Cheeks 'N' Beaks

Since the last entry the super cold weather has tipped me from route mode to bouldering mode, though I still have ambitions to keep up the routing through winter when weather allows.
Had a fun day at the Roaches trying to do routes, but cold feet and a bad head meant I got nothing done except Hunky Dory, a really good E3 on the lower tier.
The latest block of days off included an excellent session at the Plantation. Conditions were good and lots of people were getting lots of things done, Nige and Andy J rinsed up White Wand, Nige then did Silk, Mike Adams did Brad Pit SS and Careless Torque. I did a couple of boulder probs I’d never done before, Mono Slab (right of Cresent Arete) and Pressure Drop, plus finally did Archangel with the help of some padding and an excessive amount of going up and coming downing again. Quite psyched to go back and do Don and White Wand if I can strap my mind down enough!
Other than that I’ve been attempting a new boulder prob to the right of Happy Campus at Rivelin Quarry. Inspection from the insitu Cressbrook ladder revealed a loose ear of rock that pulled off to leave a first joint diagonal edge. I thought about gluing the ear back on to keep it as a super hard project but then promptly lost it amongst the leaf litter below. Duly cleaned I spent the best part of a day with Ben P doing a few possibly new warm-ups around a little roof right of the quarry (including a great Offwidth roof crack) and attempting the project. Initial efforts to gaston the new edge led to a highpoint strung out at full span on tiny edges with no apparent means of releasing a foot to move up. Having reached an impasse this way I tried using the edge as a layaway instead. By the end of the session I’d done all but the last two moves and figured it would go at a hard 7c+. The plan on the following day was to meet up with team Beastmaker (‘Back-two’ Dan and Nedwyn ‘folding boy’ Feastlally), fill the van up with big gym pads and head over for a highball session at Black Rocks. Early wetness put paid to such heroics and a return to Rivelin seemed like a suitable wetness/snow avoidance option. Much of the rock was wet when we arrived but fortunately Nik’s Wall and most of the holds on the proj were dry. I ragged off the top holds of the project while the yeastmakers had a do on Nik’s. Bob and Rob Smith arrived and everyone struggled to get warmed up on tiny crimps. Already trashed skin stopped Dan’s attempts at Nik’s wall, though he did seem to be making some headway before getting a splitter. After a few warm up goes on the proj I managed (with a push on) to do the two moves I’d failed on the day before and they felt a lot easier than I’d expected. Only the link now to do and after a quick rest it went down first go. I was mighty please as it’s a cracking line with brilliant powerful and tenuous moves. Difficulty of warming up, thin skin and the cold was sapping the rest of the teams psyche, hence only Dan managing the repeat (after only a few goes with a heinously powerful basic sequence). I’m not very sure on the grade, having not done much bouldering yet this year, but I’m going in at low end 7c and seeing what others reckon. As ever, it started out feeling horrendously hard and felt fine when I did it and even easier when I did it again for some pics, ho hum guessing grades is as hard as ever. It deserves some popularity as it’s nice and pully on positive holds, one of those rare grit probs where wall strength is very useful, so it shouldn’t take too long to get some more opinions on the difficulty. I can’t think of a better name so will go with the one devised on the day - Cheeks ’n’ Beaks, after a fictional chicken based breakfast cereal made with only our finest crunchy beaks and squeaky cheeks, yes ma’am a treat for all the family. The rest of the afternoon was spent messing about on the edge with the Smiths. We were all being a bit lame on Europe After Rain until Rob pulled it together for the team, good work yoot.



Cheers to Dan for the pics!