Molly vid

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

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

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

Mushroom baby 2

Billy Dangler

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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….