Rivelin and Reel Rock Tour 02/10/11

This may be a bit late, I blame fresher’s fair. The plan for the day was to climb in the morning and go to the reel rock tour in the evening. We (me, Lidiya, Bullock, hencherson and Wiiil) piled into bullocks car and headed for the peak. I believe we decided to go to Rivelin that morning but it may have been decided the night before. Either way we parked up next to the reservoir and headed to the crag. We may have taken a wrong turn as we ended up a fair bit away from the needle; where we had intended to arrive at the crag. Wiiil and I started looking at a face climb to see if it was possible while everyone else disappeared left to start climbing, after deciding shoes and a warm-up were advisable me and Wiiil headed over to everyone else.
I started climbing with a severe as bullock was climbing a HS next door. As the routes crossed over there was a bit of a wait near the top but after this was negotiated I brought up Wiiil and we went back to the base to scout the next climb.
There was a slab that was to the right of the one we were at (bad description I know), with 2 HVS 5b's on. I managed to persuade Wiiil to start leading the face climb route. The first section (2-3m) was pretty easy and gave good breaks for gear. The section above it however was blank, with the last piece of gear a cam that by all rights was horrible. The lower lobe contact was good, but the upper lobe, while good contact was a very small contact area. It was scary to behold. Wiiil tried the upper section and nearly fell; a good finger-lock saved him until shortly after his recovery he slipped off. The fact that the cam held was impressive. It was the first trad whipper that I held. He bravely tried again, but unluckily fell again, this time a slip with no recovery, not for lack of trying though! After this he decided to hand over the baton to me. Hardest ever lead with groundfall potential from the top even if the cam holds :S, I was bricking it. I got to the ledge and it was only then that I realised how bad the cam was. But I pressed on, till I got scared :P. I started and then down climbed the first section of the crux at least 3 times until I manned up. Being small really does suck on face climbs but I pressed on and after a few meters I could ignore the gear problem, I just didn't want to fall. I may have powerscreamed at the top few moves but I was very scared. Was soooo happy when I finally had done it. The route ended up being a top rope for Howett and Mason, but after a while I was free.
Me and Wiiil walked right to try and find Lidiya and bullock, who had left for other routes. We passed our previous face climb and found out it was an E2, we left that place pretty fast after :P. When we found bullock and Lidiya we minced a bit before Wiiil led a Severe, harder than it looked so tops up for leading it after seconding the HVS 5b. More mincing followed, with a bit of rain before I was coerced into leading croton oil; the Top 50 Peak route up Rivelin needle. Now I faffed on that like a beast. Thrutchy start that I just powered through before placing gear in the main face. Too far right as I would find out near the top. I worked my way up to the two finger cracks which lead to the crux got gear in and tried to work out the sequence. This process took far too long and did pump me out, but I managed to turn the crack rest into a better rest somehow and de-pump. Still not sure how I did that, made the exposed move out and up to a good crack and up to a ledge. It is after this ledge that you climb a flake that is described as rickety. This doesn't exactly cover it; when you tap it the echo can be heard from the base of the route albeit a faint one. This didn't inspire confidence, thus some more faffing occurred before I manned up and topped out. Bringing Wiiil up was horrible at the start due to some horrendous rope drag. Just after he pulled the crux he commented on how ballsy it was and that leading would have been sketchy, made me feel happy. He mentioned something of the sort after inspecting the flake at the top. We abbed off the pre-placed ring and then packed to leave for a BBQ that we were told was happening next to the reservoir.
The BBQ was indeed present and we hung out for a bit before leaving for the reel rock tour at the works. All I will say on it that it was good overall but last years was better, but there are some really good films in it.
I think that about covers the very longwinded day at Rivelin:) see you all later :)