Gearing up for font Trip #3

After the recent misery of injury troubles I'm not quite out of the woods yet but have managed to climb 4 days on in Dartmoor without pain and only minor swelling that went away after a day.

The trip!

Friday 27th August

Myself and Mark left my house at the unearthly hour of 6am and sped, via the Wirral to a sunny Dartmoor (partaking in some mid morning pastry eating on the way).

We spent the half day at Bonehill in blazing heat and took a while to get accustomed to balancing/open handing everything and avoiding slapping or pulling!

The best of the problems were a wall to the right of the Wave and the very good almost highball Rippled wall.

Saturday 28th

We hit up Easdon rocks on the recommendation of O and on first appearance it was all a bit underwhelming after fighting up through mud and gauze.

While Bex and Mark decided not to bother, I got psyched and did some of the warmups. The rock was a bit scrittly and the top outs dirty but the climbing was ok. The highlights were a V3 sitter from a flake into a traverse on large shelves and wonderful chickenhead features and Easdon Crack.

Easdon Arete was the line of the crag but I got shut down on the move to the small ball feature. I couldn't believe it was 7a+ but discovered I should have bounced my left foot up once the heel was in place. I'd love to try this when it's a bit colder.

The second crag of the day was Hound Tor. A bit poor problem wise I thought but Prowed and the stand to Alan Smith were worthwhile. I thought the sitter would be pretty straight forward but struggled to pull on for more than a couple of seconds and couldn't move either my left or right hand towards the next hold! I didn't try for long not wanting to injure the right middle again.

Sunday 29th

The best day of the trip was definitely the visit to Combeshead Tor. The walk in was long but very picturesque with some points of interest such as some abbey ruins and very nice views up at the top. There was a nice wild and isolated vibe up at the boulders, with just a few sheep and the wild horses for company.

I would definitely recommend a visit if you are in the area and after an easy circuit of quality problems. Sharp arete, The easy cracks on the Hanging Flakes boulder, Hanging Groove, Hanging Flakes, The Sloper problem and the dyno from undercuts were all very good.

Monday 30th

We finished off our Dartmoor trip with a visit to Saddle Tor in what turned out to be the most boiling day of the trip. The others were feeling a bit lethargic after 3 days of skin grating circuit training. So I once again got the psyche on and warmed up with some solo's and the great Bjorn again. This was followed by some scary aretes and a cool board style 7a+ eliminate to the right of Bjorn. I got fully shut down on Dancing Queen and Foal's Chopper sliding off what I think were the holds?! It all felt desperate in the full sun.

We moved downhill to the Hidden traverse area and did a team ascent of the traverse with the sketchy topout adding to the entertainment.

The best problem was definitely the wonderful Rich's Tick, that involved an easy span, some body tension and a lovely bit of grit style wrestling to conquer the hanging lip.

The trip was rounded off with a trip into Widecombe to enjoy an amazing cream tea before we headed back to Liverpool in what seemed a never ending traffic jam... although I did enjoy the stop off at Burger King to purchase a fine Aberdeen Angus & Bacon cheeseburger.

Saturday 4th September

After coming out the other side of a 4 day trip of easy volume, I felt ready to test the waters further and went with a large scouse contingent to Newbiggin in the South Lakes.

It was a beautiful setting if a bit lowball. After a brief warmup of 3 move wonders, I managed to bag a fast ascent of Slap arete and repeated it using a total of 3 methods whilst Hoppo flailed and declared it shit!

We moved to the Fridge which felt like climbing out of a phone box without touching the sides. This featured a really nice first move and good body tension compression afterwards. I just about flashed it and then watched Hoppo do a controversial heel toe lock version ;) Owen, Andy and Chessie Si all followed with equally fast repeats.

The main event of the day for me was the wonderful Ingleborough Wall. After flapping about like a dying seal, Ben F showed the way with a double inverted palm footless mantle of death, getting his belly on and then slapping to the distant break. He added the sit next go and declared it Castle Hill 6C+/7A (reaffirming my gut feeling that I should never venture here!).

After a bit of a battle I eventually got it done from standing. A brief 5 min rest and I was lay prone on top once again, only for my left palm to ping off... I fired off the lip scraping all the way to land in a heap of pads with a girly scream.

The heckles of the rabble were all that were necessary to fire up the psyche and it was dispatched next go with a desperate lunge for the top break as both hands came off and I balanced perilously.

We moved on to Dalton to go find Umbongo. The 500m walk turned out to be more like 1.5k but what we found was not too bad. Ben walked up it. I tried a spoony method and had to swap to ben's method to get it next try as did Sean. Owen and Chessie weren't feeling the love and opted to abuse.

Fully schooled in the South Lakes rules. We then did 5 methods between the 3 of us to ensure at least 1 tick that Greg couldn't call us on!

It was a good day out and my finger isn't too bad today. Hopefully pushing it a little each time will get it back to full fitness by the end of my font trip and I can look forward to getting back in the cave without fearing popping or tearing.