Blog – Page 3

Back to it!

By katywhittaker@googlemail.comUncategorizedNo Comments

Time just seems to have flown by this year and I can’t believe it is June already! It seems like Wales along with the rest of the UK has been blessed with a sunny and dry spring that I have been trying to make the most of.

My body is going from strength to strength and my back seems to be doing great. I have even managed to do a few months of training, something I haven’t done for a very long time. People keep asking me what was the turning point and what made my back better? I am still unsure, I have made so many changes and tried so many things it is hard to pin point what actually made the difference. Maybe just an accumulation of everything…?

Training felt really alien to begin with, I felt like a lead weight and my arms didn’t know what had hit them. It was unbelievable how quickly my body remembered what to do. The combination of a functioning body and a few weeks of recruitment really was an incredible experience. I couldn’t believe how good and easy it felt to move around, I had genuine forgotten that this was how I could climb. It sounds silly but the doubts and lack of confidence began to melt away and suddenly those goals that had been quashed and dismissed because they seemed completely unfathomable when I was injured now seemed possible with some work. It felt amazing.

With this in mind I made the decision to base my year around working some major weaknesses, for me this has always been strength. My plan was/is to dedicate the rest of the year to bouldering something I have never done before. I have found the last couple of years of being injured very emotional and mentally draining and along with have some some completely melt downs while trad climbing the idea of now only going bouldering sounds very appealing. I have never really put any time into outdoor bouldering so it is quite exciting, I have no expectations and no pressure and that feels very relaxing.

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Becky climbing her first 7a, Jerry's Wall stand.

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It isn’t all just lying in the sun and drinking tea though, I have some long and short term goals I would love to achieve. My bouldering dream is to do 8a, something that has always felt unobtainable. I actually had my heart set on Careless Torque but with my back finally on the mend there is no way I am going to go highballing for a long while. So I will see what comes along that inspires me, I am actually off to the Rocklands for 5 weeks in the summer but I think I will be too excited about all the climbing to just project one thing. Locally I set myself a goal of climbing Jerry’s Roof (tourist start) before the end of the summer. I managed to do the cut loose move on my first session this year, a move I have never ever been able to stick and then on my third session I completed the problem. I was so shocked! I also climbed Nazgul’s Traverse 7C at Rhiw Goch and have been working on Roof of a Baby Buddha, Manou and Corridors of Power all of which have been close but no cigar. All in all a much better start to the year than I ever imagined.

June 7, 2017

Love8

Making Changes

By katywhittaker@googlemail.comInjuries, Sport climbingNo Comments

It has been a long time since I have updated my blog on what I have actually been doing. I guess it has taken me a while to feel like I have something to say, but the last few months I have made some big changes.

In July I took the plunge and decided to leave Sheffield, it was a hard decision as between there and Edale is where I have spent my whole life. To be honest I never thought I would leave, it always felt like home and with my family living nearby, a wonderful friendship group and all the training facilities and outdoor climbing you could throw a stick at, why would you?

But it happened, I started getting itchy feet. My back didn’t feel like it was making any progress and with climbing off the agenda I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself (except drink a lot of tea). I knew I needed a change and that change came in the form of North Wales. It felt risky leaving behind a network of people I built up and trusted to help me with my back and my plan to drive back once a week to get treatments seemed slightly ridiculous. I wondered if I was making a very stupid decision and that I should wait until I was fixed before galavanting off to another part of the country. However, I knew for the sake of my own sanity that my life could not revolve around an injury so I took the risk and moved.

I couldn’t and I didn’t want to climb anymore so instead I took every opportunity to try new things. This is one of things I am very grateful for, being injured suddenly presented me a lot of free time to try things I never had space for before. The great thing about North Wales is how close the mountains are to the sea, if it was raining in the mountains, the coast would usually offer relief and if it didn’t then you just get in the water instead of trying to hide from it. To begin with I did quite a bit of walking around the Llanberis Pass, something I haven’t done since I was a child and then I basically took up water sports; swimming, kayaking, coasteering, SUPing and surfing. Helped along by a wonderful and patient bunch of friends. What a relief it was not to care or worry about my performance in climbing and just to enjoy trying something new.

Walking up Snowdon via Crib Goch

Scrambling in Owgen with Rene

All that fresh air and endorphins must have done me some good as my appointments with the chiropractor got better and better, until one day I went and he told me I didn’t need to see him 4 – 5 weeks as I was making such good progress. It felt like such a break through!

Alongside all this Alex and I spend a good number of weekends converting our Citreon Relay van. DIY provided another great distraction for me as I love learning practical skills, we had a three month trip to Spain planned so it was good to have something to aim for. It came round quick and before we knew it we were heading off to Portsmouth to hop on the 24 hour ferry direct to Spain!

Van conversion in full swing!

Using Chris’ spray booth!

With my back on the mend I could feel the ‘want’ for climbing creeping back in and it felt exciting again. I didn’t know how it would react to being on a climbing trip for so long having not climbed properly for months, so I went with zero expectations. My only goal was to enjoy my time away and have fun climbing again with no pressure.

So here I am now writing this from Spain, almost at the end of our trip. We have usually been last to arrive at the crag, first to leave, eaten enough food to feed a small family and done a lot of sleeping but are slowly starting to see improvements. When I first arrived routes that were the pinnacle of my day I am now able to warm up on the equivalent grade, the other day I climbed my first 7C+ in a very long time and most of all I am enjoying and really wanting to go climbing. This is what makes me the most happy.

Who knows what is next, hopefully my back will continue improving but for now I am happy with the changes and different opportunities it has given me in my life.

Sport climbing in Chulilla. Photo: Alex Haslehurst

December 10, 2016

Love4

To restore physical, emotional and mental equilibrium

Alternative Medicine

October 17, 2016

Love1

The Scottish Sea Stack Tour

By katywhittaker@googlemail.comTrad climbingNo Comments

Scotland has to be one of my most favourite places in the world. On two conditions mind 1) The sun is shining and 2) there are no midges. It seems these two things rarely coincide but when they do there is nowhere I would rather be.

We seemed to get lucky and the week we had planned to visit coincided with wall to wall sunshine and the midges being on strike. This trip was the definition of why I love to go climbing and it reinforced my mindset that, for me, where you are and who you are with is all that matters.

We started the trip on the Orkney Islands, a short 1.5 hour ferry ride from the mainland. The journey also treated us to staggering views of the massive sea cliffs including the Old Man of Hoy and the 346 metres high St John’s Head (the third highest sea cliff in the UK). What an introduction to the area!

The island of Hoy is covered in beautiful white beaches with tropical looking waters. Being able to peacefully spend our time here in the van blew me away and that was before I had even see the sea cliffs.

One of the many tropical looking beaches on Hoy

We spent four days on Orkney and we climbed three equally amazing routes:
1) The Old Man of Hoy. The plan was to climb Original Route, E1 the classic and the first climb done on the stack way back in 1966! However, it looked pretty busy and was out of the sun for the whole day. We decided to go for the holiday option and climbed South Face, E2 in the sunshine. Every nook and cranny seemed to be filled with fulmars. I am pretty sure the route deserves and extra E grade for the birds – it was vomit central!

Alex sat above Mucklehouse Wall with ‘The old man’ in the background

2) Roaring Forties, Rora Head. Mucklehouse Wall is one of the most impressive cliffs I have seen. Roaring Forties had a fairly sandy steep start but the rock quality got better and better. This was the hardest climbing of the trip and I found it really involved and struggled quite a bit.

Mucklehouse Wall

Alex climbing through ‘the beard’ on the final pitch of Roaring Forties

3) Castle of Yesnaby. This was our first swim to a stack of the trip and it turned out to be the longest. We felt pretty badass abseiling down to the sea in our wetsuits, the swim across was about 25m and due to the early(ish) start the sea mist hadn’t yet burnt off and it felt quite eerie swimming across in the still water. ‘The Castle’ itself is only a single pitch and we climbed ‘Meditation’ a tricky little E2 5c (and even got cheers from some spectating tourists!). Since we had gone rouge from sea stack etiquette and worn wetsuits we decided to make the most of it and enjoy our time in sea swimming around and jumping in.

The castle in the morning sea mist

Climbing ‘Meditation’

With time running out we hurried back to the mainland and drove along the North West highlands tourist route road that treated us to beautiful views along the coast. We only had two days left and two sea stacks to climb.

Beut evening views on the North West coast of Scotland

Am Buachaille. This was one of the more remote and tricky to get to. Bad navigation (although we blamed the guide!) across the moor meant we hit the coast too soon and had to stomp over a few headlands before finally seeing the stack. We only had to swim across a short channel to reach this stack (at low tide) but it was dead weedy and gross. The rock felt really different on this stack more rounded with pod like features. The guide book said it was “home to a flourishing fulmar colony” which had filled me with dread before I had even arrived, however we only bumped into one or two, which made quite a pleasant little outing.

Am Buachaille from the wrong headland!

Top of Am Buachaille

Evening abseil off the stack

11pm sunset on the walk out

Old Man of Stoer. The final one on our tour and my legs were really paying the price, my left leg was so stiff it felt like I had a constant dead leg! Luckily the walk was only 45minutes along a nice tourist path. We were ready once again with wetsuits but a sketchy looking tyrolean was in place. The sheath had blown on one end but the core was in tact so we cracked on. Stoer had the best rock quality and least birds, it was definitely a nice one to finish on and again we even got a cheer when we topped out.

Stoer!

Stoer summit selfie!

This trip is up there with my favourites, there really was nowhere I would rather have been. Not even the fulmar vomit or extremely tired legs could dampen our spirits. See you next year Scotland!

August 5, 2016

Love2

7a psych!

By katywhittaker@googlemail.comInjuries, Sport climbingNo Comments

In my last post I spoke about how I needed to change my perspective and expectations of my climbing. To focus and think about what I really loved about it rather than performance and grades.
Since writing it I have been on a couple of trips and the first one was to Rodellar and Riglos. I had tried to go to Spain with suitable expectations but I was still shocked with how badly my body was functioning and this obviously had a direct impact on how well I climbed. I really really struggled, I did manage to flash a 7b but the majority of the trip was spent falling off 6cs and 7as. This was pretty tough to swallow to begin with. However, I tried to embrace it and hunted through the guide book for cool looking 6s and low 7s. It paid off as we found so many gems dotted around the valley and visited so many crags we never would have consider previously. Beautiful, peaceful and all to ourselves – winner!

Climbing a beautiful 6b+ tufa in Rodellar

Sunshine, cats and gluten free beer!!

Before heading out to Rodellar we had made plans to call in at Riglos at the end of the trip to climb the classic La Fiesta de los Biceps, 7a on the huge conglomerate tower. This wasn’t to much of a worry before I left but I swiftly realised whilst in Rodellar that ‘Fiesta’ was going to be much more of a challenge than I had previously expected. I was barely getting up 7a’s and was climbing no more than 3 pitches in a day with out being exhausted. Fiesta was 7 pitches long with a 6c, 6c+ and 7a pitch involved! The last time I remember being so nervous about climbing a 7a was when I was 12 years old on a Junior GB team trip to Portland and I managed to flash my first 7a. I felt like a child again.
We arrived in Riglos in the evening and the towers look huge. We could see ‘Fiesta’ from the carpark, a pathway of clean rock snaking up the main tower getting steeper and steeper. We got up early the next morning, I could barely eat my breakfast I was so nervous. The crux was pitch 6 and Alex had some how persuaded me to link pitch 5 & 6 together (6b+ and 7a) into one mega romp through the steep potatoes. He assured me that it was impossible to get pumped as the holds were so big and you could hold them in so many different ways. I wasn’t convinced but with some encouragement left the belay and set off up the 70m pitch. By half way I was boxed not only in my forearms but my biceps had pretty much given up the ghost – and this bit was suppose to be only 6b+! Above me the 7a pitch looked incomprehensibly steep and I looked longingly at the 6b+ belay wondering if I should bail out. Somehow the 10% of me that wanted to carry on won the battle. I made a few big slaps through the steep section as my arms weren’t allowing me to bend them and as I turned the lip I was so unbelievably pumped I thought I was off but some how made it to the belay.

The Riglos towers

Climbing Fiesta de los Biceps

What a great feeling it was topping out. So much of me physically and mentally had gone into this route and yet it was only 7a. I was psyched beyond words to have found myself a challenge that was so different to previous achievements but yet so satisfying. It certainly wasn’t ground breaking and if it I had been able to cruise up it well within my limit it probably wouldn’t be very memorable but to be climbing in such a unique position with a wonderful person and over coming a big physical challenge made it pretty special. A day neither of us will forget.

Pretty happy that we carried all that food up 7 pitches of steep conglomorate for our summit picnic!!

July 5, 2016

Love1

Why do we climb?

By katywhittaker@googlemail.comInjuries, Trad climbing3 Comments

Getting ready to abseil off the top of Gogarth I suddenly began to question myself. Could I remember how to tie a prussic, place gear or make a belay? The answer is yes, obviously I could. But it has been a while, over the past two years I have only climbed a handful of trad routes. I had just taken another three weeks completely off climbing due to a rouge sneeze that left me with a trapped nerve, spasmed back and an inability to do anything let alone climb. Pel a two pitch VS would be my first time climbing in a while. I was psyched but don’t get me wrong I was gripped. Fear has become ingrained into my body over the past two years, fear of hurting myself again, not achieving what I should be and total irrational fear that comes with lack of confidence in your body and ability.

I chastised myself the whole way up this VS because I was completely and totally irrationally scared. Confidence in my body and my ability is low and this for me also has a direct impact on my head. Of course this makes sense, when you are feeling fit and strong and you know the climbing is well within your ability you can push on and be bold and brave. When you are unsurely of your capabilities and what your body can handle fear creeps in and gets set deep into your mind.
When I was fit and healthy I never took the time to appreciate what I could do. Go for a potter with friends, train a bit, train a lot, go on sighting or redpoint something hard. I took it all for granted. Over analysing and over critiquing every time I went climbing; could have climbed, harder, better, strong, bolder… Moving from one goal to the next on a constant mission to succeed and prove to myself I could do these things. I never fully appreciate that I could just do these things.

Alex seconding me up pitch one of ‘Pel’ at Gogarth

Then someone said this to me,
“the main thing is I’m climbing again. VS or E6 it’s just climbing”

It made me stop and think that I need to stop beating myself up because I can’t climb how I used to. Since being injured I have become fixated with beating my previous goals. But why? Maybe it is a way from me to prove I have beaten the injury?

I need to figure out what it is I really want from climbing. Is it to redpoint 8c? boulder 8a? head point E9 or really is there more to it than that? It is easy to get caught up in the whirl wind of numbers, goals and success that give you moments of exhilaration but a life time of empty promises – “When I climb 8b+ I will be satisfied”. My fondest memories from climbing are those spent with friends in wonderful places. Maybe actually what makes me happy is exploring sea cliffs, alpine adventures, sampling the delights of big walling, new routing from a boat in Greenland, driving up the coast of Norway or exploring North East Africa in a van! I haven’t done many of these things but I know which sound more appealing to me but maybe you need a combination of the two? Adventure and physical tests?

June 12, 2016

Love5

The Atom SL Hoody

By katywhittaker@googlemail.comUncategorizedNo Comments

Most die-hard Arc’teryx fans know of or own an Atom hoodie or jacket, the core piece in the family. The Atom SV (now the AR) was the first Arc’teryx jacket I ever owned and I proudly took it with me on a 3-month road trip around America. I basically lived in it for those 90 days and apart from it looking a bit grubby, it withstood the dirt bag test of time and I loved it.

I now own an Atom AR (all round), an LT (light) and the latest addition: the SL (super light). I took the Atom SL with me on a trip to South Africa last year and then more recently to the bouldering area of Fontainebleau. Both two very different climates but the versatility of the jacket kept it relevant in both countries.

South Africa (or Waterval Boven, to be more specific) was hot and dry. We would walk to the crag in shorts and t-shirts in the midday heat and stay out till dark. I wasn’t really sure how hot/cold/muggy/wet it would be here so I had taken a number of different jackets, however it was the Atom SL that I used the most.

I always hate heading out to the crag without a jacket, even when it is 25+ degrees, because I get chilly so easily. The Atom SL weighs just 250g and stuffs up so small I barely noticed it in my pack; it was a no brainer to take it with me every day. I obviously never needed it in the midday African sunshine but by the time dusk came it would start to get cooler. The jacket is lightly insulated with Coreloft and most days I would put it on straight over my climbing top for the walk home, which kept my temperature nicely regulated. The stretchy fleece side panels made the jacket feel comfy next-to-skin after a sweaty day out climbing.

Fontainbleau, the bouldering mecca of Europe was a different story. It has a similar climate to the UK and is cold and damp during the winter months. I basically lived in the Atom SL throughout this trip. It was the perfect midlayer that I could wear under a warmer jacket if I wasn’t moving around much, but was versatile enough to keep wearing and climb in it all day. The cut and lightness of the jacket made it easy to climb and move in and provided me with an extra layer over my jumper enabling me to stay warm throughout the day. Arc’teryx designs these jackets for active people so the cut of the arms, for example, is in an articulated forward position, which makes it easy to move around in.

The Atom SL is now my go-to jacket for all my trips as I know it will fit in perfectly as an outer layer, mid layer or for pottering around at the crag in.

April 26, 2016

Love0