Malham

Went to malham cove the other week with Matt Capsey. Twas exiting to get out on to some proper limestone, which i had never climbed on being as the moors limestone lacks 'togetherness' and solidarity. The weather wasnt forcast for the best but even so, it wasnt raining. Matt lead some VS on right wing, either 'clubfoot' or 'swingover' and then we headed over to try to 'the cavern', a two pitch HVS. Matt lead the first pitch featuring a distinct lack of gear, up a tenuos slab and then over a roof to the cave belay. Then I began to lead up the second pitch. I made it out of the cave and into a high neiche but then it began to tip it down. Next was a polished slabby traverse with no gear so i decended to the belay and we abbed off.

Then we slid down to the bolted sport routes at the bottom, which provide some amusement but no 'serious' climbing. We climbed what has to be the best route there 'begozi and the ledge lizards' and then went to try 'hyperspace' which was finaly dispatched after the initial soap bar start. The top was especially interesting featuring a 5 metre run out off the top bolt into a chossy finish.

Malham is and interesting place....  Many of the routes seem to be polished to buggery however each is quite good. The bolted routes are pretty odd as there arnt many really significant features which make lines stand out, or so i thought anway. I am looking forward to going back for the trad though.

Also big respect to John Dunne.......

Working routes at ravenswick....

Recently the weather has been a bit poor so yesterday, me and Jake Hampshire went down to ravenswick quarry after school to have another crack at the project.

We warmed up on some of the boldering and then Jake made a speedy lead (and not so speedy top-out) of central wall, VS and then we went to try black magic.

Then another climber turned up from whitby for a training seshion, never got his name! Put in the low gear and then began trying it ground up. Got to grips with the moves again and then reached a new high point doing a hard rock over just below clipping the bolt. Then Jake had a crack reaching my high point on his first go. This lads on form despite being bound to his house revising for the last month or so! Had another go after and almost managed the rock over but fell off suffering some nasty rope burn to my leg.

Who knows? maybe im just not doing it right. one things for sure though, i dont want to get the shunt out on it!

And now, with the arrival of our new double ropes, im looking forward to our possible trip to the lakes.......

Ravenswick, further developments

Went to ravenswick with Rory Stead for a bit of a 'training sesh'. I ended up trying to ground up 'Black Magic' which is given E3 5c but is porbably more E3/E4 6a. So I ended up falling onto good gear (although it could be abit further from the ground) about 20 times and never managed it, maybe next time?

Then, on sunday, I headed to Thorgill crag to check out the new route potential. The crappest crag on the moors??. The bouldering is quite good though. After that i got the moors bus to hutton le hole and ran to revenswick as there was no one free to climb with. Ended up doing two new boulder probelms, both in the sixes, and then i ended up soloing two new lines, "Cross with the Choss about the Corner!" Vdiff. and "Crack on" VS 4c.

Must have had a good day, all my route names had exclamation marks!

Wainstones Ravenscar and Bivvying

Last Sunday, me and Rory headed up to the wainstones. I had four main objectives, which I knew I probably couldnt complete but I'd have a good go. They were, The sphinx nose traverse HS 4a, Concave wall HVS 5b, To attempt west sphinx climb E2 5b and to try Satchmo E2 5c. First I soloed some easier climbs, one of which was wall and ledge which was really good. Rory then lead some good climbs, fairly boldly aswell! After that I lead 'Spinx nose traverse' which is one of the best pitches ive ever done! The bold traverse is a superb and then the finish just makes it, a must for anyone climbing on the moors!

(Picture to come later)

After that, we did a bit of bouldering on A boulder.

After that, some pikeys came from Teeside. One of them was a particular worry as he began to strip off. Then the other one did. But thankfully, the fat one didnt and they put them back on again :P. So we didnt get any routes done for about 2 hours because we didnt know what they would do and one of them kept carrying rocks about. Thankfull, I think this is not a regular accurance here though! If you wanna meet pikeys, head to eston nab! After they had leaft, Rory's parents turned up to our suprise! We climbed the square pinacle which I havent yet worked out weather it was the Needle or the Steeple. So I arranged some sort of 'Interesting belay' and brought him up. Then we decended via absailing of a sling wrapped aroung the overhanging side of the butress which was also pretty interesting. After that, we had yet another 'issue'. The sling wouldn't flick off the top and as it was getting dark, we leaft it till morning and did some night bouldering with the cows instead.

The lights of Teeside and the north east shone all night and if you looked over, it almost felt like day time!

When we woke up it was raining, but thankfully the bivvy was still dry. Then I remebered that the sling was still sat there in the rain so I attemted to solo back up in trainers with a stick to nock it off but it was a bit sketchy so after about 20 minutes, I ended up putting on the climbing shoes! and managed to get onto the top and abseiled of again but this time without using the sling this time!

We were now pretty soaked so began the trudge back to catch the bus. On the way we had a look at Ravenscar and at satchmo which unfortunately had a soaking top-out :( . Looks ace though!

Once we'd got back to Helmsley, we met yet more weird people who offered us fish and chips, asked us where we were going and told us where the toilets were! weird stuff.
All in all, we had a pretty amusing time despite the lack of climbing. We met some 'interesting' people and had a few epics, so it was pretty good fun!

(Pictures to come!)

More from Clemitts!

After we discovered the bouldering potential of clemmits crag, it seems to be a crag that just keep on giving! This wednesday, I met up with Franco Cookson to continue exploring the potential of the crag. I biked to the crag and got there bang on time. After giving Franco a call, he'd just got up so I bouldered about for about an hour repeating the what are now classics, Doing 'Off the rails' and putting up three new problems on the outcast boulder. The first was a lip traverse, 'Lippy' font 6b, The second was a mantle, 'Lipo' font 5/+ and the third was a campus problem. 'Grandma's magic carpet' font 6a+.

After that, Franco arrived and we went to have a look at what else there was to be climbed. We set our sites on the block named 'Tsunami Wall' and we climbed the new problem  'Riders on the storm', font 6b/+.

After that, we headed round looking at what more new lines and blocks there were to be done. There is still much more potential, this is the font of the moors! We settled for attempting a new traverse on the 'Ground force block' which proved quite tricky in the conditions and we didnt manage it that day. Franco then made the first ascent the day after.

(Thanks to Franco for the Pictures)

Rosedale Ramblings

Last saturday I biked up to Rosedale by my self. Recently its been a bit of a dissapointment as theres been barely anyone to climb with due to their revision for exams. The other reason includes certain climbing friends becoming rather obsesive about cricket.......

So I went to a 'small' venue that me and Lee Robinson discovered and which I have been developing. Infact, it turns out to be 'not so small' and actually has quite a large range of highball and low ball bouldering. Lee and James Rennardson had already added a few more problems after our first folly which were all good quality. There problems include, 'The slot' 'The iron prow' and a few more on the 'great slab' and 'the slot block' After repeating some of their problems, I added a lip traverse into hard mantle, sevral no hands problems, more problems on the slot block and opened up a new slab.

Note: there are also some very hard, short problems, one of which is a massive 40 degree over hanging dyno, high 7's into low 8's??

Ravenswick - the wet weather gym!

After about 1 month or more of perfect weather, the rain has come so recently I've been getting across to ravenswick for some training seshions which it must me said is distinctly better than going paying £5 for indoor climbing and it gets your climbing better much much faster.

After ticking franco's problem, 'the condor' my first font 7a Ive been keen to add a few more problems to the curcuit. One of which was 'continuity error' which goes at around SSfont 6b. It envolves strenous dinamic moves to a dyno/lunge/rockover at the top on what are probably the best holds on the wall. There is also a harder project that will prbably be around font 6c+, could be harder, could be easier.

I've also been doing a bit of soloing. I went for a seshion with Joe Paxton and Rory Stead and we soloed various routes between moderate and VS 5a. The one I enjoyed most was probaly the one of least quality but I have to say it was definately comicle. The route was, 'The gutter' which involves bridgeing and jamming up a conner crack. Then you exit via the exit 'chimney' which consists of conglomerate 'soil' infused with the odd boulder or rouble. The chimney has to be thruched and as i exited, I was covered top to toe in mud, but it was fun! Its also pretty certain to say I caused a minnie landslide and as we returned a week later there was a pile of 'rouble' on the floor below. The other memorable experience was attempting to solo 'Franco's wall' E2. There was no one else there and it had been raining most of the morning. I started off up fairly well untill just above the middle section. I sort of lunged for a jug which subsequently fell off, pulling several other rocks down with it. So I landed with a little thud and then a showering of mud and rocks. Taught me not to soloing stuff in the rain at ravenswick!

One other impressive solo to note is the large arete on the left of the alcove which was soloed by Jake Hampshire by ascending the right hand wall first. It was pretty bold and quite impressive as we turned around and found Jake teetering up the final slab not having realised he'd left the ground!