Off Season

Officially I am off-season now, winter is over and for now there will be no alpine season. I begin a new job 1 June so there is much to do in terms of mental preparation. Really, I can use a break from full-time training and climbing to let my body recover, I have had some lower back issues plus my elbows are always one set of pull-ups away from tendinitis. July and August are typically too hot to do much, I use these for weight-training or general conditioning but by late August I start to anticipate the autumn ice and begin to prepare more. This summer plan to do more with re-structuring my indoor dry-tooling wall so I can train more effectively, be less bored, I suppose...

This is an interesting video, watch for the clip where my belayer fails to push up some rope causing me to fight for the clip. Later as I reach the ice he fails to leave a belly in the rope which puts back-pressure on me, I have to pull rope out to relieve this drag wasting more energy. Would I have made the route without this energy being expended? I actually sent this one earlier in the year when it was leaner and harder so probably, I just mention this to illustrate how a belayer who is bored/inattentive/disinterested can screw with you, I was profoundly frustrated by this failure, my tenth lap that day.