Sunday 14 November 2010

Grit Bouldering (Burbage and Baildon)

I decided to try and embrace this aspect of climbing seeing as it's getting colder now. We ventured to Burbage, as Huw has a knackered hand and fancied somewhere to go easy soloing. I was quite stoked to 'see what i could boulder' so decided Burbage would be ok.
Myself and Ewan quickly flashed 'Banana Finger' V3- but then found that the direct wasn't very appealing - the prospect of shinning yourself hardly makes one KEEN.

I then wandered over to the Burbage South boulders, i found a nice little steep rounded rib, on a boulder down and left of 'sheep'?? block. The guide i had, gave it B7, font 7a/7a+?? anyway, it started with feet on a ledge and crimped up to a wierd pocket and then, hopefully a big hole.

Eventually i found how to start, using a double knee bar and reach, but found i couldn't campus up to the pocket as my feet kept hitting the adjacent block. I eventually just did it, trailing a leg onto the block. No tick, but nice enough moves.
Me and Ewan then tried 'the sheep'? V5ish, up discontinuous cracks. Unfortunately, i found the topout slippy and then burst a tip!

I put my finger bursting down to the hard bouldering a week ago at Ravenswick, as my fingers were not 100% weirdly all week, they seems to have bloodblisters underneath. Anywho, i wandered back to the car slightly dissolutioned and disappointed that my attempts at embracing such an aspect of climbing backfired. Oh well, i'll try again sometime... I'm pretty keen for Bridestones, Slipstones and maybe Earl Crag bouldering??? To be honest, i'd like to do some Limestone bouldering in Yorkshire - any areas anyone knows of?!


ADDITION:

After a few days off, my tips recovered and everyone went to Tremadog for the weekend. With work and limited psyche i stayed at home. After discovering Twig (Andrew Harvie) had a day off, we arranged to go somewhere local, and with the foggy weather i decided Baildon would be a good bet. It was ok, warm and damp but we were able to a have a couple of hours messing around.


 We warmed up on 'The Mantle' - V5/Font 6c**. An entertaining struggle that i managed 3rd go.


We then tried 'Without Moon' which looked good in a photo i'd seen of it. It has a knacky starting move and then a very, very large jump for the top rail. I tried to jump but i don' think massive jumps are my thing, and at Font 7a+ i'm guessing it's going to be reasonably hard!
Anyway, after this it began to rain and then Middlesbrough were beaten 0-1 by Millwall. Nevermind! I am however re-psyched to try Swingover (E3) and Wombling Wall (E4) as they both looked achieveable again.

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