Broken Dylog

I have a great job most of the time. They are really flexible with me and I get to do things like yesterday's cave raid in the middle of the week as long as I am up on my hours. Certainly, this no overtime budget is helping my climbing no end. Anyway, I had a routine change to do on Tuesday day and it was all going well, then things went badly wrong, and rather than being home at 1630 cooking tea for the monster, i was still stood in front of a rack in the datacenter trying to recover a failed server. The recovery continued until 2100 that night and still hadnt worked by then. As it was a backup server, so there were no actual users out of service, but the resilience of the platform was impacted. So it needed fixed, and quickly. Although as I mentioned before theres no overtime budget, theres certainly increased focus on service, so I needed to get things sorted. And fast.

Wednesday morning my cave vision was fleeting and I could see my dreams slipping away, but I managed to get things to a stage where they would continue without me (for a few hours) and at the last minute it was all on. The team who had been waiting patiently for the go/no-go texts took their pads out and waited for the Chavstra SRI. It rained and it rained, but the roads were clear and the A55 roadworks back up to 2 lanes, so in good time we were parting with our hard earned to the fine man who guards the Orme and rolling the Chavstra's big 18s into pole position outside the cave.

Having rescued my hopes from the depths of despair I was almost uncontrollably excited. It took much willpower to hold back from doing a Jim and warm up slow. I've warned about the dangers of reference problems before, but we havent explored the positive reinforcement which can occur if your gamble pays off - i.e. you feel good on the reference problems. I did and my spirits soared. The three of us had separate objectives and only three pads. Nacho was starting work on the in hell start into louis armstrong(!!!!)(8a into 8b! new link), Dylog was there to do Broken Heart, and for me it was all about Trigger Cut.

Trigger cut is so intense I didnt think I was ready at the end of the standard warm ups, so I joined Dylog on Broken Heart. Suprised myself by casually reaching the undercut but falling off getting my feet out of the heel locks. Dylog flails and Nacho makes chicken noises from darkness at the bottom. I am wavering. I think I could do broken log in a couple of goes, but surely it makes more sense to go on the super powerful short problem first and then try Broken Log later? after all the moves are easier...

I stop trying Broken Log and stack the pads beneath Trigger Cut. First go is a fanny slap go, second I nail the hold, step through and take the undercut - which is a first, but in switching the egyptian back the other way my left foot scooches off the hold and I fall off. I'm massively encouraged by the fact that I didnt think I could ever do that move, but I just did.

Dylog now has the first of three amazing goes on Broken Heart. He does the hard bit real casual and gets all the way to the end looking totally composed. However, he finishes up Lip Service, and after the penultimate pinch he slaps higher and way left of where the actual hold was! I cant believe it, and as he falls back on the pads I feel gutted for him. He is gutted too and takes his boots off to sulk.

Nacho continues squawking like a chicken and manages to get through the in hell start. I go from zero to hero and from slapping into the undercut I am falling off hitting the shot hole. The key is in the feet. And in taking all the holds perfectly! My goes get better and closer but I get more fatigued and in the end my fitness gives out before success is attained, but such is the progress that has been made that I am psyched to get back there next week as that could be the session I need to get it done. The key thing is that I honestly didnt think I could do the move to the undercut, and in yesterday's session I not only did it, but did it every time. As I am nearly doing the shot hole move, and linked to the top from there, then perhaps next time it will go down?

Dylog returns from a pensive walk to the end of the pier and reclimbs the lip service link at the end. He puts a big donkey line on the hold he needs to go to get to and takes a rest to recouperate his strength. When he sets off it doesnt look as composed as on the first amazing go but he makes it through to the jugs before lip service starts. He shakes, has a bit of chalk and twists round onto the crimp, he looks to fumble his feet into the upside down egyptian but manages to make it work, reaches the lip pinch, looks around, sights the hold and makes the last move perfectly. Broken Heart is broken down!

After a thorough drubbing we leave the cave, beaten but buoyant. Another advantage of the timings of these mid week raids is that we go after rush hour and we come back after it too - in other words its fast. And, because the cave is so hard an afternoon there is enough. We make it home in two hours and already I am planning the next raid...