Further to my previous post on dry tooling with Fig Fours, I decided to head to Awesome Walls to have a play on their dedicated Fig Four/Schmoolz routes. Had a good hour and a half at the wall, and have to say I really enjoyed it! The tools are great to play around at the wall with and really get you pumped quick, but more importantly there's a real focus on technique and thinking moves over. The only problem with the Fig Fours is a lack of bottom horn, without leashes this makes them hard to use without gripping much higher up on the axe. Outside of that these were great, myself, my brother and my best mate had a great time, and enjoyed pushing each other with new routes, overhangs, corners and tricky moves, and I will definitely be heading out again! But we all agree the Fig Fours are definitely a great piece of kit, will be including some Fig Four training in my training from now on and looking to push my grade a bit when I head to Scotland in Feb! So there's something to aim for! Other than that I'm more motivated for getting out winter climbing a couple more times before the end of the season!
Atko was very fluid with his climbing and hopefully we can really build on our team work for Alpamayo 2012! Also hoping to head to Awesome Walls Stockport to test the Fig Four's out on top rope and leading to see how they function going vertically instead of just traversing! Also going to aim to climb in B2 boots in the future rather than rock boots, and may also consider wearing a helmet (I cracked myself on the head twice and it hurts!!). Also watch out the axes slipping off and hitting you in the face!
The video below shows Simon playing around on a Schmoolz route given the grade V3-4. Enjoy! Download available here: www.electronicmountainleader.co.uk/DSCF5121.AVI
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