Bouldering meet and Whitestone!!!

On Friday, i went towards Kay nest to go bouldering at the moors bouldering meet. Lee turned out to be in malton. So I went there and met him at Morrison's, sporting my Ron hills which are the best climbing trouser in the world and better than 'Cypher pants'.

After spending some time in the cafe, we drove to the crag and walked in, in the dark. Lee and James were lucky enough to have tents. I however did not. In the morning, with my sleeping bag resembling a wet lettuce, I woke up and went off for a walk to look at some of the boulders, there are some impressive lines and some high ball problems which are good. When I got back, my sleeping back appeared to have frozen and I cooked myself I fry up!

Shiver Bivvy!

Failed egg!

Finally the sun came out, and I climbed on the 'battleship', a fantastic highball boulder.

By this time, more people had turned up.

Me, James and Lee went down to find two more good boulders and I put up 'For me to no, for you to find out' font 6a.

We also saw some very impressive climbing!...

Mike Adams on the 'Canon' 8a

I had to leave, and walked back along the dale. Some how I ended up somewhere completely different to when we walked in. But I ended up in the same place.


Whitestone!! What a crag! One of the finest in Yorkshire!
On Sunday, myself and Joe got the bus to whitestone cliffe. Joe's never really been a fan of roped climbing, preferring to solo the shorter routes on the moors. But I was determined to get him into climbing proper routes on mature Stilton. We started off on 'gauche', easy but good. Joe lead the first pitch, this being his first outdoor lead, some crag to do it at ey!?

After topping out the route, Jake had arrived and so we abseiled back in again! I reminded Jake how he had got pumped last time he tried a VS and he decided he wasn't psyched for a lead. Shame that. Ever since Jake had lead 'Frigg' I'd wanted a go, however as I was walking along, I saw the old aid line of 'Mars Bar'. It didn't look like anything too special, but looked pretty cool!
Feeling the alpine spirit, I quickly got on it in an attempt to free the line!

Some of those flakes, were a tad wobbly and a few chose to depart during the proceedings. Joe was particularly lucky after his balls were saved by his belay loop from a large chunk of falling debris.
I continued up the line, not often finding gear, and but lots of loose holds.

The climb is well protected throughout.......

I eventually reached the roof section which i thought might be possible from the ground. On further inspection, it looked loose and hard and also dangerous even to aid? After some negotiating with the belayer who hard been constantly bombarded by projectiles, I decided to escape left :( .

Safety?

Anyway, some how, I managed to lost on my escape, creating ridiculous amounts of rope drag as I teetered up the final arete. Eventually i resorted to pulling several metres worth of slack out before the it managed to pull me off! Finally, getting to the top after my 50 minute epic, I shouted in celebration and sat down, thank full to be at the top!

Jake and Joe followed and once they'd reached the top, we decided to call it a day. However, I think the draw of whitestone is sure to bring me back to tackle it once more!

Rain.

I got the train to Leeds to meet up with Dave Warburton. The weather looked 'iffy' but still worth a shot. We went to Baildon Bank which has a most pleasant walk in where you can meet a variety of 'Leeds charaters'. On approach, it began to rain so to start off, I tried 'Joanna', one of the classic VS' and it has to be said its a fine route! By now, many of the faces were quite wet, so we went over to 'punter about' on 'Big Curver', another lesser often climbed, but good route.

We were keen to have a look at the crag in the woods after this and were quite surprised to find it had recently seen a lot of attention, for both trad and bouldering.

Some of the routes looked good, if not a little sand-bagged ;)

Now the rain had become worse and we were fairly 'de-psyched' so left for the train. I had a tour round Leeds which was enjoyable and student life seems fairly enjoyable?! Then I got back on the train and headed for home, having done two routes but feeling like it'd been a big day! The people you meet on the train are quite fascinating you know, so maybe I'll end up taking psychology at university?

On Sunday, me and Jake went to Blakey Ridge, and again the weather was crap. Jake/I had decided he wanted to do his first E1 as his 17th birthday is tomorrow! We decided to visit the newly developed 'Middle Ridge Crag' and fancy our chances on 'Moral high ground' on the railway buttress. The buttress was soaking and not as good as it had appeared on the picture. The left hand VS is in fact OK but the other two are either a bit gash or eliminate. Jake made attempts at the route but ended up just getting pissed off and sacked it off.

We walked over to round crag, where we hoped to top rope some of the harder lines on the pinnacle and give 'twin cracks' E1 a go.

The pinnacle buttress has seen a lot of work recently from Franco and Dave which has made a great improvement to the routes. Unfortunately, due to the wet weather, they weren't particularly in condition although I imagine the previously cleaned routes such as Vamperic Obsession and Honey arete should be clean when dry.

We had a go at 'Octopet' E4 6b on top rope, which looks as though it could be a good route, but its in fact not and is like a greasy pile of grease, which has has extra grease on it with not very good moves. The rest of the routes routes on the buttress look excellent however and I'm really psyched for 'Picnic @ hanging rock' ....
Franco has also set me a project to climb by the time I'm 16, we'll see how that goes.....

We walked along to the lion buttress, I had a go at 'twin cracks' E1 which i fell off and so also sacked off and then Jake got pumped on a VS......

Camp Hill and Clemitts Revisited

Today we had a training day at school so the plan was to go to whitestone cliffe with Rory and maybe climb some of the lesser climbed lines such as 'Pie and pea Pillar' HVS. When he got on the bus though, he was told the bus no longer gos to Sutton bank on weekdays so we had to change our plans!

We scrounged a lift part way and then biked the rest to Camp Hill crag battling the ever increasing wind. When we got there, it was pretty windy, but at least it was dry and most of the bracken had died! We did some of the usual solos including 'Tempest' which was quite exhilarating when a gust almost knocked me off at the top!

In a moment of inspiration, I decided to try and solo 'cling wrap'. This is something I'd failed at on our first trip in march, then finally led in late April. And now, I'd soloed it, despite the now 50 mph winds!

Something I'd seen in the past as a possible new route was the arete at the right end of the main buttress. There was some debate as to whether it would stray into 'waves within' but today i decided to give it a try on top rope, and it seems it doesn't and in fact holds some fantastic and weird moves! I managed to just about link it once and i reckon 6b climbing. It looks as though there's bugger all gear either! Could be an interesting proposition.

We went down to the strict arete boulder, and had a good mess about and I managed 'Strict arete', something id not managed and had a dodgy knee whacking fall on when i went with Franco, James and Billy but today managed it on about my fourth attempt?

Moors Loon!                                             That's 'ard that!

It's been good to see my progress over the year, and today has sort of confirmed it by climbing some of the harder lines I'd looked at and failed on before!

'Finger print preservation society'
We went down to clemitts afterwards hoping it would be in condition. In fact, it was although we didn't last for long and so began the long ride back home with the wind in our face!

We love to boogie!

Ravenswick New Routing, Duck Boulders and Oak Crag

On Saturday I went to Ravenswick with Joe to go and put up some dodgy new routes.

The only buttress left in the quarry which doesn't have any routes on it is 'Far Right Butress' aka 'Stinking Beaver Buttress'.

Joe soloing 'Rough and Tumble' XS 4a*

We climbed three slightly dodgy lines, which was a bit scary but pretty fun! Topping out was a bit of a job though...

Thinking... 'erm what should I do now?'

From Left to right, 'Gutter Guts' XS 4c, 'Rough and Tumble' XS 4a*, 'Rock Spit' XS 4b.

It would be good to encourage people onto the walls further right, and maybe with traffic, the quality can improve, like the rest of Ravenswick, although beware of death.

Then, today I went with Lee, Chris and friends to the 'Duck Boulders' Quite a good area with one large boulder with some excellent lines and also a cool boulder, the '99p boulder'.

99p boulder.

Then we walked along to oak crag and did my usual solos.

Not bad eh!

Peak Scar at Night

The winter is coming! Myself, Matt and John have now resorted to visiting the bigger crags of the moors at night. This makes for some interesting experience gaining and one or two interesting moments! Peak scar is probably one of the best crags on the moors to visit at night; a fairly easy approach and steep walls which add to the atmosphere.

John lead 'Jordu' mean while Matt lead Pianissimo, which is probably bet climbed in the dark because you can see how unstable it is! I was pretty pleased to second him up this to say I've at least climbed it before it falls down!

I lead 'Ornithology', the must do novelty severe. Shimmying up the tree in the pitch black darkness, looking out into thin air is quite something, and the tree bends quite a bit!

Then I led 'Pemba Chimney' in a 'traditional style'. Ace!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but Johns got them.

Summer Round up.

The summer has just about drawn to a close so here's a summary of what's gone down!

It started off with a pretty successful trip to Peak scar, we had a crack at the 'classic' traverse of 'muligan mania', almost reaching the end!

And climbed a new route, 'Freebird' VS 4c*** a two or maybe three star route, basically a more direct version of 'wings', but with an ace position at the top of the route!


Mean while, Franco and Dave had 'returned' and were climbing several hard new routes at Danby. Whilst I was there Dave made the F.A. of 'The Polish Diplomat' E5 6b* A fairly bold wall climb with a horrendous last move.

I went on to climb the classic, 'Valliant' HVS 5a***

One of the highlights of the summer was the Lakes trip with Jake. Visiting Shepherds Crag, Quay foot Butress and Wodens Face, climbing some of the easier multi pitch classics.

Pitch 2 of 'Little Chamonix' our first route!

Top Pitch.

Jake leading 'Brown slabs arete' Best route of the trip?

We climbed 7 routes all together, most being pretty memorable! Ended up being a 12 hour day climbing!



The second day, we visited the superb quay foot buttress and very popular, but not quite so good wodens face.

Fantastic Trip!


Me and Matt had a bit of an 'experience' with the mountain rescue at oak crag while trying to gatecrash the cmc meat!

Ive had a few trips to whitestone cliffe, once with Jake and once with 'climbing elders' ;) Matt and John.

I climbed one of the best routes Ive done, 'Nightwatch' The best crack climb in Northern England?

We found a bomber cam too ;)

On my second visit, we climbed in the dark which made me realise just how great it is to be climbing instead of sat at home watching the TV! Made an amusing excuse for not doing my homework the next day too!

The second major trip of the summer was to Jersey with Jake.

Stop off at Hay Tor.

Our first climb of the trip was an ace three pitch multi pitch route. The longest route I've done and our first sea cliff!

We visited several ace crags! Belayed from a few 'exposed' belay ledges.....

And I did my first E2! Jersey Girl, cracking!

Jersey Girl Buttress.

Couldn't believe how ace granite was! had too come back to the sandstone though ;)

Almost as soon as I got back, I had a productive evening at Park Nab climbing some of the classics.

'The moors crew' meet at Ravenswick Quarry.

Later in the week I cadged a lift from Franco and Dave to Round Crag. There sights were set on their ground up project on the 'lion butress'

Their previous attempts in the dark had failed and so back again it was to try it. The line is an excellent slabby wall with tiny holds and fantastic moves and with gear in a good break, it makes a good ground up project.

They both had several attempts until finally Dave climbed it using a new sequence, closely followed by Franco. I then decided I may as well have a go, despite being no E5 leader. I managed the first hard move to a small crimp but from this I fell numerous times. Eventually, it ended with me taking a stupid fall and bashing my shin on a ledge, the remains of which are still heeling! The name of 'Mane Vision' was settled with the grade, E5 6c.

The rockover, but not the crux!

I met up with Franco and Dave again and we headed for High Crag which proved fruitful (for me at least!)

Warrior E2 5c***

I climbed warrior, my second E2 and a damn good one at that, and also climbed 'Kestrel Crack' HVS 5b, now E1 5b, both routes being a fantastic challenge with strenous moves.

Over the next two weeks I had two trips to the Wainstones, once with Rory and once with Jake. We met up with two other climbers from 'the other side' of the moors, Jack and Matthew to form 'The Moors Youth Team'.

Moors Youth Team

To finish the summer off, I had fairly relaxed weekend. I met some of the old first ascentionists of the moors which was proved interesting! Then the second day I went for a solo assault, visiting 4 crags and finally stumbling across Lee Robinson for a spot of bouldering, although my ankle was bodged so I didn't do anything.

Thanks to Franco and Dave who've been kind enough to give me several lifts to various crags and showing me rarely climbed gems which lie hidden deep in the Valleys in return for tea and cake.

Looking back, it's been a great summer with some fantastic memories; and as September now brings colder mornings, I think about the experience gained and another chapter turned in my climbing apprenticeship, knowing that I wouldn't have come so far if it wasn't for the spirit that the moors gives.

Peak scar meet and crag attack.

Just a quick and very concise blog about the weekends happenings, of course, not going into too much detail and keeping facts acurate.

Franco and Dave picked me up in helmsley as we were heading to Peak scar. Apparently it was the 50th anniversary of development at the crag and so some of the original ascentionists were returning to the crag! After meating my new mate 'John' we arrived at the crag and it rained. Franco raced down and said there was only two people, one wearing blue shoes.

We then headed to the pub and found the missing climbers. Met some intersting people, Alan Hinkes, Chris Shorter and Ken Jackson to name a few!

Anyway, turned out to be a good day dispite no climbing!


On sunday i went onto the moors alone, First stop castleton rig quarry, soloing about for a warm up. Next stop, look at a few undocumented crags with some promising and not so promising results! with a new VS and HVS, and possibly something bigger and better to come!

The I went to try body torque at stormy hall, which i obvioulsy wouldnt be able to do! but it makes a good picknick venue if its raining.

Last stop was round crag, ended up stubbleing (hurt my ankle) across Lee Robinson and his mate, who seemed though he was climbing pretty hard! I subsequently sat about, didnt do anything and recolected previous days climbing.

Prime weekend! :)