Portland meet 7-11th June 2012

I know this is a month late but geological mapping takes me out of the loop for a while.

Portland; The last meet of the year. The first meet organised by the incoming committee. My first meet as captain. The longest meet … and I’m writing this from memory.

In the panic while planning people checked the weather forecast. Last year had a bad Sunday with heavy rain for a day. The forecast for this year changed daily of course but the overall idea was bad weather with rain every day. Not exactly the best start to the trip.

Thursday. The first party left in stages. While the bus was being filled Ollie and Jim departed as an advance party. Making good time they arrived around midday ish and proceeded to wait for the weather to pass. Another car left in the afternoon and arrived in the evening. The minibus itself managed to eventually leave Leicester only an hour later than planned and headed south along the motorways. With the minibus being used as a safety bus and the radio not working we were stuck with the ‘drunkerds mix’. After 3 cycles the front half of the bus were pretty tired of the same songs so on a rest stop we purchased some CD’s to save our sanity :P. The weather on the way down varied from almost torrential rain to beautiful sunshine but overall it wasn’t looking the best it could. After a nice rest stop we continued south on our lovely long journey. Very fortunately we arrived in a spell of ‘good’ weather and once the tents were erected we decided to get a bit of climbing in. Out of the options available to us the cuttings was deemed the best choice for the situation. We rocked up relatively quickly despite a wrong turn that sent us up the wrong way of a one way street. Given the time constraints of the evening we set up top ropes while the previous members started leading routes near the Sod. Last year we went to the cuttings and certain routes were missing from the guidebooks. This year however we cam prepared with a bad memory of the area and 3 different guidebooks. Despite this route-finding was a bit of a problem and even when the routes were located the grading seemed off most of the time. The first routes that Jim and myself led both seemed undergraded by at least 2 grades. Luckily the 5+'s and up seemed more accurate. As the evening continued the groups started to split slightly. Annie and Harry got a lead or two in, as did myself and Jim. As it started to get dark we returned via the asda to pick up some food. Natural night activities including barbecuing food and unpacking from bags occurred until about midnight when we all decided to hit the sack.

Friday. The weather seemed to hold overnight and despite some dew on the ground the day looked good. Given the amount of routes available to us we (I with council) decided to head to blacknor beach. More specifically triple slabs and fallen slab. Unfortunately when we got to blacknor quarry the view of the beach was not exactly pretty. Normal waves would get the base of the triple and fallen. Large waves would travel some way up the seaward face of Fallen and 'bounce' over the seaward block of Triple. In the interests of safety I made the decision to change the destination of my group away from triple slabs. Under advisement from Bullock we head to battleships. Bullock and his group went to fallen slabs anyway and despite only one route being available they stayed there for half a day. With hindsight I would have taken the group back up through the quarry and over the top of the cliff, but alas this is not the case. We followed the up and down sketchy path from the entrance to blacknor central along to battleship north and further to the veranda. Given that we had the whole day and were going to be in Portland for a few more days I decided to start to teach leading- the standard idea on Portland given that its sport. This may not have been my smartest idea but I still stand by it. After some interesting practices on lower bolts which I now know are not the best idea people had started to get a bit bored/frustrated with the area. Harry and Annie had left for another area soon after we started teaching and we headed back to that area in search of new routes. Jim and I did ‘A Dream of White Porsches’ to clear our heads and given the progress that others were making in leading we continued onto other routes. We quickly dispatched 'I'm doing it anyway' the home of a Kilby epic according to Lidiya and Bullock. What we planned next was 3 F6a+'s. The first was a fine slab the both Jim and I attacked differently. Fine was a good description but doesn't quite cut it when you start climbing the ruddy thing. Despite all the moves involving small edges it was surprisingly secure and while taking time we both reached the lower-off without a single fall. What makes this particular route the more impressive of the 3 was that later in the day we found that it was an F6b. Mental note of onsight grade just went up :P. The other F6a+'s were still impressive and unfortunately featured my only whipper that day. Both routes were similar in style and were both more vertical than the F6b. Larger more committing moves were the order of the day on these routes, compared to the smaller and more careful moves of the 6b. The final outing of the day was an attempt at a 6b+ I can't find the name for, situated to the right of 'Hold on to your Ego' the 6b. The crux move was a dyno that no-one could manage, and after my closest attempt using my own beta I got a phone call from Amy. Hanging around on the rope I tried to acquire a phone number for Amy so she could get in contact with someone on her bus. My own 'Addy moment' :). Shortly after this the weather seemed to start to close in. With the outlook not good and people getting bored we decided to leave for the campsite. BBQ's were lit and we cooked while waiting for the second minibus to arrive. The arrival of the minibus was tainted slightly by the news about Howett. Apparently during a rest stop he had managed to shut his fingers in the door of the minibus and possibly break two. It did sort of make the rest of the time more interesting. We all retired for the night pretty quickly after the minibus arrived.

Saturday. Amy's plan was for her minibus to leave around 7 to get the most of what could be the only good day for their group. My minibus was going to continue with the same plan as friday; leaving around 9 unless the weather was amazing. Unfortunately for Amy her plan slightly failed and they didn't set off until after 8.30, when most people were up and preparing for the day. Blacknor was the plan for everyone with Amy's group hitting the quarry and then the cliffs just below while I was going to take my group to triple slabs if the weather held and the waves allowed. Once we got to blacknor, under an hour after Amy's group we passed their ropes and started to descend, at first to fallen slab. This was to be the path that we would attempt to follow, mirroring the route used last year. I made a bit of a mistake by not checking the route before I started helping people down a difficult section. Had I moved little further down the hill I would have seen that the water and waves covered our path. Sadly this messed up our plan. With only fallen slab and fallen slab aréte available to us our options were cut. They were but still further when we met a climber wishing to climb at fallen slab. In a slight personal panic I decided we should head to triple slabs. By the time we finished the sketchy descent we congregated and found 4 people at triple slabs. In my eyes this stopped us from using it as a group location. At this point I am very thankful of Jim for being there to help with decisions and to calm me down. We split the group into more competent leaders and the less competent seconds with the leaders staying at triple to take advantage of the few available routes. The rest of the group would come with me an Jim to Diamond slab which looked empty. Having got to diamond to find it, luckily, empty we started with people leading and some top ropes. The most interesting point of this was when David led several different routes in one go. He started left of the central route, ran out 4m to the 2^nd bolt of the left route, followed the left route to ¾ of the way up then returned to the bolt line of the central route. After a couple of hours and when a pair arrived to do some routes we swapped the groups over, with the leaders moving to diamond and the top rope group staying at triple slabs. The standard ULMC tradition of mincing had started to take hold with people relaxing in the sun and Vicki demonstrating her ability to sleep anywhere :). With our time slowly running out in the day and Pregnant Pause and Reptile Smile still to tick Jim and I decided to head up to the main cliff for a bit of harder climbing. Leaving the rest of the group at triple and diamond we followed the path to reptile smile, only to find it was in use from Wiil. Apparently he had started leading reptile smile but ended up on slings shot (the F5+ next door). Given that it was busy we picked up Bullock and Lidiya and headed back down the path to pregnant Pause. While they got themselves to the photo ledge we kitted up for the lead. I have no wish to spoil the route for anyone so I shall merely say that it is sustained to the top but it is neither pumpy or overtly technical. It's just LONG :). Jim went first and tackled it well and was soon at the top. Once we had worked out the lowering off (the route is too long for a 50m rope to lower to the path) I tied onto the sharp end for my go. After a few re-psyching situations and one point where I was nearly off I found myself at the chain rather chuffed with myself. I believe the group at triple heard my victory yell. Determined to get both routes ticked we quickly departed Pregnant Pause while a second group started on it. Continuing the quick ticking we were roped up and Jim was leading Reptile Smile within minutes of arriving at the base. Again I have no wish to spoil it so I shall try to keep this brief, but it is in my opinion the harder of the two. Steep and Pumpy there was a point on the last bolt where I was as close to being off as I could be without actually falling. Somehow with two 3 finger pockets I managed to regain the strength to, in separate attempts, clip the carabiner and clip the rope in. When I finished the group that was sat around the area left to go to the Red Crane traverse as this was the day we had decided to do it on. Jim had left to start getting our group moving as soon as he had packed up his gear. I quickly followed and from my vantage point at the cliff-base I could see the path to fallen slab was clear. Given that the path up from fallen slab is better than the path up from triple slab I made the decision to send my group along the sea level boulders to fallen slab. We eventually had everyone moving and were before long at the minibus moving to the south of portland for our traditional deep water solo. The wind was biting and the route was slightly wet. The first group was mostly committee members :P. I led followed by Lidiya, who was hemmed in by Bullock, followed by closely by Jim, with Brad taking up the rear. Of course I could only see Bullock and Lidiya but to my knowledge this group made it with no problems. The next group was David, Annie and myself. Annie had persuaded me to go with her and was attempting the traverse despite only learning to swim this year. Both Annie and David put in stellar efforts but unfortunately they both fell on the crux. Most depressingly Annie fell having reached the better holds to the right. A match and step right and she would have completed the crux of the route but alas this was not the case. I believe Elliot was the last to try the traverse and he too fell on the crux. No one else wanted to try it given the conditions so we started to leave. Given the now or never call I attempted to put my money where my mouth was and once again returned to the rusty ladder, this time to vanquish the V1 that eluded me the previous year. It's funny how many times you can viualise a route in your head and run through the moves, but when you are actually on it everything is worse, further away and harder to hold. My beta was wrong but after a short while I found the holds I needed, just in my reach. A quick psyche up and with everyone behind me I committed to the move. Once my right foot was on the next hold it was all over and I mantled the top vanquishing one of my personal demons :). We all headed back for the buses and found a planned 'race' to find the fasted way across Portland. The only problem was that once we got to the junction we were told we had left Vicki behind. The bus was too eager to leave it seems and we had accidentally left her behind by assuming she was on board. The evening was similar to every other evening with BBQ's being burned and large social gatherings until the darkness had fully settled.

Sunday. The worst day of the lot. Everyone was slow off the mark and given the outlook I can't blame anyone. My minibus was leaving so we had to break camp, I had managed to acquire a space on the Monday minibus so would be staying the next night but neither group set off early. By the time the buses were nearly ready to leave the weather had started to come in with a steady drizzle over our heads and an ever-present threat of heavier rain. The decision was made to send the Thursday bus home early as the chance of climbing was low. They returned to Leicester via Boulder Central in Birmingham to satisfy the climbing needs of the people still with skin and energy. The Friday minibus, now mine, was to head to the nearest climbing wall and re-evaluate later on. We had the option to stay if the weather looked good but given forecasts for various locations we (Me being told to choose by Amy) decided to return to Leicester in the evening and possibly climb in the peak district the next day, as we had the minibus till Tuesday morning. I forget the name of the wall we went to, but for one in a sports hall of a leisure centre it was quite impressive to me. A lack of choice however does burn down enthusiasm and a few hours later we were all in the bouldering room trying a 6c boulder problem. Some quite spectacular photos were taken but none managed to really highlight the heel hook that we all used :P, I guess that’s just the way it goes.

I would describe the journey back but barring a pub stop it was a normal 5/6 hour minibus journey with conversations about genetics.

Monday. The weather in Leicester wasn't amazing, but the weather in Portland seemed to be worse by the forecasts, it seemed we made the right choice :D. After collecting trad gear from the vault we left for the Peak District and once the choice was made, Burbage North. We hauled the gear along the path until we found the first suitable location that was vacant and inadvertantly chose our location for the day. After some minor warming up Amy led a route and I taught Allister to place gear. A bit of rotation happened and I was able to put myself on a HVS 5b next to the slab we were at. Wednesday Climb is put simply a one move wonder. But what a move :D. Fist jams and kneebars on the same route, with the worst cam I have ever placed. It was a blind placement but the point stands. Alas the route leads up an offwidth so gear beyond the main crack was sparse. Given the technicality of the remaining moves seemed almost non-existent I ran it out to the top and set up the belay that was to be my home for the next hour or so. Everyone bar Howett attempted the route but only Allister and Amy found the necessary jam to propel themselves upward through the route. As my viewpoint was limited at this point I can remember little, but as we realised the time was late afternoon (after 4) we made an effort to finish. Allister had his first lead and subsequent top set-up while everyone else milled around and relatively soon after we were back in the minibus on the way home. Having seen a pub offering good deals for meals on the way up however we stopped for the second pub meal in two days. Well worth it as we would find out. The pub even had a young waiter determined to do his job well. Sneaky tactics was what Howett when he came to ask us if everything was OK; who could say no to that :). After our lovely meal we slowly sauntered back to Leicester and returned everyone to their homes.

I know the last half of this is a bit brief but my memory is bad and I am writing this on pretty much my last available day :(.

Portland was looking to be an absolute disaster and while it may have been in some ways it worked out overall. I am personally quite happy with it and must again thank my new committee, and old committee/friends for helping me through it despite bad weather and busy locations. Without a good force behind him a commander is nothing :).

This could be my last post before uni starts again so I shall say goodbye and have a good summer :). Catch you on the flipside.