Bustin' Blocs

After Friday night's downpour everything was pretty damp on Saturday and Matt wasn't psyched to go out on Sunday so I spent most of the weekend watching the rugby. It was a pretty grumpy weekend in the Jenkins/Meenan household as Wales seemed to rely on the fact that Italy couldn't kick penalties, France forgot how to score tries and despite Ireland handing them penalty after penalty basic defensive errors hurt Scotland badly. On Sunday evening I wandered up to Caley to see how damp it was and to my surprise Blockbuster was pretty much bone dry.

I got up at the same time as Nicky this morning and tried not to notice how damp it looked outside. Walking up to Caley in light drizzle is hardly a good start but the rock was pretty dry and it was clear from the chalk on the holds that it hadn't rained overnight so I carried on up. Blockbuster was in perfect condition and although the air was a bit damp it was colder than it's been for a while. After a quick stretch to warm-up and a few jumps I held the first pinch and got my foot on only to not quite get the crimp. I gave the holds a brush and a couple of attempts later had my fingers on the crimp. I tried the right hand 'guppy' and left hand cross through method for the first time and my fingers were on the bottom of the flake. Feet sorted and right hand up to the flake and it was in the bag, the holds on top were a bit damp but you're not going to fall off there!

Really pleased as I've jumped up and down below that bit of rock many times over the years and so it's good to get it ticked. Also this is the first 7B+ of the winter for me. For the ethically curious I started off a single pad:

Sunny Whitehouses

The crap weather finally changed yesterday and Matt had left a message on my phone the previous evening to say he was keen for climbing and wanted an early start. It transpired that this was before he went out drinking so when I phoned him in the morning he was a little bit the worse for wear. It also wasn't as super-sunny as forecast so we agreed to meet at Whitehouses after a more leisurely start.

It was pretty windy up there at first but the sun was shining and if anything it was a bit hot. I repeated all the things I'd done there before and got a bit closer to doing Peshmurga with some new beta but the crimp was eating my finger-tips and so I sacked it before I went through. Matt cruised up Rageh Omaar once I'd given him some beta that didn't work for me but was more lank friendly..

I headed to Caley on the way back which was predictably soaking. Blockbuster was almost dry though. Randomly I met the bloke who posted short-arse beta on a thread I started on UKB and he showed me his sequence. Unfortunately he climbs 8A and so when I tried the same sequence I didn't crush it with the same ease. I did feel like I could do it in better conditions though. I even got up early today and went up there but it was even wetter than yesterday.

It was good to be out in the sunshine again though - here's a picture (with the old, less successful beta for Peshmurga).

Wednesday at a Wet Widdop

It was super-sunny this morning and instead of taking the sensible option and heading to Almscliff I drove over to Widdop. The amount of green visible on the boulders didn't look promising on the walk-in but I pressed on anyhow. Amazingly the holds on Fight on the Black were dry-ish and so I pulled on. After I remembered the sequence and how exactly to hold the start handholds I hit the break a few times but failed to stick it. I should have perhaps noticed that every time I failed to hold the break all the chalk on my left hand tips was gone. After a bit I climbed up the back and negotiated the green slime on top of the boulder to clamber down to see the break. When I put chalk on the hold it looked OK but as soon as I gave it some brush-on-a-stick action the chalk got wet. Optimistically I dabbed a chalky hand on it a couple of times and went down for another go.

This time I stuck the break but when I moved my other hand up to match it I realised that the only semi-dry bit of the hold was under my left hand. My right was covered in slime and so there was no option but to drop off. Very frustrating as if the break was dry I'd have topped it out and not have to drive all the way over to Widdop to fall of the same holds another time!

You can see the damp patches from my finger-tips in the overly chalky break here:

Not so grouchy at Brimham

The torrential rain and gale force wind last week were perfect conditions for paper writing so I concentrated on staring at structures and sequences and writing. Today was sunny and calm so I headed to Brimham. I wasn't sure how dry stuff would be and lack of toe care and some over enthusiastic clipper action meant that a couple of my toes were pretty sore before I'd even put my boots on. Fortunately The Grouch was dry and doesn't require the left foot on any small holds. This was in danger of becoming another Nemesis as I fell off the last easy but committing move last autumn just before a couple of guys came to try it. With them there and hence a spot for the last move I couldn't stick the crux slap up to the break again.

Armed with a new bit of youtube beta I warmed up by trying the top move. To reach the break I had to stack both folded pads making them useless for stopping me hitting my back on the ground. A few goes and I got the new top-out move to work and it was less scary but still a bit exciting especially as the top was a bit slimy!

I arranged the pads to protect the top, pulled on and sent it first go. The slopers felt great today and I did the crux move several times to get some self-timer glory shots:

After that I failed to do the last move on Crimpy Roof a load of times and left just as the sun was setting.

A busy day at Caley

It seemed like everyone woke up this morning and decided to go to Caley. It makes me feel better about rarely straying from Yorkshire when folk from Sheffield travel up here to go bouldering! Anyway with a massive supply of pads there was only one thing I wanted to get on - Ben's Groove. I've had a few goes on it before (surprisingly enough the last time there were 10 pads under it) but never got further than touching the pocket.

After a quick warm up, Matt and I wandered up to join the crowds. It was pretty busy and Matt wasn't keen to get on it in front of so many people so went somewhere quieter. I hung around to get as much beta as possible but was also a bit intimidated and so went off to have a few goes on Crystal Method. Realising that a) conditions were great and b) I might not get a chance to get on Ben's Groove with so many pads under it and all the holds brushed and chalked (thanks to a retractable ladder), I went back up.

It was a bit quieter up there and someone else was also trying it and not making it look total piss so I felt a bit less stage-fright. I asked if I could have a go, pulled on and did it 1st go which felt great! It was awesome to pull over the top and see all the lovely brushed, chalked holds for the slightly exciting top-out.

I texted Matt and he headed back and had a few goes on it too - making some good progress after he got some crafty beta from someone less vertically-challenged than me. I got him to take some post-send glory shots:





I then went over to Blockbuster which Naomi Buys was trying. She told me that according to Steve Dunning (author of the latest bouldering guide) pulling on at the crimp and the lowest boss with your foot on the first foothold is 7B. I've always tried jumping off the ground (as in Stick It) but never got anywhere. I tried this new start and 3 attempts later it was in the bag, complete with the obligatory Stick It quotes "show us your topping out skills" etc. I'm not convinced about starting that high, but then jumping off the ground is obviously very height and how many pads you start off dependent.

After that I contributed some pads to the slightly diminished pile beneath Ben's Groove and hung about spotting and spraying beta till it got dark.

A quality addition to Brimham

After a bit of work on my paper this morning, the beautiful sunshine outside the window was too hard to resist so I headed out to Brimham for a quick session. One of the roads was closed on the way leading to an impromptu diversion navigating minor roads by the position of the golf balls at RAF Menwith Hill.

Once I got to Brimham, I got straight on Tom Peckitt's new arete problem. Once I'd worked out some short-arse beta it was quickly despatched. I think it's probably 7A but more importantly it's absolutely superb and the rock is solid which is great as so many problems at Brimham involve pulling on gritty slopers at some point!

A damp afternoon at Shipley

Yesterday I had a failed trip to Caley with Matt: went to crag, it was piss wet, went back to mine and Nicky's for tea and biscuits.

This morning after virtually no sleep due to consuming the quantity of coffee that gives me the required motivation to go to a notoriously green, North facing crag on a damp day the alarm at 7:15 was pretty unwelcome. Nicky had booked for both of us to go to the Turkish baths at Harrogate and offered to drive so I had no choice but to drag myself out of bed and make some coffee. The baths were great and 2 1/2 hours of steaming, plunging and hot-rooming left me feeling surprisingly awake and very relaxed.

Matt was keen to get out and I persuaded him to meet me at Shipley Glen as I've only been there a couple of times and not done much there apart from Manson's wall (multiple attempts on a sweaty june day - what was I thinking?!) and Red Baron (flash on a perfect November day). It was a bit damp but after Matt's surprise at my not-touching-the-rock-as-my-tips-are-thin warm up we headed to headed to Manson's Wall.

I had hoped to retro-flash this but kept slipping off the big footholds and the crimps felt terrible. I wandered up to the top and climbed down onto the tree and the top crimps felt damp and minging but the top of Phil's Wall (1 m to the right) felt much drier - weird.

We constructed a brilliant terrace below Phil's Wall with 3 of the 4 pads we'd brought to the crag and after watching Matt have a couple of goes I pulled on for the flash attempt. I screwed up the sequence and got to the crux but couldn't get my weight in the right place to move my feet. 3 or 4 attempts later and I was on the final crimp reaching up for the slightly damp top. Matt offered to take a glory photo with my hands on the top but I was too worried about slipping off so declined and topped it out for another 7A/+ tick for 2011.



It wasn't quite as dismal as this photo makes it look!

Matt then fell of Red Baron a couple of times before announcing "this time I'm going to do it" and he did. I'm not sure if he's repeated this before but he looked solid on it - even posing for photos:



We then wandered along to look at Millstone Grip and Grit but a couple of minutes of rain were enough to puncture our massive psyche and it did look very green from above so we headed back to the cars just as another rain shower helped convince us that sacking it was the best plan.