Brimham frustration

Yesterday the early morning fog burnt off and it was cold and sunny so I headed to Brimham for a quick session as I had to go to the opticians in Leeds and then had made plans to meet a friend for drinks. I went to look at the Grouch as frustratingly I'd got to the last move of this a while back and not committed to the final slap for the top. Unfortunately it was wet and so I had to think of a plan B.

I went round to Crimpy Roof which was in the sun and pretty warm as there was no wind. Had a few good attempts but still a way off hitting the top so I practiced the final throw until I actually had my fingers over the top at which point I tore a big flapper and so it was home time.

Another crappy self-timer picture - maybe I should get a tripod!

Steve's Wall

My fingertips were still pretty sore today but it was such beautiful weather that I couldn't not go climbing. Headed to Almscliff which was pretty busy for a weekday afternoon. After the usual piss-off-someone-working-it-by-retroflashing-Demon-Wall-Roof warm-up, I headed down to Steve's Wall. This is a gap on my Almscliff tick-list that I've pulled on a couple of times before but got absolutely nowhere on. It's very morpho (for those not au fait with climbing jargon, morpho (i.e. morphological) is a posh way of saying "hard for the short" - taller climbers will say it's also used to describe problems that are easier for the short (hideously bunched rock-overs etc) but I'm unconvinced that being inflexible represents the same handicap as being unable to reach the starting holds on a problem). I tried all the moves after the reachy sit-start on friday and to my surprise they were pretty straight-forward so I tried the sit-start but once again got nowhere.

At home I had a quick look at Jon's excellent yorkshiregrit.com and saw that in the 2 videos of this problem both times the climbers were starting from a crouch not a proper sit-start. The second time I tried the crouching start today I hit the next hold and the third go I held it and then promptly fell off the next move!

I then did the problem from the move after the sit-start which reminded me that a) it's pretty easy and b) my skin is trashed. Realising I wouldn't have many goes before bleeding would end play I put some fresh tape on and sent it next try. Another tick on the Almscliff 7+8s list.

I tried to get some self-timer glory shots but 10s isn't very long to run over from my camera precariously balanced on a rock and pull on so this is the best of a bad bunch:

After that I had to go home unable to enjoy the perfect conditions due to this:

pissing blood on all the holds. Better let my fingers heal before the next grit session I guess...

Sulky Little Boy

My skin was feeling pretty sore today but decided to head to Slipstones as some friends were going there. Should have known better. Slipstones is home to one of my nemesis problems - the skin shredding, compulsive and frustrating Sulky Little Boys. It's 7a and I should have done it years ago, in fact I should have done it pretty much every time I go to Slipstones but somehow the line between "nearly doing it" and "actually doing it" never gets crossed. This time I spent far too long remembering that I can't do it the "normal" way and have to use some special short-arse method to get the gaston hold in a way that enables me to actually pull on it. By the time I remembered this there was blood splurging out of the tape on two of my fingers and it's going to be yet another trip to Slipstones to try and tick one stupid (yet undoubtably classic) problem.

Ouch - the damage from three days on the grit...

Cold at Bridestones

After all the rain of last week it was perfect grit conditions today, so I headed over to Bridestones planning to meet up with some friends which didn't work out as they were more keen for biking than shivering at the crag. It was pretty baltic up there but ok in the sun. Spent most of the time failing to do Jerry's arete which was pretty annoying as I haven't tried it for a couple of years and it still feels desperate. On my own so no climbing photos so an atmospheric picture of the sky instead:

Afterwards went to Jo and Ben's just in time for Callum's teatime - not sure who was more amused by watching the other eat peas with his fingers!

It passed!

Always a surprise when my car passes the MOT but it did it again today! That's a load off my mind and means I don't have to find a new car (it was likely to be scrapping time if it failed big-time) and can go climbing instead...

Wet in Wharfedale

To mark my return to a life as an unemployed climbing bum I thought it might be a good idea to start a blog to: a) remind me what I've been doing and b) motivate myself to go and do stuff to write about. So here goes...


Today has been wet so no pictures of rocks just the rain lashing down outside my kitchen window:


Hopefully it'll be a good winter and there'll be more of this instead:

Better start writing a ticklist!