Some new, Some old

It has been a while since my last post. In this time I have been attempting to climb as much as I can to get some mileage in preparation for the summer. Over this time I have also been doing my final exams, which are a lot less stressful than people might make you think. With almost all of the work which goes towards my final degree already handed in the pressure has been kinda off really. Despite this I have spent much of my time in Edinburgh, making lots of trips to the citys local crags.
Most of my time has been spent at Agassiz Rock, a small but steep crag composed of Pyroxene Andesite in Blackford Glen. Agassiz rock is a pretty famous locality thanks to the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz who interpreted the striations on the rock surface as being created by ice. If you are interested you can read about it here. After a bit of time working out how to use the Scottishclimbs wiki grid topo of this crag I managed to climb lots of problems here. My best effort has been the Low Traverse, weighing in at font 7b. This is quite long and probably deserves something like a 7c sport grade too. My usual warm up here is the problem Last Gasp, which is a long pumpy font 7a, which also gets a 7c+ sport grade apparently! So maybe the training is paying off.

Craig at Agassiz

Further down the glen from Agassiz Rock is Corbies crag, the neck of an extinct volcano and of the same unit which Agassiz Rock is composed of. I had never climbed here despite often walking past it to climb at Agassiz. There are a few easy routes which make for a nice way back to the flat from the glen. I climbed a very nice Mod called Retromingent Ridge, which I can highly recommend, and a Diff which follows a gorse filled gully, called Sunny Scoop, which I can't recommend.
Other local Edinburgh adventures include a quick trip to Traprain Law, where I climbed a few routes I hadn't done before with Elaine, and a couple of trips to the Salisbury crags, where I also managed a few new things.

Elaine on Great Corner Direct, Traprain Law

Further afield I made a quick evening trip to Oxen Wood in Northumberland, which is only really worth an evening trip. There isn't anything very hard here, although there is a nice font 6c, called Oxen Wood Traverse, which is probably worth seeking out.

Oxen Wood

Oxen Wood Traverse

Again in Northumberland I made a very unsuccessful trip to Bowden where I managed to climb a grad total of nothing, and a wet afternoon at Heckley, near Alnwick, where I managed a few nice things. Heckley is a bit of a strange crag as there was a f5+ which I spent a while trying to do but to no avail, but then I managed to flash a few 6c's. I can only think that some holds must have broken. The dead rabbit at the base of it added to the atmosphere.

Greg on Staggered, Bowden

Andrew on Vienna, Bowden

Dark Times at Bowden

Heckley in the Rain

Further south in Yorkshire I had an afternoon soloing at Scot Crags in Scugdale, where I managed to climb 60 routes! Most of the routes I climbed were between HS and HVS, however I did also tick a few E numbers, including an E4 which you really wouldn't want to fall off!

The Prow, Scugdale

So yes that has been my life recently. Hopefully I will be able to make some bigger trips soon which merit their own post, so you don't have to trawl through an essay to see what I've been up to!
Also here is a song I like: Metric-Waves

My 2013 climbing year

So 2013 is now at an end an I think I can safely say that it is my most successful every year of climbing. I have managed to achieve personal best in all disciplines in climbing but also had some amazing days out and experiences.

Trying extra hard on Seal Song

According to my UKC profile I have ticked 459 climbs in 107 days out. The days out is definitely an underestimate as there have been a number of days when I have failed to climb anything at all!
2013 started off quite badly as I dislocated my elbow at the start of January and missed the Ice world cup! It could only really get better from here really.
Winter climbing is the way I usually start and end a year. This current winter season has been good for me so far. I have climbed personal bests with Cornucopia (VII 9) and Sioux Wall (VIII 8). My favorite winter day would have to be doing Orion Face and Tower Ridge on the same day back in April. I even managed a first ascent in Stob Coire nan Lochain with Alex McMillan in March, called Seattle Grooves.

Sioux Wall

Cornucopia

Ravens Edge

I have also done a lot of drytooling in 2013. Although I haven't improved my red point grade, despite being close, I have managed to flash/onsight a couple of M9's. I also managed to keep my hands on second place in the STS, loosing out to Peter Holder by one point!

Newtyle

I haven't really climbed too much trad this year but what I have done I have enjoyed. In May I managed to onsight my first E5, a route called The Quickening at Reiff in North West Scotland. In July I managed to climb another E5 at Dumbarton rock near Glasgow called Physical Graffiti. In June I made a trip to the Hebridean islands of Pabbay and Mingulay with some friends from university. I really enjoyed the trip and the highlight of it was climbing Voyage of Faith (E3) on Dun Mingulay on our last day. My favorite trad route of 2013 is quite close between Wuthering (Stanage), Empty on Endorphins (Reiff), Golden Fleece (Reiff) and Big Country Dreams (Cambusbarron).

The Quickening

Wuthering

I spent most of the summer driving around Northumberland bouldering, although I did manage a few trips further afield. The highlight of the summer has to have been climbing Sprung at Bowden Doors, my first font 7c! It is easy for the grade I know but you have to start somewhere don't you. I have done so much bouldering this summer so its hard to pick out my favorite problems. In June I managed to climb Spank the Monkey at Cambusbarron, which is one of the best boulder problems I have ever climbed, and its in a grotty hole in the ground which makes it even better. Similar in setting, but completely different in style, is Gloom at Rothely in Northumberland. I loved working this problem and was so chuffed to manage to climb it in July.

Gloom

I managed two problems this summer that I have tried a number of times before. These were Little Pixies (Back Bowden) and Si's Arete (Almscliff).

Si's Arete

Little Pixies

My last bouldering highlight comes from a crag just 15 minutes away from my flat. I finally managed to climb the Low Black Wall Traverse on Edinburgh Sailisbury Crags!
I have done a little bit of Sport climbing too, but this wasn't very impressive or interesting so its not really worth talking about. I even went to the Alps but its the same story there.
To finish of the year I have been selected to for the newly formed British Ice Climbing Team and will be competing at the 2014 Ice World Cup!

CAC Festival of Ice Final

I should also thank those who have supported me throughout the year. Firstly I should thank Outdoorkit.co.uk who have been supplying me with kit to test and review. I should also thanks Scarpa for some new footwear to see me through the coming winter season and Schmoolz for making me a pair of fatter indoor ice climbing tools. Red Goat and Rock City climbing walls, in York and Hull respectively, should also get a quick mention for supporting my climbing throughout the year. Also a massive thank you to everyone that I climbed with this year!
2013 has been my best year for climbing so far, and hopefully I can build on this for 2014.

Les Alpes

Last week I went to the Alps with Cassim Ladha. It was quite an impromptu trip as Cass called me about a week before setting off as his partner had dropped out. After a bit of thought I decided it was a good idea and agreed to go with him. We took Cass's new car from my house in Yorkshire to France via the Ferry at Dover. Our first destination were the Ecrins, thanks to a slightly more favorable forecast. We arrived in mid afternoon on Saturday and thanks to the long drive we decided to take most of Sunday off before walking up to the mountains in the evening. Our target was Jour de Colere, a 15 pitch ED1 on the Aiguille de Sialouze.
On Sunday I bouldered in the valley while Cass did some work. I didn't climb anything very hard but it was useful to get me used to the rock I'd be climbing on the next day.

Ailefroide Bouldering

We met up later on, had tea and got ready for our walk up to the Refuge du Sele. The walk was quite long and monotonous, with a couple of via ferrata sections, but nothing too hard. 4 or so hours after leaving the valley I was in my bivi bag outside the higher winter hut trying to psyche myself up for next days climb.
I woke at 5am when my alarm went off and sat in my sleeping bag making coffee and eating breakfast. It was still very dark and cold but we could see lights heading up the valley. We didn't want to hang around too much as we didn't want to get stuck behind another team and the weather was due to change in the afternoon.

Jour de Colere (Photo Credit: Cassim Ladha)

Jour de Colere (Photo Credit: Cassim Ladha)

As we walked to the bottom of the route it started to get light and I could see the length of the climb. As you can tell from my blog I mostly just boulder with the odd bit of single pitch trad in there. This thing was 15 pitches long. I could just about make out the line, and the location of the Crux F7a pitch.
Cass had the first lead, which after the initial snow climb in rock boots wasn't all that bad. We alt lead from here. I could give a break down of each pitch but this would be very dull. Things started to get a bit more interesting when I got to the bottom of the crux pitch. I had just led the previous F6b pitch so I expected Cass to have this one, but he wasn't feeling it, so I took it again. Up until this point on the route I didn't think we would do it. The weather was supposed to change soon and bring some bad rain and we were going quite slow, but after this pitch there were only 4 more easy pitches to the top. Easy.
This pitch went without too much trouble, although I did cover the crux foot holds in blood after cutting my ankle. I have to be honest I did the pitch "French Free", meaning I aided the crux moves, but its the alps and that's allowed.
Cass seemed to struggle with this pitch and looked quite tired when he got to the top. He set off up the next pitch but it wasn't long before he couldn't go any further and made a belay below an off width. I took over the reigns again and linked the rest of the pitch together with the next. We were now just 2 short pitches from the top, which we would be able to link together. Cass set off up this final link up but didn't get far before he didn't want to do any more. After a look at the topo I worked out that we could get to the abb line with a diagonal abseil. I lowered cass off and followed myself. It seemed to take an age to get to the valley floor thanks to the huge number of abbs needed but we managed it and walk out to bivi next to the hut again.
The next day saw us drive to Chamonix, via Italy. I wasn't feeling too psyched in Chamonix to try anything hard. I didn't want to commit to a big route seeing how close we got to the top of Jour de Colere then had to back off. I was psyched for something short and hard, but Cass didn't want to do this. In the end we settled for a walk from the Aiguille do Midi, across the Vallee Blanche and down the Mer De Glace. I quite enjoyed this although it wasn't too hard. We saw a lot of the Alps this way at least.

Vallee Blanche (Photo Credit: Cassim Ladha)

(Photo Credit: Cassim Ladha)

(Photo Credit: Cassim Ladha)

(Photo Credit: Cassim Ladha)

Requein Hut

On the way back we stopped at Font for a quick boulder. This was the first time ive been here and im pretty keen to get back.

Font

After a day off at home I drove back to Edinburgh, stopping at Bowden on my way past. I managed to send Sprung, my first font 7c. It went down without too much trouble on the day. Im really psyched to get some more hard boulders done now!

Sprang

I have finally got my thin sections made for my dissertation (Orcadian Basin sediments from Spittal Quarry, Caithness), which means I can finally start doing work! But before I said good bye to my life I decided I should have one last day out climbing.

Sprung (Photo Credit: Minerva Design)

With that in mind Chris Prescott, Chris Williams, Sinclair Cooper and I went to Bowden Doors in Northumberland on Saturday. Whilst at Bowden we met two guys, called Alan and Mick, who were photographing some rock formations on the crag and asked if they could take some shots of us too. Always one up for being the subject of a decent photo I happily obliged.

Where it starts to get hard (Photo Credit: Minerva Design)

I really wanted to get back on Sprung (font 7c). I have tried Sprung a number of times but never really managed any significant links on it. My first attempt today saw me link from the sit start up to the first of the sharp crimps after the rock over move. I was pretty pleased, and managed this feet a few times during the day. I still had the crux move to get though. I tried a number of things; pulling really hard, pulling harder still, move foot, pull harder again, but none of these worked.

(Photo Credit: Alan Errington)

In the end I managed to get my right foot out of the dish I use for the rock over, by putting my left foot on the rail below, tensing, then moving the right foot onto the crimp I use in the rock over (it makes sense to me, maybe you had to be there). Lack of skin and energy put an end to my attempts on this. In the end I climbed Canada Dry (font 4+) and Main Wall Traverse (font 5) and had a couple of goes on Poseidons Adventure (E4) , so a bit of an anti climax to the day.
I shall hopefully get some good finger boarding sessions in and return with more strength and skin to complete the problem!

Poseidon (Photo Credit: Alan Errington)

On Friday a I received a new pair of shoes from outdoorkit.co.uk. They are Evolv Shamans, designed by Chris Sharma apparently. I will write a review soon but my first impressions are very good.

Magic

Not much of anything

I have had 4 trips out since by last post managing to tick pretty much nothing.
I have been making use of my new Scottish Sport Climbs guide (review to follow soon!), visiting Kirrie Hill and Robs Reed near Forfar. They are both old quarries composed of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate.
I went to Robs Reed with Jamie Sparkes and Alex Toomey. I climbed a 6b+ called Welcome To The Big Pocket, which as the name suggests features a big pocket. The crux was by far the mantle into the pocket, which I took a number of goes to get. After this I climbed on my second attempt a 6c+ called Get Shorty! and onsighted a 7a+ called Short Haul. On the left end of the crag are some steep roofs which have some short hard routes in them. I tried one called Dead Pull (7b+) but I dogged it. It didn't feel too hard but thanks to the nature of conglomerate it would be very hard to onsight.
A couple of days later I went to Kirrie Hill with Joanna Lisowiec. I spent most of the day climbing easy things, managing no more than 6b+, however I did manage to climb a 7b on my third attempt when we moved to the other section. The 7b was called Slim Pickins and feature a bouldery start followed by some big moves between jugs in the middle and finished with a hard crimpy boulder problem with very bad sloping sandy footholds.

Slim Pickins

Into the crux

I have also managed 2 days out bouldering. I had an afternoon at Cambusbarron and a day at Back Bowden. At Cambusbarron I tried Monkey Spanking. This route takes the left side of the Spanking the Monkey arete and gets font 7b. I took about an hour to work out how to get off the ground as there are no footholds on the overhanging face. I eventually managed the first move before falling off again. Maybe I need more body tension or maybe there is some sort of trick that I missed. Ill hopefully go back and try it again when I'm a bit stronger.
I had a nice day at Back Bowden yesterday. I only managed to tick a 6a+ but I did try lots of others. I managed to get to the last hold on Little Pixxies (7a), but I didn't hold it. I also climbed Low an Hard (7b) from a sit, it was just in the wrong place. The route starts very low on an under cut with a powerful move to the lip of the roof. After trying the start a few times and failing to do it I attempted the problem from the second hold and managed it. Unfortunately I can't claim this. I also worked a problem called Four Mats Wall (7b+) but I couldn't quite managed to finish it off.
You may have noticed if you have read back through my blog recently I have a new rating system based on thumbs. The maximum is 2 thumbs up and the minimum is 2 thumbs down. Its a 5 point system, a bit like conventional stars but its better as it has my name on it.

Excellent

Good

Distinctly Average

Poor

Disinfect Hands After Use

Rocks not all that bad

I like all forms of climbing but I do tend to enjoy winter climbing a lot more. The winter season is over now, for me anyway, so I have moved onto rock. Rock days out tend to end with me feeling abit disapointed without climbing as hard as I think im capable of which isnt a particularly nice feeling.
Since my exams finished on Friday I have managed to get 3 nice days out on rock, visiting 7 different crags and climbing lots of routes and problems. These, especially sunday, have to rank among any winter day Ive had.
Saturday saw Sinclair Cooper and I going to Northumberland. We met Roberty Taylor, Claire Holland, Anne Peale and Suzy Howat there too. We began the day at Kyloe Crag. It was a lovely day and the crag was very busy as a consequence. I didn't climb anything particulalry spectacular, although I did solo 3 nice HVS's, including Devils Edge. Sinclair and I decided we were having bait of a failure of a day here so we should move to another crag. Neither of us had been to Ravens Crag before, despite it being directly below Bowden Doors. We had abit of an explore around but everything was very sandy and dirty so we walked up the hill to Bowden Doors. We didn't manage to do very much here despite trying quite hard on a problem in the cave area.

Bowden

On Sunday I was to climb with Anne and Sinclair. The plan was to head to Dunkeld for some sport but the weather seemed to be favouring Northumberland again. We went to Hepburn, another crag none of us had been to before. On the way there we drove down a really fun road which I even managed to get a little bit of air on. I didn't mean to ofcourse but the hill was slightly more pointy than I expected. Hepburn feels alot more gritty than other county crags, possibly due to its slightly more southern position. I havent visted enough crags to get a good idea of the stratigraphy yet. We spent a long time trying problems on a steep boulder, but none of us managed to tick them. I would usually be able to climb font6b within the first 5 attempts but not today apparently.

(Photo Credit: Anne Peale)



(Photo Credit: Anne Peale)

 


Little Pixies, Back Bowden (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)



We were all getting a little annoyed with oursleves so we went to Back Bowden. Here Anne managed to climb her first font 7a, Under the Spell. Im not trying to take anything away from here fine effort but its probably very soft for font 7a. We finished off the day bouldering around in our trainers. On the way back to the car we saw some nice lenticular clouds.

Bouldering in trainers (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)

Cool clouds at Back Bowden

 The weather was so nice I thought it would be a shame to just go home so we went to Lindisfarne instead. It was supposed to be high tide a 22:55 so we had about 2 hours to explore the island. We took in the main attraction sof the castle, it was locked though, and the priory before heading back to the car as the tide was starting to get up to the road. This was quite a perfect cragging day for me. Good friends, good climbing, good weather and then something abit different to finish the day. 

Lindisfarne Castle at Dusk (Photo Credit: Anne Peale)



Yesterday I went climbing in the central belt with Philip Curry. We started the day at Rosyth. Philip hasn't climbed much outside before so I led everything. I began with climbing The Waullie, a route I haven't done in a long time, then Sickle and Chemical Warfare, which are new to me. After these we relocated to Aberdour. The crag was quite quiet when we arrived but began to fill up later. We climbed Asinine, Toerag Wall Direct Start, Hallelujah Wall and Slack Alice. It was nice to chat with all the other climbers here as I usually only climb at Aberdour in the rain so just have it to myself. It was nice to climb with Philip too. We managed to do everything very efficiently and quickly.

Slack Alice at Aberdour (Photo Credit: Philip Curry)

Sorry about the essay. This should be 3 seperate posts really.

Revision stops play (sort of)

Its currently exam time at uni, so I'm in full on revision more (or as near to it as I get). I finish exams this Friday (3rd May), so after then I will hopefully get out on rock as much as I can.
To say I haven't been climbing would be a bit of a lie. Since my last trip related post I have been to Spain on a field trip and down to Yorkshire.
As I was on a field trip in Spain I didn't do very much climbing, although I did manage to boulder around on the occasional exposure we were looking at and climbed on some nice conglomerate on a beach near Almeria on out last day.
After getting back from Spain I decided I should try and live in the library for the next 2 weeks. I got a bit of climbing in whilst out on runs round Blackford Hill. Id run to Agassiz rock, climb for an hour or so, then run home again. Last Wednesday I decided I would see how working from home went, so I drove back to Yorkshire for a few days. It didn't go well. I ended up going climbing at Red Goat climbing wall in York a few times and managed an evening out at Almscliff. I drove back up to Edinburgh on Saturday and stopped off at Back Bowden Doors in Northumberland on the way past for a quick boulder. I managed to tick Darth (f6c) and Under the Spell (f7a) among some other things.
On my return to Edinburgh I found a new pair of climbing shoes sent to me by outdoorkit.co.uk to review. They are a pair of Scarpa Vapour Velcros. I have managed a quick session down at Agassiz rock in them, but other than that I haven't really used them. A review should hopefully appear here in the not too distant future.
Anyway I should get back to working again!

Inchnadamph. Its Gneiss

For the past 2 weeks I have been on a field trip up in the far North West of Scotland. We stayed at a hostel at Inchnadamph, on the North shore of Loch Assynt. The region itself is called Assynt and is very interesting in geological terms. The rocks here show what happens when continents collide and the crust shortens. This is going on right now beneath the Himalayas.
The process which shortens the crust is called thrusting. Rock units get thrusted  on top of one another. The main thrust in the area is called the Moine thrust where Moine schist has been thrust upon the younger cambrian succession. This can been seen at Knockan Crag, near Elphin. There are lots of other thrusts in the area but this is the major one. At the end of the two weeks we had a mapping project around Cam Loch, which is near Elphin.
Despite my previous post saying that I wasn't going to get out and climb much over those two weeks its proved not to be the case and I managed trips to the Rhue Blocks, Ardmair Beach, Ardmair Ruins and Achmelvich beach.
My most frequented venue has to be Ardmair Beach. Here I have ticked all but 5 routes. The most notable thing I have done is Boulder Ding, at font 6c+, although I found Jumping Bristletails (font 6b) much harder.
On the trip whilst looking at rocks I did notice lots of things that should be climbed so I will hopefully be back in the not so distant future to add some new routes too.
Prior to the trip I managed a few days out. Firstly I went to Bowden in Northumberland with Joanna and some freshers. I spent most of the day bouldering but I did managed to lead Stretcher Wall (E1), which is well named. I finished the day by climbing Dog Eat Dog (font 7a).

Danielle seconding New Gold Dream (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

Later in the week I went to Limekilns with Joanna and Danielle Arnott, who has taken my old room in GBH. Here I climbed Marleys Ghost and New Gold Dream, both E2. Joanna had a good day and managed to onsight her first E2, Elgins Crack. She managed to make it look really easy aswell!
The day before leaving I went to North Berwick Law with Joanna and John DL. I climbed Necktie (F6b+), Dosage (F7a+) and ROWYCO (font 6c). I was very close to onsighting Dosage, but fell from the last move of the crux on my first attempt.

Dosage (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)