I love a good sport climbing trip to Spain and this time I was off to Margalef, an area I had not yet had the pleasure of visiting. I flew into Barcelona with Tash and met up with Ryan who had already been out in Suirana for 7 weeks, lucky bugger! We stayed in a town called Mora d’ebre and drove up the windy roads to the crags each day. Margalef is a beautiful area and it felt very green compared with the usual dry and dusty areas of Spain I have visited in the past. The crags are dotted around in a number of different valleys so there is usually always somewhere to climb depending on what weather you are chasing/avoiding.

                                                     The team looking psyched on a rest day visit to the beach.

 

The routes although powerful suited me as they were around 25m (relatively short for Spanish limestone, although they felt epically long for an unfit Peak climber!) and full of lovely pockets. The rock is conglomerate so you are usually holding the pebble scars as pockets and I there is nothing I love more than a good two finger pocket.

 

                              Rob Greenwood on a ridiculously pumpy 7b.

 

Everything looked so good and I just spent two weeks onsighting, never really having more than one or two goes on something as I would be to excited to try the next route. Everyone seemed like they were climbing well, Ryan's 7 weeks in Spain was paying off and was making 8a onsights look about 6a, Tash was sooo close to a 7a onisght but decided to rack up some airmiles instead and Rob was onsighting routes that a couple of weeks ago had been been his hardest redpoint level!! My fitness only got me about 15-20m up a route and I fell of a lot of 7cs just beneath the chain with my elbows in the air pumped out of my mind. I found this pretty funny at the start of the trip but by the end of the second week it got slightly frustrating. Luckily my ‘onsight fitness training’ paid off and I got my first 7c+ flash with pretty minimal beta from Ryan on my second to last day. It felt weird to flash it as it only felt like yesterday (even though it was a good few years ago) that I redpointed my first 7c in Costa Blanca. This was the first trip I felt like I had seen an obvious improvement in my climbing over two weeks, which was very satisfying. 

 

                                                               Looking out to Siurana from a crag at Monstant

 

The weather this winter has not particularly been the best, I have been excitedly waiting for the weekends only to find myself disappointed with bad weather and being forced to climb indoors. However I am not going to moan too much about it as I did manage two amazing little grit routes that have been on my tick list for some time.

First up was Art Nouveau at the Roaches. I have always wanted to climb this as it is an uber classic! I went over with a few friends mainly to just have a look, as I had never actually seen it in the flesh. When you see the wall it just screams out to be climbed. It is a beautiful stepped overlap, a very unique feature and rare to find on the grit stone. It is strange to climb as the hand holds are relatively good whilst the feet are poor smears on the slab. You climb diagonally left using some cool beta, the crux involves a step through from a good smear to a very poor smear. You really need to have full faith in the friction!

I managed it second go, I fell off on the flash go as I didn’t weight my foot properly and it popped. It is quite a scary climb because of the weird stepped landing, however I had a good spotting team below. Tash (got pumped!) pushed the mats onto the little ledge so I wouldn’t go skating off down the hill if I fell off and Tom spotted me so I felt pretty safe.

 

Second was Toy Boy at Froggatt Edge. This takes a direct line straight up to join the top half of Great Slab. The slab is very steep and the hand holds on the first section are few and far between just some tiny edges to keep you balanced. The footholds are small edges and holes rather than smears. The second section swaps over to very bad feet with a couple of sloping crimps and a gaston for your hands.

All photos thanks to Emma Hanna

 

I decided to give the CWIF a miss this year as the weather looked absolutely beautiful for the weekend. I finally managed Toy Boy that Saturday morning and it was actually my first route on the wall (so I did Great Slab and Artless afterwards). I remember walking past this route and have stood underneath it many times looking up thinking how blank and hard it looked. For me it is probably the hardest thing I have done on the grit, it certainly took me the longest but maybe this was because of the ground up style I did it in. I am a lot better at trusting my feet on smears where as on Toy Boy you have to stand on tiny edges, which I found harder to trust. I fell off the same move session after session, which involved standing up on a bad left foot and doing a big move to a sloping edge. I spent a week with a very stiff back after falling of the top section about 4 times. When I finally did it I had to force myself to be a lot more dynamic and slap my way quickly up the wall.

I definitely need to thank my Mum and Ryan for spending a lot of time spotting, carrying pads, bringing brews or haribo to the crag and telling me I definitely could do it even though I must have fallen of the same move 50+ times! 

 

Top 3 this winter 2012

I have been out climbing every weekend since it started getting cold, even going to the Tor when it has been to wet for the grit. I have mainly just been trying to get in as much climbing as possible whilst slowly ticking off my never ending grit list. I have done so many cool climbs so far this year but these are my top three to date this winter:

 

1. Old Friends / E4 5c / Stanage

This has been on my list for years but I have never quite had the bottle to get on it, anyway I decided to man up and give it go. It is an intimidating line up a big wall with a small roof. The most impressive thing about this route is that it was first climbed by a 14 year old John Allen in 1973!!

I found this the hardest out of all three even with the grade being the easiest. It was scary, pumpy and I ended up doing an all out slap to the big break but an amazing climb and very satisfying once I topped out.

 

2. Downhill Racer direct / E4 6b/c?? (not 100% sure on the grade) / Froggatt

Looking up at the slab you think no chance it looks too thin and too high - not going up there! Once you start the climb though you just have to keep going because honestly it is just soooooo good. The direct start adds a few technical smeary moves which makes the foot holds near the top feel like ledges. Topping out after soloing this slab is definitely up there in my ‘best days out on the grit’, I was so pleased.

 

3. A Northern Soul / 7a+ / Hepburn / Northumberland

Yes I did leave the Peak District, and I had a weekend in Northumberland. I haven’t climbed here much so everything was new and it was so cool having all these climbs to go at. Northern Soul was the highlight, a 7a+ high(ish)ball, layback the crack then give it your best shot at the horrendously sloppy top out.

 

A Northern Soul

 

Lots of pads for the highballs!!

 

So the comp season is finally over for the year and I am still undecided if it was successful or not! First up was Munich World Cup, the last of the WC rounds for the year. The boulders were built in the Olympic stadium under the crazy roof webbing. Qualifiers went well, the problems involved corners, palming and slabs… right up my street, and since my epic tricep (corner pressing) fail in the BBC’s the press ups paid off and I managed to press out of some tricky positions. It is not often I say it but I felt like I climbed well and flashed the first three problems qualifying for semi’s in 15th. Semi’s – not so great! After some beefy problems and flailing I finished 19^th, I was pretty disappointed. This seems to be the problem with comps, one day you can be so happy with how you climbed for you only to have a rubbishy day the next and be left disappointed.

 

 

Competing in Munich

 

However I told myself it wasn’t too bad for my first world cup of the year and picked myself up and went to Paris for 6 days for the World Championships. This comp had to be bigger and better than any other, as the Olympic committee were watching. The IFSC did not disappoint, the comp was held in a massive arena and during the finals there were hundreds of spectators who were entertained by a beatboxer, short films, light shows, drummers and even an opera singing lady being lowered from the ceiling on a swing.

Spectators in Paris

 

The qualifiers were really fun and I managed to top 4 out of 5 problems even flashing a beefy roof! Unfortunately I stupidly missed a tiny screw-on hand hold on a slab which took me a few attempts to see before I did it. Anyway I ended up 21^st missing semi finals by 1 attempt on a problem. There was only Ned, who as usual made semis and after cheering him on we still had another 4 days to kill before the train home. No better place to be than Paris for a bit of sight seeing…

 

Team shot infront of the Eiffel Tower

 

Street artist at Sacre Coeur

 

View of Paris from the Sacre Coeur

 

Sacre Coeur

 

I haven’t done any comps for a while (probably since the world cups last year.), my first one this year was the BBC’s.  It didn’t go particularly go very well, I scraped into the finals in 8th place and finished 6th overall. The competition this year was really hard, all the girls climbed so well.
The problems mostly involved corners and pressing which is cool and I love stuff like that, but they felt beefy and my triceps struggled. As great as it is being tall and being able to lank my way up problems it is so hard working with long levers. I find it pretty hard to build muscle and my attempts in the past have failed miserably. After the BBC’s I realised that I needed to sort myself out and do some strength work! Pull ups here we come...

 

Below are a few photos from the BBC's taken by Paul Bennett

 

 

Not only have I been training but I now have a new job, right here at Big Stone! I am now a nine to fiver Monday to Friday, which is very different to what I have been use to but I am really enjoying working here and everyone is brilliant.
My weeks seem to be pretty full up now with working all day and training most evenings.

 

Only 3 weeks till the Munich World Cup...ahhhh.

 

 

I have just had a little holiday to Skye with my parents.

The Cuillin Mountains are one of my most favourite places in the world, every time I go I can’t believe how beautiful it is. We camped literally about 100 yards from the sea and looked out onto the Isle of Eigg and Rhum and beyond that, the Outer Hebrides. Then if you turned 90 degrees and the weather is on your side you could see The Black Cuillins. We had the weather on our side luckily and had three perfect days, full sun and 20+ degrees.

The thing I love most (except how pretty it is in the mountains) is that if you want to do anything it is going to be a mission and involve a lot of walking.

I have always wanted to do a route up the Cioch block so we set off up there via a nice VS. There is a really cool slightly overhanging E2 crack that goes up the left wall of the block.

 

Mum looking up at the mountains, the Cioch block is circled in red.

 

I am not so good at crack climbing but it was such a good line it would be rude not to climb it. I struggled my way up and arrived at the top totally covered in lichen with very cut hands and only some micro wires for a belay.

'Overhanging Crack'

 

Fortunately there were some chaps eating malt loaf on the top and let me borrow a few cams (thaaanks). Mum seconded me up it in a flash – what a beast! Much to the surprise of myself and the malt loaf guys. We then finished up an aaaamazing E1 called Trophy Crack and finally topped out at 7pm.

 

Sat ontop of the Cioch

 

We did a scramble the next day called Pinnacle Ridge and then got psyched and took  double rest days so we could try and do the whole Cuillin Ridge. The weather had turned a bit dodgy but it said 70% chance of cloud free munros, so we got up at 2.30 in the morning and set off up some very misty mountains. We walked for about 4 hours waiting for the mist to clear but instead it chucked it down so we sacked it, but on the plus side I did see 6 frogs that morning!

Tired, wet and fed up of midges we decided to go home…

Photo by Adam Long

For some reason I failed to mention that a month or so ago I climbed Johnny Dawes’s two amazing slabs; Angel Share and Jumping on a Beetle at Black Rocks.
These we originally climbed as routes and as they have no protection were given pretty high E grades. I wanted to climb these routes ground up with out breaking every bone in my body, so I padded it out- think I had about 8 pads in total.
I have tried to get onto the slab once or twice before but failed to do the hard weird mantle onto a chipped rail start. Some how this session (must have been all the one legged squats I have been doing!) I got up first go. I wasn’t really expecting this and was then faced with climbing Jumping on a Beetle. The first move is the hardest, which is a weird step through once you have trusted your foot you then just carefully climb up some gritty pebbles to the top.
I managed this first go today, so next up was Angel Share. There is literally nothing for your hands on this except a thin seam at the top that is hard to get anything from anyway. So this involved the same mantle start as Jumping and you just had to have an unbelievable amount of trust in feet and pad up the slab.
I think was one of my favourite slabs because you had to think so much about body positioning and weighting your feet correctly, which is what I love and am reasonably good at.
I took quite a few big falls from the top but eventually managed to scrabble my way over the very sloppy top out.
Next up is Velvet Silence the classic of the block…might have to wait till next winter now though.
 

II am always keen for a bit of grit climbing and have been trying to get out as much as possible over the last few weeks. It has got a lot warmer recently but I figured this would be the perfect time to go and do all the classics I haven’t yet done from VS to E5.

Brads Arete 'the presence of absence' 6c+

Photo by Si Wilson

 

A few weeks ago I climbed The Angel’s Share an amazing slab climb at Black Rocks. There are four climbs that go up the slab on this block but to begin three of them you have to do a desperate rock over/ mantel on a thin chipped rail, which until that day I have never managed to do.

I did Jumping on a Beetle first which has one hard step through off the rail and as soon as you trust your foot it is not as bad as you think it might be.

Ned was trying Angel’s Share so I decided to have a play on it to. The slab has nothing for you hands, not even a pebble so it is all about getting your body positioning right and weighting your feet correctly. At the very top you can then reach a thin seam with your hands and at this point my feet would generally rip off and I would go sliding down the slab. I finally managed it towards the end of the day with a very ungraceful panicy top out!

 

In contrast to all this smeary short grit climbing I have just spent a week on the tufery cliff of Terradets in Spain. Totally amazing and I got totally shut down! Every single route was a battle and at around 15m I was boxed out of my mind and it would be a proper fight to get to the top, chicken winging all the way. I managed a really cool route called Energia Positiva 7c+, finger jugs to half way, then tufa, then a little bouldery finish right when you can’t hold on any longer!

 

                   Pete Whittaker climbing the beefy L'Anarkista 8a+

Sooooo I did my first V10 the other week called 'Walk on by' at Curbar.

It is definietly my kind of terrain, steep slab climbing!

The original way went leftwards but since a hold broke (is now totally nails going left!) it seems most people (well Caff and Ryan.) now trend right at the start to a pinch then do a tricky slap to another pinch, then get an intermediate and slap straight up to the finishing ledge.

 

Photo by Ryan Pasquill

We have just returned from our three month trip round California which obviously was amazing. Our first stop was the Needles which is in the Sequoia National Park it is at 8000feet in the middle of no where. The nearest town is about 45min drive up a big windy mountain. It is so beautiful up there, you camp amongst the massive fir trees then have an hour or so walk to get to the rock. Unfortunately I didn’t actually manage to climb here because I was ill and just lay in my tent most of the time but the last day I walked to the crag and it looks ace!

The Needles

 

View of the Sierra's from the campsite

Next stop (when I was better) was Tuolumne meadows that have loads of granite domes sticking out of the valley, you can do anything here, from single pitch cragging days, to big multi pitch days out. In the area you can crack climb, do some hardcore glassy granite slabs or some cool conglomerate climbs.

View across the Tuolumne valley

We did loads of amazing multi pitch crack climbs, the best bit being when you top out and get to see the view down the valley. One of the best routes was Oz 5.10d and got 5 stars, the classic pitch being a massive corner crack climb.

Ryan half way up the corner pitch on Oz

After some pottering here, we went over to the Incredible Hulk in the High Sierra near a town called Bridgeport. The Hulk is situated up in the mountains at about 11,000 feet with a pretty big walk in (it felt big anyway compared to the Peak District walk ins). Myself, Pete (Hurley) and Ryan (Pasquill) set off the day before so we could get up at first light the next day and start climbing. It took about 4hours to walk in, most of it uphill and carrying big packs. It was worth it though, it is such an amazing piece of rock. We got there just as the sun was setting and ate our tea and kipped at the bottom.

View of The Incredible Hulk from our bivy spot

We set off the next day on a route called Positive Vibrations 5.11a, climbing faces and lots of cracks, a good (and hard) introduction to the world of granite jamming. It was my biggest multi pitch so far at around 13 pitches and even though we were up at first light we were still rapping off in the dark and then had to do the long walk back down to the car. All in all it was an 18hour day and had very sore hands (since I didn’t tape up) and were absolutely knackered. We had a few days in Yosemite then went to visit some friends in San Fran for the weekend, which was a nice break.

Following Pete up one of the pitches on Positive Vibrations

 

Ryan climbing the exposed 5.10a hand jam pitch

After San Fran it was back to the valley and this time for a month in total. I have obviously seen photos and read articles about Yosemite but until you visit it nothing can describe how massive the cliffs are and how beautiful it really is.

Topping out on Higher Cathedral Spire, one of the best view ever of the valley (photo by Ryan Mcconnell)

Now I didn’t have any big goals as I knew I was going to find the climbing tricky in Yosemite. I just wanted to do lots of big days out on classic routes, potentially go up a big wall and do Midnight Lightening. I managed 2 out 3 of these things, we climbed routes like The Nutcracker, East Buttress of El Cap, Higher Cathedral Spire, Drive by Shooting, Royal Arches etc.

Team at the top of Royal Arches

I also did a big wall and went up Regular Route on Half Dome, unfortunately not free but it was an amazing experience. Four of us spent a squished night half way up the wall on a rocky little ledge then pushed on to the top the next day, we topped out in the dark! It feels really distant and peaceful up there, compared with the busy tourist valley down below. The experience was really tiring and in my last week in the valley I decided just to boulder and managed a couple of classics; Bruce Lee and King Cobra. I didn’t though managed Midnight, I made it to the mantel once but was boxed out of my mind and could barely hold on.

Ryan at 'Thank God Ledge' on Half Dome at sunset

 

Climbing King Cobra V8

A storm was due to hit the valley in the next few days so we sacked it to Joshua Tree, which I have to say is slightly over rated but maybe that was because we had just come from one of the best places in the world. We did do some cool stuff like Ionic Strength 5.12a, White Rastafarian V3 (highball), Slashface V3 (highball), The John Bachar Memorial Problem V5 and Caveman V7 but if you strayed from the classics everything seem quite scrittly an crumbly.  We didn’t stay long here maybe a week max and then headed to the Buttermilks.

 

Flashing Ionic Strength 5.12a (Photo by Hazel Findley)

 

Slashface V3

 

Slashface V3

 

The Buttermilk boulders are situated up in the Sierra Mountains and have the best boulders I have ever climbed on.

View of the boulders from our camping spot

The climbing is often balancy, requiring technique and body positioning rather than pure strength. It has some amazing highballs from V0 to V13! I wanted to climb everything here, it all looked so good and I didn’t want to get involved with a project and miss out on everything else.

We stayed here for a month and the highlights include climbing Soul Slinger V9, Checkerboard V8, Fly Boy V6, Pope's Prow V6, Seven Spanish Angels V6, flashing High Plains Drifter V7 and doing various easy highballs.

Checkerboard V8

Cool little V3 at the Pollen Grains

Pope's Prow V6

5.9 highball on the Peabody

Attempting Stained Glass V10