17 Aug 2012

Crown Green Bouldering, Cheese and a Jurassic Valley

Two more days on the Moor, good weather and a second visit to the anomaly that is the 'Thorgill Boulders' (not the Thorgill Crag Boulders) may have to change the name to stop any confusion?

The blocks are in a luscious grassy meadow, which feels really strange for the moors but is quite pleasant, a bit like having blocks on your local playing field. The rock is good, just a little bit of cleaning and off you go. We repeated some of the first problems we did, which felt really good, then with help from Steve added a good few more, with a few to go back for.

Later we had a little session on some of Franco and Dave's new problems at Westdale View, a small quarry with a wall that just begged to be climbed - four really good problems with a two minute walk, if that on Blakey Ridge. Franco and Dave joined us to show the way on the harder stuff. There's just one more project of Franco's left.

Day two was a wash-out, bugger! But my philosophy is, when it rains explore, so we headed off to Ingleby to see the Cheese Stones, which look two Picasso faces. This became quite an epic, ending up down a lost valley full of dinosaur eggs (iron geodes), giant dragon flies, serious jungle undergrowth, and jurassic fossils. The highlight was three waterfalls maybe not seen by man for centuries. It's difficult to judge and know how much the landscape has changed, due to man's influence, it could be a hundred years could be a thousand. It could be never in a place like this, we never found any climbable rock, but I didn't care, it was just good to be in a place where the hustle and bustle of the outside world meant nothing.

Maybe back out sunday if the legs recover?
 First attempts on a fine arete
 Classic of the blocks Thor 6c+/7a
 Had to do just one problem on this big block,
harder project to the right
 Day two, Franco on what looked like a fine jamming crack on the best block we saw up on the 'Cheese Stones'
 Will we make it out alive?
 Enchanted waterfall
The Moors rainforest

1 comment: