Friday 27 May 2011

Resoling...

With the current economic crisis and the sudden price increase in shoes I'll be honest and say that I cannot sustain going through 2 pairs of shoes a year. I know the price increase is only around £10 but it puts most shoes over £100 now. So I set out to find an alternative, as I'm sick of retiring shoes because my toes have busted through the end... enter the resoling market.

After a little research I went with Cheshire Shoe Repairs (here) simply because they where cheaper. My other option was Feet First, who do offer discount when you send multiple pairs but you have to pay extra for toe-box replacements. Cheshire Shoe Repairs include toe boxes in the price and are slightly cheaper. To make things even better I got to have a good look at a pair of resoles shoes (by Cheshire) before I sent them off. Needless to say they looked good. 

I'll just point out that if you've managed to put a hole right through the end of your climbing shoe then you'll be needing a toe box replacement. This means that they'll replace the whole front of your toe therefore covering up said whole. I'd managed to do this (in a big way on one shoe). I actually sent off 2 pairs of shoes to them. My La Sportiva Muira's and a pair of Boreal Pyro's belonging to Killian. The Pyro's themselves had a good amount of rubber on them, but Killian hates it as apparently it's not very good, plus I've been raving on about stealth rubber for a while. As for the Muiras they are very good shoes, but the rubber seemed to wear out really quickly. I fid them so comfy that I really didn't want to get rid of them, but managed to put hole through both toes, hence the resole. Cheshire do offer 4 different types of rubber, but personally I would use anything other than 5.10 stealth rubber. 

My first impressions are that they are really good. The toe shape has changed a little and is more similar to my 5.10 anasazis. When I actually put them on you can tell at the front where the new rubber has been applied but they still fit like a dream. They've not really changed in fit and are still as comfy as ever. I'm really looking forward to see how they perform at the weekend on the Lleyn Penisular.

Monday 23 May 2011

80's style Birthday climbing weekend...

This weekend we all braved the bad weather reports to get to wales for some climbing in a rad 80's style, all attempting to sport the most garish lycra possible. Sadly the weather and everything else in the world seemed to be against us. I only got 1 route in all weeked and managed to loose my size 2 cam (very very annoying). The route was Christmas Curry, which I've actually never done before. I did it with James Holmes and James, who I'd met that day. I block lead the whole thing because James hadn't climbed trad outdoors before (poor guy has been sport climbing though). I really enjoyed the route and can see why it's a classic tremadog line. I think both James and James enjoyed it too, especially since we had a couple of very brief showers and some very strong winds as we were climbing. Topping out the wind was awefully strong. 



And that was it really for my climbing all weekend. Once we'd topped out the weather hit pretty hard and seemed to settle in so a large group of us ended up driving in convoy over wales until we finally ended up back at... Tremadog and the dry safe barn of Eric's bunkhouse. He we dressed in lycra and partied away for the evening and had a cake for Rachel's Birthday, whilst listening to the wind and rain outdoors. 


The morning rolled round and we set a path for the slate. This in itself wasn't a problem, it was Killian flooding his engine through a rather deep puddle which proved an issue. Eventually I towed him on a long climbing sling from half-way up the Nant Gwynant valley and down into Llanberis. We had to leave him there while the rest of us went into the slate quarries to do a little climbing, in the finest of stylist lycra! I've really only got a few photo's of the day before the rain hit and we bailed to Lllanberis for some ice cream and a long drive home.


Friday 20 May 2011

Rain, Roaches and... Redpoint?

Only routes were managed on this rainy day. I ended up at the Roaches with a friend called JD. It's actually the first time I've been climbing with him. I started off leading Kestrel Crack (HS 4b) and it was wet. Infact it was actually raining as we geared up and JD regailed me with the story of the first time he did Kestrel Crack. Once I was on the route is was a normal thrutching, jamming and praying that my feet would stay on wet holds affair, which I thoroughly enojyed! I'm actually glad I've not done that route before and got to do it in the wet because it was awesome. 

JD then jumped on the lead of Raven Rock Gully, left hand (VS 4c). This route was rather wet than it normally it, which had got to bump it up and grade at least. Needless to say JD had a small fall out of the goove and welded a nut into place. Instead he finished up the Raven Rock Gully, right hand in good style. I seconded it well and struggled to get out of the top chimeny exit. Top tip is to rack everything on a bandolier, then you can hand it too the leader before you squeeze out the finish.

We then bailed do to wet weather and had a couple of hours at not-so-awesome walls in Stoke. It was alright, but like normal I'm biased because I climb at redpoint. Infact I actually made it back to redpoint for the evening to help set up for a birthday party and stay behind for a few climbs (with the drytools too). 


Stoney Middleton

I've been wraning after a trip back to Stoney for ages. I managed to get a copy of the old Stoney Guide off a friend for about 3 quid and I've been reading it on and off for months. My first trip to Stoney wasn't bad at all. We managed Froth the most polished VS in England (it even says so in the guide). Then once we were back on the ground Andy declared his hate for peak limestone and we left, heading for some grit. Consequently I've just not beed back and just had to contend with glazing up at the towering walls as I drove past occasinoally.

Saturday, despite the interesting weather report Stuart and I headed up there. He's also been ancious to get to Stoney. As we drove over the weather ranged from horrendous rain to pleasant sunshine in the space of a few minutes, still be carried on optimistically. Arriving at the crag we parked opposite the garage and enjoyed a nice walk in, with me deciding not to look at the guide book and just walk to see how far the crag goes. I was also working on the assumption that most crag guides run from left to right, so starting at the top end of the valley we'd have a pretty good idea of the layout. Instead the guidebook is written right to left because people generally walk up the valley, but we'd started at the wrong end, Doh! 

The entrance!
So we walked back, aiming for a nice VS (right at the other end infact) on the way the weather threatened rain just as we passed the entrance to a little pot hole. We were located beneath Prayer Wheel Wall, above Carl's Walk and the guidebook suggested that "those of a speological bent" could climb down aformentioned hole and come out at the cliff beneath There was only one thing for it! Challenge accepted!

This is where I should point out my, perfectly rational, fear of the dark and small spaces. Still you shouldn't let something like "being scared" stop you and we both dived right in and set off exploring underground. I've always liked the idea of caving, especially the SRT side of it but I've not actually ever done any realy caving, simply because of my fear of the dark. I'm sure really sure what posessed me to climb down a hole in the ground. Underground we followed a low thing passage, just big enough for me to stand for about 20 metre, taking us to complete dark, then low stoop before the cave got bigger. Here there appeared to be a little roof collapse meaning we could go over or under it. We opted for under. Here we came to what I think was the main "chamber" with several branches off from it. All of these seemed to dissappear round corners, getting lower and smaller as they went and simply I was not brave enough to go crawling head first into them. 


Remember the original plan, to get to the cliff beneath us? Well we carried on rooting around before we stumbled on a passage that was blocked by rockfall straight on, but gave access to a hole in the floor. After some deliberation I dropped through and made some space for Stu. We'd opted for the largest of the tunnels to crawl through (this one would have required an on the stomach crawl) but managed to freak outselves out by an odd shadow at the end of the tunnel). We rather quickly exited up into the main chamber.


Long exposure picture from inside the cave
After some more exploring round and trying to take a few decent photographs we decided to ehad back to the open air. Sadly there was one final obsticle... a cave spider. This wasn't exactly the hollywood style monster that blocked our path and neither is there a mighty tale of how we fought it off and crawled out. I think we'd just freaked ourselves out and the spider was the final straw. We ran, scrambled and crawled out as fast as we could. 

Sitting on the flat ground with the world opening up around me once I was out of the cave was an awesome feeling. Sat there, smiling broadly we got talking to to actual cavers (you know, with proper caving suits, helmet and wellingtons) about the little pot (as it's called), the spiders and whether it actually joins up with the bottom cave. Infact it does but requires a few tighter squeezes and I think there was even the mention of a sump to deal with. We've vowed to go back and make the journey through, we might just go armed with more torchlight and overalls next time. 


For the rest of the day it seemed very much like the weather gods didn't really want us to go climbing. Everytime we racked up in the sunshine the wind would blow a little bit harder and we'd end up sitting in a cave watching the rain. We did get on a route eventually, a slightly overhanging and bastard of a route called Medusa. It was HVS 5a in our guidebook, but that still didn't stop me from getting utterly spat off it. In the end neither me or Stu finished the route and had abseil down and clean our line.


It wasn't all a waste though, we did manage to explore another cave and get a climb in, eventually. The cave we explored was actually just off Windy Ledge (optly named). It started out as a nice walk, before a short chimney/scramble. The passage then got smaller (crouching height) and it then branched off. We first explored the left hand passge (because you much always go left) which sadly lead to a dead end. I say dead end but there was evidence of passage collapses and small space that mayeb could have been squeezed through... not that I was going to try! So back up the right hand passage instead. This had a continuous movement of air blowing through it, something which intriged both of us. We'd summised that maybe it opened out at the end or even broke out onto the face at some point giving us an awesome view, hence we ploughed on. The passage got smaller and smaller. Stu was still managing to stay upright but I was reduced to some sort of crawl on one knee. I'll admit I was getting quite scared as I couldn't actually turn around. In the end I freaked out completly and we had to get out of the cave. I'll go back and finish it one day though. 


We did get one climb in at least! We had finally found a brief window in the weather and nipped up a lovely VS 4c called Sin. Infact I was still not feeling climbing on limestone as I headed up but pushed on regardless. It was a really nice groove with some good moves all the way up. As I belayed the wind picked up and I silently urged Stu to climb faster. The weather gods seemed quite anger that we'd managed to actually get on rock (as apposed to in it). Stu topped out as the weather hit and boy did it rain. We coiled up the ropes and ran as fast as we could to the walk off.


The walk off was actually an abseil down a wet chimmey. It would have been alright to downclimb, but seeing as it was getting wet, I opted for an abseil. Abseiling down a tight chimney is hard, especially with rope on my back. Once down we could pack up and walk out in the pouring rain, smiling broadly.
  
So my first REAL trip to Stoney Middleton and what did I think? Well I loved it, not just for the climbing. Climbing on limestone always seems to scare the crap out of me, which is a realy shame because it's actually good climbing alot of the time. The polish is a little bad (ok excessively bad in some places) but so what? just deal with it and move on. The majority of the climbing seems really cool and I'd like to get back there. I liked it because it's got alot of other things to do there. You could have an awesome day just exploring the underground caves and pots, or climbing up to the top and walking along the rim of the cliffs. I think Stoney is underrated and under appriciated in this day and age.
Stu taking on a little stoney bouldering

Monday 9 May 2011

Well that's romantic...

It seems that I just can't stay out of the slate quarries lately, even though I've been sitting around at home pinning for solid mountain rock or the quartzite of Gogarth. Soames had other ideas and I smiled watched him pretty much skip along into Dinorwig Quarry, like a toddler on his way to the fair. I on the other hand was contemplating the route we were heading for...

And so on a beautifel day in May I found myself staring up at an almost hanging slate chimeny which then broke out onto the face and ascended the most natural of iron rods and pipes poking proudly out of the wall... patellectomy (E1 5c). Patellectomy itself is a medical procedure (or I assume could also be done with say a gunshot?) where by the patella (or knee-cap) is removed. I could only wonder why the route was so named?

I did put it off for as long as possible, sitting around reading the guide book, making small talk and generally trying to get out of going up. I don't know whats up with me lately but I think it has something to do with all the slate I've pulled off in the last month. It seems to have given me an inherent distrust for this rock. My fear of snapping a hold off seems to never rest. Eventually I just couldn't put it off any longer and armed with a few wires and some long slings I set off.

... and dear god it was hard! I scraped and scrabbled up the chimney bracing warily off the sides and eventually made some progress upwards before being stumped again. In the end I managed to make some progress up the higher chimney before making a desperate grab for the parallel bars. I made it and swung my feet onto the second bar for a dual hell hook rest. Actually getting onto the bars proved pretty easy, and with a shothole for gear I set about making the next move.


This was hard, probably the crux if mantling a pipe counts as the crux? I need to work my my felxibility if I'm to climb any harder I think! but loose pipe mantled, I climbed up the final section (again not actually easy) to top out, phew! This was definatly a climb that bordered somewhere between type 1 and 2 fun. I can't think of a route thats as childish as this (monkey bars to hang on) but has also filled me with so much fear (iron bars to land on). Needless to say, Soames took a no-nonsense approach and back & footed the entire chimney, only to get stumped by a height dependant move. We abseiled back in.


Only to walk out and head for Never never land area. We actually bypassed all the sport and trad routes in the area to head for the small hole in the ground right in front of the route Never Never Land itself. I've looked into this hole often but have never actually been down there to do any of the routes, today was different.


I've not idea what routes we actually did because the clear lines on the wall and the ones in the guide didn't add up completly. Hell this didn't stop us from doing some cool climbing. Soames lead a route of around 5a, which had 2 pieces of gear. I'm pretty sure that at least on of them would have held too. It was a nice line and I seconded it only to find Soames belayed to something odd pipework concreted to the floor. Well after that it was my turn to lead something. I took to feature which had caught my eye as soon as we got down, big scoop which actually had a piece of gear on route (shot-hole). Off I set, and then ran out of gear only to have to make difficult moved to reach for-mentioned shot-hole. In here I crammed a bent over number 7 and set off up the scoop. The climbing was necky but really good (around 5a) but the top-out was atrocious. While I was busy crapping myself and apologising for cleaning off ledges onto Soames, he was busy laughing his head off and dodging rock fall... it was no wonder the peoples sport climbing near us commented on our apparent "madness".


Topping out I slung a house, because it was there and it was nessessary to try and out do Soames. Soamed then went one better with his next route. He managed to climb a flake, about the size of a normal door, that was loose. It got to the point where I'd moved the ropes and myself out from the fall out zone of said flake, and watched worriedly as Soames climbed very carefully and very technically up this flake. Not bad by all accounts.


We then bailed from this deathly little hole in the ground and headed to the better rock of Nuremberg Area. Here I climbing a F6c called Swiss Air, which was pretty good by all accounts but had a few too many bolts for my liking. Sdaly the newer bolted routes in the slate quarries seem to be bolted in the style of yorkshire limestone (clip-ups) rather than the run-out oldschool place-as-little-bolts-on-a-route-a-possible approach that used to be de-riguer. It was still good recreation though. Soames then lead Hot Air Crack, a HVS 5a, which had been retrobolted to make it a F6a. Good route, would have been a better experience without the bolts.


We then bailed from the quarries only to decided on the walk out and that we had not actually finished. Instead we headed to Biggles Flies Undone at Blast Shelter Quarry and I did both the 5b and 5c lines on this little slab. 


Everytime I think I've done everything I can do in the Slate quarries, I always find more and more routes or more areas to explore. Hell I've not even made it up to Mordor and the Lost World yet, or even attempted any of the big routes in Twll Mawr!