I was sitting at home, not up to much, just chillin' out and getting psyched watching climbing vids on the net ... I had no plans to climb at all as I was 5 days into a week long abstinence I was planning on taking from bouldering to rest up a sore shoulder which was fast becoming an over-use injury. I saw a vid of an amazing looking area in England I had never heard of before called St. Bees, it looked like England's Doolin but bigger, I got really excited and decided my shoulder was feeling nice and loose after rehab exercises, I toyed with the idea of going climbing outdoors and at that very moment I heard a voice from downstairs, it was Adam, he was knocking in for Jamie who was actually out at a physio appointment, I shouted down to him and he came in and we quickly decided to go to The Scalp for an evening session. Adam had no gear with him , but luckily my old pair of rancid smelling resoled La Sportiva Solutions fit him and off we went.
Fun Warm up Arete
We hit the boulders at 5:30, it was a fine evening, a little overcast to keep the temps down and a tad breezy to keep the midge at bay. The Scalp is a cool little spot, you can park your car right in the middle of the bouldering area, zero walk-in time, but the cars whizzing by on the road take away from the middle of nowhere nature feeling we all like. The rock is a lovely white granite, pretty well featured providing a few sweet problems which tend to be steep and fingery ... nice :)
Adam Warming Up
We warmed up on some nice easy problems and then headed up the hill to try Bottlebank 6A+ a nice technical traverse into a fun, juggy overhanging arete with an easy top out. It was pumpy, upon its completion we were fully warmed up and so we started throwing ourselves at Crimpnarris 7A. A steep face with hard crimpy moves to miniscule quartzy edges, it felt nails hard !! We heard chat coming from below in the valley. Soon a boulder mat came into view and then two friendly faces appeared ... it was Terry and Daragh. Great lads, big balls of energy and real fun to train with in the gravity center. We had an aul chat and the lads got stuck into Crimpnarris with us. I made a little progress, I could do the move to the small quartz edge but I couldn't stick it, Terry used tall man beta to reach it and stuck it from an undercling, however moving off the hold was another story all together. Its an addictive problem which lures you into the belief that you are getting closer and closer when in reality you may not be. We had a battle and a laugh but nobody could do it and we were losing skin due to greasing off the holds so we headed down the hill to try Dark Angel 7A.
Daragh Spotting Terry On Crimpnarris 7A
Darl Angel is a lovley problem. The stand start is a tricky 6A, from a jug you slap out left to a slopey arete, switch your feet a few times as you manoeuver your way up said arete and then it finishes with a rock over mantle. The sitter is 7A and quite powerful, it involves pulling your arse off the ground with a miserble slopey crimp and a shitty wide pinch and doing a relatively small but powerful move to the jug. We had great craic working this problem together. At first the sitter seemed impossible, Terry got close, I stole his beta and after a few attempts I hit the move, barely, and fell off near the top. Terry hit the move and fell off at the last move !! We concentrated on getting a nice sequence through the upper part, it's a lovely tricky thing. Now we had the finish sorted but nobody could get the start again. I had a nice rest and a feed of moroccan style cous cous for energy. On the next go I hit the sitter, barely, and followed my sequence up the arete, I cut loose by accident and lost energy trying to get my foot back on, I was in bits trying to do the rock over mantle, my hand flew off a hold, the lads thought I was gone and so did I, somehow I managed to slap it back onto nothing and slap further and further until rocked completely over onto the slab, wo hooo !! Everyone cheered :) It was a fine battle and a really nice problem. Later Daragh got it too and Adam got the stand start. A great evening, and to think I wasn't even gonna bother going climbing at all. Happy climbing folks :)
Me On Dark Angel 7A
Curious Horse
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