Blackstone Edge
Blackstone Edge is an awesome crag, situated high on the moor above littleborough and I had planned on meeting up there with a few people yesterday.
The weather wasn't looking promising as I left the house, and a call from Bruce confirmed that the crag was shrouded in mist.
Nevertheless the weatherforecast looked as though it would clear out later on, so it was still worth the risk.
The idea of todays visit was to see what bouldering problems were 'done years ago and try to reconcile them with the latest information.
The cloud didn't look like it was disappearing and as I arrived I went straight past the first carpark and had to brake sharply to avoid shooting past the second. Visibility was virtually zero. Bruce was already there when I arrived and we got chatting while we waited for the others.
GCW arrived, then R-Man, and Gordon, and we all trudged up to the crag.
As we were walking up, the cloud was dipping into the valley, creating a great cloud inversion with the crag popping up out of the clouds.
I tried to get a photo, but it didn't really come out too well.
The plan was to head to the trig point, and then work our way back, but as we were going past the back edge, we detoured off to have a look.
This looks like a really good little area, with lots of problems, many of them easy, others look desparate. Certainly a bigger area than I've noticed before, there are probably 30 problems hereabouts.
We went over to the trig point, and worked along the crag, with Bruce pointing out what he knows has been done for years, and other stuff that as far as he knew was new.
After we'd been along most of the crag, we finished up at the Hueco blocks as GCW wanted to have a look at Ape Hour (7a+) and I wanted to have a look at the slab (6a) which I consummately failed at last time I came here. Well, psyche was definitely low, as I couldn't get up it again, although R-Man climbed it with ease as he did the right arete.
He then proceded to climb Ape Hour (7a+) after managing to persuade his body to actually latch the holds...
GCW wasn't getting very far on Ape Hour, so we decided to move over to the right hand side of the crag boulders. Gordon and Bruce were warming up hereabouts and pointed us up a couple of nice problems, both at about 5+, and then we did a nice short overhanging prow involving a hideous heel hook udging move which it wasn't possible to make look graceful.
After then trying a problem involving a ridiculous dynamic move from sitting, we worked out way back over to the others. By this time R-Mans friends had arrived having been tempted away from Stanage for a bit of Blackstone action and were busy on the Hueco blocks looking strong andtrying various link-ups.
I then went back over to the trig point to look at various problems - I really want to return and do some of these, there look to be some quality lines.
By this time, G had given up on Ape Hour as a bad do, and wanted to point me at double arete, which he described as being 'the best problem at Blackstones'. By this time however, the skin wasn't fareing too well, and I couldn't get up it - next time I think I'll start on this as it did feel like a good problem.
Not long after we headed off, but I believe Fridge Hugger (7b+) got a couple of ascents from R-Man and the Sheffield raiders. Impressive.
The weather wasn't looking promising as I left the house, and a call from Bruce confirmed that the crag was shrouded in mist.
Nevertheless the weatherforecast looked as though it would clear out later on, so it was still worth the risk.
The idea of todays visit was to see what bouldering problems were 'done years ago and try to reconcile them with the latest information.
The cloud didn't look like it was disappearing and as I arrived I went straight past the first carpark and had to brake sharply to avoid shooting past the second. Visibility was virtually zero. Bruce was already there when I arrived and we got chatting while we waited for the others.
GCW arrived, then R-Man, and Gordon, and we all trudged up to the crag.
As we were walking up, the cloud was dipping into the valley, creating a great cloud inversion with the crag popping up out of the clouds.
I tried to get a photo, but it didn't really come out too well.
The plan was to head to the trig point, and then work our way back, but as we were going past the back edge, we detoured off to have a look.
This looks like a really good little area, with lots of problems, many of them easy, others look desparate. Certainly a bigger area than I've noticed before, there are probably 30 problems hereabouts.
We went over to the trig point, and worked along the crag, with Bruce pointing out what he knows has been done for years, and other stuff that as far as he knew was new.
After we'd been along most of the crag, we finished up at the Hueco blocks as GCW wanted to have a look at Ape Hour (7a+) and I wanted to have a look at the slab (6a) which I consummately failed at last time I came here. Well, psyche was definitely low, as I couldn't get up it again, although R-Man climbed it with ease as he did the right arete.
He then proceded to climb Ape Hour (7a+) after managing to persuade his body to actually latch the holds...
GCW wasn't getting very far on Ape Hour, so we decided to move over to the right hand side of the crag boulders. Gordon and Bruce were warming up hereabouts and pointed us up a couple of nice problems, both at about 5+, and then we did a nice short overhanging prow involving a hideous heel hook udging move which it wasn't possible to make look graceful.
After then trying a problem involving a ridiculous dynamic move from sitting, we worked out way back over to the others. By this time R-Mans friends had arrived having been tempted away from Stanage for a bit of Blackstone action and were busy on the Hueco blocks looking strong andtrying various link-ups.
I then went back over to the trig point to look at various problems - I really want to return and do some of these, there look to be some quality lines.
By this time, G had given up on Ape Hour as a bad do, and wanted to point me at double arete, which he described as being 'the best problem at Blackstones'. By this time however, the skin wasn't fareing too well, and I couldn't get up it - next time I think I'll start on this as it did feel like a good problem.
Not long after we headed off, but I believe Fridge Hugger (7b+) got a couple of ascents from R-Man and the Sheffield raiders. Impressive.
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