Well since my last post about triangles and using them to affect my climbing performance, I have been over in Germany. Unfortunately two days before I was due to fly over I woke up unable to lift my left shoulder above my head. Without going into too much detail mainly for fear of exposing my lack of anatomy knowledge, my shoulder was I suspected being impinged during a flexion movement. A panicked trip to a physio ruled out a more serious tear, well as far as they can without a MRI, however it still left me partially crippled. Aside from lifting my arm issues, I couldn't push away with it either. Essentially pushups or packing bags with heaps of stuff were out of the question. Great timing for travel.
Anyway, long story really short.
I've only just started climbing in the last week or so, after 5 weeks of rotator cuff exercises and a massage ball. Apart from some fun sessions in some of the best climbing gyms I've seen (Boulderwelt Munich - East and West) thanks to my mate Dave Cato, my return to climbing is a punishing regime of Frankenjura pockets. Bloody hard way to get back into the game. Needless to say I've not sent anything hard, haven't had the greatest time cause of the lack of power, but it's all part of the game. I just need to remind myself of that some times, while climbing some awesome classics put up by Kurt Albert and of course Wolfgang Guellich.
A few days before I woke up with dead arm, I did have a good run with a few routes back home.
I was able to send Snap Dragon, 31 - possibly the most amount of attempts falling at the same move ever. Fell from the last hold more times than I want to think of. Leaps and Bounds, 31 a little Dave Jones route on the Bluffs at Araps. And my hardest send to date, Flower Power, 33. Malcolm bolted it, Nathan climbed it and its a classic test piece. I can only think of 3 people who have done it and maybe a 4th (5 now I guess) - Nathan Hoette, Dave Graham, Nalle Hukkataival and Alex Megos? I know that the visiting crushers did it quickly, but yeah they are strong as, well world class crushers.
I had come really close to doing Flower Power last year, having linked the entire crux to the top several times. However I got sick with the shingles and had to leave it for a bit. The plan for 2014 was to get back to that level. With the amount of rain we had over winter I didn't think it was going to happen. But if you'd read my last post you would have had a glimpse into the game plan. Diamonds need a shit ton of pressure, and well leaving it until 2 days before I left the area was enough pressure I guess. Oliver Miller, Scotty Clark and I headed up to Muline during a brief break in the rain. Oliver and I had already taken shelter in my Van for 30 mins after an early attempt at walking up. The eagles were out for my first attempt - no one ever sends when they are cruising around. Next go, they stayed in bed and I knew it was on. So psyched. Here is a little video that Oliver and I threw together from that day.
And excuse the shitty animations - learning how to make stuff on a rest day with limited internet access and battery power is difficult haha.
Sweet, more news from Germany when I have something to let you know about.
- Grosey
