Committing.........

After my recent attempts to climb E8 I realised, A)how much I want to attain this level, not only of climbing but of commitment and B) of how much work I'm going to have to put into the possibility to make it a reality. I tried a lot of hard routes in my time off and got beaten a lot, I put this down to not only physical weakness but emotional and mental weakness too. I made a mistake in getting close to someone and I should've known better from a recent split that I'm not in a place to give much to anything but climbing at the moment as much as I pointlessly try. On the route below I was trying hard but couldn't concentrate as my mind was elsewhere, trying to figure out other problems. It wasn't till I received a text the other day from Mike (who was climbing there that day) and he said I was seeming down that I really saw it clearly for the first time and I knew then things had to change.

Trying a new line in Arrochar, committing, friable and bold, 1 bit of gear at 30m Pic-Alan Fox

On my running circuit, looking towards Aonach Mor

So the other day I somewhat spring cleaned my life, as I mentioned in a previous post. I've given up trying to get into any of the careers I was interested in as there are too many (unproven) restrictions going against my disabilities. I've stopped trying to settle into what most see as a normal life. I went through my phone contacts and deleted a pile of numbers, got rid of all unnecessary possessions and I feel the better for it, almost like a new start.It feels good to be committed and focused on only one thing, no more hopeless distractions.

After 4 days at work dealing with obnoxious tourists I was more than ready to start training in earnest , early start yesterday and a PB on my running circuit. Then shopping for healthier food, bloody expensive this healthy eating.
After effects of trying a problem of Daves (I'm blaming him)

Then it was down to Alan Kimbers bouldering wall to meet up with Dave for training. After climbing slabs for so long my skin was too soft and I managed to take a good old chunk off my left hand after only an hours climbing. After that it was home to open a package from Diff. It turned out to be a best film award for Single Handed from the Slovenian Alpine Association. I was well chuffed that a hardy bunch like the Slovenians enjoyed the film...........