The plan for 2008

The beginning of 2008 started well; good weather, various holidays and most importantly the homework just wasn't there so climbing could be done with little consequence. However, come mid February, this changed. The weather worsened and as i sit here now the rain batters the window to my right, seising for only seconds before the next wave comes in, also such things as Chemistry coursework and 'mock' examinations have blighted many attempts of getting on the shed wall!
Currently bored out of my head, i've decided to list the plans for i have for 2008.

2008 Targets - Climbing
0. Anything Hard - Ongoing
1. Don't Fluff It (E4) - Stanage
2. Fred (E4) - Ravenswick Quarry

1. E3 at least 10 times. - Incomplete
1. West Sphinx Direct - Wainstones
2. Prowess - Scugdale (Scot's)
3. Above Us Only Sky - Polldubh
4. Psyched Out - Bleak How
5. New Dimensions - Scugdale (Barker's)
6. Sculptured Arete - Scugdale (Barker's)
7. Black Magic - Ravenswick Quarry
8. Bummelzug - Ravenswick Quarry
9. Needle Arete - Black Crag (Wrynose Pass)
10. Veteren - Rylstone

2. Keep the E1 and E2 onsight ticks coming - Ongoing
1. Ali Baba (Wainstones) - E2
2. West Sphinx Climb (Wainstones) - E2
3. Sesame (Wainstones) - E1
4. Morning Wall (Cockshaw Hill) - E2
5. Barren Waste (Slipstones) - E2
6. Keep Peddaling (Stanage) - E2
7. Fool's Gold (Bus Stop Quarry) - E1
8. Space Truckin' (Slipstones) - E1
9. Horse Power - Eagle Crag (Grisedale) - E2
10. Fever Pitch - Raven's Scar - E2
11. Satchmo - Raven's Scar - E2
12. Eve (Right Hand) - Scugdale (Scot's) - E2
13. Summit Crisis - Wainstones - E2
14 Left Hand Variation - Wainstones - E2
15. White Wall - Ravenswick Quarry - E2
16. Franco's Wall - Ravenswick Quarry - E2
17. Solstice - Ravenswick Quarry - E1/2
18. Crazy Diamond & Monument Crack - Rylstone - E2 & E1
19. Wombat - Highcliffe Nab - E1
20. Glass Slipper - Black Crag (Wrynose) - E2

3. Work E4/5, on routes that i don't really want to onsight. E.G - Pyscho Syndicate - Incomplete

4. Try my hand at a bit of bouldering, probably at Slipstones - Incomplete
Too Hard! - 'Sulky Little Boys' looked Desperate!
1. V7 Traverse - Ravenswick Quarry - Worked!

5. Try my hand at Sport climbing, aiming for F6c/7a - dependant on holiday!
Welsh Slate - Whizz Bang F6c - Rested on Bolt though.

5.5 Try to get some winter routes under my belt. Aiming for a III/IV if im lucky, but any winter routes will do this year! - COMPLETED - Green Gully IV
6. Climb 'Difficile' / 'Tres Difficle' in the Alps, if i can get there this year. (Unable to complete due to knee)

7. Complete the 'Middlehead project' - Incomplete
Probably not going to happen, though i intend to return and climb 'Beowulf'

8. Climb/help Franco on his FA at Ingleby, 'Physical Graffiti'. - Incomplete
9. Climb around the UK on many different rocktypes - Ongoing
So Far: Sandstone, Gritstone, Quarried Grit, Slate, Mica Schist, Limestone, Magnesian Limestone, Rhyolite.

10. Climb more Multipitch Extremes in the Lakes/Wales/Scotland. - Ongoing
1. Post Mortem - Eagle Crag (Borrowdale) - E3 (Not finished but alot learned!)
2. Horse Power - Eagle Crag (Grisedale) - E1/2 (First pitch is a different route)
3. Spring Bank - Gimmer Crag (Langdale) - E2 (First pitch is a different route)
11. Attempt 'The Wall' at Oak Crag - Incomplete/HARD
Had a look, it seemed a tad hard!
12. Free climb the Aid line at Kay Nest - Incomplete / Impossible
No, doesn't look like we'll go here. If i go down Billsdale i'll do the Classic of the Valley at Highcrag
13. Climb the unclimbed face at Turkey Nab - Incomplete / Impossible
Had a gander... looked possible but dangerous!
14. Climb the 'imposing' face at Kepwick - Incomplete / Impossible

15. Have a go at 'Wedge Route' at Cringle Crag - Incomplete
Visited - Looked fine but it was seeping. We consoled ourselves with a Free ascent of Terry's Dilema! :-) Will return if we get a dry spell next year probably!
16. Climb at least 5 routes on my UKC Wishlist! - Ongoing - Upgraded to ......?! :-)
1. Clapham Junction (HVS) - Polldubh - Done
2. Ali Baba (E2) - Wainstones - Done
3. West Sphinx Direct (E3) - Wainstones - Done
4. Jackdaw Wall (E2) - Wainstones - Done
5. Satchmo (E2) - Raven's Scar - Done
6. Fever Pitch (E2) - Raven's Scar - Done
7. New Dimensions (E3) - Scugdale (Barker's) - Done
8. Sculptured Arete (E3) - Scugdale (Barker's) - Done
9. Gehenna! (HVS or E2? ;-) - Beacon Scar - Done
10. Needle Arete (E3) - Black Crag (Wrynose) - Done
11. Jumping Jack Flash (E2) - Goldsborough - Done
12. Crazy Diamond (E2) - Rylstone - Done
13. Ace of Winds (HVS) - Rylstone - Done

2008 Targets - Physical/Mental

1. Attempt more climbs with Roofs, in order to beat my nemesis!
1. Ali Baba (Wainstones) -E2
2. Mind Release {Solo} (Cockshaw Hill) - E2
3. Horse Power (Eagle Crag - Grisedale) - E2
4. Dat Der (Peak Scar) - VS
5. Pericles {Solo} (Eagle Crag - Grisedale) - HVS
6. Ace of Winds (Camp Hill) - HVS
7. The Other (Eston Nab) - HVS
8. Spring Bank (Gimmer) - E1/2
9. Gehenna (Beacon Scar) - HVS (Not truly a Roof just a big Niche)
10. Monument Crack (Rylstone) - E1 (Tackled the Roof without gear in order to combat fear)

2. Lost 1/2 a stone at least, but really aiming for somewhere near a Stone to bring me to 10.7s
Trying - seem to be skinnier since the wales trip!
No weight lost!
3. Work on upper body strength and finger strength for slabs and for Roofs. - Ongoing

4. Fix knee and build up the 1/2 inch waste on my left thigh. - Ongoing
Apparently i need to get on with it... hopefully this is the case and it will get better. Im undecided

5. Run, at least twice a week once the knee is fixed!

6. Take some lead falls on Gear just to gain some trust. - Ongoing
1. Ben Nevis and Polldubh!!

The Incline

Ingleby Incline, a crag i had wanted to go to for sometime, especially since Steve Crowe recommended it, with an aim of climbing 'Time Captain', something i currently use as a target.
Getting to Ingleby had been somewhat, awkward however.

Franco journied to the crag twice before me, ticking most of the soloable routes in our grade range. So the quicker i got there the better! Middlesbrough Matches and bad weather got in the way, but finally i got to Ingleby with Franco and set about climbing the routes Franco had done and then having a look at the FA's Franco has his heart set on.

Me on 'Liberty - E1 5c'

The Crag itself if in a fantastic position, situated at the top end of the valley with views across to Hasty Bank and down to the wooded valley bottom. The first route i did at the crag was Pepsi - HVS and it was a nice introduction to the crag, showing that with nearly all the routes, the climbing is quite thin, and the top outs are always interesting!!

'Where's the next route then?'

Then had a look at a few other problems, Namely 'Geronimo - E2 5c' which was nice and pumpy and quite bold and with one eye on Franco's FA, we decided to leave it. Franco tried is FA for a while and i soloed around and had a look at some buttresses. Then it started to rain. More to come from Ingleby, i would think.

Me on one of the slabby routes at Ingleby, just before the Hailstorm.

Eating Ginger Cake, while sheltering from a mild hailstorm.

Scugdale - climbing well, but not well enough!

The third weekend of February was very similar to the second, tropical! So Franco and I fresh after returning from Pavey Ark on the Saturday night ventured to Scugdale to finally finish some routes we had wanted to do there. ‘New Dimensions’ and ‘Finger Jam’ were the routes on my wishlist. We however, stopped off at ‘The Shelf’ and after gaining the shelf and having a bit of a warm up, we decided that the effects on our hands wasn’t good so we went straight over to Cleft Buttress. The overhanging crack of New Dimensions looks technical and awkward, so we gave it a go. The lower wall is a sequence of moves that leads to a long reach to a good pocket; however the upperwall is hard and tiring. We gave up and tried Finger Jam.

This wasn’t a good idea, because we ended up trying Finger Jam for sometime and completed it, we were now tired. Then Franco found ‘Elimination’ which he tried and tried and then suddenly he held the sloped and shot of leftwards to finish the climb. I was left with the feeling I had to try it so I did. An awkward pocket allows a reach up to a small but reasonably positive crimp. Feet up and a reach to another reasonably positive pocket, then a long reach or ‘pop’ for the sloper. The route is made harder by the fact it is just as overhanging as New Dimensions. After a few goes however and considerable amounts of finger pain and shoulder ache, the route fell to me too. We then attempted New Dimensions once again, but we found we were far too pumped so this again will have to be left till later!

Getting it wrong on New Dimensions!

We returned to Scugdale to try New Dimensions, but it was awful. It was blowin' a gale and the rock was slightly damp so we journied back to Scugdale Popular and climbed 'The Shelf'. A problem i had wanted to do for a while now, so i was glad to do it. A good, fun and not without interest (the top out) route that packs a lot in to a small climb. Good Value.

The Peak

The second weekend in February saw ridiculous temperatures and fantastic amounts of sun! The plan was to travel to the ‘Peak’ and get on some Grit stone, something I had only experienced in Yorkshire, at Slipstones.
We motored down to Stanage, as Ian Jackson wanted to have a shot at ‘Black Hawk Bastion’ at Popular. So Franco and I went searching for nice routes that weren’t currently populated with climbers and we found a route called Hybrid. A nice route, however, we got a bit of a shock when the Para-gliders started whizzing past! Not something I’ve ever experienced on the Moors.
After this, we thought we’d try something harder, so we carried on along Popular until we found a route that really appealed to us both. ‘Keep Pedalling’. At E2, it was at our grade pinnacle, so we assessed the climb from below, it was a solo.

Climbing it was a good test of nerve and technique and it propelled us on to thinking perhaps E3 would fall to day. So we carried on to the Plantation, and there we tried Telli. However, failure was all that we managed on Telli so it’s a definite example of ‘next time’.

Franco then disappeard off further into the Plantation buttresses, and then returned with a huge smile on his face. He took me to this route and I checked the guidebook. E4 5c. Were not E4 climbers, but this was too good to turn down. So Franco soloed up and made the awkward and delicate moves to the bulge. Pulled around and it was over. My turn, the initial crack was good fun and the first few moves on the delicate slab were fun, however, the height was suddenly apparent and the slopers were quite un-nerving. I dithered but then made slightly different moves to Franco up the bulge.
After taking some pictures of a climber on Cavalry and the Para-gliders we returned to find Ian Jackson and Ian Moore and after Ian finished is ‘usual’ solos we left to find a bivi spot.


We biviied in the Burbage Car Park hardly ‘roughing it’ but a funny experience all the same. We chatted for a few hours, usually about the food Ian and Ian were tucking into (sausages and Pasta). The water that it had been cooked in had turned brown and was poured away behind Ian Jackson; this was hilarious so I took a picture.
We then heckled Franco, because he believes the “Southern” climate would allow him to sleep without a sleeping bag. (See picture), he was wrong. The lovely days meant for freezing nights.


The next day we went to Burbage North, we had a go soloing some routes and Franco lead a bold E2 eliminate, and Ian Jackson and Ian Moor lead some classic routes with ‘Big Ian’ leading ‘Long Tall Sally’. We then motored off to Lawrencefield, were Franco and Ian Jackson had a pop at ‘Suspence’. Succeeding they were very happy with themselves! Ian Moore and I went for more leisurely ascents of the very nice ‘Meringue’ and ‘Once Pegged Wall’

Ian Jackson then tried ‘Billy Whizz’ but found the upper crack was damp and greasy and he took a rather large slump, in his words something I would consider to be a 20-30ft fall! All in all good trip to ‘the Peak’

Spring Comes Early.

(For a day!) The weather had been exceptionally windy, which was a blessing in disguise because although there had been damage to property and roads closed due to falling debris and toppled lorries, the crags were bone dry. Come sunday, even the wind had subsided, so we decided to travel to the Wainstones, which we found were in perfect condition.

I had some gremlins to settle, mostly the boulder problems i had not paid enough attention to, namely Pebble Climb V3. Got the sequence in a couple of goes and finished it, i was happy. Then decided to go after another V3, with Redhead's Roof however, this is somewhat more difficult but perhaps i just didn't get the sequence, i reckon probably V4.

Staring up at the Crag, i realised that it wasn't Park Nab and that these routes were more serious, lines such as Sesame and East Sphinx Variant, that i had thought about on the drive, as being "Easy ticks" were not going to fall today, due to a lack of "high" climbing over the winter period.

Franco, nails the Sphinx Direct E3 6a.
Indeed, i did very little for such a great day, because besides the boulder problems and a good tick of 'North Route' up the Needle (something i had wanted for a year!) that was it for my climbing, the rest of the time i spent watching Ian violate the Sphinx as i took photos...

Ian, makes the crux move ofWest Sphinx Direct E3 5b.

However, it was good to revisit the crag and know that there is A LOT for me there yet, something i thought could probably be wrapped up in a couple of trips.

Really looking forward to all that the spring brings, especially the longer nights! Should mean the smaller crags around us that cannot supply a full days climbing, should be used to aid the progression and the routes that we have been unable to do, such as the E3 Waves Within at Camp Hill, should probably be climbed. Bring on Spring and the day the clocks change!

Great start to the New Year!

First climbing trip of the New Year, we decided to head to our local and almost exhausted crag, Park Nab. There were a few difficult lines that we wished to try, plus a boulder that was in need of a visit.

We climbed a variation finish on a route that had thwarted me in the past, 'Pessimist' had always been in the back of my mind, so i decided that enough was enough, so i climbed the 'Right Hand Variant' instead.
Franco then Worked Mowgli Direct (Achillies Last Stand), resulting in a bold Solo, which i did the second ascent of, however, the holds were chalked up for me and i knew the line was climbable. This detracted slightly from the climb, however, i enjoyed the fact we climbed a quality route at a quality crag.

We found the boulder, and did some lines. Good Quality and a good place to go when i am without a partner or just on summer evenings.

We however, rushed back for an evening of homework finishing and frantic revising as the Winter hols were over, and College awaited us the next day.

An Uneventful Year Ender - Farndale

First forecast good day of weather for a few days, so Me and Franco decided to go to some of our more local crags. Farndale hosts two very nice but Esoteric locations, one of which Round Crag, boasts some of the hardest and boldest routes on the Moors. We set off on our bikes to the Forgotten and somewhat un-developed Middle Head.
There were quite a few routes we had lined up there, but as we raced along the old Railway track joing Rosedale with Teeside we knew the conditions weren't right, and also, that they weren't going to improve.
Sure enough, when we reached Middle Head, the seepage was evident and the lines we wished to climb were somewhat 'Out of Condition'. We non the less geared up and attempted a route i had wanted to do for some time.
The Roof crack, which the route took was good and dry, but the Slab above was wet and dirty, so i saw it neccasary to take a sneeky step left, to gain the top more easily.
Fran then decided to try and climb the good looking unclimbed arete, which unfortunately, ended up summing up what the days climbing was. Utter Toss. Not because of the Route i hasten to add, but because it started to rain.
Rock that was trying to dry up, soon became drenched with the seepage off the moortop and try as we might, the Arete was not going to fall.. Quite the opposite, the arete caused many falls for myself and Franco.

Battered and bruised, we set off for our bikes and we decided that a rekky to Round Crag was in order. No climbing was going to get done due to the foul weather so we decided to check out routes that "looked Doo-able" and see if there was some potential for some bouldering around the Crag.

We looked at the routes and discussed the talent involved in establishing these lines. Farndale Fayre and Scut di Scun ai were both looked at in Awe. Both routes unprotected, hard 6b/c climbing with awful landing's.

We made our usual remarks when we have a disapointing day at the crag, 'We'll come back in Summer and lead some stuff and that' the response, from either party is usually 'Iy'.

We set off once more on our bikes, but this time we headed home. Damp and a tad cold due to this, it was a disappointing end to what has been a great year of climbing.

Ps. I ended up forgetting 4 Karabiners and 2 slings, so i had to journey back to Middle Head on my bike in Freezing/foggy conditions. I arrived at the crag after an awful bike ride through Snow, and frost was developing on me. My face was numb and my feet wet. I found the crag after getting lost in the Fog and saw that Verglass had developed on the crag, but was now slowly melting. I got my gear and set off home.

I arrived home, completely numb. My clothes wet and slightly frosty. My hands were blue with orange spots...(god knows why that was!) and all i wanted to do was sleep. However after a quick shower i knew i had to do my homework.