Liam & Aleshia Dickson Motiv_Ation Page
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Swiss Pics
0Here are a few pics from our recent trip to Switzerland.
Had a fantastic time, after we get back from easter we will post something up a little more informative.
Highlights
Lesh
Aktifit 7a (Flash)
Tetto Baz 7a+
Dr Multifit 7b
Liam
Powerstrips V9 (flash)
Fairplay 7c+
Schlonziges wiener Schmankerl 8a
Special Day
1Just a quick post from Switzerland, internet isn’t great where we are staying so will upload sopme new photo’s and post when we get back.
Today was a very special day for us.
Aleshia climbed her FIRST 7a+(v7) called Tetto Baz and I flashed my first 7c (v9) Powerstrips. This place is amazing! only 2 more days left on our trip then back home.
More news soon!
Quick update
So its been a while since we have posted anything here, so thought it would be good to give you people out there a bit of a run down.
Since our last post we have done a trip to Christchurch, Put up a few new things at Froggat, helped Ness from Motiv but out a new guide for froggatt and plan our trip to Switzerland!
Christchurch was a relatively productive trip considering the amount of rain and heat we got.
I managed to do Che Guevara on my first day then proceeded to wander around and look far what i thought may be good for the trip.
I tried a number of lines but got hammered by the heat and rain but had a window of great temps where I got Fierce Crimpy done and then Ideal on my last day.
Lesh got her first CH 6 with Skin and Bone and pulled through the crux of tricky but being unable to top out after pulling over the lip 
. Was pretty cool seeing her pull through a section of climbing that took me a couple of years to get when I first came down to chch.
We both had a great trip with Lesh adding a few more 5′s and 4′s to her name (and flashing both 4′s)
We got a heap of easier problems done though (50 in total), was a nice way to spend Christmas and New Year.
Froggat Comp was awesome, great work by everyone involved, I haven’t had to climb that much in a long time, was happy with my repeat of Chewing Nurofen but was unable to repeat Mr Meaner (punter) and Duck Fat so had to settle for 3rd place.The comp was taken out by a visiting Swiss dude! love it when that hapens.
Lesh didn’t compete, but did spend a little bit of time on her project “Chewing Neurofen” making good progress, its just coming down to trusting a horrible pocket!
We have also just been hanging around Wharepapa searching out any noew potential (of which there is a bit) and trying to get a decenct amount of rock time. have put up a couple of new probs out there now, most recently “Crybaby” 7b which is a cool sit start on sharp sharp holds just down from “ouch” on the pond boulder. After I sent it Lesh had had enough of trying “ouch” and had a few cracks on my new problem and got close. Its disappointing running out of time on projects you want to do before a trip but thats the way it goes, hopefully she’ll get it done when we get back! I also have spent a couple of short sessions on my Arete Proj, haven’t sent yet but worked out my crux move and now its really doable for short people as well. Hopefully, if its not done when I get back i’ll send it quickly. Not super hard, but tricky enough to stump you for a bit I think.
On a more exciting note, Lesh and I have 10 days in the Ticino valley on the 16th of March. the ticklist is ready but having no idea what it is going to be like over there. Who knows how we will do! We have been training pretty hard though and will have rest week before we go so hopefully we will be in good form! We are just looking forward to getting overseas and trying some new stuff!
Will have many pictures for you after the trip, and I promise you won’t have to wait so long next time for an update!
Summertime
1For most people summertime is when the rope comes out and the boulder mats go away. For the weirdo’s like us, we typically hide inside and train.
Currently we have been focusing a lot on finger board, namely because i want to send Col’s Traverse aka “paper tiger” and that seems to be what it is coming down to. I assure you when I send it you guys wll know about it and I’ll hopefully have some footage of it to put up. We have ventured out a few times over the last few weeks and I have spent about 2 days on the problem so far. I have every move wired it now just is coming down to a confidence thing, that and a little fear of success. Hopefully after a few more weeks of training I can send it in the new year!
Have been becoming increasingly frustrated at the Froggat guide, I recently did a problem called “Seeing the light” supposedly 7b, it is nails, confirmed by James FM who believes it to be “The Mission” 7c. Apparently a few strong Hamilton locals have done it and so I am staying with the idea that it is called seeing the light. Its a fantastic problem the best 3 moves I’ve done for a while, I thoroughly enjoyed the problem.
I also tried wht i thought was “The Mission” but it must be an eliminate as what I climbed (below) was lots of fun to climb but probably about a 6
Aleshia has been making good progress and is coming frustratingly close to sending “stretched out” 7b, she is climbing quite well but suffering from the lack of variety and exposure to different rock and problems but hopefully in the coming weeks we can go somewhere a bit different!
On another far more exciting note,with a little help from MOTIV, I have found a new area that fingers crossed will allow for some summer bouldering. First reccie looks promising and when we head back out in January it should yield a few harder lines.
Hope everyone has a great christmas and make sure you “like” MOTIV Stuff on Facebook to get the promo code for the Christmas Specials!!!!
Exciting News
0The Motiv Team, distributors of MOON, BLURR, GYMOSS & BEASTMAKER have brought Liam on board as a Brand Ambassador.
Now doesn’t that sound fancy!
Motiv has also seen fit to bring Stoo into the mix too. Exciting!
In less exciting news it looks like its raining everywhere so maybe just a weekend of training and or resting up as its only 5 months until the good conditions in NZ & Oz return!
Wellington Trip Report
0It was a 5 hour drive from Tauranga down to Paraparaumu (aka the ‘umu) – just outside of Wellington, to stay at Motiv Founders Matt and Vanessa’s.
The next day we drove another 1 ½ hours to Turakirae Head for some bouldering!
We parked up and walked for 45 min to get to the boulders! Possibly a little further than the guide implies….. On the way I drank a bit too much water and the search for a boulder without gorse was a little difficult, so that was unfortunate.
Liam found the guide to be difficult and navigating the climbs consisted of walking through a jungle of uncooperative flax, grass and boulders. It made you think everything was a bit of a walk away when really it was 20m away from you! Definitely needs a scale or something!
I threw my boulder mat around quite a bit during this time. But we found the boulders we wanted and Liam and Matt did Tyrant 7c? (maybe easier) while I paparazzied around.
Vanessa sunbathed on the boulder mats and gave us beta…
She is climbing cripple at the moment after having shoulder re-construction. It was sad not having another girl to climb with… fingers crossed she’ll be back on the rock soon. After I scoffed all the food we brought 
I tried Kash and Karry (7a) and Rotund (6c+) I did Kish Kash.
I was a bit disappointed with my performance on the rock, I seem to be lacking in power endurance (though the problems are longer than the ones I’m used to at Froggat).
Liam did so well (maybe because I was being a good cheerleader) making good progress on Allison Wonderland 8a and has got his sequence down, just needs enough power to link and will do it next time fo sure.
Matty made good progress on Fatal Discharge 8a and hopefully will get it done in the next few weeks, IF the rain stops.
The next day I was sick L with some kind of stomach bug? and had to watch everyone down pizza for lunch while I ate Sorbet – by the way the Mediterranean Food Warehouse (42 Constable St Wellington) make great pizza and sorbet.
All in all, our thoughts about the trip are that the rock was quite slick and close together, but generally good; Worth another trip down; Loved the walking bit (lol); An ideal long-weekend destination for us. Matt and Vanessa’s is also an ideal bed and breakfast place to stay :p
Lesh
Trips, Training and Rain
0So far the past few weeks since wellington have been super quite on the climbing front.
Wellington was mildly successful, I managed the 2nd ascent of Tyrant with Matt grabbing the 3rd. Originally graded 9 but by unwinding to a crimp before taking the under cling it makes it much easier and probably warrants a down grade. Will wait and see on that front. Nice problem through a little tricky to get the hips in the right place and climbs ok. I think the local Young Gun called Josiah did it the following weekend. Also managed to piece together ALW and hopefully I will get down there in Dec to have a good day on it.
Training is going well with a reset of the walls and finishing up on our campusing. We were graced with strong man Stoo after his successful trip back from Rocklands last week.
The new problems are going well and my finger injury seems to have come right so am working on getting strength back in my left ring finger now on the Beastmaker 2000, coming soon to motivstuff! (not how I injured it either)
We will be updating our training section with what we are exactly doing over the next week. Have been a bit slack with this lately mainly due to work and the bad weather being un-motivating to write about exciting climbing things.
We even tried to find some climbing at Blowhard Bush this week but unfortunately the rain across the north island thwarted us. All we got to was looking up at what I think was teapot boulder. Unfortunately that was as far as we got.
Hopefully I can get my hands on a guide for the area so next time we are down we have something to report!
Watch this space for more training updates and photo’s to come!
To Wellington!!!
0Only 2 more days to we leave for a day and a half’s climbing at the RAK.
Hoping to grab an ascent of Musashi, I was so close on last time I went, and hopefully a 2nd ascent of Tyrant or Boiler Plate?
Lesh will be trying her hand at Uber Rotund, Toast or Attack! Toast thoroughly kicked my arse last in 08 thwarting my efforts on Pumping Iron. Lets hope she has better luck than me.
Rumor has it that Motiv Man Matt has his eyes on Mr Olympia for this weekend.
So many options and such a short trip, frustration central!!
Will get back to you with a trip report on our return.
Weekend Out
0With bad weather on its way through the North Island, LAD grabbed Zac AKA Trixie and headed out so lesh could have a morning on one of her projects, Stretched Out (7b) and see if I could piece together Deflow (7c).
Lesh had a good warm up, repeating last weeks 6 on her first pop! She then set about working Stretched Out’s powerful first move and tricky middle section. Meanwhile Triixe and his GO GO Gadget Arms made Double Trouble (7a) look like it wasn’t even an effort. Not too shabby considering he’s only been back climbing for a month.
I sent Stretched out on my 2nd go after slipping out of one of the wet middle holds while lesh pieced the moves together. On her last go of the day managing to get all of the moves linked with just a little bit of power for the start move! She’ll do it on out next day out for sure.
We then mosy’d over to the Deflow and I had a couple of goes. Its a relatively straight forward problem, not overly difficult or as sharp as I remeber it being last time back in 2007. It all boils down to 1 move for me, a small pocket before a double take to the massive 2 finger pocket. My dead pointing skill are not that good but I was able to lock the move so hopefully arriving fresh with the sequence sorted and my game face on I should be able to finish it up.
Trixie and Lesh tried Power On (7a+) a pockety traverse while we were there, not a particularly nice problem but has a couple of cool moves in it. Both of them had some mild success and maybe next time.
Had a quick look at Subtle as well while we were over there. Supposed 7c+ I’m not entirely sure where it starts either, the ’03 guide isn’t that crash hot on explaining where problems are…..Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
All in all a good day out, a bit disappointing that we ran out of gas before we could send the problems but that’s how the game goes!
Looking forward to next weekend. Aleshia and I will be off to wellington to meet up with the Motiv Team and hopefully have a good serious go at Allison Wonderland (8a), hopefully snake it from Matt who’s had a couple of days on it or I might put my effort into Musashi (7c+) got close to that in 2008 but no send so should be a good day out. Either of those would be a good birthday present!
