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.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
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?
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!
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.....
'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!)
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'.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Monday, 19 September 2011
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! :)
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! :)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Wet Wainstones
Went back to the wainstones, this time with Rory, with four intensions.
1. Attempt 'Ali Baba'
2. Do 'Pebble climb'
3. Attempt 'West sphinx'
4. Solo the 'sphinx nose traverse'
So i'd turned up with great intensions and didn't expect to manage them all. We started off by soloing a few of the trade routes, with wall and ledge and east sphinx direct becoming a bit of a tradition!
We then met some nice chaps who I ended up giving a tour of the boulders. They were looking for something 'ard so I pointed them in the directions of 'For leichenstein' 'The prow', 'The right side of the prow???' and 'The Finger'
Rory had a go at a few of the classic lines and then I made a keen repeat ascent of 'central route' (this time with a bit less sloper grunt).
Shortly after, I bumped into Jason Wood, someone i'd heard about and always wanted to meet. He showed me a few of the exellent boulder problems such as 'The shelf' and showed me the way on 'Pebble climb'.
My next objective was to climb either ali baba, or west sphinx. It had been drissleing on and off all morning and I thought the entry groove to ali baba might be a bit slippy, so west sphinx it was! So, anyway, as I racked up, It began to rain, at first I thought this a bit of a pour excuse, but then I looked what looked like a rock over move I would have to do, and decided to sack it off :P.
After a quick look at the prow, we walked along to ravenscar to 'have a look'. No suprise it was wet, especially the top of satchmo which would have been my objective. Then it began to rain harder and so we did a bit of bouldering around the 'ahab' area. The direct start made a good problem at about english 6a, although i didnt fully top out ahab due to the waterfall.....
bouldering around ahab
We also had a go at a dino at the start of 'Rock Bottom' from the first good break to the next, although we never completed it as what looks good is infact sloping! One to come back to.
dynoing from large break to the break above, looked positive, infact sloping!
Overall, a bit of a failure in terms of objectives ticked, but actually turned out quite well, meeting some sound people and propably gaining some strength.
Then, to top it off, we missed the last bus. Doh!
Hair line crack in the bench waiting for dad to pick us up! we aided across it, *** aid route, will make a hard project, there are now holds in the form of peg scars ;)
1. Attempt 'Ali Baba'
2. Do 'Pebble climb'
3. Attempt 'West sphinx'
4. Solo the 'sphinx nose traverse'
So i'd turned up with great intensions and didn't expect to manage them all. We started off by soloing a few of the trade routes, with wall and ledge and east sphinx direct becoming a bit of a tradition!
We then met some nice chaps who I ended up giving a tour of the boulders. They were looking for something 'ard so I pointed them in the directions of 'For leichenstein' 'The prow', 'The right side of the prow???' and 'The Finger'
Rory had a go at a few of the classic lines and then I made a keen repeat ascent of 'central route' (this time with a bit less sloper grunt).
Shortly after, I bumped into Jason Wood, someone i'd heard about and always wanted to meet. He showed me a few of the exellent boulder problems such as 'The shelf' and showed me the way on 'Pebble climb'.
My next objective was to climb either ali baba, or west sphinx. It had been drissleing on and off all morning and I thought the entry groove to ali baba might be a bit slippy, so west sphinx it was! So, anyway, as I racked up, It began to rain, at first I thought this a bit of a pour excuse, but then I looked what looked like a rock over move I would have to do, and decided to sack it off :P.
After a quick look at the prow, we walked along to ravenscar to 'have a look'. No suprise it was wet, especially the top of satchmo which would have been my objective. Then it began to rain harder and so we did a bit of bouldering around the 'ahab' area. The direct start made a good problem at about english 6a, although i didnt fully top out ahab due to the waterfall.....
We also had a go at a dino at the start of 'Rock Bottom' from the first good break to the next, although we never completed it as what looks good is infact sloping! One to come back to.
Overall, a bit of a failure in terms of objectives ticked, but actually turned out quite well, meeting some sound people and propably gaining some strength.
Then, to top it off, we missed the last bus. Doh!
Friday, 2 September 2011
Moors Youth Team!
On Wednesday, me and Jake went for a trip to the wainstones to meet two other young moors climbers from 'the other side' of the moors, Jack Graham and Matthew Ferrier. Its quite exiting to meet someone new who climbs on the moors crags and especially if they're into new routing. When we arrived, Jack and Matthew were on 'Tiny's dilemma' so Jake desided to start off with the classic, and one of the best routes in the moors, 'The sphinx nose traverse'.
After soloing a few routes, I got on Concave wall, another moors classic and a fantastic slab climb.
Then Jake lead and I soloed Tiny's Dilemma, another good route.
Jake soloing 'East sphinx direct'
Meanwhile Jack and Matthew were on 'central route' another superb moors hvs which we also climbed later.
After the teams 'storm' of some of the crags classics, we retired to the boulders.
'The youth team'
It was really good to meet more psyched people, the moors scene is getting bigger! There has been another surge of development recently which has led to some fantastic new routes and problems being put by the whole moors crew. Hopefully next time we can have a whole 'moors crew' photo with some nice esoterica in the background!
After soloing a few routes, I got on Concave wall, another moors classic and a fantastic slab climb.
Then Jake lead and I soloed Tiny's Dilemma, another good route.
Meanwhile Jack and Matthew were on 'central route' another superb moors hvs which we also climbed later.
After the teams 'storm' of some of the crags classics, we retired to the boulders.
It was really good to meet more psyched people, the moors scene is getting bigger! There has been another surge of development recently which has led to some fantastic new routes and problems being put by the whole moors crew. Hopefully next time we can have a whole 'moors crew' photo with some nice esoterica in the background!
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Highs and Lows at High Crag
Myself, Franco and Dave were headed for High Crag. Our objectives, to try some of the original routes, get pictures on Warrior and put up a new route. I had heard rumours of legend about the crags uniquely steep walls and selection of hard and rarely repeted routes.
We trail blazed our way up to the crag and there it was, In all its glory, stood hidden in the woods.
The main face. Warrior Climbs the Huge crack groove!
Me and Dave began by climbing Kestral Crack while Franco abbed down various possible projects.
Kestrel Crack **
Originally given HVS 5b, we desided it was a bit ard and is likely E1 5b**
Next, it was time to 'get the scoop' so I gave warrior a try, one of the best E2s on the moors!
I found it difficult just about all the way up. Near the top, I thought about slumping, however great encouragement from below brought out my last 5% of effort and I got to the top of my best lead to date! YES!
After the lead....
After one of the best E1s and one of the best E2s on the moors. I was knackered. Franco had a look at a possible new line, but unfortunately, it had been raining for the last few hours and it was wet. Ah well, all in all, a damn bon day!
We trail blazed our way up to the crag and there it was, In all its glory, stood hidden in the woods.
Me and Dave began by climbing Kestral Crack while Franco abbed down various possible projects.
Originally given HVS 5b, we desided it was a bit ard and is likely E1 5b**
Next, it was time to 'get the scoop' so I gave warrior a try, one of the best E2s on the moors!
After the lead....
After one of the best E1s and one of the best E2s on the moors. I was knackered. Franco had a look at a possible new line, but unfortunately, it had been raining for the last few hours and it was wet. Ah well, all in all, a damn bon day!
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