Yorkshire was actually looking good when we left. Our new driver,
Tom, assisted by Brad and Jim got us to our midway stop in good time and we all
grabbed food from the well-stocked store. Most of us had some fast food from
the popular restaurant while we waited for the last few people to make it
through the checkouts. The rest of the journey was equally uneventful and
before too long we were at the hut.
The rest of the night was nice and relaxed by the fire. The lack of
people was weird … I kept expecting more people to come into the room when we
were all there. We all hit the sack relatively early, psyched for the next day.
Saturday
The day started well. We were leaving around 9ish and the weather
was looking set to improve. As we got to the car park of our crag, Crookrise, it
was starting to get sunny and warm up nicely. The 20 minute walk-in up the hill
definitely affected some of us more than others… several down jackets were
removed during our first break. When we all got to the top of the hill and started
descending towards the part of the crag we were starting at, we were all toasty
warm and enjoying the sun.
We set up around the central slab and divided into groups. With an
odd number of people I opted to try a V2 and just pottered around for a bit while
everyone started leading. I’ll do another group play-by play as best as I can.
Jack took on Lianne as a second and started on Diagonal Crack. While
the start took a while for both of them they eventually broke through and
cruised to the top. For some reason, after this Jack decided he liked the idea
of chimneys, so set off up Buster. Lianne had a bit of an issue with the lower
section of this… damn chimneys, and did not end up finishing the route. I am
unsure if he led any more but both continued to mingle/climb all day.
Josh and Lilian started on Face, Arête and Wall climb, which without
cams was barely protectable for Josh, and too reachy for Lilian. Eventually
though, they both succeeded and topped out. My knowledge of the rest of their
day is shaky, but I know that Josh was the last person to lead ‘The Sole’. He
finished the day on Octopus to my knowledge
Again my memory is faulty but I believe that Lally started on
Chockstone chimney with Tom. Beyond this however I cannot recall the routes L.
Jim started the day with Brad by leading octopus. Brad swiftly
followed and then for the hell of it I soloed up after. As everyone seemed
occupied and happy we became a trio. Brad led Arsenic slab, with a pretty hefty
top run-out, understandable given the gradient though. Both Jim and I seconded
fairly quickly and descended in good speed. I took the first step past severe
by leading Long climb, and took everyone on a hand jam trip. Well I took myself
and brad on the hand jam trip. Jim seemed to layback the route instead. I had
the luck of placing the trio’s first camming hex too :D WIN! With it back to
Jim’s lead he set his sights on one of the aims for the day … The Sole HVS 5b.
The start was an awkward layback which then moved to leaning cracks that
traversed up and left to the top of the face. Breaking the lower section was
interesting, but Jim managed it fairly well and arranged a cam under the roof.
The next move seemed the most unsteady but after a few looks he managed to push
through and reach the large cracks above. From this point it seemed a matter of
just staying on the wall. He worked out the traverse quickly and was quickly
looking at the final moves. The top few holds however were wet and slopey and
just a foot from the top, Jim pumped off. That sucked hard and we started
debating what to do about the gear left in place. I had a go leading through
the gear. I nearly barn-doored off the first few moves but had in my eyes,
better beta for the move to the cracks. From there it really was a matter of
holding on. I got to the last few moves and tried the optional fist jam, which
despite the green rock was solid. I had used the wrong arm though, and had to
release it after barely using it. I ended up a move from the top and just
committed, and somehow managed to hold the top long enough to get high feet and
flop onto the top. I think after seeing that Jim got a renewed burst of
motivation, and made the call to pull the ropes through. He jumped on again and
went with good speed again to the last moves. Different moves this time changed
the style slightly. The top section looked solid and I thought he was going to
do it, but alas this was not the case as he slipped of the top. It just didn’t
seem like his day. Brad tried the route but couldn’t work out the barn door
move low down and did not make it to the ‘safe’ point beneath the route. Josh
gave the route a few goes and after falling near the top a few times like Jim,
he managed to top out. Jim gave it one last go but again, the fates were not on
his side, as once again he fell, inches from the top L.
After the epic at the Sole, Brad decided to lead a HS next door
while Jim returned to the slabs he loves so much and did a tasty HVS with Tom.
We all ended up at End Slab at the end of the day for a small
session of soloing. A few of us tried the VD traverse of the slab, with me, Jim
and Brad leading a VS 5a up the slab via a short thin crack. Jim had already
led it when I arrived, but Tom was having issues with the start. I seconded him
and then gave the same favour to Brad after photographing him on the route with
Lianne’s camera. As the day was drawing to a close however I decided to lead
the route to see just how much gear you could place … Brad placed 3 nuts, Jim 2.
I ended up, thanks to offset nuts, peenuts and micro wires to place 6 pieces of
gear before I got told to just get on with the route :P. After seconding twice
already I knew the moves and it was a simple matter of ignoring the fact I was
on lead. I topped out and brought brad up through the gear.
We walked back as the light was starting to dim and were back at the
bus before it was dark :D.
Natural evening hilarity ensued once we finished eating and cracked
open the bottles. We attempted the outdoor boulder problem found last year,
managed to get 3 people in the chest in the bedroom and got nice and warm sat
next to the fire.
Sunday
The day started well. The weather was looking even better and people
were moving relatively efficiently. With so few people we could organise the
packing up well and before too long had very little left to clean. We made it
out the door around 10ish, which most people were quite happy about. Taking
advantage of the return route we set our sights on Almscliff.
The field on the walk-in was pretty damn muddy, but the one of the
beauties of Almscliff is that the walk-in itself is short. Barely 10 minutes
after we had got out of the bus we were looking at Low Man and starting to rack
up. Just after we arrived Frosty turned up which was awesome J. Having an Almscliff veteran with you can only be a good thing. Frosty,
Brad and Jim did the Matterhorn Arête right off the bat. Jim then racked up and
went for Pigott’s Stride. The stretch is bloody huge. With no gear and a big
reach to bad holds, Jim decided against the route. He rallied quickly though and started up
Whisky Crack. Chimney then hand crack … I bet he loved that. Lally took a few
people bouldering while Josh and I started up routes on low man. I had called
dibs on fluted columns, while Josh had selected … I believe Pinnacle Flake
Climb. Going on memory from first year didn’t serve me amazingly well. There
was much less gear than I had expected, and I found myself thoroughly glad I
had cams. After the trip I think Josh decided it might be worth investing in
some also. Still the top section was awesome :D. I brought Tom up, who for his
apparent first time on rock was doing awfully well.
I’m not quite sure why, but after returning to the base of Low Man I
got the urge to go bouldering, so I went to find frosty and the others. We
pottered around a few problems, succeeding in places, failing in others but
overall having a good time. Without a guide we went to what looked good, and by
Frosty’s knowledge. I don’t think we hit anything harder than V3 and probably
spent most of our time at or below V1. Still it’s all good fun J.
We had a nice lunch break and then split up a bit more. I left with
Brad for a hopeful HVS tick, with Jim and Frosty on the same page. After a
quick look at Demon Wall I decided against it and went to find Jim. The ‘path’
took me past Great Western however. Frosty had mentioned the route earlier and
I had taken a quick look in the guidebook. But all of that was eclipsed by how
good the route looked. It took little persuasion to get me on it, but physically
starting took a bit of motivation. After slimming my rack down thanks to Frosty
and Jim, I set off up the pumpy initial cracks. It was this bit I was most
worried about, given how steep the whole route was. What if I got too pumped
early? Luckily the section was over in 3 swift moves. I could barely believe
it, but pushed it out of my head as I started the traverse. The pump was always
rising, but I wasn’t hanging around much. Despite the bad feet, I was
contemplating the final moves of the traverse to the rest rather quickly. With
a small stop for courage I threw hell to leather and committed to some pretty
interesting moves and was rewarded with the jugs leading to the rest. It was
literally 2 moves from the rest that the pump really started to hit home. I somehow
managed to pull into the alcove though. 2 cams went into the break easily and I
was left to choose between the 5 star finish and the normal one. With how easy
the normal finished looked in comparison I opted for the 5 star finish. A
choice I will never regret. The position beneath the final crack was
incredible. High feet rolled in to the cracks and still fairly pumped I pulled
over the top. What a route!
Brad was the second. This part was probably the most interesting of
the day. Brad was seconding well and got to the traverse quickly. He
unfortunately came off near the end. With the route being steep with the top face
overhanging a fair distance over the lower wall, this left brad in an awkward
situation. Luckily he had come prepared; with 2 prussiks and an ascender. The
process of ascending however was new to brad. Teaching ascending is generally
interesting, but with your student hanging in space 3 meters beneath you, even
more so. We manage to work out a good method though and eventually Brad was sat
in the rest. We managed to persuade him to do the five star finish, which
unfortunately he also fell off due to pump. But this was much more manageable
given the position.
Before too long we were back on the ground and the ropes were being
used by Jim on Overhanging Groove. Jim topped his route after mostly ignoring
the bail ledge and placing 3 pieces of gear for the whole route :D. Typical
Jim, but good effort nonetheless. We tried few boulder problems in the area
which Jim and Frosty did well on. Sticking crimps from slaps and doing large
body press moves just didn’t seem to work for me at that point in the day, and
brad had similar issues. After we decided we couldn’t get any further we left
for what Frosty called ‘The Entrance Test’. At black wall the South Chimney
Layback is a S 4b that starts with a 3m jamming crack. If you can’t jam its
nails, but if you can it should be simple. As expected Frosty did a retro-flash
and we started trying. I managed to top it on my first go but Jim’s lack of
jamming experience started to show. Even getting off the ground was
troublesome. After attempting to help a little bit I went to grab everyone else
so they could have a go. Unfortunately Josh and Lilian didn’t get to try it as
they were still climbing but everyone else at least watched. Brad got the
problem onsight, as I think did Jack. Jim eventually managed to top out one
attempt, but when attempting to repeat the feat he seemed to hit the same wall
that stopped him earlier. After a while we decided it was getting late enough
and left the crag to return home.
We dropped frosty off on our way and made the, as usual uneventful
trip back to Leicester. The second meet of the semester easily made up for the
first. Despite the low attendance we all managed to have fun and even get some
hard routes in. The weather was awesome and it was good to be back on the
gritstone.
Until next time :D
(Credit for the photos goes to Lianne Burtonshaw)
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