Stanton Delivers

Two years ago when i was just beginning to feel out the more esoteric peak venues, i came across Spare Rib and its accompanying boulder, and whilst this is undoubtedly one of the best problems in the UK it had no other straight up problems on it at the time, the other arete on the opposite side of the block was a prime example of a sitting duck project and on a return visit i mopped it up at 7b+, I then turned my attention to the arete to the Right of Jon in the above pic, i battled up the lower section and found that it leads you into the groove. with the top section of the arete being nigh on impossible and the groove being a stunning feature (albeit visually near spare rib.) I set about this. A session later i was tickling the hanging crack and i thought it wouldn't be to bad. So i left it for 2 years, which seem to have flown by. And after mopping up several other personal projects in the peak this season this rose back up the list. Heading back with Ryan the other day i managed to stick the crack but fully stretched and with no idea where to go, next session i abbed the top moves and sussed out the sequence. Which looks like a wholly undramatic affair when observed but from within a gossamer tension can be felt which is about as comforting as running across a newly frozen lake. the last foot of height takes alot of reeling in and my mind and body repeatedly crumbled on the foot moves. My mind wasn't crumbling from fear, just demand overload, too many minute movements were needing to be monitored at once. Bit by bit i pigheadedly pushed my kinasthetic dullardness up the problem learning more and more micro beta, which other people just do naturally or won't need. And after a little break a brew and a flapjack i jerkily overpowered my way to the top, 3rd session this year.

Stanton Deliver 8A+?

It gets hard from here... (pics are stills from a film shot by Nick Brown)

The problem starts from standing at the foot of the arete with LH on fairly obvious slopey crimp and RH on a pinch on the arete.

click here for a bigger res pic.

Between this, Pink Lady- Dave Mason's new 7c+ stand/ 8a sit. Golden egg- Jon Boys new 7c+ (and Ned's 7c+ variation - Furry Egg)

There are alot of good things going up in this area and i bet it's not long until an 8b is sniffed out.

To Celebrate i whipped over to cratcliffe and RHS with Nick and did Musclin' man (bransbys way) and my prune (stunning) My prune was a bit interesting as it was getting dark and i was getting tired and the last bit heading leftwards strayed a little too close to the bone.

A Law of Averages

well it's been a good week of weather! and with the evenings getting longer i've been getting out and about.

Friday: Borrowdale volcanics

Before coming back to Sheff I nipped in to say hi to the Bowderstone, it was still there, and so was the hold that bust my finger, i'll be giving that project a few more months I reckon. I had decided it was time to tackle sidekick, the last thing i really wanted to get done on the stone. After getting slapped about trying to ram a sharp bit of rock through my knee for about an hour I figured out that i only needed it for a split second and good old fashioned burl could take care of the rest. This is a brilliant problem and probably the best 8 on the stone. I remember seeing Glenn wilson try this with his half red half yellow hair(when it was v9 and still a project) back in the day in my first year of climbing! The consensus seems to be that its a tough 8a or more like a soft 8a+ and it's certainly harder than special cases. In the end i got it near the end of the session and had to try pretty hard, especially as the oxygen depletion to my brain stopped my feet working properly and my Jet7s turned into clogs before my eyes.

Sunday: Yorkshire Grit

I was driving back down the country so nipped in to see my good mate Kev in't Bingley town. Now I think i've only been to Caley when Kev's been there and I've only been 3 times, and none of those were in the last 3 years! I think i'd forgotten just how awesome it is (except for the prolific victorian chipping) There are loads of things that I want to get done here but an obvious one was the striking line of Ranieri's Reach. After declaring it piss on my third go i then got bored of controlling my limbs properly for the next 30minutes, including dropping it after the crux 3 times, after a bit of a break and a re-warming up of the support team as well as a cameo appearance from legend of the lakes, triple-daddy, Rob Fielding. I gave myself a good talking to and made good on my original declaration. This was much easier than Sidekick and is kicking a good sized hole through the ceiling into the realm of 7c+ . After that it was skin loss time on nothings safe, which went from being painful and jerky in my mind to eccentrically brilliant, especially with the top move being a good value pull off a pinky mono! Now bellies were growling by this point and Kev's easter egg was a distant memory so binge o' clock was called.

Wednesday: Peak Grit

my next chance to get out saw me tired from training but lapping up a bit of afternoon vitamin D at Curbar, i thought i'd check out what the low roof hoo haa was all about. It looked less low than i remember but it looks like some sterling patio skills have been put into place (effort!). After a good chin wag with the a nice Mr Marek whom was there also. I got stuck into la musee. I quickly sacked off trying to use the jug as the ridiculously dabby move spoilt the problem for me (as did the jug). I worked out a slightly harder (physicaly) but less dabby way of not using the jug at all by keeping the toe hook in whilst nipping along the slopers. This flowed nicely and was much more enjoyable. 5 minutes later i linked it up and found it much easier than Sidekick and Ranieri's. To me it seemed to be no harder than ben's roof (at the Tor) or columns at the roaches So soft 7c+ seems about right. I was getting tired by this point but went 1 foot further back to the newly extended start. After working out how to get my leg out of the massive, and slightly painful kneebar without my fat arse touching the floor (this sequence takes you straight into the start holds of la musee) I was getting through things ok but had run out of juice for the full thing. And by this time things were getting pretty sunny under there, so I packed my bags and shot off home. The line from the back is the full line though and a good addition to peak 8's, very unique climbing for grit too.

Friday: peak lime

I nipped out in the afternoon to make the most of the good weather. Cough. really horrible still warm conditions. Cough. My chosen sweat box was Dark Therapy, the perma goppy holds are bloody well annoying on this. Despite that it is a truly great problem slightly marred by greasy crag acne. after battling the grease for a while I had a good go where I didn't slide on the holds too much and luckily ended up on top and not on my back. For me I reckon this is a benchmark 8a, although it is a bit morpho and conditions dependent (if you ever see the start holds bone dry then get on it!), I really like the unique bulge climbing on this and it features a good candidate for legitimately busting out a 1 armer on the last move. After that i spent 45 minutes on another problem reminding myself that i have lost a lot of nouse and now have to compute hard foot moves like a commodore 64 faced with endless lines of code whilst my upper body hangs there waiting for something useful to happen. Basically I can't wait to be able to turn my brain off and just climb again!

So there we go four lovely British "8a"s and all of them completely different to each other in rock type and style and grade, yet apparently all the in the same place on a scorecard.

ideas of march

So since our little county visit i've been getting oot and aboot in this gloriously stable weather. We don't often get such prolonged periods of being able to straighten out our necks and look up into the sky without being spat on by a thousand droplets or by the wind knocking us over. England is ace when the weather is like this, it starts to feel like a normal climbing destination where you can just head out and try what you want when you want without a worry or second thought as to whether it's dry or not. Ned hasn't been so lucky, since the CWIF is in 2 days time and we're hoping to sport the best all UK team he has switched over on the training polarity scale, so now it is easier to mention when Ned is not training. I thought removing all his bed slats except for the two behind his head and his ankles was a step too far, but he assured me that training core in his sleep was the next logical step, the sand filled duvet was my idea after he slept through the night with pleasant dreams. This quick adaption was a good sign we thought. It looks to be a fun comp anyway, and you can watch the semis and finals live from the works homepage, so get screaming at your pc if you can't make it.
Really i think all foreign competitors should be made to climb hard on the grit the day before to equal out foreign skin advantage. as resin is far too easy to crush without massive giblets of skin missing from your tips.

So what else... i've being weighing up whether its worth the time and effort trying to ground up solo hard grit routes, as i appear to have found my mind crumble limit for hard moves (currently at about 8.5m) (the hard refers to tech grade there i.e. 7a and up with ok gear, rather than a font 6c with an iffy landing) as the extra effort required is ridiculous and basically i'd rather just go normal bouldering. Superstition (i didn't do it if your just on a success scan) started this all off... or actually snow balling did. First off i snowballed a bunch of things which i didn't fall off. So i thought i'd step things up and try to use the drifts to my actual advantage. i started to punt about on superstition at the end of one day ( a Gibson route being the obvious choice as you're guaranteed to get slapped about). Ground up beta finding is hard work, especially on a route as you only get half a second to make up your mind and try something. Its even harder when the climbing is at least font 7c (i think at least 7c+ to ground up) and when the only other top ropee beta involves things which'd be suicidal foam up (ground up with foam), like dynos or hurrendous undercling moves which offer the chance of landing on various angular objects from a height with any possible body part. So slow static progress it is then. By my second session i was tickling the last move. But the ridiculous sharpness of the line meant i only got about 6 goes before splitting a tip. So 5 days of healing and snow melt left me on my own with just a few pads and getting to here



Now that is a pretty distorted wide angle lens so i look a lot nearer to the pads than i actually am, anyone who has seen it in the flesh can picture it anyway (basically at the top of the promise) i sat up there facing the last 6aish move of rocking onto my left foot and locking to the top (no jumps here) for about 30+ seconds. guaranteed to be hitting the ground either way whether i committed or not. The coward in me won and i whistled down onto the pads. The fall is actually fine, as long as you take it properly. and here in lies the hard part, the higher you get the more in control you need to climb and land. and even though this is when the johnny big bolloxes of the world go for stuff they don't tend to be doing it on routes like this. So is it worth even bothering, are standards being pushed here or am i just kidding myself? I think i could train up to get better at pushing through the ~7m barrier but it is a risky game. It feels like i've completely missed the ground up with gear stage of the game. But why bother with it when hitting the ground from the last hard moves is fine (i got even further a session later and rocked onto my left leg before the crumble hit). it also removes the massive grey area of gear and rests when ground upping as retrieving the gear never really happens after attempts and many people are content with a quick play after they fall off. So in this sense it is very pure. But still why don't i just ab it get it dialed and send it first HP? and then do another 2 similar routes the same day. Lordy knows thats what i really want to do. the two weigh each other up in my mind but ground up always wins for routes like this (i'll be the first to admit that i've worked hard boulders off a rope, and cleaned many a problem) but as far as repeating routes goes. landing permitting. I'll always choose this style. for the same reason why i solo easier routes if possible and why i love bouldering and DWS. Natural unencumbered movement on rock is unbeatable whether it is above sea or foam or a sea of foam. It's just that the foam part hurts a little right now, nevertheless things like this are to be savoured and not consumed in a slurry of numbers and ticks. That said i don't think i've got loads of attempts at routes in this style in me, nor do my ankles. Which keeps things like this special. Its pissed me off alot this route as it's exposed even more weaknesses which i didn't know i had. And it is so sharp it is barely fun.

One bonus is that normal highballs are starting to feel smaller. The major draw back is lugging all the pads out to the crag. And that repeat visits are worse for the environment.