Its been a while....

I havent posted for a while for a number of reasons. Firstly i had a job interview at Ogwen Cottage in North Wales, which im glad to say i got :-) so as of September ill be  the trainee instructor there! Literally can't wait! In less good news i basically flunked my dissertation and so had to stick my nose to the grindstone to drag my degree back upto a 2.1, I dont know the outcome as of yet but have got all my digits crossed.

During all this time i did manage to get out climbing and partying a bit, spending the bank holiday weekend in North Wales getting some good climbing done in even better locations. And also getting the last taste of the grit i'll have for a while, finally ticking some classics like Long Johns Slab at Froggatt and Eliminator at Stanage. As there are too many tales to put into this post i thought id describe it in videos and pictures.... Enjoy.

 The 5b Slab pitch on Superdirect (Dinas Mot)

 Guns out for the Rainbow, a rainy and blowy evening at Froggatt

 Getting the good crimps on Long Johns Slab (Froggatt)

My Honary 21st Dirty Pint.....It was drunk in one.......

I will endeavour to keep more upto date with bloggings from now on as this summer should be a good one, as  its all about getting good at climbing!

Living the B-Team Dream

Hope you enjoy. We certainly had a good craic. What every trip is remembered for!

A Holiday Squat

The first night in the shed was the hardest. Trying to get used to the idea of the place was probably the main reason my sleep was not ideal. That and the mice scratching on the wood and foam roof.

Arriving at the shed your presented with ramshackle ‘building’ that has over 50years worth of accumulated tat lining its walls. A place that smells of wood smoke and candles. A place that seems to attract the standard odd-balls, and the travelling seasoner. Some of these have been at the shed on and off for nearly two decades! That in itself completely baffles most people when you tell them about it when you get back to uni. But as you spend more time sat in one of the plastic chairs on the decking looking over the hills, or crouched next to the stove on a stool, you learn to love the place, gain a bit of understanding. The shed is a squat for all intents and purposes, but it’s not a squat you see on tv or read about in books. It’s a commune for the free spirited not the alcoholic tramps. It’s a place of simplicity. You own everything and nothing all at the same time. It’s a place of contradictions but that’s what makes it special. Meeting people that come and go over a trip you exchange the standard small talk but everyone has a sense of belonging. We’re all in the shed together.

At night beds and chairs are moved out the way to make way for the people that come not just to stay but to socialise. A buzz comes over the place as people from all over come to eat and drink. Swedes, Aussies, Slovenians, British. Food is put on the BBQ and shared, nothing is yours alone. Stories cast out over the firelight shadows. Laughter is the currency of this place and other places around the world like it.

Now it might seem strange to have spent a holiday living in a squat but not only did it mean board was free. It means you value the comforts of life more when you get back. Water from a tap, light switches, warm food. All the commodities we take for granted in the western world become sensational! Now I’m not suggesting everyone go find a squat and settle down. That would be ridiculous but spending a few days ‘roughing’ it makes the rest of life that more vibrant. Try that sometime. It’s well worth the effort.

Photo: Having a bath in the Shed (S.Bennett)

 
A video of our alpine trip this Easter is to follow when I get the music sorted.

Coming and Going

The past two weeks have been pretty hectic, with increasing uni workload and trying to get out climbing at every opportunity ive managed to get some good routes done. Ive also managed to lose my head a bit but have taken some biggish falls to try and sort that out.

Am still trying to get out as much as possible but with my trip to chamonix coming up tomorrow ive got less and less time. Going to get out on the grit once more tomorrow afternoon i think for a quick blast before hitting the road for 2 weeks.

High Peak Triathlon 2011

Last week with the prospect of the weather turning sour myself and Sharpie decided to  get on with a plan we've had on the abck burner for a while. To enchain 10 Eastern Grit crags in a day by bike and in doing so climb 20 routes from S-E1 (it was up to E2 in the end).

So on the wednesday night in the pub (location of all of the best hatched plans) we decided to go for it the following Sunday. Planning at this stage wasnt our fortey and as such we left the crags, routes and road journey till the next day. On the thursday night we got together and planned to hit up Bamford, Stanage, Burbage North, Burbage South, Millstone, Lawrencefield, Yarncliffe, Baslow, Curbar  and Froggatt (the routes are listed at the end of the following video).

Needless to say 40miles cycling for me personally was hard as i havent ridden a bike for a long time and my bike wasnt really up to the challenge but we both came through unscathed but needing a break in our relationship. So that we didn't bottle it we ended up collecting some charity money for Edale Mountain Rescue in the process (we raised about £40 in the end, not amazing but something to give back to a service i hope i never have to use). It was a good laugh and was something I'm sure I'll look back on fondly. If the routes had been ones i hadn't done before it may have helped in this respect but visiting 2 new crags was a nice change.



In other news i have been address my scaredy-cat-ness by getting on steeper more well protected routes. Going to Higgar and taking fake falls then doing the HVS, E1 and quality E2 (The Mighty Atom) helped get my brain in good order. Following this with a quick hit at Stanage yet again one evening and ticking the brilliant route Desperation (E1 5c) has started to build my belief in my gear and improve my comfortablilty with the idea of falling off. So at the moment am looking for safe 5c/6a routes to have a bash at in the Peak. Any suggestions?

A lot of pottering

Since the Roaches day out i managed to get out on tuesday and wednesday to stanage and curbar racking up another 30 odd routes (all Lead or soloed) Great couple of days out.

Stanage started lateish at 1130 with a lift from Bamf to stanage popular, the soloing started in earnest as we needed to get at least 20 routes done for Marks birthday. Notching up 15 routes we then decided to stick on a rope for harder routes that were beyond our soloing abilities. First for the keen kids was Hardings Direct off Robin hoods cave innominate. Really good route combining two 3* routes. Next came Tower Face Direct (another on my list) which fell easily as i had it in my head that i was going to get it done so i didnt give up an focused properly! Then we moved back along the crag to meet up with Matt and Sam, still soloing we ticked another 5 routes until we got to the tippler buttress. Mark was adamant on having a crack at the direct as its on his list for 2011. I was cool to belay and matt took up camera shots. Mark had a good few goes at the route lowering to the ground and pulling the ropes each time, and every time taking a nice fall as well. But as the light started to fade we retreated home happy with our collection of 23 routes (18 of which i hadnt done before).

Photo: Mark gurning before lurching for the next hold and taking flight

The next day with a lunch time lift out to curbar offered me and Mark dragged ourselves to Matts house to get into Fattys car and trundle out to the crag. Feeling slightly worse for wear but keen we headed to the Barons wall area, ticking a few VS' and HVS' (hard for the grade!) and then qucikly getting on the E1 Lamebrain, a definate classic E1 that seems barely climbed purely because of the stars i nthe guidebook, or lack of. Also a rareity in that its quite soft touch. Soon We headed over to the L'Horla area to try Maupassant and L'Horla. The Maupassant was a good fight even on second and L'Horla went badly. Climbing like a spesh i managed to get to the notch on the arete after much faffing. Getting there my arms couldnt pull any harder and my head seemed to not want to be there so i had a pussy attack. Bad timing so i slumped onto the bomber cam and lowered, pulling the ropes and going again cleanly soon after. Trying to salvage something of my brain i got straight on Kayak an easy E2 5b slab further along the crag but it didnt seem to do the trick, because as i sit here i feel like a massive girl.

Being scared of falling is pretty shit as a climber, means i cant push myself properly. I seem to treat all routes even if they're 'safe as houses' as death routes. This shouldnt be the case and im making it my priority to get on stuff slightly too hard for me so im forced to take the plunge and fail from falling not wimping out. Should be interesting!

Anyway for tomorrow ive got an epic charity / training event to do. 10 eastern grit crags and 20 routes...by bike! That should be fucking hard work but a good craic hopefully!

Photo: Me on L'Horla the second time around (M.Sharpe)

A Week Of Life

The last 7days have been some of the best ive had in a long time. And it was all down to sacking off all my uni work and jsut getting a 'normal life' for a bit.

On the friday i managed to get on a cheapish train back to Cardiff for a weekend of climbing before my volunteer work kicked in on the monday. As my partner for the two days only had a few hours to spare each day (it was his sons birthday- thats dedication!) we had to go in all guns blazing. So the saturday started us off with a sport climbing session, dogging and attempting a soft touch Fr7b, which i didnt make in the end but got later in the week. The sunday was more of a proper day out as we only had 3 hours and a high tide to play with we did Exposure Explosion. A route ive been meaning and attempting to do for a good few years, despite its easy grade (HVS 5a) i had never managed to get the partner, weather, or tides right before for this 7pitch, rope drag mammoth.

Photo: Puling through the wet look cave crux

The route went really well with me getting the crux wet 5a pitch through wet look cave, it probably isnt 5a moves but the fact its always wet even in the sun makes it feel committing, especially considering you relaly dont wanna fall off at any point on the route. Finishing up the final corner i was pleased that i had finally put the route to bed and get started on my 2011 challenge ticklist..only 24 left to go....

On the monday my volunteer work started at Cardiff Outdoor Activity Team and it was really good, finding out about play centres dotted around cardiff and the work the people in them and behind them do is really inspiring stuff and makes me want to go and help out more there during the summer, which at the moment looks like it might happen. My volunteer work only lasted 3 days and so kind of stopped climbing play aside a quick hit tuesday night where i onsighted my first Fr6c at Taffs Well the route called Daggers goes up a faint groove line and provided ample interest in our game of grab and pull.

After my volunteer work ended on the wednesday i was keen to put Rise Fr7b to rest so phoned around everyone i knew in Cardiff and managed to drag Gary out of his sick-bed to come hold my ropes in exchange for a lift to Cwmaman to tidy up a route that was falling to bits.

After dogging up the route with 2 rests to put the quickdraws in i lowered down the route, and popped on another to get warmed up (only in South Wales do you have to take trad gear for sport routes- am gunna redo the route with jsut trad gear at E2 5c at some point). Had a rest and cruised the route, it felt easy! Redpointing makes stuff that seems impossible, possible. It did all feel a bit hollow though. Ah well another rotue down on the list...now only 23 to go!

Once i was done and had stripped the route we headed over to Cwmaman to do Garys bidding. But when we got there the route was still in the shade, so whilst waiting around i abbed down a Fr7a, his mate had put up the previous summer, to give it a clean. Then did the route on the second attempt with no Top Rope practice, i must either be getting better or jsut hadnt cottoned onto this sport climbing thing before. They were both soft touches and it did feel a bit hollow but was in numbers terms a pretty good day out.

We then got down to the business of cleaning his route. Im not going to go into detail but i climbed it (about Fr6a) and lowered down as someone had said it was in a bad way. I thought it was a bit sketch but made nothing of it. Gary then jumared up the rope and pushed a lot of big blocks off, including one that had previously had a bolt in it. Nice. Heres a video of him cleaning...

After a day of rest i headed back upto Sheffield, the promise of a lift to the Roaches and glorious weather enticing me back up north. Getting to the Roaches on the saturday morning i held a sight before my eyes ive never seen before. The place was crawling. Like Stanage popular on a bank holiday but more so! After eventually doing Valkyrie behind some utter retards (from a London Uni club i might add) we ran away to the upper tier and had a much nicer day soloing about and occasionally getting the rope out for dirty or harder routes.

Good week in all, but am coming crashing back down to Earth now with the prospect of all the work i need to get done before my spring trip to Cham hits home.