I headed off to university on a meet Friday to watch it
leave without me for the first time in about 2 years :( but BUCS or not we were
getting up there one way or another. As skipper elect Peate called the shots on
the bus, Jack K and I went down the pub before getting some sleep for the horrendously
early wakeup 6am wakeup call that awaited us. The plan was to roll up to
Sheffield, crush the competition then roll up to Yorkshire before drinking hard
and climbing hard the next day. Only a few of these points on the list were
actually achieved but we gave it a good shot! All we saw of the journey up was
Charlie and Ellie sneaking a tin of cat food into Peate’s shopping- well
played!
Saturday for the meet crew dawned rather damp, in complete
opposition to the forecast. As far as I know an initial inspection of
conditions suggested wet rock so a walk round Goredale Scar and Malham was
decided upon on which everyone had a good time from the look of the photos! I
am unable to add any more to this but Peate will take over….
 |
| The skipper |
Partly out of psyche to get climbing at Crookrise crag and to maintain Jim's early starts I sprung out of bed at 7 and after our early night we were in the minibus on the way to the crag by 8. During the drive we developed a growing feeling of disappointment as we were yet again greeted by poor weather, myself in particular as I wanted to make up for the previous trip. As we pulled into the car park we could see Crookrise looming ominously out of the rain clouds, and instead we decided it would be better to take advantage of the early start and do the walk that me and James had planned the previous night that went past Malham cove, past the Tarn, and back through Goredale Scar. I took lead with the map reading in an attempt to prove myself and we quickly arrived at Malham cove, only to stand and admire the size and overhanging nature of the cove. (Its fucking nails under there- Jim) We rambled down the muddy Pennine way in good spirits and in-between brief showers and strong winds, we joked about Charlie's ability to fall over.
After a brief lunch at Malham Tarn Ellie, with some apprehension, took over the map reading and carried us over the hills to Goredale Scar. We made a steep descent into the gorge and stood looking at the impressive waterfalls and the pondered over the seeming disappearance of the obvious path, which turned out to take the form of an exciting down climb next to the spray of the waterfall. Thoughts of an immense clusterfuck flashed through my mind, but after getting Chris to helpfully check it out and doing part of it myself, with the help of Sam and Josh we all got down in one piece. The wet down climb, whilst really safe, gave the walk a sense of adventure. With high spirits which were accompanied by somewhat frustratingly good weather we joined an easy path back to Malham in search of a Pub. We decided on a drive to Settle where we, Bethan in particular, had a little explore through gear shops and second hand book shops to end up in the Talbot Arms.
 |
The BUCS crew got going pretty early and after a fuel stop we
were hightailing it to Sheffield. We parked up at the Works and entered the
wall to see a sea of down jackets- several thousand geese/ducks had been
harvested to keep the throng of climbers warm! We got registered and warmed up
and started wandering round to have a look at the problems. As is always the
way, almost everything looked very achievable, so the main thing was to guard
against overconfidence and watch someone else do it first before blowing the
flash! We split into teams- the girls in one, me Brad and Dan in one and Jack,
Lally and Callum the last. Everyone definitely felt the competition nerves to
start with; I climbed the first few
problems in shocking style before Brad and Dan made them look easy and I only
started to calm down once I had 40 points banked. I steadily started to feel
better though and our group got on a really good roll as we entered the high teens. After falling off the final jug of the number 17 roof
problem I screamed 'fuck' loudly (which Harry tells me the whole wall heard), and climbed some slab to calm down
:p I got it second go- by this point everyone had split up to tick the stuff
they had independently struggled on. Brad however had damaged a tendon in his
finger so cleaned up the easier stuff before chilling out. Jack and I teamed up
to dispatch 19 on the Berghaus comp wall; this wasn’t helped by some
communication issues, where I asked Jack if a certain hold was in and thought
he said no. Unfortunately it was actually in and only other people shouting the
correct info got me to the top! Jack also flashed it and sent the sandbag
slabby 18 with seconds to go on the clock. Everyone did really well, with the
award for dumb shit of the day going to Dan for failing to tick the 5 easiest
problems after losing track of time and leaving 50 points out there- check the
FB page for results! :)
 |
| Dog of the day |
 |
| Heroic pose- shame the comp had finished! |
We packed up quickly and headed down the pub for a
celebratory beer, where Lally made friends with a lovely German shepherd and Brad
bought a 7% beer for £5.40 a pint! After some minor parking issues we sorted
the cars out and Jack and Amy started off to Yorkshire while Yas headed back to
Leicester- thanks Yas! After a Tesco stop where I inadvertently purchased some ‘Menhancer’
pills thanks to Amy and Emily (I don’t need ‘menhancing’) we kept on going, progress
only being interrupted by my nervous checking of the rugby score. We arrived at
the hut and after a spiritual experience in the amazing shower I ate my curry
out of a dogbowl and started drinking. The infamy of previous Yorkshire meets
failed to materialise but age was no barrier for Frosty who consumed a lot of
wine and fed the fire every time someone complained it was too hot, which was
often. People disappeared off to bed and we hoped for dry conditions in the
morning.
I woke up on Sunday to find dry conditions, if some very
ominous looking clouds away in the distance. I commented to Frosty that it
looked like the end of the world, to which he replied that he felt like the end
of the world. Given that he was meant to be getting on an E3 later this could
only end well. We packed up the hut really quickly and got going, with hilarity
arising from Jack leaving me behind at the rubbish stop. We set off up to the
crag without Frosty, who had gone to get a ‘stimulant’ in his words, and
started off at Low Man. Everyone was pretty psyched and got going; Ellie on
Square Chimney and Whisky Crack MVS, Callum on Fluted Columns and Ollie over on
Stew Pot. I am completely unable to remember what everyone did so let me know. Peate led Pinnacle Flake Climb Severe which Bethan and Josh seconded, while
I got on the Matterhorn Boulder f5+, which Chris and Amy also ticked, before
watching Ellie gurn her way through the horrible crux of the Chimney and
beached whale her way onto the halfheight ledge. At this point I left to see
what Emily was on, which was an utterly hideous looking crack which she thought
was VS but was actually an HVDiff. Read the guidebook people! :p I returned in
time to catch a visibly scared Ellie topping out the crack above the worst
placed cam I’ve ever seen- cracking lead, its given VS on UKC votes and Jack
and I nearly fell off it last year :)
Having stood underneath the classic HVS Great Western I was
psyched, and roped Frosty in for a belay in very windy conditions. By placing
as little gear as possible and prioritising cams over nuts I avoided the worst
of the pump and topped out the finishing jamming crack having put only one jam
in! Frost argued this meant I hadn’t got the tick but I strongly disagree-
awesome route with mega exposure. Over the way, I think Josh had led an HS
called ZigZag and a group of people were soloing the ‘route’ Safe As- at Severe
that was a gift, take the tick! I went back over to Frost and bullied him onto
Western Front E3 5c, as per our agreement. Frosts trad head momentarily
deserted him and I thought he was going to bail, but fair play to him he got on
it after a few downclimbs. Having placed the crucial wire he panicked in
several cams and a good high nut, before resting for ages on the big jug and
pumping out at the ‘karate chop’ crux jam. He lowered off and Jack decided he
wanted no part of the route, thereby conceding the bet I had with him in the
pub!
Meanwhile, Charlie was seconding Ellie before they turned their
attention to Fluted Columns, which Charlie led. A rope clusterfuck resulted in
the ropes ending up at the top with no climbers on them and the gear still in
the route, necessitating Ellie to lead through. I believe she found 3 lying
down spots on one route for some reason…anyway, this was knocked down without
incident. Over the way, James had attempted classic HVS Overhanging Groove and
given it a pretty shit effort by all accounts. However with some bullying from
myself and Emily he got back on it and gave it a right good go, with all his
gear in the lower crack falling out and leaving a gnarly groundfall potential.
James pumped out arranging a gear nest, so Lally led through the gear and
topped it out despite taking a manly whipper and scaring some pigeons to nearly
fly into his face. I had failed on my main objective for the day, Wall of
Horrors E3, after completely failing to read the second crux and taking several
whippers onto a very badly placed cam that I later saw was only actually
engaged on 3 lobes…safety factor high.
The mince factor was beginning to rise, and I only caught
snippets of what happened with more far flung groups. Jack and Amy had been
bouldering all day, and Steve ruined his ankle falling off a VS. Emily also
took a sizeable whipper on her VS, and Peate pumped out on Square Chimney and
ruined his own fingers. Ellie and Sam continued to climb as the drizzle fell,
and attracted a crowd of spectators as Frosty abseiled into the gloom to
retrieve my gear in the distance. The route, a VS called Z Climb, was described
as ‘extremely traditional’ by Almscliff guru Frosty, necessitating loads of
jams. Put it this way, I ain’t leading it. Ellie gave it a serious effort
before she took another excellent fall- good gear skills everyone! Bethan also got a first lead in on Low Man before the dark began to close in.
 |
| Urghh... |
 |
| Hero mode! |
At this point only a few groups were still climbing. I
headed off to give the final HVS classic Demon Wall a bash, but got ludicrously
pumped on the top section and couldn’t make the final massive reach for the
jug. Each go I had I felt worse and took several massive falls, one the length
of the crag. I eventually bailed and handed over to Lally, who was also too
pumped and fell. Chris made us feel weak by flashing a V6, while Frost casually
completed his warmup circuit of a V6 and a few V7’s. At this point we were
tired and packed up to go home- a great long day on a great grit crag. Everyone
was knackered by all accounts- unsurprised! Almscliff is an unforgiving beast
of a crag- if you can climb VS here you can climb it anywhere. Lots of
whippers, and lots of good gear- if you aren’t flying, you aren’t trying! Keep
the psych levels high for Wales!
No comments:
Post a Comment