rginns blog

It's been a while since I've visited Yorkshire gritstone and I had a free morning yesterday so decided to head up to Earl crag. I've never been up to Earl before, and supposedly it's a good crag to visit at this time of year, in other words it's bloody cold in winter,nay unclimbable. I arrived at the tower and having never visited the crag before I cut straight down to the crag and decided to work my way along from left to right (facing out). This turned out to be a mistake, firstly because there weren't many problems I wanted to do at this end due to the shocking landings and general highball nature of the problems, and secondly to traverse to the other end involves scrambling across jumbles and jumbles of rocks strewn everywhere. It didn't seem to be a very friendly crag and by now I was quite pissed off and grumpy. I was short of time.. Eventually I made it to the low block right of trick arete area, and set to on the sistart on the right which goes s

I had a meeting in Cumbria today and in spite of the weather fancied getting out climbing. As I came down the M6 the weaather was looking grim, and the only viable plan was going to be Craig Y Longridge. GCW had grand plans for the weekend that necessitated lots of packing, so was not available to crush, and I remembered that Tom lives a stones throw from CyL so decided to see if he was free. In the event he was indeed free and in spite of having to attend to a calf with a hernia, he managed to make it on time. I arrived at around fourish and although it was raining, the crag was bone dry, aside from some of the footholds on the right hand side. We starteed off by looking at a 6b problem that Tom has been working on recently although it became apparant that this was a bit too much of a shock to the system to tackle straight off. We headed over to the tarot plane area and had a look at Seven A (font 6a) and I flashed it, actually finding it pleasant. Tom all but nailed it too, just

R-man has been busy lately in the Wiltons, repeating previous lines and climbing new ones. Last night I went to check it out with GCW and see what all the fuss was about. As I left work it started to rain, and didn't look good. Having seen the weather earlier in the day I thought it should clear out though so decided it was worth the risk. The Postmans Daughter' sitstart felt absolutely impossible, another R-man signature problem, and after a brief look at the others we moved on to the Prow. It started raining again after a brief let up and things weren't looking good... Nappy Rash looks like a worthwhile problem but was wet... G was having a go at the 7a to the left of Beneath deception, without too much success, although at least that was dry. We did Clamp, 6a+ and Flywalk 6b, both good problems. After a while it became apaprant that not much more was going to get done so we went over to the Snakey B wall, I had a go at SB which I still couldn't do, and the G-ma

GCW fancied getting out and I had a pass last night. As the weather was crap we opted for an indoor session and West View was the venue of choice. I ended up being later than I hoped due to underestimating the time it would take to get there, and as I arrived G was tucking into a large flapjack. It was quieter than usual (although it is summer) so it wasn't too hot. We warmed up on a few of the V1s and 2s and then I had a short rest a la Niks advice. I then did a couple of V4s and flashed a V5 which I was pretty pleased with bearing in mind my lack of fitness. The rest of the session involved trying the other V5s but alas it wasn't to be. G was looking as lanky as ever, mostly reaching past the hard moves. I think he managed a V6 flash too, which is not bad going although he foolishly dropped another. While we were there there were a couple of young girls, between 8 and 11 I'd say, leading up the overhanging wall on 6bs/6cs. I was really impressed, there was no faffing

Last weekend saw a return to trad with a visit to rivelin. Alas, the slab was not on the list, but there are plenty of worthwhile trad routes to be had. I picked Ken up at around 8 and we got to Outside just before it opened at half nine. The plan was to meet the Welsh contingent there and decide on a plan. I quite fancied a look at the millstone bouldering, Owler tor, Mother Cap etc, but it was really rather warm, so the concensus was to go trad climbing, and luckily I had the gear to cover all eventualities. On my way out of Outside I bought a new pair of 5.10s, this time in size 8 as the 7.5s were pretty tight last time, and uncomfortable after a while. We'll see how these ones compare. I was very surprised at how much climbing shoes have gone up in the last year or so, it seems you need to spend upwards of £100 to get a decent pair, especially in a retail outlet. I don't know whether it's the rubber prices or what but they are quite expensive nowadays... So Blacky, S