Thursday, 30 October 2014

Living by the Lake...

The stunning view at the bottom
of the road from the new place
Life as a climbing coach this last year has been nothing less than 'relatively pleasant' to relatively mental returning to the UK without a home (after moving out by text whilst walking the Camino across Northern Spain).

It felt a bit mental sight calling with John in front of TV cameras at the World Championships and flying straight in from Santiago de Compostela after 3 weeks of mainly solitude reflecting on the last year and finding clarity about a few things then to be plonked into a UK World Cup with John and the other para climbers. A few stressy days in a city then I pointed towards Snowdonia and walked on the coast biving out under the stars until I organised a new place to live in this wonderful country. Some rough nights but they were worth it to follow through with my plans to live just a little further out from the centre of things in Llanberis.
A forced bivi: 'relatively pleasant'
The UK comp was more demanding as the other Sight Caller for Reanne and Adam couldn't make the comp due to unforseen circumstances. So I agreed to call for the others but the radio sets needed to effectively communicate with VI climbers were not available so I had to call out for all to hear as the audience is asked for silence.

It felt hard as you are not just passing on technical information ..."sidepull at 11 o'clock for right hand with right foot up to thigh on a sloper..." Because I knew Reanne and Adam as people as well as para climbers and knew stuff that the audience would not and so when I was trying to keep Reanne's feet higher than normal to help drive her signals from her leg to her brain and push her hard to keep moving when the effects of her cerebral palsy were showing the signs that I had learned to recognise in Austria, it felt a little uncomfortable as I tried to verbally motivate her for all to hear. But I was so proud when I managed to put my own discomfort aside and give Reanne what she needed to hear as she gave it her all for the medal she was so keen to take home.

Reanne taking her medal from Gijon
Living in a great place enjoying my own great job. Everything I wanted when I began this journey in 2011.
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"...This training season I decided to get all the help I can to speed up my improvement. I needed guidance to work towards my goals in long term. I also needed more vision and opinions about my exercises and weak links. I am glad I can share my training with Mark..." (Ville Mustonen, Finland)


" I met Mark in Glen Nevis on his return to climbing to check out some lines he had in mind for me, I wasn't really training at this point but after a day or two talking and training with him I had a much more structured idea of what to do to improve and I did" (Kev Shields)