Its Monday and i’ve been Skiing for a week before now. A nice relaxing week without a rock shoe in sight. Incidentally i used to think these were painful until i put my feet in Ski boots for a week, their design seemingly being inspired by the makers of the thumbscrew and iron maiden. Anyway its Monday and i was too knackered to climb yesterday and i’m beginning to get tetchy that i haven’t climbed for a week (bit of an addict you see) I’m also aware that i’ve been through an Airport yesterday; airports love to fly different diseases about the place and sit them next to each other and defenceless individuals for hours on end with recirculated airflow. I could definitely feel a cold coming on. 

Luckily my body was playing ball, it’d realised it wasn’t facing downhill and squatting. I set about trying my project of the moment. I’d had a productive session on it before going away and got half a sequence worked. Trying this sequence i did the foot move i hadn’t done last time but it felt hard. After about an hour of getting close to the cross move crux i started to try a different sequence, this quickly came together in about 30mins and I realised the problem was no longer a 4-5session goal, it was potentially a 4-5minute goal. I had about 20 minutes of daylight left and a flash flood of motivation and pressure washed in. I had about 2 hours of climbing behind me and it was on the same moves so tiredness wasn’t far away either. I still had an efficient start sequence to decide on as i had 2 methods. 3 goes gone and i had that sussed. Big rest, quick brew and the light really was fading now. This was my chance, i pulled on and felt good, floaty good, i sailed through the beginning of the crux, got my foot up, didn’t have the pinch perfect but i squeezed hard and it understood. Foot didn’t quite go on right. sod it just give it a go it might stick, touch the hold at the end of the crux, hit it nicely but left foot has made its last purchase of the day and is heavily overdrawn, it bolts and i go with it. My next go is technically better but my foot pops and the humidity has come with the darkness. Denied.

Its Wednesday and i’ve been pretty ill for the last 12 days i’ve attempted to get back to my project but have felt like a welterweight been shoved into a heavyweights fight to make up the numbers, there is no crush only skin and tendons working. I’m walking upto flasby fell with Katie on a flying visit to meet my folks who are staying near for the week. I’ve been wanting to try Rhythm for years ever since i heard Steve raving about it at Kilnsey when he found it. It’s only had one repeat since by Clifford and the tiny vid of him doing it has been on my pc for 6 years, knowing it might come in handy. (there is also a vid of Dunning doing it but its private) The walk in is Sommelike in muddiness from the snow melt until we get up on the fell. desiccated cracks of crepuscular rays are punching through the clouds and I have a discerning sense that i may not be back here for some time, if life has its way of offering up the usual distractions. Its a long walk too. Arriving at the Rhythm boulder it looks about 3feet high. I begin to question whether i am infact in yorkshire or wales. 10m later my question is answered. 

One of the most stunning pieces of rock architecture reveals itself as the ground drops away, it looks better in the flesh than in photos. The clearing of the trees and view give it a Bouldertopian feel. I pull on the warm ups on the block with a trepidation i haven’t felt since trying to climb on antibiotics in font in 2009 after catching Strep throat from something in a Sheffield night club. Am i in the clear or was all this just a nice walk? new shoes don’t help, i feel light and ungainly in my feet, brilliant i’m going to climb like Keith bradbury, Woods or Traversi for the day. Front wheel drive here we come. Safe to say i’m not ill anymore anyway. I rocket about on young Dave’s nose until the top out comes (great problem) The time comes, i jump on rhythm and fresh skin is a blessing on the holds, having climbed on sandstone all winter it feels strange but i quickly remember what to do, hook skin on holds then pull.

I look at the holds from the top of the boulder which appears to be a climbers Rorscach test, interpret it how you like but there are only really 2 proper holds there and you need about 4. Cliffords way looks like it’ll mince skin if you rip off the crimp. I’ve heard dunning went more out right to a vague dish/pocket/crimp (its barely anything so is bizarrely all of these) This looks nice and getting up from below it feels very usable, i end up using this and a bizarre arrangement for my LH that involves pretty much just pushing my skin into lots of tiny dimples and a pebble. It works and i nail the last move first try. Skin 1 rock 0. Getting into it from the stand it takes a while to suss the body position and i rip off the crap holds a few times until i suss the body position out. The stand comes together quite fast and i’m happy, i haven’t even tried the sit and it looks both easy and hard, big hands no feet. It completes the line like a visual exclamation rather than being only a full stop without that little extra fleck of ink !.

The ramp is easy, about 7a so i know i have a good chance, just as that realisation comes,

the sun comes out for 20minutes and i stop trying it, i pass the time swearing at the sun and do my best Canute impression. It gets the message and my next go ends with me dropping off the last holds with numb fingers. Another Brew and another crunch time. 30 minutes of light left, not much skin left maybe enough for 2 more goes but 1 really if i want to keep it intact for county projects. The coin lands on its other side today. It feels grippy and i float up it hitting the holds perfectly. I’m at the last move, calm, i punch up and get the hold, nothing rips like it so easily could of and i top out like Keith Bradbury, all arms and no legs.

The last 2 weeks have taught me about biding my time more and that you can’t win them all in the closing moments of the game. Of course the joy of it all is that i can go back to my county project too. boulder problems not boulder moments. But every boulder has its moment. Its perfect time to complete it. and like the sweet spot on a bat it feels bloody good when you hit it. Rhythm was one of those for me, and its made up for the week before.

Katie took this picture just after i did it and i think it captures the mood perfectly.

Rhythm is such a beautiful line. Great effort Steve. 

Sticking with it:

Last year i started trying a line i’d spotted once upon a time. I babbled on about it in a recent blog saying:

It has proved frustrating as it would’ve been a lovely 8B but for a hold breaking on the last move before entering into springer’s superb highball 7b Launch Sequence. Now it feels a full notch harder as after 3 sessions i still haven’t quite figured out the last move which is a 1-2 jobby to 2 sidepulls.

I’d gotten a bit bummed out by this roof as i’d caved and tried to glue the little ear back on, sods law the bloody temperature dropped right off the day i glued it and the resin only partially went off. So after another half arsed session on it again (whereby i got so pissed at trying the stand move over and over again i just stuck to trying the cul de sac sitter moves. There is something about undone moves which is a perpetual gall which i constantly have to endure in climbing. When head hits pillow in the eve my mind wonders in a stone monkey-esque fashion as to the moves, the moves, how can i solve the enigma, ooh its soo important. Actually i’ve just finished johnny’s great autobiography book and whilst it is essentially a book of slabs and aretes as far as the moves and routes are concerned the passion he has for the magic in moves really comes through. Momentum is something much easier to whip into a févre when things aren’t massively overhanging as you can’t really summon the magic easily when all limbs need contact just to stay on. Recently i’ve tried to work out on my dum dum level what its all about. I thought it poignant to try the redheugh line again having locked the shoes i needed to try the project i wanted to try in another car. Arriving back at the crag i quickly reached my old dead end. heel pulls me under the roof too much to reach any of the 3 holds above. and attempting to reach the biggest one out left is really violent and means i need to double with the right. The middle hold seems holdable in a one move 8b sense. I decided not to consider going for the nearest left hold with my rh and taking a cross armed cutloose on two slopers for a good 20 minutes initially as it seemed ludicrous especially as i had to move my heel at the same time. 

Eventually i decided to try it and it proved laughably easy compared to the other options i'd been bashing my head against, and a great move. So the problem has stayed natural and forced me to come up with a creative solution to an old dead end. The moment i got close to this i got a whiff of that dawes sinasthesia, of it all being connected (movement that is, not a grand unifying theory of everything). completely alone up there, nothing in my head except the bucolic waft of horsehair from the brush liberating clogged grains. i sensed i could do it next go if i tried hard and i did... until i got about half way up launch sequence and it was ballbearingly (nearly pall bearingly at that height) filthy (shame as it’s fantastic), 20minutes later after some perilous cleaning i did it. Its opened the door to a brilliant sitter into it with 4 hard moves on the trot (all of which i've managed, yippee for me) into this one complicated one. Crackalackin’sheeite as they say in Carlisle

Springers excellent launch sequence 7B

Things i've learnt this year: don't put biodiesel in common rail diesels even if you buy it as you can't guarantee filtration and it is an expensive initial saving. 

10m isn't that high

2m is high enough to really knack your ankle

Shin jags can be more painful than Peter makes out in family guy

Well its been quite a fun year all in all. My yearning for cotching along a bit more and not getting injured stuck with me all year and things seemed to pan out nicely in pulses with the seasons. It was mostly a UK based year for me with only 19days spent abroad in total. Something i’d like to amend next year as i feel i could learn alot more from foreign boulders at present. The other thing i can see alot more of in 2012 is board training. Since moving back to Carlisle i’ve got right back into my personal 45 board and each session i’ve been trying to make 4 new holds for it which’ll fit what i want to improve on (crimps which you can’t cut loose on and mid sized pinches at the mo). The board training is mainly for stuff in the Lakes, i figure if i can try a few Gaskins problems next year then i might not feel so guilty at pretending to climb hard that said i can’t see myself ever managing il pirata even if it wasn’t a crap line. I’ve also been armchair exploring on geograph and have a bunch of venues lined up to explore in the county history has taught me that i’ll find things if i go looking with the right eyes, hopefully they wont be all be crap venues! 

so 2011...hmmm its been a long year thinking back i dont know which ascents really stand out.

Soloing pinnacle ridge in Glen Nevis with my dad (he doesn’t climb really) was great fun and memorable as it was nice to meander about up it chatting away whilst taking in some good exposure for a severe. Mike’s problem in Torridon was also fantastic on this short trip as it was showering horizontally, The problem is perfect in the old fashioned brad pitt esque-sense obvious start and finish, except its on flawless rock and a sea-mountain location its got a lovely drop knee pounce to catch opposing pinchy sidepulls, generally a fantastic problem.

Most of my year was spent at badger cove 1 in 6 days april to june and a few in august. It never felt like a chore climbing there (well one hot june evening it did so i just left and went for a run along stanage instead) It was genuinely delightful to find stuff to climb on which was exactly what i’d always looked for in a local project, a dream come true in a way, i don’t think the problems there are crazily hard as in the grand scheme of things they were rushed from birth and it was pretty much just me tinkering away rather than a few climbers of different styles. Badger Badger Badger did well this year though, seeing off over a dozen repetition candidates except the crafty Mason who nabbed the 2nd ascent before heading to South Africa for the summer. It was a lovely spot to spend much of the spring and summer and a cracking process from writing Bewilderness off completely for the year in april to climbing it on a breezy August day with Jonesy.

Its lovely to end up somewhere you’d never bet a penny on going once in a while and Pietra di bismantova was certainly somewhere i’d never heard of before April, on a short long weeks holiday to Italy. Michele showed me round some of his fantastic local spots, both in the city and out at the crags. I had a great day out at pietra with him and his friends eating deep fried fritters up in the rifugio (England sadly lacks in these types of places) along with working boulders down in the fields below, we set about trying to crack il Gobbo, a great overhanging prow project with the hummockiest sloper top out i’ve seen. Between us we sussed a great sequence of heels and compression and grappled it out, lovely, it was one of the better 8A+s i did this year.

I've also got an LX5 to play with this year so flickr should be a bit more active after my old camera broke last year. (they wont all be macro)

 The County has been a salvation in this dismal winter weather and there have been a few winter gift days over there of late. Friday wasn’t one of them but i was busting to get out after a week of work. I ended up going to Back Bowden with Alnwick Ben and making the best of a very snowy day. The snow made most things un-playable and i’m not one for going too near wet sandstone. So we played about on the north wall. Unfortunately i’d had a gorgeous sunday the previous week doing all the boulder problems on there. Nothing was toppable so i thought it wise to look at Dark Side and get the bottom wired. I first tried this in 2008 with Ned when i had a finger injury and could barely get off the ground. It was hot and Ned got up the wall until the holds seemingly disappeared. I didn’t get back up to Backers for a while but i always thought this’d be a great route to leave and attempt in good style. Ground up/Onsight climbing is a funny ethic but entirely logical, you just walk to the bottom of something and try it. The problem with most of the climbs i want to try is that they have no gear on (boulders/solos) and if they have good gear on i’d prefer not to use it (e.g Earth boots, Living in oxford, second born, Sheer temptation i have all climbed onsight or ground up above pads only (when all have at least some decent gear) This is a funny niche of ground up style and one which is non sensical if the E grade of the route is looked at but so far as climbing a bit of rock in a purely enjoyable and memorable style then it is second to none. This style only works when its possible to exercise a good level of control and down climbing or jumping off has to be an ever-takable option. 

 Problems begin to arise when things get close to your limit. when you start falling off left right and center its best not to hit the ground in my experience. Compromises creep in for sanity reasons. short “Trad routes” are often a funny concept to tackle for myself as i love the grey area between highballs and proper routes. I think this stems from when i started climbing in Northumberland after learning to drive i was often on my own but wanted to attempt many of the classic callerhues routes like crouching the mahogany, boulevard, ned kelly along with others at howlerhirst, and armathwaite so i just got on with it with my one blue franklin pad (which i still have). Once i moved to Sheffield i was really at home with this style and amongst friends. There is a fantastic Onsight and Ground up ethic at the heart of Sheffield climbing and there is a friendly peer pressure to not take the easy way out and ab/ toprope stuff. This is a great incentive but it does tend to mean you get less done as a climber (but feel better for what you do do) as something that may have only taken you one go to head point can take considerably longer to ground up. Some fond memories from Sheffield ground up days out are (guide book grades)

Superbloc E8 (font 8A+)

Carless torque E6 (font 8A)

Toyboy (e7-7a (font7c) 

My prune E5 (font 7c)

Return of the Jedi HXS (font 7c)

Renegade master E8 (font 7C+) 

Earth boots E6 7a (font 7c) 

Pie hard E6 (font 7B+)

unfamiliar e7/8 6c font 7B+ (used a rope)

Panther dash e7? (font 7B+) fa ground up

Living in oxford e7 7a (font 7B)

nefretiti e6 6c (font 7a) flash

Happily ever after e6 6c (font 7b) onsight

navana e6 6b (font 7a)

4 above all on same day with Ned and Luke

narcissus e6 6a (font 7a) onsight

The power of the darkside (E8) (route 6c+) flash (clearly looking at the above list this is more like E6)

There is one failure from the peak which particularly sticks in my mind and that is when i attempted to ground up superstition above pads (and a bit of snow) so no rope. Miles Gibson is the only person in the peak (with Myles, Welfords, Barker and Moffats additions notable too) who has put up routes which get close to Andy’s in terms of being brutally hard as well as intimidating. Before you leave the ground you know you wont be in a typical trad climbing mode, you’re snatching at crap pebbles and mini edges doing font 7c+ to 8A+s in places where people are imagining trad routes being in a few years time. If Miles bags the lawrencefield project (and lets be honest a closed (gentlemans agreement) one to the likes of Me, Ned, Caff and Ryan etc) then he’ll have pushed this style of boulder/trad blend to new heights. 

I have never been so gripped as the 25ish seconds i stood at the last hard move of Superstition, with no one else there (but my camera), needing the gumption to just pop 8inches from a little cluster of pebbles to the ledge but with that distance feeling more like 8 feet. This situation taught me lots about where my own limit lies in terms of when brain frizz shuts you down completely. Over the last year i’ve tried to push these a bit. An easier project on lion rock tested my mental limits with only 4 pads i was trying to commit to an easy font 6C+ish dyno but at a height where dynos and solos haven’t mixed yet. I didn’t do this or Superstition but the adage that you can learn more from failures than successes couldn’t be more true in this case.

Adam's awesome pic is taken from up a tree so foreshortens the distance a bit.

It's these 2 failures which have taught me the most about ground upping and really seizing opportunities when you have them. Interestingly hard moves can be easier to do than easier ones which disrupt flow and allow you time to think.

Andy has an incredible roster of hard boulders and competition results in his portfolio and Pointed the way in the peak 4 years ago by doing the first ground up ascent of Careless So far in the County (of Andy's routes/problems) i’d only managed to ground up the Magician (E7 font 7c+) and i’d found better beta on the bottom and stuck to the right arete at the top, different to Chris and Andy. The Young was far to intimidating to attempt ground up but it really does represent an awesome challenge for someone with balls the size of Buster Gonad. The Prow could have been potentially ground upped the Day me Mick and Ned got on it but it would have been a bit poop as one of us would have sat there getting all the beta off the others as they worked it which is a bit silly, it was much more fun to mutually work it and figure it out together.

So the Darkside was an obvious challenge to leave. At least font 8A, high but with a great landing and whilst it is incredibly intimidating up there it is also one of the most basic walls in the UK, nearly everything on the upper route is a horizontal crimp, no sidepulls underclings or pinches. So no tricky sequence reading just wind up the gears and pull. It is very steep for a “trad route” and as i learnt on one go foot pings mean lots of pivoting and travelling time as your body follows with the momentum. These are dangerous as you can find yourself flat on your face from high up. Luckily this is something i’ve unwittingly trained in the past, albeit from a lower height...

When it came down to it the Darkside passed in a serene blur for the crux, i was totally psyched and committed once i thought i had my beta and for the crux moves i could just hear a faint whir of intensity in the background. I arrived at the break with numb fingers from the cold (the friction was incredible though) and some serious quick thinking was needed, Mark had brought slightly poor gear as andy has a metolious cam in the pic of him and we tried to guess from that (who seriously owns a set of these in the uk unless they’re sponsored by them?) so Mark had guessed at a half camalot (he’s the trad man), i’d been totally useless and only brought a harness and a 10m rope it was in anyway even if it was looking a little uncomfortable, (if you want to know the gear then i think some small ball nuts and size 0 cams would be great) luckily the gear is almost completely superfluous as there are only 2 pulls to really good holds and you can sit on your heel, after some serious breathing i pulled up to the top of the crag and a large snow patch, being somewhat un prepared for winter climbing we had opted to rest a rope up there to get through the snow as decking out from an icy footslip would be a bit to ironic after all that!

If you’re looking for some huge insight as to whether it deserves the grade of E9 7b or not then bear these points in mind. I’m mostly a boulderer and don’t fully understand the E system when it comes to danger vs difficulty.

If it were a sport route it’d be about 8b+ and have about 4 bolts and a belay in (it’d also be nowhere as good, i love Englands ethics!)

The move to the rail off the quarter pad crimp is probably 7b, if not then its 7a along with the 2 moves before and there arent any moves upto the break easier than 6b, most’d be 6c or 7a.

There are no other trad routes of this uber higball/guaranteed deckout from the crux of this difficult style except for maybe Superbloc which is lower and Andy’s own routes The Prow and The Young (not forgetting The Ayes have it and Endless Flight direct too which i haven't been on). Pearson’s excellent Return of the Jedi is similar but easier but with a slightly worse landing. Lanny Bassham 8A+ and High fidelity 8B come close in Yorkshire but are boulders. (the latter Andy cruises in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdG26UwP1YA) 

Grade bickering is the Dark Side of trad and at the end of the day i think routes are best judged by their reputations and how they keep them. One thing about this route is that i think because it is basic it’d be the most flashable of all the routes of this style, what a flash that would be though! Not many people outside Northumberland really know about this route in the same way that Gaia is famous worldwide. Yet you wouldn’t catch a lady bird on any of the crux holds on Darkside, greenfly maybe, but no one ever got distressed after crushing an aphid. Its a beautiful wall and its certainly an ascent that i'll cherish for a long time to come.

I’m indebted to Andy for pioneering these incredible routes and Mark and Katie for the style of this ascent as without their spotting along with Mark abbing and cleaning the holds for me the route was pretty much un-attemptable. The wall was very wet until 2008 when the trees were felled so moss had grown over two of the 1/4ish pad crimps rendering them totally invisible from below and its impossible to take a hand off and brush (for me anyway) at that difficulty. Knowing the gear is right is a great mental boost too, even if it is superfluous, you don’t know that ground up and it gives you the option of retreating. 

I had 4 pads 1 cam (pre knowledge of gear and placement), and 2 spotters for this. I’d have used way more pads if possible but we just didn’t have them.

To see Mark's perspective of the day then go here: http://marksavagephotography.blogspot.com/

Northumberland gazette

Northumberland has been rudely awakened from its slumbering state in the past week. A big team of miscreants headed up over the weekend to bring their raucous bouldering to to bear upon the county sandstone.

Prior to this i’d been nursing a crimping niggle on my right middle finger. Luckily there is a hard project at redheugh which doesn’t require too much from bent fingers. there is a picture here:

It has proved frustrating as it would’ve been a lovely 8B but for a hold breaking on the last move before entering into springer’s superb highball 7b Launch Sequence. Now it feels a full notch harder as after 3 sessions i still haven’t quite figured out the last move which is a 1-2 jobby to 2 sidepulls. Any how this was whilst the Quiet County was actually quiet!

Over the weekend the Alan Shearer of the county – Micky Peeeeej – played host to a few Sheffield/yorkshire dwellers and more worked their way upto Belford. Saturday and Sunday both proved to be gorgeous and both days saw some good action. Saturday had The Young (sandbag E8 at callaly) as the target and whilst the route intimidated Micky and Ned enough to make them think twice it still lost the dignity of all its really hard climbing getting walloped and a new variation out left at the end of the crux getting climbed. I’ll try and get more on this from rig firing field reporter Feehally as i wasnt there.

Sunday found us all at kyloe seemingly amongst a pretty full roster of the who’s who of English bouldering with Ned, Micky, Martin, Gangle, Sam and Lu, Hull’s finest, Nicholas Brown! and some boyo called Peegus (who’s Welsh but we let hang around with us anyway as he is stronger than everyone but kindly drops off 8B+s after tickling the last holds). Representing for the rest of the world, Kyloe was also lucky to have Chris Webb-Parsons and Alex Puccio gracing its sharp features.

Mickys new found vocational love for accessing things via rope lead him to suggest trying THE Prow, madness which was soon confirmed by Ned. Luckily i’d also quietly thought this was a great day to try it, as Kyloe never sees many pads by chance so it was a great time to try and seize them. Unfortunately its not like padding out End of the Affair or Gaia or something where by if you look at them on a rope the pads will be there incase you fall off but you aren’t likely too. With Andy’s routes/problems the pads are there because you know you’re going to fall off. He didn’t win and come consistently in the top 5 in world cups for nowt and 8As aren’t something which bothered him in 2003 when he did the prow (and Monk life). Infact when it was done he gave it 7c+ as a boulder grade. Old UKC news article below.

On April 2, Andy Earl completed his long standing project at Klyloe in the woods, Northumberland. “The Prow” (which Andy has refused to grade!) takes the impressive blank arete of the Crucifix buttress at the right end of the crag

This line was first looked at by Ritchie Patterson; however given Andy´s record in the Woods, he was fittingly the man to take up the challenge. The route is a solo and features Font 7c/7c+ moves far too far above the ground for comfort. Despite Andy´s reservation on grading the route, it is perhaps the hardest and most commiting route in Northumberland when compared with routes like Malcolm Smiths Transcendence which features easier moves and adequate protection!

Except the 7c+ part is piffle (as is the part of comparing it to transcendence as that is a route which has 7c+ bouldering moves, but it wont be soloed witout some serious stunt bags or unfeasibly big balls), Adam “Big Foot” Watson snapped a few chicken heads off The Prow on a foray a while back, both Me Ned and Micky crumbled holds on sunday. Nothing crucial but increments that lead us to feel more like it was 8A if abbed and 8A+ to ground up (which none of us were super keen for, as getting it done in the small window of paddage was the main aim). Granted if it was totally safe and you chopped the bottom 3m off then maybe it’d feel like 7C+ but if things like misericorde are supposed to be the same grade or even hitchhikers sit then it definitely feels a bit harder and it is similar with most of the hard holds being 2 finger crimps in pockets. We all took turns to ab it and pry out its secrets. Micky was looking super solid on the rope and me and Ned decidedly more shaky after giving the rope a good coring we got rid of it and thanks to a huge amount of help off our mates we whacked about 8pads underneath it and set off. Micky had forgotten to work a lower move and needed to be home at 6 which was obviously bug bearing him as a cobbed-ankle would disrupt those plans somewhat. Neds first go was superb, wobbling his way upto the last hard move where a broken foothold lead to him peeling off the hold at the end of the crux and just catching the edge of a 3ft high pad stack. My first go was poor, with slightly messed feet i unwittingly decided to test the lower fall. Next go i decided to give it beans and promptly woke up on the last move with beta i’d only looked at once and wet jugs (it had been covered in pine needles and moss) for company, after a bit of a kerfuffle i sorted myself out and topped out for the 2nd ascent. Ned faffed on a bit more and tested a few different falls from a fumbleable stab to a tiny pocket. After a little break due to Micky and Dave’s departure and things seemed to cool down a bit and Ned silently came up with the 3rd ascent. To me it still felt like i was bouldering and both Ned and Mick felt it was less serious than their young variation but harder. So maybe nouveau-highball 8A (or 8A+ if it gets ground upped ever) will be a better reflection of the likely challenge, Its more than happy alongside things like Superbloc. Lanny, The Magician, High Fidelity etc as a proud highball challenge.

Nick Brown got it all on film for “Life on Hold” along with the antics at The Young the day before. As no day out is complete nowadays without a wise cracking lens wielder in tow.

Pic from Nick:

Busy week.

20 Sep 2011 No Comments

Well the title says it all. We’ve been out and about up and around the country this last week. After meeting Scoots in Sheffield we ended up heading to a crag with an old nemesis of mine from 2009/10. Apache. This 8A+ had fully shut me down on one of the moves in the past with the rest of it being no park walk either. Its a fantastic boulder though and just because something doesn’t suit or its hard is no reason to shy away from it. At the time i pinned it down to weak shoulders why this one particular move was thwarting me. That chilly january day in the snow Shoulders Mason could lock it and pretty much look at his watch mid move. Mike was using his go go gadget arms and Ned had it down too (those 2 being the previous 2 ascensionists) leaving me to kick dirt and wonder what was up. So last week I ended up back there with Scoots with an open mind and after a brief warm up and a rather large meal the night before i felt neither bad nor amazing. Anyway what’d you know the move of woe went first go, right in line with a movie plot. With hindsight and an Anal mindset it is clear that my left ring finger was still weak when i’d last tried it after popping it in Aug 09 and on specific moves like this with big locks off 3 finger crimps it clearly wasn’t working. now in 2011 i can 2 finger crimp with it again if needs be and lo and behold the move finally felt like i thought it was supposed to. So there’s a lesson learned. I still had a very intricate problem to learn with the knackiest heel toes known to Anasazis (best heel hooking shoe around once you know how to use them) on it and i managed to bag the problem at the end of the session just as my arms were fading but i’d finally got the measure of the micro beta. I hadn’t expected to bag Apache that session so it was a lovely present.

The next day saw us at costa del Roaches (was rather warm) with a rather motley crush fest of Scoots, Ned, Sam and Lu Whittaker, Alex Puccio and Chris Webb-P. Much fun and skin was had pottering from problem to problem and everyone quickly remembered why its barmy to try hard on grit with the big hot yellow thing chucking its rays about. Send of the day going to Westy on Tetris in the full sun.

After that we were off to Glasgow Climbing Centre to whack them a new board up. I was pretty impressed with the place (especially the Cafe, which sold considerably more than the predicted Barr classic orange soft drink and millionaires shortbread) It was Ned’s first visit to Scotland and we were keen to visit Dumby and meet some of his namesakes. The weather wasn’t playing ball though and things were looking a wee bit dreich so we retreated down to the county. We ended up going to Simonside area and gambled on Awooga having dried out, It had almost got there but was still a bit scrittly so after a few plays we left it for a better day. After a muddy bike over to Ravensheugh we arrived to primo conditions and dry rock, infact it was some of the best conditions i’ve ever had for a short 20 minute window. I worked the project left of Ivan with the bad landing. It climbs really nicely and should be 8A at most, but a great feature… albeit with a bad landing. After that it was back home and one last trip to a mostly forgotten crag, (except for a few locals) the next day. After speaking to the farmer it seems that half the crag is still banned due to flippant climbers back in the 60′s and 80′s snubbing his requests to move their cars and he appears to be one who holds a grudge, for atleast 20-40years, spending money to fight the crow act in the process. He was more than polite to us and said he had no problem with us being there (on the non banned bit).

Vanilla Pies

08 Sep 2011 No Comments

Here’s a nice pic of Ned making the second ascent of Vanilla Sky at Anston. Courtesy of Lee at betaguides

I nipped in for the third ascent yesterday. its a nice compact problem and a good addition to the Anston circuit.

Bewilderness

24 Aug 2011 No Comments

I nipped project in the bud yesterday which i started trying in May straight after Dandelion. After getting really close on my 4th session. Dropping the upper move after the hideous crux it basically escalated into mental war. I took it on in my happy, don’t give a shit period, after doing Dandelion but it rapidly became more and consumed all the joy from that and belittled it. I’ve never dropped a problem after the crux in such a state before either. I just found myself there and wasn’t quite ready for it. many sessions later, after not getting through that move it was really bugging me. And i could see my year disappearing infront of me. May, June went. July i left it and only went twice in perfect conditions. It didn’t help. I stopped running and hit the board undercutting it left right and center like a midget boxer. Then after a long week back in Cumbria and some specific training on my systems board I came back armed with a secret weapon. Staintons strongest, Dave Jones. So with fresh muscles and Marra psyche we hit the crag. Both of us got ridiculously close to our projects. Dave was consistently getting to the last hard move of Dandelion, looking really solid. This was a good spur to stop mooching and try and find another gear. That day i got very close to the crux and just got unlucky on a few things. Dave got smote by the nearliness too. We Chilled out and trained/ pottered for the rest of the week. Saturday was a non starter for me as conditions were awful. But in the distance i’d sighted the rarest of things, a freak easterly brought on by the rain covering the south. Easterlies whip right into badger and make it alot more pleasant to be there and try really hard. Tuesday came and with a week of watching things like Splinter, PCA pro tour (malc campussing what many cant even climb) and The Fighter, and a pre match day meal at Zeugmas. I had a clear head and no stress, just the desire to do myself justice and to see this mind-leech off.

vimeo

It’s called Bewilderness to carry on the Bill Bailey theme
And it feels like it should be pretty safe at 8B+ unless easier beta is found for the crux. I’ve also got pics of the holds so if they ever change i’ll know. For me personally it has been the hardest thing i’ve ever done, but much of that has been mental and i didn’t have much margin when i did it yesterday, i snatched and rattled my way up it and made far too much noise.

Courtesy of Mark Savage

I wrote a few things whilst trying it and i’ve attached an excerpt below. The rest are kind of diary ish so they’ll stay with me.

My saving grace is that i always have another chance. Climbing is the best sport for this. In all other sports you can be left lamenting past screw ups for the rest of your life, you’ll never have the chance to compete in the same final twice. But the rock waits, it is always up for a fight. Or thats what your brain does to cope, it personifies the objective, it must defeat it. Where as in actual fact it is just a completely pointless bit of rock which makes up about 0.00000000000000001% of the planets land surface. It couldn’t be any less significant. Will heads turn in Dhaka or Shanghai when it is completed? No. And yet i’m happy to sacrifice so much and to pollute to travel to this blip on the planets surface. This blip now means alot to me. It is a physical manifestation of everything which has lead to my current form. If climbed it will represent what i can do on rock. I dont know if i’ll find anything like it again as finding things like this is harder than climbing them, history tells me i will and that this will be digested by my rat and diluted into a grey water of emotions stemming from all the colour in me now. Do i care about the time it takes me? no. Could i have climbed it already? yes i’m sure there’s a happy version of me in one of Hugh Everetts universes, there’s probably a few. Can i see past all that? yes but its hard to break down all these components and find a good solid reason as to why this blip of rock now has so much bearing on my life. I think it is only because i have tasted success on it only to be knocked back that my hackles are up and a vendetta has been born. It fights well too, well enough for me to need a break from it. My left arm is tearing itself up on the crux. I shouldn’t have tried it yesterday but obsession brought me back to it seeking release from its clutches, i just want to have a beer and a curry without feeling guilty…

few pics.

21 Aug 2011 No Comments

by admin - Uncategorized

Couple of pics (courtesy of Jonesy) from a nice new finish to warchild which bumps it up to 8A again and tops it out, and it’d be a cracking ground up proposition. It felt pretty warm today which made it all a bit full on and effectively ruined me for the rest of the day. might name the full line Wildchild. Its a pretty proud line now anyway and and the silly dropping off is now a binary choice rather than the only choice . You could easily do point break up this too at 7C+ ish (total guess) i’d imagine.

The Oof in Roof

17 Aug 2011 No Comments

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To escape our internet woes, I fled to Cumbria, not for the slower broadband but just for a change for a week or so. It’s always nice heading home and watching the roads and houses thin out from Sheffield upwards. On my way up i called in at my current crag of the moment. Goldsborough Carr, it’s handily just off the A66 so is no detour at all on the way home. It is also a venue with much mystery to it, it has mainly been the sole preserve of strong local developers for its bouldering life, with little passing traffic or real draw which makes people travel to it. Steve Dunning and Ian Cummins have been the main developers here with smatterings from other top blokes like Andy Earl, Ryan Plews and some oversized limbed creature from Hutton Magna.

My visits over the years have been barely sporadic, with 2 visits in twice as many years. Now that i bother to look at the weather alot these days; Goldsborough seems like a much under appreciated venue. It is always windy there, if there is even a hint of a breeze it’ll be there, making you huddle to the back wall in winter but smile with delight in summer. Especially when its early August and 16 degrees with that stiff breeze. And to add another super power its got one of the biggest roofs in the country, which also keeps some problems perma dry. Also perfect for the wettest month of the year. I nearly managed Love Spreads a brilliant problem of Steve’s on my last visit so i was keen to finish the Love. This is a tricky little number to add up as on paper it looks like a 7C into a 7B+ into a 6C+. In reality it is more like a powerful 7c on 1 pad or less brick edge crimps,straight into the reverse of a 7b+ on 1 pad or less brick edge crimps without the strata below culminating in a hideously contorted drop down move. Which after one failed attempt (in the video) led to me round housing a block below, Ryu would have been proud as it came loose, so rather than leaving it there i cleaned off the blocks around it to give a flatter ledge below and its also made Beth’s less dabby. Anyway, to me this felt more like 7C+ to get established into the last move of the “6c+” which by this time, i am sick of making gnarly fists on these micro edges. But no Nature was bored when She came to Goldsborough and just copied and pasted its holds when setting there. So the last move is off a quarter pad minger to a decent snag. The type of problem McClure and Caff would barely notice but for me i felt like this was a bit of a sandbag so i gave it a better more wholesome grade in the video. I’d also like to point out that on the day i did it i pez dispenserified the end of my index finger, so i finished where Steve did under the roof. (well i actually “finished” on the move going for the jug on the lip as my tip was pissing blood everywhere and it all got a bit much) The extension finish only really adds quality but not much difficulty due to the good rest. If the wobbly wafer flake jug snaps under the roof then this’ll really be an endurance fest of 27 moves on 1 pad crimps or less except for 1 hold.

My other reason to visit was to sniff out the enigmatic, modestly named,  Second Coming. Steve’s 2001 horizontal masterstroke, which Biceps its way out the guts of the roof with smears for feet and pretty much 10 degree incut-from-vertical edges. After 2 sessions worth of dabbles when i’d finished trying love spreads for the day. I had the end figured out, along with Ned and we could do it feet first (diff to Steve’s orig way) double toehooking and bicycling our way out (great fun from here and 7Cish). But getting into these holds from the back choss (the strata changes under the roof. Is well beyond me for now, as is the move over to the crimp. Dissatisfied with myself i started fumbling around, clamouring for a receptive orifice to wiggle my fingers in and to dangle off in the hope of feeling “strong” again. Needless to say after much spinning around i’ve figured something out just to the left and its perfectly suited to me right now. Other than the crags location. Next session i’d worked out and done all the moves on this but one which is the move out off the undercling and backwards pinch to the roof arete. I got close to this but no cigarello. It feels like it’d need a few more sessions but that it’d be a brilliant perma dry 8Bish line which is an hour or less from. Penrith, Kendal, Durham, Newcastle, middlesborough etc (just over an hour from Carlisle) So its there if anyone is in the market for that type of thing. I finished my time there and week at home by snapping the loose flakes off above holeshot and beths, which has unsuprisingly left some angular brick edge crimps (whoopie) so the problem called Shotgun Hobo (the hand holds on Jumping jack flash near and round the arete are out, this basically climbs the overhanging side of the arete) is a new one, you could also link this from holeshot for a logical straight up line. It’d be a good soggy 8a if it was. Oh my i’m advertising soft 8A’s and link ups, better stop now and pay some penance in the cellar. Naughty naughty.

vimeo

The i’m bored list of UK’s hardest independent roofs: (my current useless opinion if i’ve been on it)

Il pirata: 8C, Gaskins.  (mini roof)

At The Heart Of it All: 8B+ (8C+) Gaskins (medi roof)

Kaizen: 8B+ Gaskins (medi roof)

Serendipity (bottom end 8B+) Me/Mike Adams (Serenity 8B is Mikes) (medi roof)

Second Coming: 8B (hard 8B+) Dunning (maxi roof)

Keen Roof: 8B Pearson (opinion vetoed due to popular demand) medi/maxi roof

Vanilla Sky: 8A+/8B Mike Adams (mini roof)

Bear Trap Prow: 8A+ Macleod (maxi roof with  prow)

Ivan Dobsky: (8A+)  High Maxi roof with v blunt prow

Metal Slug 8A+ Dan Warren (maxi roof)

Swarms 8A+ Mark Evans High Maxi roof

Apache 8A+ (8A+ benchmark) Mike Adams (medi roof/ramps)

Revolver 8A+ Mike Adams.

Super Size Me 8A/+ (8A with Knee bar) Simon Newstead medi roof

The Shrubbery (8A?? gave it 7c+ when did it, but have softened up a bit since then)  maxi roof /arete

Andronicus 8A+ (8A new seq) Polish Dave (maxi roof)

Seans roof 8A+ maxi roof

Bloodsport 8A+ Earl. medi Roof/lip

Roof of the Brave (soft 8A?) Medi roof

XXXX.8A Ry Pasquill

Canine 8A Tom Peckitt (mini/ medi roof)

Trojan Roof 8A, Dunning

Extradition 8A Dunning

Obvs Link up roofs: Bulbhaul (8B+) Peckitt, Fat Lip: 8B McClure (roof/ lip) Yes We Can 8A+/8B  Katzy
Exorcist, Dialectics, loads of stuff in the cave. Pressure/ Firefight (8Bs but have non roofy-ness hard bits too/ bit link uppy)

We were down, but we’re back

13 Aug 2011 Comments Off

by admin - Uncategorized

Well our hosting providers servers failed, and the database seems fairly uncontactable (still working on this), so anyone who likes to read old blogs might be a little peeved but otherwise most of our stuff was backed up in one form or another. Needless to say, lesson learned. We’re still here everything still exists. My fingers still work, so nothing to get knickers in a twist about.

Ned is off to Munich for the worldcup this week, lets hope he can avenge the digital world with some crushing in the real one.

A basic Product page is back up online. So you can order fingerboards again. We’ll be working on the site over the next week to get all the little touches sorted.

for shop, t shirt or foothold enquiries then please contact me at dan@beastmaker.co.uk

my email is working again. You can also direct message or tweet @beastmakers as we’re still on twitter.

>sporadically slippystones

18 Feb 2011 No Comments

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>

Pic courtesy of Mark savage

I Managed to get back to slipstones the other day after heading up the previous week to try cypher with Ryan. I first tried this in 2005 with steve (dunning) and Kev (Avery) from memory, i got upto the jump that session but didn’t hold it partly through punting and partly through intimidation of the line. I went back not too long after and split a tip warming up! so didn’t get anywhere. 6 years later and 1 aborted freezing session in the interim i got round to trying it again. I called in on my way home to carlisle and quickly stuck the jump off a stepladder. I then headed back last week with Ryan and we were both giving it a good wallop. Ryan crushed it in an amazing display of multi talented finger strength, boning the initial pocket to kingdom come and fully booting round to snag the hold as a mono! I had just done the groove at stanton that week, so my cries of lack of skin could barely be heard above the flapping of my billowing skirt on the moors. Next session and with a good team i got it 4th try, almost first try of the day. Difficulty wise It’s not too bad really just pernickety and abrasive. Quality wise it is world class and there isn’t much better than feeling strong on the pinch and the undercling as you arc your leg back getting ready to “boot it” (marra joke), then the catch takes a moment to sink in as you swirl about a bit arguing with gravity.

Its funny how things work out sometimes.

Mark Savage came out and scarred his shutters with our ugly mugs. He’s put some lovely pics up from the day here

>Stanton Delivers

Two years ago when i was just beginning to feel out the more esoteric peak venues, i came across Spare Rib and its accompanying boulder, and whilst this is undoubtedly one of the best problems in the UK it had no other straight up problems on it at the time, the other arete on the opposite side of the block was a prime example of a sitting duck project and on a return visit i mopped it up at 7b+, I then turned my attention to the arete to the Right of Jon in the above pic, i battled up the lower section and found that it leads you into the groove. with the top section of the arete being nigh on impossible and the groove being a stunning feature (albeit visually near spare rib.) I set about this. A session later i was tickling the hanging crack and i thought it wouldn’t be to bad. So i left it for 2 years, which seem to have flown by. And after mopping up several other personal projects in the peak this season this rose back up the list. Heading back with Ryan the other day i managed to stick the crack but fully stretched and with no idea where to go, next session i abbed the top moves and sussed out the sequence. Which looks like a wholly undramatic affair when observed but from within a gossamer tension can be felt which is about as comforting as running across a newly frozen lake. the last foot of height takes alot of reeling in and my mind and body repeatedly crumbled on the foot moves. My mind wasn’t crumbling from fear, just demand overload, too many minute movements were needing to be monitored at once. Bit by bit i pigheadedly pushed my kinasthetic dullardness up the problem learning more and more micro beta, which other people just do naturally or won’t need. And after a little break a brew and a flapjack i jerkily overpowered my way to the top, 3rd session this year.

Stanton Deliver 8A+?

It gets hard from here… (pics are stills from a film shot by Nick Brown)

The problem starts from standing at the foot of the arete with LH on fairly obvious slopey crimp and RH on a pinch on the arete.

click here for a bigger res pic.

Between this, Pink Lady- Dave Mason’s new 7c+ stand/ 8a sit. Golden egg- Jon Boys new 7c+ (and Ned’s 7c+ variation – Furry Egg)

There are alot of good things going up in this area and i bet it’s not long until an 8b is sniffed out.

To Celebrate i whipped over to cratcliffe and RHS with Nick and did Musclin’ man (bransbys way) and my prune (stunning) My prune was a bit interesting as it was getting dark and i was getting tired and the last bit heading leftwards strayed a little too close to the bone.

Here's a nice pic from Mark Savage of a new problem i sneaked up at back bowden the other day. The county never fails to dissappoint if you stare at its gaps long enough. It follows the leftwards trending grooveline and is probably about soft 8a to boulder ground up.