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.

Demon Wall Roof

Tonight's trip to the cliff has been one of my most successful yet. I started off by leading, on sight, my hardest route, Whisky Wall (E3). It wasn't technically hard, only 5b, but it was run out and sustained. Oli Read belayed me on this, which took a long time, and him and his friend Rich seconded me.
They then had to leave so I went up to the Demon Wall to try Demon Wall Roof again. After a few attempts to get solid on the moves I decided to have a quick burn from the start just to see how far I got. I managed to stick the toe hook, moved onto the under cut, then managed to twist my foot into the crucial flake foot hold and then topped it. I really didn't expect to get it on this attempt but I put everything into it and it went, so there are no complaints here. This was my first V7 outdoors. I'm also not sure if I've got many indoors, if at all.
I was on a bit of a high and wandered around trying new problems, although I didn't get any of these.
I attempted Tea Spoon on the North Face of the crag. This is a V8 with an awkward looking mantle at the top. I didn't get very far on this. The foot holds were a bit slimy and the whole area smelt a bit like a public toilet.
I then went on to try the Virgin Traverse and got some useful beta on it from some locals. Despite the beta I was bit tired, and it was bit too dark, so I didn't manage it.
I'll be back for more of my Almscliff fix.

Cliff life

I'm starting to make quite a lot of trips up to Almscliff. It has got to the point where I quite often know someone at the crag, so I can go and climb with them. Tonight was no exception and I met up with Alexis YB and Gareth Pilkinton.

I started off the night by climbing with two new people, Carl and Charlotte, who were bouldering in the West Cave area. I managed to climb Hanging Rib sit start (V4). After this we moved onto Flying Arete (V3). I have tried this a few times but today it went on my first try. We then moved up to the Black Wall where I climbed The Nose (V3). It was good to climb with Carl and Charlotte, as they both seemed very good. I was very conscious about trying to keep things nice and techy and not do too many strong moves.

I then went on to work Demon Wall Roof (V7) and managed to reach and hold the next hold. My back was hurting so I couldn’t bend in the right ways to get my foot in the right place for the next move, but hopefully I should be able to do it on my next visit. I then climbed Crucifix Traverse (V4), in both directions, to finish the day.

This has been one of my best days out at the cliff. Hopefully I will have more soon. I was climbing too much so didn't take any pictures though.

Dogging in Yorkshire

This post refers to me falling off a lot of things recently.
You may be glad to know I did manage to do over 100 climbs in June, 115 in total. The last of these came at Aberdour and Wolf Crag. July began with a trip to Auchinstarry quarry where I climbed lots of very nice routes including Midas Touch and Gold Rush, both E1. Auchinstarry was the start of my falling off where I took a reasonable fall off Promotry Direct (HVS) when my foot slipped close to the top. It was perfectly safe and I easily managed to finish the climb afterwards.
Whilst being back at home I have been joined by Joanna and a few other friends from Edinburgh. Before this though I went to Almscliff with Katy, where I climbed Franklins Green Crack (VS) and Overhanging Groove (HVS).
On the 12th July I made my way to the Roaches to meet up with Sam Capewell where we bouldered around a bit and I led the super classic and intimidating "The Sloth" (HVS). It take a crack through a large steep roof. I decided to climb up to the roof, place gear, then climb back down to a large ledge where I would allow my arms to recover the quickly climb the rest of the roof. This tactic worked and I quickly dispatched the roof.

The Sloth

The weekend after Joanna, Oliver Millington, Naomi Hatto and Lukas Solanka came down and I met them at Almscliff on Saturday evening. That evening I climbed "The Great Western" (HVS) with Joanna. TGW is one of the classic routes at the crag and I was glad to finally get it done. Through the week I made a number more trips to the cliff climbing Dolphin Belly Slap and Syretts Roof, both V6, among other things.Both of these took lots of attempts as I never got everything completely right, like my thumb was in the wrong place or my feet slipped.
On the Sunday we went to Ilkley where I climbed a few nice things including Fairy Wall (E2) and a number of boulder problems and I soloed a few routes too. 

Reaching for nothingness of Fairy Wall

Midweek we made our way to the peak district with the intention of climbing at the roaches. Unfortunatley it was very wet there so we went to New Mills Tor, which is perma-dry, for some undercover routes and bouldering. Here I managed to climb Honcho (E4 6b) on my second lead attempt. This is currently my hardest clean trad lead.
We ended the week with a trip to Heptonstall and Almscliff before I dropped Joanna off at the train on Sunday evening. Heptonstall was in fact the crag which gave this post its name. I tried Demerara (E4) there which takes a line up two cracks on the steep main wall. I fell of this repeatedly, and didn't manage to get it clean, although I did get to the top of it in the end.

A productive June

June has proven to be quite productive for me so far. I have climbed a lot, and worked a fair bit and got my results back, which I did quite well in.
I have managed to climb 95 routes, according to my UKC logbook. These have been from Reiff and Skye in the North of Scotland, see my previous blog post, to Heptonstall in Yorkshire. I haven't really done any spectacular on any single trip so these trips haven't merited their own post.
After the road trip I made a trip up to the Salisbury Crags with Joanna, where I repeated the Black Wall traverse and climbed a few easy routes in some of the smaller quarries to the right of the South Quarry. Whilst doing this I re-aggravated my finger injury, which was starting to feel a lot better.
The next day Joanna, Madeleine and I went to Aberdour. The intention was to go to Limekilns but while driving across the Fourth the weather to the west looked much worse than that to the east so we decided Aberdour was a better bet. Here I led Pain Pillar Proper (HVS 5a) and Guismo (VS 4c), while Joanna led Lilly (S). It was a nice day out despite a rain shower as Joanna was starting Lilly.

Aberdour, Gismo (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

On the 13th June I decided to head home and on the way stopped off at Bowden where I climbed a number of boulder problems including a flash of Scooped Wall (font 6b) and working The Lightbulb (font 6a).
Since being at home I have managed a few trips to Almscliff and a day out at Heptonstall and Widdop with Sarah Lund. Highlights include everything I did at Heptonstall; Thin Red Line (E1 5b), Bulls Crack (HVS 5a) and Fairy Steps (HS 4b). Fairy Steps felt about right for the grade but Thin Red Line and Bulls Crack felt hard with TRL being a proper E1, and a very good one too. I can't think of a better route of that grade which I have done.
At Alsmcliff I have climbed lots of very nice routes and problems, and also had to quickly learn how to jam whilst soloing. Highlights have been; Crucifix (sit down) (V4 6a), Crucifix arete (V3 6a), Wall of Horrors (start) (V3 6a) (flash) and Central Climb (VS 4c).

Almscliff, Zig Zag (Photo Credit: Katy Rudsdale)

Hopefully the rain will stop and I will be able to make it to over 100 routes this month.

Skye and the North West

Joanna and I decided to drive up North on Thursday night thanks to a favorable weather report. We drove to Cairngorm mountain where we stayed for the night. The plan was to climb Crystal Ridge but the weather on Cairngorm wasn't great so we drove further North to Huntly's Cave, near Grantown on Spey. Huntley's cave is a small Mica Schist crag which is improbably steep at the grade. I imagine the mica schist, which is a metamorphic rock, would have in a metamorphic aureole around the igneous intrusion of the Cairngorms, although I haven't checked this. Here we climbed a nice multi-pitch route called Diagonal (VS 4c), Central Crack (HS 4b), Cave Direct (VS 4c) and Double Overhang (HVS 5a). Double Overhang takes a corner crack which passes through two overhangs, and looks much harder than it turns out to be.

Double Overhang (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

That evening we drove to Skye. There was lots of very low cloud when in the Great Glen but this lifted as we approached the coast. Skye was cloudless and dry. There was even a little bit of wind to blow the midges away, so it was almost perfect. The EUMC meet to Skye was this weekend too so we drove around campsites trying to find them. We failed in finding them but we did join a beach party in Glen Brittle which had a fire and bag pipes and everything. Later on in the evening we drove to Neist and camped next to the road. We got a leisurely start the next day and arrived at the car park at Neist point at about 10am. Neist Point is a series of impressive sea cliffs, which are over looked by a light house. We climbed at the Financial Sector, which is above a raised beach. The routes here require a 30m abseil to get to the bottom of them. We only climbed two routes, both of which I lead, which where Security Risk (E1 5b) and Venture Capital (HVS 5a). Venture Capital takes a line up two parallel cracks which end in a small roof and Security Risk takes a very crimpy line up a groove, which is harder than it looks.The rock here was Gabbro, which is a very coarse grained plutonic rock. This combined with the relative remoteness of the crag, so it didn't get much traffic, meant that the friction here was amazing.

Security Risk (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

We had big plans for Sunday so we decided to move on to Elgol, which is another sea cliff but at the other end of the island. Elgol, unlike Neist, is composed of Jurassic Sandstone, which is much softer. This produced lots of interesting flaky features but made everything seem a little less solid than Neist. To add to this the rock is covered in a sort of grassy sea lichen. This lichen gave the name to the first route I did, which was called Hairy Mary (VS 4c). This route takes a series of crack up a steep wall of rock. Whilst at the crag we found the rest of the EUMC group, so we took Catherine Marsh along for the climb aswell.
There was enough time for another route so as Joanna's route was taken I decided to climb Veritas Splendour (E3 5c), which takes a steep roof around an arete and then after a short way up the left wall off the arete you swing back round onto the right wall and to the top. Liam Ingram had done it earlier in the day and he told me what to expect on it, which apparently wasn't too much difficulty. I found the steep bit not too difficult, except a long move into a crack around the arete. The hardest part for me, or at least the scariest was the top of the arete, which featured an insecure move, all be it to a massive jug.

Hairy Mary (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

Veritas Splendour (Photo Credit: Joanna Lisowiec)

That evening, after dropping Liam Ingram and Catrin Nichols off at their campsite, Joanna and I drove to Reiff, which is another sea cliff North of Ullapool. Reiff is composed of Old Red Sandstone. Whilst stood at the bottom of the crag I could see features such as turbidites which suggested the rock was deposited at the bottom of an ocean.
Joanna had the first lead today and climbed Jim Nastic (VS 4c). After this I led Clam Jam (E1 5b) and Bank of Scotland (E3 5c). Afterwards I also soloed a number of HVS's. We were quite tired from our trip by now and decided to head back to Edinburgh, as the weather wasn't looking quite so good for tomorrow.

Reiff

 I'm sorry this is so long but we did do quite a lot!