A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama

For the last week or so I’ve been mostly trying to get back into the limestone. This has involved two truly dismal sessions at Rubicon, one semi decent one at the tor, two days failing to do a grim 8a at Malham (Main Overhang – used to be 7c+/8a, has since lost holds and is hard bouldery 8a) and one sweaty humid day failing to get up a 7a+ at High Tor!!! Not a very auspicious start to the white season by any reckoning. I blame it on the School closing and goodish weather meaning I have done nothing but grit since my trip away. It’s depressing being weak, but at least I’m not down with injury…
On a positive note the St George’s Day Mushrooms are out and I have lot’s in the fridge waiting to be scoffed. These are pretty common and well easy to identify (especially given that they are the only large mushroom of any sort growing at this time), very much a beginner’s mushroom that everyone should think about seeking out.
The only really enjoyable day I’ve had cragging in the last two weeks was this Sat. A bunch of us (Cofe, Nige, Bogg, Kim L)manned up and walked into the Grinah Stones on Bleaklow. This is a place I’ve been meaning to check out for years. It’s a bloody long walking, but the climbing is great. We did some brilliant probs, at least one of which had probably not been done before. In keeping with the crag ethic I won’t go into too much detail. Suffice to say we all had a brilliant time and will be heading back. Due to starting fairly late we missed the last bus along the reservoir road (no cars allowed at weekend) so had to walk 6.7 miles to get back to the car! I was tres goosed on Sunday.
Cofe got some cracking pics. Cheers for letting me use a couple yoot.