no shortcuts - don't cheat yourself

instead of a glorious send of the super classic "insanity of grandeur, 8C" (we don't take "webby-grades" too serious, do we? he's supernatural... ;) - i am back at the start again... : after falling on the second last move to the lip on "insanity" and powering through the super hard start sequence up the four times a day i knew something was "wrong" - i never ever was able to "cruise" this start sequence so many times before in a session. did i got that much stronger? well that would be nice. but honestly i don't think so (even if i feel stronger, but not THAT much stronger).

close-up from the intermediate-"hold" from which i do have to move my feet:

 before the breake it was super bad,

as it broke it got quite "juggy", making it possible to suddenly control this heinous start sequence

and changing the character of the two existing boulders way too much.

so i glued the broken part back - it's pretty heinous again... ;)

late last spring i broke a part of this not so good intermediate hold - making it better. i did not think that it was much of a difference but kept the broken part at home. obviously i was wrong and it was quite a big difference. i nearly could cross now on what was just a really bad intermediate before. so i glued the broken part back - AND got hammered. it took me another two sessions to just get through this three start moves again... and it feels as desperate and insecure as it felt before the break! then it took me another two sessions to get back one move below my highpoint. three weeks "lost" and i may will not send this season anymore. but it felt like "cheating" and "wrong" to keep climbing with the bigger hold as i knew how hard it was before. hopefully i did not loose too much time. i finally feel like the "resistance"-power is coming back again and i don't get suddenly tired anymore. it's nice to feel strong again ;)

now that rain should stop next week and if i am lucky (for once) i get a few more decent (not too cold) days and will be able to finish up "insanity" before winter hits - if i don't i don't mind too much as it's just such a brilliant piece of climbing. but then there is this "big cat" waiting on the left as well... :)

where i went down some days ago: three more moves and this nasty mantle.
epic in full swing again.... ;)