SUMC club trip: Yorkshire! PART 3

I awoke to an alarm and the sun streaming in through the open window. I felt beaten, which wasn't far from the truth (playfighting!). There was no-one else up but I figured I'd start breakfast off, so after moving the all important Ipod to the kitchen I got started. I managed to make 6 cups of tea, and have 20 sausages, 3 frying pans of bacon and a sauce pan of egg and beans (seperate) with a hangover before I realised it was all getting a little out of hand. Soon Susie, Toaf and Jono came in and we got it all sorted. Everyone pulled together to get the hut cleaned up and we where off to Attermire Scar, the crag for the day.

Attermire Scar is a limestone crag situated up above the town of Settle, about 10 minutes drive out. We all set off and arrived at the crag apart from Jono and Helen who'd met some friends and would join us in a bit. Jono had assured me he knew or could work out where they would be going. After a short walk of 15 minutes to the crag, which as it happened was nestled in the middle of nowhere as all the hills blocked out any towns, cities and noise, it was a reallt tranquile place to be, Jono rang. The short version of the story is that they took a wrong turn and kept going. Jono said he really needed a hand, so I dumped my sack and started running. In about 20 minutes I guess I'd made it to them. Bloody hell, they'd gone up a steep track barely wider than the car. Helen was a little shook up so I reversed it down hill till a little three point turn was accomplished and we could move the car. Phew! Jono promised me a beer, but I honestly didn't mind.

Back at the crag everyone was just milling around. There was no drive, which I wasn't expecting after how tired everyone was in the morning. Andy had stolen my frenchy (seriously I was gone for like 5 minutes!) so I set about a VS with Matt. This turned out real hard real fast. Limestone could be this hard?! I down climbed, not wanting to wieght my gear and had a good and thorough check of the guidebook. Ha! I knew it, I'd wandered straight up a HVS 5b called Mellow Yellow, the crag classic. I decided to skyhook off it and save my gear so asked Tim to do belay duty. Off I climbed armed with not 1 but 2 skyhooks. As I got to my last piece of gear I set about finding a suitable ledge to skyhook my way down but but couldn't. With Tim belaying too I felt a little more confident and, with skyhooks still in my mouth I carried on up. This was first with the intention of finding a ledge but I just carried up placing gear. I got a few cheers and encouragement from the people below which was good and I topped out onto the seperating ledge. Phew! Knackerec and hungover I'd just done a HVS 5b, I was happy. Toaf was called across to second me, which he did with much better style than I'd originally climbed it (like always).

I spent my time wandering round to shoot some photo's of people (Prescott leading a VS) and fling dry rabbit poo at everyone else! I was happy. The sun was out, a light breeze and soft grass to lie on, what more could you ask for? Well for one my frenchy (Sid) back, which I got! After a lazy period of eating, relaxing, hiding from the rain we set off up Banter which was actually VS 4c this time. I took it slow again and concentrated on enjoying every move. I'd planned to do a climb called determination (MVS 4b) after as the guide book description said:

"Due to the intrusive elderberry tree, this climb is more akin to jungle warfare"

What a route description! As I looked at it there was no leaves on the tree but I've vowed to go back and do it in full greenery!!!. Sid really enjoyed Banter. He thought limestone was fun! Laura then came up too as she wanted to do another VS. I happily obliged. We felt a little rain as we walked off back to the bags so moved everyones stuff under the overhang unless it did rain. I got in my sleeping bag and tried to catch up on some sleep. Eventually everyone was gathered back at the bags and we got the order to move out. Thus ending an awesome weekend.

I think I should probably thank a few people for this weekend as it was really that good (if your not on the list it's not that you didn't make it good, but this post is so long already!):
The weather man; for blessing us with clear dry skies all weekend
Tim; for allowing me go, even though I'm black OPs
Becki; for getting all the food and doing such a good job of it (and Killian for the Curry) and for having a good ipod.
Scott; for inflating my tires and adding an extra miles to fuel consumption
Matt and Sid; who I climbed with all weekend and made my weekend so much fun.

SUMC club trip: Yorkshire! PART 2

...6 am rolled around and I was awake and couldn't sleep. I'd dozed till 7am until the movement of the breakfast crew spurred me on to do my task: make the tea. Breakfast was a pretty good affair with everyone pulling together. Infact the whole morning was good and we got away by 1000 am. We must have arrived at Ilkley for 11ish and all piled out and headed to the Quarry area. I'll be honest and say I didn't know where I was going. There was one route I'd planned to do that day (Tufted Crack) but the rest of the day I was going to take Sid up some routes. Sid is one of the freshers and new to climbing. The poor guy has been the butt of my french jokes for a while, but he now gives as good as good as he gets, it's never anything serious though. He thinks I'm mad, just plain mad when it comes to climbing. I think he's great as he loves climbing, I don't think I've seen anyone so happy whenever they finish a route. The other person I was going to try and get climb was another fresher named Matt. He's a big southerner from down London and had never climber outdoors.

The club milled around for a bit before smaller groups broke off and went to different areas and routes. Laura set off up a HS near us in the quarry and Me and Sid geared up for Waleska (VS 4c). This route had been recommended by Prescott to me. This would have been Sid's second time climbing outside, he first being trying to second me up Bond Street at Millstone and having the learn to jam pretty quick. He got 3/4 of the way up while it was damp so I thought a nice dry VS would be right up his street. A brief discussion on double routes and off I went. The weather was now picking up and the sun poking through, but it was still bitterly cold in the quarry.

Waleska was awesome. A great little route that wiggled across the face following a good crack line/system. I sent it pretty quick and made sure my rope protected the traverse in the middle for Sid. I yelled some instructions to Sid about tying in, realising that I should have spent more time explained the whole system of how leading and seconding a route works instead of being so impatient. As I brought up Sid I reminded him to take the gear out as he passed it too! I felt such a idiot as I'd assumed he'd just know it all. As I was belaying Matt wondered across the top to see what I was doing and comment on the fact that he couldn't believe I just trusted my gear to the point I'd just hang off it. I just told him you get used to it over time.

Sid was panting and making alot of noises as he climbed, prompting me to pay a little more attention to him. He was actually doing fine and just had the final section of crack to complete. I was willing him on as he grabbed the final hold and pulled himself over. He was grinning from ear to ear and just plain loving it. I wish I could have captured it all on film or something because I was just what climbing should be about. We walked back into the quarry, pausing briefly as Ronnie asked me to check his anchors. At the base I found Laura having a bit of a bad time of it on her HS. I think maybe just coldness, hangover and a steep quarried grit route had got the better of her. In the end I nipped up with a top-rope to give her a hand.

As the quarry was a little busy and cold we all headed out into the sunshine to find the rest of the club. We found them mass ascending a VD which maggie stood on my shoulders for. Seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves loads. We then moved to the massive boulder to play on some problems. Now I'm becoming more and more of a fan of bouldering. After a strong opposition of this "lesser" form of climbing, I actually love it. So me, Tim, Toaf and Turner focused of a couple of problems. I stuck an awesome little dyno, with a nasty landing which I was chuffed with. Then a little crack line started to defeat us. We'd all got the same point and ended up sitting around frustrated! grrrr!

Ilkley is a crag Uncle Rob would like. There is a 5 minute walk in and a cafe at the base. We took adventage of this and Tea & Ice cream later (my teeth didn't explode) I had another go. This time a foot out right to bridge meant it sent it! So with heavily grit rashed arms I stood up happily only to enquire " so how do I get off this thing?". Both Toaf & Tim went on the send the problem, Tim vis stuffed his head into a crack and climbing upside down and Toaf in braces and a flat cap. It left us wondering why we'd found it so had in the first place?

I then go rescued off a stupid solo attempt. I was done over by some birdcrap on a ledge and asked quietly for a rope. Andy the yelled at the top of his voice in his most urgent tone and Toaf appeared with a bouldering mat not a moment too soon. By now I was panicing but managed to down climb most of the way and fell of the last 10ft. A little shaken I walked thanked them.

More climbing was in order as the day was passing us by. Most of the club headed over to do a quick severe as we where loosing the daylight round this side. Me, Sid and Matt headed back into quarry figuring that the sun might be catching the wall. It was so I headed up S climb (VS 4c). After my fialed solo attempt I was a little shakey to say the least, so I took my time. Before I left the ground this time I made sure I explained everything I was doing. I really took my time, intending to enjoy all the moves and climb it with as little exersion as possible. I managed it quite well and I think this was my favourite route of the weekend.

Both Sid and Matt seconded this. Sid came up first complaining that his finger's were too fat for the final crack (they weren't). He topped out grinning. Matt then came up, struggling a bit more than Sid but he topped out yelling "yeah, yeah, woo, take that frenchy!". When I quizzed him on this he said "well he'd beaten me before on the other climbing, I couldn't let him win this!" We laugh and explained to Sid, who also laughed about it. Running down we figured we got time for another climb so pick the route next to it, , VS 4b. This kick started with an offwidth handjam crack which nearly had me beat. Then some decent gear before a groove with a massive chock in it. Jamming hand and fist on the one side and fingers on the other I pushed up for the top hold. Booyah! I salmoned my way over the top to finish.

Matt was first up and tackled the offwidth with gusty. He came off which dragged my belay around a bit but he got up it. The final section taugh him how to jam well. I wish I could have taken a picture of his face in the pain as he pulled up in his jams! Sid climbed the start of, as Toaf arrived to give him some advice. Sid topped out and we walked off happily.

The quarry was a tip so Me, Sid and Matt just tidied it up. We filled a big bag full of rubbish just from the quarry and the walk back to the others. Now was home time, but we needed to wait for Prescott to join us from the other crag. As we waited thus ensused a game of "Stuck in the Mud". If you know how competitive people get in the club you can imagine how this game went, let just say I went back covered in mud.

Back at the Hut we had a massive curry, before the evenings activities started. Andy had forgotten the paper plate awards, so did the "bits of stick I found by the fire instead" awards. I got not so wise old sage, from being the most experience member there in climbing, but pretty much nothing else. I then did a quiz which went down alright, though I probably pitched the questions a little hard. Then came the evenings drinking, which went pretty well. Amazingly there was no obscenity, but everyone get pretty drunk. There was some games, some chilling out and some serious playfighting, I crawled into a new bed by the fire at sometime close to 5am.

SUMC club trip: Yorkshire! PART 1

Wow! What a weekend. Seeing as we've only been gone for 2 days it feels like 3 weeks. This is probably something to do with the fact I managed a grade total of 4 hours sleep over the whole weekend! As you can imagine there was a little alcohol! I don't know to start (at the beginning) which is probably Thursday night. I'm technically not a member of SUMC (Staffordshire University Mountaineering Club). I used to be, but I got every week to Stoke and go away on club trips with them. I probably hold the mantle of somewhere between "we don't ask him to leave because he's occasionally useful and he won't leave the club, but we're too polite to ask him to leave". I end up on the "black OPs" list for club trips. This means we turn up in the dead of night and arn't covered under uni insurance!

So Thursday then, well normal night of climb down the uni's indoor wall. A good evening by all accounts. Me and Chris Prescott practised aid climbing on some bat holes drilling into the wall (on top rope) with skyhooks. Speedy steep aid climbing in actually quite hard work, especially if your trying to top step each time. Then a little climb, tomfoolery and planning the cars, drivers and kit for the weekend. Then the pub. I normally have just the 1 (or two) and retreat to bed early as I have work in the morning in B'ham. Tonight however was an awesome night as everyone was psyched for the club trip. I ended up definatly having more than one and suffering for it at work the next day.

Friday I left work and drove to the florist for mother's day floweres. Getting home I promptly passed out and was thankfully woken up by my brother. After a hurried stint of packing involving basically sweeping the contents of my floor into a couple of IKEA bags I was off back on the road, dog tired but smiling. I only had 3 hours driving ahead of me! Into Stoke to see my friend and drink way to much tea while I waited for Andy's train to get in. It was late of course so me, Laura, Toaf and Andy and all our kit piled into my little car and set off for 2200. Yorkshire here we come!

The drive was pretty quick, probably due to the fact we sang most of the way there and I was buzzing on tiredness and redbull. I'd texted ahead to let them know we'd be quite late and they kindly saved some food for us. On arrival I thought we'd be joining the party but entered a quiet room of trivia pursuit and book reading. This didn't stay like this for long as we'd arrived with a car full of beer and speakers for the ipod. We managed to plan a day at Ilkley for the Saturday somewhere along the line and I crawled into a bed at sometime close to 5am...

Getting Spanked...

Dan was going to Yorkshire this weekend. I've never been to Yorkshire, so after a bit of deliberating we decided to head up with Dan (previously we were going to the lakes). I guess the weekend really started on the Friday night with a fit of bouldering at newport for the evening. We had turned up on their 6 month anniversary since opening so there was a bit of a party atmosphere. Eventually we all gathered round to watch (and get involved with) a problem on a slightly overhanging wall. It involved a short pop-dyno to grasp a less than excellent hold. I made it a few times before I finally stuck it, then promptly fell off before I could make the next move. After much watching other and egging each other on I finally made a ground up ascent of it. Just this problem alone made my evening.

A cup of tea in beer tankard started my day on Saturday. I'd had a "few" beers the night before after bouldering and then stayed up watching climbing films (psyche, onsight and bits of "the climb") before realising; 1) I'd sobered up and 2) it was 5am so time for bed. When I woke back up 6am I was really annoyed. So following a brew, remnants of last nights pizza and early an morning bout of drum'n'bass from Toaf we set off to Yorkshire and Almscliffe. I had not got any guide books and didn't know where we were going to camp that night (I'd even not brought my bivi bag). All in all this was going to be a pretty weird weekend.

So we headed to Almscliffe on the first day as it had been recommended as the best gritstone climbing in Yorkshire. It stood proudly out of its little outcrop and we could see the steep walls and overhangs grinning menacingly. Today I knew I was losing skin. On the walk in Dan was talking about "Great Western". We wondered around for ages trying to orientate ourselves and actually find it, eventually locating it and the five star finish. This was Dan's route so I set up to belay and let him pillage my rack for whatever he needed. The line it follows a corner crack to hand traverse then pulling through to below the roof, from here you either take the crack above direct or traverse back right for the five star finish. It looked steep to say the least.

So Dan got on it, moving quickly up the groove looking really strong. I was urging him on. He got into a little difficulty as he placed his final piece before he set out over the traverse. I could see he was getting pumped out. I'd forgot how nerve wracking belaying is when someone is on a hard lead. Dan started out acorss the traverse with his feet skittering off. He was complaining about being really pumped and I kept yelling for him to hang on. Half way across he managed to to get in another cam on the blue rope. He got to the up groove and fought like a buggary to get a decent hand jam in so he could rest. All I could do was watch and hope he would sink that jam, but he couldn't. "I'm coming off" he yelled. He took a big swing but caught him and he lowered off. I've never seen his arms so pumped.

We took on some water, cheese and jumpers. Dan decided he would have another go. By now Claire had joined us and took up the mantle of camera girl. As soon as he got back on I could see he was close to pumping out. I was hoping he would keep it together and he moved out across the traverse. I thought he got the jam in as he hung around long enough to get in a piece of gear, but then he yelled again. He got it clipped and fell off. Dan was done, his arms about to explode. It was a great effort though.

He asked if I wanted to finish the lead and I tied on, racked up and set off. I fancied a crack at the 5 star finish but after watching Dan I was unsure of whether I would make it. I lay backed the corner crack, then set out across the traverse to the exit groove. I was standing on pebbles for the traverse and was almost off then one of them snapped away. I found a jam (in the groove), which hurt like hell but was solid enough to rest on and from here I squeezed in a size 4 above my head. My left arm was completely pumped out, but my right was ok so I moved up and place some more cams. I had to kick out the size 4 to prevent rope drag before the finish.

I could hear Dan yelling "come on man, gass it, gass it! make Didier proud! come on..." I couldn't get a decent jam so cranked up on my left arm. I could feel myself slipping out and just went for the break. I wasn't good and my jam was slipping out. I power-squeeked majorly but some how stayed on pulled up over. Thank god it was over.

We abseiled to remove the gear saving a ground up ascent for Dan at a later date. We jumped on Z climb as Toaf had lead it and nobody could second it. We wanted to see whats all the fuss was about seeing as it was graded VS 4c. Toaf had regraded it at HVS 5a, but then again he doesn't like jamming which this route involved. Almost a classic case of grading something harder because you lack in technique. I lead it and found the crux a hard steep move, but you could get bomber jam in and I just sung round on it, I then added a little 5a slab finish to it for me and Dan. The climb however was still a VS 4c, it was just steep.

I then asked Dan for a belay on "The Big Greeny" an attractive looking E3 6a. This is at the limit of my climbing grade, but I thought I'd do it anyway and back off if it was too run out. I took a line under an overhang and then out up a blank wall using to pockets. It was hard climbing up to the crux, a mix of 5b/5c but the gear was good (apart from the blank start). The move to get the first pocket involved a kneebar and a handjam then reaching up. The pocket wasn't exactly the jug I was hoping for but I tried to pull up into it anyway. I was so tired from a late night the night before and a hard days climb already. I fell off. I got back on it and tried again and fell off again. I was too much for my the manage to I stripped the route out by abseil.

Alot of us hadn't been to Almscliffe before and there was mixed discussion about the place on the walk back. Pretty much everyone disliked it apart from me. I loved the huge steep walls and cracks, hard stressful climbing and really abrasive grit. These also happened to be most the reasons people disliked it. I guess you can't please everbody, but we all agreed we'd had a good day.

After the adventure of finding a some food and a campsite we headed to Malham Cove for the day. Dan had his eye on some trad climbing on the right hand wall and I was easy for anything (as long as it wasn't sport climbing). Dan took us on a great yet really uphill walk in that pretty much took us to the top of Malham Cove and straigh to right wall. After carrying the dog down a scramble to get it we all geared up on the "gearing up rock" mentioned in the guide book. Dan was already getting eger to lead something and I said I'd belay him up Club Foot (VS 4c). He said he wanted to see what a steep yorkshire limestone VS was like before we tried anything else. The start was polished to buggary but that didn't seem to bother Dan. The tree half way up however made for some amusing climbing. Me and Andy seconded him up and enjoyed just sitting on the rim for a while.

My lead now and I took Swingover (VS 5a). It was a great climb, a little polished but with an awesome 5a move out of a groove and unto an arete. I messed up my sling runner (chose the wrong lenght) and also a wire ripped out because of the drag. The final groove was steep but not exactly hard. My arms were so pumped I found it right struggle. I belayed off as many torque nuts as I could as I'd been rvaing on about them again to Dan. Laura tried it, but found it well hard and decided to second Toaf up a route instead. So Dan joined me on the rin. It was pretty much a perfect day and we both agreed that our rats were fed for the day. We just settled down in the soft grass out of the wind and watched the cloud go by whilst assessing which nut key makes the best ball scratching impliement. With 3 with us (for some reason) it was decided the new WC nutkey is best. We must have spent an hour up there just talking and resting.

It was clearly time to head off by the the time me and Dan got down so we walked out to the bottom of Malham cove and then down the Vally. Malham is a really nice place and I'd liek to come back and do some sport climbing there one day. The drive back however took ages because of the end of Ramadan and the United game. To top off the weekend I got back to Laura's to find that Paul had escaped. Paul is her python.