An old one I forgot to post

Here’s an entry I wrote a week or so back but hadn’t got round to posting:


Not a great deal to report since last time really. The trad grit mission continues though the weather has conspired against any remarkable deeds. Have done a couple more E4s, Joker’s Wall – Brimham and Hathersage Trip – Stanage, some easier leading and soloing and the odd spot of bouldering. The highlight of the bouldering being a day at Slipstones, dragging my sorry ass up Micro Corner, Sulky Little Boy RH and Layby Arete. Strangely I found them to be in the reverse order of difficulty to what the grade suggested. I’ve also had one good session on the previously mentioned route project.
To kill time during some of the wet days, I’ve taken to going out and abbing routes that I’ve decided I will never attempt to ground-up otherwise. This includes routes which are just too dirty to attempt without pre-cleaning and harder routes which I don’t feel up to sticking my neck out on without some knowledge of the gear. This may offend some purist, but I’ve come to a realisation that if I want to do some of these routes (and I do) that this is the purest approach I personally can manage and as such I’m happy to do this. The work on the new Gritlist goes along with this pragmatic ‘best style you can manage’ approach and may save me having to abb some stuff I might otherwise have blown the ground-up on. To be honest though I’m less and less concerned with the minutia of how my ascents might be defined, so long as I’m striving to push myself and do things in the best style I can manage, so be it. Too many folk end up doing next to nothing rather than getting on and just doing stuff however best they can, which seems a shame. Less than perfect ascents are after all quite valuable as stepping stones to better style. I’m no trad hero and I figure I’m not going to improve fast if I tie myself to trying everything onsight and ground-up. More importantly I will not end up getting on brilliant routes I might otherwise do. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not inspired to delve into headpointing, other than for the purposes of new routing. I’ve still got far too many good easier routes I want to do before I need to consider headpointing.