Drytooling Pilgrimage

This weekend I went on a bit of southern drytooling pligrimage visiting crags in both England and Wales.
On Friday morning I left Edinburgh for the Lake District venue of The Works with the idea of trying Greg Boswells new route Power Dab. I was to meet up with Andy Turner and Pete Holder there.
Power Dab gets D13, the hardest grade given to a dyrtooling route in Britian. It shares this grade with a route at Newtyle. I wasn't sure what to expect of the route. It looks super powerful with big moves, not usually the thing Im good at.
On only my second attempt on the route I managed to get all the moves done in 3 sections. I find the crux to be pulling onto the head wall after the roof. Andy managed to climb the route on his second attempt of the day bagging the second ascent!
That evening I made my way further south to the welsh tooling venue, White Goods, near Ruthin. The weekend was the annual White Goods Tooling meet organised by Dave Garry.
On Saturday I met up with others from Scotland; Steve Johnston, Neil Silver, Simon Yearsley and many others. I managed to flash White Goods (D8+), Jaz (D8) and Doorstep Challenge (D8+). I had a go at a new link up, which still hadn't been climbed at the time. It took a traverse line starting up Tumble in the Jungle and finishing up Ready Steady Hook. I had a good go but I took a big fall whilst clipping moving through The Finnish Start.
On Sunday I went back to The Works, this time with Pete Hill, to have a go on Power Dab again. I managed to decent link on it but I didn't have enough guns to finish it off. In the end I climbed Outfield (D7) and Lakes Ethics (D9+).
Hopefully there will be some pictures to follow!

Pete is a common name

I have quite a lot to update you on. Since my last post I have been all over the place. I have climbed in Yorkshire, The Lakes, Wales and Stirlingshire.
I went down to Yorkshire on the 7th and took Anne Peale with me. She has no exams as she is a masters student and was psyched to climb.

Si's Arete (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)

On Wednesday we went to Almscliff. Here I led Z Climb (VS) and Dolphinian (E1). I also did a bit of bouldering. I got quite close to Teaspoon Variation (font 7b-ish) and Si's Arete (font 7a). On both of these problems I can link up to doing the final move, which is a bit annoying. That evening we drove to The Lake District.
We stayed with friends of mine, Pete Holder and Pete Hill. On Thursday we went to the newly re-bolted "The Works" near Coniston. I climbed Stein Pull (M6), the only route on the industrial sector which I hadn't done before. I then belayed Anne and Pete (Hill) up it. The second cave at the works, just to the left of the main cave, now has a route bolted in it. It hadn't seen a first ascent but Pete thought the guy who bolted it would be fine with us trying it. Pete sent me up it so that I didn't blow the onsight by watching him. I managed to flash the route up to the end of the steepest section where I really struggled to get into the next hold. After falling off I managed to find a small intermediate which I could use to allow me to get my feet onto the left wall. I then managed to rip the stein pull on the last move before the lower off, but I managed to do it after getting back on again by being very careful.

Lakes Ethics

The new cave

Next it was Pete's (Holder) turn but he fell off at the same place I did before climbing the last few moves to the lower off. I fell off again at the same place on my second attempt after not getting a good enough hook on the intermediate. Anne and Pete (Hill) also gave the route a go. Pete (Holder) managed to climb the route clean on his second attempt of the day. He has called the route "Lakes Ethics" in reference to the recent bolt chopping and given it the grade M9+. I had one more go and managed to climb cleanly to the very last hold before my axe ripped through the very small thin stein pull. We all moved onto the second  were Pete and I attempted Guardian of the Underworld (M12) and Anne and Pete (Hill) attempted Bloodline (M10).

Pete in the bat hang rest on Guardian

That evening, after a quick check of the weather, Anne and I decided to go down to Wales. Our plan was to climb in the slate quarries around Llanberis as they may just about be dry, and if not there is a small drytooling venue.
The morning brought about a lot of rain so after a breakfast in Pete's Eats, and a look round V12 and Joe Browns, we went to the Dinorwig slate quarries to find the drytooling at Never Never Land. After getting a bit lost we finally found it. Everything was very wet and some lines resembled waterfalls but luckily others were reasonably dry. I warmed up on Monkey Bar Kid (M6+) before climbing The Deerhunter (M7) and the The Ibex Direct (M8). I thought The Deerhunter was particularly good with some fun stein pull moves at the top. I decided against trying the harder line of Bambi (M9+) as there was a huge runout at the top and I couldn't see any holds. I would really like to visit here again, hopefully with someone that has beta on the harder routes. I wonder if I could flash everything in the entire quarry?

The Ibex wall at Never Never Land

Ibex Direct (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)

Monkey Bar Kid (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)

I met up with Helena Robinson in Pete's Eats for a drink. She recommended going to the Great Orme near Llanludlo on the way back to Yorkshire. The Orme is a really cool place to climb with routes starting directly above the road, which you unfortunately have to pay a toll to drive on. I only completed one route, Firefly (E3), despite attempts on Captain Fingers (F7b) and Excursion Direct (F6c+). I backed off Excursion Direct as I didn't bring any nuts for the top of the route, which it shares with a trad route, and Captain Fingers felt quite hard.

The Orme (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)

Captain Fingers (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)

I took Saturday off to clean the car and drive back up to Edinburgh but I was back on it today with a trip to Wolfcrag Quarry and Cambusbarron, both near Stirling. I had wanted to climb sport, but it looked wet, and my second choice was tooling, but I couldn't find a partner.  I climbed a number of boulder problems at Wolfcrag including Edges (font 6C+), Oval Pocket (font 6C) and Side Pull (font 6C+). I decided to see how dry Cambusbarron was on the way past. I climbed here last year and nearly on-sighted my first E4, but fell off thanks to loose rock whilst pulling onto the top of the crag. I was pleasantly surprised how dry it all was seeing as it was under the trees. I had a go at Spanking the Monkey (font 7a). This problem takes a slabby arete on a very much featureless boulder. It requires pure friction climbing and unfortunately the moss of the boulder was still damp, despite the rock being dry, leading to me repeatedly falling off after the first couple of moves. This is definitely one to come back to though. I had a go at the left hand side of the arete of Spanking the Monkey, Monkey Spanking (font 7b). It felt very hard and I could barely get off the ground, but again one to come back to. I climbed a boulder problem called Treehugging (font 3) in my trainers on my way back to the car.

Wolf Crag

Spank the Monkey boulder at Cambusbarron

Tooling Around

I haven't posted here in a while so here is a bit of a catch up and a run down of what I have been up to.
Firstly uni has started again so Ive actually had work to do during the day so I can't just go out climbing all the time. Nights have started to get darker too which hasn't helped.
The climbing I have done has mostly been bouldering. I have bouldered in Edinburgh, Glen Nevis, Northumberland and the Lake District in this time.
In Edinburgh I have visited Agassiz rock and the Crags, I haven't really managed anything new at the crags, although I am trying to work the R-L variation on the Black Wall. I managed the high traverse at Aggasiz Rock in my only trip there. The high traverse uses high holds running L-R along the crag. It is quite pumpy and polished and I was pretty happy to get it done.
The EUMC Glen Coe trip saw me spend two days in Glen Nevis bouldering. Here I managed to tick a few easy problems and my first font 7b! It went down pretty easily, so Im not convinved it was 7b. The problem in question was The Right to Silence on the Cameron Stone.

Heather Hat Traverse (Photo Credit: Holly Spice)

Cameron Stone Campus Challenge (Photo Credit: Holly Spice)

On the EUMC Lake District trip I spent saturday afternoon at Gimmer Crag. I climbed with Joanna and we didn't take a guide book with us so we just climbed something which looked good. The route we did was D Route, which gets Severe, although I think it is abit harder than that. On saturday evening I met up with Pete Holder and Pete Hill (Pete^2) and headed to the Works, a dry tooling crag near hodge close, more in this later in the post though. On Sunday Joanna, Liyen and I headed to the Langdale Boulders. These are a collection of boulders very close to the road near Chapel Stile. Here I climbed The pocket (V5), The overhang (V5) and a number of easier problems whos names I have forgotten. I also tried a traverse line which starts near the overhang and crosses under the pocket and finishes around the corner. I was very close to getting this, falling off the easy finishing juggy holds. It is supposed to go at about V6, which I think was about right. Liyen was trying this with me and she was also very close to completing it.

V6 Traverse, Langdale Boulders (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

Approaching the crack on D-Route (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

In the crack on D-Route (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

I have made a few trips to Northumberland recently, visting Doveholes and Bowden. The trip to Bowden was with the EUMC. I spent the day bouldering and managed to climb His Emminence (E4/font7a+), as well as a few easier problems and worked lots of hard things.
I have made two trips to Doveholes, one by myself and another with Fergus Cuthill, Tom Eadington, Liam Ingram and Sophia Borgeest. On my first trip everything felt very sandy but I managed to climb the sand bag traverse of Dont Look Down (font 6a) and sandy sand bag mantle shelf of Moorish Idol (font 6b). On my second trip I had a much more succesful trip. I managed to dispatch Sloper City (font 6c), Funfatatus Ejaculatus (font 6c) and First Contact (font 7b) without too much difficulty. I also managed to flash Nellie (font 6c) and the Sit Start to Stone  of Destiny (font 6b). This was undoubtbly my most succesful day to date in Northumberland.

Liam Ingram on Nellie

As well as plenty of bouldering my mind has been on the forthcoming Scottish Tooling Series. The first competition is on the 3rd November. I have been trying to structure my training at the wall around drytooling with plenty of smooth movements and fig fours. As well as climbing indoors I have managed to get a trip out to The Works in the Lake District, as mentioned earlier. Here I climbed Steves Corner (M6), and fell off the very top as a torque popped! I also attempted Bloodline (M10). It didn't complete it partly as I was out of practice with drytooling outdoors, partly because I couldn't see very much (all though that is a pretty poor excuse) and probably because I didn't really try as hard as I coudl have done. This failure has given me a few things I feel I should work on for the STS atleast. I will hopefully be able to get a couple of trips out to Newtyle before things kick off, and maybe some new picks for my axes. I really hope to improve on my second place this year, and seeing as I appear to be climbing much better than I was this time last year, I think I can give it a good go.

Bloodline, The Works (Photo Credit: Pete Holder)

(Photo Credit: Pete Holder)

(Photo Credit: Pete Holder)