I'd been to Troller's Gill before and wanted to do the Jim Grin F7a. Unfortunately at the time i wasn't leading F7a and the same day had climbed The Diedre (E2) at Kilnsey. I had on that occasion climbed Shaggy Dog Story (f6c+) which was nice enough.
Anyway, Saturday was grey and drizzly, so up early and keen we had to sit on our hands a while and we rushed some uni work out the way by 11ish. Then set off, hoping it would have brightened up by lunchtime. It didn't really brighten up, but the drizzle stopped and there was a chilly breeze. Regardless, we arrived at Troller's Gill to overhanging walls of white (dry) limestone.
I looked at the Jim Grin and exactly the same as last time i came, wasn't entirely sure where it went and decided it was something i'd rather onsight than redpoint, it just looks like if you don't get it first go you'll get more and more tired if you have to try it twice or three times, resulting in a failure. It was cold too and we don't have a clipstick to retrieve if i couldn't do it, so being a wuss i said i wasn't keen.
Last time i was there a bloke told me to do Angelic Upstart F7a, which he said was best if the first two bolts were clipped, so as we warmed up on that F5 on the left hand side we did just that. It was cold and i could feel the psyche draining from me, but i decided that the more bouldery looking sequence through the first overlap looked a nicer propersition, today. (excuses, excuses)
I pulled through the overlap on unfortunately damp undercuts, which made staying on the next sidepulls interesting, i managed and got a left foot up to a small rail. There were two side pulls to go for, a wierd blocky looking one, that didn't look stable and a better one that was a bit lower. I opted for the lower, solid looking one. It wasn't right. I tried to pop up but got it wrong and was off. Gutted.
I tried the loose looking sidepull, it was the perfect height and was totally solid. More gutted. I lowered off and Huw had a play doing it a totally different sequence, ha!
I got back on it after a bit of a rest and food and using my slightly weird sequence (left hand to undercut, right foot up high for balance and match into the wet undercut) managed to gain the sidepulls above the roof (ignoring the apparently juggy pocket just right...) which allowed a quick hand wipe and chalk and then up into the groove above, which for some reason felt traddy, weird bridging and sort of half rests.
Enjoyable route, but would have been super necky at E6 6b, admittedly, a pad or two at the start might have made things slightly nicer...? I think a couple of wires would have gone in higher too, anyway, respect to anyone that onsighted that as E6, top effort.
Chilly and a bit 'over-limed' we drove back to leeds, Boro lost 5-2 to Reading apparently and Huw and I decided gritstone was on the cards. I fancy some trad, preferrably on limestone or the lakes but it's meant to be like 2 degrees tomorrow, so perhaps Slipstones would be a better bet. I do have unfinished buisness with Atomic E3 6a, Sinbad E3/4 6b and Sulky Little Boys Font 7a+... I say unfinished i've never actually tried them and seeing as i've been to slipstones twice that's pretty bad going!
We'll see, very keen for all this bolt clipping. Huw and Conor said something funny the other day - having headpointed an E7 in the summer and now turning my hand to sport, perhap's i'm becoming the next Sean Jacobs? It might not be a bad thing, but will i spend years in leeds? Do a PhD? Entrepeuring my way to sunny holidays, clipping bolts in Spain?
Nah, doubt it - A geology PhD sounds friggin' horrible!
Anyway, Saturday was grey and drizzly, so up early and keen we had to sit on our hands a while and we rushed some uni work out the way by 11ish. Then set off, hoping it would have brightened up by lunchtime. It didn't really brighten up, but the drizzle stopped and there was a chilly breeze. Regardless, we arrived at Troller's Gill to overhanging walls of white (dry) limestone.
I looked at the Jim Grin and exactly the same as last time i came, wasn't entirely sure where it went and decided it was something i'd rather onsight than redpoint, it just looks like if you don't get it first go you'll get more and more tired if you have to try it twice or three times, resulting in a failure. It was cold too and we don't have a clipstick to retrieve if i couldn't do it, so being a wuss i said i wasn't keen.
Last time i was there a bloke told me to do Angelic Upstart F7a, which he said was best if the first two bolts were clipped, so as we warmed up on that F5 on the left hand side we did just that. It was cold and i could feel the psyche draining from me, but i decided that the more bouldery looking sequence through the first overlap looked a nicer propersition, today. (excuses, excuses)
I pulled through the overlap on unfortunately damp undercuts, which made staying on the next sidepulls interesting, i managed and got a left foot up to a small rail. There were two side pulls to go for, a wierd blocky looking one, that didn't look stable and a better one that was a bit lower. I opted for the lower, solid looking one. It wasn't right. I tried to pop up but got it wrong and was off. Gutted.
I tried the loose looking sidepull, it was the perfect height and was totally solid. More gutted. I lowered off and Huw had a play doing it a totally different sequence, ha!
I got back on it after a bit of a rest and food and using my slightly weird sequence (left hand to undercut, right foot up high for balance and match into the wet undercut) managed to gain the sidepulls above the roof (ignoring the apparently juggy pocket just right...) which allowed a quick hand wipe and chalk and then up into the groove above, which for some reason felt traddy, weird bridging and sort of half rests.
Enjoyable route, but would have been super necky at E6 6b, admittedly, a pad or two at the start might have made things slightly nicer...? I think a couple of wires would have gone in higher too, anyway, respect to anyone that onsighted that as E6, top effort.
Chilly and a bit 'over-limed' we drove back to leeds, Boro lost 5-2 to Reading apparently and Huw and I decided gritstone was on the cards. I fancy some trad, preferrably on limestone or the lakes but it's meant to be like 2 degrees tomorrow, so perhaps Slipstones would be a better bet. I do have unfinished buisness with Atomic E3 6a, Sinbad E3/4 6b and Sulky Little Boys Font 7a+... I say unfinished i've never actually tried them and seeing as i've been to slipstones twice that's pretty bad going!
We'll see, very keen for all this bolt clipping. Huw and Conor said something funny the other day - having headpointed an E7 in the summer and now turning my hand to sport, perhap's i'm becoming the next Sean Jacobs? It might not be a bad thing, but will i spend years in leeds? Do a PhD? Entrepeuring my way to sunny holidays, clipping bolts in Spain?
Nah, doubt it - A geology PhD sounds friggin' horrible!
1 comment:
You should do a PhD - something on carbonates with field work somewhere sunny. Just think how much bolt clipping (or whatever you youngsters call this modern version of climbing) you could do.
Ill get my hob nails........
Prof Warthog
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