Bits and bobs

Well, not much of any great shakes has been happening at this end...
I went to Cadshaw last week which was a bit of an anti-climax. I was expecting the conditions to be good as it had been raining in the day - as it turns out, this wasn't an issue actually - conditions were reasonably ok.
The problem turned out to be the swarm of midges that greeted me as I arrived at the crag. Anyway, this is all starting to sound like an excuse. The bottom line was that I got back on to the problem I seem to have been trying for the last year, Brian Jacques and felt awful on it. The move to the good crimp which I've only managed to do once felt impossible.
I might have to shelve this problem until I am a bit stronger or when I can get more mileage, which has been an issue of late.
Tuesday saw a visit to Healey Nab, a pretty esoteric little venue a little further than Anglezarke. It's quite a scruffy little crag with the ubiquitous litter and graffiti, but there are a few quality problems on generally good quarried grit.
I arrived a little earlier than expected at about a quarter to 6 and was dismayed to find that several fires have been lit here in the recent past - unsurprisingly it seems to attract I assume teenagers who tend to litter the place and cause fires, throw bottles etc.
I warmed up on the easy chipped wall in the grabadabadoo area and then did the traverse (Andys traverse?) at about V1.
The problem I really wanted to look at was grabadabadoo itself which is supposedly V4/6c/6c+ ish. I had a look at the sitstart and couldn't even pull on - I tried using the arete and the minute right facing sidepull but I couldn't pull on - the ground slopes the wrong way which doesn't help, and it just felt unpleasant.
I gave this up as a bad shout and moved on to coolboy slap. This has been given 5+ in the past, but having done it from a proper sitter I reckon it's more like 6a. Interestingly I had to get really set up to pop for the top but once the move was done it felt solid.
Then I had a look at 'Ppo', a 6a problem to the right which climbs a lovely little prow - this problem is quality, I really enjoyed it - it feels really off balance at first, but it was actually fine and all the holds are there - I did use the good sidepull out left, which I can only assume is in, and the top out was an interesting mantle..
Time got the better of me and I had to go, picking up two bottles, a crisp packet and two odd strips of rubber before I left. I might bring a bag out next time.
I'm keen to get back there. Incidently across country it's only actually 20 minutes away, I thought it'd be a lot further away than that - promising stuff...

On other news, I've finally managed to get rid of the asbestos which was still in the garage - it's now residing at the tip. In addition to this I've installed a new work surface and moved a few things about - the next stage is to start the woody - I think although I'm not going to have the space to build a full size version, I'm going to build the moon board. Most of the tee nuts are actually free once you set up the moonboard so lots of other holds can be added for my own problems. I just think that having the moon board will force me to try harder moves by giving them relative gradings. Plus it pushes the angle up a notch to 40 degrees which can only be a good thing.I still think I'll have enough headroom for 3/4 of the moon board which is good enough for me. The wood is now bought so it's just a case of finding the time to get it done....

Here's the garage before:


Here's the garage now...

Comments

  1. Presumably you mean "pop"?
    Grabadabadoo isn't a sitstart as such, just starts hanging the flatty.

    Keen to head back up there sometime, have to liaise and meet up.

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  2. Aye lad there are several eliminatey things that I didn't even consider actually, keen to head back... and yes, pop. Good problem. Dont recall an obvious flatty, just the big ledge on the arĂȘte?? Enlighten me...

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