A strange week. Franco departed to the Alps and i decided to shunt projects and also established routes that i didn't care about. However, i seem to have developed Franco's Illness, the Illness that saw him struggle while bouldering at Danby. I feel like crap, too tired and lacking in psyche to do anything until about 3pm it seems, I also have a wierd soreness in my right armpit? and also a really tight right shoulder muscle.
Regardless, i packed the Shunt and headed to Highcliffe - Long story short i ended up looking at the buttresses and doing little else. A quick shunt of 'The Web' - E3 5c did afford me some good climbing, but it's a joke at E3 and 5c. The mantle move used to have a peg, this is no longer and there and would see you crater from 7metres (while mantling) the move also seemed very hard for 5c! I would tentitavely place this in the realms of E5 6a! But maybe i can't mantle for shit!
After this i checked out the recently re-exposed left hand buttresses. These areas sport some 'old testpieces' of the 8-12m kind, ranging from thuggy flared cracks, to peg-scared fissures and gearless, excellent looking Aretes. There are some 'classic' looking VS thuggy cracks but they all need a damn good clean. They certainly look good, I would suggest heading up with a brush/nutkey/trowel etc etc, picking a line cleaning it and climbing it. I unfortunately forgot my nutkey so Ping, Peeler and Cling on will have to wait another day. Also, not really soloing territory - would be much nicer with a couple of people! Peg scared well protected cracks at E1 5c (1970's grade too, most probably!), are probably closer to E4 to solo...
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| Peeler - E1 5c** |
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| Holden's Wall - HVS 5a ** |
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| Gluon Arete - E2 5c! Cling On Traverses in on the Rail at E1 5c* |
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| E2 6a Arete, HVS cracklines and HARD boulder problem flake feature (cool) |
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| Ping (E1 5c**) and Twin Cracks (Severe) |
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| 'Far left Buttresses - FA potential on this 6-8metre high 'venue'... |
I then walked right over to another 'buttress' i had spotted on the drive over, however it's pretty shit. It might provide some FA's for a local, desperate climber!
Dissolutioned by this 'day out' i quickly drove to Round Crag, Blakey Inn and proceeded to rap down and clean 'Telescopic' E4 5c. This route is pretty poor to be honest, with slightly sandy rock, very closeby collapsed pillar (that is hard to avoid) and as the grade might suggest, is just a bit 'sketch'. There are far better routes at Round Crag even if you have to have a quick look first, they are rewarding.
My belief is still that a good day out would be had, if you either lead onsight/ground up 'Time Out' the E4 6a*** groove, placing the fiddly wires (or pre-place them?) and then using the gear as side runners for 'Fresh Arete' E5 6b** and going ground up on this too.
My quick day here was halted by tiredness and hunger but i did have a quick note-to-self about coming back and shunting then soloing Honey Arete (E5 6b**/*) and then having a quick look at Lopik's E3 (E5?).
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