Saturday 14 January 2012

Back end of '11

An uneventful year-ender in regards to keeping my blog updated, however i managed to achieve a few things that were pleasing for me. After my love-affair with Hawkcliffe, i lost interest in trad/headpointing as the weather degenerated and the dissertation/work mounted up.

I turned my attention to bouldering therefore and also taking advantage of the cheap rates at Leeds Wall to 'see if i could get strong', as i am aware i am not particularly strong in any way, shape or form. I think the highlight of this 2 month period was certainly Demon Wall Roof (Font7a+)... which is a bit disappointing when i think about it now... however, i enjoyed the moves after struggling to manage the final move, after the 'crux'.

The low point was repeatedly failing on the final move of  'Green Wing' (Font 7b). The final move is not the crux,  not even close, but i couldn't manage to do anything other than mashing my hand on the sharp lip of the JUG! Never mind, i take some sort of comfort in 'cruising' the moves up the final slap and V8 is certainly not really my territory.

The year ended properly with the discovery of North Sea Crag X. An east facing series of buttresses which look like they will provide some excellent trad routes. Currently established after our brief foray are two routes; an excellent corner crack which is well protected and certainly slightly awkward (HVS 5b**) and a highball arete (Font7a+) that leads to the upper buttress which hosts some outrageous looking lines. Stoked. Get in touch.

The dissertation is done and the exams are past, so i should be back to climbing after leaving it for 3 weeks. I couldn't believe how bad i felt last night when i popped down the wall. Never mind.