We actually started off on limestone. My first trip to Stoney Middleton with Lou, Andy and a friend of Lou's also called Andy. Lou told us all about the caving at Stoney. I never knew there was so much caving so accessable at Stoney! It's something I must look into. We did a VS called ... . The first pitch was described as "polished like a bar of soap", and it wasn't wrong. Andy tried the lead first and decided to back off it. I took the first pitch, which was just polished to high heaven. The climbing was really fun and enjoyable, made all the more fun by the fact that your feet could slide off any time! The belay was less than I would have liked but it was safe so Andy and Lou joined me up on the ledge.
The seond pitch went for a traverse across some interesting geology. Pretty much a dead straight 4c traverse. It was scary to say the least, but I managed to get some good gear in and then found a tree to belay off. Oddly Andy and Lou didn't question why the tree was shaking as I was out of view (I was jumping on it to test it). Lou declined the traverse pitch so abseilled off and Andy seconded me. We abseiled back to the bags.
At this point Andy made a very important decision. He hates peak limestone, and that pretty much settled us for the rest of the day. We dived into the car and headed to Froggatt! I do love Froggatt, it's got some nice slab routes on it and a couple of climbs I really want to do (Strapiobante and Chequers Crack, namely) but we headed to Tody's wall for Andy to have a crack at. Of course Tody's was busy so I eyed up a slab route next to it, expecting it to be a higher E grade and harder route I was suprised to find it was called motocade and went at E1 5a. Off we went. The start was easy until the first break which got filled with 2 cams. The next move to gain a decent hold was good, but to my dismay it only had a knifeblade thin crack at the back of it. As I was using my "grit rack" (full set of cams, 6 runners, 1-10 nuts) which mean not microwires! I spent a few minutes wokring out the next move and calculating how big a fall I would take...
Until a guy yelled up telling me that was my last piece of gear till the top. My brain kicked into gear and I downclimbed the route and Lou handed me the my green 'biner, which is filled with superlight rocks, RP's and a Peenut. Now the crack was protected by a next of gear (No. 1 & 2 RP and a Peenut) and I was ready for the next move. After figuring out the sequence, then messing it up as I did it I topped out off slopey podlike depressions for my feet. You've got to love friction! I made a small prayer to the Gods of friction and built my belay. Andy seconded me and then Lou and other Andy came up after.
Back at the floor Andy went for Tody's wall, but alas didn't manage it and came down. I had a crack (I've done it before) and decided against it. Also Andy had called up saying he wasn't ready to give up on it. It was a little cheeky I'll admit especially as I wasn't actually going to do the route and was only going to rescue the gear really. He went up, tried, failed and came down, rescuing his gear. Lou asked if I'd lead it, because I think she wanted a go at seconding it, but I declined. It's almost rude to do a route your mate has backed off, in my opinion. I know Andy wanted to climb it so he can save it for another day.
We nipped off to Curbar for a little bit to see some friends we met in Scotland. Saw Charlie take an close to ground fall on Apollo (E2 5c) and he sacked off the attempt a little later.
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Sunday morning I woke up feeling aweful. I blame the half pint of Draught Scrumpy I had in the pub the night before, bloody killed me. And to add it it an hour of my life had been stolen during the night! I cooked breakfast with Andy's bacon and we watched the weather as it rained a little before we set off. The met-office predicted that there would be a little rain in the morning and over lunch, but then a good dry ptchy sunny day to follow. I'm pretty much a devout follower of the metoffice, generally because it means I can blame someone when it's wrong. I still grumbled but we headed off anyway. Becca had joined us for the day, she couldn't climb (under docters orders!) but was move than happy to just be outdoors.
Third cloud was where is was at for us. Andy's got a tick list summer and I noticed Rubberneck and Crabbie Crack where on it which is why we ended up there. I also wanted to have a go at Appaloosa Sunset (E3 5c) and much wanted route by myself. It turned out that I'd jump onto the lead first. I took my grit rack with me, incase I bottled it and had to go up Rubberneck as consolation prize.
With some good gear as high as I could reach in Rubber neck I tried to head out across the slab. I say tried because I was too high and I got a little freaked out. I quickly reversed the moves I'd done and down climbed to the floor. For a little breather and calm down. I knew what I'd done wrong I knew how to fix it, the worrying thing was the route had now become a real possibility. With a hangover headache Andy assured me that there was no better day to do it on. He was right, it was freezing cold and bone dry, conditions couldn't have been better.
Back on the sharp end seemed like the only option. I broke out right lower down this time and made the 5c move to get the good break in the middle of the wall. This is descibed as "hard to gain and even harder to leave". Too bloody right. I looked at how far I'd come across the slab. We'd already worked out that the gear was bomber, and I wouldn't deckout. It would be close though and a big swing if I did come off. I placed a skyhook which looked awesome but had some much rope pull on it it would have fallen out anyway. It made me feel a little better. After a long time arguing with myself, telling Andy I was well and truely buggered and that I couldn't make the next move to the safety of the good flake, I just somehow went for it. My foot actually slipped off, but I was ok. I got the good hollow flake, and more importantly the opptunity for some gear. Phew! There'd been so much running through my head, so much worry that I wouldn't make it, that I just couldn't make the move and I had. I got some gear in, which was a little worrying to say the least. and hope the easier ground would follow (as per guidebook stated). the easier ground was about 5b/5a+ but it didn't really matter. I climbed it a little sketchily but topped out with no worries. I took a moment to comtemplate what I'd just achieved on this overcast sunday morning, with a big self-inflicted headache, and just how lucky I was.
Andy didn't want to attempt it on second and stripped it out. I usually don't like doing this as it means I've only done like half the journey, but all the talking Andy did through my ascent I think made up for it.
Andy had a crack at Crabbie's Crack. He couldn't do it and backed off telling me he wasn't leading VS. I felt sad because I've seen Andy do alot of VS's and couldn't understand what was going through his head. I told him that he'd still get his list done this summer and we'd work hard and train together (I want to be climbing E4, a little optimistic but). We'll see how this goes.
The rain came in, annoyingly only for 5 minutes at a time then drying off a little so we walked over to the Lower Tier so Andy and Scott could do Fledglings climb. Scott had joined us after spending about an hour looking around the Roaches for us. Andy lead Fledgling's with no problems and we discussed the grade. It's a good route but not much gear. Personally I'd give it HS due to the gear, but that's my opinion. Still on a high from Appaloosa I went to look at Chalkstorm.
Everyone seems to know Chalkstorm. It's a Roaches slab classic! I know one person who's smashed open thier ankle leading it direct. I've refused to top-rope it or second it, but a direct ascent with gear only in the break, hmmm...? After I'd looked at the top and made sure it was dry and not slimey me and Andy discussed the gear options. Part of my wanted a direct ascent, gear in the break only, but then again this means I'd risk and ankle snapping (or worse fall). In the end I decided that although I've done a few routes with serious groundfall potential, it's only been because there hasn't been any other option. I went for the high side runners in prow cracks. I'm happy with my decision, because climbing shouldn't be about what ethics dictates, it should be about having fun.
So with my high side runners off I set. The first move required me to swap my feet which was hard enough. Then it was down to trusting some serious friction! Thankfully my boots seem to have myrical rubber on them. With a couple of gnarly holds for my hand I pulled them together and trusted my high foot and was away. The holds where awesome after this and the slab as such a good angle that I flew up it. I topped out without realising it. It had not been what I was expecting. I think I'd built the route up in my head to something it wasn't. Andy did want to second me up this one and sent up my jacket and rack to build a belay out of. He seconded it really well once he trusted his shoes to do their thing.
We set off for Left hand Route (HVD 4a) after this as Andy wanted to lead something else. It's only HVD, but it makes you work for it! After an initial layback start Andy soared up quickly and dispatched the rockover crux. Scott seconded him up this and this pretty much ended our day climbing. We'd be marred by the rain but stood it out and got a decent days climbing in. We went to the Rock Inn for a quiet beer and then back to stoke to drop people off before I went home.
I was impressed with my performance this weekend, in fact I've been inpressed with my performance from the start of this year. I've been hitting E2 and E3 each week mostly. I think going bouldering so much during the week, and just looking after myself more is really helping me to push myself that little bit harder.
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