(Not so) Cold weather and the art of projecting...

So it's a funny time of year here. The end of winter when the weather is usually a bit too cold for my liking for really climbing well (I have soooo much trouble warming up in the cold and always get flash pumped on every burn on my projects all day) and when there's not really so many people in town to climb with. But this year is different. There's still not so many people around yet but the weather has been a lot milder than usual so I have been getting out a reasonable amount. Not as much as I would like, but a few times a week anyway and then training hard in between. Today is one of those perfect days where the sun is coming out, the temps are pretty nice and we actually have people to get to the crag with. Psyched!

A nice warm fire at the crag, at Dragon City

I have been training a lot of finger strength and general strength. I know for me to get to the next level I need to be able to use much smaller holds and to be able to pull a lot harder, so lot's of hangboard time and lots of general strength training, particularly on 'The Bolt' that I have started writing about on www.athletebychoice.com  - a simple yet effective home strength training tool for climbers. I also have some pseudo gymnastics rings set up and have some real rings on their way in the mail so will write about using them soon too.

Doing an Iron Cross on 'The Bolt'  (www.athletebychoice.com)

Lately my attentions on the rock have varied a bit. First I was super excited about a new crag here called 'Dragon City' where I went a bunch of times and did all the moderate routes and a few super classic 5.12's and then worked on a potential 5.13d project for a bit which was super fun. But now I have turned my attention back to an old nemesis; the 'Paper Cut Extension', a route that is a hard 5.13c for me and one that targets my weaknesses - crimp strength and power, while at the same time suits my style in that it's a 35m+ endurance route. This is the route I am psyched to use to get stronger and fitter right now in the hope that when I have what it takes to finally send it I will have what it takes to get my other next projects done a lot quicker as they have similar requirements - long, crimpy endurance routes.

Me on the final crux sequence of the first pitch of my project at Lei Pi Shan. Photo courtesy of Christopher Miller

The whole projecting thing is sort of new to me in the last few years. Before I would never have more than a few tries on a route before getting bored and moving on. I was definitely more about the onsight or fast, couple of shots ascent of a route than projecting. But now I am really enjoying the process of projecting - getting to know a route intimately and working out its subtleties before finally sending the route in such a way that it feels like you really got to know the route, that you know it intimately and can flow and dance your way up it. It's such a great feeling to finally master something that at first felt so impossible and now it's a feeling that I live for. Love it!

For now, it's off to the crag for another projecting session!
Psyched!
Duncan

Me being all serious in a athlete profile photo for my sponsor, Kailas

Grandma Moments...

Grandma moments were described to me by my good friend Ania some time ago. She said how her Grandma had told her as a little girl to stop and soak things up and remember all the good things that happen in your life, no matter how small. A good philosophy I think. We all too often dwell on the negatives in life and don't spend enough time appreciating the little things in life.
Even when the chips are down I still stop and appreciate the grandma moments and it really makes a difference to my day. Whether it's enjoying a meal with some good friends, a beautiful sunset, happy children playing my apartment building courtyard, a pretty view out at the crag, anything. It makes me remember just how lucky I really am and how good life is to me. Any of the little negatives seem to become insignificant when you balance them out against all the good in life.

Lately things here in Yangshuo have been all go with me sorting out a new job, working hard on the new 'Athlete By Choice' website (www.athletebychoice.com) and training hard for the upcoming spring season. The weather is unseasonably warm here and we are getting out climbing a lot, especially at the new crag 'Dragon City' which is proving to be INCREDIBLE! Super classic routes at all grades on awesome rock. So psyched!

Alrighty, time for a finger board session then off to the crag!
Love it!

Here are a couple of grandma moments I had this week...

A perfect sunset after climbing with a friend = Grandma moment

Perfect blue sky winter days = Grandma moment

To Thailand and back again...

So I have just got home from a 2 month trip to Thailand to escape the winter blues here in Yangshuo and enjoy some sunny beach time.
While it was mainly a relaxing holiday I did get out climbing a fair bit, mainly onsighting easy and moderate stuff up to around 5.12b. I climbed a whole heap of routes in Tonsai that I have not climbed before and spent some great times hanging with some old friends, playing music in Sunset Bar, slacklining and generally having a great time.
Now I am back in Yangshuo and the weather is a lot better than it usually is at this time of year so it's time to get stuck into training and climbing again! Psyched!

Here's a few photo's from my Ipod from the trip, I didn't take a real camera this time round. Enjoy!

My first 8b/31/13d!!!!!

Heck yes!
I finally took a little step up recently. I have been working through all the link up projects I had at Lei Pi Shan here in Yangshuo with the aim of leading up to the hardest one, the main goal, the mega link.
It combines 3 routes; first off the bouldery start of the route 'Sleight Of Hand' that I bolted and did the FA of back in 2009. The boulder is a lot trickier than it looks and weighs in at about V7. Then you climb all of Andrew Hedesh's 7b+ route 'Da Bao Yu', you shake out around the anchors of that route then make a couple of moves to the right and proceed up the entirety of the amazing 'Dream & Hope' extension which weighs in at about 8a+.
As it was also a first ascent I dubbed the route 'Pocket Full Of Dreams' and I think it deserves a solid 8b as the grade, but of course we will have to see what repeaters think. A few folk have tried the parts and seem to agree on the 8b grade, but we'll see  :)

I will get out there again soon with my friend to get some photo's on the route so watch out here soon for more!


Psyched!
D.

Another Kailas Rock Searching Video!

This is  a little video from when we were in Quzhou, it's just a short one, there will be full clips from Quzhou as well as our last stop in YingXi coming soon. Also I'll put up a bit of an overall round up of the trip soon now that it's over and I'm home in Yangshuo.

Enjoy!  :)

More Kailas Rock Searching!

So we are sitting in Hangzhou relaxing after finishing up our stay here with a big old party at the new crag we bolted here which included some pretty hectic flooding due to heavy rain but none the less everyone had a great time!
Here are some pics as well as the video from Xi'an. Enjoy!

Kailas: Rock Searching - Le Ye

Hi guys! Here's the next installment of the Kailas: Rock Searching trip... 'Le Ye'

Get ready for loads of super steep limestone caves!!! Enjoy!

First 2 videos from the Kailas Rock Searching Trip!

Here you go, finally! The first two videos from the Kailas Rock Searching Trip - A short intro clip and the Yangshuo segment, enjoy!

The Search Continues...

Things have been going well here on the Kailas Rock Searching trip and we are now nearing the end of our stay here in Xi'an, our 3rd destination.
After Yangshuo the team headed off the Le Ye in western Guangxi Province for a few weeks. After some scouting we settled on developing a massive cave system just near town comprising of two enormous through caves that look like over sized aircraft hangers dripping with tufas and stalactites. The caves already had 10 routes in them on the more vertical walls and we set to work developing epic new routes through the amazing steep sections of the caves.
In all we put up 32 new routes making the total there 42 routes in one place from 5.11 to 5.14 and despite this there might be 50 more routes to be added to complete just this one crag. Le Ye has amazing potential and is without a doubt a possible future site of some of the best hard climbing in China with this cave on its own having potentially 20+ routes to be added in the 5.14 and higher range.
Amazing to say the least - I will be back for sure!
After Le Ye we headed to our 3rd destination: the granite walls of the Hua Shan area outside of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.
This area is a maze of huge valleys leading into the massive mountains that sit right on the outskirts of the city and was a little bit more challenging to decide which one of the many amazing potential sites we should concentrate on. In the end we developed 2 single pitch areas in one valley, adding 17 new routes from 5.10 to 5.13 and then another few single pitch routes in another valley called Da Yu (Big Valley) plus a huge 12 pitch monster wall weighing in at 5.12+ with about 8 pitches in the 5.12 range... Epic!!!
Next we head to Hangzhou for a few days and Dave and I will go represent Kailas at a trade show in Nanjing then it's off to develop a nice cave and wall near a place called Quzhou which is a local crag for all our Shanghai friends. Psyched!
Here are some pics courtesy of our photographers Superman and Lei Feng. Enjoy!

KAILAS: Rock Searching 2012

So as I mentioned previously we have started on KAILAS: Rock Searching 2012 - our epic trip around China to develop new climbing areas and make a film about it. The trip will be taking us to Yangshuo, Le Ye, Hua Shan and Guangzhou to develop new routes and have a blast doing so.
The team is made up of a group of us that are all sponsored athletes on the Kailas team as well as some support crew and our photographer / videographer.
To start we opened a whole new crag in Yangshuo called 'Golden Riverside' where we put up a whole swag of new sport routes: 13 single pitch routes from 5.9 to 5.14 and 2 multipitches.
Morgan and I worked together to establish an awesome new moderate multipitch called 'Bless You In The Face' with 4 pitches going at 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 and 5.11 which tops out the huge wall of Golden Riverside with amazing views across the Yu Long River valley - superb!
After Yangshuo we headed to western Guanxi Province to a place called Le Ye where we are in the middle of developing some epic big caves that are stacked with endless options of routes through tufa and stalactite studded roofs. Such an amazing crag!
Here are some pics from the Yangshuo leg of the trip all taken at Golden Riverside, enjoy!

 

Some of the team. From left to right: Superman, Abond, Toni Arbones, Me!, Xiao Ting, Spiderman Paul, Simone, Zhang Yong, CJ Neff, Morgan Gerlitz

Me cleaning some holds on my route 'Fat Monkey', maybe about 5.13

Me working out the moves on my route 'White Men Can't Jump', 5.12+

Me leading pitch 2 of 'Bless You In The Face'  - Check out the amazing view down the Yu Long River valley!

Hands free on pitch 2 of 'Bless You In The Face'

Morgan and I scoping out pitch 3 of 'Bless You In The Face'

Morgan leading pitch 3 of 'Bless You In The Face'

And again

And again...

And one more  :)

More shenanigans and the beginning of the Kailas Road Trip!!!

So it's all go right now. Things are crazy busy! As I have mentioned before I recently go sponsored by Kailas, the major outdoor company here in China (check them out at www.kailas.com.cn) and it has been great. Lot's of awesome clothing and climbing hardware. So psyched!

As part of the deal we have arranged an amazing trip to 4 or 5 places around China and a small group of us including myself, fellow Kailas athlete Toni Arbones (Mr Siurana himself, if you have been to Spain you know who I am talking about), Abond and some other folk along with a professional film crew that is making a movie about us! Super excited!

We are currently developing a whole new cliff here in Yangshuo then we are heading off to Luo Ye in Guanxi Provence, then Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) near Xi'an, then to a place in Hangzhuo... and to top it off right in the middle of the trip Morgan, my friend CJ, and I get to head to a competition near Lhasa in Tibet for a few days! So amped to see Tibet for the first time!

So it's all go. Watch this space for more and more pics as the trip progresses!

Here's a few pics of this week.

First up it was Morgan's 25th Bday recently (Happy Birthday babe xo) and here are some photo's we took that day of her on her first 5.13a send. 'Rock N Rolla' at Swiss Cheese Crag.

And here are some photo's from recent times including us bolting out at the new crag we are developing in Yangshuo for the Kailas trip.