I went back to Newtyle today with Andly Inglis, Helen Rennard and Neil Adams. I wanted to do Fast and Furious again and work Torchlite. I warmed up on Fast and Furious, which I managed to do on my first attempt, and then did it again for a bit of practice. Neil also managed to tick this off.
Neil and I then had a short break and went to see what Andy and Helen were doing on the Happy Hooker wall.
We returned to the Tube after this short break to try Torchlite. Neil and I watched Andy on it first who has managed to link up to the final move before falling off previously.
On my first attempt today I managed all the moves but it was horrifically dogged. On my second, and final, attempt I linked the first 8 bolts, just over half way, and got pumped. I was feeling quite tired earlier but I knew that after the 9th bolt the climbing go a bit easier and that I could fashion a sort of rest. I then dogged to the end.

Hopefully when fresh I will be able to get this. If I did it would be the hardest dry tooling route I have completed.

... and back again

Today I returned to Newtyle with Scott G. I managed to send Fast and Furious on my second attempt after watching some clever footwork from Scott which allowed me to have a good shake out. After this we attempted a route on the Happy Hooker wall which felt really hard. We think it was either M8 or M7. It felt much sketchier than Fast and Furious. After a few hours sieging  this we returned to the tube where I tried Torchlite, I only made it to the 8th clip with a lot of effort, and Scott tried Torchlite and Fast and Furious. I'm sure he'll get Fast and Furious soon as he was very close today.
Apologies for a lack of pictures but it was only us two there today.

Magical Mica

The weather wasn't looking to promising for Saturday so I wanted to go to Newtyle and kick off my tooling for the year. I managed to partner up with Scott G after asking for people to climb with on facebook, as apparently not many people like tooling. We met Neil Adams and Jim Higgins there and even Simon Yearsley turned up later on with his dog Bob.
It was raining a bit so we decided to climb in the tube all day and get strong on Fast and Furious. The tube, for anyone that doesn't know is a dirty big hole in the ground full of mud. The mud forms as minerals in the slate weather to form clays. I think micas are suseptible to this but without looking through my notes I can't say for sure. I also figure this has some sort of mica mineral in it as it has been metamorphosed. Id guess at Biotite but without actually properly looking at it under a microscope I can't say for sure.
I have blogged about Fast and Furious earlier in the year the first time I did it. It has been quite a while since then, and I managed to borrow Greg Boswells fruit boots for it so it made everything easier. This time I just had my normal winter boots and no-one to tell me where the hooks were or how to do the moves. I had 5 attempts at it in total, none of them clean, although I got to the top on everyone.
My first attempt was quite poor as I had to remember where all the hooks were and where my feet should go. On my second attempt I managed to get to the 6th clip, although we miss out the first 2, before I pulled out too far on my axe and the hook popped. On my subsequent 3 attempts I got to the 7th clip before I fell. It is this clip I find the hardest as I have to use a very specific foot sequence to clip off.
Hopefully when fresh, and now that I know the moves, it should go down.

Figfour

Tops off for power

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)

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)

Back to school

I am leaving Yorkshire tomorrow to go back up to University (school). I know this is quite early but I have a field trip in Northern Scotland at the end of August. I'm not sure how much climbing I'll get done between now and the start of term so I think this is a good opportunity to sum up my summer of rock.
Ive spent most of the summer at home making evening trips to Almscliff and I know a fair few of the locals now. I have also been to Brimham, Caley, Kilnsey, New Mills Tor, The Roaches, Ilkley and Heptonstall. I can't mention everything ive done, there is a lot and it would just be a massive list, but I will describe any highlights.
My trip to New Mills Tor, despite being a bit wet, was good. I managed to climb Honcho (E4 6b), which is still my hardest lead. The route is a short, steep and bouldery and I got it on my second attempt. I think it was possibly a bit soft at E4 6b. I would be tempted to give it a high in the grade E3 6a.
Another highlight has to be my ascent of the Sloth (HVS, 5a) at The Roaches. I climbed it with Sam Capewell, who I know from Edinburgh. The route takes a crack through a large, steep roof. I have wanted to climb this for a while but was put off in the past as it looks really scary. It is an intimidating HVS, but probably only HVS.

The Sloth

Another highlight of the summer was when I on-sighted my first E4, 'Arries 'Ook, at Almscliff. The route takes a steep, unprotected slab to gear, some bulges and a long reach. The route suited me down to the ground and it didn't feel too hard once I committed to the initial slab. The route gets given E4 6a but I felt it was closer to E3 5c, and possibly slightly soft at that. The route was in my style so my opinion may be a bit biased.
Other routes I have done at Almscliff which were particularly good were Crack of Doom (VS), Great Western (HVS), Demon Wall (HVS), Birdlime Traverse (E1), Black Wall Eliminate (E2), Bancrofts Roof (E2) and Syretts Roof (E3). All of these, except Great Western which I led, were done ground up on solo.

Dolphin Belly Slap

I have also had a good summer bouldering. I managed my first V7 outdoors, Demon Wall Roof, which is as hard as Ive ever bouldered indoors. Other highlights include Dolphin Belly Flop (V6), Pebble Wall (and with sit start) (both V5), Morrells Traverse (V6) and Virgin Traverse Part 1 (V4). This is a selected number of problems I have done at Almscliff and by no means complete.
I would have to say that it has been a very good summer of climbing for myself and hopefully I can continue this into the next year at University and the up coming Winter season and Scottish Tooling Series. 

'Arries 'Ook

I had quite a good day yesterday. Joanna came down on to Yorkshire on Thursday evening and on Friday morning we set off to Almscliff. I started and managed to onsight my first E4. It was called 'Arries 'Ook, which is quite fitting really. The route was on the south wall and took a delicate bold slab up to a good rest and gear before some steep, juggy, well protected roof and then an easy top out. It suited me quite well I think. Joanna had a good go at it and managed the slab which I found hard clean, despite a bit of faffing around. She fell off the bulges but I was quite impressed.
Steph Solomon joined us in the evening. She had never climbed outside before, and only climbed inside a long time ago. It was raining to start with so we sought shelter under the Virgin Boulder and played around on the traverse. She gave it a very good go and I was really quite impressed with her effort on it. We went to climb on the Low Man where Joanna and I lead up a few routes, which Steph seconded.
I ended the day by having a go on Wall of Horrors. I didn't get any further than the mid height break, which felt really slimy thanks to the rain earlier. It was also dark so I couldn't see any foot holds.