Ireland, then Canada and the US. I hope he gets the chance to go to Yosemite on his 3 day visit to San Francisco. The granite there is good, but not as good as Cornish Granite!! Thanks to Si and Matt at Cornish Rock Tors for the booking.