Birthday at Earl Crag

I've been out a couple of times since I last posted. On Friday once the mist had cleared I headed up to Caley. It was damper than I hoped but I got most of the moves done on Ju Ju Club depsite the slopers at the top being greasy and damp. I'd forgotten how much this problem trashes my skin and elbows though. On Saturday I went over to Rochdale to go out for Thai with some of my friends and on Sunday I got a tour of the classic problems at Hobson Moor quarry from Jo and Ben. Some of these were very crimpy and felt pretty hard in the sunshine!

Today it's my birthday so I headed to Earl. After the usual warm-up I wandered over to look at Superfly, but the monos were hurting my finger and the ledge you top out on looked very green. I then spent the rest of the afternoon falling off various combinations of holds on Lager, Lager, Lager/Dave's groove. I need to decide on a sequence as at the moment I can either go with my right up to the sloper and then fall off bringing my left into the groove or cross through to the good bit of the bottom of the groove and then fail to hang the sloper with my right. It's a brilliant problem so I'm keen to get it done before it gets too hot.

Sunny Widdop

I was going to go to Earl today but as I got to Cowling I decided to carry on and head to Widdop. It's always dangerous driving for an hour to go to a crag where there is only one problem you want to do but today was especially so as my car exhaust is blowing and I discovered the boy-racer loud roars were accompanied by exhaust fumes coming into the car. Sunroof and windows open seemed to stop me feeling too light headed though!

I got to Widdop and conditions were perfect, sunny but with a breeze to keep the temperatures down.



Fight on the Black both had chalk on and was still in the shade. After a few easy problems to warm up I pulled on. First go I held the break and put my hand up to match. This wasn't as greasy as last time but still didn't feel great so I dropped my hand back down and moved my foot up. As I rocked onto my right foot I realised the next hold was a bit further away than I thought and so I only just got my finger-tips onto it. Fighting the panic that I was going to blow it I bumped my hand up shedding lots of skin and an exciting top-out later it was dispatched. No self timer glory shots I'm afraid - just this arty pic of the starting hand-hold.



I then wasn't sure what to do but the sunny boulders on the opposite side of the valley looked lovely so I slogged up there with 2 pads. I did a couple of nice roof problems, wandered along to look at Last Boy Scout which looks great but is pretty high with a not-great landing - definitely not a good place to fall off on your own! I staggered further to Boggy's Roof which looked good but hard and then saw Dove Stones in the distance. This was too appealing to ignore as there's an amazing picture of this 7A overhanging prow in the new bouldering guide.

10 minutes of bog trotting later I was regretting not having spare shoes and socks in the car and a bit later I got to the crag. The prow, Pro Diablo, was as amazing as it looked with big moves between large edges. After working out a crafty heelhook I quickly got it done and then all that was left was the long slog through the tussocks and heather back to the car.