It’s true, it’s true. I actually went bouldering for the
entire weekend and do you know what? I really
enjoyed it. I’m now cursing bouldering because I’ve got very sore tips,
pitted and craters hands and a nasty looking bloody blister where I just
couldn’t stick a crucial pebble but it was all worth it. Normally when people
ask me if I’d like to go bouldering they get a response along the lines of
“bouldering? nah mate, brings me out in hives. I’m allergic to it”. Well seeing
as I didn’t suffer from anaphylactic shock when I started climbing without a harness on and above a pad, I guess I’m not that
allergic. I’ll put the success of these tow bouldering trips down to a few
things. Going out with like minded people each day was definitely one of the
reasons but I think the key was going out on the Saturday with no objectives or
assumptions about how the day was going to go.
I tend to do this a lot. Set myself aims and goals for the
day which are unachievable, which inevitably leads to me being disappointed
with my performance or what I manage to do. Instead Saturday was Toaf’s
birthday climbing day and, as tradition states, we make the effort to go out
and do what the birthday boy (or girl) wants. Toaf of course, wanted to go
bouldering. Now I might come across as very anti-bouldering but that’s pretty
unfair. I do enjoy solo climbing (I’d go as far as to say that I really really
enjoy it) and that’s all bouldering is basically. Just soloing small problems
or lines but taking the time to work out how to do them, almost regardless of
the amount of attempts you have (especially on something that’s quite hard for
you). Instead of getting hung up on onsighting things and the fact that I
wasn’t out “trad” climbing I just decided to have a good day on Toaf’s behalf.
If Toaf wants to go bouldering and it looks like it’s going
to rain then we’ll end up at churnet. This isn’t such a bad thing as the
Churnet Valley is a very beautiful place. After almost crashing into a fallen
tree in the car we made it alive and unscathed and sauntered first up towards
Wright’s Rock, only to turn round when we got a phone call off Tom telling us
he was hanging out at Gentlemans. I’ve not bouldered at gentlemans before
really but I knew a few of the problems like “the 50p piece” and “high speed
Imp-act” but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the grades. We sauntered
on, avoiding the puddles to join Tom at Marcus at Gentlemans.
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| (Marcus reaching for the mono...) |
The first problem looked heinous! (it followed the line up
through the mono to the left of the 50p piece). It seems to go from a really
bad hold to then stack one’s fingers into this mono pocket. From there it was a
horrible tendon straining move to then almost cross through with your right
hand to get a decent hold. I watched Tom, Marcus and Toaf try the problem while
I shot photos. Being honest I was pretty nervous. I didn’t think I’d be able to
actually even hold the tiny sharp holds of this problem, let only get off the
ground. I think it was after Toaf cruised it to the finish that I really
thought I would get my rock boots (goof friendly competition, see!). On my
first go I stuck the pockets and nearly pulled through the second hold before I
fell off. Next time round I stuck it straight away and then got my heel up to
take the weight off my arms. I didn’t realise that the problem carried on for
so long or would require such judicious use of the heels. I’d not done my laces
up and evidently my rockshoe slipped off. It didn’t matter, I was hooked.
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| (Marcus reaching for the intermediate on High Speed Imp-act) |
So, next up was High Speed Imp-Act which gets 7a. I was
assured that it got a soft 7a but being perfectly honest, I work very much in
British tech grades so I have to work everything (everything being font, French
sport & V grades) back to this before I know how hard a problem actually
is. I think another reason that I enjoyed myself so much was that I didn’t
spend the day recalculating back to find out how hard I was actually climbing.
I just climbing and enjoyed it.
High Speed Imp-act was a pretty hard problem, especially
since I managed to miss the last hold over and over. It took quite a few
attempts to actually gain the decent “jugs” before committing to the long move
to gain the large (and sharp pocket). When I’d finally gotten this move over
and over I just could get my body into the right position to actually gain the
final lip. It was quite frustrating but at the same time quite enjoyable as
it’ll eat away at me and is something to go back to.
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| (You can see the 7a arete on the left, with a little chalk) |
With our fun at Gentleman’s over we tramped across the
bracken and mud to find a “secret crag”, which isn’t really that secret. Rachel
and I actually stumbled across it before when we went on a little adventure
trying to find new buttresses. We must have missed the crag by literally a few
feet but it is there. I’ve no idea of the name of it but it was pretty cool. We
spent the rest of the day either attempting a 7a arête which had seemingly
endless possibilities for pulling on pebbles. Sadly the pebbles were all a bit
small. The other problem was this awesome little rail that was on the edge of
an overhang. The problem with this was that it was very green and very damp so
we tried and tried and eventually settled on a plan to come back and abseil
down the line and give it a good clean, after some good weather that is.
On leaving I was surprised to see Andy Turner and a few
other turn up. It was getting pretty dark at this point but they seemed to want
to push on anyway. It’s nice to see top level climbers bumbling around the
forest visiting the same little craglets you are.
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