Being strong means strong habits. by Stevie Haston

(c) Inigo Taylor

This route is amazing, I aint going to do it unless I start sorting everything out. Dreaming about it, aint going to cut. Being deluded, aint going to cut it.
 So? Yes, basically it's called good work, plus good food, plus good rest. And lets face it no one is going to help me, so it's down to me! The world is fucked, but my little self centered, ego centric world, is going to revolve West to East, the tide will obey my commands!   

 The tide will obey my commands, cos I will only ask it to operate in a cycle, West to east might not happen so scratch that! This Lilly does what it can, it has good soil and tries to do its job. I water it. If I didn't water it, it would die.Its healthy because I look after it, and help its natural ways.

This sporting machine is totally the most powerful thing, it was trapped in the house, it can jump, but it can't find its way out of the house. Climbers are like that. We can all climb, but we develop bad habits, and very few know how to maximize, or indeed get out of the climbing wall/bouldering/training thang. My route is 3 to 5 months away! 3 to 5 months of good habits, good food, and good sleep. Instead of going to the cliff, I stayed at home watered my Lilies, and decided to train for my route instead of training myself to get to the first crux and fall off and get all bent out of shape. Good habits, good food, good sleep!   

Forever Young Mike Owen, by Stevie Haston.

I bumped into a couple of old mates the other day, which made me happy. Mike and Elaine Owen were part of the Welch climbing scene in the late 70s and 80s, and now like me they are part of the French climbing scene. Mike is a bit younger than me and Elaine of course is 21, they are the same as they ever were, but probably climb better. Why do they they still climb so well? Their climbing spirit is the same, their technique is better, and of course France is a bit more clement than the UK. Mike regularly climbs in the 8th grade, and was one of the early E7 leaders in Britain, he has been an inspiration to me for a long time, his accurate footwork is matched with a strong work ethic, and I hope to bump into him when we are in our 60s still climbing 8s.    

This young spider was hunting around my Lilies, and Mike was hunting in my cave, he is trying to catch El Chico a rather tough sneaky 8a+.

Mike is rather like the Spider, his stealth kept him out of the lime light in Britain and let the noisier climbers get their acclaim. Talking to this climbing couple brought many things back, so thanks Elaine and Mike. Elaine remembered that the first time they saw me was on Left or Right Wall in my underpants in 1977 or so! Mike had a good laugh comparing how badly we used to climb and how youth is so very wasted on the young.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by Stevie Haston.

This is a photo of Nagasaki, most of the photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were confiscated by the USA military.

Yesterday a man called Manning was found guilty of making public some  bad things, he will be sentenced to a very long time. Its possible he faces 126 years for disclosing some truths about the US military. There are many dark secrets about America and with this sentence less will be disclosed.

Years ago, about a week before America dropped the first Atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a man called General Eisenhower visited Truman and begged him not to drop the bomb on innocent civilians. Eisenhower called the bomb an evil thing , clearly it was-it killed an estimated 100,000 innocent people by incineration and radiation. Incineration had already been happening in Japan in cities by conventional means, fire bombing cities had already resulted in cities loosing about the same amount of dead!

If Manning had been alive at the time he might have told us that Japan had wanted to surrender for months already, and that there was no need to drop two evil bombs, and kill nearly 200,000 people for no reason. The awful facts of the dropping of Atomic bombs on a starving and basically inert country is not known to the general public to this day.

When America talks of weapons of Mass destruction, let it be remembered that Japan wanted to surrender, and was starving. To this day it is only America that has used atomic bombs.

If you wish to research it further, please do.  

Self doubt, self confidence, by Stevie Cocky Haston.

(c) Inigo Taylor

I don't normally do self doubt, neither do I do self confidence, I prefer to have a go, and see whats up. Lately though, I aint been having a go, I have felt a bit used up, and it might have given me a bit of self doubt, but luckily as I said I don't do self doubt. Anyway despite having lots of reasons not to try hard routes-like number one, I aint good enough-I decided to jump on some stuff. The above is a sterling project, I reckon its 8c+, its tip top, Cracker jack, a cosmic decoction of burly and ballerina. Its a very good reason to get on the training train, the train that I haven't been catching, the train I thought led to no where-it leads to this, a great route, and thats enough. 

This is me gearing up with optimism, under a route that has a low grade and flicks me off if I let her, sure as hell is hot, the optimism  was misplaced, and she flicked me off. 

(c) Inigo Taylor

This is Laurence looking fit, indeed is fit, but about to get her come up pence, for not working a couple of crucial exercises.

(c) Inigo Taylor

This project is called the Wasp, a project of the great local climber Phil, I recon it's got multiple stings in its tail. Its in a few guide books as a route, it isn't, which just goes to show don't believe everything you read.

Three friends under one of the best cliffs in France, and therefore the world. I have much to thank them for. They cheered me up.

(c) Inigo Taylor

Another old friend, a punch bag. Bruce Lee said, 'they don't hit back', he was wrong, he was wrong about many things, but he is venerated. A punch bag will happily exhaust me like no other exercise thingy in the world, 12 times 3 minute rounds, has left me heaving, I have never managed, 12 times 5. The punch bag is the finger/pullup board of fighting arts. Float Like a Butterfly, sting repeatedly like a Wasp. I haven't had self doubt, but I have certainly been scared of training, not a wasp, a wuss.

Friends from America, by Stevie Haston.

 You spend time with people, you climb with them, you share interests and aspirations, and then you don't see them for years. I aint been to the states for a very long, things keep changing over there, but my friends are still the same. Those great states with huge space, great rocks and big sky, and hardly any people are largely the same.  Steve and Cynthia are two of my favorite people, Steve is a boyhood friend, we share mates, climbing partners, it spans oceans, and much of the history of British climbing. Ten years have gone by,  he's going tomorrow, when will I see him again. In  another 10 years? 

Steve went to Birkinhead School, a peculiar source of many of my friends, Liegh Maginly, Tim Caruthers, Alan Rouse. How many people know of the great Alan Rouse, and his historic ascent of Positron with the unforgettable, unforgivable and unrepentant Peter the Mad Molecule Minks.   

This is Steve on an under graded  mistress of the perverse at Sabart, temperatures are hideous.

Steve's a philosopher prof who likes to climb.

We used to find it strange that old people climbed, now we find it unpardonable that old people don't.

If the ring had been mine, that hairy little hobbit Bilbo would never have got it out of my fist, and of course the whole history of Middle Earth would have been different! My friends saw some of the climbs we have here, visited some cliffs and sampled our strange grades, they approved. I now long to to go back to Utah and the Colorado Plateu, I want to see Towers again, Gandalf. Not Dark towers, but Red Towers of Windgate sand stone, and splitter cracks, humming birds, and eat some spicy Mexican food before going to sleep in the sand under a sea of stars.

Climbing , fighting, same, same. by Stevie Haston

 In the morning we got beat up by a rock climb. It was crafty, cunning, it's powerful moves overwhelmed us in a rush and kicked us, so we couldn't breath, or function. In the evening I went Martial Art training. I love the huge hall, I like the tranquility of my warm up, and stretch, I like much about it, not everything, it's like climbing, it's not everything.

Climbing for me, is, and always has been, extremely natural, I think I have been doing it from my earliest moments. Fighting which is basically the simplest way of describing all things Martial, seems to be there in some way for many people too, from a very early age.  I was never a good fighter, if anything I am a good counter fighter, or defensive fighter, and the big thing that interests me, is the deception, the feinting, the position. In climbing I like the sneaky, sly ways through cruxes, elegant bridging, I like being out witted by rock!

My opponent dumped me last week, by luring me into thinking he was slow, then picked me up, took me for a walk, and then landed on me, it was 'game over'.

Here is the classic, tap him in the calf, and then flick to the temple. Classic deception! Fighting isn't for every one, it's not for me, but it is good fun, when your opponents respect you. Rockclimbing is not for every one, and believe me, the rock and the Mountain do not respect you at all! Simply putting your gear together badly, as has been shown this week, can, and will kill you, stone dead. Be careful out there, life in some ways is tough, and it don't give you too many breaks, so when you get one, lie down in the flowers and wonder at the blue of the sky.

All photos Inigo Taylor, who will be outwitted today by a completely non sentient bit of stone!

New cliff, new perspectives, by Stevie Haston.

Went to a cliff which was new to me and very local. Wow quelle surprise, really beau, but oh dear, felt so weak in the 28 degrees in the shade, and a slippy, slimy, oily rock. Felt a bit embarrassed at the lack of excellence and then got over it and stopped moaning and just enjoyed it, after all you need to be able to climb greasy rock, and you need to take repeated unexpected falls.

A slight breeze made things easier for the others  later on in the evening, but I was too tired to use it.  

Inigo our guest, had the a similar experience today, unexpected, and unused to using his feet on sloping or blank rock he over pulled, and quickly became pumped. Still and all, of course he has to learn, but it's not intuitive to push more on your feet when the foot holds lack shape or adhesion. 

Back at the house an old fore arm work out had me using half the weight, again, embarrassing!  

This final photo shows the richness of my local landscape and rock, the harsh grades are the only harsh things for miles and miles, great people who are frank without being rude, no pretense  in the landscape of the hills and the human population full of humanity rather than selfishness.