Lakes Trip and The Hangar Comp

It's been a busy couple of weeks since I last bothered to post, maybe longer?!

On the August Bank Holiday weekend, I took a break from weights training to embark on a learning to climb again trip with Laura, Mark, the Hoppo crew and two strong geezers from Stockport.

Fri 26th

Wales looked well dodgy as did venues further south, so we headed north to St Bees. Without having booked anything, we eventually found a quiet campsite about 20 minutes drive from St Bees village that had plenty of space as well as a very unique bathroom/shower setup built into quaint sheds about the size of kids playhouses.

Friday was spent at St Bees South and having never been before, we opted to walk along the coastline and check out area A en-route to the better stuff. It looked pretty poor, so we went straight across to the Kraken area.

After a warmup on some great technical walls, we moved over and all climbed the missing corner block which featured big pockets and a great kneebar move. The Kraken could wait no longer and after watching Michael have an attempted pull on, I patted some chalk on the holds and flashed the normal version, before he swiftly followed. Mark then cruised along it after getting untangled from his long legs underneath the rock. I climbed the Kraken LH straight after which shared the same start and then a nice delicate rockover left onto and up the slab.

We moved round the corner and I flashed the sitter to Black Hole using a very sketchy high left heel to get to the good pocket. Michael repeated this by simply campussing about 4 moves in a row!

We decided to get off early and get an ice cream, when I realised I hadn't tried Killer Bee. The others sighed, so I threw down 2 pads and had a great flash attempt pulling on, getting a left knee scum and slapping up again LH only to overshoot the small crimp and slide over it. I wasn't to be denied and on the 2nd go I caught the crimp and then slapped through to the top. It's a great couple of moves but probably a bit on the soft side?

Sat 27th

The day dawned beautifully sunny and we made an early start over to St Bees North via Morrisons.

After getting lost looking for the easy route down so as not to make Ma Hoppo flip her lid... Ian found the path and we all rushed down and across the boulders, which took a bit of time but was preferable to the death descents.

We warmed up around the Apiary area with the lids making short work of Headbanger. Despite it being in the shade, myself, James, Tom and Michael all got shut down on Clash of the Titans. This must be the hardest 7A+ I have ever tried bar the infamous one at Franchard Sablons. As that is the 3rd time I've been and left empty handed.

Thoroughly warmed up, myself, James and Tom all got up Chipper's Wall but only after sacrificing a pad to the water pond to the left to avoid twisted ankles.

James crushed the grim mono crossover problem of Dan's around the corner Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and I did the direct on the left. We then both tried and failed spectacularly on Power of RAA but felt it might be a tad easier not in direct sun and +20deg heat. My best effort was getting up the layback bit and left hand on the very thin scoop gaston trying to move my feet up and right on to poor smears. Keen to go back for this.

Everyone shifted down to Fisherman's as Ma Hoppo sunbathed and Ian did a spot of fishing.

A few of us flashed the basic jump and campus problem of Parky 93 and James did the very tricky arete problem. Laura crushed the dirty crimp problems on the wall around the corner and I got Fruits de Mer ticked in a couple of goes from a hanging start eliminating the block underneath but unsure if this is the correct method?

As the sun disappeared and a massive wall of rain headed towards us, we knew it was time to bail.

I got a bit of running beta off Tom and after a couple of warm up goes, I got hold of the crimps on Lateral Mindset and made the massive slap up to the sloping ledge above. It was great to do such an amazingly unlikely problem which I had written off as not possible a few years ago.

Me and Mark cajoled Laura into having another go on Fishermans dyno after a slight tantrum/hissy fit had shocked us a bit! :P Luckily she persevered and managed to make the heel stay on long enough to grab the high jugs and it was in the bag.

Unfortunately as we topped out at the lighthouse area, the Wall of rain caught up with us and we were drenched from head to toe by the time we reached the farm!

Another night of good food and plenty of ale in the pub made up for this :)

Sun 28th

The weather was about to turn so we headed across the Lakes for a brew and cake in Keswick before heading down Borrowdale to the mighty Bowderstone.

Most of the guys hadn't been so I gave a bit of a tour and managed to upset some others who were already there who left shortly after our arrival. I guess they were expecting solitude on a bank hol?

There was a lot of attempting but not much achieving as we kept getting spells of rain soaking the lip holds on a few things.

Laura managed a great 2nd go ascent of The Crack Direct and Youngy likewise. James ticked through everything I showed him including Impropa Opera 2nd go and managed to drop the last move of Grand Opera on the flash purely down to wet holds!

We both got Slapstick done the dyno way which was also has a great crossunder move after sticking the initial sloper.

As the weather got worse, we stopped climbing and then had our overdue BBQ under cover after being denied it at St Bees. We finished off the day in the pub down the road and camped overnight hoping for better weather.

Mon 29th

James and Tom had to get off early, so the 4 remaining decided to have one more quick session at the Stone.

After a hard 4th-day-on warmup, Michael got agonisingly close to Impropa, dropping the last hold a few times.

A guy from down South was trying the low left sitter into Phantom and gave me a great piece of beta for the last move on Grand Opera. With this new knowledge of dropping the left foot off to make the last move, I managed it in a couple of goes. Another down in the quest to tick the Operas!

I had a long rest and then tried my main aim on the Stone, XXXX. I quickly worked out where to put the feet for the moves and then had a couple of good goes at linking the whole thing. I had 1 good attempt with fingers on the lip but not quite enough to hang on and bump! The goes got gradually worse slapping further away from this high point but I was getting into this slap move every go. Hopefully I can get a trip back up there sooner rather than later if the shocking weather abates.

Me and Michael got back to Liverpool still motivated and after a subway, crushed a load of the new pink v6-11 set that Shauna and Ged had been setting before total collapse occured.

End of Summer Hangar Comp

After Mike psyche couldn't turn up due to work commitments, I was installed as the favourite to win, which is never a good thing!

On turning up in the afternoon, my nerves were made all the worse by seeing Nathan Phillips had turned up and been entered into the mens to make it more competitive in the U18's.

I made sure to use some tactics learned on previous comps. I went round and checked out the problems and then warmed up fast on some intermediate ones and got the big pumpy roof out the way early on as to avoid failure later.

I got on the greasy sloping horrors earlier than usual before they got too grim and managed to get through to 26/30 flashes by 5.30. The last 4 all looked hard so I chose the one I thought looked the most basic and flashable! I'd seen Nathan come off it earlier as well as James the beast so knew it could be tricky. I opted to swap Velcros for Dragons and it paid off as everything felt precise and I hit the holds perfectly to setup for the crux. I jumped over off the small crimp and caught the middle of the pinch, twisting into the move and making the hold better. I let out a bit of a scream and managed to just hold on before jumping over again to the top hold.

I knew I was in with a chance of doing well now and had 3 left to go. I watched Nath dispatch the desperate looking groove into dyno problem which nobody else had got close to. I tried it shortly after and after getting bunched into a ridiculously small space, I made a pitiful attempt to grab the hold on the face before flying past.

I knew I wouldn't get up it this way and thought Nath would surely crush the other one I had done next go. Luckily for me he fell off twice more meaning a max of 1 point if he got it in 4+ goes. I decided to try something a bit different and got back on the groove start. I wound up and made a massive backwards leap towards the face hold and got all fingertips on the edge of the hold before continuing backwards and nearly into the assembled crowd.

A short rest and I knew it had to go down if I was to get near to winning. This time I managed to generate a bit more power from the chicken legs and got right on it, holding the violent outswing and then campussing up to the next rail. I got a high foot and then just about made the slap over the top lip to match a relieved man.

I got absolutely shut down on the hard slab managing to get hold of the penultimate hold but not move my feet any further. Nathan got super close hitting the top hold but not sticking it a couple of times and I was grateful Ged had put such a shit hold on!

The last problem was a steep roof with a lot of burl, toe hooks, greasy slopers and endurance. Nobody got close on their 3 point scoring goes. I took a half hour rest and then went back to try and just get a single point incase it was necessary and dropped the very last hold. I was knackered but had still won by a slim 3 point margin!

In the women's event, Becky from our comp team came in 1st, followed by Laura who was having a bit of an off day :(

In the Juniors, Hoppo had tied with Sheepy and they had to do a horrific timed climb off on the orange linkup. Hoppo had no chance as he is a stocky chest and Sheepy is a whippet-like route climber and he won by a comfortable 10+ seconds.

Mon 5th Sep

Myself, Hoppo, Mike psyche and Millso went to the cave.

Conditions weren't too bad and we met Dan Turner in there along with a non ginger Freeman brother!

He had just done Cave Life and was currently having fits trying to do Pit of Hell, finding Rockatrocity a bit hard going, with a grasp for sequences as bad as Mills and Mike.

I greased off on Cave Life Short and knew this wouldn't be a good day to try In Life, so switched attention to trying some moves. I quickly did the sequence for Ferrino sans pockets from the rail on Lou F and was suddenly full of psyche realising I could now do the end every go from the pinch and rail.

I had 4 redpoints and managed to latch the penultimate sloper hold before the finish slot but not quite good enough to move off. It's definitely a realistic goal for next visit conditions permitting.

We met Doyle (who had plenty of filth to spout!) and Tommy who decided to get off and do some more routes rather than join the pebblewrestlers.

We got back to the Hangar for 7pm and I ate 5 chickenwings and a bag of potato wedges from the ASDA hot counter, before embarking on a very poor comp style session on the yellows followed by core which nearly ended me.