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| nice here, innit? |
Sorry to leave you hanging like that, last night...I was so tired I couldn't write more!
But as promised, I'm here to bring you a full report on how the day went.
I was lucky enough to have a posse to support me for the day's endeavours. Anna was on route reading and sustenance supply, Jezz was official photographer and interviewer, and Phil captured lots of scene setting and climbing video.
With such a fantastic crew behind me, how could I fail?!
Despite not getting to bed until 2am, we were up reasonably early, and on the road shortly after 8.30. Upon arriving at Birchen Edge, it was damp and chilly, but blissfully quiet.
I was climbing by 11.00, and the first few climbs were typically harder than expected...
(isn't there a contradiction there?!)
The rock was damp and a little slimy, all surrounding vegetation, both on the ground and on the rock, was dripping wet, and I felt cold and stiff. By the time I'd done five routes, I was out of breath, tired, and slightly nervous about how hard this was going to prove.
Fortunately, the rock was drying fairly quickly, and the day brightening. After 15 or so climbs, I was warmed up, looser, climbing more smoothly, and gaining in confidence.
Here's a brief video interview from this time of the day.
The photo at the top was taken near the top of a typical VDiff (Very Difficult) climb...nothing too technical, but just a little bit brutish, and very tiring. As a rough guide, around a third of the climbs I did were this level of difficulty, a third were easier, and a third harder.
Here's a video of the same climb (number 33 of 50):
The final ten climbs were increasingly tough, even though I was gradually lowering the difficulty, but it was just a matter of pushing on through the tiredness.
Jezz took some brilliant photo's of the day.
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| what grade is this?! |
I hauled my way up the last few climbs, and by 15.30 I found myself standing, exhausted and elated, on the top of the crag for the final time.
I'd done it!
50 climbs in one day, at age 50, ranging from fairly easy to quite hard, steep to slabby, safe yet cramped to bold and exposed. Much of the climbing was hard work, but I didn't feel scared or in danger at any point. I didn't come close to falling off, I didn't slip, and I didn't make any mistakes. I had moments in tough positions, having to make committing moves, and on two occasions I had to ask the guys to spot me (prepare to break my fall in any way they can).
But it all went well, and so I came away from the day uninjured.
I have to thank Jezz and Phil for all the help and support, and all the brilliant documentation.
And mostly, I have to thank Anna for putting up with all the planning and preparation, not to mention my endless wittering about it, and for being nothing but encouraging and supportive ever since I came up with the crazy idea.
Thanks babe, I couldn't have done it without you!
Today, I'm very tired, aching, stiff and generally uncomfortable.
As Anna wisely pointed out though, this is a measure of the level of difficulty - if I didn't feel severely beaten up, then maybe it wasn't so much of a challenge...
I can confirm - I feel like I've had the living shit kicked out of me!
I also feel that I've hit my target, reached my goal, and I'm now ready to face the rest of the years objectives...
...or at least, just as soon as I've had a good long rest!
B-)
50@50 Stats:
# of routes climbed: 50
# of routes soloed: 50
# of routes down-climbed: 5
Time taken: 4.30hrs
# Mods: 6
# Diffs: 9
# Hard Diffs: 1
# VDiffs: 16
# Hard VDiffs: 4
# Severes: 11
# Hard Severes: 3
# of photo's taken: 829
# of video's taken: 75
# of GB of data created: 18.1 (impressive!)
# bird poo's encountered: Too many to count.
# gecko poo's encountered: 0
# injuries sustained: 0
# epic's survived: 0
# good times had: Many
# challenges completed: 1!
One final, unrelated note, for those pedants amongst you who have noticed that there are no photo's from today...here's a poor tree that we had to euthanise today, as it was too close to the house and damaging the drains...
Sorry, little tree...we promise to find something useful and interesting to do with your remains...
:-(
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