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Sunday 2 January 2011

New year!!!

Its a new year and there is much climbing to be done. So far ive been climbing for a little over a year and there are still many places to see on the native moors. I'm also psyced for eyeing up new places and my new years resolution is to get better at climbing, fix my head, and get good enough to begin developing the moors even more and eventually become an activist :O. First stop, development of Blawath crag :)

a step up!!

After the ice melted, the temperatures hit 2 degress :o so we decided to have a look at ravenswick quarry for an afternoon. This was for 2 reasons. One we were all desperate to get out climbing again, especially after christmas to use the new boulder mats and 2, because blacks had a sale on, and so, i went for it and bought the first bits of my rack :). set of wires-£25 and almost a set of hexes-£37 :) bon. This was then combined with some of my friends more 'dated' gear, though still sound (suprisingly none of which was placed). I have learning the techniques for outdoor climbing and leading for the past year thanks to a far far more experienced climber than my self (thanks Matt).

On arival we found the crag drenched from top to botom on nearly every climb. aswell as this, all of the low angle climbes were covered in snow :(. Even the black wall (the all weather gym) had taken a fair brunt of dampness after all the snow and only the most chalked holds were still dry :(.

Too psyced, we couldnt leave and so set about having a climb, more specifically my first lead. If I had done this climb any other time it would have been a solo if i'm honest, vdiff i think. however in the conditions it was more like a HVS and took me a fair while. I guess we could call that a lead? well lets see who tells me other wise first, (bet i can guess).

After that, we bouldered around and Jake had a go at leading on the rigging solo. I'm hoping to go back before the end of the holidays to lead something good and proper and have a good bouldering sesh :)

Saturday 1 January 2011

ice

After the 'experience' had at blawath crag and later raveswick quarry, i deiced that in these obscene temperature, that i should stay inside. But then, after watching the developments on the moors for ice and mixed climbing by some hardie soles, I felt psyced for some exploration on some slightly more local turf.

Please note: although much of this ice looks easily breakable, the pillars were infact about 1.5 foot thick in the thinest part and went upto 4foot thick and could easily take axes and crampons without breaking.


Then came a problem, to winter climb you need axes and crampons among other things, none of which i have. However, after hearing some of jake hampshires antics in a local wood with some uber ancient (posibly prehistoric) axes and walking crampons, i thought we should have a good look.




I remembered that the prvious year i had come across some ice on the cliffs (most of which fall down) in the woods after looking for rock climbing. (if you saw this, you would think whitestone cliff the safest cliff around) i then found some slighly more stable quarried limestone in the woods which had large ice pillars.








So.... of we went with wooden axe in hand, (bombproof) iron axe in other and crampons on feet to explore this local ice. The ice was in good condition and the routes ranged from around 5-8 metres and possibly higher and of probably about grade II - V, we had a go at some of the easier 6 metre falls which were about grade III or IIII? and then leaft the impresive wall and pillars which were a good green tinge indicating the ice was quite strong.

Then after a few days, the ice began to melt and collapse and so we will have to weight untill another cold patch to climb ice again :P mean while though, with temperatures pushing above 0 i think it might be time to have another trip of the rock :)