Toot toot!

On Tuesday I got back from a ten day trip to Magic Wood. Nominally justified as Dobbin’s stag do, it turned out to be more of a straight-up climbing trip in the end with Herr stag-egg getting away very lightly on the piss up and ritual humiliation front. I’d like to have seen Dobbin lashed with cling film to the underside of the bridge, but aside from this minor disappointment it was a really good trip.
Me, ‘boiled crab’ Cofield and Jerry Le Sage travelled over in the van which was a pretty epic full day drive on either end of the trip, leaving eight days to climb or rest in the middle.
Having spent the last few months mostly trad climbing I set out with no climbing expectations of the trip other than to have a relaxed time and hopefully give my finger strength a bit of a mid season boost. As it turned out I wasn’t as weak as expected and managed to get loads of good problems done at (magic?) grades above expectations. Generally had good fun running about the woods searching out and picking off the best looking probs and managed to clock up a decent tally of sevens: Du Cote De Szechuan, Supernova, Man of a Cow, Schnee Brett, Jack the Chipper, Hohenrauch, Sudenfall, Iron Butterfly, La Dance, Goldfisch, Grit De Luxe, Slip Slop Slap, Dropzone and Protecktor. Had a good go on Never Ending Story II on the last day whilst sitting out some rain, managing all but move one and got very close to that despite awfully greasy conditions, certainly top of the list of probs to try if I every go to MW again.
The weather was pretty kind with next to no rain and relatively cool temps on most days after a couple of scorchers early on. A bit of midday heat gave a great excuse to lounge about for hours talking shit before heading out for evening crush.
Trip banter was exceptional especially on campsite with Cofe, Sausage, Good King Henry and ‘one trick jet propelled pony’ Rocketman Rob Smith. Many a happy hour was spent talking utter drivel and jibing the comedy manner and stylings of the insitu euros.
Everyone else seemed to have a good trip too (see Dob’s blog for a fuller run down on what folk did). Cofe climbed well bagging up loads of stuff including Supernova, Fool Fighter, Hohenrauch, Goldfisch, Schnee Brett and Jack the Chipper. Rocketman pulled the stops out for an impressive flash of Jack the Chipper, as well as being the only person to get up the very tricky Swizz Beats. Jerry put in a good fight on Octopussy (good luck next trip) as well as finding time to school everyone on Hohenrauch, casually shaking out on a static pull through the ‘slap’ crux – the crowd went wild, just like Leeds ‘89.
Ended up taking even less photos than I usually do, but I think cofe took a good few (no doubt era defining) pics and I’ll post a link to them if I can.
Effort to Dobbin and Dr Pinch for getting the whole thing together and a big toot-toot to all the other hommes!