Stanage Trip 01/06/2013

The trip started out with everyone doing their best to be late! We agreed to meet at 8, but by 8 Chris had just left his, Lally was getting out of the shower and Brad was uncontactable. By 8.45 Lally and Chris had arrived at mine but Brad was still no where to be found so we ended up having to knock on his door to wake him... Not a good start to the day! After a pretty uneventful drive to Hathersage we stopped at Outside so Lally could try on some new shoes and so that everyone could eat in the cafe. After this we could finally move on to the climbing which we got to at about 12.

First route of the day for Jack and Chris was Wall End Holly Crack, HS 4b, with Jack leading. Brad and Lally went up Wall End Crack Direct, HS 4b, with Brad leading. After this Chris got ambitious and decided to try Tower Wall Direct, E2 5b, as it had a nice looking set off flakes at the top and the bottom didn't look too bad either. Unfortunately the crux move involved steeping into a high tiny foot hold with not good hands while so far above gear that hitting the ground was probably going  to happen if he fell... Fortunately he managed to pull himself together and make the move to onsight and E2! While this was happening Brad was leading Pizza slab, S 4a, with Lally but managed to get off route and end up climbing Poor Pizza, a Diff, instead.

Brad and Jack then moved on for Jack to lead Fairy Steps, VS 4a. This route had a huge, mainly unptotected traverse that looked scary from the ground then when you got on it the ledge was huge so no problems were had.

After this we took a long wall to BAW's crawl, one of Brads targeted HVS routes. Unfortunately he didn't fancy it but Chris thought it looked too good to miss so he lead it followed by Jack as second. I can honestly say this was one of the weirdest routes I've ever done and it definitely was the most fun route of the day!From hands in a crack and a heel hook you had to traverse on the heel hooks and then squirm into a crawlspace before climbing some cracks to the top. Definitely a route I'd recommend!

After this we again moved on down the crag with Brad and Lally stopping at the Unconquerables for Brad to lead Cleft Wall route 1, HS 4b. Moving on further, Brad lead Scoop Crack HS, 4b while I decided to take a stab at my first HVS, Agony Crack. From the ground it looked simple enough but when I actually started it took a while to get off the ground... Once on it was smooth going untill pulling out from a ledge into a layback up some flakes. After taking multiple attempts and not liking the move I finally manned up and committed to it to finish the route! After this we moved on to the April Crack area. Brad tried to lead Hargreaves original, VS 4c, however after trying the wrong line which made it far harder than it should have been he backed off it and tried the Central Trinity route instead, another VS 4c. Lured on by the site of a cam stuck in a crack part of the way up the route, Brad sailed up the easy part to try and get it out. Unfortunately the owner of the cam turned up to put any thoughts of some crag swag to rest by beating the cam out with a hammer and crow bar... Brad went on to finish the route after lacing the thing with as much gear as possible!

Chris lead Christmas Crack, HS 4a, which had some nice awkward bridges and laybacks before moving on to his nemesis, Flying Buttress direct, that had beaten him last time. He moved up the slab with ease to get to the big break which he protected with about 4 pieces of gear.

 He reached up for the next edge but couldn't quite reach it so he came down and rested for a bit before trying again. Unfortunately no pictures were managed of Chris as he managed to grab with edge with one hand, get the over one on and then cut loose so he was hanging by just his fingers as he traversed along to get a heel on. From there he quickly moved up the other ledges to the finish where his shouts of triumph could be head from below, much to the amusement of the small audience he had.

Psyched by this ascent, Lally asked for the ropes to be pulled through so he could lead through Chris' gear. He powered up the slab easily to get to the break. His extra height on chris allowed him to make the next reach up easily as he climbed the last ledges to finish as well!

After this we started to walk back to the car when Brad saw an E1, nuke the midges that he liked to look of. A short climb with a hard reachy mantle over the top. After trying on a top rope he managed the clean ascent, mananging to reach the top with his fingertips before smearing up and whaling hard! Psyched by this I thought I'd try an E1 too and selected Tower chimney nearby. After climbing up the first crack to the chimney section I thought it was going easily but then it soon got harder! Managing to press up this section it soon eased again at the top to make a clean ascent of it.

The above in red unfortunately didn't happen... Lally seconded flying buttress but came off at the overhang and had to ascend to finish the route. See the next blog post, Stanage 03/06/2013 for the continuation of this story.

After an epic day of hard ascents from all, we walked off as the last people on the crag.