Perfect conditions

Ice on the bird-bath and sunshine melting the frost of the roof of the houses signified excellent grit conditions this morning. I met up with Matt at Norwood car park and we drove to Brimham.

We started off on Heart shaped slab, thinking this would make a good start to an afternoon of crushing. After flashing the 5+ mantel to warm-up I got on the arete and first go I was rocking over onto the slab thinking it was all in the bag when my foot slipped and I rolled back off. Another few attempts ended the same way but finally with some crucial differences in foot position and a healthy desire to not have to do it again I grovelled my way over the top. It felt pretty insecure and I was glad I didn't get that far when I was on my own!

I pulled back on for some glory shots:







Matt had some attempts but wasn't getting the toe-heel to stick as well as his first attempt and I don't think my dismounts from the top were helping his psyche!

We then went over to the Anchor and Matt crushed this (and on camera too) making the mantle onto the slab look pretty graceful.

We then headed over to Take a Bough a new problem climbed last winter. The landing to this looked worse than I thought but I soon had my heel on and was attempting the committing moves upwards. I got scared as the heel is so good but the hands felt a bit scrittly and so kept backing off. Just as we were about to sack it some more folk turned up and so with about 6+ pads underneath it I tried again but was still not getting committed. The other guy that was trying it had a couple of goes to but also got scared and once the sun went behind the trees it got baltic very quickly so we sacked it and went home.

When it's this warm inside you know the friction will be good on the grit:

(not quite so) weak at Brimham

I went to Brimham with Matt on Sunday meeting up at the Norwood carpark and sharing a lift to the crag. We started off at the Anchor which was absolutely plastered in chalk with tick-marks everywhere:



This really annoyed me as the tick-marks are pointless on this problem as the only hard bit is the horrific mantel to top out. Also although this is hardly the most tourist-visible bit of Brimham a lot of non-climbers go there to look at the rocks and so covering them with chalk is hardly going to improve relations with the National Trust who own the place. I cleaned off as much as I could and then Matt had a few good attempts but failed to do the mantel.

We then went to a very cold and windy Fantasy League and I still couldn't do the last move - I don't get this problem at all, however strong I feel on the start I just don't have the power to slap round the arete. I think I need some better beta for my feet.

We then did a nice 6A+ wall which I should have flashed but was too busy gossiping and so did second go. Then we moved onto Heart-shaped Slab and tried the 6C+ arete on the right of the slab. After working out how to do the huge reach at the start I had a couple of good attempts but ran out of daylight before topping it out.

I came back to Brimham on Wednesday and tried the arete again. The first moves felt easy and soon I was past Sunday's highpoint and thought it should be in the bag. Multiple attempts later all failing with me rolling backwards off the rockover onto the slab and my skin was too trashed to do the start any more. Really annoying as with the benefit of a spot I think I'd have MTFU'd up and topped it out. Oh well another one to come back for. After this I had a couple of goes on Fantasy League but my skin was too trashed really.

I went to Brimham again today as the cold sunny morning looked really promising. Unfortunately on the way I was chasing some ominous clouds and when I got there it was pretty damp. Fantasy League was too scrittly to attempt so I wandered down to the Pommel area which was pretty green and damp. The only thing that was dry was a crimpy eliminate that gets 7A+ in the new guide. I'd had a few goes on this a while ago but it was sunny and the slopey crimps felt rubbish. In the cold today they felt great and I soon had the hard move done. I then spent a while cleaning holds and finding the most positive bit of the damp top to get the (easy) top out done. This meant I had to match one of the crimps so I could go to the top with my left where it was flatter.





A nervy, slimy grovel over the top and it was in the bag. Not sure what grade this is really as it's pretty eliminate but it has some nice moves. 3 days in 7 on the grit with crap skin have taken their toll though.