Mythological Moth by Stevie the bug Haston

The plural of Moth is Myth,
The plural of Muffin is Muff,
The height of Everest With Oxygen is ten thousand feet lower than its true height!

Death of a Bug by a savage Moth without oxygen

Boy&girl at Sabart, by Laurence Gouault.Haston

Boy and girl at Sabart having fun and success! 

A nice and lovely thing, by Stevie the Bug Haston.

A time-lapse film of the First ascent of Alah Il Hobuk by Stephan Farrugia

First off, here’s a link to a piece of art with me and simon alden as acting ants. It was made by Steven Farrugia a guy who has just discovered climbing, good luck Steven. Steven was with Simon and I when we did ‘Alah’, and  he did the last two pitches which he loved. He mostly hung around bored filming this little ditty for other peoples pleasure, so I’ll thank him for you, thanks Steven, the light is so pretty.
More boringly theres a photo of the next weeks food for me, a tough week I think lies ahead.
I will climb till Xmass, and expect a present from the climbing gods, a big present.

http://vimeo.com/42828090

Transitional climbing, Stevie the tranny Haston.

At the moment my climbing is in a ‘Spring time’ fizz of growth, its easy and natural. I am not 55; I am 5 months old, I cant walk so I crawl, If I cant crawl I roll, I just do what it takes. Because I had a year off I am weak, the old raging bull in me, is just not there. So why am I climbing ok’ish? Well there’s a ton of reasons but it’s mainly due to the transitions between moves going smoooooooth.When I am strong there’s a perfunctory set up of the feet, and wham, bam, thank you mam.

Yesterday I went on and old complicated link of bits of a huge roof, and the reason I have never been able to link it was clear, it’s the thousand transitions between moves that tire me out. Even the ‘moves’ between the transitions, where you don’t even think you are moving, are areas where you save strength.

You have probably been out climbed by weaker climbers, if you have been like me; I always got a thrill out of it, but now I am being out climbed by me!

A good way to understand transitions is to make less noise with your feet at a climbing wall. Or when you are mentally going through the climbs sequences, to count everything you have to do, not just the hand moves; count the shoulder down, the head turning; your breath, the every little thing.

No wonder we don’t climb very well often. Climbing well is magic. Anyway yesterday, the route I was on expanded into a huge three D map, it became vibrantly clear, I will walk, dance and pirouette through  this upside down maze of beautiful moves.

The Grivel Quick Easy Draw, by Stevie quick on the draw Haston.

King of Kings and Grivel quickdraws.

Life should be simple and easy, just look at cats, do they get mortgages? So why haven’t you bought a Grivel Quick Easy Draw?
Grivel with their concept of making things easier have defo come up with one of my favorite bits of kit. This Quick Easy Draw has a two fold advantage over normal draws. The first one, which is the most important for me, is that the draw is easy to pull on. I work a lotta routes, that is I red-point them, and this draw with its ergonomic handle makes pulling into position easier, thus I save more strength for the route. I just finished equipping over 40 routes and without this handy little device it would have been much harder.

They come in 10 different colors, pick yours....

 The second advantage of this Quick Easy Draw is that the plastic handle/sheath protects the draw from abrasion. This protection adds to the life of your draw and a bit more security in the long run. It is surprising how much abrasion a draw on the crux of a frequently fallen off route will take. In cold weather, or snow, and with gloves, this draw becomes an all most indispensable tool. The quick easy draw that you carry to help you work routes, is called a working draw, so why not minimize the work by choosing the right one. I always carry one.

More on GRIVEL Site

Laurence on Dinosaur's balls.

Training with Mates, by stevie antisocial haston.

Satan gets a little help from his friends

 Trained with Laurence today, she didn’t want to, but I made her, cos I needed it. Yesterday I ran up my hill in the rain, which turned to snow in a strong unhelpful gale. The hill is steep rugged and dangerous, it is 1200 meters of up, I say this not to impress but to underline how much I didn’t want to do it. It would have been a lot easier in some sunshine with a buddy. I put it off for hours, hoping the weather would get better, it got worse, Just before I went out, I grabbed three plastic bags, and an extra gel. Two bags went over my hands and one down the front of my underpants. It was awful; but it needed to be done.

Thanks Mum

Anyway today I climbed at the cave of justice and was nice to Laurence so she had to chum me along with some training. The training went a lot easier than it did on Monday, when I did it  by myself. So thanks Laurence. But thanks Jeff too, and Al for phoning me up( hope your bike injury gets better), basically thanks to a bunch of people recently for helping me.
I am of the opinion that a problem shared is a problem doubled, but with true mates who want to help, the Gift of small things becomes possible, and these small gifts turn into something big. So mates keep on laying it on me, man,  I will shoot for the Moon this season. If I climb like today and a few other times in the last two months it will be easy. In between is just hard work.
Anyway you could go and listen to ‘With a little help from my friends’ written by McCartney, or perhaps the version by Joe Cocker, and its true, it is easier.
So on Saturday I couldn’t do a front lever, today it was there, it was easy, everything was a ton easier.

Thanks Adam

Training reality check by stevie the slouch haston.

What I have been doing....

Yesterday I had a bad day, I did three 8’s. What's so bad about that, well lots of things, I am running our of time and money, and my body is getting old, and worn out. I need two small operations

I have just finished a 10 week climbing trip and am weaker than when I started! I don’t like feeling weak. One of my old projects humiliated me, it kinda always does that but yesterday it was smirking, it was just laughing, you’re too weak, you’re too weak.  And it is right, I am too bloody weak.

When we arrived home Laurence went and rested on the sofa with the cats, a phone call to Mark confirmed my suspicions that he was tossing off, which left me by my lonesome, staring at my fingerboards, empty, no gas!

...and what I should have been doing!

Music on loud, chalk everywhere, an hour later I felt righteous. I am weak though, just capable of a one arm, failed to do front levers, reasonable crimp, open hand strength down, flexibility high, bicep pathetic, shoulder appalling, well it’s the same as it ever was, back to some basic stuff.

So, the worst of all is that I have a mountain race coming up, a 100 mile up and down rough nightmare, and have done only one run! The race is in 5 weeks! The outcome will surely be humiliating at best, hospital at worst. I have to get out of the house and into the rain and walk up the little mountain in front of the house. There is no bright side to this one, its even forecast for a storm, maybe the Brightside is that I will be electrocuted! More power Igor.