After my first few days back at work I was taking a lazy weekend (unintentionally!). After a nights drinking up B'ham I had a hungover and late start to the day to meet Ronnie, Killian and Toaf at the Roaches for some bouldering... hell I'd even aquired a pad for the day.
People who know me well know that my view on climbing could be described as pretty, well... traditional (I guess?). It's not that I'm against bouldering as an activity, but I always feel that if I'm hunkered under some boulder trying a problem that 15ft high, I could we out on the sharp end in wales or on the sea-cliffs of Gogarth. Having said that being very hungover lends itself to bouldering quite well I found out. I mean your still out and legitamatly claim your "climb" in a broad sense, but you can spend the day asleep on a bouldering map.
So my bag for bouldering at least contains more food than is nessessary, a belay jacket of possible sleeping bag and a book, as well as chalk, stickies etc.
I spent 2 days boudlering this weekend. Saturday at the lower tier boudlers and I ticked off three pocket slab (V3) yet again, only the second time I've managed it. I also managed a couple of other 6a ish problems. It was just good fun really being out in a group bouldering. Hell I could spend a whole weekend doing it with the right people in the right location. Which bring me neatly around to sunday...
When I was supposed to be meeting Sid at Castle Naze. Sid was coming along with his girlfriend and dog. This is not normally a problem but when I got to Castle there a nice little sign stating that no Dogs are allowed on the land at all (something to do with "portection of moreland birds"). Either way I didn't get to see Sid, or the dog that day so we where stuck as to what to do. Rach is always banging on about how great the Churnet Valley is, so I manned up and offered to go there with her. I also knew that Tim, Ronnie, Toaf and Tom would be there.
I think it's best if I stop assuming places will be crap. That statement makes little sense but what I mean is unless I wantto go there I'll assume it's crap and I'll put it off for as long as possible. It seems that the longer I put things off for the better the place is. Churnet it seems has been taken straight out of a Tolkien book. There's trees everywhere! As for finding the crags, well I'd have just spent the day wondering around if it wasn't for Rach. She took me round to see Gentleman's Buttress to see an awesome traverse there and showed me where another bunch of crags were. Eventually we settled on a walk through the bracken to Wright's Wall to see the lads.
We arrived after about an hours walk through deep bracken, leaves, heather, stingers etc after finding Hidden Buttress in the process (not that I'd be able to make it back there) to find the lads pretty much asleep on thier pads. In the end we got a bit of boudlering done. I tried (and finished) a few problems at around 6a to 6b so I was pretty happy with myself. I also played on Rachel's Buttress to the right of Wright's called "left's wall". She showed me a wicked little problem that needs a bit of a clean but is so awesome!
So now I'm digging out the brushes and planning to head back to Churnet for some more bouldering. I guess wondered will never cease. My only complaint was that I'd forgotten my camera that weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment