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Enjoying the chilled out finish of Austerity Lite (E6 6b) on the first ascent, Financial Sector, Neist Point, Isle of Skye. Photo: Chris Prescott/Hot Aches Productions First post surgery route. Just a 6b at Brin Rock. It was raining, it was midgy, but it still felt great. After a spell of climbing on my recovering foot on big footholds (and trainers) on my board, I graduated to putting my rock shoes on again. At first I just stuck to the board but I’ve now been on the rock as well. Naturally it feels great to be climbing again. I have been noticing the extra strength from all the foot-off training too. There are some challenges still ahead though. My foot is weak and still a little sore on the odd move. Smearing on slabs is still requiring a bit of care, and I’m quite timid on jumps. My outdoor sessions have only been the last week and so far I’ve been just doing mileage on easier bouldering up to 7B. Yesterday I went to Neist Point on Skye with Natalie. Nat made a fine lead of Piggy B...

Dave MacLeod systemise campusing and 1-4-7 campus board from Dave MacLeod on Vimeo . During my surgery rehab I have done a LOT of climbing without my feet. Unsurprisingly I have got a little stronger. I have been training more or less every day for 2-4 hours. Around half the work has been fingerboard and campusboard workouts. I’ve also done some foot-off bouldering on both small and big holds.  Another big chunk of the time has been endurance circuits of around 30 moves, performed with one foot. I started off trying to do these foot-off, but the intensity was a bit high, so I’ve settled for one foot on but keeping my trainers on. I find that if I put on the rockshoe it feels too much like normal climbing and it torments me that I can't use the other foot. It will be interesting to see the effects of this training. On one hand, it’s still fairly ‘ugly’ climbing on one foot and therefore not great for improving your efficiency. On the other hand, sustained endurance terrain on pow...

In a first for the davemacleod.com shop , we are doing a summer sale with healthy discounts of 50-75% on lots of our climbing DVDs and clothing. Some examples: Echo Wall and Longhope DVDs now £5. The BBC Great Climb on Sron Ulladale (first ascent of The Usual Suspects E9 7a with Tim Emmett) now £10. The Triple 5 DVD (5 first ascents between E5 and E8 on 5 Hebridean Islands in 5 days) now £10. Plus 50% discounts on some of our Mountain Equipment clothing . Dispatching worldwide as always.