DMM offsets. Am I missing something?

My rack consists of a hodge-podge of gear, especially my wires. I mean they seem to consist of a wires picked up from here there and everywhere. I think something like a third of them have actually been found rather than actually brought. I think the problem began when I first started buying a rack and I brought something like 1 or 2 nuts each week in a effort to build it up with each paycheck. At the time I didn't really know any better and a nut was a nut as far as I was concerned. Over time my rack grew and I eventually forked out for a set of decent nuts, metolius curve nuts. Not the lightest nut on the market (at the time) but they looked different and I was willing to try them out (plus they came with a free nuts key, back when they were cheap). Having used both DMM wallnuts and WC rocks before it was a welcome change to use the curve nuts.

Over time my rack grew still. I doubled up on a few sizes of curve nuts and replaced things a I dropped, bailed or welded them into place. Eventually my defining feature for what nut I'd buy was the price because well curve nuts had gone expensive and wallnuts/rock were cheap. My rack of wires now sits at around 40 depending on the last count. At least 9 of these nuts have been found over the years and at least 9 are also small wires, either made in brass just really tiny (that are sub about 3kn). 

I actually own a few specifically offset nuts, 3 brass offsets (the smallest sizes) and a yellow alloy offset. Again price was the defining feature in thier purchase (alloy) and because I couldn't find anything smaller (brass). But I've still never found myself wanting an offset nut. What am I missing? Offset nuts seem to have a sort fo cult following in the British climbing world. I know quite alot of people who swear by them. In fact it really annoys me when people start recommending them to new climbers, raving on about how awesome they are. I think part of the problem (my lack of offset nut love) comes from having WC single wires (slightly offset in shape) and the Curve nuts that make for the basic of my rack. 

I'm still not sure whether I'm missing out of something revolutionary, but with 40 wires on my rack (that I can't seem to trim down) I can't really afford to add another 5 heavy offsets. 

Anklular update

I'm back at work. This is a good thing as far as I'm concerned because there is only so much sitting around at home I can do. I'm not saying that I don't like sitting around at home, but I'd much rather be at work, that's all. I feel bad for having time as it'll just make things harder for the rest of the team I work with. 

Having not been off work before in like an official capacity (I've been ill for like a day once or twice) I had to have my "back to work" meeting. This was basically a are you fit for work and is it going to cause you any problem being back. Well I want to be here, but my foot still hurts. Notice I said foot, my ankle is actually alright. It's a little swollen but the ankle is quite good and I've got like 95% movement in it. The only reason I don't have 100% movement is because the small damage section is still swollen. I made the mistake of mentioning it to my line manager, and thus I was sent back to the doctors.

After the chop-shop of City Hospital A&E going to see my doctor was a blessing. Ok, so he did the same poking and prodding and bending my foot and came to the conclusion that 1; it's not broken (yay!) and 2; the ligament hasn't snapped (even bigger yay!). What I have done is damaged my tibofibula (?) ligament, which splays out across the foot from the ankle. There is a possibility that I've torn a few strands of ligament tissue but the whole injury normally take 2 to 6 weeks to heal. I've still got 3 weeks left so I'll be taking it easy. I also found out what the pain is in my foot. It feels like I've dropped a brick on my foot and the pain is like a searing deep pain across the bones of my right foot. 

Apparently I have tendonitis. This is not cool but manageable. I foresee some physio in the near future.

Helium Friends? were they worth making?

Since the patent came up on double axel cams there seems to have been a minor revolution within the cam market. It seemed very much 5 years ago that the British market was dominated by DMM 4cus, Wild Country Tech Friends and then BD camalots. This wasn't a bad thing as each offered a significant difference when compared to the others. 4cu's had extendable slings, useful to those hardcore trad climbers but wanted to save weight. BD camalot had increased range and there for usefulness. Tech Friends it seems just sort of set the bar as to what a decent cam should be.

Then the patent went [on double axel designs] and it's sort of opened the doors for a wide range of new cams. It's not just the patent going world wide either, but little things like CCH Aliens which stopped being shipped to Britain leaving a gap in the market place for the microcam market to develop. Wild Country Zeros and Metolius Master Cams have a new lease of life and seem to be doing well, but it's DMM who really hit the nail on the head.

BD camalots are good. No-one can ignore it. They have a smooth action, they are reasonable stable. They're made with hard wearing components. DMM dragon cams are just even better. They have the same smooth action, but are lighter. The metal and plastic components are hard wearing but the slings are made of dyneema. Is this a big problem? no! because DMM have offered to resling the cams as and when needed. They also have an extendable sling, something that is a real benefit for trad climbers in Britain. At places like gogarth where routes wander all over the place, lessening rope drag is a real bonus. I like dragon cam, I think they are a really well though out product.

I thought I was a die hard wild country tech friend advocate. I've got like 11 of them, all battered and scratched, most with repaired cables (one with a paper clip) and 1 with a tied cord as the sling worn out. I thought that I'd never replace them, until a climbing partner left one in a belay and it was never seen again. I'm not laying it on, but it was my favourite cam. It was my red size 2, the one I'd carry everywhere. I can still see the pattern of scratched on the lobes of the cam. Meh, it's gone but instead on missing n old friend (literally!) I took this opportunity to try something new, and cheaper. 

I brought a red dragon cam. It's awesome, simply awesome. I don't need to say anything else. When I retire my tech friends, or loose them, I'll just replace them with dragon cams. It is really that simple. They are also light enough I'd carry them in winter. 

The thing is, DMM have clearly put alot of thought into the dragon cam. BD clearly though long and hard about the Camalot and the old tech friend just sets the bar for what a good cam should really be like. The new helium cams just look crap. They don't strike me as a great step forward in cam production. For the same weight you can get the equivalent size Dragon. They feel clunky and heavy. They don't have such a smooth action and the thing that is most annoying? It just looks like Wild Country have just on the hot forging band wagon (following DMM) and made forged cam lobes and then stuck them on a BD camalot stem. 

All I'm saying is, was it really worth putting the money into developing them, let alone trying to sell them?

Abseiling...

So it's been a while since I've done any climbing. Well it's been about 2 weeks, which as far as I'm concerned is a more than long enough! My ankle is taking it's sweet time to heal and now there is an odd lump on the ankle bone itself (off to one side) and still painful bruising over my foot bones and my lower leg. I can't believe all this has come about from a simple trip. I've also been off work, which at first was fun and now I just want to get back so I have something to fill my day with.

Talking on filling my day, I went up to Stoke to help out with the SUMC abseil. I actually went up to hang out on a roof all day, drink tea and maybe do a little abseiling or rigging. What actually happened was that I ended up spending 8 hours dangling over the edge of mellor (the building) operating a safety rope with my friend Tim (he was the SPA). This wasn't exactly something I'd planned for but we made the best of it; drinking tea all afternoon and getting clients down safety. The highlight of my day (well there were 2) was that a couple of disabled people turned up. After a brief discussion downstairs well they made it to the roof (without wheelchairs) all kitted up and ready. It did mean that we had to close one of the lines so that one of us could abseil down next to them should anything happen, but nothing did. Everything went really well and one of the girl actually came up and did it again because she enjoyed it so much. All in all it was a pretty awesome day, and it didn't rain.

The night before I'd also been asked to put my sony vegas skills to the test and produce a short "trailer" type piece of promotional material  for the SUMC to play on a laptop at thier stall, hopefully in a effort to generate some enthusiasm. I kind of threw myself into it because it's the first time anyones actually asked me to put something together for them, rather then me just playing around and making climbing films for youtube. Here is a copy of the trailer:

a long interesting weekend...

I guess the best place to start with long and complicated stories is at the beginning, and in the beginning I woke up at 0700 on saturday monring, hurriedly packed my kit (throwing in my bivi bag for the first time in ages), jumped in the car (sans breakfast) and tanked my way up to stoke. I ended up waking Matt Snell and Ronnie up, but at least it meant I got a cup of tea. Eventually Matt, Stuart Ivory and I set off across the Peak to go to Curbar. It seemed like as good a place as any for a days climbing. Hell even the weather looked good.


We headed straight for Avalanche Wall (HVS 5a) for Snell to lead which he did. He'd actually commented on the walk in that he wanted to start on something easy and then work his way up. I don't think he'd led HVS before that day. He lead the route well, placing less protection that I'd have put in but I'm not critising him for that. At the end of the day he got up, so good job. I then went to lead Pea Pod, but someone was already on it. I say already on it when in reality he'd thrown his rope at the base of the route so no-one else could lead it, then decided to get on his gear (slowly) while making others wait. Instead I went and lead Maupassant (HVS 5a). When I compared this to Avalanche wall, I'd say it was much much easier, but what do I know. It's described on UKC as a thrutchy jamming crack but it's all actually on nice jams and good bridging. The final layback is awesome as well because it just doesn't look like it'll go, until you commit to it that it, then... boom! you're at the top!

So 2 routes down and we could see Toaf, Tim, Ronnie and the rest playing on the boulders below the main edges. Infact Tim came up too see how we where getting on and to head off for a short routes past avalanche wall. It was not Stu's lead, and his first on grit for a while. He picked L'Horla (E1 5b) part of three routes all together (the others being Maupassant and Insanity). I actually looked forward to having a crack at insanity afterwards because when stu got up that would have been 2 of the three done. Clearly a gaunlet if I ever saw one. #

But Stu didn't get up it. Infact we didn't do anymore climbing for the rest of that day, or that weekend. Stu was climbing well down on the Limestone and confidently jumped on L'horla with no apprehension what so ever. There was the usual discussing of rackage and laughing and joking below the route. Snell even took up the mantle of camera-man to film Stu's climbing. 

From the get go Stu was shaky. I'll appreciate that the small holds and lack of decent footholds didn't do much for an easy start but it was a while before a rest and his first piece of gear. Needless to say he carried on up, I would have. As he got higher ne managed to get another small wire in but when he move out left, the shorter runner pulled the wire into a different angle. I could hear some of the panic in Stu's voice. I'd heard that before with various partners when I've been climbing. I've also been in the same position myself. I was just waiting the exhausted yelp and then the slump onto the gear. 


But that top nut was crap, not worth waiting and Stu was panicing more now. I started talking him down the route, getting him the place some gear the only piece I could make out was a slot for a small yellow cam he had on his harness. He got that clipped but wouldn't come down instead making it up to the jug by the route. He was doing so well but I could see the effort was starting to take it's toll on him. Hanging from the jug he was scrabbling with his feet to get purchase, his left foot swinging helplessly beneath him. Then he was off.


I locked off the plate but it was no use. The gear didn't really do much when he fell. He just hit the fall, back first. He immediatly rolled over and groaned before trying to get up. I pinned him down and yelled to Snell to get Tim. I knew we needed more people to help with this. Deep down I knew that he'd done something bad to himself. So we covered him up, bivi bag and all. Removed most of his gear and kept him awake and talking. I felt his back, ribs, pelvis and legs  but there wasn't anything I could feel. There was no blood, but he didn't exactly get up and walk around after 10 minutes so we called MRT. By this time a very nice chap up was a surgeon or a urologist had come over and taken charge of his pulse. 


In the end it took about 2 hours from the fall, to get him choppered out. MRT turned up and gave him oxygen and morphine. Then as one massive team, (MRT, Stu's mate and anyone else who came to help) all carried the stretcher out and loaded it onto the waiting chopper. Me, Toaf and Ronnie spent the rest of the day at Northern General in Sheffield. In the end they said he'd fractured a vertebrae in his back. We got to bed at 0130 that night, after Ronnie cooked me pasta, veg and chinese prok chops. 

I guess it wasn't the best day out climbing ever, but it happens I guess. Even with the best will in the world sometimes bad stuff happens. Anyway my weekend of accidents wasn't over as monday night saw me in A&E for 6 hours after tripping up walking off the astroturf pitch after monday night football. I'm now on crutches, with a torn deltoid ligament. 


Paula at redpoint point just said "you're crap on the flat" apparently. 

Esoterica (the first)

Every time it I plan to go climbing in the peak district and it rains, my thoughts slip to bad places. A very certain bad place inparticular... The esoterica section in "On Peak Rock". See I've been meaning to try and tick all of these off since I read about them in the first place (I have a similar ambition with the "Rock Bits" section) but I haven't actually done anything about it. Well today was different as although it threatened rain, Rachel and I set off with a plan to climb Elbow Ridge and Matterhorn Ridge in Winnats Pass.

The day started off well, considering that the weather report said it was going to rain. As we drove past Ramshaw I pulled over and parked up. I can't remember who mentioned Louie's Groove (E1 5b) to me or when but the route has been eating away at the back of my mind for a while. What the hell I thought, I may as well just climb it. We still had loads of time to do the ridges and the chance of a grabbing an E point wasn't bad. We ran in and found the quite obvious groove and I geared up and set off. The first section was alright but once you placed your final pieces suddenly the meat of the route was there in front of you. I actually found it quite hard to work out what I had to do. Soon I was smearing and bridging (probably what the yanks referre to as "stemming"?) up the little groove to slape the top. This was my first E1 for quite a while and I still felt the psychological weight of the silly little "E". I guess I just need to keep climbing more!

Rachel quickly seconded this and we bugged out, running back to the car and heading off up the buxton road. When we arrived at Winnat's Pass we had a good look a the ridges and cliffs (and caves high up) on the sides of the pass. Sadly we had to pay for parking at the base of the valley and this wouldn't have been a problem... expect for the complete lack of change. It's funny how something little can mess you up like that. That was probably the turning point in the day as we either needed free parking, change or an new objective. For those who have read the esoterica section you'll know that there is another such objective, with free parking, not far away...

I pulled the car into the little parking space near the gate that shut off the old Mam Tor road. Mam Tor has to be one of the coolest places in the peak district, mainly because it looks like it's been hit by a hollywood earthquake! Our new objective for the day was now Mam Tor Gully, graded "ungradable" and gived a little skull and cross bones symbol in the guidebook. After reading the National Trust rules and regulations that had been taped to the back of a sign we wandered off path leaving our gear in the car to go for a little recon mission. We got pretty close and Rach fancied just carrying on and trying to get to the top without our gear but I wasn't having any of it. My fear of loose rock extended to my head mostly and there was no way in hell I was setting foot in that gully with out my helmet at least.

After a quick trip back to the car we were off again, this time actually carrying some gear but also worried that it might rain while we were on route. Running (well walking quickly) we got to the base of the gully (around grade 1, in winter!) and put on helmets and harnesses. I also fed the rope into my bag so that it'd be ready for use. Rachel opted to climb first, stating that if I pulled a load of stuff down and fell off I'd probably take her out in the process but if she fell off first, I could probably grab her. It sucks being the heavier one sometimes. 


We plodded up and up and the climbing gradually turned from bumbling up and very loose scree slope to actually having the climb (of a sort). I pulled into the main gully, when Rach called for the rope and I looked around for something to belay off. Ha! I must have been joking. Maybe if I'd thought to pack a warthog and a peg hammer I might have had something resembling a safe belay but as it happened good old hope and will power would have to do. I sent the rope down and she hurriedly clipped in and I started waist belayin. My belay literally consisted of my feet braced on some crumbling shale. Being honest, I was quite scared.


When Rachel arrived at my "belay" I had her stand on a ledge off to one side. This ledge was still crumbling away, like most of the stuff we where on but it was at least crumbling significanlty slower than the rest. Both slightly paniced but trying to retain some composed I assured her it would be alright as I flaked the rope into a neat pile at her feet. I then set off trailing rope from my pack but the final section. I didn't dare head up the gully direct as the fridge sized blocks above us looked like they'd squish Rach if I was dumb enough to disturb them. Instead I skirted around them and up the grass, clinged to great clumps of it as handholds and my footholds crumbled away beneath me. Scrambling desperatly I mae it too the top and shouted I was "safe!". Was I really safe? no. Instead I found the best braced stance I could and yelled for Rach to climb when she was ready.


Rach headed straight up the gully and tackled said loose blocks carefully climbing and trying not to dislodge them in the process. I though I was going to be in alot of trouble for suggesting this as a route but she arrived at the top almost shaking with fear but smiling broadly. She'd loved it. I voted we rest on the tope for a while before packing up the gear and descending back down to the car. 


Not a bad route route for a consolation prize!

Wings of Unreason (finally)

Last year I had a crack at Wings of Unreason at the Roaches Skyline. For those who don't know this semi iconic skyline route it takes the middle of a short slab far up on the skyline. It's called "wings..." in reference to the final moves than need to be done to complete the route, a total psychological crux headgame. It's truely an awesome route.

Last year I jumped on wings with Rach belaying. It was a miserable day and ultimately ended in failure because by the time I'd decided that I wasn't going to do the final move, the weather was turning and Rachel was getting very cold belaying. On re-treating I tried not to weight my gear but that wasn't going to happen so I semi-climbed/fell down the route. 

I think I should mention the final move. There are 3 little holes in the middle of the face, or pods as it were. One takes your gear and you have to mantle into them and then position yourself for the final move. The gear it literally at the level of your feet and you then need to make a dynamic move to slap for a glorious jug. When I reach up I'm only 5/6 inches short, but at that moment that distance seems like a million miles away. Everytime I stared up at it it was like watching the hitchcock zoom.

This time it was different. Summer is over and autumn seems to have taken hold with a rapid efficiency. Every morning I've gone downstairs to go to work the wind has been blustering through the trees, whipping leaves and little along the pavement. There's a distinct chill in the air and Rachel actually put the heating on the other day. I can feel winter coming in the air, as it slowly closes it's grip on the world. I can't wait for the first frost, the first snow. And climbing during this autumnal period it my favourite time of the year. My lightweight summer climbing fleece have been removed from it's hollow at the base of my pack to be prplaced with my winter belay jacket, warm leather gloves and a hat (or two). My flask has been cleaned and my hot food carried made ready. I love climbing at this time of year.

And so it happened, we had a slow start to the day, eventually a bunch of us had mobilised and headed up to skyline, some wanting to have a go at Prelude to Space (solo) and some just wanting to be out. I wanted to try wings. 

We'd set up beneath the slab with Toaf's new massive eldride pad as Ronnie soloed Prelude to Space. I then geared up as best I could and went through all the little rituals of starting a hard climb; tying in my chalk bag (even though it's virtually empty and it's a freezing dry day), pulling on my tight shoes and lacing them, selecting the small amount of rack that I'll need, tying in to the lead line, cleaning my shoes with a little spit till the rubber is sticky and finally chalking up my hands. I couldn't really put it off any longer. 


I actually asked Toaf not to bother belaying me till I'd got some gear in, but mainly because I expected to blow the first set of moves (the technical crux) but this time I didn't. I still thought I was going to even as I grasped the hold I was reaching for with my finger tips and felt my foot stick to the small hold as I rocked over. I gave up trying to fiddle a piece of gear in here, instead relying on not falling off and the massive pad beneath me. On gaining the pockets I plugged in a cam (a red dragon cam if anyones bothered). I tried to fit one in next to it but I didn't have the right size and Toaf lobbed my up another size 2. It was all going so well.


I remembered the move to gain the pocket, and my final decent footholds but it required me to take out one of the cams (eek!). I didn't really have a choice so I removed the one, rocked into the pocket and then replaced it blindly so it stuck out at an odd angle. It didn't really matter as there wasn't any retreating from the move now anyway. Then I hit a wall. Not a physical wall (obviously) but a massive mental wall in my mind. I scanned the wall infront of me, running my fingers over everything, every ripple, every change in slabs angle, every bit of grit with slightly more friction than the one next to it. I was trying to find that good hold that didn't exist or that little crimp that I'd missed before. Christ I was so close. It was literally inches to the final hold but it may as well have been miles. 


I must have gone on like this for ages. I don't know how much time had passed but I know it threatened to rain at least once and I got offered rescue at least once too. I also tried to retreat and reverse the last move, but when I couldn't I knew I'd have to just do it.


In the end I just did it. I don't know how I managed to convince my brain to do it but it just worked. I think I probably closed my eyes when I did it too but within seconds I was pulling up over the top and rolling onto my back to stare at the sky. It was over, all over.

Grooved Arete... (again!)

I went away with Mr Holloway jr.. This is Chris's little brother who's been at Worcester uni doing a a course on outdoor ed and who's been climbing loads over the past couple of years. I've climbed with him before once and he impressed me so we ended up on a weekend away to wales. We had good weather on the saturday so we headed up Tryfan to go Grooved Arete, a route which Simon had wanted to do for ages. Then on the sunday we took advantage of sleeping in the pass to climb Skylon and Wrinkle, before the afternoon weather hit and we got soaked on the walk out. Not a bad weekend as far as I'm concerned.

Quartz Staircase...

A couple of months ago I gave a 2 friends and climbing partners a very quick intro into dealing with loose rock. We climbed a route that had a massive loose flake on it but along as you pulled down it wasn't a problem. It scared them both half to death (the flake was a man-squisher) but it also taught them both a valuable lesson. Loose rock is a part of climbing. Yes I know a lot of people might never encounter loose rock climbing (especially if they spend their time climbing at nice neat little gritstone edges 10 minutes from the road) but if you climb on mountain routes, limestone, sea cliffs or in winter (or on the Lleyn Peninsular) then you'll be bound to encounter something loose once in a while.

My climbing over the last year seems to have had an awful lot of loose rock in it, and there's been many moments when I've been praying not that I won't blow the move, more that the hold won't blow off.

So with all this in mind Me and Rach, on a short trip to wales and in an effort to find some good weather, found in Pete's Eat's new routes book "the best diff ever". It was on a sea-cliff at Rhoscolyn and therefore we couldn't not do it.

 

The weather was awesome when we arrived at Rhoscolyn, sunny, dry and with a strong onshore breeze. What made it even better was that when we looked back towards land the mountains were shrouded in cloud and rain. We walked in quickly and then found out that getting to the base of the route would probably be the crux. The onshore wind was providing a great swell that stopped an clambering in and sea-level traversing to the base of the route. Instead much wandering along the top of the crag led me to find a nice slab that allowed us to abseil in. 

The route itself was quite clear (both from the top and base of the crag) but what my view from the top didn't tell me was quite how steep it was. The angle of the line was awkward to say the least. That didn't stop us and I set of anyway. The route itself was pretty good going. Like most lower grade routes (Diff and VD) there wasn't actually that much gear compared to the nature of the route. It's also a second ascent on a sea-cliff and you'll know what that means... loose rock. This will be an awesome route when it's been done about 10/15 times. It'll go really well with Bagger's and Symphony Crack that are in the same area but at the moment it's a little chossy. Having said that the route was still awesome with a definite crux at the top (pulling up on a loose block). Both me and Rach removed as much loose crap as we could within the realms of "cleaning" rather than just destroying the route.

I don't know about best diff ever, but this one is defiantly going to be hard to beat at the grade!

No update over the summer...

Today was the first day back to work and also possibly the first time I've seen 0700 for a long while. To be honest it was awesome. I had toast and a cup of tea and didn't get caught in the cross city traffic. It also smelled like autumn when I got outside. Today was a good day.

Don't worry, this post isn't going to degenerate what suddenly went badly wrong during my day. Infact my day went pretty well so far. Being back at work (even if I currently have very little to do) has been nice and it's already making me appreciate being at home. This was more of an apology to anyone who does read my blog to the lack of posting in the last 6 weeks. I have been writing honestly, but I've not been posting. I've not been out climbing as much as I normally do, due to lack of partners, bad weather and a finger injury but that hasn't stopped some awesome routes being done. 

The last things that I posted over the summer (to do with climbing) was about my finger, which I managed to royally screw up. I ended up at the docters and poked, prodded and bent the finger around and confirmed my suspicions that I'd damaged my pully tendons. Infact I've managed to damage A2, A3 & A4 but it's not the end of the world. Dave Macloeds blog is pretty good for finger injuries and if you follow what he written then you'll be ok, but the main thing is stay off your finger at least for the first few weeks. It needs time to heal up and for the swelling to go down. 

Then when you get back to climbing, be gentle with it. Instead of jumping on the bouldering wall and trying to crank on those powerful moves drop your grade and run laps on easier routes. It's been 8 weeks since I damaged my finger and I still suffer alot bouldering even if it's taped up well. So instead of bad sessions bouldering I just climb routes at my local wall and train for stamina instead (much better off for a trad climber anyway). I've also changed how I use my hand to grip holds. I might seem silly but a little thing like using an open hand crimp instead of a closed one, takes alot of strain off your fingers and very quickly becomes as strong as a closed crimp. Take your time with it and you'll get there eventually!

Rioting in B'ham

Thankfully I've been on holiday on possibly the most chilled out place in Britian... the Isles oif Scilly. I can't imagine the populace actually rioting there, however on the mainland things seem to be different. I think this will sum up my feeling on it:

True Story

honesty, trait of a good climber.

When I climbed Chalkstorm, an mildly infamous route which has destroyed a few ankles of people I know in it's time (3 and my last count, and one was air lifted out), there was a big psychological barrier for me on it. I was climbing really well (for me) and seeing as it is a 5c slab climb it should really be me thing. Earlier that morning I'd also done Appaloosa Sunset, also graded E3 5c. This is a longer grit route found on the third cloud in front of the Roaches. Actually it's probably in front of skyline area but who cares. Appaloosa sunset was an awesome route in every sense for me. It was long (enough), hard and had enough of a risk that I really didn't want to fall off. It's a wall climb, like straight up and the crux is right in the middle of the slab and your gear is a long way off. If you mess it up your going for a swing but you'll be ok, maybe a bit battered and bruised. Basically Appaloosa was awesome.


So high off my success of Appaloosa I set off for Chalkstorm, seeing as I was climbing well. At the base, weary of the many people who I know who've messed up on it I decided that 1, I would NOT top-rope it, or abseil down it. I've never done it before and I don't see why I should start doing it now and 2, I would place side runners because the risk/gain ratio just wasn't worth it for a non side runner lead. I'll happily admit it. Instead I placed some side runners, probably reducing the grade to around E1, maybe even HVS by some peoples standards and lead it. It wasn't too bad but didn't really strike me and a route of merit. I can apprieciate that I didn't do it in what is percieved as the "best style" but who cares. I don't lead things for other people, I rather selfishly climb for well guess who, me! 


So I did the route in the style I felt most appropriate but in the looses sense of the word I'd still done Chalkstorm. I'd climbed up it, however when I comment or tell someone I climbed chalkstorm I always, always make sure I tell them that I did it onsight and placed side runners bringing the abjective grade down. 


This post was originally entitled "lying in climbing" but I decided against that because when someone does a route and doesn't comment of the 6 hours of top-rope practise they had before hand or the spare rope that was hanging by for them then they aren't lying, they still did the route, but they are NOT telling the whole truth. Maybe it is just a pet hate, or maybe it's something a little deeper but if you're honest about how you climbed something it means much more. I know plenty of people who've done this route and done that route and tell everyone that "today I climbed [insert route here]" and there is no mention of the pad that they placed beneath the start to protect the bad landing, or the abseil inspection and cleaning of holds, or the top-roping/redpointing they've been doing for the last 6 months, or the beta they received from a guy (or girl) who'd done the route previously. 


Maybe I'm being pedantic and all this is just silly. Maybe how you do something doesn't matter.

finger injury, baby and summer holidays...

Well my finger injury is progressing well. It's still very swollen and sore, but I've been massaging it all the time to promote constant blood flow to the area. It looks like it'll be a long haul but in the mean time I'll just drop my grade or climb harder slabs and stick to bigger adventure routes in the mountains. It's also the summer holidays for me as well so I've got loads of time off to contemplate being injured and heal up, and to do things like reseal the bathtub, which is going to be a load of fun seeing as theres a bunch of plastic that needs removing. I'm also off to cornwall and isles of Scilly for a couple of weeks, with a few friends coming down to join me. Cornwall should be fun and the pace of life down there seems just so much slower and more enjoyable, plus granite sea cliffs!!!

There's been a recent edition to our household. We've (Rachel and I) been toying with getting a pet for a while now. Throwing ideas around about cats, dogs and house rabbits. We've come to the conclusion that keeping a pet like that would be reasonably cruel and we'd rather not. Then the offer of adopting a bearded dragon turned up who was going to be made homeless. We've adopted her and something as simple and being responsible for a pet has already made a huge difference and impact on out lives. 

bitter and twisted...

It's been an interesting weekend, and seeing as it's sunday and I'm blogging then you'll probably be able to guess that 1, it's raining and 2, I'm not out climbing. This isn't a bad thing as I don't mind taking weekends off climbing (especially for other fun stuff, walking, scrambling, friends birthdays etc) but this weekend I decided that a session at Awesome Walls in Stoke would be appropriate, hell I just needed to kill some time and catch up with alot of people who I've not seen for ages. 

The session was going pretty well. I've had a twinge in my third finger (left hand) that I've been watching of late and I've kept taping it up when I've been bouldering and climbing indoors. I say being careful but clearly I wasn't being careful enough as it snapped. Thats basically the sum of it. I was on a pockety route and cranked really hard on pulling up on 2 fingers (one obviously being my bad finger) and there was a grotesque snapping/breaking sound and I promptly fell off ( I was like a ft off the floor too because it was a sit start). The pain was immediate and strong. It felt like I'd snapped a bone in my finger. I muss have looked in pain as even Toaf stopped bouldering and we went and got some ice. Since then it's been iced and strapped to my other finger because I don't know what to do about it... Well I didn't until I spoke to Soames. So it'll be off to the docters tomorrow morning for me and then hopefully to hospital for an x-ray and they'll tell me that I'm just being a big jessie.

So for the moment I'm feeling very sorry for myself, but on the upside I'm actually quite psyched because having a painful finger will put shot to any obessive hard climbing and grade chasing, something I could probably do with. I had an awesome time the other weekend just climbing was was (for me) easier routes but being out in the mountains and spending time biving and walking. I think just being in the mountains and chilling out might do my finger some good.

Annoyingly I did pick up some 60metre Beal Icelines which are practically new. They've been used for 1 route (Idwal Stream) which I did with Holloway the guy I brought them off. They are a much needed replacement for my current Half ropes, a pair og Mammut Genesis. These ropes are far beyond being decomissioned but they are starting to show some wear and are about 4 years old. They've had a good life, and hard use and I'd recommend anyone wanting a do anything (from grit outcrops, mountain routes to sea cliffs) to invest in a pair. 

So much for a summer of climbing hard, eh?

a day out somewhere fun...?

Pretty much what it sounds like. It's a video of when me and Killian went climbing on Idwal from a few blog posts ago. It is only the first draft as I did want to get some more footage into it but I've not been able to get round to it.

A gneiss weekend climbing...

Actaully there was no gneiss involved but I couldn't help the play on word what with being a rock climbing, likely geology and just having read this post onf UKC (here). Having said all that, it was actually a really nice weekend. I visited Tom's bridge in Bridgenorth, which was ok, visited Young Soames who's given me some beetroot from his garden, but I'm not entirely sure how to cook it. Probably the best thing he gave us was a good weather report for north wales. A plan was hatched.

So I had another weekend in the ogwen valley and this time it was with Rach. We just headed out for a days climbing on a bigger mountain route. Rach isn't really a fan of single pitch climbing, prefering to get some more mileage for the amount of faff (racking up, flaking ropes, recoiling, descending etc) so longer mulitpitch routes are really her bag. Originally we'd planned to head to the forest of dean area in quest of some sandstone and bunter pebble bed bouldering but this plan was superseeded by mountains. 


Our plan was to go up and do Sub-cneifon Rib and then Cneifon Arete, but we only managed to do the first one. We drove over nice and early, resisting the urge to stop at the Rhug estate before pulling up and parking next to the bouldering area in Ogwen. I know I actually moaned about me not paying for parking in the last post, but in this instance it was nice to get away from everyone. We actually kick started the day by trying the little (emphasis on little) squeeze that is formed by a dropped flake. I've tried this a few times before and got stuck, like very stuck each time and have been forced to retreat. This time I managed it and it was so scary! Either it's thin enough or I'm large enough that I need to breathe out and compress my chest to squeeze it though. After a few abortive attempts I managed it but then my ass got stuck! Everytime I was tensed I couldn't get it through to had to pull myself up on my arms, panicing like mad. I really want to go caving again...


Back to the climbing we took a nice easy stroll into the crag, this time going to the little quarry instead of the path all the way round. At the base of the route we settled down for a little rest before climbing when a team of three people turned up. They all looked a little more mountaineery than us and Rachel and I agreed that it would be better if they went ahead. Rach andc I were in no rush and decided that we could do without thew hassle of someone on our tail, it'd be much nicer to just climb unrushed. So they set off and we relaxed in the... well it wasn't quite sunshine, but it wasn't raining. I guess we just relax in the atmosphere, praying it wouldn't rain. It was quite cool to watch the rain falling on Anglesey miles away. The wind was pulling it all along the coast so it didn't really touch the mountains. 


Then it was time to get a move on. Rachel took the first lead but we didn't actually follow the pitches in the guidebook and Rach lead off taking a line as and where she saw fit. She climbed really well in her normal style with is the chimney up everything. This isn't a disservice to her climbing ability but I recon in a former life she was definatly a mighty mountianeer with a great white hoarfrost encrusted beard who ploughed up VDiffs and Severes regardless of conditions. She climbs very traditionally. She climbed up to a small niche and belayed bringing me up. I then took the little groove above and belayed as soon as the difficulties had passed. My idea was that Rach would then lead off and she would have more time on the sharp end however when I brought her up, gave her the rack and she headed off it was about 10ft before she got to a massive ledge and yelled down to me she was safe. 


So I followed her up and took in a a bunch of coils as she scrambled up the next short section passing the sticking out rock thing. I think opted for a "russian belay" (don't know where I've picked that term up from but it is used to describe the pulling in of rope with a climber on the end, hand over hand) and brought me up. By now we'd caught up with the party who'd set off before us so we settled down and had some lunch. As we lunched the guy leading came up to a definate crux in the next pitch and seemed to agonise about the next few moves. This was the kind of move that would be described by a hard climber as "interesting" and a lesser (?) climber as well... bloody hard for VD. When he'd done the move and brought his seconds up, we set off hot on thier tail. Rach lead off first but took one look at the bloody hard/interesting move decided against it. I was sent up on the lead and soon delt with the crux but came up behind the party in front. Instead of standing around on the lead I belayed and brought up Rach in the mean time and she led off to top out.

We had a nice relaxed walk off after deciding to bin the idea of climbing the Cneifon Arete, so headed down before any midges were about. We spent the day climbing as light as we could (although I still carried a massive rack) using a skinny single 60 metre rope and a bandolier. We actually managed to climb with only the 1 sack on, leaving the leader free to climb bagless.

Idwal Link-up... finally.

A link-up on idwal is something I've been trying to complete for a few years but each attempt has been thwarted by bad weather, tiredness or just plain laziness. However this time it was different. I had a reasonable free weekend but was struggling to find a partner for the whole 2 days when Killian said he was free for the saturday afternoon and sunday. A plan was hatched which entailed us driving up late on the saturday, then walking in to bivi out at Idwal so we could get a pretty early start. The early start would then lead us to climb and climb and climb up Idwal, Heather Tree Wall, Continuation Wall and finally Grey Slab to evetually top out and tick off the summit of Glyder Fawr to make it a mountain day. This was the great plan anyway. Added to all the climbing, because the weather was so nice I'd be shooting as much video as I could on the day. 

Like I said I've attempted link-ups on Idwal before, I've also attempted to sleep on Idwal before and had decided against that as an option because of a few reasons. I simply value a good nights sleep (this is coming from a guy who regularly couch-surfs or dosses under a boulder). I'll define a good nights sleep as at least 6 hours, good sound sleep on a comfy thermarest, then the ability to make a cup of tea with minimal movement from from sleeping bag. See my criteria isn't exaclt stringent, but lugging all that kit up 300m of up to VS climbing didn't exactly sound like fun. I knew sack hauling would have been nessessary so instead we opted for a different approach. That was the other reason; climbing light (well relatively speaking). We'd sleep at the bottom, enjoy an early(ish) start and leave our kit behind carrying only our little 25litre "day" sack, rack, ropes and water. In the end we carried a pretty full rack. I know you can climb up most of idwal with just a decent (read: large) set of wires but I'd thrown some extra cams in just in case. I didn't know what grey slab area was going to be like for gear.


Enough of the planning. Lets just suffice to say that it was like all good plans. We made it hastly with rather ambigious arrangements like "Do you have a bivi bag?" "yep" "right then we'll bivi, just pack light ok?" "ok". (Our planning really didn't amount to more than that). Infact we took 2 stoves in when we could have got away with just the one. We parked up by the boulders near the ogwen car park. Seeing as the actual car park doesn't offer any way to pay for a ticket overnight, we found a place to stay without paying. I really resent doing this. I know that the national park needs to generate revenue from somewhere and me dodging parking fees is well, it's a little off. There a few things that they could do to encourage better uses of facilities and generate more income, like overnight parking options, a decnet bus service with an understandable timetable and a car sharing mentatily (ok the last one is there because I needed a third). 


So parked up (for free) we first enjoyed a nice brew in the evening sun. Having arrived much earlier that I thought we would. I had originally planned a late walk in, like when it was dark. Anyone would think that we'd be rearing to go. But we'd both had crappy weeks at work and were just glad to be out of big cities and in the mountains. With this is mind we took a leisurely walk in, taking the path to the right round the lake and along the beach before finding a spot to crash right at the base of Idwal. We'd brewed up, done a little soloing before the bloody midges came out. Then the fun started.


We spent the next 2 hours wandering around the idwal area searching for any breeze that would  drive them off. It go to the point where we decided that leaving all our stuff there and going to hide in a pub, or car would be the best plan. Instead we stuck it out. We actually met loads of nice people who where finishing thier days out walking and borrowed midge repellent (that didn't work) off them. After what seemed like an eternity the temperature dropped and the midges left us only to drink tea and snuggle down in our sleeping bags. 


I woke up to a weak sun at 0440, it couldn't have been a more perfect wake up.


I didn't actually get out of bed until around 0700 because there was no way I was moving from my nice snuggly sleeping bag (didn't need the bivi bag either). Instead I dozed, brewed up, and only got moving when someother eager people arrived at the crag and got moving before we'd actually got out od bed. They didn't actually seem too amazed by our sleeping out.


As for the climbing, well it was just great. The sun slowly climbed ever higher into the sky as we climbed onward. I'll avoid a pitch by pitch description for once. I've climbed Tennis shoe so many times over the years but that doesn't take away from how much I love the route, it's just that I'm sick of writing the same description. However what was different this time was watching my friend Killian on it. He took pitches 2 and 4 and it was great to watch him lead them. See I've not really climb with Killian much, in fact this was our first mulitpitch route together and he seemed a little shakey at first on the lead. Soon enough thought he found his feet and was flying up the 2nd pitch, filling it was gear. So we'd reached the lead of the last pitch and made the little walk across to rebelay beneath it. In my mind the pitch was a decent 4a line with good gear. I guess I must be getting old as my memory is fading a little. Kill jumped on the lead (well more of politly shoved) and set off. Considering the sudden exposure and polished footholds he didn't back down and made good upward progress. I actually felt really bad as he struggled to find more gear than was present but he pushed on. I felt even worse when I actually seconeded the pitch and realise what a shock it must have been to suddenly have that much exposure. I was glad the see a relieved smile on his face as he belayed me up.

Then we scrambled across the top of Idwal and did Javelin Gully (HS 4b). It followed the first pitch of Lazarus, which Killian took much to his amusement. It seemed like a massive clamber which kept swithing backwards and forwards up this wide gully. He even manged a ligitamate heel hook for one of the last few moves. I took to second pitch which was as the guide described runout, but it's only runout in the top second after the difficulities. It is actually a really good route and great value for HS. I had a bit og trouble getting myself up at the few points. I carried straight on to lead groove above (S 4a) after I'd brought Kill up. This route isn't just all about the first move (which is bloody hard) so I'd suggest that everyone should do it. 

Then a rest, a scramble and amble (like scrambling but with red socks on) till we found the little scrap of flat ground below grey slab area. After a brief foray into the guide book I selected to go Grey Rib (VS 4b) and then the second pitch of Grey Slab (VS 4b) which gave us 100metres of decent climbing. Kill was tired so I lead. We scrambled up Grey Rib as high as we dared and belayed. I then linked both pitches together but still only managed to find about 4 pieces of gear. Then we belayed again, did a short pitch to beneath our final pitch (grey slab, p2) rebelayed and I set off, again only finding something like 4 pieces of gear. I tooped out happily thinking that these routes confirmed our grades from the routes I've put up at the Lleyn (here & here). Killian flashed up these and than haistly pulled off his shoes as he was suffering from cramp.


And it was just easy scrambling up Seniors ridge to the top. Once we gained it we had to descend down the back of Idwal to get out cached kit which had been safety just left at the start of tennis shoe, under the premise that no-one touches the bag of climbers at Idwal because they just assume they are climbing a route above them. Then we walked out, a little dehydrated. 


I actually really enjoyed just being able to spend a night out in the mountains. I think we took the right approach with out day kit, but in future I'll be carrying more water.

More new routing...

It's monday and I've got sunburn... but only on my one arm, and it's localised in 1 single area right where my folded up shirt sleeve sits. That'll learn me for not wearing suncream I guess. Infact that was a pretty big oversight this weekend, that and the lack of pegs. 

I've been away new routing on the Lleyn Penisular again. After the last trip I had some decent photo's of the crag to work from so Soames and I had a D-day style planning session, down the pub to work out which lines when where from the original guide and what rock was free of routes for us to try some more lines on. In the end we identified several new route possibilities at the cliff. Added to this we have made a decent topo of the crag with most of the existing lines still on it. It's just time to get back there and finish them off!

We actually had a late start on the Saturday arriving at the crag around 2pm. This late start I'll contribute to life just getting in the way but the main reason is bloody shed pullers clogging up the roads at 30mph. Armed the nano-photon torpedos is all I can say. To add insult to injury they don't even pay road tax, despite the fact they are on the road.

It was wet when we got there, or at least more of the lines we'd planned to do were wet so Soames headed for a little bay at the end, which isn't in any guide book and I'll name quarry 5.1 (as it's just after quarry 5, but not big enough to be a seperate quarry in it's own right). Here we did 2 lines the first being "how is this my fault" going at around E1 5a. It took a thin slanting groove line sporting 3 bolt thread. Now this section of cliff has got a few bolts on it, well threads and no hangers really, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be there. I think they've been left over from someone trying to develop the quarry as a bolted venue or someone practising bolting. 

Soames headed up the line first, but as he'd attained the groove he backed off and relinquished the lead to me. It was still damp and greasy. Trying to keep a good style I pulled the ropes and set off re-clipping Soames's gear until I reached the slung bolt hanger (a nut wriggled over the bolt nub). I removed it, intending to do the route free of bolts because all the other routes are on natural gear there. The final groove proved to be quite hard (5a climbing) and above a nest of little brass offset nuts and other tiny pieces of gear, but it went really well until I grabbed a thank god jug to finish. The top section eased to about 4c.

The second route Soames put up was called "Diamon little supergirl, tra la la la" and went at around VS 4b. It took a rib next to "how is this my fault" up to a small overhang. This took some gear, although the gear was interesting and relied on the stability of a rather large and slighty loose block. Then Soames went on to do some significant gardening to unearth the final little groove which actually had some footholds on it. It's a cracking little line!

Sadly the weather which we'd been watching throughout the day get worse and worse finally threatened some immenient violence. Instead of attempting another line and possibly getting caught out in the rain, we set off back to Eric's for some chips, pickled eggs and some beers. The pickled eggs were not my idea.


A few weeks ago I woke up in Eric's climbing barn, clear headed and smiling. Stuart pointed out that it was so nice to not have a hangover for a days climbing. This sunday morning however, I did not wake up without my hangover. It seemed hell bent on killing me. Eventually I stomached some breakfast and we got on our way again, back to our cliff. The weather had perked up too!


Arriving at the cliff we very quickly realised that the line we were going to attempt was actually not the simple little proposition that it had seemed on paper. In fact it look bloody scary, not to mention quite long. The plan was to try and traverse the cliff from left to right in a complimentary route to Interstella Ella. Eventually after drinking as much water as I could and stupidly no putting on any suncream we set off braving the adder infested grass to reach the base of the cliff. I opted for the first pitch which would see us up to a metal bar. I just hoped that there would be some gear along the way. In the end the route ended up being 5 pitches long and covering somewhere near 180 metres of ground. We spent 4 hours cleaning it on the lead and finding our way and then it took us and hour to recover once we'd got down. If there was ever a route to sit on the summit and smoke a fine cigar after, this was it.

Pitch 1 followed a rising traverse below flat iron (in the opposite direction) before breaking through a gap in the overhang. It then took a blank slab to belay off an iron rod backed up by a nut. All in all this pitch had good climbing and decent protection seeing as it was a traverse. The belay was a little bit crap though. Soames lead pitch 2 which went right from the belay to gain an decent ledge and a neat rockover move. There was some gear,  but most of it wasn't really up to much. Soame then made the sensible decision of belaying in the decent crack he found. I then lead p3 which was the long one. I took the slab under ther overhangs sticking right beneath them. The climbing was slightly harder than on ther slab, but the gear was much better. I actually wondered out over a massive hollow flake at one point and had to scamper back across it! Then the overhang dissappeared but I carried on along the traverse line. Here the gear worsened considerably and I ended up pulling off 5a/b moves protected by a series of microwires along way off. I was go glad to actually get to the decent ground above and belay. 


Soames in seconding this pitch choose to take a slightly easier route up and over the slab I gone straight across. This was a good decision as it kept the grade consistant for the whole line rather than a really hard bit. I'll incorporate this into another route if I can though as the climbing is really good. Soames lead pitch 4 which was almost a reverse of the 2nd pitch of interstella ella. The pitch was actually pretty hard going the other way and Soames avoided the interstella ella belay by staying high at the finish. I then lead p5 which carried on traversing across what would probably be the schmoo pitch. The rock quality was a little crappy to say the least. In the end I had to clean out loads of grass and turf out of the final cracks to carry the line on it's logical end. 


What a route! As I said we'd spent a considerable amount of time on it and finished dehydrated and tired. I even got a localised sunburn on my one arm. In the end we settled on the grade of HVS 4c for the route because there was some pretty serious sections of bad rock but with easier climbing on. A lot of the route traversed too so you'd need to protect your second. In interesting point Soames threw up was that we better get out and climb some classic VS's and HVS's somewhere to make sure our grading on the Lleyn is in keeping with the rest of Britian. 

The Evershifting Schmoo (HVS 4c) in WHITE & Interstella Ella (VS 4b) in RED

more smocks...

About 2008 I brought a RAB VP trail jacket. At the time I was mainly bumbling around in the mountains training for my ML and single pitch climbing. I didn't really know what a soft-shell was but I knew that something soft, warm, water-resistant and windproof would fit the bill. This is how I ended up with a VR jacket, up until I brought a Paramo Smock this has been my single most useful outdoor jacket. 

But times change and my use for a piece of mountain clothing has differed. I like a smock because I spend most of my time in a harness and in a single item of clothing. I'm not too big on the whole layering thing and taking off layers when I'm hot and adding them when I'm cold. This stems from a couple of things. One reason is because I just don't carry a host of fleeces, base layers, windstoppers, jackets and waterproofs out in the mountains. This leads onto the second reason, you can't carry a flippin' change of clothes up routes with you. At most you can carry a belay jacket and this luxury is reserved for winter rock climbing. Instead if I'm hot I unzip everything and vent (something the paramo jacket is good at) if I'm cold I zip everything up (de-vent) and snuggle down in what ever jacket I've got on, hell I might even add a scarf and a woolly hat if it's really cold.

So seeing as I stay in a my outer layer pretty much all the time the paramo jacket has been great. It's warm, really ventable and really hardwearing. That hasn't stopped it getting trashed in the 6 months I sort of constantly worn it like some kind fo second skin. Its been caving, cragging, sea cliffs, dragged dropped, sat on, used as a pillow. It's had a good life and still has years of life left in it.

But I got a new smock the other, and I paid well nothing for it. A friend of mine has a VR smock (in "breaking and entering black") which he never actually wears because he dislikes the smock format. I have a VR jacket that I've retired because it's been surpassed by a new smock. A trade was done and a new smock was aquired! It's like recycling but better!

So a new jacket and a new day's climbing. I spent at 2 little locations in the Peak. The first was Aldery Cliff, which was the subject of a UKC forum debate a few weeks ago. Apparently the entire crag is too overgrown, the lower off's are old and dangerous and the whole place needs the loose rock removed and a good garden. The poster wanted a clean up of the crag and then instead of tied lower offs on trees and spikes new double bolt belays or sport style lower offs should be put in place. But wait there is more! He also wants the "poorer" trad lines to be bolted as this will encourage people to do them and make the venue more popular.

I'm not sure if people are familiar with Aldery cliff but it's a small place on the inside of a bend. It has traditionally been worked for aggregates (it's a limestone quarry) so there is a little loose rock and the right hand side of the crag is reasonably unstable but looking past these little problems what you've actually got is an excellent litle cliff with several mid grade trad routes on, on slabby limestone. Something of an oddity in the PD me thinks! Having been there this weekend I'll conceed that a crag clean-up might be aappropriate as there is chest height nettles all over the place. Several of the walls needs garden and a but of a scrub but all in all it's in pretty good nick. As for the lower-offs, well there are as good as can be expected. If you're trad climbing there anyway you'll be using them as abseil points, instead of lower-offs and if you're capable of climbing up to them, then you should be able to rig a backed up abseiled to test the old tat. 

As far as bolting the "poorer" lines goes to hell with that. This place needs no bolts. I don't see how bolting a poor climb will improve it. 

Other than that I had an excellent day climbing with Simon Holloway and Matt Snell. I lead Ash Tree wall (VS 4c) and avoided as much of the looser rock at the top. Matt and Simon had never been on a climb with loose rock such as this before so it was a learning experience for them to not just yard up on any old block, but to spread thier weight across as much terrain as possible and test everything (It's really not that bad either). Snell then lead the HS 4a next to my route, but had a little bit of a runout start. It had him stumped for a moment but he then just climbed on through it making good progress. He was rather high before he got what I'd have called a "bomber" piece of gear in. I seconded this and enjoyed the climbing, especially the final groove/corner.

We then bugged out (after all its not a long walk to the car) and headed to the Roaches as the weather had made a turn for the best. After a quick solo on Yong (with approach shoes and full packs) to avoid taking the stairs. Simon then lead Left Hand Route (HVD or HS, depending on the guidebook) in his approach shoes, which is a good effort on all accounts. He actually made it look pretty easy and placed good gear all the way up. I've not climbed with him before but I look forward to getting out on some mountain routes with him later this year! Thenm we nipped off to the third cloud but never made it. Instead Snell managed a quick solo of Communist Crack (VS 5a), a route he called me mad for soloing about 3 months before. 

Sadly the rain killed our fun for then on so it was back to the cars and home for all. A good day by all accounts though.