Monday 6 January 2014

Smugglers Terrace & Goathland Guides

I decided to make a couple of mini guides to Smugglers Terrace and the newly developed stuff at Goathland
Should be accessible from the following links:

Smugglers Terrace - November 2013





The Smugglers Terrace guide is already out of date, with the addition of a few lower grade routes, notably Mackerel Crack MVS 4a *, Chiasso E1 5c * and the Salmon of Doubt HS 4b *.


Goathland - Grey Earths Scar


Enjoy!

Thursday 2 January 2014

The Huntsman

An aesthetic block in beautiful countryside and next to an ancient Roman road, which has three problems on perfect rock. Good stuff. I say three problems, they are all variations on a theme - the theme being traversing from left to right, which is 7a+ and called The Hunted...

Lee 'Betaguides' Robinson added the first line, an obvious traverse on good crimps with big feet which started at a flake crack. Lee then returned with Steve Ramsden, who added the 'extension' which is one move to the left, but does add a little bit to the original traverse. I decided it would be nice to tackle the holds on the lip without getting ones feet up onto the slab, so a lower level traverse was established.


The Huntsman 7a, The Hunted 7a+ and Blood Sport 7a+ from Dave Warburton on Vimeo.

Wednesday 1 January 2014

2013 Round Up - Highlights and proving myself wrong...

2013 was a mixed year. I was employed full-time and didn't have access to a wall or convienient bouldering centre, however, once the nights pulled out a bit I was able to get some Moors bouldering in on the way home from work.

Early season highlights saw 7b's, two 7b+ and also a 7c (defo soft done as a crimp problem not a dyno) ticked at a variety of crags such as Clemmitt's, Round Crag and such like. There was also a bit of exploring, with the discovery of the Finkelstones where my 7a+ and 7b+ additions of Labyrinth and Aurora's Encore were particular highlights. I really enjoyed In the Bag (7b+), mainly due to me thinking it was crap with awful holds and not being a good line. Anyway, I totally retract all those statements - it's good!

Pussy Riot SS - 7a **


Early season trad also started in a similar vein with some highballs classics like 'A Reach Too Far', another route that's been on my hit list for far too long! Similarly over the summer we opened up some new routes at Kettle Howe, Hillhouse Nab and so on. Just highballs, but King of the Hill E4 5c *** was exquisite in my opinion.

A couple of harder routes were added too, Franco despatching the difficult and sustained Panda to the Masses E6 6c * at Stoupe Brow and I later added Damascus Waits, which I began to clean just as the U.S were planning to wade into the conflict in the Middle East. It was just the 'project name' but I never got around to changing it and it's stayed as Damascus. Two great routes at Stoupe Brow which added hard and safe to the Moors - the number of these routes is increasing now - which is good!

The Chain - A nice eliminate arete - 6a+

The season ended with me returning to Leeds University. I've been ticking a few routes I never got around to at my first time at the Uni, routes like Blood on the Shamrock E6 6a, Naked Edge E3 5c, Great Santini and Full Throttle, both E4 6a, Daytona Wall E5 6a, Dead Babies E5 6b - all routes i'd fancied doing first time round!

A Plaice Lost in Time - E3 5c 

I finished the season with some bouldering on grit and sandstone, with a few first ascents - I reckon they are from the cleaning and rock removal - at Goathland.

Goathland from Dave Warburton on Vimeo.

Also a couple of additions at Smugglers Terrace, with some more lower grade routes from HS to E3.

I remember in September writing the following blogpost...http://davidwarburton-climbing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/there-are-no-more-crags.html. Anyway, a bit of psyche and poor weather has resulted in some walking around and map scrounging. The current high moors team have gone and found another three crags, which were much more than just 'one climb buttresses' that I believed was all the Moors had left to offer... Oh, I do hope I can remain in the North East following the completion of my masters, hopefully a a second opportunity at YP will result. A lot of crossed digits for the next few months.

Here's to a productive 2014.

Sinn Fein - 6c+ / E4 6b