flynn067

Sunday boarding from Dave MacLeod on Vimeo . Having come out of the other side of my massive book project and starting to climb regularly again, I have been thinking a lot about the nature of my need to climb and what I take from the activity. I’m aware that for some readers these comments may sound ridiculous, but they are my feelings and so you can take them or leave them - they simply are what they are. My deprivation from climbing over the past months and years during this project has been relative. I have still climbed more metres of rock and ice than many people have the chance to and I am grateful for that. I’m also aware that the book project has had still greater disruption for my family. This post is not a moan. I understand that everyone has choices to make in their life which have a big mix of positive and negative consequences and then live with them. Nonetheless, whether it seems self-indulgent or not, the relative lack of climbing over the period had a huge effect on ...

Starting up Feeding Frenzy VI,7 on Ben Nevis last week February is always all go in Lochaber. First of all, we have been sending out a lot of copies of Make or Break . Thanks to everyone who’s ordered it and I hope it is starting to help you with your climbing and injury rehab decisions already. We’ve had a few recurring questions about it: ‘Is it better [for us] to order it directly from our site, or Amazon?’  Yes it’s better to get it direct from us than the mighty Amazon. We are shipping them all over the world, every day. Plus, you get a signed copy this way! ‘Are we releasing an ebook/kindle version?’ No plans to at the moment, although we might do it sometime. Thanks for everyone’s great feedback on the book so far. It means a lot. In between dealing with book related things, I’ve been in my wall training a lot and rebuilding fitness. I love my wall! It’s so great to finally be in there regularly, just pulling on holds and enjoying it. I’ve also been out on the ice which has...

Three Wise Monkeys Climbing crowd funding film from Three Wise Monkeys Climbing on Vimeo . Check out the video we made above for Three Wise Monkeys Climbing , who have just launched a crowdfunding campaign to open a climbing centre in Fort William. The video says it all really, but it’s a simple pitch - all of use who live in the area or visit it for climbing would love a high quality climbing facility in Fort William. They need to raise £40,000 in 28 days. The climbing scene here is pretty small, so don’t leave it to someone else. Go and make your pledge here , and I’ll see you in the wall in the summer.

For the past 4 years or so, I have been working on a book about climbing injuries. It spells out in detail how to treat them once you have them, based on the evidence from high quality scientific research and practice. More importantly, it discusses all the things we do in our climbing routine that cause our future injuries and prolong those we have already caused. I have titled the book ‘Make or Break’ . This is because becoming an expert in understanding the causes and treatments of climbing injuries will be make or break for your climbing career. As Wolfgang Gullich said, “getting strong is easy, getting strong without getting injured is hard”. In my first book, 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes , I suggested that many aspects of training for climbing are not rocket science. Keep showing up, pulling on small holds, pushing the limits of your motivation and learning from others and you will get stronger fingers and get better at climbing. It will be injuries that will get i...

A quick hot aches break before the crux of Promised Land VI,6 Ben Dorain. All photos thanks to Chris Prescott & Paul Diffley Over the past week I have been coming out from the shadow of book work and starting to regain some strength on my board. I went out with Kev and tried a hard winter project, but I was not fit enough to do it yet. So there are no shortcuts, I have some work to do to get into shape for my projects. But things are easy when you have had some time off - I feel stronger on my board every successive session. On one hand you want this feeling to last because it’s always nice to feel stronger than before. But It’s also kind of bad because for this to happen I must be really unfit! Yesterday I had a fun day out with Natalie on Ben Dorain. We climbed a varied VI,6 called The Promised Land. It was one of Nat’s first winter climbs, so I got to lead all the pitches which were varied and interesting, with some nice easier sections on which to get into a better rhythm of mo...