Pear of joy

Big One

2010-08-16T12:15:00.002Z

Since the last post the siege engines have been well and truly wheeled out on Monumental. I’ve been happy to do this because it’s without doubt one of the Peak’s great lines. Much as I love it, sporty limestone of the Peak variety rarely has much of a line, climbs tend to join together the bitty features, or more often just blast up in a straight line a given distance from the neighbouring ‘line’. Even when a strong feature does exist, those on Revelations or Mecca for example, these often fizzle out halfway up the crag. Not so the mighty Monumental, this is a great big slash across the whole face of the Cornice, overhung in all dimensions – this thing has more line than Network Rail. Yorkshire lime has the Big Three, the Triple Crown, a triplet of peerless 8a+ routes on the Dales’ big three limestone crags. The Peak has only one 8a+ (grade debate aside) of this calibre, as such Monumental is surely the Peak’s Single Crown, this is our Big One.
I’ve passed by this feature many many times and it’s always intrigued me a lot. It just looked so unattainable, as much because on almost all occasions it was festering under gallons of alien death slime and peppered with half buried rust blobs for bolts. The crown had slipped, the Big One was long in the wilderness, unclimbed and unclimbable for over a decade. Years have come and gone and all attempts to resurrect it have been vain. Reviving this route would clearly take an exceptionally dry year and several determined climbers several days of misery. 2010 looked like it might just be the year. Simon Davies and myself both spent a day tunnelling through years of accreted slime crust, one man saviour of Peak sport climbing Jon Clark put in two days of bolting and cleaning, then Kris Clemmow finished the job by removing the old bolts. This was a month or two ago and with subsequent traffic (at least eight ascents to date) the route is now in fantastic condition, bone dry, super clean and re-equipped with shiny new 12mm resin bolts. Standing beneath it today it’s hard to picture just how horrendous it was at the start of the season. For a brief while the Big One is back in all its glory. Long may it hold out, though in the end the slime will always win.
The window of opportunity being brief and unpredictable, I really wanted to take the chance while it lasted. The only problem was that it didn’t seem to want me to get up it. Despite having lots of knees and weirdness it just didn’t suit me, the reputedly ok crux section felt like the world’s hardest move to me(a persistent left wrist injury didn’t help) and the final lurch into the groove hurt my dupytren’s afflicted hand, as well as being a notorious sting in the tail from hell. Progress was slow and sessions on it left me feeling beasted for days. Gradually though the pieces were coming together. The fettling of kneepads became a minor obsession for me and Nige. The ultimate pad arrangement involved one on the left knee stiffened with a plastic insert and a thinner one for the right with a grippy rubber top layer, both held in place with a combo of gaffer tape, lacing and double sided sticky tape. Each use incurs a price in kneepit chaffing and hairloss on removal, though I never quite stooped to shaving the knees.
An uncounted number of sessions later (I’d guess at about nine!), the war of attrition was won, second redpoint on a Thursday afternoon session with back two Dan. I was lucky it went down that go too, as I acquired a split tip and a tweaked shoulder on route. Nige turned up shortly after and finished off his (somewhat shorter) Monumental battle.
All in all I really enjoyed the whole thing and I’m happy to add to the hype around the route. It’s a superb climb, with brilliant satisfying moves and not a single glued hold throughout ( a rare thing on a Peak route of this grade). Get on it people, it’ll soon be gone again and for who knows how long this time.

I haven't got any pics of Monumental, so here's one of Roy Mosley on nearby jug Jockey. This pic was taken in 2005, the last time the crag dried out. MA is the (dirty)left to right groove left some way left of Roy.

Giving it away

2010-07-15T11:38:00.003Z

Back in August 08 I wrote about a project found and bolted at the Cornice http://pearofjoy.blogspot.com/2008/08/big-bites-too-much-to-chew.html . It’s essentially a direct start to Love Among the Butterflies, breaking right from the initial bulge of R’n’P. Unfortunately since that date it got wet almost straight away and remained so for the rest of that year then the whole of the next. So except for a bit of fettling in poor conditions I never gave it a proper go. Along comes summer 2010 and exceptional conditions at the Cornice to find me critically short of the time, power and fitness needed to have a decent hope of getting the thing done. So a dilemma, do I wade into a no doubt protracted siege with low hopes for success, do I sit on it until some future confluence of conditions and fitness, or do I pass it on to a better man then sit back and let them do the hard work? From the way I just phrased this dilemma it’s probably obvious that I opted to call in the big guns. In truth the project was beyond the level of my best sport climbing efforts and would have required a serious step up and I just can’t be arsed with big sieges, never could be. I’m more a middle distance redpointer. One to three days is fun, four to six is just about tolerable if the route is amazing, more than that and it feels like time ill spent. On top of this, had I thrown my eggs into the project basket I would have missed out on a rare opportunity to climb some of the countries best sport routes.
So I told Bransby the project was now open and he gave it a go. He then suggested Caff have a go as he had just done Love Among the Butterflies so already had half the route in the bank. I was fortunate enough to be at the crag some days later when he succeeded on the route. Now this guy’s a well oiled carbon fibre crush machine and the route plays to his strengths, but he still managed to make it look hard, so I think it’s safe to say it was a good idea for me to give the thing up. Subsequent attention from Steve McClure and Jon Clark has confirmed Caff’s suggestion of 8b+.
Being a proper nice guy/machine Caff suggested that as equipper I name the route on his behalf. The name Barney Ragin’ refers to Caffisms which might be familiar to belayers, typically after a ten second shake out before a mind pulping runout - “Sorry guys I’m just being a total ragin’, I’ll be off for a barney in a sec” – proceed to casually dispatch. His on route apologising is legendary.
The only condition for giving away the proj was that whoever did it must go to Thor’s and get on one of my 7c+s. So finally after endless exhortations to all and sundry and an arm made sore from beating the same drum for five years I had finally managed to bribe someone to get on Escape to Valhalla, hoo-fuckin-ray! I was glad to see it didn’t go down without a fight (to be fair he had just climbed Thormen’s and had done Monumental Armblaster the day before, plus the crux has two reachy moves, but nevertheless….), taking a couple of redpoints. What’s even better is that he thought it was “amazing”, “totally bonkers” and “8a”. Going back on it myself I was surprised how hard the crux was and bemused as to why I’d not given it 8a in the first place, I mean everyone knows no one gets out of bed for 7c+s these days, even three star ones, so by undergrading it I’d ensured a lack of repeats. For the tick hungry 8a.noodler 7c+ is just too much like an 8’s worth of effort without the number to show for it. I’m sure it sounds mighty hubristic being so bothered about people repeating my route, but to me it feels more like a wish to share an amazing thing, rather than a chance to trumpet my own merit. The best bit about climbing is surely enthusing about a climb with someone who’s experienced the same and this is especially so when the route in question is treasure you’ve personally unearthed.
As it turned out I got a bit more crag time than expected and the time not spent seiging the project was put to good use reeling in a pair of splendid 8a+s in K3 and R’n’P. Now I’ve gone and got myself embroiled in a potential siege on Monumental, which is surely 8b and feels like a big undertaking for me, but it’s one of those rare mega routes where I don’t mind putting in the extra sessions. At least I think I’ll manage a few more before I get bored. Or maybe it’s just the technical challenge of making the perfect kneepad that’s keeping me interested.

Starting the crux sequence on Escape

Final tricky moves to gain the belfry belay

P.S. Having written that bit about folk being 8 obsessed number whores I thought I’d best check my facts. So I did a search for 7c, 7c+ and 8a ascents in the UK, in the last month, registered on 8a.nu. There were 47 ascents at 7c, 23 ascents at 7c+ and 55 ascents of 8a. Factoring in five ascents of Lockless Monster, a book graded 8a which has only just been downgraded to 7c+ due to recent ascents, i.e. the five ascents probably went on it as an 8a; it comes to 60 at 8a and only 18 at 7c+! I rinky-dink rest my case.

P.P.S Big thanks to JC and Chris for all the hard work re-bolting! And hiya to Andy C, good to get the old team back in action again. Hope the shoulder recovers quickly

Buried Alive

2010-06-18T11:53:00.012Z

So far the summer of 2010 is proving to be a good one for peak sport climbing conditions. The Cornice is already as dry as late summer 2005, which was the last time it came into condition, and we aren’t even at longest day yet. Now it could all go horribly wrong and I hate to tempt fate, mid-summer monsoons do seem to be the pattern after all, but you never know this might just turn out to be a mega summer. If the Cornice fully dries and stays dry I predict that it’ll get the re-bolt it needs, loads of things that haven’t been repeated in years (including the legendary Monumental Armblaster), will see some action, second ascents will happen and maybe even the odd new things will get put up.
All this dry climbing at the Cornice reminds me of the year I got involved with another seepage prone peak crag, Thor’s Cave. Yep, I'm going to bang the Thor's drum, again! It’d be nice to think that now we have some dryness that this awesome venue will also see some well deserved attention. I guess part of it’s apparent obscurity is that there aren’t many inspiring pictures of the routes out there, it’s a bit of a drive from Sheffield and it’s just off the collective radar of most sport climbers. This is a damn shame as it’s the nearest you’ll get to Spanish madness without having to get on a plane. The other problem is that people have tended to only think of the place when wracking their brains for somewhere cool and shady to go in the worst muggy days of summer. As the wise will know, cave get goppy in such weather. Conditions wise the crag behaves somewhat like a seacliff and if treated the same way you won’t go wrong. Just like for instance St Govan’s it will suffer condensation on hot still days, especially in the morning. Go late in the day on muggy days, or save it for a fresher day, maybe with a bit of a breeze and it will be fine. Or ask me to assess the forecast and I’ll make an educated guess for you.
I’ll describe the route here and maybe someone will be tempted to check the place out.
Thormen’s is a well known and justly popular 7c+/8a with spectacular upside down climbing in the arch barrel of the front entrance. Further back the cave opens out into a huge vaulted chamber, well lit by the main entrance and the west window. The routes in the body of the cave by the nature of the space tend to finish at the apex of roof as opposed to the top of the crag.

Thormens

The easiest and most popular of these is Midgard Serpent 7b+, a crazy line up a ridiculously overhanging trench, requiring imagination and proficient use of knees.
Its companion route Fenris is a touch less steep following a line of attractive pods to a boulder problem crux, again at 7b+.

Aussie nice guy Matt Kelly on Midgard Serpent

Next up difficulty wise is Loki the Trickster 7c. Loki initially climbs a flat overhanging wall on spaced pockets to a mini flake, it then makes a desperate move left on a slopey hold that looks like a fossil plum and finishes up a steady groove. You’re then on to the real quality, a pair of long 7c+s taking either side of the internal arch at its highest.
The lefthand one, Spear of Odin, takes a Malhamesque gently overhanging wall on pockets flakes, undercuts, rock ears and a short tufa. It then gets really steep until a swing onto the opposite side of the arch is forced, then some amazing 3D strangeness with bridging, a kneebar, cutlooses and footlocks to gain ‘the belfry’ a hanging chimney hands off rest where the route finishes.

Spear of Odin

The other 7c+ Escape to Valhalla is my favourite route in the cave with totally unique climbing from start to finish on brilliant rock. It gains the same finishing moves as Spear but this time via a line of huecos up the cave’s central grey pillar. The moves to get in and out of the crux hueco are truly bonkers and bound to put a smile on your face. The crux involves quite a span and the only repeat ascent so far was by a shorty who was forced to make an inferior leftward deviation here, which is a shame as this misses out the best climbing. The extended finish along the lower of the two roof faults is a thrutchy 8a called Ragnarok, but it makes more sense to do this section as part of the next route.

Escape goes up the pillar on the left into a huge hole in the roof, the continuation along the roof is Ragnarok

Most recently Dan Varian upped the cave ante with his Muoguo 8b+. Which take the theme of super steep technical roofwork to a whole different level. And there are still a few lines to go.
As well as the single pitch stuff the crag has one exceedingly weird outing that has yet to be repeated, or indeed completed without falls in a single push. You will not find anything even remotely similar anywhere else in the Peak. It’s more akin to seacave oddities like Preposterous Tales than anything else in the peak, but being an old aid route is very well protected with bolts. Buried Alive is a six pitch outing which frees the aid route Osiris in its entirety, starting in the cave’s darkest eastern recess, following a twisting line of weakness in the roof and eventually emerging to finish at the top of the crag via the classic HVS West Window Groove.

Looking back at the start of Buried Alive. Spear goes up the LH sidewall, Escape goes up the right.

Kristian on pitch one of Buried Alive

Here’s the description:
Buried Alive 7c+ ***
A very weird journey freeing the old aid route Osiris. Starting in the deepest recesses of the cave and finishing on top of the hill. Could probably be done in fewer pitches with careful ropework.

Pitch 1: E3 5c/6b+ - From almost the far end of the west passage climb a muddy ramp (bold) on the right to gain the line of bolts in the roof. Chimney along the rift past lots of aid bolts and spiders to an awkward about turn move to gain a subsidiary chimney on the North wall. Headtorchs essential!
Pitch 2: 6c+ - Traverse from the sub-chimney along the north wall up into the high rift. Continue along this clipping what bolts you can reach beneath you. Where the rift closes off make a tricky dropdown onto a muddy jug and swing down onto the south wall where a hanging belay can be arranged.
Pitch 3: 7c+ - Traverse the south wall into Ragnarok and follow this passing the crux moves around a corner into a hanging slab/ramp, belay.
Pitch 4: 7b+ - The thrutchy bunched traverse section of Ragnarok followed to where this ends at a hands off position in a small chimney, belay.
Pitch 5: 6a – A short pitch dropping down and through the west window to attain the outside world. The second may wish to use a back rope.
Pitch 6: HVS – Finish up West Window Groove for the summit experience.

The forecast for the weekend looks ideal, sunny with a breeze. Someone for god sake go and do some of these route, then there'll be two of us banging on about how good they are rather than just me!

Almost a tweet

2010-06-09T11:34:00.003Z

Whilst on my lunchtime stroll to Tesco a few weeks back I spotted a four leaf clover beside the road. I hurried back to the office, sprig in hand and quickly laminated it to trap the luck! I’m still waiting for some hard evidence of its power, though I did find a tenner on the street yesterday.

Here’s why I haven’t blogged in a while. Mr Spike J Fullwood.

Here’s a Spider Crab and a Brown Crab I foraged in Cornwall last week.

I’m building up to writing something interesting from the doings of the last six months or so, but one step at time eh, don’t want to rush into anything!

Last of the Summer Lime

2009-11-05T17:31:00.004Z

There goes another block of six days off (soz Dobbin). The weather was a right mixed bag and the climbing was much the same with only three good days of climbing possible and a varied hodgepodge of climbing being squeezed into the good bits.

Thurs – A very lack lustre day out at Gardom’s on very damp scrittly green rock with Mr Heason. Not really the best choice of crag but I dare say most places would have been a bit gack. Warmed up doing a new line up the RHS of the Moyer’s Buttress arete. The damp, scrittle and lack of easier warm up meant I got super pumped and the guess of E3 5c might turn out to be over generous. It’s called Imperfect Way, starting up Perfect Day then bearing left to the arete and staying on the RHS till almost the top where a big footer on the arete makes it contrived not to finish up the front. We then spent effort throwing ourselves at a very wet Mickey Finn. Should have saved it for a dry day as it’s felt like it would normally be pretty steady for E6, but we were there and nothing better to do. Water and slopers do not go well together.

Fri – Friday was a better day. Warmed up with some bouldering at Millstone with Caff and Ryan, both of whom are living local now which is good news for the midweek scene. They both did an even more direct version of Green Death super direct, which avoided the lurch left with some more tenuous smearing. It looked a grade harder than the normal which would make it 7b+ I guess. Ryan also managed (after I’d left) to do a project I spied on the Embankment slab, about 4m left of Time for Tea, up a deadend line of peg scars to a big throw for a two finger pocket then a ledge. I think 7b+ was mentioned but no name as yet.

Not wanting to get involved in the Scritto’s scene I quickly legged it over to meet Cofe at Bamford. Did some more warmy up stuff then went to have a go at a lovely little project I’d spotted a week back, up the steep rippled wall left of Jasmin. It turned out to be as good as it looked giving a weird crimpy sequence with a kneescum, a cross under and a bit of a pop. I’m very pleased with this one. It’s called Rocky and is I think low end 7b. Here’s a couple of the pics Cofe got:

Sat – We were up at Fi’s mum’s in Holmfirth for the weekend so decided to head out on some Yorkshire Grit. It had been raining heavily in the night and Heptonstall looked like a good bet for quick drying rock, with not too big a drive. After forgetting to bring the guide we eventually found the crag and warmed up on the classic Thin Red Line. Then did the even more classic Willan’s monster Forked Lightning Crack, which was no pushover but not as hard as it looked. Next up was a peg protected E6 called A Step in the Light Green. This turned out to be pretty steady and really excellent. Managed to flash it after checking the pegs on abseil (they look fairly good). It’s a great route and well worth the visit. Finished off with a tricky Fawcett E4 finger crack Demerara. Top day out.

Sun – Manky weather so rested and went for a walk in some gale force winds.

Mon – Took someone out for a ‘guided’ mushroom hunting walk. Not a bad way to earn some extra pennies.

Tues – Met up with Caff and Ryan, with the rather optimist plan of heading to the Roaches. After a fair bit of driving around wet venues we eventually ended up at the Tor of all places. Not what I’d hoped for having pretty much written Lime off for the year. It was cold and hard to keep fingers warm but otherwise great nick. Al Murray(?) was doing everyone a favour and bolting Obscene Gesture, a good effort and long overdue IMO (many of the holds and one of the gear placements having broken meaning it never got done as a trad route). Caff and Ryan did Hot Flushings in a few goes after both putting in a good stab at the onsight. I was surprised to get up Call of Nature having not pulled on any lime since probably August. Bonus!

Hooked on Classics

2009-10-22T11:55:00.002Z

Elgar's Bell Jar's - E4 6b with handy tree runner

The days are shortening and once more it has reached climbing wall evenings time of year. Bouldering will soon become the main focus again but for now the weather is still warm enough for routes and I intend to drag out the route season as far as I can. This summer has been a time for magnificent traditional climbing, mostly of a local flavour. It’s been a while since the last blogging and in that time I’ve done loads of classic, amazing routes, some of great personal significance. This has felt like a liberating experience. Regardless of how good some UK sport routes are they are concentrated on a small number of crags and I think perhaps I had got bored with the whole repetitive redpoint process on the same old crags. And of course numerous years seeking out the best sport routes has inevitably led to diminishing returns in terms of quality objectives. Suddenly having multiple guidebooks worth of quality routes at numerous crags to go at is a real breath of fresh air and has kept me constantly motivated despite the annoying ongoing wrist injury. So much variety of rock and movement. The whole intricate of protection game. The mental toing and froing of the bold and the cerebral and physical challenge of the safe and hard. It has also been a liberation from ego. Finally soloing Downhill Racer after years of avoidance will never sound as impressive as doing an 8b even if the 8b might only represents a couple of weeks intense effort, whilst DR has been a goal and a nemesis since the age of 16 and the reward is purely personal. Here are a few standouts from a lot of recent climbing:
Downhill Racer, Oedipus – Two long time nemeses done on the same day. Stepping off the ground was indeed the crux on DR and one that took years to execute.
Gigglin’ Crack, Left wall – A great day out at Brimham with the Rocketman. Extreme chicken winging on Gigglin’ and my first proper tricky offwidth. A good consulation prize for not being able to get my dupuytrens kinked hand into the first jam on Ray’s Roof.
Death Knell, Up the Swanee – A couple of the Roaches finest not so well travelled routes. The former a perfect solo which felt a joy once commited, the later done by mistake thinking I was on The Swan!
Elgar’s Bell Jars – A new route at Stanton-in-the-Woods. A couple of perfect moves on very shapely slopers.
Good Clean Fun – Just as the name suggests. Nice landing, pristine rock and each move easier than the last.
Space Shuffle – Not so clean but just as fun. Made a complete meal of it but got there in the end. Great to do anything vaguely tricky at the foreboding bastion that is Wimberry and good to see Miles and Ben in action.

Autumn Gold

2009-09-25T11:44:00.003Z

Since doing The Great Tribulation I’ve been only going out on the grit. Funny really, I spend all summer hanging on for bits of limestone to dry, then after repeated disappointment I give up and turn elsewhere only for the buggers to go and dry out! I wonder if anyone’s looked at the bastard Cheedale Cornice lately. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the stuff there is bone dry. Typical.
It’s been great making the most of the decent weather at Higgar, Stanage, Curbar, both Burbages, Hen Cloud and Baldstones. Finished off Snug as a Thug (crafty trademark kneebar came in handy), got beasted trying Ray’s Roof, had an excellent day ticking classics at Hen Cloud (8 routes, 16 E points, 23 stars) such a good crag and a remarkably productive lazy Sunday at Burbage S, doing Pebble Mill, The Knock, Above and Beyond all of which I’d managed to avoid the issue on before.
I love this time of year. Either it rains and you get to pick loads of mushrooms or it doesn’t and the crags are mint. It’s a win win situation. Soon enough winter will arrive and it’ll be bouldering and indoors of an evening, at which point the consequences of a summer/autumn of pottering will become painfully apparent, but for now I’m just happy to float with the current and leave the fighting up waterfalls for other fish and another day.

I haven't got any of my own pics to go with the post, so here's one of someone elses I found on Flickr. Interesting angle on the Cioch at Burb S, looks a bit like a huge dragon's head.

The Great Tribulation

2009-09-15T11:56:00.002Z

In the last week or two with the bracken starting to die back and enough wind to keep the midges away I’ve been mostly drawn toward the grit. You can’t beat going out picking off quality midgrade trad routes, recent the highlights include Sentinel and Emerald Cracks at Chatsworth; Moribund and Fern Groove at Stanage; Mighty Atom and Rasp Direct at Higgar; and Insanity and Apollo at Curbar. The best one that got away was Snug as a Thug on a Jug at the Cowper Stone, the green flared jams chewed me up and spat me out, but I’ll be back for more tonight and this time I’ll tape up!
Enjoying the grit so much it almost seemed a wrench to go back on my lime project, especially after a visit with Ted saw it wet with condensation. But return I did on Sat with Fi and this time the rock was perfectly dry and quickly remembered how brilliant it is.
Being now familiar with the route, having cleaned it and dogged it in bits, it was just a question of putting them together. On with the homemade kneepad and start the climb. Big move on angular features to a dinosaur’s mouth of a jug, clip some gear, jab in a big cam at full stretch. Lurch up to an undercut pinch, feet swing left into a kneebar and up to the slanting pod. Legs swing back right and fiddle in a wire. All well so far, now for the low crux. Stretch from the pod and a poor kneebar, way up a broad sloping pinch, powerfully work feet up into and Egyptian and reach to a good hold, clip a good peg and move left to a strenuous rest on the shoulder. Still feeling fairly fresh but this ‘rest’ is no place to linger. Reach back to a gaston, feet up and a barndoory crossover to a layaway pinch above, then full stretch to a rough blocky hold layaway, cutloose and swing feet over the cave to the point of a big hanging fang on the lip. Burl up quickly to the roof and another imperfect rest. At this point I’m wishing I’d clean more of the loose mud off the holds in the break. A decent pump has now set in as I make repeated forays over the little roof to arrange cams for the second crux up the finger cracked headwall, but more kneebaring helps to claw back some reserves for the finishing push. The final crack is steep and not as positive as it looks, I won’t spoil your already blown onsight further with too much beta but keep an eye out for holds on the right. It’s an excellent sequence and it’s a bit of a fight but goes well and all that remains is some yarding up finishing jugs to the chain. Lowering off and stripping the gear is epic due to the steepness. We pack up, head to Cromford for a chip butty and a can of D+B. Chuffed.
There you go, a blow by blow account and I don’t usually go in for those. It’s E6 6b, easily worth three stars (do I always say that?) and about 7c in sport grade money. I’ve called it The Great Tribulation, a reference from the religious dogma of my young upbringing, but mostly because I like the sound of it as a name and I think it well describes the grand struggle on offer.
I suppose there wasn't an excessive amount of ethical purity in my top down approach, but for me the dirt, loose rock and ancient fixed gear dictated this, I don't think I could have done it any other way and it was massively fun, so I'm glad I did. It was certainly more fun that making another 7c sport route of it. Now it’s clean and chalked it’s ripe for all you trad heroes to come along and do it ground-up. An onsight would be a bloody good effort, but a flash would be very attainable for plenty. I’m happy to give full beta if anyone is keen. Go and do it you freaks!

Back on the new route bus

2009-08-28T11:35:00.003Z

So far summer 09 hasn’t been much of a new routing season for me on the lime. Partly because I’ve been putting more time into cleaning/re-bolting existing routes and partly because I’ve been holding out for my Cornice project to dry out, which has yet to happen. To be honest, I think the ongoing tweaky wrist and the subsequent lack of proper hard climbing means that I’ll be in no shape to try that project even if it did end up drying. But all that’s by-the-by now as I have a very inspiring and amenable project on the go. What’s even more exciting is that it is that rarest of things a high quality, well protected, hard-but-not-too-hard, peak limestone trad route. I can’t even remember the last time I heard/read about a new trad route on peak lime (actually come to think of it I think Tom Randall did one of his roof crack specials at Harborough, but other than that….).
I’d been meaning to check out this line for a long time and when I couldn’t find anyone to go tradding with on Monday I decided to go take a look. I’d noticed some old looking threads and pegs in it on a previous occasion and a bit of background research had revealed that it had been tried but never completed (mostly due to it being partly wet at the time) about ten years ago.
Getting to the top was pretty hideous, involving trail blazing through chest high vegetation, on a steep hillside, in the rain and then a fair bit of abseiling down slope between trees. I was soaked by the time I’d got to the top and set up a rope. The route line is about 20m high, 8m overhanging, up stepped grooves to a small roof then finishing with an overhanging finger crack. The old insitu gear consisted of six pegs, three threads and one stuck microwire, there were also the empty sleeves of five or six bolts suggesting that maybe someone had envisaged it as a sport route at some point before or after the known attempt at climbing it trad. I didn’t have a full rack of gear with me so the steepness meant I couldn’t get close enough to clean/inspect the route, so I decided to return with a rack and cleaning gear the next day.
One thing I’d noticed on day one was the horrific nature of the topout where the rock deteriorates into overhanging blocks held together with mud and grass. The topout looked bad enough to spoil a great route somewhat and would prevent it from being completable in rainy conditions, which is a shame on an otherwise weatherproof line. Topping out would also involve venturing into the species rich slope for which the area is designated a SSSI. For these reasons the first thing I did on day two was to install a lower off. I then abbed the line to clean it up and check the insitu kit, placing gear as I went to hold me in. Two of the threads I re-threaded with new tape and one I removed without replacing. One peg broke off in my hand, the rest were in varying states of decay but have been left in for the time being. Some will certainly be useful on lead as they’ll provide an instant clip whilst fiddly trad gear is placed to back them up, but I’m not mad keen on testing any of them on their own. The line would be purer without them but would be a much more intimidating prospect to attempt ground up. For now they’ll stay but I may remove some or all of them in future and possibly replace one.
The rock took a bit of cleaning but nothing like the all over scrub down that some of the recent Cheedale things have required and looseness was confined mostly to small stuff. Now all I have to do is go back and give it a go. Fingers crossed for next week (away in N Wales for BH weekend).

And here's a pic from Ireland of some Sea Aster growing on the clifftop beside Mirror wall

Well hello

2009-08-17T11:46:00.003Z

Haven’t been particularly inspired to blog for a good while. Part of the blog lethargy stems from a feeling that their’s a backlog of blogworthy things which have happened since the last post, hence a feeling of not knowing where to start and what to cover. In hope of purging the backlog in one efficient splodge, here is a bullet point summary of some recentness. Hopefully the resultant clean slate might inspire me to produce something more worthwhile:

We are having a baby, due early next year.

Did Supercool which was brilliant. Planning to get on The Groove soon in an attempt to complete the famous Big 3.

Spent ages cleaning The Ogre (old school vertical 8a on Chee Tor) only for it to get wet the next day and stay wet ever since.

Put in a session on Ecstasy then Cold Steel at Kilnsey only to be thwarted in my ambitions on both due to external circumstance, firstly wetness and then everyone wanting to get on ‘my’ route, then holiday. Generally getting royally peeved with the whole UK redpoint interuptus game.

Had a great trip to the Burren on the west coast of Ireland. Climbed loads of the classics in the E2-E5 range. Ate good seafood, saw lots of wildlife, had a generally good and relaxing time.

Re-bolted a couple of things on the Cornice down Cheedale. One I’ve already done, the other I need to get on, hopefully as a warm up for The Ogre when/if that dries.

Further investigations at Central Buttress. Getting a good idea of what routes are in/out of condition and what sorts of actions could be taken. Interestingly various things had already had pegs swapped for bolts.

Wanting to climb trad mostly but struggling to find people with interests beyond the pad and the bolt. No change there then!

In case you're wondering the big guy in the picture is The Head and the little guy is The Kernel

Several shades of lime

2009-06-22T11:31:00.002Z

Not a lot to report since returning from Magic Wood. I’ve been back on five day weeks whilst Nige is away in Scotland so haven’t had as much time to get out and about. Evening sessions have mostly been spent at the Tor where I’ve been trying to boost the finger strength with some bouldering. This hasn’t been very successful, in part because I don’t really enjoy failing dismally on things I’ve already done and also because it’s aggravated an ongoing wrist injury.
Other than the Tor I’ve had a couple of plays on the project I bolted last year at the Cornice, managing all the moves despite some wet holds. Although I can do the moves I’m struggling to string many/any together and it feels a lot too hard for current levels. I’ll give it some more effort if/when it’s properly dry, but at solid 8b+ I might have to give this one away.
Had a fun day at Thor’s, though most stuff was still a bit wet. The only new thing I did was Twilight of Tired Gods, a rather hard E3 (E4 in some guides) in the West Window. Went on it as a warm up but it ended up taking ages and having a bit of an epic, ho hum. As well as getting on (and later completing, see Beastmaker blog) Slavek’s old project, Dan had a go at Spear of Odin, one of the 7c+s I put up in ‘05. It had too many properly wet holds for him to do in a oner but he did do all the climbing nonetheless and reckoned it was one of the best sport routes in the country. The only other person I know who’s been on this route is Zippy who repeated it in ‘06 or ‘07, rating it at the time as an even better route than Thormen’s, high praise indeed! Please excuse me shamelessly plugging my own route, but I do really think this one and nearby Escape to Valhalla are something special and worthy of more attention. The cave may not be as pretty as its Spanish brethren but the climbing is very similar and really unique for this country. Here’s a gallery of old Thor’s pics for anyone interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/56501452@N00/sets/72157620100371265/

Back at the Tor the other night with a sore wrist I decided to refresh my tick on Indecent now that the tree start is gone. The new version dubbed Half Decent is now 7c and starts up the newly bolted RH start to Body Machine. Managed to redpoint first go despite getting rather pumped. Lowering off in the evening sun high above the river I was reminded how much I prefer getting on a string here rather than scrabbling around among the dust and polish attempting to climb the first 3m!
Saturday was Nettle Buttress down Cheedale to try the newly rebolted Toys for the Boys. What a great route! Immaculate rock and moves throughout. I lacked the finger endurance to complete in a session, but looking forward to a rematch on Tuesday. Third best 7c+ in the peak?
Late start, yesterday then a trip to Stoney Quarry. Having recently done Millionaire Touch I was keen to have a go at Oliver. Warmed up on Jasper which was better and more independent than I’d given it credit for. Oliver was brilliant. The ‘runout’ bit turned out to be fine having a decent RP and sideways wire halfway through, but the stopper move to get on the ledge was very perplexing. Blaring sun, dust filled breaks and a lot of effort trying to mantel the ledge too far right didn’t help. In the end the move wasn’t too bad, but I won’t spoil anyone’s onsight by giving away the details. Every route I’ve done on this wall has been a belter, just a shame about the proximity of the ever buzzing and clicking sub station.

Toot toot!

2009-06-04T12:29:00.001Z

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!

Trad 2

2009-06-04T12:26:00.001Z

Here's something I started writing a while ago and never got round to really finishing:

So the last post covered why you might not want to go trad climbing, but what of all the reasons plenty of people love doing it anyway. Why do I do it?
Well it’s not because I’m especially good at it, that’s for sure. Whilst I take some pride in being able to punch a little above my weight in sport climbing, where cunning and doggedness has scraped me up a few 8bs without resorting to extended seiging, in trad climbing, fear of getting on bold stuff and to a lesser extent fear while on routes mean I’m not really pushing the boundaries of my on-paper capability. Rarely, if ever, do I feel actual bona-fide terror, it’s more like the old mental wall preventing me getting into situations where this might be a possibility. My climber’s mind tells me the wall is built too far back from the actual terror threshold, that I can stamp down the creeping fear when the need arises, but moving the wall requires a leap of faith, a trust in gear, rock and ability which can be hard to persuade the self-protective subconscious mind to take. I’ve always admired the apparent pure logical calculation of good trad climbers who can rationalise getting on routes which perhaps have potential for huge but safe falls. While to an outside observer what they do may appear risky, even reckless, in actuality the chance of getting into trouble has been totally thought through by the climber and accepted as the logically small risk it is. Your accomplished tradder has mastered the art of accurately assessing most of the true risk at ground level, then fixing a resolve to proceed in a certain manner and sticking to this plan with a head clear of internal conflict. As with any other aspect of climbing, I think this ability to trust your own rationalisation is half gifted natural propensity and half hard earned through continuous graft. I’ll never be able to go hell for leather on big runout E7s, and to be frank I don’t think I even want to get into a position where I’m comfortable with that sort of risk. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get better and better the more I try and what gains I do make are all the sweeter for being against the grain of some inherent timidity. If my enjoyment were tied up with measuring myself against my peers in trad climbing I’d have packed up my ballnuts a long time ago. The fact I persists in the face of slow gains is for the simple reason that it is brilliant, addictive and endlessly varied. While progress can be slow I enjoy these incremental gains made in the ability to ‘man-up’ and unlike sport or bouldering I have a fair bit of excess strength/stamina to play with in the quest for improvement. It makes a real change to swap a largely physical challenge for a largely mental one. Having done a lot of sport and bouldering I’ve now largely picked and eaten the low hanging fruits of the area. On the other hand the boughs of the trad tree are still heavily laden with fruitsome delights. As a discerning tickaholic it’s obvious to me where the high quality easy fix is to be found.
As discussed in my last rambling, trad is just not physically intense enough to be of much strength training benefit and as such I find myself moving backwards on the get strong/stay strong treadmill. To enjoy trad I have to let go for a while of this endless mission to stay strong. Having spent years on and off said wagon I’ve seen some of the benefits that dedication to the beef can bring, but I’ve also undoubtedly seen other opportunities pass me by. While the rat-race to stay strong opens up one world of potential rock climbing pleasures it can also lead to a narrow ‘progress’ obsessed outlook which effectively closes off another world of experiences.
I guess it boils down to the specialist versus generalist dilemma. Which strategy is going to give the most fun/satisfaction, realising potential in one field, or sacrificing excellence to become a decent all rounder? I think I could still squeeze some improvement in sport/bouldering grades out of my carcass if I really tried, but at 35 it would be a hard fight and ultimately I think the fun/satisfaction I’d get from it would not merit the effort put in, especially when being less narrowly focussed means I can get a lot of fun/satisfaction from biffing about on ledges, fiddling with bits of metal in beautiful places and still do enough sport climbing/bouldering to have fun and get stuff ticked. Still, it’s hard to let go and it takes a degree of humility to accept performing at a level you know to be beneath your best, i.e getting burnt off by your specialist peers in all disciplines. It helps to remember that the same must be true even for the best generalists. Whilst the likes of Bransby may be truly impressive as boulderers, trad climbers and sport climbers, they don’t often climb the very hardest grades of any type. It must have crossed these climber’s minds that they might have been the very best in the world at any one of discipline had they been willing to specialise. It’s probably for this reason that the climbers I have the most respect for are often the generalists, because it is most obviously these who are in the game mainly for the love of climbing. And this I can empathise with, because I've always loved the climbing more than I’ve loved being good at climbing.

Trad musing

2009-04-30T08:51:00.003Z

Spring has been kind so far, with fairly uninterrupted good weather for weeks now. It’s been getting a bit warm for the usual grit crags, so rather than jump on the limestone bouldering/sport climbing band wagon I’ve decided to continue with the tradding which I’d been getting into in autumn. At this time of year some of the most elusive crags come into condition (Wimberry, Hen Cloud, Kinder, Ramshaw, Black Rocks, plus loads of Yorkshire places). Most of the year crags such as these can be either too cold/green/wet/bleak or too hot/midgy. It’s a window of opportunity that a lot of climbers seem to miss out on, either persevering at grit crags which are too hot to enjoy or assuming the grit season is over and jumping ship to the lime. I guess part of this is down to how few of the serious climbers I come into contact with regularly want to climb trad on anything approaching a regular basis. Why should this be? Looked at objectively, out of trad, sport and bouldering, the UK’s trad resources are easily our greatest treasure in terms of quality, quantity and diversity. At first glance it makes no sense. I’ve often pondered on the subject and will attempt (by the power of bullet points) to outline why I think this situation exists.
In this context I’m primarily referring to traditional (ground up or there-abouts) trad climbing, though to a lesser extent some points hold true for highballing and deep water soloing and some for headpointing. In no particular order:

Trad climbing is an increasingly expensive game. At £50 each for a camming device it’s easy to see why new climbers coming out of the walls, looking to do some outdoor stuff might go for cheaper options like bouldering and sport climbing

Many new climbers start out climbing at walls. Walls most directly replicate bouldering and sport climbing. There is a skill gap which has to be crossed before a wall strong climber can become a good tradder, a gap which is much smaller for bouldering or sport climbing.

Trad climbing has a lot of faff per minute on the rock. Long walk ins, racking up, placing gear, removing gear, belaying trepidatious leaders/seconds, getting back down again, etc. It also generally lacks the weather proof alternatives that are available to the sporter/boulderer, further reducing the climbing to faff ratio.

Unless you’re willing and able to stick your neck a long way out it’s a very hard discipline to get ‘impressive’ at quickly. Anyone motivated by a desire for kudos may soon loose heart in the face of slow progress and/or real life fear.

The harder it gets the scarier it gets as a general rule, but for most people boldness doesn’t improve at the same rate as finger strength! Different people will accept different levels of real and perceived danger. For some the fear, be it justified or not, is insurmountable and takes any pleasure out of the actual climbing. The reckless/unlucky might also be put off by an accident or near miss.

The modern approach to climbing is characterised by a pre-occupation with power/stamina levels. Many climbers are to varying degrees paranoid about letting these slip. Whilst bouldering and sport climbing can be seen as having cross benefits for most other types of climbing, tradding is not likely to improve either bouldering power or sport stamina. A climber shifting seasonally between disciplines is likely to feel relatively week/unfit when moving from a period of trad climbing.

For climbers with some level of trad aspiration the above point often leads to the logic of “climb hard while I’m young and mop up the bumbly stuff when I get too old to crank”. From what I see at the crag this is flawed logic. In my experience people tend to get more rather than less risk averse as they grow older, which in turn funnels them into sport climbing. People don’t stop trying to push themselves on relatively hard stuff when they get older, far from it. As often as not the sport crags have a disproportionately high number of veterans. A youth of sport climbing is not, in most cases, a great training for a trad based dotage.

For the average money rich (by world standards) but time poor British climber bouldering and sporting perhaps represent a more ‘productive’ use of limited time. Train during weekday evenings then do targeted intense climbing at the weekend. Nothing is worse than spending a week in the office then walking in for miles only to get rained off and getting bugger all done. Maybe tradding only makes sense to people with lots of free time. Unfortunately the time rich are often cash poor, obviously a big problem for someone looking at putting a rack together from scratch.

The above factors make for a change in the old traditional progression of a climber. Where once it was standard for a climber to serve a trad apprenticeship, nowadays your strong youth is more likely to follow their peers into bouldering. It’s natural for a beginner to do what other more experienced climbers they meet are doing, which for said buff-youth-down-the-wall is unlikely to be trad. Hence the trend is further perpetuated.

All in all if you agree with my reasoning you’ll also agree that it’s not actually very surprising that more serious effort, I’d even go as far as to say ‘the majority’ of serious effort above a certain difficulty level, is put into bouldering and sport climbing in the UK, despite these being less well resourced at the crag.
Essentially I’m saying that while I think trad is massively rewarding I can see why it’s not everyone’s bag. And while it’d be nice to tempt a few more of my friends to get into it, if only to get a better supply of partners, the likelihood of this happening is slim.

Molly vid

2009-04-06T12:21:00.002Z

Went back and added the sitter to Molly. These lower moves really add to the problem and make for an excellent 7b/+. More info to follow on other stuff done.
You'll need to log on at vimeo.com to see it BTW.

Molly Moocher sit start 7b/+ from Jon Fullwood on Vimeo.

Molly Mooching

2009-04-01T11:34:00.003Z

Hello, I’m not dead after all, just not recently inspired to blog. Actually that’s not true (well the bit about being alive is), I often think of stuff I mean to have a ramble about, but by the time I happen to be back at a computer the thoughts have gone back to the places whence they came.

Molly mooching is an American term for the hunting of Molly Moochers and a Molly Moocher is of course a morel, be that Morchella elata, Morchella esculenta, Morchella vulgaris or any of the other ill defined sub-types. Yes it’s morel time again. Time to check my regular spot and spend fruitless hours searching hedges, woods and gardens in the vain hope of finding some further magic places. This year I’m psyched to have discovered a new magic place which I will now check every year. Strangely the moochers at this place grow on moss covered lumps of rock, which is something I’ve never heard of in books or seen any other fungus doing. The night after finding these I had a fevered dream in which I found hundreds of grotesquely mutated morels growing everywhere around me. With the previous days finds and my odd dream in mind I drove out to my main place the following day and was blown away to find 16, that’s right SIXTEEN big black morels. A dream come true indeed. Seriously good food was prepared with the majority of these and a few are sautéed and frozen for a rainy day.

Molly Moocher is now also the name of a new 7b-ish boulder problem I climbed on Sunday. I’ve got a few more fish to fry in the area so I’ll hold off on the full details. So far I’ve done five problems of substance in the area and a handful of decent warm-ups. Here’s a couple of pics from the story so far. I’ll post up the full details in the not too distant future.

Other than that I’ve been out climbing loads, nothing harder than font 7b+, mostly on the grit, plus a week in the County and a couple of sessions lime bouldering. I could wax lyrical about quite a few nice things done but time doesn’t allow. One thing which really stands out as worthy of special mention however is the supremely fine highball problem A Northern Soul at Hepburn. I had wanted to try this problem ever since seeing a photo in the original (log) Northumberland Boulder guide. The line, setting and rock quality are even better in real life than the photo suggests. This block feels like a corner of Fontainbleau forest teleported into an otherwise mediocre crag. A bit of a soft touch at 7a+ but still rather exciting as the crux is all about navigating a path up poor slopers at a thought provoking height (I’d have felt more comfortable had I not been sporting a badly sprained ankle at the time!). That said the landing is perfect and it’s not high compared to many modern highballs. The crag is not far from Bowden etc and I’d urge everyone to go do it next time they are up that way. This thing deserves more attention as it’s as good as anything else of the grade in the UK or even font for that matter!

Mushroom Baby 3

2009-03-04T13:11:00.002Z

I'll do a sensible post again soon I promise. In the meantime here's Mushroom Baby 3

Mushroom baby 2

2009-02-23T13:20:00.001Z

Billy Dangler

2009-02-20T13:13:00.005Z

I've taken to amusing myself by waving pear cores over the next guy's desk. "O Oh, it's Billy Dangler again, when's he gonna break this time!? You just never can tell!" Dan doesn't like this, especially when Billy breaks and his juicy abdomen lands on the paperwork.
Here's the severed heads of Billy 1 and Billy 2.

Yesterday i sent Dan a copy of Billy's sentinel card in case he wanted to use him on any rail jobs.

The fun we have.

The things you find in fields!

Crab-boy and the Mechanical Ape

2009-01-22T11:19:00.006Z

Hello again. It’s been time. It’s not been the most amazing period of my time climbing and I haven’t had loads to report on. Highlights from the hiatus include a splendid day out at the Roaches Nth Cloud and Skyline with a kiwi giant and a couple of golden hoofed wizards; a lovely highball at Scout Hut Crag called Needle of Dreams; and a day of classic highballing at Buthiers.
Anyway out with the old and on to the new. A fair bit of my time has been taken up recently with a route project at Eastwood Rocks. I may have made oblique references in the blog to this in the past. At work I have an eight page list of ideas for new boulder probs and routes, this project being top of that list. On the right side of the Cave Buttress, which is the lovely curvy first section encountered, is a monstrously undercut wall with no obvious line of weakness. When I first encountered this face it had no routes on it. The cracks on either side provided easy fare, but in between was a tantalizing blank. In 1996 I attempted to open proceedings with a traverse along a high level discontinuous breaks. My onsight attempt ended in ignominious retreat from a big runout (these days it’s well protected with small cams). Kim Thompson, who’s a boulderer now but used to be a fearless trad leader, stepped in and cruised along Hot Yimminy E3 5c. Later the same year I returned and tried to lead an alternative finish up the right side of the upper bulge. This time my foray onto the wall being thwarted by an angry farmer chucking us off his crag (this has happened only once in 15 years of visiting, thankfully). It would be another twelve years before I returned to climb Farmageddon E2 5c. Detailed inspection around the time of the initial new routing, showed the lower bulge to have few holds of any size and where the bulge was narrow enough to span past, the upper wall seemed very blank indeed. Crossing the bulge was well beyond my capabilities. What I did find however was a line of small holds leading left along the lip, which though invisible from the ground were sufficiently positive to make up for their lack of size and led out to a biggish boss were upward engagement looked possible. Still it was far to hard for me to contemplate back then.
Last year I had the job of putting together the Eastwood script for the forthcoming BMC guide and work on this got me interested in new routing in the area again. I’ve already blogged about the bits and pieces done over at Cocking Tor and Turning Stone. But always in the back of my mind was the line of holds along the lip at Eastwood and finally in November last year I got round to having a tentative play on a rope. Initial forays seem to suggest it was a goer but pretty sustained and crimpy. I’m no great crimper but several visits later and a fair bit of messing about with different sequences and I had it fairly figured, which just left the question of how to protect a lead. Several options existed, lead with side runner in nearby tree – safe and simple; lead without tree-runner – hard to place ballnut 1 in a crucial handhold; highball over lots of pads – high and wild falls seemed likely and lots of padding would be needed; or highball above a man-net strung to the nearby trees – unconventional yet strangely appealing!

The next visit was with steely fingered crimp fiend Paul B. Unsurprisingly Paul made short work of the difficult crimping and was keen to do the route for real. That made my mind up on the protection options. Time to get the route done and worry about going back to do it in better style later!
The second day with Paul was a write-off due to extreme amounts of cold wind and ice. The time after that (read Paul's blog for in depth commentary on my ineptitude) was nearly but not quite, due to throwing myself repeatedly at it while it was wet instead of hanging back until it dried. Pritch got some footage of the attempts and I'll try to get hold of this and stick it up here at some point.
Fortunately Saturday saw the route fully dry thanks to a strong wind. Out with Cofe, Dave and Joe B. Did the Eastwood trav to warm up. Felt OK on that so set off on the proj. Got to the very last hard move, a long lock to a three finger pocket. Tickled the edge but didn't have the lock and dropped off with a mini roar of frustration. Belayed Joe who made a very good job of flashing my route of '06 Monster Monster! Duly rested I set off again and this time being properly warmed up got to the lock and this time it felt fine. Having done the hard bit I then promptly got freezing hands dilly dallying at the break deciding which of three possible finishes to go up. I'd intended to go direct but had not worked this on a rope and didn't fancy tackling very slopey unknown ground with icy wooden hands. Eventually I managed to remember the sequence on Farmaggedon and finish up this. This is only slightly less direct and arguably less contrived than the direct so I wasn't too bothered, just glad not to blow it on relatively easy ground.

One of Pritch's shots. Cheers sir.

So there you go another fine route at the lovely Eastwood rocks. Name? I spent ages brain storming but have not thought of anything that I was totally chuffed with. Here's the results of one such brain storm:

Quentin Crisp
Little Ladders
Monkey Dust
Beef Juju
Juju Bunyip
God is Dead
Rising Rooster
The Birth of Crab-boy
Crab-boy at the Gates of Dawn
Crab-boy Saves the World
Crab-boy and the Shining Sphere
Mission Creep
Beast of Eastwood
Fight or Flight
Fast and Loose
Only When I Crimp
High Speed Crimp Act
Crimping at the Crunch
Sneakin’ the Beak In
Stuperman II
Adventures of Crab-boy
Further Adventures of Crab-boy
God v Crab-boy – the Re-match
Crab-boy and the Mechanical Ape
Crab-boy and the Crimps of Doom
Lip of Fools
The Juicy Dangler
Think Yourself Big

In the end I got bored of waiting for the amazing name idea to come and have opted for Lip of Fools. No particular reason except for the obvious lip/ship pun, it climbs a lip and it looked OK on paper. I'm not suggesting me (or Paul) are any more foolish than the next climber, in case you where concerned Mr B.

Grade? Hell there's a question. Hope I don't get it wrong, people might start questioning my integrity and demanding apologies! That said I probably will get it wrong, I usually do! Well it's very safe with the side runner. Difficulty wise it felt a solid bouldering grade harder than the Eastwood Traverse (whatever grade the masses deem that to be now I don't know, 7b+??) to me, but it's very basic and crimpy so others might find it pretty easy. As a sport route I think it would merit 8a, but I haven't tied on in a sport capacity for months so this could be well out. Assuming the 8a guess is right then I suppose it should get E7 for effort, at least that's how I've always understood things. Paul concurred with this grade prior to his quick second ascent a few days later (good work yoot!). Neither of us has much headpointing/E7 experience so don't get too excited if we got it wrong.
So there you go Lip of Fools E7 6c **. The climbing is three star, but the line and side runner knock it back to two I think. Paul made a fast second ascent
Go and repeat it people, it's brill and safe. Or try and improve on my style. I intend to go back and do it without the tree runner at some point, so I might see you there.

The Hatchling

2009-01-05T13:06:00.002Z

New years greetings to one and all. Here’s a compilation of Hatchling pictures to bring in 2009. Some may recall I used to have this little fellow as an avatar on UKB.

And just for Ned...

Cheeks 'N' Beaks

2008-12-03T17:47:00.004Z

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!

An old one I forgot to post

2008-12-03T17:46:00.000Z

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.

A showery weekend at Rivelin

2008-10-27T10:26:00.000Z

Friday’s weather vigil suggested that the weekend would be windy and intermittently wet. Scanning through my newly compiled grit ticklist Rivelin looked like a good sheltered option with a decent handful of things to go at. Nige had been enthusing about the quarry and we were both keen to have a look at some stuff there too.
Saturday we (me, Fi and Nige) arrived at the crag mid-morning. We boulder and solo about for a bit around the needle, between squally showers. Good to see Nige able to climb properly again after his shoulder op and subsequent long recovery. I’m struck again by how confident and assured he always is standing on rubbish footholds, where I often have head issues. We dodge a big shower and head over to try Auto Da Fe which seems to be staying dryish. Bump into James McCaffie along the way who’s waiting for a gap in the weather to do The Brush Off. By the time I’m racked up at the base of the climb the weather has really kicked in and the harness comes back off while we see what happens next. Nip around the corner and solo The Reprieve, which is just about staying dry. Finally even this gets wet, everything gets wet including all our gear. It’s too much, everyone decides it’s time to give up and we walk back to the cars with not much to show for the effort. Annoyingly it seems to stay dry after this and it feels like we might have given up at the wrong time. Arse! We decide to come back tomorrow if the weather allows.
Sunday, it’s just me and Nige, back at Rivelin in much less windy weather. Back to soloing around the needle. Nige does I’m Back, but the rains come again and I’m forced to jump off before getting committed to a rapidly wettening E4. Again we seek shelter at Auto De Fe, I’m starting to get déjà-vu. The cumbrian trad-wad is back too and he’s already on Auto, so we have to man up and head on to the bigger fish, namely a couple of two star E5s at the right-hand end of the crag, Moolah and New Mediterranean. The rain is not hitting the holds but the rock feels damp and greasy. I opt for a low side runner in Altar crack to protect the scrittly insecure 6a moves to reach the crucial mid height gear slot. The gear is pumpy to place, an rp 3, a rock 1 and a friend 0, all in the same slot. They seem pretty good and I scurry back down to the altar to de-pump. I climb up and down trying to figure the crux reach to the tiny ‘jigsaw piece’ hold, but I’m going about it all wrong. I come down again and let Nige have a do. He goes up and tries my sequence a couple of times but can’t make the lock either. The holds are by now very caked in chalk and feeling gakky in the damp, Nige hangs on the gear and gives the holds a much needed toothbrushing. With fresh arms and clean holds he soon figures a better way to get the holds and rocks out to the break. Beta now figured I head up again and climb through to the top without mishap. Great route, safe, bouldery and hard for 6b. Having placed the gear and done the down-climb we are now set up to get straight on New Med which uses the same runners. Nige goes first and gives it a good go but comes off due to moisture on the sloping flat undercuts. He tries again, gets his feet set but can’t quite make the huge span to a slot. A few more similar goes and no joy, but he’s getting super close. He decides to have one more shot from the start. This time he finds the extra inch and bags the route after a bit of pump on the upper wall. I go up after dodging another shower and have a similar experience, taking quite a few goes to crack a sequence that allows the big reach off sloping undercuts and non-footholds to be made. Another good safe route, this time 6c, with a couple of pumpy 5c/6a moves to finish. It’s getting on now but we have just enough time to do Auto De Fe, which feels relatively easy after the last two boulder numbers. It feels good to move fast and efficiently on a boldish E4. It’s not hard climbing, but I often dither on this sort of route and I feel I’m starting to get past my usual nerves and lack of trust in runners.
Good fun and three off my list. Satisfied. We never made it over to the quarry, but hopefully next time.

This is what it’s all about.

2008-10-23T14:03:00.002Z

New enthusiasm. Not that I generally lack motivation, but not for a while have I been picking over my guidebook collection and devising plans with such vigour. Finally I’m realising a long held ambition to get back into trad grit, after not doing much of it for the last five years or so. The weather has been good and now I’ve gone to three days a week I’ve got the spare time that’s needed. I can do one wall session on a work night to keep the fingers ticking over and then get out as much as possible climbing on the four days off.
Why trad grit? Obviously I love climbing, and living in Sheffield I’ve enjoyed climbing in the Peak a lot for the past twenty years. Generally I’ve been stronger and fitter in the second ten years than the first. During this time I’ve mostly devoted my energies to sport climbing and bouldering. Partly this has been for reasons of convenience, but mostly it’s because I had loads of classic things to do in these disciplines. I like to climb as hard as I can, but above all I love to do lots of quality climbing. I treat climbing as the collection of rare and beautiful experiences. Given the choice of spending ten days to get one treasured experience or spending ten days to get ten only slightly less treasured experiences I almost always plump for the latter. The consequence of this is that I have climbed, or tried and failed on many if not most of the best locally available sport climbing and bouldering. There is still good stuff for me to try but it’s ever more sparse and quirky (conditions dependant, or requiring re-bolting, or perma-wet, or serious, or other confounding issue). As I don’t like to loose too much strength or fitness, bouldering and sport climbing were ideal options when I only had evenings and weekends free. Now I’ve got more time to spare I can do a greater volume of trad and still find time to do some bouldering for strength. Get in! As I haven’t done heaps of trad climbing for fiv/ten years and I was never brilliant at it before, I still have shit loads of super classic stuff to throw myself at. This is proving to be great fun. In the last week I’ve been out six times and bagged a whole bunch of great climbs and still come home each day neither knackered or with trashed skin. Highlights have been Calvary, White Wall, Nettle Wine, Jelly Ache, Spock’s Missing and Moon Walk. Nothing amazingly hard, nothing particularly bold, just good honest brilliant routes. So much good stuff to go at, can’t wait for the next day out!

More grit

2008-10-14T09:11:00.000Z

Haven’t been arsed to write for a while, so here’s a quick fill-in.
Since the last posting I’ve been to Bauston Tor, Black Rocks, Ina’s Rock, Eastwood, Almscliff and Stanage High Neb.
One new route has been done, Farmaggedon, a nice little E2 5c breaking out of Hot Yimminy at Eastwood to cross the upper bulge on perfect slopey edges and a pocket. Whilst at Eastwood kiwi Seb did the second ascent of my E5, Monster Monster in a ground-up highball style, including taking a lob from the lip. Have also been working on a couple of other more substantial new routes, but I’ll keep these under my hat for the moment.
Twice now I’ve visited the mighty Bauston Tor. Half a mile down the High Peak Trail from Black Rocks, swathed in Beech and Sycamore this most mysterious of buttresses juts out of the hill in a most unexpected fashion. Small but big, overhanging on all sides and painted in black and green. Just how an esoteric crag should be, very unique, with a small selection of good routes packing a lot of surprises. Anyway to cut a long story short, I’ve done all the easier routes there now, tried an E3 that was too wet to do, not tried the E6 and twice failed to finish the route of the buttress Bad News For Slab Climbers E5 6a. Twice I’ve got past the rust peg protected creaking flaked roof, past the leg jam, up the cracked arete, to fail at the sloping green mantel. Oh well, had fun both times and still keen to come back for a third shot when the leaves fall off the trees.
Went to the much vaunted Ina’s with Bristol Si after wasting myself failing at Bauston. Had a good day and did the classic Nadin E5 The Inaccessible which was great, start up a meaty fist crack E2, move left and yard through a pebbly roof of satisfyingly chunky holds, make a big lock and then push on up the pumpy headwall making sure not to pull on the wrong bunters. Also had a play on Thumbelina which is as fantastic as the hype suggested. Eventually bouldered out the crux lower half (Si even managed to climb it direct at I guess 7a+/7b), but felt far to wasted to want to quest on up the rather high continuation. A return visit with fresh arm and more pads might be in order. Having not got up it I can’t be too sure on the grade, but it seemed more route than boulder problem, E5 or E6 I’d guess at, depending on how the top feels.
The Black Rocks visit was on a drizzly day and was mostly spent checking out a couple of potential new routes.
The Almscliff day was mostly bouldering, mostly on old favourites. Did get the rope out for one route Grand Illusion. Not very long but mighty good yarding about on big pockets above bomber gear. Super safe and a bit of a softy at E4. Well worth bringing the rope for.
This Sunday we went to High Neb. The sun was out and Stanage was busier than a workaholic worker bee on crack. Not brilliant conditions but it didn’t really matter much for the stuff we did. Did a few warm up solos then led Quietus RH. It’s a exciting as it looks and the climbing is also very good, with the final moves up the fluting being exceptionally fine. Then went over to No More Excuses. Was being lame and bottled out of bouldering it out the whole way, but had brought some pegs and luckily had the right size to put in the hand placed channel so led it with this. Brilliant route/highball, now I know the move I think it will feel fine as a highball next time. Pottered about a bit after that and did a slightly contrived E2 called Meddle.
In between the trading I have been gradually getting back into evenings down the wall. As is usual early season the gains seem to be rapid and the bouldering strength is starting to return.

More early season gritting

2008-09-25T14:25:00.002Z

After last week’s new routing at Turning Stone I was keen to get back for a couple more plum lines this weekend. So for the second week in a row I spent both days in the Amber Valley, Saturday at Cocking Tor and Sunday at Turning Stone. Both days with a very longsuffering Fiona.
The objective at Cocking Tor was to climb the left side of the arete taken by the classic ’76 Bancroft route Jelly Ache. Rather hot weather meant the steep rounded upper arete felt harder and scarier than it would have been otherwise, but still very enjoyable. It went without incident and is every bit as good as Jelly Ache and a touch harder, but still probably only E3 6a. I’ve called it Both Sides Now, for the obvious reason and after the Joni Mitchell song. Then tried to force a new line between Jelly Ache and Cyclops’ Eye, but ended up wimping out at the top and finishing up CE. This line will go and will be E3/4 6a/6b, but lacks the line and independence of it’s neighbours.
Sunday I did the left wall coming out of Vee Chimney. I'd cleaned and worked this line about a year ago whilst on a bouldering mission. This turned out to be easily the best of my additions to Turning Stone. After placing ok but worryingly low runners, the climbing goes up a short rib to a thin break, makes a big pull past a roof to an eye, does a strenuous shuffle on the eye to get hands set, then rocks way over ‘right between the eyes’ to a small crimp in a second eye, up to a very slopey edge, right to a good edge, left to a sidepull, then a big slightly scary reach to a juggy break and easier climbing. I called the route Right Between the Eyes and reckon it’s just about safe but scary at E5 6b. After this I had a go at the direct start to Happy Landing, a big roof line just left of last year’s highball 7a+ Finger Bang. Low poor gear in crumbly rock and hard moves on snappy flakes saw a swift retreat and a couple of cams placed in the break above so that I could work the roof on a rope. Managed to do it in a oner eventually but it’s hard (font 7b), the holds are rather brittle and the gear is very suspect. I’d wager it’ll be E7 6c as a lead, but might be better suited to a highball approach, with lots of pads and spotters, though a fall from the crux last slap would be very wild indeed. The moves are great, any takers??

Calling the Grit

Right Between the Eyes

Both Sides Now

Said 7b-ish project roof

Monday was a drizzly trip to the Tor with Andy C and the Bee-keeper. A lot of the crag was a bit wet but we had an ok session and it was good to catch up with the chaps.

Tuesday the forecast looked better for Yorkshire, which was good as I had arranged to meet Toby in Leeds and go out tradding. After flicking through the grit guide looking for which crag had the biggest number of three star routes not yet tried I fancied a visit to Almscliff. Too often the bouldering crag of last resort, when all else is wet, I had barely done any of the routes, which is madness as they look better than the bouldering. Talked Toby into the plan and headed out fairly early to find perfect sunny but cool conditions. Warmed up soloing three HS/VS routes on Demon Wall and then Demon Wall itself, all of which were excellent if a little polished. We then decided to do the big three, three star E3s on the West Face, all Extreme Rock ticks no less. We both led each route, abseiling for the gear in between. What can I say, these routes are totally stunning, Western Front, Wall of Horrors and Big Greeny, awesome stuff, I’m mad keen to come back soon for the likes of Grand Illusion. Even dropping a lense out my glasses halfway up Wall of Horrors didn’t spoil the fun, just had to throw them down and push on blindly up the top half. After this we opted to escape the bitter wind which had been building and move over to Black Wall. Followed Toby with a solo of Black Wall Eliminate E2 and then seconded up a rather pokey E4 ‘Arrie’s ‘Ook. Topping this out I spotted a ring of Shaggy Parasol Mushrooms. It turned out to be a circle of 40 caps! Most where sadly a bit old and withered but there were enough fresh young ones for us to both take home a good amount.
Long live dry autumns and classic bagging on grit!

Turning Stone

2008-09-16T10:03:00.002Z

From lime to grit.

It seems the remainder of my motivation for the lime is tied to the Cornice routes. With these wet and looking unlikely to dry out this year, evenings getting too short to go out after work and few exciting short term objectives left for me at the main dry limestone venues, my mind has been turning to the grit and tradding.
Being involved in the production of the forthcoming BMC Froggat to Black Rocks guide has got me interested in some of the less well frequented crags again. This weekend I got around to checking out some potential new lines I’d spotted ages ago at Turning Stone Edge. Turning Stone is an oddball crag and has never been popular, which is a shame as the climbing is good and a bit more popularity would go a long way to solving its biggest problem – rhododendrons. The upside of this neglect is a bunch of good new routes at amenable grades, ripe for the pickin’.
I had been over one evening in the week and abbed a couple of lines and was keen to try them ground up. Saturday I went there with Fi who had decided to rest her sore elbows and take on belay duty.
New route one was a fairly trivial filler in up the upper left arete of Amber Buttress, called Amber Gascoigne, safe but exciting E2 6a.
Number two is probably the best of the new finds. Calling the Grit E4 6b** crosses the left side of the roof between Second Chance and Happy Landing. Strenuous to place, but ok gear are placed and undercuts and edges lead to a very slopey horizontal pinch, this is used to make the crux move through the steepness to a good slot on the lip, a good cam and nice locky climbing to finish. I was quite pleased with this route as it’s the hardest ground-up new route I’ve done. There is potential for a good looking second pitch up the frontal roof of the upper tier.
The rest of Saturday was spent scoping other lines and cutting back rhodies on a new buttress.
Sunday was Turning Stone again to meet Feind, Cofe and Grimer. Started with a bunch of solos on the easier lines and then a solo of a new HVS 5b * - Tree Dimensional (vintage Cofield route naming). This route is essentially a very logical alternative start to an existing route. I think it improves on the other route, swapping a dull scrappy start for some lovely locking up a steep arete and then a nerve testing stride over the void. The finish is weird horizontal chimneying between menacing chock stones and a lot of fresh air. Feind and Grimer repeated the route and seemed to enjoy.
After more rhodie bashing the last new route of the weekend was added. Ballnut Whip (another Cofield gem) E3 6c * takes the line of least resistance up the front of the newly exposed buttress. The first moves from the lip of a roof are the crux and involve a deep committing heeltoe in a wide break whilst making a huge move off an edge to a pair of poor horizontal slopers, from which a good finger jug can be gained. Gear is low and a fall might leave you hanging upside down of a broken ankle. After repeatedly backing off this move (which I hadn’t practiced while cleaning) I opted to use a nearby tree to climb up and place the runners above the crux, then climb down and try with these in place thereby reducing the chances of injury. With these in place the route was very enjoyable and went first go. The top section is a beautiful fluted rib which looks like something you’d find on the lower tier at the Roaches. I think without the tree based skull-duggery the route would be E5 6c, but arguably less enjoyable.
All in all a good day and a good weekend’s pottering.

Some pics of Cofe's from Sunday:

Fiend on Baker's Groove

Grimer on Amber Arete

Me on Tree Dimensional

Crossing the Rubicon

2008-09-03T10:43:00.002Z

Last night I managed to finish off what was becoming something of a mini-nemesis – The Sissy. I’m not sure why it took so long, longer than Caviar infact. I don’t think it’s harder than Caviar, I just seemed to get a bit bogged down on it. Anyway, cheers and good luck/speedy recovery to Jules and Stu for the beta and belays.
There was still a bit of daylight left after the redpoint so I switched to belaying Kristian on a redpoint attempt on Beluga. He set off not expecting much, having struggled in awful conditions on Sunday, but surprised himself by cruising to the top first go. A fine effort. This is the fifth ascent now but the first I’ve got to watch.
I think that’s it now for my Rubicon year. Summer 2008 has been all about this place, which is something I would never have predicted, given that up till then it has been one of my least favourite crags. Not sure when I’ll be back having now done Caviar, Dangerous Brothers, Hot Fun Closing, Beluga and The Sissy, so don’t have many things left to go at. It has been surprisingly fun though.

2008 Rubicon highlights (other than routes bagged):
• Fi doing To Old to be Bold, her first 7c
• Belaying Ted flashing Dangerous Brother
• Text from Dan telling me he’d succeeded on A Bigger Belly
• Belaying Kris on successful Beluga ascent
• Watching Stu’s video of my Sissy success
• Chatting with Martin Atkinson at crag about FA of Dangerous Brothers

• Belaying Andy on Barracuda first ascent
• Bransby flashing HFC in full midday sun
• Adam highballing Piranha and subsequent epic descent of spindly tree
• Belaying bouldering Andy Banks getting up Caviar, his first sport route in years
• Tidying up the shit gear on DB and HFC

And the lows:
• The sound of Stu’s finger going pop on the Caviar start
• Floods, floods, floods and trying to climb/belay off palletes inches deep in water
• Getting called a ‘choad’ for cutting the tree down under Kudos (actually I found this more funny than distressing)
• Dave falling off the last bulge on Caviar three times! You’ll get it next go yoot

What next? Hmmmm. Get back on Cornice project if it dries or get stuck into a bunch of new grit routes I’ve spied while guide checking new Froggatt book and then there’s those great sounding sport routes that Kris was talking about on Beeston Tor….

More project blues

2008-08-24T10:34:00.003Z

Here we go again! I find a project of sufficient girth to absorb the mighty weight of my psyche... and then it rains... and rains... and rains.
I figured that I'd lain my towel down on a perma-dry bit of rock (bar the fairly easy start), but no, visits on Thurs and Sat revealed ever advancing wet patches thrusting in from every angle. It seems I'll have to put the project to the back of the mind tank for a least a week and probably more if the summer continues as it has been. Rotten dog-egg!
So what to do instead? Other than finishing off the Sissy of an evening I really don't know. Hmmmmm.

Love Amongst the Butterflies - before the rains came. Pic courtesy of Ryan Edwards

Fear the radj

2008-08-20T12:40:00.005Z

If you should go to Rajasthan, you’re sure to meet the radjy man.

His fist of radj held to the sky and from his lips a radjy cry.

A radjy face with radjy cheeks, he’ll peck your eyes with radjy beaks

Of crows he carries in his sack, upon his red and radjy back

All bent and twisted from the weight, of radj, and piss, and rabid hate

For all you men and beasts and birds who’ll chance to hear his bitter words

That spit out from his radjy craw to fall and land on dusty floor

Then crawl to slip out through the door, and poison ears forevermore,

Will know you’ve met the radjy man and turn to flee from Rajasthan

But being blind from pecking beak will fail to find the door you seek

For bitter words with cruel intent have sealled the way off as they went

And trapped inside the Radj’s den, with bones of four and twenty men

You’ll rue the day you made a plan to see the radj of Rajasthan

Big bites! Too much to chew?

2008-08-18T13:43:00.000Z

Buoyed up by last weeks success on Unleashing the Wild Physique I headed back to the Cornice on Saturday with south peak sport climbing legend Jon Clark. Initial intentions of going back on Ouijaboard were thwarted by fresh seepage so after a good warm-up I was casting around for a new target. Faced with the choice of cleaning up a line or going on an already cleaned and chalked one I opted to have a play on Love Amongst the Butterflies, which was already in good nick after Jon’s recent ascent and reliably dry unlike most of the other options. With the help of some much needed beta I had the moves figured by the end of the session and am pretty keen to get back on it. Funny how this route is not more popular really given that it’s an ever-dry, three star 8b, with long continuous but never desperate climbing on good rock with lots of bolts. I guess the vertical/technical nature, the long (compared to the Tor/Rubicon) walk-in and the element of un-known quanity serve to keep people away. Personally I’d always assumed it was very reachy which is not so, although there are a couple of sections where a few more inches would make life a bit easier.
Whilst lowering off at the end of the day I noticed a big juggy looking slot in the wall between RnP and LAtB. Further inspection seemed to suggest potential for a new line between the two routes, essentially a direct start to LAtB.
Come Sunday and my fingers were feeling pretty tired from the years first play on an 8b and I figured any attempt at climbing would be fairly lacklustre. With nothing better to do I headed back to the Cornice to scope out the potential new line properly. Bumped into Jon again who was down with his dad Pete working on Kristian’s new 8b+ called 32, which was just about dry enough for him to try the crux section. I stick-clipped and jugged halfway up LAtB to get a rope down the project and set about having a closer look. The slot once cleared of mud was indeed a very good hold and looked to be accessible by breaking right after the first bolt on RnP. Above the slot was a distant set of undercuts then a blank looking section leading into LAtB just after its rest i.e just when the hard climbing kicks in. More investigation revealed one good layaway and one poor layaway on the black section. A quick brush and I could hang the positions and decided it looked feasible enough to warrant bolting up. The rest of the day was spent putting in three bolts and cleaning up the line. The big undercuts turn out to be mostly a collection of disposable slats, stabilisation of the whole lot seemed impossible and in the end most of it ended up on the floor with only the a small solid section remaining which I then backed up with resin. The final verdict? Well it’s all definitely doable but it’s going to be hard, harder than anything I’ve climbed before, but looks like great climbing and worth putting some time and effort into.
So one semi-worked 8b and a possibly 8b+ project on the go, I’ve got my work cut out there then!! Is it too much to ask for the rest of the season – probably? Oh well it should be fun finding out.

Beluga

2008-08-13T15:28:00.001Z

The project, which was initially dubbed Cake Of Power (the root meaning of chav-jar the original name for Caviar), then Cavi’arder or Caviar d’est, finally came to rest as Beluga, a classier, less flippant name which complements and balances with the other new Caviar variant Barracuda I think. Since doing it on Sat 02-08-08 it has had three more ascents, from the Harris, Roy and Ted, all with a different sequences but all going along with the 8a+ and quality assessment. This is just about the most repeats any of my routes has had, except for the lovely Midgard Serpent at Thor’s Cave. Quite mad really given it’s only a few days old and also probably my hardest new route (though I reckon Pistol Finger might well be 8a+ too, as does the only other ascentionist Jon Clark)! It’s a shame LTQ and Thor’s cave aren’t so close to Sheff, it’d be nice to get more feedback on Escape to Valhalla (I rate this as my best new route and as good or better than all the other peak 7c+s), Spear Of Odin, Mosey on Down The Crow Road etc. I do love new routing. It’s a lot of work and probably not the most beneficial thing for fitness but it is a mighty fun process. I have a few ideas for new/redeveloped things in the pipeline…

The Importance of Looking Weak

2008-07-31T12:41:00.004Z

* I wrote this ages ago but didn’t post as I thought it sounded a bit preachy. Perhaps climbers aren’t as egocentric as I’m suggesting. As with any snapshot philosophy it ignores and glosses over lots of details and exceptions. But I haven’t blogged for yonks so might as well stick something up*

What I really mean is, the importance of not letting the idea of appearing weak/ineffectual in front of others hold you back.
To my mind this is a big obstacle to improvement faced by some climbers. As climbers, rightly or wrongly, we are prone to defining ourselves and each other by reference to our greatest climbing achievements. These are the things we have put greatest time and effort into, which probably suit our strengths, which happened when we were on top form, when conditions were mint and everything slotted into place. They might be super hard boulder problems or redpoints, bold leads or soloes, winning comps or doing 1-5-9. While these might be our most cherished efforts, these defining moments can become millstones around the neck if we can’t learn to deal with the fact that 99% of the time we will be performing well below the level of these finest hours. The harder these climbs are won, the harder they may be to replicate or improve upon.
If you have a reputation built on a few titanic efforts you will almost always look weaker or a worse climber than you or others might think you should. This might be hard to bear for the fragile ego of the average climber, especially if said climber has kidded himself he’s as good a climber as someone who’s top level is the same but who’s climbing CV is less top-heavy. The greater the disparity between a climber’s average level and their top level the greater the reality shock. Naturally it’s often the climbers who are least able to bear looking weak before their peers who suffer the greatest disparity, because insecurity leads to feverish grade grabbing. By grade grabbing I mean getting the number by the quickest means possible i.e. finding a soft touch that plays to your strengths then training specifically for it and siegeing it until it goes down. Most of us are guilty of grade grabbing now and then. Most climbers if asked would say they climb only for the joy of the climbing and that the grade was much less important, the mass popularity of some low quality soft touches whilst the three star sandbag next door returns to nature would suggest not everyone is as zen as they say/believe.
Pride is a serious obstacle to proper improvement in climbing. It can lead to too much emphasis on trophy bagging at the expense of real improvement which can only be gained by getting volume done within your grade and on a variety of terrain (you only have to look at the true heroes of the sport to see the truth of this). This disparity can then lead a climber to feel embarrassed by his performance out at the crag on stuff well below ‘his grade’. He may then react to this embarrassment by further avoiding easier stuff or stuff that doesn’t play to his strengths. Obviously this creates a feedback effect whereby the climber gets worse at what he is already not so good at and stronger within his self imposed pigeon hole. In the long run there is only so far you can go within a narrow niche and only so much fun to be had therein .
What’s the alternative?
• Understand that people with half a brain i.e. the one’s who’s opinions are worth bothering about, appraise you on your overall ability as much or more than on your trophy ticks.
• Accept this fact and try not to get hung up on other people view of your ability. Realise that the only way to improve how people view your climbing is to get better at it and this you cannot do if you’re too scared of looking weak to get properly stuck in. Consider the long run, some amount of humility now will lead to future glory.
• Accept that whilst climbers can be judgemental the majority are on your side and want you to do well. It’s cringe-worthy to see people kidding themselves, it’s easier to be empathetic to people who are honest with themselves and others.
• Do not be afraid to look weak/inept, it’s self defeating and pointless. If you consistently shy away from attempting stuff in company they will assume the reason behind it is weakness or ineptitude anyway.
• Accept the fact that everyone’s climbing goes through peaks and troughs and nobody worthy of consideration should expect you to be on top form all the time.
• Learn to enjoy being crap on your weaknesses. We all have them and might as well have a laugh flapping about ineffectually on this stuff and hence get better at it.
• Think about the bigger picture. Is jumping from one protracted siege to the next the quickest way to get better? Seigeing has it’s place but is just one aspect of the game.
• If peer recognition really is a major factor in deciding what you choose to climb, consider the fact that climbers may well be as or more impressed with you climbing a notorious sandbag 7c+ as they are with you bagging the same soft 8a/+ as everyone else.

And so endeth my pompous rant. I hope nobody thinks this is directed toward them, it’s not, it’s just an expression of frustration with a common malady within the climbing populace.

Project

2008-07-16T14:52:00.001Z

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Back on project at Rubicon last night, but thwarted by warm greasy conditions and general wave of weakness. Saturday’s attempt was no better either due to the base being flooded making getting onto the rock something of an epic.
Getting a project at Rubicon has not turned out to be the most sensible use of my new six day blocks of days off. Basically it doesn’t come into decent nick typically until about 7pm so most of the day is wasted. The best sessions at Rubicon so far have been the after work hits.
To date I’ve had four sessions on the line. First was a recce whilst hanging off bolts on adjacent lines. Managed most of the moves with some tension during this session, but was usable to access the first bit. The second session was the day that Mr Harris did Barracuda. On this occasion I bolted, and cleaned the line. Very minimal gluing was required the rock being very solid, but I did back up a couple of things which looked like they might work loose in the future. I believe that if you are going to bolt up a line you should make the effort to back up any potentially dubious holds so that the route survives in a climbable state. You’ve only got to look at nearby Eugenics and Tribes to see what happens when holds aren’t fixed properly. This opens up issues of route manufacturing, but that’s another topic altogether. After prepping the route I figured the moves properly but had no juice left to try for a redpoint. During this session a key hold crumbled a bit making the route significantly harder, but also better I think. The hold seems totally solid now. Session three was the very wet Saturday mentioned above and session four was last night’s poor show.
The line dubbed Cake of Power (from the root words for caviar chav-jar literally meaning cake of power) for the time being, starts with the first couple of moves on Caviar then continues direct/right where Caviar goes left. It rejoins Caviar at the break, but there is scope for an independent finish. I guess it’s a direct version of Caviar but it contains more separate climbing than first appearances would suggest. It feels a fair bit harder than Caviar (which I did a couple of weeks back) but I’m not sure if it’ll be a full grade harder.
Next attempt will be Thurs eve. Hopefully the conditions might be a bit more conducive to success.

The Gravy Boatsmen

2008-07-04T09:03:00.003Z

A sea as rich and brown as this
Through meaty mist by cabbage sail
To shore of pea and carrot bound
We gravy boatmen all

“Ahoya, ahoy an onion whale!”
A spout of gravy spume aloft
Astern the smooth black body sinks
To depths where fork folk dare

But “Never over the side!” they say
“Sink fast in thick brown brine” they say
“And nerry see the sun again”
“A fate most foul of all”

“But whither are we headed sir?”
“To ‘tato hills all crisp and brown.”
“And soft carved acres, folds of fowl”
“A tasty promised land”

Oh sea as rich and brown as this
This meaty mist, these cabbage sails
My shore of pea and carrot dream
We gravy boatmen all

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama

2008-05-06T09:17:00.005Z

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.

Allez oop

2008-04-23T09:07:00.000Z

Wet to the skin and in up to the knee I lifts one leg after the other through the thicket of windblown reeds, to wade queasily amongst the piss stenching, flyblown swamp is my task. Five fold five is the term of our days and none but the best will see us out. I take the reins again and rear up over the harrowed fen. “Forth lithe wanderer, we have heights to scale!” The bay mare shudders a little and lurches into an exhausted half trot. It’s been a month now and nothing but rainwater and sand apples for these travellers. “Have heart, be hale, reluctant stead. ‘Tis nought but a molehill” Kershaw lifts his long sad face and casts a weary glance upwards at the vast obsidian fang jabbing skyward before him, his four vast, limpid eyes all blood red and rimmed with tiny biting creatures. Like a beckoning finger of blackened bone, a last defiant gesture of the primal giant, now corrupt and laid prone amidst these desolate acrid swamps. This is their fate, to answer the call, to push against the tide and venture to the rotten heart of it all. Now is the time.
Well actually that’s not strictly true, but I did go back to Gardom’s on Saturday and out to Baslow last night. Met up with lots of folk on Sat and spent a lot of time failing to do Iain’s prob, nobody else faired any better. Went over to Plan D, Adam managed it using a right hand slap sequence, which looked steadier than my oddball crossover, but gnarlier as falling from this move lands you on the tree. He also did the obvious line up the right arête at 7a+, this is now called Forward Thinking Sound Engineer. I repeated this eventually, quite a good addition. Adam also did the sitter to Plan D and the static start to Business As Usual and is therefore king of the block. Wandered back past Barry Sheene and did this again, funny how some stuff you find hard suddenly feel easy once you’ve done it the once.
Sunday was wet. Went for a walk up to Gun Rock. Saw where Al’s fabled 7b must have gone. Shame about the flake coming off, it looks like it would have been mega. There look to be a couple of ok-ish up lines on the block and a brick hard low traverse to do, but not sure they are worth the walk.
Last night was very warm on Baslow edge. Nige came along for the heck. Bumped into Tetler in the carpark, he’d just put up a new route at Curbar E5 6a Triple Bum Drop. Felt like the grit season might be over. Warmed up on some nice random stuff, then had a go at the Ripper. Soon decided to sack it off as the hard move involved pulling on a small skin trashing edge, not good for warm rock and sweaty skin. Went up to the Eagle Stone where there was a nice cooling breeze and no puddles (for a change). Kim turned up. Did the 7a+ one that uses the tiny egg-shell crimps. This is the last of the old classics on the block I hadn’t done and it was real good. Did the mantelly one on the other side and goofed about on an eliminate trav Nige invented in his mind farm. Then did the Welford 7b one just right of the prow. This was excellent and surprisingly ok, steady 7a+ perhaps. The Dave K one to the left looks brilliant, I’ll certainly come back with an able bodied spotter for that one.
Think the next evening out will be on the lime unless we have another cold snap.

Late season grit

2008-04-18T10:13:00.000Z

Some north easterly winds have been bringing unseasonably good grit temps. Unfortunately it seems to have also brought showers just in time to ruin my attempts at evening sessions.
Had heard via dense that Iain F had succeeded on a new line at Gardom’s South so I got in touch and arranged to meet him there last night to see what it looked like. The idea was to have a look at this and then take him over to have a crack at Plan D, my new 7c arête thing further along the crag.
Headed out with Si and warmed up on G Thang etc. Iain arrived with his HUGE airpad ordered via 8a.nu. It packs down small and is a touch heavier than an extra large pad. It pumps up into a vast airbed. A bit weird to land feet first onto (feels nicer with normal pad on top), but very good for stuff where you fall onto your back.
Ended up trying Barry Sheene, a problem I have tried a lot before but not managed to crack. Conditions felt good (despite one sharp shower), but was still feeling unable to move when I got the edge off the left heel-toe. Decided to try it without the heel-toe, which is more burly but leaves you better set up for the next move. Was surprised to get matched up on the crimp after a few tries like this. Then fluffed it going for the sloper out right. Next time up, no mistakes, it felt fine and the nemesis was slain.
Nipped over and clean a better start to a nice little highball I did earlier in the year, while Si had a few more goes at BS. We all did the new line (slopey ridge finish to prob 12 in Ru’s book) once the mats were free and a lovely little prob it was too. Lots of climbing, interesting moves, never desperate, nice holds and a spicy finish. About 6b/+.
Then tried Iain’s new line. A very fine prow/arête, with steep sloper moves requiring a bit of fancy leg/footwork. Me and Si managed all but one move, a long throw off slopers to a good edge. It seemed likely that we would have to figure some alternative beta to Iain who could reach the hold off a reasonable heel-toe. Might come back for another look at the weekend. By now it was getting a bit dark so we headed off.

Belated weekend roundup

2008-04-15T15:30:00.001Z

Saturday night was my sisters 40th birthday party up in Ilkley, so we decided to drive up Friday night and have a leisurely start Sat. Parked up on an obscure dead-end road high on the moors opposite Rylstone. Awoke to find the van surrounded by snow, being pelted by thick sleet. Eventually the weather cleared and we drove over for a session at Ilkley. The crag was remarkably dry and we went over to the quarry behind the Lost Boot area to warm up on some south facing probs in the new guide. These turned out to be chipped, tough at the grade, but really very good. Ilkley Bar Kid 6b+ climbed a series of slanting ramps up a vaguely scooped wall, very technical and precarious. Chuck Norris 6c+ took ages to do (felt at least 7a to me) and I suspect might be graded for jump starting. It’s all about the first move to a strange slopey diamond shaped blob of rock sticking out of flat rock. In the end after trying various methods it went to a basic but tricky right hand slap. Both of these should be on everyone’s Ilkley circuit. Tried a desperate thing called Steven Seagal, but soon realized it was very very hard for 7b!
Then went over to First Arete. Only given 7a+ this problem has shut me down on at least two previous sessions, I was determined to finish it this time. Kept getting to top pinch before a dog ran up and stole my lunch, I then got very pissed off and aggressively scrabbled up it in bad style. To me it seems like a problem that looks better than it climbs and having a nasty block in the landing felt generally unpleasant.
Fi wanted to try Ringpiece so I thought I’d have a go at Superset, a John Dunne problem on the Calf first done in 1987. After a few goes I decided I wasn’t going to do it using the sequence Sam is trying in the old guide photo. Eventually sussed a better way for me using the chipped J instead of the A, smearing with left foot and toeing into another chipped letter with right foot. From here I could throw into the crack but couldn’t latch it. In the end it took many attempts before I finally managed to hit it just right and bagged the prob. Very satisfying move in the end, the easier top bit is great too. Used to get V10 in old guide, now given 7b+, it felt 7c to me, but I can imagine the move being much easier to stick if you are a bit taller.

Sunday I was a bit worse for wear after the party, but ended up having a short sesh at Curbar. Did lots of the usual 7a/+ stuff plus Dan’s Wall and Jihad which I hadn’t done before. Tried r-man’s new thing on the bad landing block. Did all the moves but didn’t manage a link, it seemed quite good and I’d agree with the grade of 7b+.

Was going to go out tonight but it’s now lashing down….

Morels!

2008-04-14T11:00:00.002Z

I love mushroom picking, but mostly I have to wait till autumn to go out a huntin’. There are a few exceptions to this rule, certainly the finest yet most elusive of these is the Morel. Highly prized (and priced!)by chefs the morel has a unique flavour and texture unlike anything else. They are unfortunately extremely difficult to find and grow for only a two or three weeks a year. That time is upon us and as is my custom of the last five years I made the annual pilgrimage to my secret location to see what this year had to offer. It was actually my dad who found the morel patch and brought home a fine collect way back in 1993. It was maybe ten years later that I got around to visiting this spot at the right time of the year after having very little success finding them elsewhere in the intervening years. Since then I’ve collected a modest crop for four years out of the last five. Last year there was nothing due to an exceptionally dry spell, but this Wednesday the patch came good. Five fine black morels where collected and within hours we were dining of a very tasty gratin of morels, cream, potatoes and pancetta. I’ll have my eye out where ever I go for the next couple of weeks, but I suspect that it’ll be another year before fresh Morels come my way again

Jonny two hols

2008-04-09T14:00:00.002Z

Week (five days actually) one was snow blown grit up in Yorkshire, week two was sun kissed pockets in Buoux.
Not feeling very wordy at the moment so will make this brief.
Yorkshire: Generally windy with snow showers meant Brimham was a good sheltered option. I love Brimham too so going there twice was good. Also had a day at Caley where the rock was in remarkably great nick, a snowy walk up to Simon’s + Lord’s Seat and a cold damp day at Malham. Did a bunch of good new-to-me probs at Brimham up to 7b including The Green Nose, The Governor, Black Chipper Arete, Arthur, Hole In The World, Joker’s wall flake SS and Murky Rib SS. At Caley I finally did Ben’s Groove after bottling the top bit on previous visits, need to go back for the amazing looking sitter now. Also did a cool arête mauling 7c called the Drey, which felt a bit soft with cunning beta. Repeated Blockbuster again, which felt harder than usual, cold fingers I reckon. Malham was a bit too cold for my tastes but it was raining so the best of a rum deal. Did Free And Even Easier, Consenting Adults and Bongo Fury, all of which I’ve done before. Fi led Consenting Adults which was something of a milestone for her. Although not too hard for her it has always been a bit of a nemesis route since she took a nasty upside down fall from the third clip a couple of years ago.
After a couple of days rest it was Buoux time (see Dob’s blog for fuller write up). The occasion was Kranken Arthur Harribo’s stag do. Fun was had, cheese was eaten, Arthur was dressed as a gay bear, pockets were pulled on. Routes of the week for me would have to be No Man’s Land 7b and Devers Pervers 7b+, both totally stunning routes. Least favourite was Reve De Papillon, nasty sharp pocket traversing with polished bugger-all for feet. Goes to show fame doesn’t always equal quality. In general I thought Buoux was a brilliant crag with perfect rock and many varied routes, far from the homogenous pocket hauling you might imagine. I did think however that based on my admittedly limited experience that it was a better crag in the 6s and 7s than in the low 8s. The 6s and 7s I did there where as good as any I’ve been on, the 8a-8bs seemed few and far between, very small pocket orientated (great if like Harribo you love the pockets), often unsubtly manufactured and for me not as interesting/varied as the harder routes at other big name euro crags such as Gorges Du Tarn, Ceuse, Rodellar, Terradets. We also had a day at Volx. Fun polished steepness, not bad for a knackered old crag but this style of climbing is done a whole lot better at numerous other places. Did a couple of 7bs there and redpointed a 7c+ (with unfortunate rope dabbage). The last day of the trip was a belter, ten routes on ten sectors. A great way to get a flavour of what Buoux has to offer. Will hopefully get round to posting some pics soon.
Sunday back in the peak and a snowy day on Burbage N. Nothing of note to report. Did a pleasant new low start to Little Brown Thug, starting on the left arête of Wednesday Climb. Little Brown Wednesday(?) – 7a, Nige being first up the “line”, getting his last session in before a shoulder op. Nige and Andy B both did Blind Drunk the heel way. One said 7c+ at most, one said deffo 8a. It’s hard putting numbers on lists! Tried Submergence but got snowed off.
Went back last night with Si to try Submergence again. Didn’t manage to do, although I did get the move to get the high layaway sorted (it’s all about turning the right heel outwards). Met Iain then went over and did Giza, which had up till then been a minor nemesis. It felt 7c to me and took quite a bit of effort, but I know lots of folk piss it (especially the lank) so it’ll get listed at 7b+ (for now) based on a range of opinions.

Drizzle

2008-03-18T11:00:00.002Z

Saturday was as wet as it had been predicting all week. I had a cold in the post anyway. After a wet plod around town sorting shit I headed out through the fog and drizzle to have another look around Wharncliffe. Wet days are a good time to go looking for new lines. You aren’t wasting good climbing time and the lichen is soft enough to easily be brushed off in great swathes with a plastic floor brush. That said it’s a fairly miserable business tramping around wet bracken trying to imagine what this green filthy wet lump of rock might look like when dry. You really need the eye of faith. Spied a few bits to go back for but nothing strikingly good. Ended up at the Lescar later on and stayed fairly late, it’s hard not to when the weather is grim.

Sunday started out pretty dreary too. The deepening cold and mild hangover didn’t help much either. Eventually the weather sorted its act out and the decision to leave retreat to the wall as a late afternoon escape plan was vindicated. After much deliberation me and Mawson opted for the Plantation. Warmed up a bit, did Silk start (not the sitter), then went over to have another go at Back In The YMCA, a problem which I have been shut down on twice before. Bumped into Adam L and John Wainwright and heard the fabled Sharma was on his way over. Lots of cursing and crimping dirty little pockets ensued. Eventually a passable sequence was devised and Neil and Adam bagged the beast. Pretty hard for a supposed 7a+ (I Neil notice gave it hard 7b+ on his scorecard)! I got set up for the last move once but bottled the slap, then couldn’t get there again, I blame the lurgy. It’ll go next time. By now Sharma was warming up around Crescent arête. We had planned to go over and try Welford's newish problem below BAW’s Crawl – The Golden Path 7c, but what about getting the Sharma tick? We went over to try TGP. It’s hard! Fairly high with a pretty good landing, but tough all the way. After much jiggery pokery we figured a way to do the lower arête via a left heel-toe and a very poor sloper on the arête. I say ‘we’, in truth I never actually managed the move. This bit is good 7b/7b+ in itself and leaves you on two reasonable slopey crimps either side of the arête. Neil could get here most goes but was having trouble doing anything with it. Adam, John and then Bransby arrived, sadly no Sharma (the missus was feeling the cold so they went to the wall). Bransby managed the arête bit once but got stopped at the roof. Oh well, no team send today. Seems like a great problem, will probably become a classic one day. Must remember to ask the elusive Mr Welford for the numbers next time I see him.

Hither and yon

2008-03-11T11:12:00.005Z

Unlike the boundlessly energetic Mr Dobbin my blogging motivation ebbs and flows. The last week or so it’s definitely been on the ebb. But in the name of keeping things ticking over I shall attempt to sketch out in brief what’s been going on climbing wise (this is pretty much exclusively a climbing blog after all).

Sat 1st – Went Curbar then Burbage North. Had a good warm up at Curbar with Birkby, Crabstick, Jo and Gib. Then had lots of goes at Ben’s Wall with Gib. We could both hit the pocket with our right hands, but seemed nowhere near hitting it with the right motion to hang it. Think I’m missing some subtlety. Need to watch someone who has it dialled. Then went over to Burbage N on my tod to do The Terrace. A popular prob but one I’ve never got round to trying properly till this year. Last visit I’d figured the move but was a tired so didn’t do. This time I was not tired and it went down first try despite a sloppy cutloose near the top. Then tried Giza with the Sausage who had just arrived. Could get up high on it but was lacking commitment above the sloping landing.

Sun 2nd – Went to try an esoteric project at an undeveloped two problem quarry, Mervyn Stutter Crag. Strange place with kids toys all over the place and a vague smell of baby sick. Was out with Ned, Variable and Gentle Face. Warmed up on a nearby natural grit boulder, nice probs but all easy. In the quarry Ned did the easier right hand line at about 7a/+, for now it’s called Scooter Ram, quite good but not worth a visit in itself. After lots of effort on the left arête Ned nearly managed it at 7c+, but ripped off a key crimp on what would almost certainly have been the ascent. It will still go, but will be harder, maybe even 8a. Dan got pretty close to doing the move without the crimp. We then flew over to Eastwood for a play. Did a couple of solos and both the traverses. Saw Vicky and Sausage. Vicky had a good sequence on the trav.

Sat 8th – Had been out till early hour on Friday for Garen’s 30th party (where I met the legendary Nibile), so wasn’t up to much. It was a bit drizzly anyway. Went out to Froggatt to look at various things including Iain’s prob Jelly Bomb on the Hairpin boulder. Couldn’t suss the first move out so gave Iain a call. It turns out Iain topped this out direct rather than rightwards into the scoop as described in the guide (this could well be from me giving Ru dodgy info). Even with beta I could not touch the first move. It’s a hard problem, harder than most peak 7c, I suspect the 7c+ grade than Iain gave it originally might be correct (not sure how the downgrade arose). Managed a version of the stand start, which was a great 7a/+ in itself, although not the way Iain did the top as you end up with the other hand in the good hold when doing the sitter (and hand swapping is another hard couple of moves). Had another failed attempt at Ape Drape direct. It doesn’t feel hard, just committing. It then started to rain properly.

Sun 9th – Lovely day out at Rowtor with Cofe, Adam, Scouse, Harris, Roy, Busby and Jim (arrived later with sprog). Tried the Brazilian but couldn’t get my weight over the heel. Watched Andy do it twice, Roy once and Adam nearly stick it as a dyno. Did a good circuit of stuff – Blood Falls, Yoghurt Hypnotist, Domes SS and Bus Stop Mantle. Finally got round to trying a strange mantel I’d spotted years ago. Wasn’t fast enough and got gazumped by the Adam. Quickly managed a second ascent with the aid of Adam’s shin beta, plus a sneaky toe-hook roll of my own. Great little problem, very Castle Hill. Very hard to put a grade on this sort of thing, but opted for stern 7a, the prob is called The Mantelist.

Double Gardom’s

2008-02-25T13:42:00.001Z

Ended up going to Gradom’s Edge both days this weekend.
Saturday after a lateish start I headed out on my own to Gardom’s South to meet up with team Dobbin and the Beekeeper. I arrived before the others and warmed up on G-thang and the sitter. It was overcast, mild and windy with dampness in the air and the rock didn’t feel too grippy. I’d moved on to half-heartedly trying Barry Sheene by the time the Beekeeper arrived. The Beekeeper is a friend of old who I’ve climbed on and off with, shared houses with, been on many skiing and climbing hols, but don’t see so often now he’s moved to Tideswell. Got word from Ben that they’d pushed on to Eastwood thinking Gardom’s could be wet. Barry Sheene wasn’t going too well in the less than prime conditions so showed Beeks some of the other probs in the area including the pocketed wall on the opposite side of the Sauvitto block. Did this and then spent a while cleaning and climbing an extended finish up the rib above. The new bit is really good fun in not too hard but a bit scary way. No change to the grade, but makes for a much more complete problem.
Then took Beeks over for a look at English Voodoo. The top bit felt a bit too easy for the 7a grade I gave it, but I couldn’t touch the sitter I’d given 7b. Just goes to show how hard and imprecise an art grading new things is. Went away thinking the stand-up might be 6c+ and the sitter 7b+, but they could feel totally different again on another day, hey ho.
Feeling fully warmed up I was keen to get on this project of sorts I’d tried a few weeks back. I say of sorts as it is eliminate in that it tries to climb an established problem (Rob Smith’s problem Dirty Business) without a pair of large hand holds out right. A lovely sharp, smooth, quarried arête, vertical on the left and overhanging on the right side up which the line goes. The handholds amount to one positive headheight crimp, low friction arête pinches with very little for thumbs and small well spaced footholds close to the arête. The difficulty ends at about 4m with a big flat break and a fun easy high bit. When you see the feature and try the moves it seems much more of a true line than the description suggests. I’d go as far as saying it turns a fun but relatively trivial none-eliminate, into a brilliant, utterly absorbing eliminate. Truth is that I’d not spotted the possibility until Adam mentioned it (hope he doesn’t mind me pinching it). On the previous attempts I’d figured a way to get a fair way up it by whacking a heel round the corner, pinching hard with the left hand and crossing over to a thumb down pinch with the right on a high sharp bit of the arête which has a smidge more friction than the glassy rock around. On that day I’d been completely unable to move anything from that position without barndooring off. Session two and I was getting easily into the position, but still struggling to do anything with it. Poor old Beekeeper was forced to stand around getting cold while I repeatedly barndoored off the same move time and time again. Stopped for a rest and got a text from Dob who’d moved on from Eastwood via Calver café to the Sauvitto end of the crag. After making an attempt at stepping right foot high onto the start crimp I figured out a possible way to move up. From the heel-hook, pinching both arête holds hard, lean out and carefully slide left foot to a small notch on the arête. At this point you are teetering on the edge of barndooring off leftward with only thumb friction keeping you on as you stand onto the notch and step onto the start crimp to stop the barndoor. Then it was back to barndooring off time and again, this time one move higher, trying to figure a body position that would allow progress. I figured it might be possible to do a crossover slap to the break from these holds, but couldn’t get set properly. Tried getting pushed on and after a few goes manage to land the slap to the break from the same holds but with right foot off completely and a left knee tucked around the arête. However try as I might I could not climb into this subtly different position from the deck. It’s starting to feel like this Saturday is going to be a repeat of last Saturday, totally knackering myself out on a project and then not doing it.

Here's a pic from session one on Plan D. Thanks for pic go to Cofe

Beeks was cold and ready for home by then and I needed a rest so I let him off the hook and ran over to Sauvitto to see if I could blag Ben into spotting me. I arrived just in time to catch him cruising Sauvitto after having done it once already off the boulder. Good to see him looking confident and fluid on the grit and loving it. He’s happy to spot we rush back to the arête with maybe an hour of daylight left. A bit of a rest, better nick and some Morton psyche and I get to the move and latch the crossover slap on the first try. Get in! Ten minutes later and the sitter is added too. The sit doesn’t have any hard moves but does make the top a bit harder. We discuss grades and I’m settling for hard 7b+ stand-up and 7c from sitting, but as ever it’ll need repeats to confirm this. Ben tries for the repeat in the failing light but is struggling with the tenuous step-up before the slap. It’s the sort of move that takes a few goes to get the feel of. He agrees the climbing is class anyway. I’m not sure if you’re allowed to give names to eliminates these days, but feel this one deserves it’s own identity. I’ll call it Plan D after a Bill Fay song I can’t get out of my head at the mo and see how much stick I get for it.

Sunday in brief. It looks set to rain mid-day but decide to go out anyway and try Heartland and Mark’s Roof Direct at Gardom’s North. Climbing with Fi initially, Katherine and Vicky B turn up later as the rain starts. We hide under Mark’s roof and eventually the rain stops. Nearly bag it off and head indoors, but find one problem nearly dry, the 7a left of Heartland and persuade folk to have a play on this and see if other stuff dries off. Manage the 7a, then try Heartland as it dries. Have to keep shielding the slopers with various items to keep more rain off. Andy H pops by on his way back from an out of nick Raventor and gives me some beta, I also phone Mawson for beta, but end up doing it in a completely different way to both the suggestions. Not a bad problem, some good moves, but pretty soft for 7c when you get it figured. Then try Mark’s Roof direct which feels hard, but mostly very scary due to having a very solid heel-toe and shit handholds. Visions of dangling head-first off a broken ankle prevent any real commitment. Fi pulls it out the bag again and manages Mark’s Roof Left Hand and is well pleased. Good weekend all round.

Rock bouldering

2008-02-21T09:22:00.005Z

What I did last weekend.
Saturday was a trip up to Yorkshire to try a bouldering project, up early and head out with Fi and Vicky B. The project is one I’d spotted last year and have spent a session on already. It involves pinching along a sharpish hanging lip from right to left with ok pinches but hard footwork, to a hideous rockover onto a heel-hook. On last year’s attempt I could do everything on it except for one piece of footwork in the middle. At the sticking point I’d end up stretched out and horizontal with hands crossed and feet either side of the lip in opposition. The problem being that the feet need to be released but I couldn’t take one off without breaking the opposition and cutting loose uncontrollably. After quickly re-learning last year’s sequence I’m back to pondering the foot moves. Unfortunately due to the way the thing climbs I can’t pull on and work this move in isolation, rather having to get there from the start every time. After lots of foot squeezing, shoulder wrenching effort, trying all my mind could muster, I find I can get a very poor left toe jam in a pocket in the roof and ‘walk’ the right foot (heel, toe, heel, toe) along the lip to a small toe hold without ever releasing pressure. Pushing hard on this toe then allows the toe-jam to be released in a semi-controlled fashion. After several more goes I’m through this sequence and onto a biggish dish and little edge, with just the last rockover to do. Rock up as high as I can and attempt to flip right hand into a palm-down, but haven’t got the height. Slump down, take a breath and try again, but gain even less height. Damn, it’s not to be, the final deep locky rockover, which is hard in isolation, is just too hard for my tired shoulders. After that I’m broken and don’t manage to get through the move again, although I do manage to improve the sequence some more. Oh well, it will have to wait till next time, whenever that might be. Retire to Sheffield for fine curry and beer at the Sausage’s house.

Sunday comes and the skin is thin and everything else hurts from too many goes on the project, but the weather is amazing again and I really want to get something done after all the fruitless efforts of yesterday. Nearly go to the Roaches, but ended up at Burbage S with Mr Mawson, figuring that shady rock would be more forgiving on skinless fingers than warm sunny slopers. End up going round most of the edge circuit and a bit on the boulders, showing stuff to Neil who then proceeds to do them all on the flash or second go. He has a good day bagging Little Gem, Zorev, Electric Storm, Yoghurt, Alliance SS, Little Rascal, The Rib, Desperate and the 7a slab on the Pock Block. Not bad for someone who hasn’t climbed a lot this year and claims not to be much of a boulderer. I’m pleased enough to get two new ticks with Zorev and the 7a slab on the Pock Block. Zorev proves to be one of those problems that feels horrendous on the first few goes, but gets gradually easier, eventually feeling ok on the se… ascent. Then injured Nige turned up and made some gentle faces...which was nice.

Hot grit

2008-02-11T11:12:00.000Z

Initial plans to go to a certain Yorkshire grit crag to try a project ended up getting shelved due to lack of team. It’s hard to drag people a bit further a field at the best of times and most of the usual suspects were away, injured or likely to be too hung-over to get up in time. Next weekend hopefully.
Decided I needed some morale boosting successes so opted for a quick trip to complete things on Mossatrocity and then over to try Dick Williams which I’d heard was steady at 7b+. Met up with Dave Parry at Grindlewald and set to work on Moss’. Warming up was hard work but got there in the end and managed to improve my sequence a fair bit. Did the top bit once, then went for the link and got it on the second go. Pretty much did it all off the left heel as per Adam’s beta. Funny how the heelhooking wasn’t hurting my hamstring this time, but had been too painful to use last weekend. Great problem.

On Thursday at the Works I’d had to leave after less than an hour due to a pain/pulled muscle in my left peck. Had hoped the hasty retreat and a couple of days rest would have sorted it out but this wasn’t so. Trying hard on the last bit of Mossatrocity caused it to flare up worse than before. But weather was too nice for home and rest so I decided to push on with the pain and then take a week off training down the wall and hope it’s fixed by next weekend.
Dave wasn’t feeling it on Moss so we moved on to Secret Garden. Lots of folk there (Joe L’S, Vicky, Jo W, Jim, Tetler, Joe B and about four more) and just missed Dobbin. Managed Dick William quite quick without too much pain. Brilliant problem, can’t believe I’ve never tried it before. Had a brief go at Zaf’s but it was hurting too much so wandered over to Mother Cap, where it was boiling. Greased my way up Conan before deciding to sack it off for somewhere cooler.
Spent the last of the day at the Plantation. Deliverance Traverse seemed like a good one to try that wouldn’t hurt the peck. I’d tried it a few times before but always given up before really getting to grips with it. Watched Si piss across it with a Dawes/R-man-esque side leap, which I totally failed to duplicate. Managed to do it in the end by squatting down very low on the smears, kicking a limb out, pushing a pebble and shuffling about a bit until I could grab the sidepull. Another class boulder problem and pleased to do three new things in a day. Good to bump into ozzy Si/Rubber Chicken who’s over for a couple of weeks.

The pulled muscle felt well sore on Sunday and thought it best to take it easy. Fi wanted to try Gorilla Warfare so I went along as spotter and beta monkey. She’d got close earlier in the week and was well psyched. After a slight tweak to the sequence she bagged it on the third try. Good effort!!

Had abortive attempts on Ben’s Wall and The Art Of White Hat Wearing, but boiling temps and the injury prevented any serious effort. Think it’s time I had a few days off now.

Normal service resumed

2008-02-04T14:55:00.000Z

Well, I’ve been back a month now and it feels like I never left. Back to work, back to weekends on the grit and evening down the wall, back to rain and Tesco and traffic, back to the Sheaf, the Mangla and proper beer.
At first it’s downright depressing, but soon enough the mind adjusts and finds ways of spinning out what fun there is to be had across a week mostly spent behind a desk. Mid-weeks are survived with the help of the interweb and daydreaming about new lines, or stuff to try as highballs. Endless three star 8as are swapped for “can I do that 7C on the 50 degree board?”, but still I’m pysched. I’ve got a list of over fifty projects, mostly on peak grit that I need to get round to trying and there’s always more to find, as proved by the excellent looking Mossatrocity recently climbed near Grindleford Station. Not to mention all the route ideas I never get round to trying….

Had a good weekend but haven’t got much to show for it except worn tips and sore arms. Saturday was a snowy Rivelin with Nige, Si and team beardown. Played around on various variants on Acid Reign, then had a go at Chimp A, a likely looking highball rib. The bottom bit was nice and not very hard for the V7 that it gets in the guide. The last move proved to be the meat due to scrittle rock and a rounded top. Nige had a near miss when half the flake he was pulling on snapped and Si was the only one to top out with the help of a very bendy branch. Next up was Sparks 7b. Had done a RH version of this line years ago but hadn’t really climbed the feature properly. With all six of us seiging it a sequence was eventually cobbled together, Cofe being first past the mark. Quick repeats followed from everyone else I think. Having done two of the at least three different ways up this I’d say this one is THE line and a very good tricky 7b. After that me and Nige went to try Master Kush while the others did Moontan start. Conditions were good and we were hitting the lip every time. That’s the easy bit, the hard bit is holding the huge swing when all you have for the right hand is a tiny slopey dish. Mighty frustrating, but feels tantalisingly feasible, who knows…. It certainly merits a bit more attention. Latching the move would be amazing.
Wasn’t expecting to get out on Sunday as the forecast had been dire all week. In the end it was overcast but dry so I rang Nige and we headed out to try Mossatrocity at Grindleford Station. Appearances are not deceptive, this is indeed a fine new boulder problem, very pure fridge hugging on good rock in a lovely setting. Adam turned up and swiftly did it, having been on it the day before. Adam’s beta was good and Nige soon bagged it too. Then Sam arrived and made it three ascents. Unfortunately I couldn’t get to grips with the beta they used as it put too much strain on my left hamstring which is still dodgy from an injury in 06 (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). Did manage to figure a sequence which worked for me in the end, but didn’t have the juice to link it and my best shots saw me falling off going for the crack just below the top. Oh well, can’t wait to get back on it, maybe I’ll take the lamps out and have an evening hit with Si.

Better late than never?

2007-11-28T18:23:00.000Z

Two in a week and then none for yonks. Anyway.
The climbing. Did loads more at Roddellar. Then went to Terradets and did pretty much all the classics and some random ones (which were pretty classic too!). favourites there would be Flix Flax, Latido Del Miedo, Xarapo De Basto and LÁnarkista, but they where all pretty worldclass sport routes. Didn´t manage any more 8a onsights here (managed a second one in Rodellar), but onsighted two 7cs and five 7c+s, so can´t complain. Mid way through our Terradets spell we took a week out of the routing to go bouldering in Albarracin, the climbing was great, as was the company. Have now moved on to Montgrony, a high altitude, sunny tufa crag. Have only climbed two days so far. Did a few nice easier things and then went for the classic of the, which various folk had mentioned to me in the past. Aromes De Montgrony 8a+ is a classic pure tufa line in the Dinosaur (Seynes) mould. The first half is steep up a pair of very flared tufas, the second half is up one fat trunk with the crux at the top where the tufa gets very wide and blank and you are forced to maul up the slopey sides. Great route with a gritstone-esque crux! Worked it the first day in nice cool weather, but was to forced to do the redpoint in the blazing sun. Something of a contrast to the last route I did at Terradets which I ended up doing in a stupidly cold wind, 30 metres of 8a vertical wall climbing (a route called Millenium) and a slab crux when you can´t feel your fingers was pure pain! Generally seem to be going ok, am one route away from my thirtieth 8a-8b of the trip. Sorry if that´s all a bit number orientated, but trying to shoe-horn the news in so haven´t got much space for eulogising.
Fi has also been going well. In Terradets she did her first 7b+ plus a hideously hard 7a+ which felt even harder than the 7b+ to me (Jam Session and LÀnsia).

The van. The van had it´s problem when we were on the way back from Albarracin. It stoppped dead in the middle of nowhere and refused to start again. Ten days and two thousand euros the Bubble Goose (Swift Gosling seems a bit poncey and the reg is BG5) was back on the road. Fortunately the insurance paid for a hire car, but we had to spend some very cold nights in the tent, not nice. All seems well now (touch wood). The heater is proving to be well worth the effort and money. There is no way we could stay up in the mountains without one.

Elusive things I´ve seen in the last few days: A wild boar, a badger and Stefan Glowacz!

Wow two blogs in a week

2007-09-28T14:45:00.000Z

Have been doing more of the same since the last post. Three more 8a and an 8a+, no flashes though. Feel like I ought to try and spending some time on something a bit harder now rather than just bagging quality volume. Will maybe try Botanics 8b+ or Espirit Rebeled 8b.
It´s getting cooler here now and the place is pretty quiet. Funny how everyone goes home just as the conditions get good. I guess folk don´t book holidays at this time due to the risk of rain and wet tufas.
The van has been excellent so far with no mechanical probs and all fittings working as hoped for. the solar panel has been very useful, meaning we can park up for ages without having to drive to charge batteries.
Will probably stay here for another week, maybe two(unless it craps out) then head on to Terradets via Alquezar and Riglos (for a couple of days each).

Rodellar

2007-09-24T11:48:00.000Z

We ended up staying at Ceuse for about two weeks in total. Was keen to get down to Rodellar in good time to avoid a repeat of 2005 wet tufa disasters so headed to Spain in the first week of Sept.
Did lots of classic stuff in Ceuse, but didn´t really aquire the requisite stamina for anything particularly hard until the last few days. But did manage one 8a (Collonetes with bloc start) and flashed a 7c (Blanches Fesse).
The Ceuse stamina and general fitness from the walkin has proved pretty useful here though. My ultimate goal on this trip was to flash an 8a and i managed it last week. The route was one of the areas best - Corredor de Muerta, a massively steep 40m line (of mostly jugs) up the middle of a big yellow wave. I saw the line on our last trip in 2005 and have been wanting to do it ever since.
Other than that have onsighted a few 7c+s and lots of 7cs and 7b+s, almost all of them brilliant routes. I love this place.
Have been climbing a lot with Mr Mawson who has left now but had a great trip flashing or onsighting a fair few 8as and redpointing a couple of super classic 8bs.

Cegooooosuse!!!!

2007-08-24T13:59:00.000Z

MW was good, but rather spoilled by the weather. Bagged lots of lower end sevens, flashed an overgraded 7c Fool Fighter and got very close to doing Sofa Surfer. Did overlapping halves on SS in a session, but after that it was wet for three days so we left.
Drove through some biblical storms in Swiss and Italy to get to a very damp Ceuse. Thankfully the sun came out the next day and im on a rest day now after two days of greqt conditions at the crag. Have done a bunch of stuff, all great up to 7b+ on Berlin and Cascade. Met up with North Country Boy again (he was in Germany at same time) and the psyche is flowing. Bring me the classics. Stamina is not quite up to scratch yet but should get sorted soon enough.
Allez oop

Hello at last

2007-08-16T15:20:00.000Z

Sorry about the lack of update. Unfortunately there was only one login available in the Frankenjura, it was utter pants and I couldn`t do blog on it. Also my old camera bust, so we have no picks from Germany, but have got a very nice replacement, so will put some picks up of elsewhere.
In the end we spent three and a bit weeks in Germany and mostly had good weather. At first I was not totally taken by the climbing in the Frankenjura, but after a week or so and visits to some of the better crags it started to grow on me and eventually I think Ive become a convert. As I was told the beer and the cakes are exceptional and the campsite is a classic among climbers campsites (excuse lack of apostrophes, I cant find them on this Swiss keyboard).
Got a fair bit done routeswise. Onsighted some 7cs and a 7c+ (Ekel at Eldorado - just like climbing on the 50 degree board). Redpointed an easy 8a+ and would have done 3 or 4 more but was thwarted by shit weather for the crucial last few days.
We have now moved on to Magic Wood in Swiss. Quite a big UK crowd out here at the moment, Joe Le Sage, Vicky Barret, Tim Stubbly, Dave Mason, Andy Banks & Emma, Keith Bradbury and more on the way. Up to now the bouldering has been great, but the weather has just crapped out and looks set to stay poor for a bit. Nothing hard bagged yet but lots on the list. Had a play on a new think today on a boulder about a mile from the main area. More like a route thank a boulder prob. Amazing line up a pair of aretes and grooves. Got to the last move but ended up reversing. Eee well, nearly a brilliant E5 6a.
Will post more when I have more time.... could be soon if the rain stays. See ya

Ready for the off

2007-07-12T14:24:00.000Z

Well we are out of the house now, the van has had the last finishing touches added and we are sort of on the road. We are infact dashing about visiting family before the trip proper and it doesn't really feel like the journey has commenced yet.
For anyone thinking of doing the van conversion thing i'd say the following. If you intend doing anything half decent it is far from inexpensive or straightforward. The whole business is costly and time consuming, both in terms of labour and research/ searching for decent cheap materials. I was lucky in that I could get stuff via work, including good power tools which are a must, you are not going to get far without a good battery drill and a jigsaw. All things considered if you include consider the value of your own labour it is fairly finely balances whether for most people a home conversion is cost effective. I would certainly not recommend it to anyone who does not have a lot of time and energy to put into the project or someone who doesn't already have a good set of tools and plenty of houshold storage. That said I have enjoyed the build enourmously and learn a a hell of a lot. A few months back I knew a whole lot less about gas fitting, auto-electrics (I didn't even know the difference between AC and DC), joinery, using ebay and many other things. Doing your own van your own way means you know the thing inside out and should (touch wood) be able to sort out any problems without resorting to the garage. It means you have exactly what you want where you want it. For example I have have a huge battery bank, a box of tricks which means the alternator charges the batterys five times faster and 20% fuller, low energy 12V only fittings and a very good solar panel, all of which make for an energy independant home which can be parked up for long periods whithout need of mains hook-up. Commercial motorhomes/campervans just aren't made this way, they are all geared up for mains hook-up on campsites and only very short periods without. The insulation I have added is way over what most motorhomes have so we should stay cool in summer and warm in winter with little need of heating or air con (both of which we have). Here's some pics:

We've got one more family engagement, a weekend camping with the huge Fullwood clan in Birchover and then off down south to Dover, a SpeedFerry to Bologne and Frankenjura....

Moving swiftly on

2007-06-10T20:15:00.000Z

No recent blogage as i've been running about like a blue arsed fly attending to the gosling. Since last update i've added the second fridge vent, completed the boarding, added an over-head locker above the cab, added trim between roof and walls, completed dressing around the windows, stuck carpet to exposed metal bits (it stops condensation), painted stuff and wall papered the walls. No time to talk, but here's some pics of progress so far.

Swift gosling

2007-05-21T08:17:00.000Z

Have been cracking on with the van, which I was going to call the Bubble Goose until I checked urban dictionary , instead it (not sure of gender yet) is to be known henceforth as Swift Gosling - master of wind and road.
Since the first lot of photos I have fully insulated the roof, walls and doors with cellotex of various widths, PU foam and foil backed tape. This was a long, fairly tedious and messy job, but should along with double glazed windows, silver screens blinds and an extractor vent help keep us cool in the south of France and warm in Font. I've added two vents to the roof, one with a 12v, three speed fan which can be set to blow air in or out, this is above where the cooker will be and is to vent off hot air in summer, as well as food based effulgence from cooking. Before I could start boarding I ran out various cables to where I thought lights, solar panel, heater etc would go. Now I'm onto boarding out all the insulated surfaces. To keep down weight and to follow the curved interior I am using 4mm exterior grade plywood. This stuff is tough and flexible but can be cut to shape, with some effort, using a stanley blade, which makes getting a neat edge much easier than sawing. The boarding is half done and hopefully will be complete (except for a gap where the fridge goes) by June when I quit work to spend a few weeks full time on the van before travels commence.

Omnistor extractor vent

Boarded out door and sidewall

Unboarded sliding door and wiring

The cluttered untidy work space

Other than managed the classic Grooved Arete at Kilnsey t'other weekend. Midweek has been all about peak lime bouldering in an attempt to keep fingers strong for the Euro trip. This week has also seen the rope come out with me and Nige trying the mighty Revelations. So far it's going pretty well, Thursday we figured out the sequence on the crux (credit to Harris for useful beta), then worked the top and tryed to redpoint yesterday. Got through crux and into the groove on the third or fourth attempt, then fell off going right due to pump and bad sequence. Will go back Tues with fresh arms....

All in the mind

2007-04-27T08:08:00.000Z

After a couple of weeks feeling like the climbing is slipping, due in part to spending much time on the van, as well as various unplanned stuff interrupting what climbing time was available, I all of a sudden feel back on the up. Went out to 'the-place-of-which-we-must-not-speak' last night after feeling mediocre at Rubicon and managed my project of four session, The Hulk. Hurrah. It's funny how my perception of how it's all going can be almost instantly turned around by success on one problem. I think it's this pattern of motivation which generally leads me to avoid 'working' problems, as opposed to trying harder stuff sporadically and going for the one day ticks. I find it hard to believe that I'm climbing ok and making progress when no new probs are getting done for a few days. Maybe this ticking addiction gets in the way of bagging the bigger numbers.
As ever I'm torn between the going out and having as much fun as possible game and the working hard for rewarding longer term goals approach. Having experienced a little success with the latter I think I'll carry on with this for a while and hopefully that way use what climbing time I do have available to get some finger strength together for the big trip. Hmmmm, so what next, The Pinch, Tsunami.....?

But bouldering's for midweek at the mo, and Saturday the plan is to get back to Kilnsey. Had a play on Grooved Arete two weeks ago and was surprised how ok it felt considering it's endurancey nature. Brilliant climbing and I figure it's a good one to kick start the season. Reckon it'll take two-three more visits, but often guess wrong. Will be trying to redpointing tomorrow anyway, so you never know.

Some van pics

2007-04-18T15:15:00.000Z

The van as purchased....

....with big hole in the side....

....and with brand new Seitz window in.

Ultra busy

2007-04-12T12:33:00.000Z

Haven't posted owt for ages for two reasons. First I was away on hol, grit bouldering in Yorkshire and since then I have been busier than I can remember with the van project.
Come July this year me and Fi are off around Europe climbing for six months. The original plan was to get a cheap, reliable and comfortable van to live in during our trip. After a fair bit of research it became aparent that such things don't exist. Decent campers/motorhomes big enough for a comfy six months come in two varieties, fairly cheap (but still £5-10k) but ancient and with huge mileage or good nick but ludicrously expensive (£15->30k). Nothing I could find in our price range seemed worth the money or reliable/long lasting enough not to be a risky investment. So it was with some great trepidation that I have embarked upon the task of making my own camper van. Have bought a good solid base vehicle, a 2001 long wheel base, high top, Ford Transit, with a mere 60,000 miles on the clock.
So far I have stripped out the original floor and partial ply lining, installed two openable double glazed windows with integral roller blind and fly net, added an immobiliser and installed a new ply floor with underfloor insulation. The next bit to go in will be a 12v rooflight/extractor fan to help keep it cool in the euro heat. Bought and ready to install I have a three way (gas,12v and 240v) fridge, a propex 1600 blown air heater, two 110 amp-hour leisure batteries, a grey enamel sink, a smoke alarm and a fire extinguisher. I'm also going to be fully insulating the walls and roof, installing a solar panel on the roof, adding two gas tanks, a hob, cold water with a manual pump, lighting, a big bed and lots of storage.
Quite a huge job and very time consuming, both interms of labour as well as research and materials sourcing. To make this possible in time for the trip i will be leaving work a month early to work full time on the van (even with the loss of a months wages it's cheaper than getting a ready made van).
As mentioned above this was not the original plan and it pretty much means I will have bugger all time to do anything with the boltfund prior to my trip. Someone will need to look after it while i'm away anyway. Basically the money is there, it just need some suitably able and keen people to do something with it. I feel a little bad for starting something and not fully carrying it through, but that's just the way things have turned out. Ultimately i'm not any more responsible for the state of peak bolts (other than the ones i've placed) than the next man and the fact that i've set some wheels in motion for a peak bolt fund doesn't change this. If anything I could fairly say that having put in a lot more effort than the next man and it's about time more people took a share of the load.

A goose chase

2007-03-23T10:50:00.000Z

Here's an account of doing a new boulder project. I started rambling and it turned out quite long!

I first discovered this lovely and extremely well hidden roof a month or so ago. It had been snowing heavily and all the crags were saturated with slush and snow melt. Fi was working over the weekend and I'd already tired myself out at the wall on the Saturday, so decided to drive out and have a nose around at Turning Stone and Cocking Tor. I remembered spotting a few likely looking buttresses at CT and there was the long standing project dyno at TS which needed some Rhododendrons cutting back. Whilst at Turning Stone I decided to abseil down the big unclimbed roof to see if it would ever go (it will). After questing through bushy tunnels to where I though the roof should be I threw down the rope and set off. To my great surprise I discovered that the roof had an upper tier, totally inaccessible on foot due to the thick Rhodies all around. The rock was clean and immaculate and there looked to at least one vaguely possible line up the side with a landing (the front side being perched above a big drop). I left the crag intrigued and keen to return as soon as the rock dried up.
Well it took a while for the dryness to arrive and it proved as difficult as ever to drag anyone out to a 'project' crags. But in the end it only took minor arm bending to get Dense out for a look. Most of the day was spent clearing up the Cocking Tor circuit and a very good time was had bagging fairly minor but still very worthwhile probs all along the little buttress dotted between the main block and Turning Stone. It's a good little circuit in it's own right and an ideal warmup for the harder stuff. Feeling fairly tired and getting late we went over for a look at the roof.
The trusty bow saw was wielded and we managed to sort out a non-abseil way down to the block. With the worst of the dreaded Rhodies cleared it's a great little spot, perched on top of the crag with clear views across the valley to Ogston Res'(a regular stop-off for migrating Osprey!) and Eastwood Rocks.
Much effort ensued on the top move which looked to be the meat of the prob. With stacked pads we could pull on using a slopy three fingertip pocket for the right and a devilishly marginal pinch for the left. Initial attempt to do the move as a slap fell way short of the top and we concentrated on trying to lock out to poor intermediate slopers on the vague left hand rib. After numerous failed attempts I switched to trying the start. This went fairly quickly but was still hard enough to make the as yet un-done upper move even harder. After getting the two key holds from a left heel-toe it is necessary to cut loose, pull up high and step your right foot onto a good lip hold, all the time creeping a little on the poor pinch.
I took one poor photo of Dense on the crux, which he said reminded him inexplicably of Salle Gosse the famous 7c at Sabot in Font. After that there could only be one name, Salle Goose it was.
Got up Sunday and looked out the window to see wet roads and driving hail. There had been bold talk down the Sheaf on Thursday night of a trip down on Sunday to try Jame's masterpiece River Of Life, but things were not looking good. Expecting a late afternoon potter at the Works I was surprised to receive a call from James saying he and Dave Mason were at the crag and ROL was in perfect condition. Jeepers. The team was duly assembled, me, Nige Kershaw and Andy Banks would be there in an hour.
ROL was indeed in perfect nick and with good psyche, some roaring, and beta from Keenus, me and Andy both got it done, with Nige and Dave coming close.
With plenty of the day left attention turned to Salle Goose. I was slightly reluctant to let such a strong team see this project which I dearly wanted to do first, but thought sod it, I'll just have to pull hard and get in quickly. I'll tell them they can work it but not link it until after me. To my horror Andy pulled onto the crux move after watching me fail, and dispatched it via the slap on his second shot!! Damn this was looking like another one lost to my impatience. I continued to try to link the problem, telling Andy he couldn't try the link until I had bagged the FA. After much frustration and failure it looked clear I was not going to get it in a hurry and I was feeling bad about keeping Andy off a prob he was clearly well capable of doing. Attempts were interrupted by snow showers requiring the holds to be taped over with green army issue tape (awesome stuff!) and the top draped with a rag (see pic on previous post). Belatedly sticking to my principles I let Andy loose on it. Perhaps due to me keeping him stood in the cold for ages or due to wetness on the holds the link didn't prove to be the formality I think we both expected. Andy must have hit the top ten times but not stuck it by the time failing light, a split tip and more snow finally stopped play. Feeling a mixture of relief and disappointment for Andy we went home, both still well happy to do ROL but keen to return for the goose.

Andy hiding from the weather

Arrgggh, this was starting to stress me now. Mostly I don't get possessive about probs, but this one felt close and was such a good prob. I was keenly aware that the weather looked good for the week while I was stuck in the office and Andy had some free time. I dare say in hindsight that Andy may not have decided to try it, but I was feeling paranoid. Bollox to it, I had to get there in the week, after all I'm off to the Dales for a week come Friday. After some jiggery pokery a late visit on Wednesday was engineered. I was to meet up with Rhys and James for a last try before the week away.
Conditions were nice but the sun was on the goose so we warmed up with a solo of Overton Arete and Hugo DeVries and Rhys got some footage of James cruising ROL.
First go on the goose felt good after two rest days, but I still couldn't get the height needed. I could just touch the top but my left leg was stubbornly holding me back from making the distance. Over and over again I flopped onto the pads. Finally I managed to do half the last move after getting a push on from James. This was from holding a nothing intermediate sloper. Progress at last I thought, but could I get this sloper on the link, not a chance! With hope fading I decided to give it a break and we went down to the lower tier to try a smart looking highball I'd spotted ages back.
The highball line is a roof some way above a big Rhodie bush. You cross the roof via a slightly flexible flake, a heel-toe and a blind reach for a rugosite edge. You then make a spectacular but easy cutloose and press on up tiny jugs edges to a final awkward mildly gripping move to a break, from where you can finish up a very overgrown VS, escape left or dive off onto the pad/bush trampoline. James got it first, then me after a few test launches onto the springy landing. Finger Bang (blame South Park!) generous 7a+ (I found another hold, with James original way being 7b)is a corker and another good reason to visit the crag.

Finger Bang!

Back upstairs I pulled on, did the start with the pinch feeling good, twisted the pocket a little to get more inward pull for the slap and latched the top first go! Phew, at last! And caught on camera, looking forward to seeing the footage.
Strangely managed to do the last move first go again for the camera, funny how these things go. It's hard to say what made the difference in the end. Maybe better friction, maybe the rest, maybe the little twist on the pocket, or maybe just better concentration. I opted to give it 7c+ given the amount of effort and time it took compared to the 7cs I've done this winter, but probs which boil down to one move can feel so different to different folk and different builds. Hopefully it will see some repeats and we'll see if it sticks, whatever the grade it's an ace prob and deserves attention. Given the current popularity of ROL I dare say it should see a quick repeat, I'm sure Andy will dispatch it in no time with fresh arms and new skin.

James on Salle Goose

And that's that, apart from to say soz to Andy for not telling him I was going there on Wednesday. Soz mate (if you happen upon this blog), a bit underhand, but I wanted it for myself in the end...

Risk and reward

2007-03-19T14:04:00.000Z

In keeping with me and Dob’s cross blog musings on all things climbing related I’ll attempt to expand on my outlook to climbing in a country renown for it’s unpredictable weather. A quick disclaimer here, I’m not trying to diss how other people approach climbing, just explain my own philosophy.

Ben’s comments about not wanting to risk a wasted day got me thinking about what a fine balancing act the grit season can be. Given that time available to climb is limited and the ultimate goal is to climb good hard problems, what is the best strategy? From Paul’s reply he seems to favour the climb loads inside and unleash infrequently outside when conditions are perfect approach. Whilst I can understand the logic behind this I’m not convinced it’s the most efficient way forward. On the other hand you have those who never go indoor climbing, just go out a lot and get very good. Again I’m not convinced this is the most efficient strategy either. One extreme seems over reliant on pure strength gain and the other over reliant on skill gain. The latter approach might work for Sharma, but if you have a full time job and you live in Sheff it's not going work like that. Both elements are in my ever humble opinion, of even importance if your goal is to climb hard across a range of styles.

One of the main inefficiencies of the former approach is that you are reliant on predictably mint conditions arriving at the same time as your available time slot. The UK being as it is, this will happen very little. However, good conditions are far commoner than people think, they just require a level of knowledge, flexibility and risk to access. The risk is of a wasted day, but really this risk is a lot lower than people often think. Yesterday is a prime illustrative case. The forecast was for high winds and frequent snow and hail showers. On the face of it a total non starter, but with several key bits of information we managed to find the correct problem in extremely good condition. The key information being that the days prior had been dry, the wind was a strong westerly, the crag was east facing and the problem was a roof. Coupled with insider info from James who lives close by, the odds looked worth taking a drive out for. After all, if it doesn’t work out we could always fall back on a wall sesh. People often seem amazed that A I bother going out on days which look awful on the face of it and B that nine times out of ten I find things in good nick. It takes some learning but eventually you get a feel for what will be in on what day. So long as you keep your ticklist long and open to adjustment there is pretty much always something to go at. So many people get fixated on one or two probs and have a hideously frustrating time going to the wrong crag in the wrong conditions. Bend with the wind, grass-hopper.

With a long ticklist and an intimate knowledge of which crags suit which condition you also develop a hierarchy of condition scarcity which allows you to maximise what you get done. Put simply each days weather will allow a certain number of crags to be worth going to. Some crags like Almscliff or Cratcliff are much more likely to be in good nick than crags like Caley or Burbage South. The rule of thumb being that you always try to go to the crag with the narrowest conditions window that the weather will allow. In so doing you catch the rare good conditions at places like Caley and you don’t run out of things to do at places like Almscliff, saving it for iffy days.
Or alternatively you could txt me.

I’ve kind of lost my thread now and I have to do some work so I’ll leave it there.

Brother's work

2007-02-23T17:54:00.000Z

Seeing as i've posted some of my drawings, I thought I might as well pop some of my brother's up too. These three are some of my favourite sketchs of his that I have.
When we were kids my strange mother used to throw away all his drawings because see considered them 'unwholesome'or the work of the devil or something. It got to the point where Matt would draw something (he loved to draw) and then screw it up and throw it in the bin, most times without ever showing anyone. i managed to salvage a handful of these and kept them in a well hidden folder. I'm really glad I did! shame I don't have much of his more recent work.

A nine to fiver's lot

2007-02-15T11:10:00.000Z

This is a reply I posted on Dobbin's blog http://dobbinwondermule.blogspot.com/ . I thought I might as well stick it up here too given that it took long enought to write. It's written in response to Dob's musings about the difference in performance between full time climbers and full time workers:

I tend to agree that training around work is a serious limiting factor unless you have very flexible work with low hours. Being a full timer or on an extended trip means you can climb often, when you feel energised and when conditions are good, rather than trying to cram five days worth of training into two shortish high intensity evening sessions, then do as much as the weather allows on the weekend.

My year away did result in a personal jump in standards (not sure i'd class as great!). The more time you spend climbing the more time on rock your body learns to take. Once you can tolerate a higher volume you can effectively do more training [ By training I mean all climbing which acts to improve a persons climbing ability] per week so you improve past your normal plateau. As climbing is more of a constant pressure on your system rather than a short spike of activity every couple of days you don't risk injury by pulling harder, as much as you do by increasing intensity without upping the volume. Nine to fivers basically have to binge climb in the time available.

On top of that you have more chance to travel and take advantage of conditions so you get super psyched for things you wouldn't risk wasted effort on as weekend efforts. I think this motivation boost is almost, if not as important, as the physical side. Climbing around a full time job is a delicate balance and I personally tend to avoid projecting boulder probs which might take ages without certain success. Too many confounding factors mean you could just end up empty handed, frustrated and demotivated. As a result I pretty much stick to projects I can do in day.

On the upside things are much more predictable as far as sport climbing goes. Due to crags being dry in the rain and daylight allowing after work sessions during the summer months, it is actually worth putting in the effort on projects. I think weekenders can compete on a slightly more even playing field when it comes to bolt clipping.

Anyway, rambling aside, I reckon you'd benefit by and nodoubt really enjoy a big trip. Do it asap if at all possible before you get anymore rooted in place my mortages, babies, job etc. You're a young chap with the sort of job that I imagine you could easily take a chunk of time out of without any negative consequence. Do it, do it, do it. HM can be your roady!
Weekenders on tour

A couple more scribbles

2007-02-10T18:44:00.000Z

I don't often get round to drawing. Had an unusually productive spell of it a few years back now and here's a couple from around then.

You'd look pretty bemused if your boat was gone too.

And a laydee.

The mighty Titan

2007-02-09T16:13:00.000Z

Manage to wangle a sneak trip down the UK's (relatively) newly unearthed biggest cave. By biggest I mean the biggest vertical drop in a single cavern. Titan beats it's nearest rival Gaping Ghyll by a waping 44m and resoundingly steals the flag from the dales cavers.

This isn't my pic BTW, I didn't want to risk my camera getting wet.

The top of the cave is a big scoop in the middle of a field with a bunch of scaffold over a gated shaft. The locked gate leads to the first abseil pitch which is a 2m by 40m tunnel dug straight down into the solid rock of the hill by the digging team. Going down this you get a real insight into the vast amount of effort, ingenuity and resource this dig must have taken. This shaft leaves you at the junction of a stooping passage. One branch leads to the site of further explorations, the other way lead for about 15m through a small muddy pool to a window into the main chamber. Pearing over the lip of the pool you are faced with the dizzying view seen in the picture above. Photos do not do the place justice, this thing is massive and very gob smacking. To discover something of this grandeur is on a par with stumbling upon Malham Cove, it really is that spectacular. If these rock faces were exposed outside they would be the best limestone crag in the country. Huge flakes, arete and sheets of flowstone all around.

From the pool the bottom is two abseils away, one of 80m to a slopey ledge know as the event horizon and one of 65m from here to the boulder choked floor. Strangley I found an un-opened sachet of brown sauce at the event horizon and an un-open sachet of red source at the floor, what can it all mean?

We lingered for a while at the bottom watching the waterfall cascade down the back of the chamber. After a cup of coffee (cheers Mr Crome) and a slug of sloe gin (cheers Mr Beekeeper), we set about the huge jumaring slog back up. With two on a rope to save time this is a very strenuous and uncomfortable business!

Exited the cave to a perfect clear night and frosted fields. A good trip all round. If you get a chance go take a look it's one of the peak's most impressive sights! I'm keen to go back but this time do a long trip either finishing up Titan or preferable going down the big one and popping out of JH, Peak or Speedwell.

Gleadless happenstance

2007-01-22T22:08:00.000Z

Nothing in the way of wisdom or story in these quarters. Here's a child wearing a milk shirt all the same.

Nice weather for slugs

2007-01-19T12:29:00.000Z

A juicy black mollusc enjoying the slopers at Robin Hood Stride.
Quite tempted to head that way myself this weekend. Maybe check out Bransby's new thing, try to link the top bit of Chess Boxer onto Babu Yagu, get a load of pads down under the arete right of Kaluza. Hmmmm, ponder ponder.

Pitter patter

2007-01-18T09:57:00.000Z

At last a weekend day where it didn't rain!

2007-01-15T13:47:00.000Z

Throughout the week we feverishly check, recheck and check again the forecasts. Fragile hope against the odds that this foul wet winter might relent for at least a day and let us release our pent-up reservoirs of grit juju.
This winter, if you can call it that, has been an unusual one and a break from the few winters previous. Two factors have changed the dynamic somewhat. Firstly the weather. You don't need me to tell you it has been bad, very bad, exceedingly wet, grim, unpredictable in all respects other than it unremitting foulness. Perhaps a few more precious crag hours might have been squeezed out of the weekends/xmas break had it not been for factor two. The Works. It's all been said already elsewhere, it's a fantastic wall and rightly popular. Hence the change. Where last year there was always a hardcore out on all but the very worst days, looking for elusive dry rock and then as often as not all meeting up and having a big team day, this year the weather has just been so bad few have even bothered getting in the car most days. Other days have been bad but not insurmountably so for the persistent, but the lure of great problems, music, coffee and social down the wall has tipped the balance for many and the 06/07 winter has been dominated by indoor sessions, reveling in shared woe and seemingly distant memories of dry days out. I'm certainly not complaining though, the Works boys with their audacious venture have saved this winter from being a totally joyless experience. If the weather ever reverts to something like the usual passable mix of good and bad then i think we will all pour forth onto the crags massively psyched and technically honed in a way no other wall has ever done before. Every goose has a silver lining maybe after all.
This Sunday was a foretaste of this. One good day saw the crags busy with people pushing themselves and getting stuff done in a way which is unusual given that many had not touched rock for weeks. James succeeded on what must surely be Burbage Norths true last great project, I can think of no big lines left to go now routewise on the crag. Fine effort yoot and all the more so for the purist approach. Bransby dispatched what I had repeatedly touted as the last great line at Cratcliff. Perhaps a touch OTT given that it went at a mere 7C, but an awesome looking climb nonetheless. Yet again appearance prove deceptive and many locals, myself included, will be kicking themselves they didn't give this one a go.
As for my Sunday. Well it started badly with the wind giving us a thorough beating at Slipstones. Duely chastened we beat a retreat, in convoy through flooded backlanes, following Ham's sat-nav to Brimham. This turned out to be a good move. Quite a few of the large group which assembled agreed that Brimham was loads better than they had remembered and I think we all probably ended up doing loads more than we would have done at SS. The days haul: various warm-ups on Joker's Wall V2-V5, Acme Wall V3, Happy Daze V5, Happy Daze trav V8, Bilge Pump V4, Ritornel V3, Successor State V6, a good crack at James Ibbotson's new line Inner State (second ascent from Johnny Brown), the delightful Bellyporker's Progress E76c....ok V7 in the real world, Whisky Galore V6, Pair in a Cubicle V6 and a good go at a very scrittly V9 to the right. Followed by beer and curry, what more could you ask for, except maybe more next week!

A blog you say!?

2007-01-15T13:36:00.000Z

Well I always fail to keep a diary so I might as well throw some word nourishment at a blog and see if it sticks. I could say that it's here for friends and family to keep tabs on me and Fi when we are on our travels, but that would miss the main point which is that it's another opportunity for me to blather on about me, my friends and wot I did on the weekend. To be fair it seems mildly less egotistical to spray about what I've been up to on a blog rather than thrust it onto on a wider public a forum. Enough angst ridden excuses, behold my string of mind-farts.