Hot Hot Hot

Scots don’t do well in the heat. We always used to shake our heads when we waited for the Glasgow flight home from sport climbing trips in Spain, watching reams of fellow Scots returning home lobster coloured and happy. Of course, whether we were the exactly the same colour just depended whether our project for the week was south facing or not.

Although I struggle with the cold in Scottish winter climbing, I certainly don’t in bouldering. Probably because my work rate at the crag never drops low enough to get cold. My sweaty fingers keep me from climbing harder than about 7C+ indoors most of the time. But with a cold Scottish breeze I can actually use my finger strength.

You can probably tell this blog is a bit of a conditions moan. Well, it’s not really. Yesterday at 3pm my car read 37 degrees driving to Chur. But at 5am that morning I was falling off the last move of my project in 10 degrees. Still waaaay to hot for me but at least I could get on OK. In Scotland it would be totally fine since you’d probably be pinning your mats down with rocks to stop them blowing away in the wind. But here in Switzerland, wind seems like a distant memory. I saw a twig move on a slight breath of breeze at 7am and had a really good attempt next try.

But hope is on the way. A cold front ahead of my last couple of sessions in Switzerland might help me climb a little harder problems before I head home. Aside from it being too hot for the really hard stuff now, I'm feeling great in my climbing, strong and enjoying pulling hard without any injury niggles at all. Even the holes in my fingers have healed up well now.

Better get to bed early. Alarm for 4am... drink tea, put on head torch, stumble to the boulders.