Taking Stock

Well its been a while since my last post I thought I would wait until i had something to write about. Since coming back from the Jura in May I have been trying to keep it real on the Peak/ Yorkshire crags. First up was Climb of the Century at Malham which I tried with Keefe Murphy. He gave me some excellent beta and I managed to find some tweaks to the beta myself keeping my feet very low to avoid the heinous looking move on the cover of the last guide! It was a close run thing on the redpoint as i had to improvise the top slab with extremely pumped arms, luckily I made it!

Next I got stuck into my projects Idefix at Malham and Full Tilt at Kilney. Idefix was going well before the recent deluge with a new highpoint being reached with 2 moves to go before easy ground, although these are the redpoint crux. I have found taping up whilst working the crux moves off the very sharp pocket seems to work in saving your skin as 3 years ago, I had to stop this route when nearly ready to redpoint it as I had a pretty bad puncture wound on the side of my finger, I still have the scar! Dave showed me some great new beta on Full Tilt going direct past the fourth bolt where i have always gone (desparately) right on a big detour. It involves a crazy flag move and a tiny LH sidepull so you don't have to make the huge reach off the undercut, which I am too short to span. So, this one is prepped ready for when the crags ever dry out.

After work evening sessions are in full swing right now and I used the time to get Chimes wired again so I could have a crack at Waddage. I managed to link from the end of the roof to the jump move OK so it all came down to the dyno. I sessioned this and got it wired in the end but it is a really physical leap from a massive hold. If it was on Minus 10 it would be V5 I reckon. With the rest out right, you are basically climbing two routes (8a+ with a 7c/7c+ on top after the rest). As others have said, it is a bit of a psycological battle up there as you don't want to blow it after doing chimes. On the redpoint, I managed to get through the bottom OK and it all came together up high after a 10 min rest in the break.

I bagged off Idefix due to the state of the crag and switched it up by trying Overnite. I had always saved this for the flash but realised that this was perhaps being optimistic. It nearly went down in a session but I missed a key hold on the top flag move (which incidentally is one of the funkiest I have done on the catwalk, very cool) and fell off this on redpoint. I went back the other week to seal the deal and was lucky to be able to redpoint it past a wet sidepull by the fourth bolt which I had to towel dry and chalk on redpoint.

Since then I have done Ring of Fire at the Tor, which is one of the last ones on the right wing at a reasonable grade I haven't done. Here is an impromptu vid of the ascent, not the greatest quality but which will offer some beta if nothing else. Remember, stay right of the bolts at the top, don't use the minging slopers by the bolt!

Last weekend, I tried the Inch Test and nearly stuck the sidepull on the crimpy english 7a move but no cigar, this will have to wait til next time. I did eat the rich, which is a nice 7b+ but make sure you actually get your hands over the top of the crag before dropping off and avoiding the loose looking jugs to top out - lowering off before the roof misses out a couple of beefy moves.

Anyway, off the the Orme tomorrow to seek out some dry stone, which may be a forlorn hope at this rate!
Peace.