30 Jan 2011

Breakfast to Breakfast

After fueling up with the standard five piece breakfast in outside, felt ready for second Breakfast at Burbage West
Breakfast number 2
Steve Dennison - The first climber to be sponsored by Primark! they are expecting big things off Steve this year for their £2.50 and free fire retardant underwear
Hooded teenager Mick Radford
Mark climbing a neglected arete after cleaning it, great moves
Evie starting West Side Story (with crag-fast Mark in the background "help I'm stuck" again)
Yann getting very close on Western Eyes, not even phased by the bad landing!
Three days of grit took it's toll on Yann
Text book spotting! Mick's asleep and Chris is spotting the invisible man, classic
A display of technique?
An enjoyable cold and painful weekend, perfect, thanks everyone

Sun's out! oh it's gone! now it's freezing!

Sun - Snow - Rain - Cloud!  It's getting harder to decide where to go on the weekend.
Had plans to go to the Peak, then decided to go to Camp Hill to the sun to finish Strict arete from sit and try some more of the other problems there. Drove all the way in glorious sunshine until passing the Lion Inn, where the oncoming front turned all to monochrome! alway s a good excuse to look at somewhere new, this time the edges south of Clemmitts down the the head of Fryup Dale (great name)
A good find from Sam
Short but good and hard
A fine edge for bouldering, dubious steep landings , Sam cleaning the lower boulder
Painful pulling on a project without both the aretes

24 Jan 2011

Magic Cluster

Lucky for me the local climbing club were off to Crafnant again, the hut is outstanding, and the bouldering is pretty good! Ok - And as Cheryl Cole would say "totally amazing"
Early morning sun over the cluster
Dry boulders dry - A good view - The landings are good in places, honest!
Went for a drive down the Pass in the morning giving the boulders some time to dry - It was good to see a lot of climbers down the pass, This could have been a mistake as the valley was dull and misty when we returned. had a sweep of the cluster - very slippery! one shin injury later.... got the shoes on for a new problem.
Prawns and Ribs F5+ - If your still hungry you can try the sit starter - I couldn't manage it 
Inspiring bouldering - With some of the landings now made safe
Here comes the mist 
Attempted a night session with Rich at 11pm  failed due to - visibility 3m + torch beam 5m + Ice = No chance
Day two - Keen to try some of the developed new lines I had seen the day before and some unclimbed stuff - still felt positive even after the damp night - Lisa joined me and soon after Chris Davies turned up - Psyched for new lines and enjoying the established circuit 
Chris working a line on the Wonderwall block
A block needing some attention - A big reach start - finishing right of the spike on the sloping top - felt easier this time held the top, placed the heel up - could of topped out if it was dry? Also got the moves on an arete on the right hand edge of the field, really good, did the stand and the crux from the sit, had to rush home so never linked....

17 Jan 2011

Wet Woods and Big Boulders

Headed to the Moors hoping for better weather and a chance to finish the circuit at Camp Hill
no luck! Met up with Sam and decided to do a bit of exploring at Clemitt's Crag?
Did the usual full sweep of the crag and surrounding boulders. The area looked very promising for a drier return visit..... it held some good hard sandstone, some needing a good clean others not so bad, with plenty of angles from steep to slabs, looking forward to developing the wooded circuit, it will be a nice venue that's quite a short walk in, well for me anyway
A big block with a steep problem! needs a haircut, so does Sam
More big blocks! through the gate 200m were some smaller blocks (phone photo)

Good looking rock over onto the slab (phone photo)
Sam passing the long arete he has his eye on
Perfect undercut  (phone photo)
sandstone geometry 

9 Jan 2011

Down in the Woods

A dry day at last! the weather turned the world a shade of grey last week so it was good to see the sun bring some colour back, Guy wanted to go to Curbar Left, I was keen to look at Froggatt in the woods
Froggatt waterfall prow on the left and a sloping rail in need of some more dry weather on the right
Guy's Sunset Slab tradition -  must do if passing
Green boulders in Froggatt woods kept me happy
Mark (Cartman Wilson) on Tody's playground
The finish to the sit start on the left end on Tody's playground

Cartman says "What are you looking at?"
V1 with a very long reach!! right?
Guy on White Noise - not bad considering he had man flu?
Leave me I'm dying 
Some great photos from Chris - will be back to work out the maze of problems being developed

3 Jan 2011

Boulder yourself fit for the new year

With the usual festive celebrations over it was time to 'boulder back into shape'. You could buy a celebrity video or some kind of fitness ball, dumbell set, cycle machine! but who ever keeps that up? 
so - get out - find some rock and boulder yourself the perfect body - the longer the walk in - the more calories you burn - you will soon end up looking 'bang tidy'
The first  'boulder back into shape' class was held in the Peak, the session started at 10am at Baslow and Curbar
Chris working his arms and abbs at Baslow
Lee Cooper about to hurt his glutimus on Dan's wall 7a
Al the Bear working his Lats
Steve Golley finishing the Curbar workout
on Early Doors 7a+
As for me? found an unclaimed/new problem? at Baslow on the right wall next to Balls Test. Worked out the moves from sit but ran out of juice. Steve Golley got the standing start as the light fell and nearly got the sit, precise moves on a rising crack with slopers, crimp a powerful crossover with the right arm, a full body workout 
Truffle Pig 6c+/7a?