A brief return to Yorkshire

Thoroughly psyched from Saturday's lovely day out, we headed East once again to sample the delights of ice cold grit.

Caley
It looked well dark from the road but on my insistence, we headed up the hill to find Blockbuster pretty primo save for the topout slab foothold which was easily towelled.

A variety of interesting eliminates on the roof just below the block were contrived and we decided to finish the warmup on Blockbuster itself.

Things started badly with a lot of failure to grasp holds and then finding it desperate to move with the left foot up. We slowly got into it and before long both had a preferred sequence, me jumping off the grim pocket fingerlock to the crimp and Dave utilising the pinches (both to jump off for left hand and catch with right hand.

I thought I may get away with carrying an injury on my left arm (had to stop after a 20 min session warming up indoors on Monday yet again with massive pains down my arm), but after 1 decent go of catching the crimp, foot on, left hand into sidepull crimp and the mother of all power screams... I dropped the high flakeline and with the failure came a lot of pain in the left arm compounded by blood letting through the back of the fingers!

Emery had turned up in the meantime and found my failures hilarious. Fortunately he didn't nip in for a quick lap to make it a truly awful experience ;) Dave P, merseyside's current strongest man of the moment basically made it look like a path several minutes later. It was indeed a great effort.

Almscliff
We stopped off for some pies at the farmshop and headed up t'Cliff to meet Steve again as he warmed up on the Keel. I went over to Patta's arete dosed up on Ibuprofen for something more crimpy and less army. My total butter skin made it impossible to make any progress, as I continually greased on the holds in minus 2 winds?! Attention switched to the dyno thing to the right which went down once I got rid of my flat shoes and smeared with the Teams which worked right away, strange.

Back over to the Keel area and I noticed the fairly good looking line that took the Cherry Falls crimp with the left and bust out to the sidepull before going for the top break. Go 1 ended in going for the wrong part of the sidepull too low down. Go 2 was a stretched out slap at the top break and thankfully go 3 was a casual lap to the top just in time before my left index tore in half!

I Stopped while ahead as the arm started to feel a bit achey again and watched Steve try the Real Keel. Got a couple snaps and then went up top to spot Dave on Stu's left only to come into some fierce ice winds of death. Bail was the first thought that sprung to mind... but undetered I sprinted over and gave Dave the beast the tiny bit of encouragement he needed. He sketched his way to the top looking slightly less steady than on Blockbuster (no photos as the spot was preferred!) Great to see another 7b+ crushfest during the week.

Another pint in the Hunters was most welcome, with the open fire bringing us back to life and able to feel various limbs again.

Going to have to take 4-5 days off and really let this left arm recover as I don't fancy turning it into a long term niggle where I'd be holding back in font or having to do slabs for 8 days till my toes bled.

Glorified uphill walking

Is how I have often thought of gritstone climbing. My opinion has changed a bit this weekend as I spent a thoroughly enjoyable day out in Yorkshire with Dave P and Steve Honeyman.

Ilkley

We met up at the back of the calf and had a good warmup on the woody style warmup problems. I got spanked on most of these so decided to head round the corner for my goal of the day, Ringpiece.

It was steep, had big holds and looked both reachy and burly, perfect! Thoughts of an easy flash were going through my mind so I made sure every hold was chalked and the ring was dry! A chalk up and a stretch then into action as I got the fat pinch, wedged a toe in and came into the undercut, feet planted and lunge to glory... only to fail and hit the mat. Should have tried a bit harder!

A couple more tries and it went down without a hitch getting stood up above on to a snow covered block. I decided retreat was the best option and reversed to the lip.

Dave crushed it in a similar fashion soon after and Steve got close before making the decision to get on the main goal.

We popped over to Curious Yellow wall and it looked pretty luminous on top. I decided to warm up for Curious by crushing the simple looking arete to the left only to receive the hard shutdown for the next hour or more! It felt a bit glassy on the holds but was probably just our general punterdom at play.

I had a handful of goes on Curious getting stood up on the thin RH undercut and trying to find the correct place to wrap the left toe in order to come over to the small LH intermediate crimp (before you lunge to the pocket/edge). Got close on 1 try on this move but no cigar. Steve got to a similar position a few times which was quite impressive as I reckon it is way harder to get standing up without the long reach and having a bent arm to pull in on. One to go back to for sure.

T' Cliff

With the light starting to fade we sped over to the cliff and climbed the fantastic Matterhorn arete that i had shamefully never done! I then almost had an epic on the 5C problem to the left of this which felt fully hard.

Dave suggested a quick look at Matt's roof and with our literal sea of pads (about 8 between 3 of us) We just about made it appealing. It looked pretty amazing and something I could do. So we booted up and I watched Dave have a go like the beta whore I am.

First go was a near miss of catching the hold. 2nd go was going past it and 3rd go, it was in the bag. A truly lovely basic board problem.

A final dash as the stars came out over to the Demon Wall Roof area.... Dave crushed Stu's Roof LH all the way to being stood up above the lip and then fell off due to a total lack of light making it a case of braille climbing!

An athletes diet of a pint in the Hunter's bar was followed by a kebab and some more pints in the metropolitan town of Huddersfield.

Sunday morning

We opened the curtains at Steve's and it had totally fucked it down with snow! Donnelly rang to say he had bailed the cave with the Mills. We had a lazy morning of coffee and watched some psyche which made me long for dry stable weather that seems widespread in a lot of the US!

We attempted to leave around 2ish and Dave's van required a jumpstart to let us limp back to Merseyside, tired but keen for the return leg on Tuesday (weather permitting).

Stepping it up

In the slow build up to another font trip, I have been keen to get out to new venues to try and diversify my climbing from doing redpoints on In Hell.

Sunday 14th

Went over to the Wirral and met Andy and Becki at Green Lane (aka Hell), and we shot off towards what looked the best option in a sunny Llanberis pass. The sky was bright blue and the sun was wonderful. As we neared the A55 exit, it had already clouded over and the rain was getting steadier.

We got to Llanberis and it was grimness. A quick brew in Petes and we headed into the pass to check things out. There was a team huddled under Jerrys Roof and nobody else at Roadside. The rain was only light, so we got a bit of a warmup on the roadside face with only myself enjoying the wet topout practice that required a cool head.

Rather than ring Doyle and beg for entry to the Mill, we decided to go check out Elephantitus Cave. It was a bit brighter over the other side of Pen Y pass and by the time we had walked in to the cave it had stopped raining and brightened up a little.

A bit of brushing and hold fondling and I was pretty psyched. The first moves on Elephantitus were a joy rolling into big pinches and then the slightly unnerving throw to the sloper off the matching crimps. Luckily my hand stuck and the heel-toe stayed in, matching was ok and I just about caught the break above to get the flash in the bag.

Andy had a good go at the flash but didn't enjoy the crimps too much as he had ben out at Wimberry with Fatneck on Saturday and had no tips! Becki did most of the moves but struggled on the reach out left as well as the slap to the sloper. It was good to see her actually climbing and looking vaguely psyched for a change!

Next up was Going down on an Elephant which looked nice and basic. I thought I could get the flash in the bag, so didn't really worry too much about the sequence. I pulled on and crossed over to the flatty edge, got the lock on and matched the right foot into the starting hold whilst flagging past with the left. Looking up and left I realised I was miles away from the pinch/sidepull on Elephantitus and was stuck under my right arm! I held the lock for what seemed an eternity and finally tried to jump sideways only to land flat on my side! Fail.

Slightly bemused, it was time to look properly. Becki pointed out the obvious ticked intermediate 2 finger crimp and this proved to be the key. Next go and I was across up into the slap to the sloper only to change my Elephantitus beta and use the low pinch to go for the sloper instead of the crimps I had used 5 minutes ago. This ended in a horizontal deck out banging my right heel hard on a rock and getting a bruised arse! I fueled up on some banana and got it done next go without any problems.

I started to look at Tusk and then the heavens opened causing all of the lip to rapidly turn into a small waterfall as the rain came down the slab above. We bailed to V12 for a coffee and then on to a nice pub on Ollies recommendation (just at the turnoff towards the Beacon). Going against my performance related alcohol plan for 2010 I treated myself to a pint (the usual requirement being a new 7C). I thought I could earn it on Tuesday instead!

Tuesday 16th

After resetting and testing the step wall at work, I was a bit knackered 3rd day on. The weather dictated the cave as the only option and I wasn't my usual psyched self. As we got nearer to the Orme, the Sky was blue and the sun shone down. It was glorious!

The warm up felt ok as it was nowhere near as bitter as it had been over Christmas and January. We met Dave Pinnington and Andy Farnell in there and everyone seemed keen to crush something. I couldn't face redpointing In Hell in a fatigued state so chose to try something new which would allow more excuse for failure and keep it fun. Dave was workiing Broken Heart, so I joined him and Pete Chadwick on this. It took a couple of tries of the heel-toe to make it work and when it finally did I managed to fluke my way through to the rail and across into Clever Beaver only to fall off coming into the undercut after catching the sloper. Total power out but quite pleased at getting that far.

A bit of a rest and another go. I got to the break and for some reason decided to go for the shorter link into Beaver Cleaver forgetting that it is pretty desperate and failed to even catch the initial throw for the lip!

Pretty knackered by now, I thought it would be good to try and punish the body, so got the mats under In Hell and started to warm up again as it had gone freezing and the fingers and toes were suffering. A couple of false starts remembering body positions and I got across part 1 into RA flake, across the pockets and stepped off feeling boxed, with numb fingers.

Rather than be dismayed at failing, I decided to try repeat Trigger Cut. The first moves were still ok thankfully but I failed to feel good on the slap to the shothole once again! It's a bit of a puzzle really as it felt ok last year when I got it done but have never been able to hold since. It must be a subtle body position that I have not yet remembered and needs addressing if I am to try and get Halfway House done. Speaking of which...

I decided to try and link in having only done it once in the past by fluke. Rather than just press the left toe in and bring the right foot around straight into the heel, I managed to climb off the Lou F ramp into the TC start holds, keep the left foot on the Lou F ramp and bring the right foot out and toe hook the Greenheart undercut. Releasing the left foot and pulling in felt ok and I got the left foot up onto the start foothold of TC. The right heel went up and the left foot flagged. The Trigger in my hand... then nothing left in the tank!

It was a great way to end the session climbing as far as I had before into TC from both hands on the Louey ramp in a state of knackeredness. I don't think it will be an issue to get into the slap for the shothole move from the start after a good rest day but that move is going to need sorting out soon (without resorting to kneebars!) before I can consider it as being a realistic goal.

I think I am addicted to the cave and can only hope it translates a bit to font for things like Eclipse, Biceps Mou, Aerodynamite..etc

Back once again

To the Barrow of Trow with Strong Smiley Dave, he of the silver mane.

As we headed up the M6 in glorious sunshine and clear skies... our concerns briefly grew when we started to get a bit of light rain outside Lancaster. Luckily there was no need to worry as temps were good and more importantly the Shelterstone was bone!

A quick warmup showing Dave all the classics on Red Wall went smoothly but for some reason he wasn't that inspired and wanted to make haste to some large boulder we passed on the way in.

I recognised it almost instantly and threw the regulation laps of Funk phenomena, Vitruvian (getting a massive random palm flapper in the process on my LH!?) and Pit Problem. Dave crushed; getting the funk, burling the pit problem and then finally grasping defeat from the jaws of victory by dropping the TOP of Vitruvian man (the big jug!). I was impressed by his ability to get things done fast (something the Crouch is unfamiliar with... as I prefer to piss the moves in overlapping halves then fail to link things for months).

I had one go of Iron Man and got into the stand holds from the shitter, only to find I was buttering that pinch all over in spite of it being Zero degrees C! I decided to sack and focus, went round back and after 2 near misses, brawled my way up Texas Hold Em for a very satisfying nemesis problem tick! (The list has now shortened to T Crack, Handy Andys and Wavelength!)

Flush with success I tackled the 6C/V5 groove which has always felt the living end. I recalled a vision me and the Donnelly had at the end of last session and with fresher arms it went down after a couple of false slaps at the top. This left a nice link to tidy things up and it went down without a hitch from the Iron Man sitter.

The warm down involved doing the wheelbarrow moves into the groove but my bad skin shut down the redpoint, greasing off the pit problem setup into the slap up.