Scugdale - climbing well, but not well enough!

The third weekend of February was very similar to the second, tropical! So Franco and I fresh after returning from Pavey Ark on the Saturday night ventured to Scugdale to finally finish some routes we had wanted to do there. ‘New Dimensions’ and ‘Finger Jam’ were the routes on my wishlist. We however, stopped off at ‘The Shelf’ and after gaining the shelf and having a bit of a warm up, we decided that the effects on our hands wasn’t good so we went straight over to Cleft Buttress. The overhanging crack of New Dimensions looks technical and awkward, so we gave it a go. The lower wall is a sequence of moves that leads to a long reach to a good pocket; however the upperwall is hard and tiring. We gave up and tried Finger Jam.

This wasn’t a good idea, because we ended up trying Finger Jam for sometime and completed it, we were now tired. Then Franco found ‘Elimination’ which he tried and tried and then suddenly he held the sloped and shot of leftwards to finish the climb. I was left with the feeling I had to try it so I did. An awkward pocket allows a reach up to a small but reasonably positive crimp. Feet up and a reach to another reasonably positive pocket, then a long reach or ‘pop’ for the sloper. The route is made harder by the fact it is just as overhanging as New Dimensions. After a few goes however and considerable amounts of finger pain and shoulder ache, the route fell to me too. We then attempted New Dimensions once again, but we found we were far too pumped so this again will have to be left till later!

Getting it wrong on New Dimensions!

We returned to Scugdale to try New Dimensions, but it was awful. It was blowin' a gale and the rock was slightly damp so we journied back to Scugdale Popular and climbed 'The Shelf'. A problem i had wanted to do for a while now, so i was glad to do it. A good, fun and not without interest (the top out) route that packs a lot in to a small climb. Good Value.