Wrekin M.C. Peak District Trip...

Day 1: And into the Peak for a very hungover Saturday morning. Again it seemed the pharse "best cure for a hangover is a massive overhang" came about, with a spot of wet weather aid climbing in Dove Holes. Having been aid climbing before I knew what I was letting in for, and suffering from my current hangover decided a day spent sitting around drinking tea and eating bread & cheese was on the cards. We met Stewie, Rob, Soames, Becky, Paul, Darren and Mick in the first cave. Stewie was gearing up to do The Ball, a A2 aid route that runs across the roof. It actually quite a hard proposistion and with no knowledge of aid climbing, Stewie, armed with slings, 'biners and the ability to fudge it no matter what dove straight in. It was an awesome effort and he missed the last bolt by inches before bailing. Soames set about stripping the route out and I figured that as bad as my hangover was I'd have another crack at The Bat.

I've tried The Bat (A2) before, as my first aid route, festooned with daisy chains, aiders and god knows what else. Now I found myself hanging in a borrowed harness, with borrowed gear and slings to stand in with only 1 daisy chain. I got up to my high point from my last attempt and reached for the next bolt which I couldn't reach last time. Now either I've grown a couple of inches (I doubt) or I actually had a better technique but I manged it and thus finally completed the entire route.

Aid climbing is a good laugh if your ever stuck in the Peak on a wet with nothing else to do. I really did enjoy myself and I'm pretty psyched to go to thor's cave and do the A3 in there now. We made a tactical retreat to the campsite for an good meal cooked by Soames and then the pub. I ashamedly only manged 2 pints before bailing and getting some sleep.

Day 2 heralded some sunshine and better weather. We ended up at Lawrencfield Quarry where I fell off Billy Whizz (E2 5c) and couldn't complete it. I don't even know why I jumped on the route. I'm not a big fan of Lawrencefield quarry and totally wasn't psyched for the route, instead letting myself get goaded into it. Instead I ended up soloing the gearless slab route Eclaire (E1 5b). I did this sort of without thinking, intending only to boulder the start. I recievec alot of encouragement from Rob, Mick and Toaf and a billion other people at the crag watching. Was kind of nice to be congratulated on my solo by a load of random people when I topped out.

From here, tired of Lawrencefield I headed over to Millstone across the road to play in another quarry. I ended up on leading a very dirty Gimcrack (VS 4c). Sadly this was a good route, but I was covered in mud and dust so I didn't really enjoy it. Mick and Paul who seconded me did which made me feel a little better, probably because I cleaned alot of it (joke!). Then I fell asleep curled up in a ball in the quarry and everyone piled the bags on me. For some reason I was dog tired, probably something to do with the hangover that I was still suffering.

Finally I was roused from my slumber and coaxed into doing a route. I chose Great Portland Street (HVS 5b) and what a route! For me who was on a complete downer about climbing that day this route really picked me up. It was quite a technical climb following a hangin groove that you mantled into. The moves were great and odd, requiring you to think and oppose forces of each wall to keep the weight off your hands. It's a great route so go and do it if you can.

Having done a good route at the end of the day, and feeling much better after sleeping most of the afternoon I made it to the pub for some a few beers and a pint of lurcher (8.6%). This beer probably gets E1 just for managing a glass of it!

Day 3: Pack up, dive into the "younderman cafe" breakfast, suffer from a Lurcher hangover and find a crag. The one place I didn't want to head was Froggatt, so where did we head off... Froggatt of course. Thankfully its a bit of a slab haven so after I got rescued trying to onsight solo The Great Slab (E3 5b) the spitting my dummy out and telling everyone I was going home I actually manned up and lead Alpha (HVS 5b). It's a bit of a contrived line, but provides a good outing above some crap gear (host of RP's and micronuts). Then we sort of went slab routing with me leading Three Pebble Slab (HVS 5a), then Four Pebble Slab (E3 5c). Three. was as good as it always is (having done it before) but I found Four. a little weak. I couldn't find what I'd class as a 5c move on it, but it definatly warrented the E3. The hard move was protected by a crud tri-cam and the runout was big enough to deckout from.

Then we did CMD (HVS 5a) with no side runner, making it a solo proposistion, but "I lead it without gear". I'd have regraded it E1 without gear, because the crux move is ook, you just have to cope with it. Then we did Motorcade (E1 5a) which I've done before and aced that (the crux gear is a host of RP's & a Peenut). We then packed up to head off and find Stewie and Soames. We found them as Stewie had just lead Sundowner (E2 5a) with side runners, bringing the grade to HVS. It's still an awesome lead with a technical little crux.

I finished my day, in my rockboots and chalkbag soloing What's Up Doc (E2 5b). It was maybe a little reckless or stupid, but it was how I wanted to climb it and I managed it fine. The 5b move is almost the last one and Stewie was hanging around at the top just incase I did need a hand. We headed to Grindleford cafe for a brew before the drive home. If you can find this cafe, go there as it's awesome!

I came away from the weekend feeling like I could have done a load more climbing, but just didn't have the drive or passion for it. I guess I've been hitting the peak district a little bit to much recently, I don't know though. I did realise something though. I fell off Billy Whizz because I could. I knew I shouldn't but the gear was completely bomber and the fall nice and safe and small. There was no danger and I could afford to fall off. I figured our that I perform much much better if the gear isn't very good, and I can't afford to fall off. It's a very saddening thing to realise.