The Mirror of Simple Souls and the Sakuru Michi, by Simple Stevie Haston

The mirror tells the truth! I don’t look like a runner; I don’t look like a rock climber! I am in deep trouble, a bog of treacle. I sacrificed a lot to become excellent at rockclimbing and it worked, I am trying to do the same at running and it’s not working. I became a bit depressed, so I took time off work to get on track with the running. It worked in a way. I did 100 mountain miles and alotta up and down. I had some tendinitis in the ankle and my patella was a bit stuck at the start of the week. At the end of the week the patella was fine and the ankle was very bad. However I was really happy, lost 3lbs and felt like I was running, then I woke up and couldn’t get out of bed. Even slept most of a day and felt like I had a hangover. It was hay fever but I didn’t know it. 

Every year my hay fever gets worse but I am always in denial about it. Hay fever is one of the reasons I like high mountains, above 2500 meters there is normally no veg. It’s ironic that someone like me who adores flowers and talks to trees, has to avoid them. In Ariège where my house is I planted a Wisteria and it loved the south facing front wall of the house, now I can’t open the windows when it’s in bloom! In Ariège I spent a lot of time underground looking at rocks that look like flowers and grow without pollinating. In Italy where I am now the Spring is full blast, blossoms everywhere, it’s a riot of sparkling colors and I feel like I have a very serious illness. Anyway that’s life for you. I can’t do much about being disabled by flowers except laugh. So my other problem is I can’t shake myself outta my body at the moment, I can’t change it, I am just too big to be a decent runner. To become a good climber I lost a lot of muscle, and some of it seems to have crept back, behind my back as it were. It’s very annoying, as I really want to do a decent time in the Tor de Geants, and get a Lake District Bob Graham or a Welch Paddy Buckley. I have always promised myself a B.G and intend to get one, but it would of course be nice to get a good one. The trouble with this terrible desire is that I really need to lose about 10kg or more and I really don’t understand the how of it. To loose weight while climbing is hard enough but your calorific needs are small, to loose weight while doing 30 hours of running a week when you need to eat like a ravenous ogre is plane crazy. And at the moment because of the pollen I can’t run. So this last week I have walked to the super market twice total 8 kms and gained 3lbs!

The Sakuru Mitchi is a road race in Japan, and I always think about it when it’s on, but this year for obvious reasons I am thinking about it more. It’s 250 kms long and only a little up (1500m), it is supposed to be one of the great runs which is unusual if you think it’s not in the mountains or the hills. It’s a great run because of the spirit of the runners and the fact that it was inaugurated because an ordinary Bus driver planted 1500 cherry trees along the way! They do love their cherry blossom in Japan and so do I. Anyway it’s such a pretty story I thought I’d share it with you, perhaps you would like to do the run, or just gain some strength and hope from thinking of that lovely man planting those cherry trees along that bus route from one side of Japan to the other. If there were more Sakuri Mitchis and why not, the world would of course be a little more beautiful. It would of course have a bit more pollen in it, bad for me, but I would rather suffer than not have flowers and great inspiring stories like this one. I hope Japan is able to overcome its time of trouble and look forward to a better spring.    

A bit of Cycling history, by Stevie Haston

Stopping at a local pushbike shop to satisfy my love of fondling tubes and suchlike on a fancy swank velocipede, I was struck more than ever by the magic of bikes. It didn’t help of course that these bikes were Lapierre, sponsor for the last French team in the Tour. Lapierre bikes are works of art, I can’t afford one, but the guy doesn’t mind me coming in and dribbling over them. Anyway after this reverie of pleasantness it was out, and go climbing! But as a last delay I stopped off to put a few flowers at the little sculpture of Maurice Garin on the roundabout. Maurice was born here in Italy not far from where I live, went to France as an infant and won the first two Tours. Not many people know he was Italian and no one really wants to claim him as he was disqualified for excessive cheating in the second Tour, the first of many! Public morality being what it is, he is forgotten about, which I think is terrible. I don’t condone his actions and in later life he clearly regretted them, but there you go, it’s just a human thing. So the sculpture is simple and beau, it’s on a lovely verdant and attractive roundabout, and if you are a biking nerd I invite you to stop and have a look. In the first Tour the bikes were crap and the stages were way longer, sometimes no tarmac for long distances, no creatine, just sweat and saddle sores. I gave the brave little bronze cyclist a last fond pat, and went climbing.

There are many memorials along the roads in Europe commemorating dead cyclists. I stop when I can and say a hello. I have lived in two places on the Tour and know many of its tales, cols and epic cardiovascular battles, it’s part of my being in the same way that mountains are. Anyway among my many sporting gods that I sometimes pray to, are Merckx and Indurain, two former Tour winners. Indurain is my personnel favorite and at a Sporting meeting some years ago I noticed an old pro riders bike on a roped off podium. By all the gods it was the great mans bike! I immediately skipped over the rope and began stroking the master’s saddle, this odd behavior was quickly curtailed by a pleasant corpulent policeman, who on being told that I was a speaker and more importantly a fan went off and got me a glass of champagne. I have to report a failure to stroke Eddie Merckx bike. After tracking it down I am sorry to report because it was behind bullet proof glass! I hope this failure doesn’t disappoint you too much. 

Grivel Ultra Light Plume carabiner, by Stevie Haston

The Grivel Plume carabiner is one of my favorite bits of kit, its just plain useful and damn light. It is about 28grs, you can get biners a few grams lighter but they wont feel as ‘big’ in your hand, this is important if you have big clumsy hands like me or are just plain clumsy. If you use them in winter you will also find the gate open width very favorable to gloved hands. Nowadays people carry a lotta of very useful gear but in the end in all mounts up and things get heavy. The plume helps things stay light and real.

The Grivel Plume also comes as a screw-gate and which is so didi you just cant believe it! It comes in at just over 30grs for a screw-gate, so you might not even notice two of them at the back of your harness.

Each Plume is individually tested on a very controlled and computer calibrated machine. (check the video on www.grivel.com)

Melloblocco May 5th/8th 2011, May 6th slideshow by Stevie Mellow Haston

The Melloblocco international bouldering event is staged in the incredible Val Masino on May 5th to 8th, it’s an event not to miss. The great –and I mean size of houses boulders- are a sight to see, and for the enthusiast a joy to climb. The often rough granite is an excellent medium to climb on, while the scenery is a feast for the eyes. Each year this competition and fiesta attracts up to 2000 happy visitors, some come to watch most come to boulder. I have been invited to give a lecture/slideshow which pleases me as I wanted an excuse to visit the valley again, so if you have time visit my

show on May 6th. My slides will cover some bouldering, big rocks, and bigger mountains and I hope it will please diverse tastes, it normally does. In the past the Melloblocco has attracted some of the worlds best boulders and believe me it is a shock to see what they can pull on, probably even more of a shock to see them do stuff way beyond your level first time around! A visit to the area is a must if you are a boulderer but do not neglect to go if you love climbing granite single or multi pitch. When I went to the valley I thought the climbing comparable to Yosemite but without the crowds. There will be crowds on the weekend of the competition but away from the boulders it will be tranquille. Likewise if you like running trails you will be delighted with the high trails in very wild mountains. The valley has been used as a Sky running comp before so it is an exciting place for running giving high rough trails and lower valley mellowness. My fondest memory is of doing the classic route which looks like a stuck on boot, it was in my opinion better than Astroman. There you go, you can’t fail to have a good time.  

DESERT TOWERS a great book by Steve Bartlett aka "Crusher"

Just got a book written by Steve "Crusher" Bartlett, a flash of  some nice memories of Desert climbing, some epics, freeing quite a few towers!!!! A great book about the history of desert and towers climbing.. And if you haven't climb a Desert tower, in the Fisher or Monument Bassin you've missed something....Stevie will do a better review later...

Laurence

We look so young!!!

Crusher and Stevie, fully racked!

Sunset on the Fisher

Freeing the Hindu Tower.

Ruby's café

Honouree, and Honourable by Stevie Cry Havoc Haston

Being an Honourable Member was I always thought a bit of a veiled joke, the stress, in my mind, was always on the word Member. Kinda appropriate when thinking of Members of Parliament for instance. Anyway the Malta Climbing Club thought they would flatter me by creating me a lifelong, Honoree Participant. Great except the engraver wrote Honourable, when I pedantically pointed out the mistake they were dully apologetic, and insisted on having it changed, I adamantly refused. I preferred the Honourable to the Honouree, in fact I would even like a few more words tagged on, like venerable and then venerated. So we would in fact need a scroll, rather than a plaque! Reminds me of those ancient generals with tons of medals, which they clearly didn’t earn. Or perhaps those climbers who turn up year after interminable year at international meetings, harking, and barking on about trivial things they did a quarter of a century ago. I am now over a half century old, and I am tempted to ask will I ever do anything that is note worthy again? Hopefully I will do a few honourable things and so the Plaque I had from the Malta Climbing club will serve as a reminder to be Honourable, so thanks guys. Plus I think I don’t have the energy to be even mischievous, let alone, cause dishonourable havoc ever again.  

Personal reality check, Philip A Dick Haston

Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? Maybe. Was Philip K Dick a sportsman? No he was an interesting an imaginative writer of cracking science fiction. I am a boring sports Jock, who unfortunately is stuck with reality. What is my present reality? Every now and then you have to take stock, so here goes. I am poor at everything! Plus I am poor! I am however happy, maybe that’s what’s wrong. I just had a great time in Malta and made some friends, but I did realize I was not very good at anything physical. Do I want to be? Yes. So access what’s wrong and change it. I have no ambition or goal! So make a goal! Last year was a great one, I did 2 rock climbs of the 9a grade, a mixed route called Cannabis, which is both one of the top for beauty and difficulty in the world, and did enough endurance to do the Tor de Giants trail race. I am not going to have another year like that, it was off the back of 2 years systematic training, and I work a bit now. Since the Tor de Géants race I have done a lot of endurance and neglected my climbing skills, but training has been all over the place, unsystematic and too unstructured. My pulse this year is much lower than last year, but my running is of a disappointing standard! What’s wrong? I enjoy my endurance rather than work at it! My rock climbing is as low as it ever gets, but I really enjoy it, and really appreciate it a lot. My snowboarding and mountain skills are back to where they were, but I don’t like the risk, and I used to love the risk. I have to make a plan, and try and stick to it, or things could get even more erratic! I am too relaxed and fat. I needed to put some weight on after two years of training to give my body a break, but unhappily, I think that holiday is over! So my plan is to get back to above 8a standard climbing, but more importantly to improve in the Tor de Giants race. I can’t really improve at climbing, but at running I am a baby! The rock climbing standard will be easy; lose some weight and just go climbing, 6 weeks max. The Tor is on September 11, 6 full months away, and time to get into a solid systematic training regime. I must try not to over-do it, and get injured. Wish me luck.

First day of the Tor des Géants Photo Lorenzo Belfrond

What is a realistic target for this race of 330 km and 24, 000 meters of  up? It’s 3 Lake district Bob Grahams in one go! It’s such a demanding race that I wont put a number on it, in case I try too hard, instead I will be happy with an improvement, but it will be a big, realistic, possible improvement, that will give me something to aim for. There you go, plan is sorted. Now comes the pain, a  mountain of pain ! An ocean of pain, I will bathe in its turbulent waters and cleanse myself of human weakness. I will become an Ibex, that tough imperial mountain goat, which is the emblem of this mountain region. A proud regal horny old goat, yep just like the old days.  But it’s not the old days, don’t remind me. I am too old for sport, every body says so, I agree most days, and then sometimes, I know that old high standard is just under the surface. So, what to do? Running for three or four days without sleep is fairly tough, so it’s appropriate to take it seriously. I bought a basic heart rate monitor to keep track of my resting heart rate in the morning, as this is the only simple way of assessing if you are overtraining. Running is great, and simple. Running well, is on the other hand annoyingly difficult, and complex!  Your max performance on a given day is asking for several different aspects of training and resting, to come together, like the wind and the tides, to create a personal tsunami of excellence. Running is like climbing, a divine pain in the arse!