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!