From “Wideboyz” to “Slender Gentlemen”

A few people that are unlucky enough to have to see myself and Pete regularly will know that we’ve spent the past winter improving on our crack climbing skills and taking things down a size or two. In fact it’s gone right down in size. We’ve by-passed hand jams and fists (aren’t they just belays anyway?) and decided to spend some time crushing our nerves in cracks of less than 1 inch.

There is method in this madness, but for the meantime bare with us! The whole experience of the “wide world” has taught us a few handy tricks and at the moment, we need to broaden the skills (and strengths) a little to take on the next little (big?!) challenge.

Front 2 locks – avoid the screws though!

After this winter’s training I traveled to Italy where I got rained on for 2 weeks but I did a couple of 8a+/5.13+ finger cracks in amongst working on wet projects – a bit of a mixed trip of frustration about the weather but satisfaction in seeing improvements. Pete is currently in Sweden showing them his smorgasbord of tricks and no doubt mashing his fingers in gnarly finger cracks as well. Once we’re both back in the UK though, it’s time to really knuckle down and start working for later in the year: the difficulties have got to go up towards 8c really, or we’re not pulling our weight.

As a result of the above, we are going to revive our Wideboyz blog. Yes I know, it’s an abomination to enjoyment in climbing…. but what can you do?! As a little taster for this stuff to come this year (we’re making some more films with the Hotaches guys) I’ve filmed some training footage from my cellar.
For anyone who’s interested in the whole training link details (just the individual sections shown in this clip) it’s a 100ft offwidth (8a+ ish) to V8 finger crack crux into an 80ft 8a+ roof hand crack. Guaranteed to get a sweaty brow!



And if you haven’t seen the award winning Wideboyz Film yet…. why the hell not?! Download it here and make me happy