I can show you how not to climb an E3/4!

Went to Bonehill this evening as Chris wanted to work his project, The Umpire Strikes Back V2 6a (E4). We arrived and set the top-rope up to 'warm up' on You Cannot Be Serious V3 6a (E2/3), but could barely get a metre or so off the ground. We then moved the top-rope along to The Umpire Strikes Back, and Chris got quite high on it before finding himself at a loss of where to go or where the holds were. I barely got off the slab - could probably have done it in a different way to Chris, seeing as I couldn't reach the same holds as such a tall person, I flailed around wildly for a bit and then came back down. After this failure, we went over to Big Slab. I soloed up problem:74 (3c), a Diff, and then led one of the lines to the right of this problem, which supposedly go at about VS. Quite unprotected after halfway, but quite fun nonetheless and is the second VS I've led! (The first being Aramis on Haytor, 20.03.2011... After this, seeing as it as getting darker and there was a light drizzle in the air, we decided to call it a day and head off...

Setting new routes?

White Rock 03.07.2011

Luke on Central Route (D)
03.07.2011

Again, a lazy start to the day - Luke and I decided that we should go and explore something different, so we went to White Rock, a limestone quarry near Newton Abbot, to find out what the routes there were like. We were pleasantly surprised to find the crag to be larger than we had at first anticipated. We approached via Ogwell Mill, as suggested in the guidebook, walking to the end of the road and then turning left to walk through a field, passing through a gate, and then coming almost immediately upon the slightly obscured crag on our right, just behind and old quarry building. The ground appeared to be slightly overgrown and the rock was a bit on the loose side... We decided that Luke should lead, and we attempted what we assumed to be Central Route (D) in order to check out the crag. As we suspected, it was a bit loose and chossy and quite overgrown, however there were no major difficulties, although there were very few gear placements, which made the leader's task just a little bit harder. The route we decided to follow started slightly to the left of the lowest point, at the best belay ledge and then up the most logical line towards some blocks half-way up, just after which there was a fairly solid PR. We then moved a couple of metres left to top out and ab down off from the top. The second route we did, possibly West Buttress (VS), was fairly difficult, although VS was probably a fair enough grade for it. Gear was, again, sparse, as we followed the line up and left to a platform and then slowly traversed up and left until topping out just shy of a large gap on the face. There is probably plenty of room there for new climbs to be put up, but in its present condition it would hardly attract many people to come... We did, however, manage to clear a thin layer of dust off of those two climbs, which have probably rarely been climbed in the past!

How to take a whipper!

Got a call early this morning by Harry, who was keen to go climb some trad - we decided to go to Haytor, seeing as Harry wanted to climb Aviation (E1 5b***) and I had a couple of projects which I had wanted to get. We turned up fairly late, having left shortly after 11.30, and headed immediately for Lowman. Harry managed to climb the first pitch fairly well, although he did seem a bit scared at times and only placed three pieces of gear, none on the final traverse. I slowly seconded him, but had a bit of a nightmare, having to rest on the rope at the bottom before I managed to work out the sequence to commit to the flake. After that I was OK until I got to the traverse. I shook out a bit first before removing the last piece of gear between Harry and myself, and then slowly moved across, grabbing the jug-like holds. Sadly, however, my nifty footwork did me little good on the incredibly polished granite, and the pump in my arms proved to be just too much, causing me to take quite a nasty fall for about 4 metres, swinging beneath Harry and then back round, finally ending up directly beneath him. After shaking out a bit and finding that I was more or less intact save for a few cuts and scratches on my arms and legs, I climbed the delicate moves up the slabs and onto the large hollow flake where Harry had set up the belay. Once we'd switched over the belay, Harry once again started to lead, but unfortuantely couldn't figure out the first move, and eventually, after a few minutes, just lunged for the large jug above him and caught it. Once up at the top, he belayed me up, as I managed to climb the second pitch clean although still slightly nervy from my fall. I decided to forgo leading any VS or HVS climbs and only led Step Across (D*) in order to feel slightly better about myself and make myself lead a climb after a fall. After this we decided that it was about time to head back home as Aviation had been the only climb there which Harry had fancied doing and I wasn't feeling particularly psyched after the whipper!