A few more days in Hueco have past.
After a half rest day we headed out on a tour to East Mountain.
We had a great crew. James, Shauna, Alex, Will, Grant, Jon, myself and our tour guide Corey.
I had a great day out and although I did not manage to come away with any big prizes I did manage to climb three V11s, Lee-Ann, Mo Mojo and Sunshine. The Highlight of the day went to Alex with her ascent of Full Service V10.
The next day we had a half rest day. I started the morning off in Martini Cave and managed to do a nice V10 called Left Martini but cut the day short and rested half the day as I was feeling tuckered out.
Today was another great day, a little warm but still a great day.
I managed to do Desperanza second attempt of the day.
Desperanza was first climbed by Daniel Woods and is graded V15. It is a lower start to an existing boulder called Esperanza V14. Im not sure if the full grade of V15 is correct for this boulder, but being that is a tad harder than Esperanza maybe V15 is correct? I don't know?
Alex and myself finished up the day with Theatre Of The Absurd V10 and I managed to do Chior Boys V9,Ii could not do this boulder last time I was here due to it hurting my shoulder to much, so I was happy to get it done today without any pain.
Such a great day.

Another trip back here to Waco Hueco.
Alex and myself made the trip back to the US to catch up with her family and hit Hueco Tanks for a couple of weeks.
We are also joined by Shauna Coxy and James Garden from UK.
We arrived in Dallas to spend a few days with Alex' family and run some coaching classes then we all jumped in Alex' uncles 30 foot camper van and headed out to the Tanks.
We had our first day on the North Mountain yesterday and we all had a good time.
Im here when I should really be training for the World Cups, so even if i don't climb anything this trip my main goal is not to get weaker or out of shape.

On our first day of climbing we ended up in the Dirty Martini Cave. I went to work on Deseranza and almost did the full line on my first go falling right at the end.
I have decided to use Desperanza as my training boulder while here.
I had another couple of attempts and fell in the middle twice but pulled straight back on and climbed to the end.
Even if I end up climbing the full line (Desperanza) I will try to do some laps on it as its good power endurance training.

Our second day here we hit North Mountain again.
I headed to Desperanza in the morning but had no joy as i was feeling tired from the day before. I fell in the middle a few times but pulled straight back on and climbed to the end.
We then headed up to Dark Age V11 and I managed to climb it fast so that was good. James cam extremely close to flashing Dark Age but put a hole in his hand so had to pull the pin. Shauna and Alex climbed the classic high ball, See Spot Run V5.

We then ran into some more mates from the UK. Jon, Will and Grant.
It was great to see the guys and i'm sure we will have some good times with them while we are all here.

Today is a rest day and its Shauna's Birthday, to celebrate the old ducks special day we are heading into town to shoot some guns and maybe some paint balling.

its been a couple of weeks since I last wrote.
Life has been good here in England and lots has happened since I last wrote.
Alex and myself headed off to Fontainebleau for a week but only made it as far as Paris due to a road rage incident that ended badly. We had to head back to England to heal my broken foot enough said.
Now we are back in England I have been back to work although I have managed to squeeze my climbing shoes on which has been a huge effort in itself as my foot is really painful but I have managed to climb a couple of great climbs one is called Keen Roof 8B/V13. Keen roof is a great problem at a place called Raven tor. Its said that a visiting frenchman came to climb at raven tor and drove right past it as the cliff does not look like much from the car, but once you jump out the car and get on the rock you soon find out the climbing is great. So yeah I ended up climbing Keen roof with a buggerd foot, it felt great to climb something that was reasonably difficult on rock again.
After a couple of days of resting my foot and a small bit of training on small wooden edges screwed to a board I headed out to another wee limestone cliff called Impossible roof. I had never climbed there before and i'm certainly glad I have climbed there now as the problems are bloody great.
Straight away I got stuck into one problem on the cliff called Serenity. Serenity is graded 8B/V13 and has a reputation for being a stiff little number. After awhile of figuring out how to climb the boulder I managed to climb the boulder on my second attempt from the start, you little ripper!!!!.
I have been easing off the training for a few weeks now as i'm just about to start a new training program which is going to be bloody killer to handle but it should be great.
Oh and I have managed to get out on the Grit a little bit but the weather has just been a complete debacle every time I plan on getting out it chucks it down.
Micky Page and myself (in-between climbing on little wooden edges on a steep wall) have been working on a climb called Voyager, Micky did the stand the other day (which was tops) and is now set to go from the start. I came super close to the stand but no cigar just yet as the little basterd is a sharp one and rips the skin to bits.
So yeah my new training plan will begin next week and its gonna be great but really hard. Good times
Oh and I have also been doing a bit of filming with Outcrop film for the up and coming movie called Life On Hold.


Photos: Finalists at The Battle Of Britain and me on Keen Roof

This blog is well over due.
Lots has been happening but not a lot of news to report on the rock climbing front.
Alex and myself are now living in "sunny" England.
We are both glad to have a base and a place to call home for a little while.
I have started job at the local climbing bouldering gym called The Climbing Works and i'm also coaching some kids at the University for some extra pennies. I Also have a small bit of rope access work, it all helps as i'm seriously broke right now. I also have to start saving up money so I can compete again next year in the Bouldering World Cups, I really hope I can save enough. Competing in The Bouldering World Cups is really expensive and unfortunately as i'm pretty much a self supported climber finically wise and my climbing federation don't have enough money to support me in anyway its down to me to try and make it work.
Im very thankful for the support I receive from Black Diamond and it does help, but unfortunately the climbing industry is just not very big in Australia yet, so there is simply not much money to go round.
I think thats also one of the reasons doing well in a World Cup means so much to me. It can be frustrating seeing other climbers from other countries who have full support from there federations etc… and then there is climbers like myself who get no support what so ever from there federation. Its no wonder some people can do so well in the comps and if they don't do so well its not really a big deal for them as there federation has paid for them to be there.
Its also then same thing on the rocks. Imagine how much more some people could do if they had the same support as other top climbers. I honestly don't find it that impressive that a few of the top guys have done so much hard stuff on rock as they are paid lots to go and do it and they don't have to worry about how there going to have enough money to live next month……

Anyway here is how my life has been of late (not a bad life by any means).
The first few weeks in England we caught up with some of my family that live here in England. We also spent time working on a camper van that we bought.
The Camper van is something I have been putting lots of effort into of late and its coming along nicely. We bought a VW T4, that was a builders van and we have converted it into a real show piece, so we are are happy with that. The van is complete with a kitchen a nice comfortable fold out bed, power supply etc….
The plan for the van is to use it to travel between the World Cups next year to save costs on accommodation.

We are now living in Sheffield. The scene here in Sheffield is really healthy and there is no shortage of motivated people to train and go climbing with.

As I mentioned earlier, not much on the rock to report as we have been spending lots of time training. I have been lifting weights and finger boarding like a mad man and although i'm always feeling tired when I try to climb I know it will be worth it in the long run.
Im also experimenting with a new finger boarding program I made up and after my first session of that today I really think its going to help me a shite load.

The plan next year is to participate in the Bouldering World Cups again.
I hope I can do much better than I did last year. Im really motivated to get good at the World Cups.
Its strange for me to be concentrating on so much plastic time instead of rock climbing but its what i'm most keen on right now and I really want next year to be a good one for myself.

The weather lately (oh yes, you know there is not much more to say when talk about the weather comes in to play) has been shite (we are in England) and its been fairly miserable everyday usually i would be pissed about that but its forcing us to keep training in the gym and thats going to be a good thing for next years World Cups.

Yet another blog written on yet another plane.
We are now on our way back to Innsbruck, Austria.
We have just been in Sweden for the first international boulder meet in Vastervick.
Although we did have some bad weather and for a couple of days I was not feeling well at all, i think everyone had a great time.
The idea of the meet was to promote climbing in Sweden and in Vastervick.
At the start of the event the was two "money" boulders. These two boulder each had 200 euros on them that was to be divided up for anyone who could manage to climb them. On the first day Daniel and myself managed to climb the first money problem and Andy managed to climb it a day later. The problem was still a project at the time but after figuring out the beta Daniel got the first ascent and I followed soon after we guess the problem weighed in around 8A/ V11 and was called More Than One Way To Skin A Cat because there is a few methods to climbing this problem. The other money problem was The Hourglass, which is one of the best looking problems I have ever seen.
Daniel, Andy and myself all managed to climb this amazing problem on our first day of trying and we all agreed that it could be one of the best problems we have ever climbed. Previously The Hourglass was graded 8B+ / V14, although we all agreed that it was slightly soft and a grade of 8B/ V13 seemed to fit this one better.
The town Vastervick is a really nice place and there is a fantastic crew of people keeping the scene alive there. The bouldering is incredible with potential for lots more to be developed.
After the first day of climbing i had to have a few days of resting and doing absolutely nothing because i was feeling very very tired and i had no energy what so ever. I felt like i had had a mild flu and i my body felt really weak. I think i have just been trying to push my body for far to long a time without rest and it finally caught up with me. Looking back, I know felt tired and a little worn out before the World Cup season even started and because I wanted to participate in all the world cups I kept pushing myself to finish the comp season. I know now I probably would have had much better results in most of the world cups if I took it a little easier but its all part of the learning experience.
Anyway After a few rest days in Vastervick doing nothing but watching movies, laying in bed and trying to rest, I was starting to feel a little bit better.
I headed out with a good crew of people to a little area close to the place we were staying and to my surprise I managed to make a very shaky send of an 8B/ V13 called No Master. After sending this awesome problem although I was happy with my efforts my energy levels crashed soon after and it was back to bed with me.
The next day I felt a little better again and that was the day I did The Hourglass although soon after climbing The Hourglass I felt wasted once more so it was the end of the trip for me.
As I said before, we are now on our way back to Innsbruck where we have to pack our apartment up and head to England where we are going to be living next year.
On our way back to England we are planing on stoping at a few climbing areas along the way but we will see how we go. Once we are in England we are going to be resting and eating lots of good food for two or three weeks then some training can slowly begin again and then its off to the rocks.