Super Saturday

At a bit of a loose end last week, struggling on the limestone and looking for partners for the days of brilliant weather ahead, I gave Tom a text asking what he was up to. He replied with some juicy gossip; he would be around one day, but the other would be spent belaying Pete on his secret project. Of course I interrogated Tom about the project, but being true to Pete he wouldn't reveal its location, only saying that it was probably "his hardest yet". We arranged an appointment to head to the grit crag of Wimberry in the Chew Valley on Thursday. As we headed over I asked Tom what he had his sights on. "You on appointment with fear?" He replied "Nah, Appointment with Death". My stomach dropped. This is one route I never thought would see much attention, as its a whirling mass of dangerous possibilities. Snappy pebbles, no gear, a high crux, all the makings of a real grit horror show. However, he reassured me the pebbles were OK and that he'd done the moves with Pete a few days before. Then it clicked, Pete's project was on Wimberry and it was the big one.

Wimberry, best hard grit crag?

That day I had no idea where to start, Jon Fullwood said that he'd been there when Ben Heason made the second ascent of Order of the Phoenix, so that was on the list, but then again so was everything else.... As I walked round to the top of the crag, I remembered something I'd seen in the guide, an arete that was only climbed on one side, leaving the other side open to exploitation. It was better than I'd imagined, high, well featured and most importantly not done. I set to work cleaning and it became my main focus for the day. We took turns on our projects, Tom looking very solid on Appointment, saying a lead might be soon and reassuring me that its not so bad (hmmm). After dialling my route on top rope I nipped up it in shaky style, at one point staring straight into the sun when reaching a crucial crimp which made me wobble a bit! It feels great to have made an FA at this mecca of hard grit. I named the route Disconsolate as I'm a moody boy (and the arete on the left is called consolation prize...) After this we opted for abbing and cleaning other projects and lines, it was Order of the Phoenix for me and after a good brushing to get the moorland gunk off, I got some of the moves done. Then it was home time, set for a rendezvous on Saturday.

High on the FA of Disconsolate

Saturday dawned dank and grim. On the drive over it was more of the same, showers, wet road and black clouds, not looking promising. Adrian Samarra (hot aches pro) had been drafted in by Wild Country to film Pete and Tom, and he was well assisted by two keen-as students down from Cumbria. As we approached the crag it was surprisingly dry, the rock was with us. Everyone got busy on there routes, Pete working on his down-climbing and inventive gear clipping methods, Tom lapping away on Appointment, and me floundering/nursing a split tip from the key crux pebble on Phoenix.

Order of the Phoenix (Cheers to Pete, great photo!)

Tom's project went first, and he's written a superb account here in two parts. It was a stunning piece of commitment, and one of the biggest repeats on grit in the past few years, no jams on it either interestingly. It was then my turn on the Phoenix. Having stopped top roping it due to thin skin I hadn't managed a full link, but team psyche is more than enough to make for any doubts! The ascent was a bit scratchy down low, but felt steady on the no fall moves, aside from the crux pebble cutting my finger even worse. This must be the most at ease I've felt on/before a hard headpoint, which just goes to show what kind of day it was, steady away on unsteady ground. Here's a video of my ascent.

Pete on the prow...                        

I'll leave Pete to give his account. All I can say is that its now three days on and I'm still buzzing, one of the best leads in grits history no doubt, and what a day it crowned, I won't be forgetting that one in a hurry.

Adrian Samarra supported by Matt and James captured both Tom and Pete's historic ascents for Hot Aches, and Mike Hutton got some cracking shots.

Not much more that can be said about the day really, I've run out of superlatives. Everything went right, the weather, the timing, the big efforts, the filming. I'll be back soon though, another Appointment has been made and its not one I can skip.

Tom in cruise control on Appointment With Death

Thanks alot for reading!

Nah'han

https://vimeo.com/63963586

Several months ago Jon Fullwood kindly informed me of a new route opportunity at Gardoms, saying it was probably too bold for him and that it would be a classic. "Cool, I'll get to it" I said. Two months later Jon was again talking about this line, how he'd found a kneebar on it and that it would probably be E7 or maybe even E8. Again, I said I'd look at it. The grit season passed quickly with trips and many sessions spent falling off boulder projects, until just before my trip to Switerland I got a text from Tom Randall. It read something along to the lines of "how much do you know about the direct on make it snappy? fancy trying it?". My heart sunk, I hadn't tried it and therefore I couldnt even try and play the pathetic "please let me do it first as its my proj" card. It was an open project, and I wouldn't be on it for another two weeks.

During my Swiss trip I forgot about the line, like so many times before. Until near the end I texted Tom asking him if he'd been on it. He had, saying that he'd done it a few days previous and that it was perhaps E8. I was pretty gutted, but quickly shook off the feelings of regret ("You should've gone and done it you idiot!!") Instead I simply had a new E8 to go and try on my return, and looking at the video in the cafe, it looked right up my street. 

First day back in the Peak I headed straight there by myself and set up a top rope. I shunted all the moves in the first hour or so, the crux last move to the break feeling ok at this point. I then linked it in two, then in one,  the last move not feeling so bad, and the rest feeling fine. I rang Dad and asked if he could come give me a belay after work. He agreed, so I stashed the gear and went home, having forgotten to bring food and not wanting to hang about at Gardoms for 4 hours. 

Later we returned, it was a great evening, more sunny and warm than it had been during the day, the golden light shining through the birch and oak trees. After checking the gear out I tried the route from the ground, but fell at the last move to the break, the holds feeling slippery. Perhaps I was tired, perhaps it was the conditions, I was now wondering about the lead, it had felt so sure only an hour earlier. Dad then tried the line as it cooled down and made short work of the slappy compression moves. Conditions must have improved, as I then top roped the route in one with no hitches. Lead time. 

It all went pretty smoothly, with the odd adjustment, to the last move to the break. As I hit the left hand set up sloper the hold seemed sweaty when before it had felt cold and sticky, this made the last move to the break a proper all or nothing slap. I didn't quite hit the hold spot on either, hitting the rock above and dragging onto the hold. Ie, it was a close one.

The final easy moves done and it was in the satchel, "You fucking idiot, why didn't you listen to Jon...."

Dad then swept up the 4th ascent, looking a little slappy on the way, but E8 at 51 can't be bad can it?

Quickly on the subject of the grade; it seems to be unfashionable to talk about grades properly at the moment, so I'll be quick. If I was grading the route as a first ascent, I'd have given it E7, but that means little. The style of the route fits me well and the fall didn't look like it would be horrific. Besides, those who have graded it know alot more than I do on the subject. Whatever it settles down to, its a great piece of rock that should become popular. I predict ascents!

Now its time to crack on with one project in particular, aswell as everything else that comes with summer, wet weather, midges, seepage and humidity.

Moral for the day, listen to Jon.

Nathan.

Spain, Swizzy and the Summer ahead.

Hello. When I wrote my last entry I was training in the wall a little bit (training being lapping 6as...) for my trip to Spain in late Feb. During the trip we visited the classic, yet quiet, Limestone venue of Wild Side in Sella. The last time I had climbed there was two years previous, where I had climbed my first 7a+ (which i was pretty chuffed about at the time!) This time I was there to focus on the classic 8as, with Ergometria and Watermark being the two that were most recomended by friends. I ticked Ergometria on the 2nd day, which was pretty surprising and went on to do the best route of my trip, Mediterraneo, a classy 8a with a very high crux sequence! All in all it was an ace trip, although the rain did ruin my ambitions of ticking Watermark aswell.

Between this trip and Switzerland I had two weeks of very little tickage. I played on The Zone at Curbar once, got the moves pretty wired and penciled it in as a post swizzy project. Unfortunately the psyche hasn't materialised yet and I find myself looking to other things.

Anyways, back to the trips. I realised in the week leading up to Switzerland that I wasn't going to be strong enough for the trip, which was a shame, but it was too late to solve it (learn for future...) Despite this it was a pretty fruitful trip ticking wise. Highlights being the stunning Confession of a Crap Artist ("Its Chaos Man!"), the uber classic Dr Crimp (first problem I saw abroad, leah crane vid..) and doing a whole bunch of classic 7as and bs. Waddage to Mr Carmichael and Chris 'Elijah' Smith who both went hard, then went home. I should have a video of this trip up soon. In the meantime check out george's.

The one thing which pained me most in Switzerland was hearing of the amount of snow back home, and looking at the photos of the snowballing in the cafe near the end of the trip left me feeling homesick. So when I arrived home (after toms thing, next post!) the first thing I wanted to do was get to the platforms. As promised they were still there, under all the classics of the Stanage and Burbage snowball circuit. We checked out Black Car and flailed about, then quickly moved to the popular end where we despatched Shine On and Cemetery Waits. Shine On temporarily being the best 7a+ in the Peak! Next up was Burbage North where Mark Rankine had been busy building a platform under Nefertiti. This is usually a highball with pads anyway, and with the snow it was a boulder, which meant it could climbed with fun jumps to holds rather than static locks. Another problem in that vein was Puck, which was climbed via a wild dyno! Cheers to Mark for the effort on Nefertiti and everyone else who has built platforms, I wish I could've been there to help!

Now attention turns to bigger things, I feel like I've not done anything properly hard for months, so hopefully I can take it up a notch soon..... provided the temps don't go through the roof.

Ciao Grazi.

The season so far, and a great weekend

Not posted in a while, so I've got plenty to report on from the last few months. Before christmas when I was still in route mode I had a few great days, highlights being a scary day on Bamford and a headpoint of my long term target Simba's Pride. Having recently watched Ben Cossey walk up it on Committed 1 its got me psyched for getting stronger and fitter, after all, any more control on solo's is always welcome. Couple of videos of these below.

Simbas - https://vimeo.com/53369748
Bamford - https://vimeo.com/53890693

After a "Christmas training regime" which involved not training and eating alot, I headed out to Font with a big group. It was a pretty mixed trip climbing wise, with only a few dry days and warm temperatures, but despite the grim weather some hard lines went down. One day of crushing on Mont Pivot in particular will live long in the memory.

After returning from Font, January has been a predictably unproductive month, spent mostly training for a trip to Spain in late February and staring out at the rain. However when there have been breaks in the cloud they've been put to good use. On one clear, crisp weekend I mananged to gather a couple of good ticks in Spare Rib at Stanton and Bat Out of Hell at Higgar. The latter really highlighted my fitness issues, I look forward to the day when I can climb 10 metres without desperate slapping!

At the moment I'm definatley feeling a transition back into route focus after two months of blocs, and I've got a few trad projects lined up to work on over the next weeks and months. This was hopefully started off at the weekend with a tick of Simon Nadins classic Roaches E7 Paralogism. The route takes a very steep and bouldery line over a large roof. The route boils down to about V6 where you wouldn't want to fall, into glory jugs, with an obligatory cutloose for photos at the lip! I'll stick a video of this on over the weekend!

Thanks alot to Andi Turner for the photos, by the looks of it he'll be ticking this route very soon!

Last but by no means least, we had a great time with the Mammut Pros Jakob Schubert and Anna Stohr on there whistle stop visit. The day at the Foundry was great fun, we spent some time flailing on the Wave, helping out those who'd won a place on the Mammut masterclasses and watching Jakob and Anna crush everything in sight! Thanks alot to Mike Hutton for some brilliant pics of the weekend and of course to the Foundry for putting up with us, especially oli and his bacon obsession.

Below are some photos from the weekend!

 

It begins...

Yo,

The past few weeks have seen the ushering in of the grit season, leaves falling, thermostats dropping and grip increasing. This is my favourite time of the year, and despite the weather not being perfect I've managed a few great days out on the grit of late.

Through early October I spent most of time completing bouldering projects from last year. Its always a nice feeling when things feel much easier, and retrospectively I'm happy that I spent most of my summer in the cave at Raven Tor getting stronger. Theres a quick video below of some of the classic gritstone blocs I finished recently including my major nemesis The Terrace and the neo classic Mossatrocity.

Video of Grit Boulders - https://vimeo.com/51595830

Since then Ive decided to focus on my trad. My main regret from last winter was wasting too much time sieging boulders when i could've been out on grit routes. Ive been trying Simbas Pride of late and I'm keen to get back to Burbage South and finish that off soon. Otherwise, I had a great day at Ramshaw where I headpointed the Simon Nadin Classic, Dangerous Crocodile Snogging. This routes has some superb and unique moves and covers a stunning line. It shares the buttress with the arguably even more impressive Clippety Clop, I will have to go back for that one.

Finally, yesterday I made an ascent of Gaia at Black Rocks. Id tried this route once before last year but was unable to do certain moves due to temperature/general punting. But on Friday the weather was great; cold wind, cloudy, 4c, gritstone perfection! The lead went without a hitch and as I left the top groove I had no fear of doing a Jean Minh style swing into the arete below! I find it hard to comprehend the mental toughness and confidence that the people who've flashed this route must have, they are the true heroes without doubt.

Theres a video of these ascents here - https://vimeo.com/52278354

Onwards and upwards,

Ciao, Leeroy.

Quick Update

Despite this record summer of dankness its been a good one. Sometimes its good to not be able to climb at the crags you want to, it reminds you not to take days of dry weather for granted and means that when you finally get to them you're even more up for stuff. Good things are worth waiting for, unfortunatley for the cornice-ites that means next june.....

On a personal level this summer has been ok. I haven't spent anywhere near as much time on lime as I expected and I haven't been able to makes the visits to Yorkshire that I hoped I would. On the other hand its been a bumper moorland summer. Ive spent several days on Kinder and other moorland crags repeating stunning lines like Highball That You Bastards and more recently Bloodrush at Shining Clough. Aswell as these, me and others have been developing the bouldering potential around Kinder. On both the Northern and Southern edges we've found some stunning boulders and I'm currently working on a video that will document the best that Kinder has to offer bouldering wise.

One of the Kinder gems, Info available soon.

Aside from this I've spent a few days in both North Wales and the Lakes (video of random problems soon.)

Currently looking forward to the cold winds to arrive, Im determined this winter is going to be a big one.

Nathan.

Best of Ness

When I first visited Nesscliffe two years ago it blew me away. The hardest thing I did was an E1 solo and a 6b boulder, at that time it was a great day. I've been back twice since and both times I've felt that familiar euphoria whilst staring up at the collossal lines.

Having done the classic Dixon arete, My Piano last time this trip was to be focused on more volume. We got straight on the unique corner of Tombola and after a few goes on TR me and dad both led it smoothly. I may post a bad video of this ascent at some point, keep posted on Vimeo...

We again met up with the Nesscliffe locals Patricia Novelli and Jonathon Cain who had rigged ropes above several routes. I noticed a rope above another potential target, Gathering Sun. This route climbs an immaculate wall of sandstone on adequate gear with a hard 6b crux at the very top. After doing it on a rope and finding enough gear I led it, but not without several shakey moments, including jumping to the top of the crag! The route used to be E8 but has now settled at E7 and along with Tombola and My Piano it provides yet another three star experience!

Another Nesscliffe local Phil Black filmed my ascent and the video is here-

https://vimeo.com/46705178

Too finish the day I made a shakey flash of the E5 Cones and Currents and Dad onsighted Trouble in ToyTown.

Personally this day was up there with the best, Nesscliffe is my perfect crag.

Boothy's mega route Local Rite, Une Jeune and perhaps a look at Nick's E9 will make sure I return soon!

Lee, Ciao.