Well this has been a long time coming… Various excuses are useless
in this case.
Midway through exam revision I went on a trip to Curbar/Froggatt.
May not have been the best idea for studying but it was a nice break to clear
the head.
The destination was not pre-set. When we were on the motorway we
were still deciding where we were going. Wick’s wish-list helped the choice
though. Curbar was the choice based on a few problems at Curbar, and the
possibility of heading to Froggatt if we got bored.
We hit the track-side boulder first, and started warming up on easy
routes. After a bit of trying some mid-range routes we had a look at track-side.
Wicks had done it before apparently but the route was very beta specific, so we
struggled a fair bit. Wicks got to the last few moves but the rest of us
couldn’t beat the lower section. When we got bored of being spanked by the
steep corner we made a group decision to look for a route called “The Ultimate
Gritstone Experience”. This turned into a bit of an adventure when we turned
off the path far too early. After going up and down the hill to Curbar a few
times, zigzagging around and phoning Frosty to ask him where it was, we found
it.
The line was amazing, up the centre of a short steep face and then
onto the top. Wicks dispatched it quite quickly but once again the rest of us
had issues. This time we were getting further, but the upper half of the wall
was blocking our path. The boulder was a little too wide and Jim and I were
just a little too short. We had fun trying it though before our hands started
hurting from the coarse right arête.
As we weren’t getting any further and getting more and more
pumped/pained we opted to move to another boulder problem. Following Wick’s tick-list
led us to Froggatt and Ape Drape, a problem at the opposite end of the crag,
past the first obvious line and my first E1 Strapiombante. At V6 I don’t think
many of us were hopeful for success. Wicks however was psyched and got on it
fairly quickly. The crux crimp however was just a bit too small. Gripping it
was an issue for him as the finger positioning had to be very precise just to
get 4 pads in contact. Nevertheless he kept trying, and unfortunately kept
hitting the wall. As he started to really start using the crimp our spotting
got a bit more interesting, and we found two old mattresses stuffed behind some
nearby boulders. With these added to our pile we could focus more on spotting
and less on moving, and it put Wick’s mind at ease about landing on them.
After half an hour or so Wicks decided he would take a decent break
and told us all to have a go. I stepped in, thinking I would have a go and have
some fun on a grit roof style route. The
first few moves were simple enough to dispatch; pulling on monster ledges. The
heel hook sank 1st go and then I went for the crimp. For some reason
it felt OK and I was willing to commit 100%. I was in the zone. Wicks had
barely managed to move off the crimp in all his previous tries, so I should
have been sceptical of success. But nothing crossed my mind. About this time
there was a comment about probably wanting to spot me. I was too focused to
really notice though, I pulled and landed the move. Pulling through again I
ended up one move from the end. A few psych up looks and I threw for the top,
latching it just enough to grab the true jug with my other hand.
A V6 flash! It had never popped into my head that this was even
possible for me, yet it had just happened… right in front of Wicks. I felt bad
for him, but was too happy to really stay still. Jim tried but couldn’t break
the crux either. Then Wicks went for his last few attempts, and broke the crux.
He looked solid on the next move but something just wasn’t right, as he dropped
with the end in sight. Unfortunately he never reached the same high-point in
his subsequent tries, and as the day started to disappear, we packed up and
went back to the car.
The video below is of Wick's agonisingly close attempt near the end of the day.
Overall the day was good fun; we tried some cool problems at the track-side boulder, got to attempt the ‘ultimate gritstone route’ and hang
around on a V6 at the roaches. And for some reason, after falling on V1’s and
2’s at the track-side boulder and not being able to break the arête’s of the
‘experience’ I managed to flash the hard route of the day … the hardest boulder
problem I have ever sent no less. Strange, strange times.
Catch you on the flipside :)
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