Life at the end of a rope

WIthout hope or agenda...

2012-02-06T04:26:00.000-08:00

For a couple of weeks I've been looking forward to going away with Soames with the intention of new routing somewhere. It has been quite a while since we've made it back to "our" cliff on the Lleyn and there is a route there that is eating away at me... slowly. We never actually made it to the Lleyn, but we did get to see the sea, and spend a day walking the coast and climbing on the cliff there. We went to Rhoscolyn.

I arrived at Soames house at some god unearthly hour on Saturday morning to find the kettle on ready for tea. Soames then produced a pen and paper and his tiny laptop on which he had a topo of Porth Y Garan (which can be found here). Armed with our tiny sketch map of new routing possibilities and a sense of adventure we packed up and left.

I didn't realise how much just going climbing meant to me. I don't mean going out for a day's bouldering with routes or problems in mind. Or going out to massage you're ego (or help someone else massage thiers). Going climbing, without any worry about grade or line, especially next to the sea (and to quote johnny readhead) nourishes the soul.

The little cliff we were climbing at is situated in front of a quaint little bay. The bay itself is sheltered on most sides from the wind and would have made an amazing place to spend the night. It's somewhere I hope I'll remember to head back to in the summer. There is just so much climbing there and a lot of it is unrecorded or untopoed (new word I guess) at least. I could imagine long summer evenings soloing across beautiful rock while the sun sets over the Irish sea. The rock isn't perfect but it is compact and has great friction. At the same time it is a little loose and crumbly in places. It seems to be quite a soft rock to climb on and I managed to crumble a few gear placements when I was tugging my gear to set it. Whatever, it's a lovely place to climb.

We went armed with a small topo of the right hand crag, as this was where most of the new routing opportunities lay. However we didn't actually climb on it because, well it looked a bit small and broken. There was a couple of amazing looking lines there and something I'd really like to go back and try (obviously I'm not going to say on here just in case the three or four people ho actually read this run and steal my line). We climbed on the left hand cliff, the one which I'd not actually taken a topo for, leaving us with our imagination about what to climb up. Firstly Soames took an easy jug pulling line, before I was allowed to be unleashed on what was to become Without Hope or Agenda (VS 4b/c). This took a line up past 2 clear pockets in the face, then taking a small overlap before running it out to the top. It was a nice little route and I didn't know it was a FA when I was on it, hence the name.

Soames then took a bit of a girdle traverse on the basis that I'd brought 60m ropes and we were going to use them! This took a great through some suspect rock which you could feel crumbling under your feet as they settled. This line went at about VS 4a/b and Soames named it Kleptomaniac. The last line was actually on the topo, but it was one that has stuck me as soon as we got down to the cliff. It was a curving line just off centre of the face. I was pretty easy and the gear was very interesting. I also pulled an old wire out of the face which was quite nice too.

The rest of the day was spent walking along cliff top following the vague descriptions in the guidebooks and searching for new lines. We found loads of cliff that wasn't actually in the guidebook and had some really trouble relating the descriptions to the actual lines that have been but up. In then end I think we gave up a little too. The cliff which looked amazing from half a km away suddenly turned out to be tiered easy slabs and I lost heart a little. Aside from this there was some really interesting ruins, standing stone, old field boundaries and a host of other oddities. If you're interested in this then here might be useful.

We did actually do another route, by the time we'd walked round to Rhoscolyn main area. We scrambled in so I could lead Truant a classic VS there, which seeps badly. Today was clearly a bad day for Truant as it was pretty much running with water but we didn't find that out till we had got down there. Instead of just scrambling back out I just took a line up the driest area of rock I could find. Soames had clearly done it before as he offered me his skyhook, knowing the protection was a little run out. I actually really climbing. It was a little run out but that didn't really matter because the climbing was so good. Belaying however was awkward to find enough decent anchors.

We then took a walk back along the coasts and cliff tops, making more of an effort to explore the cliffs. In particular we checked out a short looking red colour cliff (named "crag x") in the guidebook. This cliff had been given a particularly poor write up in the guide, but we'd decided to check it out anyway... and what a shock we were in for. It's pretty awesome as undescribed cliffs go and we'll be heading back there soon enough.

Sadly, due to my inability to remember if I've pulled the photos off my camera, I think I've lost all the pictures from that weekend.

New DMM stuff...

2012-02-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

It seems that every blog I've read over the last few days has has news of the new kit that DMM is producing. There's a link to a low resolution PDF here and I feel I should write at least something. I've had a good look at the PDF and discussed it with quite a few friends and I've come to a few conclusions about all this new kit.

It's not all that new, which isn't such a bad thing. Maybe they've done a lot of market research and have come to the conclusion that producing products tailored to the need of people is the best way forward... I mean they are trying to make some money at the end of the day. So we've a load of new axes, which look a lot like some models already on the market (one looks rather like a Petzl Nomic) or following a general trend (like people retrofitting pinky rest's onto their DMM flys). I think that the coloured screwgates are just simply a nice idea. They sort of go against a few things I follow when buying gear (like buy nothing for a specific job and try to make sure everything has more than one use). But having brightly coloured 'biners could make arranging clustered belays better. Something simple like having one person attached by a red 'biner and another by a blue. I figure that they'll probably be more useful for people workin' in the outdoor industry that you're average weekend warrior bumblie.

As for the Demon Cams, well what can I say? Shamelessly filling the gap left in the market by WC not continuing to produce WC friends, but with a little extra in the way of an extend able sling. Hell yeah! In fact the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. There are a lot of people out there who'll like the idea of being able to buy a replacement size cam when their Friends tire out, especially when it'll be the same size cam lobes. I know they look a little crappy, but DMM must have loads of lobes left over and there seems to be a split in what people buy (single or double stem cams) and DMM have covered both of these markets.

I do like the look of the terrier and if I climbed enough in winter I'd be buying one. It does scream a little of something Andy K said a couple of years ago, just sayin' like.

Something inspiring to start your week:

2012-01-30T03:48:00.000-08:00

Here's something that I just thought that I'd share. It isn't some new gear that's been brought out this week or a new route that's been done. Instead it's some incredible cinematography which has been done as part of Yosemite HD. Myself, having never been to Yosemite, has to settle with the fact that this might be as close as I get to this American climbing Mecca, but strangley that's ok with me. I've got a life time's worth of climbing in North Wales, let alone the rest of the UK. Then again, who knows... I might make it to Yosemite after all.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

This is also the first time I've tried to embed a video from Vimeo.. I think its worked!

A heavy gravity day...

2012-01-25T01:35:00.000-08:00

I know I've used this as an excsue before and it's a commen (if somewhat joking) complaint when climbers can't do a move. However some research produced by NASA shows that you can indeed have a heavy gravity day.

The picture above is taken from here. It is a exaggerated relief map that shows how the amount of gravity you'll feel in certain areas. There is apparently a low point just off india and a high point in the South Pacific. So next time you're feeling like you can't pull up any more, I guess you could just blame it on excess gravity.

A none climbing post

2012-01-19T02:44:00.000-08:00

It isn't often that I go off topic, and by off topic I mean none climbing related posts. It has been a very interesting week so far. People might have seen that the compressor route on Cerro Torre has finally been climbed, without the use of the many bolts that have been placed there over the years (both by Cesare Maestri and David Lama's Redbull team). I think that this is an amazing achievement and one which is well overdue for such a high profile mountain. The two climbers are Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk and they have yet to submit some kind of press release (but you can read up on this here). I think that this is a topic for another post.

Having started by saying that this wasn't a none climbing post, then proceeded to actually posted about climbing. For once I'm going to use my blog for something that is a little more important. For people who regularly use the Internet they might have noticed that yesterday so high profile websites (wikipedia was probably the most noteable) were blocked and displaying messages relating to SOPA or PIPA. Considering the impact of these bills US Congress has been trying to put through there has been little media attention. Why isn't it over the entire Internet? Why is not on newspapers or on television sights around the world? Why hasn't it made it onto radio 4 at least? (something I listen to daily). I'll happily admit that I'm a bit of a hermit when it comes to accessing modern media. I have a poor Internet connection, only read the independent (after my partner has read it) and I don't watch television. Still the Internet and access to a lot of free information means an incredible amount to me.

What does SOPA mean? Well SOPA stands for "Stop Online Piracy Act". It is a bill that is being presented to congress by Rep. Lamar S. Smith on the 24th of January. Now from my scant knowledge of how the America congress system works (mostly from Evan Almighty), this bill will need the backing of several Representatives to put the bill through. The SOPA bill, if made law, will expand the abilities of both U.S. Law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.This isn't going to be a bad things. The infringement of copyright and the illegal downloading of media (in all forms) cripples industries and causes massive job loss. Internet piracy with regard to downloading music over the years has resulted in a stunted and damaged global music industry. The same is true for the film industry. PIPA is a similar bill.

This bill doesn't just cover intellectual rights based around the internet, however this is what bothers me the most. What bothers me the most is that will have impacts of peoples freedom of speech and will damaged websites that are supported by user content. Basically put my blog could get shut down if someone working with in the relms of SOPA has decided that I have breached copyright, regardless of whether I have or not. If my blog can get shut down, what about websites such as wikipedia or entire online communities like reddit?

I have a really problem with people telling me what to do. I don't dislike being asked to do something and I have no problems taking orders, but I have a real problem if I can't see an obvious reason behind something, also even if I can see the reason behind something, sometimes the reason itself is just a problem. SOPA and PIPA stand for something that is going to end up infringing on free speech and damaged online communities, social networks. What do I do about this? What can anyone do?

Well the bill is being passed in America. I am not America, I'm British but I fear that something similar would follow here (when our politicians have finally got some time to think about it, instead of constantly arguing about how to fix the economy or who's fault it was in the first place). What about places like China, where there have already been problems in the past about censorship? Did you know that the majority of Chinese citizens don't know of the infamous "tank man" (The person who stood infront of a row of tanks at Tienanmen Square Protests in 1989). Hell, I know about him and I was barely even born at the time.

What we can do is actually get this news out there? So fare I've only come across it from using sites such as memebase and reddit. I've yet to see it on the mainstream media. You can do what you can though. If you're an America Citizen then you can sign a petition to stop SOPA here. If you're not then you can get the word out on various forums and media outlets.

I'll leave with this:

And a link to the original here.

Weekend of the 14/01/12

2012-01-17T02:38:00.000-08:00

It was a fairly uneventful weekend by all accounts. There are no photographs, because although I carried my camera around all weekend I didn't really find anything worth shooting. Actually that's a lie, there is always something worth shooting, but I could be bothered to actually take the picture. It all stared as normal with a group of us drinking tea round someones student house in stoke instead of taking advantage of the early start we'd promised ourselves. We (a group consisting largely of SUMC members) headed to Castle Naze, because it's close, there is a reasonably wide berth of climbing for such a small crag and it's not the Roaches. So of the SUMC still went to the Roaches in the morning, I guess they can't get enough of the place.

Over the course of the day I ended up botching the crux on an E1 6a route (Orm and Cheep) I've done before. I messed my hands up grabbing the pocket I needed and instead of reaching across with my left, I had to cross through with my right. I couldn't commit to it so I broke the rules that govern "eliminate" routes and grabbed the HS crack so I could sort my hands out. I was pissed and I still am, because I should have read it better. To cheer myself up I soloed Icebreaker (E2 5b), again to Killian slight disbelief. Then came the grand sitting around which always seems to occur when I end up climbing with the SUMC. I think the problem stems from the fact that there are a few people who'll lead but many many more who're happy seconding. It means for the people who can lead, they can pick out a belayer and then get the route done they want, sometimes regardless of whether the belayer will get up it.

In the end I teamed up with a lad named Andy Finn and we did The Crack (VS 4b) which was great. There was good moves, good gear and a nice sense of exposure as you bridged up the sentry box. Andy also really enjoyed this route too but we had a bit of a problem while he seconded it. Andy used to tie his knot and stopper knot pretty far away from his harness. I guess tying in to your harness quite snuggly and neatly isn't something he has had drummed into him. Basically one of his roped got caught in the crack and wedged pretty tight. I had to lower him back down on the other rope. I think the main thing to take from this is I got to show him how useful double ropes were.

I did want to have a crack at Birthday Climb (HVS 5b) but finding a belayer proved a bit of a problem as half the group left to go to the outdoor show. This caused enough confusing about who was staying and who was going that the rest of us just gave up. I had a Birthday Party to attend in Stoke (one of my old uni mates). My evening was spent eating at pizza hut and watching "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol". I am not a film critic, but I'd give it 6/10. The story was good, and acting ok and I was impressed by Tom Cruise, who seems to have gained a lot of weight (I guess he's getting old).

I had a rough night in my poor quality decathlon down sleeping bag. It's just getting a little old and abused. I still expect it to perform really well but sleeping in a student house is probably more akin to biviing out in Scottish winter. After much debate I went to Hen Cloud. Ronnie made it 2/3 of the way up great chimney before he lowered off and Killian finished it. In the mean time Ronnie belayed me up Bachelors Route (VS 4c). I've done this before, about 4 years ago but the route was a real breeze. All the moves felt right and all the gear was good. It was probably one of the most enjoyable climbing experiences I've ever had.

It wasn't the case when I jumped on Bachelors Left Hand (HVS 5b). This I got on when I was cold, tired and got feeling so great in general. To cut a reasonably short tale even shorter I got freaked out and back off after down climbing to my last piece of gear. This is the first route I've failed on this year but it's ok. It was the right decision and I'm glad I made it.

I came away from this weekend not feeling that great about climbing, but feeling really excited about what could be in store next weekend. I'm going back down to the forest of dean with Rachel (hopefully) and I'm looking to explore some more bouldering and solo/highball problems.

Gad Zooks! Bouldering for a whole weekend! (part 2)

2012-01-12T02:41:00.000-08:00

If saturday was spent getting up early and bumbling around a forest near the peak, Sunday was spent in a similar way... yet much more relaxed. Rachel and I have had a copy of the Forest of Dean guidebook for a while now but it's just been sat on a shelf (on in a stack as we had a recent clear out of the living room) not being used. As guidebooks go clearly a lot of time, effort and I'd say love has been put into this one. The climbing down in the forest of dean (from reading the guidebook and my single trip down there climbing) is a little weird, especially if you're used to your grit not crumbling away and you pebbles small and stable. Simply it's not the peak district, it's not even churnet, but it's different. I like it.

A word on the ethic of climbing there. A lot of the routes are given British trade grades and corrosponding tech grades, however you'll be doing the majority of your climbing without a rope and harness. In fact they have gone as far as to highlight the routes that it's worth putting a harness on for. Most routes have been soloed, with prior inspection, which given the nature of the rock seems sensible. There is a lot of pebble pulling going on here so testing the crucial pebbles before setting off on a hard solo is probably the best thing to do. The rock is quite sandy too, so carrying a few brushes (more than just your standard bouldering toothbrush) will help. A chalkbag, rockboots, a pad and a good attitude and belief in your own own abilities will get you up most routes.

It's not all highball nightmares on crumbling rock. I spent the day there and had an awesome time (though I do like crumbly & loose rock). There is plent of "normal" bouldering there for and plenty of actual trad climbing but Rachel and I just went for a explore really. We didn't bother with a trad rack and stuck to just carrying a pad and shoes all day. We visited a couple of little boulders and had a craxk at several little problems ranging from about 5a to 5c. The grading was pretty odd as some of the 5c problems were nails and some easy as pie, but what the hell. We had a great time and I'll be heading back there soon. Here's some picture from our day, sorry they are all landscape but the upload doesn't like putting my pictures in in portrait.

A post box with VR on it, and I don't even remember where is was as we managed to get a little lost!

First problem of the day, a 5a arete. It needed a pretty good brush up first.

Rach puzzelling over the guidebook at the first boulder

Rach tackling the 5b traverse

The awesome rock structure. I'm pretty sure these are the graves of pebbles who escaped from the rock, to haunt the world of bouldering as zombie pebbles.

My first Forest of Dean E1. Technically it was 5c but it had a 6 metre drop.

This was one of those misgraded problems. considering it was supposed to be 5c, it htink it was wrong. Still good fun trying to work it out though!

Gad Zooks! Bouldering for a whole weekend! (part 1)

2012-01-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

It’s true, it’s true. I actually went bouldering for theentire 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 justcouldn’t stick a crucial pebble but it was all worth it. Normally when peopleask 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 seeingas I didn’t suffer from anaphylactic shock when I started climbing without a harness on and above a pad, I guess I’m not thatallergic. I’ll put the success of these tow bouldering trips down to a fewthings. Going out with like minded people each day was definitely one of thereasons but I think the key was going out on the Saturday with no objectives orassumptions about how the day was going to go.

I tend to do this a lot. Set myself aims and goals for theday which are unachievable, which inevitably leads to me being disappointedwith my performance or what I manage to do. Instead Saturday was Toaf’sbirthday climbing day and, as tradition states, we make the effort to go outand do what the birthday boy (or girl) wants. Toaf of course, wanted to gobouldering. Now I might come across as very anti-bouldering but that’s prettyunfair. I do enjoy solo climbing (I’d go as far as to say that I really reallyenjoy it) and that’s all bouldering is basically. Just soloing small problemsor lines but taking the time to work out how to do them, almost regardless ofthe amount of attempts you have (especially on something that’s quite hard foryou). Instead of getting hung up on onsighting things and the fact that Iwasn’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 goingto rain then we’ll end up at churnet. This isn’t such a bad thing as theChurnet Valley is a very beautiful place. After almost crashing into a fallentree in the car we made it alive and unscathed and sauntered first up towardsWright’s Rock, only to turn round when we got a phone call off Tom telling ushe was hanging out at Gentlemans. I’ve not bouldered at gentlemans beforereally but I knew a few of the problems like “the 50p piece” and “high speedImp-act” but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the grades. We saunteredon, avoiding the puddles to join Tom at Marcus at Gentlemans.

(Marcus reaching for the mono...)

The first problem looked heinous! (it followed the line upthrough the mono to the left of the 50p piece). It seems to go from a reallybad hold to then stack one’s fingers into this mono pocket. From there it was ahorrible tendon straining move to then almost cross through with your righthand to get a decent hold. I watched Tom, Marcus and Toaf try the problem whileI shot photos. Being honest I was pretty nervous. I didn’t think I’d be able toactually even hold the tiny sharp holds of this problem, let only get off theground. I think it was after Toaf cruised it to the finish that I reallythought I would get my rock boots (goof friendly competition, see!). On myfirst go I stuck the pockets and nearly pulled through the second hold before Ifell off. Next time round I stuck it straight away and then got my heel up totake the weight off my arms. I didn’t realise that the problem carried on forso long or would require such judicious use of the heels. I’d not done my lacesup and evidently my rockshoe slipped off. It didn’t matter, I was hooked.

(Marcus reaching for the intermediate on High Speed Imp-act)

So, next up was High Speed Imp-Act which gets 7a. I wasassured that it got a soft 7a but being perfectly honest, I work very much inBritish tech grades so I have to work everything (everything being font, Frenchsport & V grades) back to this before I know how hard a problem actuallyis. I think another reason that I enjoyed myself so much was that I didn’tspend 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, especiallysince I managed to miss the last hold over and over. It took quite a fewattempts to actually gain the decent “jugs” before committing to the long moveto gain the large (and sharp pocket). When I’d finally gotten this move overand over I just could get my body into the right position to actually gain thefinal lip. It was quite frustrating but at the same time quite enjoyable asit’ll eat away at me and is something to go back to.

(You can see the 7a arete on the left, with a little chalk)

With our fun at Gentleman’s over we tramped across thebracken and mud to find a “secret crag”, which isn’t really that secret. Racheland I actually stumbled across it before when we went on a little adventuretrying to find new buttresses. We must have missed the crag by literally a fewfeet but it is there. I’ve no idea of the name of it but it was pretty cool. Wespent the rest of the day either attempting a 7a arête which had seeminglyendless possibilities for pulling on pebbles. Sadly the pebbles were all a bitsmall. The other problem was this awesome little rail that was on the edge ofan overhang. The problem with this was that it was very green and very damp sowe tried and tried and eventually settled on a plan to come back and abseildown 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 fewother turn up. It was getting pretty dark at this point but they seemed to wantto push on anyway. It’s nice to see top level climbers bumbling around theforest visiting the same little craglets you are.

A story about ants...

2012-01-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

I have no idea how I stumbled across this piece of fiction but I thought I'd share it with whoever does read my blog:

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/01/25/100125fi_fiction_wilson?currentPage=all

And here is a picture of a cute ant too:

Bamford Edge

2012-01-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

With a decent weather report Andy and I set off to Bamford Edge in the Peak District, despite my concerns about how short it was. We'd both managed to avoid the sentence in the guidebook that read something like "climbing can be impossible here is the cold wind" and it's something we suffered with all day. As my first day's climbing of the year goes it will probably sum up my climbing for the rest of the year. Andy brought not only his crampons but also an ice screw by mistake to the crag and we also managed to run out of gas for my jetboil after only one small cup of tea. Not a good start.

But that almost didn't matter! It was bitterly cold on the walk-in, which is short and sweet thankfully. The ground underfoot made very little sound as it was soft and wet, unless we walked though the small amount of snow that was left behind and all you could hear was a faint crunch. The crag itself was lit up by the winter sun and it hung low in the sky. I don't think I could have asked for much more and as I walked in I thought about how nice it would be just to carry on walking, not stopping to climb but just carry on walking and enjoying being outside.

However, we did stop, as we must because of that stupid little thing driving us on to go climbing, pushing on to spend a day freezing cold at a lonely gritstone edge. We had encamped at the base of Neb Buttress and I gear up for the first route of the day The Happy Wanderer, which I thought had got a fantastic name. As it happens the route doesn't wander around all over the place but takes an arete instead. It's quite a clean and obvious line when you're standing at the bottom of it. Needless to say it was much harder than I expected! In the end Andy didn't managed to second it (something about the cold etc) so I abseiled back down my own line.

Andy was up next with Bamford Buttress (severe). He took his time, as it was bloody cold and he making sure he didn't fall off. On seconding the route I had a very rude awakening. I'd been watching him "faff" around trying out lots of different footholds. As far as I could see there wasn't any difficulty from below but then again I wasn't on the sharp end. When I did get on it I realised I'd judge Andy unfairly while I was belaying. I then proceeded to struggle to the top.

By this point the kettle had been put back on (only to run out of gas!) while Andy and I decided to go for an epic free-solo (check out all my American terms) of the Deep Cleft (graded Mod or Diff). I opted for the diff exit as I still had my rack on and squeezing out og the top of a tight chimney didn't seem like fun. Andy went for the full troglodicious experience heading for the Mod. He told me after ward about how the final chimney was so tight, as he exited his trousers were pulled down round his ankles! I wish I'd been there to see him exit.

On finding out the gas was gone we shared a cup of tea, without tea or milk (or heat) and I lead Reach (VS 4c). The guidebook description and name were bang on as mostly the climb was reach, with several long moves and cool mantelshelves. In fact the last move was probably the hardest but most satisfying. By this point we we're pretty cold and I could tell Andy wanted to head off. I suggested that we do one final route and started checking the guidebook. After a few suggestions, one of which got the reply "you'll have a hard time cleaning that on abseil" I decided on something straight up and simple. I lead Bamford Rib (HVS 5a), which was a really cool little route. The holly bush mentioned in the guidebook has certainly got bigger, which mean you cannot rest on the ledge, but it doesn't change the grade. When I did top out Andy called up to me to strip it out on abseil, as he was too cold to climb, Fair game I suppose.

As the light was getting low in the sky I choose to solo Bamford Buttress (HS 4a). I like soloing on the gritstone outcrops and always like to wait until the light is right or it's near the end of the day. I don't know why I enjoy the experience so much but I do. The feeling of freedom and ease of movement across the grit is something that really pleases me. I also like the fact that it's a choice not to place gear or do the route in the safer style but rather to rely on myself not to freak out or get too hung up on it.

Snakes and Ladders (and tunnels)...

2012-01-05T05:53:00.000-08:00

... Well the first bit at least.

Climbing-wise, like I said I got 3 days out. One was with Andy and we managed to nip into the quarries between the rain and started off "Snakes and Ladders and Tunnels". We managed to get into california and navigate the second tunnel without getting out feet wet. There seems to have been a lot of new debris on the tunnel floor which makes staying dry quite easy. We then found our chain which seems to be the first "pitch" of climbing. It's only short and I found it pretty easy to lead but quite pumpy. You only need slings to protect yourself from falling off and there are several options to sling pipes etc that are not attached to the chain. Actaully, attaching protection to things other than the chain is probably a good thing, especially if you've seen the state of the top of the Chain. I was surprised to find what would have been a double bolt belay in the tunnel above (there is one hanger missing but the nut is still on the end). It makes for a safe belay which is more
than I was hoping for.

Andy made fine work of the chain (with a few tugs on the rope as he had the backpack) and we sat staring out of the tunnel entrance, enjoying the new view point and looking over at California arete, which now sat drying in the weak sun. We sorted the ropes and gear, then crawled over a small roof collapse before making our way out of the tunnel. There is a tree which has some tat left on it. I've seen people abseiling from here before and was amazed by what a mess they were making of it (it did look more like a guided group, rather than a bunch of climbers). The abseil is actually quite awkward across that annoying slipping moss covered slate but me and Andy have backed off enough stuff to have become quite good at abseiling. We were down on the ground in no time. We had enough time to look at the amazing blue lake that had become dali's hole before hightailing it out of there, with the promise of a cup of tea when we got back to the car!

(Sadly my camera doesn't do the amazing blue of dali's hole justice)

(the first tunnel, all kitted up!)

(Probably the crux, reaching the first set of bars)

(Andy finally getting hold of the camera)

(Long shutter down the third tunnel)

Well, so far so good. I've actually done some of "Snakes..." now and I'm looking forward to doing the rest of it.

Either love... or stockholme syndrome.

2012-01-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

I've been not blogging for a while, basically because I'm not had any motivation to really finish anything. I say finish as apposed to starting anything because well I've started writing stuff but not been abkle to finish it. Also my internet connection at my place is awesomly bad, so I don't really use the internet at home.

Basically it got warm, about 2 days before Andy and I were due to head out to Scotland. By warm I don't mean lovely hot, summer in the middle of winter warm and therefore we could go rock climbing in Scotland instead, but warm enough to strip all the snow off scotland and they rain for about a week. Instead we didn't go. Andy and I kept pushing the leaving date back, I guess both knowing how it was going to turn out in the end but not wanting to admit it to ourselves.

I couldn't believe how angry I was at the weather and how desperate I was to get out winter climbing. I even looked up flights to Chamonix, Ecrins and almost Norway. After a day of stressing about the whole thing I ended up questioning my motivation for winter climbing and therefore climbing in general. Why was I will to put alot of my life on hold on the off chance that there'll be cold weather and decent winter conditions. The same is true in summer as I'm always waiting for the perfect weather of the summer months to get out and trad climb. Don't even get me started on the spring and autumn season. They seem to be characterised by wet weather, failed days out, boudlering in the damp and sitting around in the car waiting for the weather to clear.

I also end up getting to the middle of winter and pineing for climbing ascorss sunkissed grit in the late evening or an early start to a sea-cliff climbing trip at Gogarth, abseiling in with the waves crashing gently beneath me. Conversely by the middle of summer, I'll be hangin out on a belay at Gogarth and I'll find myself missing the cold of winter climbing, or being wrapped up against the elements and battling on throw a storm just to get off the climb.

In the end I came to some conclusions. I'm not going to give up any of what I do climbing. I've been doing it for so long that I don't know what else to do. I still have that childish feeling of adventure when I plan to head out. I've decided to make the most of any planned day out. Whether is means sitting it out under a rock, waiting for the rain to stop before getting a route in, or just righting off a weekend and climbing indoor and spending more time with my friends and family. I'm going to put more effort into getting more out of other peoples climbing rather than my own, in a effort to become a much less selfish climber. I'm also not going to get hung up on the weather, as I guess everything happens for a reason.

I guess that list doesn't really seem like much. It probably seems more like a reassertion of my normal goals in relation to climbing but it's not. I'd like to be happier with what I can get done in the time I've got, rather than obsession about what I could have got done in the time I don't have, if that makes any sense.

I did however get about 3 good days climbing out of my christmas holiday. I had an amazing christmas with my family and Rachel. We stayed at my parent house for a couple of day over christmas and boxing day, till we got homesick (which happens worryingly quickly) and Rachel also had work. I managed to explode one coffee percolator, which was very annoying as I'd gotten used to having fresh coffee in the morning. I also managed to mess up compleltely over the new year when Rachel and I, with a couple of other friends went to wales for New Years Eve, on a weather report which was a lie. I say I messed up because I forgot to put in Rachel's Wellington Boots and her waterproof. New Years Eve itself was alright. We played Dominos in the pub for a while before, having had too much to drink we headed off. We didn't get much sleep as the wind and rain hammered down all night. James's tent actually got destroyed but he stuck it out and made it through the night.

I guess I never actually got round to finishing this update off either...

My first winter route of the season...

2011-12-21T04:14:00.000-08:00

...and I'm still in two minds about it.

With good weather (winter weather that is) on the cards I plotted and schemed with Simon Holloway to get up to Mam Tor in the peak district for a spot of winter climbing. I've done Mam Tor Gully under summer conditions in this past year and I've been looking forward to a chance to tackle it under snow. In summer it's forms a pretty interesting rock-climb/ scramble/ tottering death trap. If you ever go there I recommend you either solo the entire thing, or take some pegs and a hammer if you want to increase your safety margin.

With Mam Tor Gully being my big worry for the day I set of at about 5am to meet Simon. Getting stuck behind various bit of traffic along the way I planned to make my time up shooting along the buxton road, confident it would be quiet however this was clearly to no avail. There was snow falling heavily and small drifts across the road wherever there was a gap in the wall. It was the kind of conditions when using use highbeams just casues more problems. I text Simon to tell him I was going to be late.

I did get there with minimal problems, mainly just sliding the car around a bit and then almost not making it up one hill. On my drive though I only saw one car thathad slid completely off the road (ironically through the chevron sign on the outsideof the bend). It seemed like just getting there was a problem in itself.However I did arrive and safely only to call Simon and find out he was at thewrong car park. I wasn't going to move my car down winnats pass, so I told himto come to me. In the mean time I moved into the back of my car to kit up andmore importantly brew up with my jetboil in the boot.

Thewalk-in was pretty easy, it was always going to be. Mam Tor is literally rightnext to the road but as we walked in the ground underfoot wasn't really frozen.I decided not to worry about it and carried on plodding. We gear up near thecentre of the face (if you can call it that) as I've already done the actualgully in summer conditions I wanted to try something a little harder. We went forwhat I think is gully 3 but I'm not sure. Either way I set off up the shortbuttress at the base of the cliff to try and reach a decent belay.

Lets just say that the belay wasn't decent. I ended up hammering a mixed hook into some shale and then tying into it with a figure of nine in the hope it would tighten if any load came onto it. I should have used a screamer but that idea never crossed my mind. I guess it just goes to show that you should practise, practise, practise to train you mind up to use all the gear you have. I told Simon not to fall off and as we're both still here, he didn't. Instead of pushing a line up the wall ahead of us, the lack of a decent belay had frightened me and scooted off left in an effort to get us back onto the original gully line.

This pitch was reasonably cool as it was nothing more than a walk along a very steep slope, but I did manage to get some gear in. I'm not ethically adverse to placing pegs, on the condition that they are a last resort, you've nothing else that'll fit and it'll increase the safety margin to an acceptable level. All in all placing pegs damages the rock, but then againall climbing and mountaineering leave some damage, whether it's from worn gear placements, worn out descent gullies or abseil tat left behind, it all adds up. So I placed the peg, actaully placed two stacked together then tied them off. I felt a little better afterwards.

We continued climbing. It seems silly me giving a pitch by pitch account as there are few "pitches" in winter climbing, just lenghts of rope till you find a decent place to belay. It's a skill I'm still learning. Whether to bypass a decent belay and try and run it out another 10 metres only to find nothing. Sadly I find myself selfishly doing pitches of different lenght, just so I get the crux. It shouldn't have mattered as I was leading everything on this day.

The final rope lenght I climbed was up the last bit of gully, where the "real" climbing began. There was poor gear here and there and I avoided the final head wall. When I climbed it in summer I avoided it, as there was a couple of fridge sized blocks dangling above me and my partner was in the firing line. This time they were not there. It gave me food for thought as I branched out left, trying to force a line up the turf and bad rock. Finally there was some decent snow for me to plunge my axes into and I could move quickly up the top. I ended up doing a waist belay whilst wedged behind a snow drift. Spindrift poured over me as it was whipped off the plateaux and I got soaked.

Waist belaying is a long and odd experience. I've never had to hold a fall on a waist belay (as yet) so I find myself constantly questioning what the experience would be like. Given that I was getting soaked by spindrift I had a lot of time to think about it. Simon didn't fall off and we topped out to go and shake cold bare hands of the summit, barely 600m above sea level but encrusted with snow like the Cairngorm plateaux normally is.

It's not bad for one of the peak districts true winter adventures.

brewing up in the boot of the car before hand


Simon, sporting a new hat

Mam Tor. The gully takes the gully on the left and satys left as much as possible.

My first piece of gear, and belay. I told Simon not to fall off.

Simon topping out on the final pitch.

And walking to the summit

waiting for winter...

2011-12-15T04:32:00.000-08:00

This time last year I'd actually got a few routes in before one of my yearly trips to scotland. I have to say that I'm still pretty psyched to get out enough if I've spent most of the winter season so far climbing the frozen waterfalls of my mind. I'm getting a little frustrated.

I've cleaned all my winter climbing gear. The other day I got my crampons out to give them a service, inspection and a sharpen. They really needed it after last winter too. My Super12's sadly are showing some pretty bad signs of wear & tear. I did buy them off the UKC forums for £25 posted about 4 years ago, so I can't say they've 1 had a bad life and 2 or that I'm disspointed in them. They've seen me up various different routes from all kinds of different grades. I like them because they're light and simple, great for throwing my my pack when I don't expect to encounter any hard or mixed conditions. It seems like they'll be retired for a few weeks now until I can effect a repair that'll work. In the mean time it looks like I'm be bumbling around on my G14's, which despite being really heavy are pretty bombproof. Thing is I've got them set up on monopoints and I can't a arsed to faff around changing them.

I also packed up my pack for a couple of days winter overnighting this year. The plan for this years scotland trip is to bumble up to scotland, and they travel from pub/climbing area and have a bit of a road trip/chasing the decent conditions out of the back of my car. With 9 days to play with and only 2 of those actually with a definite roof over our heads it'll be an interesting trip to say the least. I think I planning on packing something like 3 sleeping bags with me.

But I packed up an overnight bag with full winter rack, tent, stove and sleeps stuff (you know all the crap you need) into one bag just to see how much it would weigh. After carrying it around the house for 5 minutes I came to the conclusion that it needs to be lighter, much lighter. So I'm going through each item and seeing trying to work out if I'll need it or if there is a lighter option. Gear is something I can get really hung-up on and I find this to be really sad as it takes away from climbing and mountaineering for me. I know this is almost a social faux pas in alot of climbign circles, where what gear you seem to be using is as important as what you're actually climbing (I know quite a few climbers who seem to operate the other way round on this point). All the b/s surrounding gear in general seems to increase tenfold in reference to winter gear!.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter that I've not got the lightest, most ergonomically designed axes, or the lightest crampon/boot combination. I simply can't afford to pay for the lightest climing gear out there. I prefere something that'll last more than one season (especially when the price tag is so normally large) opting for indestructable gear, which has easily replacable and repairable parts rather than something that super fast and light... and gets destroyed after an impromptu sack haul.

So below there is a photo I took out of Alpine Climbing: Techniques to take you higher. I'm probably breaching copyright by it's too good not to share. I think what I'm trying to get at is that climbing should be about the climbing an experience, not what gear you've got.

Wet weather in wales...

2011-12-05T05:45:00.001-08:00

I had a bit of a wet weekend in wales but considering all the rain, I managed to stay pretty dry. Of course bad weather meant that we ended up at Tremadog climbing at Bwlch y Moch. I was climbing with Simon Holloway (who is a regular poster here). The original plan was to try and get some winter climbing in, but like I said the weather conspired against us and was wet, no frozen.

We did get a bit of climbing done considering our late arrival to Eric's Cafe. After wandering along the bottom of the crag trying to find something that resembled a dry route. We climbed One Step in the Clouds (VS 4c) with Simon leading both the first and last pitch. I have to say it was an impressive lead as this was his third VS lead to date and first multipitch route. The bottom pitch, which although is a bit rambling, was pretty damp which made some of the moves really hard. Simon coped fine with it. Pitch 2 I realised as I was on it, is pretty easy to loose sight of where you're going. I guess thats why it gets the VS grade because you can't exactly shout down to your belayer to tell you where to go.

When I got to the belay and placed my two wires I relived the feeling of clipping into that belay from back when I'd done Vector and Weever and the intense sense of satifaction I got from doing those routes. I sat there belaying Simon up, gradually rolling down my sleeve, then putting up my hood and eventually zipping everything up in an attempt to stay a little warmer. It was truely a beautifel spot to belay in though.

Dispite the fact we where using my 60metre ropes and I could have linkned both pitches together to make our progress a little quicker but we were in no rush. I knew that Simon would enjoy the final pitch too and I think he did. We topped out happily and abseiled back down from the Grim Wall abseil point.

Dispite our slow approach to climbing that day, we decided to have a crack at another route. The route we picked was a bit of a Tremadog trade route. It was Christmas Curry (severe) of course. It was getting dark while we started off but that didn't bother us as we'd both added our headtorches. What did bother us was the soaking wet layback crack on pitch 2. Simon had lead it and he gave it a bloody good go but it was getting darker and darker until we decided to bin it. I don't think that Simon really wanted to go night climbing and I was getting cold. However we turned it into a postive because it gave me a chance to run through how to back off a route with Simon, which I've found over the years is a pretty useful skill.

As it was dark we bugged out to the car and sat in the cold cooking up some pasta for tea (with red pesto of course) before heading to Plas y Brenin in the hope that they we're running a free lecture on something climbing related. When we found out it was on river canoing in the borneo jungle we opted to finish our beer and headed for the car to take us to our bed for the night, under the boulders. I'm not going to lie but I was pretty cold. My sleeping bag system of teaming a light downbag with a lighter synthetic bag over the top just wasn't really working. I even added my bivi bag over the top to try and squeeze a few more degrees out of it. I even went as far as adding a hot water bottle!

None of this really helped but then again I was stubbornly refusing to don thermals or my belay jacket as I figured that would be admitting defeat. At least I still have this option left in the future. Now all that is needed is for me to finish building my footprint for my tent so that the ground sheet will stay a little more waterproof!

Esoterica: High Tor Gully

2011-12-01T00:41:00.001-08:00

It doesn't seem like I've blogged anything in ages. It seems like I spend a lot of my time dream about being out in the ice and snow. I think it's amazing that coating of frozen water in it's various forms can cause such a stir of emotions in a person. I can't wait till I manage to get out there. I'll enjoy everything, from the early wake-ups and long walk-ins to the first hot aches of the season.

Climbing this weekend just gone was as close to winter climbing as I've ever come when I'm supposed to be on a traditional rock climbing route. I actually had a day off on saturday. I spent the day fitting a radiator with my Dad which was an interesting experience. We ended up shutting the water off twice, wrapping a kilometre of PTFE tape around various screw threads and visiting 2 separate plumbing stores. It was a pretty good day considering that I'd only gone over to use the tumble dryer to reproof my waterproofs

So with a day of tinkering with gear, reproofing and getting generally grubby out of the way, Rachel and I woke up early on the sunday morning, jumped in the car and nipped into the east peak to tick off another esoterica route... high tor gully. I've only climbed at high tor once before with Dan Masterman (who's disappeared to the other side of the world now in NZ). Now last time I was here I didn't really explore any of the caves and came a cropper on a HVS 5b because I stupidly didn't take enough runners with me. A lesson that has stayed with me I think. Well this time was different, we did manged to explore some caves (albight briefly) and I didn't fall off anything.

Like normal we packed tow small sacks as we'd be climbing with them. I had a new toy to play with in the form of a dirty great big headtorch (Petzl Duo mit 14 LEDs). I found it cheap on UKC and have been after one for ages. MY old TIKKA-XP is starting to get very old and battered but it's still running pretty well. It is still a great torch but being scared of the dark make you appreciate light providing devices and more power = more light which make me feel alot better when venturing under ground. We took a my thick old single rope in the end, based on the fact that so far the esoterica routes have been a little cruel to rope and Rachel wanted her rope to last a little longer than one crazy route.

The walk-in to high tor is pretty much the same as the guidebook description but the obvious path isn't so obvious anymore. What makes up for it is a BMC sign that I figured would only have been placed there in the event of climbers actually using the path. It is a long a winding path taking you right round to the front of high tor and passing a load of awesome little buttresses along the way. I've never really given peak limestone the time of day (actually I've never given any limestone the time of day) but when I was confronted with these massive white walls I felt the need go and climb them. Too bad I only packed half a rack and no climbing shoes. I'll have to go back!

Instead we wandered along the path and stopped off to have a brief look into the small cave systems that are there. I wanted a chance to try my new headtorch out and see what lighting effects I could get with it for some photography inside the cave. I never actually got the chance as about 6 metres in while me and Rach were sitting around gazing at the cave I spotted a cave spider behind her. Now I'm not scared of spiders, in a general sense but these things are much bigger than I'm used to. (A couple of interesting links to information on them are here & here). Rachel however is very much in the "I dislike spiders to the point that I'll run out of the cave and leave Matt behind" camp. I did try and carefully point out that there was a cavespider behind her, and that it wasn't doing anything other than just sitting there but I think you can imagine what happened. Now left standing alone in said cave, regardless of my massive headtorch, I bolted for the exit.

We continued around on the path in daylight, enjoying the light flitting through the trees. I really was a proper cold wintry morning, I think all it needed to top it off was frozen ground. I had left the guidebook behind in the car because it's heavy and I figured that a VD gully shouldn't be too hard to find because it split the Main Head wall and Left face of high tor. I was wrong on that point. High Tor Gully does indeed split the main wall and left flank of high tor and it presents itself as a deep cleft. High Tor Gully is actually about 6 metres above this massive cleft that sinks some 20 metres underground. I really did take us a while at actually notice the gully which was sort of hanging above us.

After a lot of uming & ahhhing we decided that we may as well go for it. The start looked pretty hard and we didn't have a rock shoes or anything. I lead the first pitch and managed to sting my crotch on a rogue stinging nettle. There really wasn't much gear in the gully either but that didn't stop me and I carefully climbed on up trying to not to dislodge any of the loose material. At the first decent opportunity to build a belay I did because I knew Rach was worried about the first bit of climbing. As it happened Rachel was fine and joined me at the belay for a brief respite before she led off up the next section.

It looked pretty easy but it soon became apparent that it wasn't. The entire gully was just loose and Rach quite sensibly down climbed and sent me up to deal with it. I climbed as carefully as I could because it was just so loose. At one point I had one foot on the left wall, both hands on the right wall and was propping myself up with my final foot trying not to knock off any loose material. I soon managed to gain the safety of some trees growing in the gully and the difficulties were over (for now). Rach joined me at my tree belay and we set about working how the hell we were going to get out of the gully. I think the original exit is now used as a sort of rubbish dump by the local area management group. We didn't really fancy climbing through rubbish to try and get out, and even this exit looks pretty sketchy. Instead we managed to find a little crack that led up the right hand wall. It was actually the hardest bit of climbing (and probably one of the only bits of actual "climbing" we did all day). We were soon sat on the top checking out the awesome view down on Matlock and Matlock-Bath. Not bad for a single route at High Tor.

Offsets and tri-cams...

2011-11-20T07:50:00.001-08:00

I wrote a post a while back about DMM alloy offset nuts and whether or not I was missing out. In the weeks since I've borrowed my partners set of 5 offsets and made a real effort to look for placements and place them. For the short period they stayed on my rack (before they had to be returned) I tried to turn to them first and found myself using them all up on most of the pitches of mountain rock I climbed.

I figured that I better report back as to my conclusions at this moment in time. Before I had a set of offset nuts, I never really found myself wanting and needing to place them. I know there are some devout (some would consider almost zealous) followers of offset nut's who'll tell you that you need them on your rack and that for every parallel sided placement there'll be an million offset placements but thats simply not true. I will accept that there are tonnes of offset placements out there, but (and this is the crucial point) if you don't carry offset nuts (or normally carry them) , or are used to parrellel sided nuts you and you're good climber who is used to using thier own rack, you'll simply bypass offset placements in favour of one that you're rack will fit.

Now this would seem obvious. If you don't use a piece of gear, then how are you supposed to get (or at least understand) the benefits that piece can bring. When I returned said offsets I did for a while keep looking for offset placements and then had to bypass them in favour of one that my rack would fit so there hasn't really been a loss in this experiment. But there has been one significant gain, a change in my opinion.

About 4 years ago I read about tri-cams for winter climbing. I then aquired a set and took them out during my first season. Needless to say I was unimpressed. I found them fiddly and awkward to place and they never turned out to be my first choice piece of gear. I've got a couple more winter seasons under my belt now, and I find myself missing out on the cam placements I bypass in winter alot. Coming into winter from a rock climbing back ground means that I do really miss out when I'm carrying a smaller rack. I'm just used to so much more gear. Carrying cams is something I really miss out on in winter, but I just can't justify the weight of them and time needed to place them.

There is of course an obvious solution. Actually there are several obvious solutions, the first being to stop whining. There were people climbing the routes I've done with nowt but a single alpenstock and homemade crampons, so what am I complaining for. The other solution is to find a camming device that is light weight and supposedly better in iced up cracks... tri-cams.

So I've been carrying them on my rack for the past few weeks doing the esotertic routes with Rachel and took them with us this weekend to wales. It takes a real effort to force myself to actually place them because I'm just so unused to using them but I can say that they've been a astounding success so far. I've been using them both passively and cammed in an effort to sort of intergrate them into my rack and I hope they'll get alot more use this winter too.

Peak District Alpine experience...really?

2011-11-14T02:53:00.001-08:00

Britain has a host of fantastic climbing from sea cliffs to mountain routes, to gritstone in the Peak district to unique places like the Slate quarries in wales and the lakes. Scottish winter climbing is world renowned and hopefully the winter scene will pick up in wales and the lakes too. But sadly, as a few of my french friends seems to (always) want to point out, in the grand scheme of things we don't have proper mountains.

Well sod you, we have better ethics.

Having finished my small rant about why Britain is the best place for climbing in the world I'll proceed to further my point. My and Rach managed a route of alpine grander in the peak district, and there's another one to do just up the road!

Elbow Ridge probably isn't the most well known of Britains epic ridge routes, but then again the Peak district isn't exactly the home of alpine climbing. The route discription is hidden away inside "On Peak Rock" in the Esoterica section, something that I can only assume more normal people would by-pass. Sadly the Esoterica section contains many classic routes, that if they were say in North Wales, they just be part and parcel of the climbing there. Mam Tor gully is as loose as anything on the Lleyn Penisular, Elbow ridge and Matter Horn Ridge and as thin as Crib Goch (but with less of a walk in). The Raven Stones stomach traverse is probably about as much fun and trampling through the bushes mid summer to finds the base of a route at Tremadog and Chocolate Blamange gully is clearly as dangerous and as fun as climbing over the wet slate scree slopes of the lower oil drum glacier (though probably less life threatening). On Sunday Rachel and I roped up in the best alpine style we could and headed off to tackle Elbow Ridge...

The original plan was to do both ridges, but this would have required 2 things. More time is the first and better weather being the second. Actually I would rather have just has more time. The weather was pretty cool and turned what would have been a complete walk in dry summer conditions into a proper interesting and fun experience. The fog was so thick that after 30 metres of rope I couldn't actually see Rach, which was alright because I had not brought any think more than a 30 metre rope. The wind was also blowing across the ridge so it turned sections that could normally easily walked across into something that it was potentially easy to get blown off.

Our plan was to get up early to do the ridges then get to Northfield to get tattoos done in support of prostate cancer as part of Movember. We didn't exactly get up as early as we'd planned but when has that ever stopped someone from getting out and going climbing. It would just mean we'd have to be a little quicker instead, so we adopted an approach that any aspiring British student alpinist would be proud of and any french alpinist would probably sneer at and packed a small rack (read: medium sized rack) harnesses, helmets and a bottle of water and set off into the peak.

Now I don't really know how to describe the route other than it was awesome. There was a semi-hanging belay, some waist belaying, heavy use of tri-cams, moving together, slipping on wet grass, loose rock, cold hands and finally some epic topping out only to almost slip and fall off. The best part is probably that we filmed it all so I'll try and put a video up asap.

Roaches Saturday, Castle Naze Sunday

2011-11-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

I think we all know how I feel about the Roaches. It isn't that I can't see their appeal (fantastic slab climbing, excellent overhangs, good face routes, bouldering, multipitching and good grade range) but you can have a little too much of that appeal. In this instance I got suckered in by a partners promise of getting a load of routes done in one day. This went from him being "psyched to climb" on the thursday, to "psyched to socialise" on the friday. Eventually I got 1 route done with him on the saturday. It can't hold him responsible for my lack of climbing as the weather was pretty damp anyway. All the rock seemed to be covered in a fantastic green slime that seems to absorb water like a sponge. Cool to look at but with the frictional properties of a wet fish.

I did get some climbing done though, which is more than some people might have managed so I shouldn't really complain. I picked a HVS 5a called Diamond Wednesday as it was the driest route on the upper tier, and one I've not done before. It started with a little obstacle to negotiate, namely a holly bush before breaking up a head wall with a series of high rockovers. All in all it was a good route, only let down by the really easy finish (which is a bit of a jug fest to be honest). Then came the bumbling around and socialising. This lasted long enough for it to get slightly warmer and allow me time to catch up with a few people I've not seen in a while. I saw Stu who managed to damage his back in a little bit (here). It was nice to catch up with him and see how he's recovering from injury. It looks like it'll be a few months before he's back out climbing again, but that hasn't stopped him being really psyched.

It took a while but I tracked down someone willing to belay me for another route and off me and Tim Nixon set to find something that was dry. The route we picked was Humdinger (E1 5b). It's been soemthing I've actually looked at every time I've been up the Roaches for the past few months. It tackle a pretty big overhang, pretty much head on, pulling straight through the a jug on the lip. I think that maybe the hardest actual move was getting off the deck and maintaining dry shoes. From here it was an odd little slab climb up to some good gear in a bad flake before a host of more good gear in loose/hollow sounding flakes. I got something in more decent below the actual roof which cheered me up. Then it started, the long and slow process of making head way up the wall (and conversly pushing the boundries of what could be considered an onsight attempt). I placed my gear and then made a few moves up the wall, took a good look around then retreated to my good rest spot (note: not weighting the gear, but down climbing the whole while). Then I was back up, placing some more gear & down climbing. Eventually I made it to the lip and had a crack at the crux move. It is literally a single really hard long reach from a bomber jug. I'd got good gear in below me (an DMM dragon cam Edd had kindly lent me) but I didn't make it first time. Instead I pulled back at the last moment and down climbed again. My ethical autism dictates that I can't weight the gear, lest I have to pull the ropes and try it ground up so instead I'll reverse the moves. This does make my climbing very stop start when I'm on hard routes as I don't have a "let go for it" attitude.

To cut a long story (of up climbing &down climbing) short, I made the move after about 4 attempts. I then found myself in a odd position, feeling like I was space walking while being pumped out. I pulled up onto the next ledge to be confronted with the bones and rotten meat smell of the old peregrin nest, I quickly moved off from here. The climbing above was probably still about 5a so I was trying pretty hard not to blow it. Of course I made it to the top and belayed up Edd and Tim as the sun was setting. It had been worth waiting till this time of day to do with route.

As this was the last route of the day I bugged out and met Rachel from work. We then decided to spend bonfire evening playing with sparklers and wathcing the fireworks over the city of B'ham from the hillside near Frankly Beeches. Here are some pictures we took:

Castle Naze sunday started off like a train wreck. I hightailed it up to Stoke in the morning to Tim's house to find not Tim but a living full of hungover bodies. I did the only thing I could... put the kettle on and made everyone some tea. This magically got Edd moving and within the hour the house and garden had been cleaned up from the wreckage of the party the night before. The weather today was much better to say the least, it was cold and dry with some weak winter sunshine to brighten the mood. Castle Naze looke awesome when we pulled up as the sun was just slowly moving round. Some of the rocks were still in darkness.

I kicked started the day with a VS 4c called Nozag, which is probably one of the longets routes at castle naze. It's a pretty cool route and I'm glad I did it with Tim. The start is like a traditional VS grit route, jamming but then it lend itself to some pretty cool face climbing. I bet if you where a VS leader then the final top section might put the willies up you. I then moved off with a route called Morroc'n'Roll (E1 5b) down in the quarred area to the far right of the crag. I like this area a little more than the more solid rock above. It's a little crumbly and loose and there is a whole "aire of collapse" about the place. Most of these routes start off with a hard move to avoid a large section of really chossy grit just ablve the base of the cliff. It make the routes feel a little more serious right from the word go. Either way I tottered up this route feeling off balance the whole time but manage to get it sorted without any problems. I then continued up a beautifel arete that sort of punches out of the rubble at the top of the crag to belay off a stake and a bad nut. I'll belay lower next time round I guess.

My final lead for the day (though not my final climb) was a route called Stoke the Engine (E1 5b). This is a route I did with Edd belaying me. It was right round on the far right of the quarried face. It was originally a choice between two different E1 5b routes but I settled on Stoke... because it had less gear but was slabby, and therefore would be a little easier (based on my preference for slab routes). So I started up the first bit and had a hard move before I managed to gain the hanging slab. Here I was already a little run out from my gear and it reminded me alot of Brown's Eliminate at Froggat. I managed tog et a tiny size 2 Peenut into a crack but it didn't really fill me with much confidence. Then after chalking up excessively I actually commited to the move and made it. It was literally a big of a single move wonder but the seriousness of the route made it worth while. Sadly belaying was a little awkward as there seems to be so much loose rock in the wall above.

At this point I sort of ran out of partners, or at least people willing belay me. Atfer about 30 minutes of sitting round enjoying the sunshine I realised I should make the most of my day out. With no real bouldering to play on I started soloing routes on the main face that looked pretty easy. I did't solo anything over 5a but I also stayed away from the really easy stuff. In the end I managed to solo about 6 routes on the cliff, quietly without causing a fuss and without getting in anyone way. It was a pretty liberating experience as I only had my chalkbag, my shoes and a rag to clean my feet off. My little route list consisited of:

Muscle Crack Vs 4c
The Fifth Horseman HVS 5a
Niche Arete VS 4c
Scoop Direct VS 4c
Zigzag Crack VS 4c
Flake Crack HS 4a