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!