An inward adventure - Achemine E9 7a - page 2 I decided that the left foot problem necessitated going back to square one with the lower crux, unless another hold could be found. The sidepull problem had three or four possible solutions. Unfortunately I had tried all of them already and would just have to try harder or give up. These conclusions were rather unimpressive considering they had taken up a whole week of daydreaming! After another couple of lonely sessions on the wall, I solved these obstacles and the line progressed from an imaginary hypothesis to an unlikely possibility. A big step forward. The left foot problem was overcome by the discovery of the poorest of sidepulls which when cold enough for my ring fingertip to stick to, allowed me to scrape my left foot up the wall, reaching the next foothold just in time to slow and stop my body falling away from the wall. The sidepull problem was overcome by same sequence I had initially worked on, but with the addition of some subtle shuffling of my trunk. There seemed to be a window in space that I had to move my body through for the move to work. I crossed under from a tiny pinch and placed my finger tips on the sidepull. Then I had to twist round in three stages, separate and crucial. I bent my whole body leftward into a C shape, twisted it round and rotated my shoulder down, letting my head lean back. Once this was executed, the little flat sidepull became a real hold and a half-moon shaped sloper came within slapping distance, providing an escape leftward to improving holds. With renewed optimism, I moved on to trying the whole route in one push. Doing all the crux section was great, even if it was right at my limit, but the big problem was that the first hard moves were 120 feet of E5 crack climbing above the ground. I was quickly stopped in my tracks once again. After working on the route I tried finishing off by climbing up and down Chemin De Fer repeatedly to build up endurance and fine tune every move. Although this seemed to be working and I felt fitter than ever, I still couldn’t even reach the top crux. With the summer heat fast approaching and waning interest in a route which appeared to be above me, I decided to come back in the autumn cool. In my mind, I doubted I would ever try it again. That lingering doubt persisted whenever I thought about the line. However, late on a windy evening in early September, after a couple more sessions alone on the shunt, I climbed from the ground and slapped my way to the top of the crag, shocked at the sudden success after so much failure. Just as with Requiem the previous year, I realised instantly that I had to grab the chance of success and get on the lead before I developed a mental block about the route. I told my friends and girlfriend that I was going to lead the route within the week. There was no going back; I had invested too much effort to back off now. A feeling of utter dread filled me slowly over the days that followed. I was all too aware of what I was asking of myself. I knew just how focused I would have to be and how flawless my climbing would have to be. A voice from inside was telling me that I was stretching my abilities and my luck much too far. I arranged with friends to make an evening visit to the rock and spread the word that I was going to have a go at the lead. I hoped that telling as many people as I could would help galvanise my inner motivation to draw a line under this long process of preparation.
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