I decided to stay a few more days with the plan of doing some easier classics. After getting some stuff under my belt I got keen again and headed to Merveille. I had tried this briefly on 2 previous trips but always sacked it off as it was hot, it felt so hard, it was scary and it is very very sharp. The crux hold is the size of a couple of pound coins, with the edges sharpened for good measure. Beauty. After reaching this hold way above your head, you stand up bit by bit until you are eventually undercutting it and you can reach the top (or not).

On my first go of this trip I surprised myself by getting to the last move. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do so went for the obvious, busting a move for the top. I came up just short not once or twice but 5 times before a sore back and legs and fading light sent me on my way.

Last day of the trip I pottered around with Michele Caminati. Its good to climb with someone so keen when your lacking motivation. I mentioned Merveille and he got all excited offering me a spot and an extra pad, twisting my arm into trying it. I charged straight there and abbed it again, finding a small smear that was perfectly placed for the last move. I hadn’t seen this hold before as it was tiny but it’s all that was needed. I waited for Michele to turn up as a spot and another pad would have been nice but the sun was gettng low in the sky and I was getting cold. Twiddling my thumbs wasnt keeping my fingers warm! I got impatient and set off anyway cruising upwards move by move. It felt easy for some reason. The crimp bit in to my already sore (and taped) fingers bruising them further, but I knew what to do now so I pressed on. One more sketchy foot move and I was bouncing to the jug! Battle over. The best problem in font I reckon.

Michele turned up a few minutes later and made me do it again for a photo: 

 

Photo: Michele Caminati

 

Being British, I love a good winge. Its either too hot, too wet, to cold too average etc. Font had been unseasonably warm – up to 18 degrees in November! And not really dropping below 10 degrees even at night. Still, at least it wasn’t too wet.  

When I planned this trip I had one thing on my mind – gecko assis. The perfect font problem revolving around weird moves between terrible slopers. The issue is that for me to link gecko I need perfect conditions, dry, cold and breezy (for Ondra bad conditions and one go would suffice). Sadly this wasn’t going to happen so I had to make other plans. Fortunately font has a bit to choose from so finding something to try until it got cold wasn’t too difficult.

Narcotic is a roof, mostly on big jugs so perfect for warm weather. First session was spent spooging around in the heat figuring out the moves and nearly linking it. After a rest day I was back with more favorable conditions, 17deg! Get in. However it was wet. After walking up that hill I wasn’t going to leave empty handed so out came the towels and after an hour of drying and emptying the finishing jugs of water it was ready for action. After tweaking the sequence (and poor Leo tweaking his knee even more) it was done.

 

One rainy day we went up to check out Satan I Helvete. Its steep and crimpy with a crux leap between 2 poor edges. It is considered to be quite hard for the grade and the hard climbing is packed into half of 1 move – holding a swing on some crimps.  Not your typical font problem. Steep dynamic climbing on crimps is probably my weakest style and I really didn’t think I’d stand a chance so was keen to avoid it.

However in the warm it made sense to stay away from slopers and climb on more positive holds. I dragged people up to spot me way too often, usually finding very poor conditions. Because the rock was cool and the air was warm and humid we were having problems with condensation. The undersides of the boulders were coated in a layer of water at night which would only dry off if the breeze picked up. Eventually the temps dropped to 9deg with a slight breeze. I was really fed up with throwing myself at 1 move which I thought I had no chance of doing, but in better conditions it suddenly felt very possible.

Instead of rushing in order to keep as much chalk on my fingers as possible I was able to relax and climb more slowly, grabbing everything just right and sailing across to the sloping edge with strength to spare (thats how it felt on that go anyway!) After digging my teeth into my chin to kill the swing I paused to catch my breath, even the smallest mistake on the last few moves and I would have been doing battle with that flipping move, again! Luckily I held it together.

photo: Leo Moger

The Young – E8 7A - Callaly

Dan had said this was both amazing and really hard. He was right! The wall is incredible, one of the best walls in the country I reckon – 8m of just off vertical, totally solid sandstone covered in weird flattened chicken heads (spatchcocks).

(photo: video still from Nick Brown @ outcrop films)

After a brief go ground up we sacked that idea off and abbed it to work the moves. Eventually a sequence came together that finished with a pretty full on font 7b sequence right at the top (where you really don’t want to be falling). This felt too risky to commit to so I opted for shuffling off leftwards along a line of chicken heads after the crux rather than pushing on straight up the wall. It didn’t feel like it was worth risking the 40 min walk out with broken legs especially considering it was hard enough getting there with both legs working. It would have been nice to do Andy’s original version but it was also nice to leave having done a quality bit of climbing and not got hurt.

The prow - HXS 7a (a brilliantly ambiguous grade) - Kyloe

Apparently the County’s most serious route. Font ~8a climbing at a point where you really don’t want to fall off, even with a pile of 10 mats and some very big guns spotting. It took me 15 mins on a rope just to find the holds and another 2 hours of working from various strong technical types until we had a sequence, a lovely set of moves on little pockets with rubbish footholds in the wrong places. My first go started well but soon came to an end when a foothold crumbled and I took the ride. After finding out the fall was manageable, if a little big, we started committing properly. Dan did it soon after, then eventually after taking a few more biggies I stuck the crux again panted my way to the (damp) top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(photo: video still from Nick Brown @ outcrop films)

I can’t imagine how scary it must have felt to Andy when he did the first ascent back in 2003, when pads were not a whole lot more than a beer towel. Today’s highball approach has meant that routes of this style (really hard but also really scary) are no longer the domain of bold trad heros, now us punters can have a crack without doing ourselves some serious damage. Great.
Good effort Andy, get well soon. 

Mike Adams recently put up a new problem at Anston Stones. Vanilla Sky (http://vimeo.com/23700953) is small (like Tom Cruise) and ugly (unlike Penelope Cruz) but also pretty hard. I spent a day at Anston with Mike tidying up some stuff I’d not done as he wanted to get a consensus on the grades. Obviously I was as helpful as ever providing input like “erm I dunno” and “yeh, maybe”.
 

First up was quarantine, a staminaband-esque crimpy traverse, similar in difficulty and length but with the crux at the start rather than the end. After a few goes I was at the easier finishing section, pumped out of my mind and suddenly realized that if I didn’t do it that go I would have to climb through the start again. Being lazy, I quested on to the end.

Next was Dark Reservation (8a+?) which extends the original roof of Dark Art, adding a pumpy finish. I’ve got Dark Art pretty wired in the past so after figuring out the sequence for the end I got it linked.

Finally we got to vanilla sky. Mike ran me through the moves and after a few goes I had stuck the crux but peeled off the top through surprise. Punter. After a few more goes and some tactical stripping off I had it done. It’s not the best quality problem but it’s great to have something hard to go at in the summer heat when most other stuff is unclimbable. Mike gave this 8a+/8b. For him the first move was very hard as his sausage fingers wouldn’t fit behind the flake. The flake felt ok for my small stubby fingers but the crux move is the same regardless. 8a+ feels about right…

 

 

 

 

 

Dan had been over there a bit recently and always came back raving about another new boulder or highball. It has been years since I was last there so it was nice to go back and see how weak I was as a child.

After a session of bouldering (it stays dry in the rain, amazing!) and picking blackberrys (there are a lot) I returned with more pads and spotters to try Dan’s new highball 8a, Wildchild. This starts up Warchild, an old 7c boulder but rather than dropping off at the break it pushes on to the top via a massive pull on a trouser filling 4 finger pebble.

See here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beastmaker/6066348729/
 

I spent a while floundering on the bottom before finally getting through to the upper boulder problem. This was a bit of an adventure. After a few big falls (one missing the pads, ouch) I started to figure out a new sequence. Dan’s original did an awesome cross through from the pebble to a dish (as seen in the linked photo), which felt all weird and not something I dared commit to ground up. My sequence took a more direct approach, pulling down like a mad man on the dubious pebble. Possibly slightly easier, definitely quite harrowing. After a pause to catch my breath and quell the leg shakes i was up on top, fighting through the undergrowth. Its good to start getting back into the highball spirit after a summer of pulling on plastic.

David and Ned spend a day in North Wales with the Outcrop Film crew...

Will 8a from Outcrop Films on Vimeo.

Five Ten Athletes Ned Feehally and Steve McClure try out the new Hornet and Arrowhead models at Burbage West.

The day started off with ferocious winds and rain showers, but slowly the sun burnt through and gave us a great few hours of light.
Both models featured are new for 2011 and are in stores now!

In the first of these mini proudct showcases, you´ll hopefully get an insight into some of our athletes and new products as the season continues.

The climbing Works International Fesitval went off with a bang this weekend, with a mixture of local heroes and foreign pro's doing well.

Our very own Katy Whittaker claimed 1st place in the womens, with Ned coming 4th in the hotly contested mens catergory.

Taken form the Climbingworks.com:

"What a Final!! What a day!! The Climbing Works International Festival 2011 came to a close last night in an amazing session of top level bouldering.

 

The Mens and Womens Final provided some amazing action with a range of problems that tested the strength, skills and tenacity of all the finalists. At the end of the night we crowned two new champions.In the Mens, the only non-UK based climber in the final, Jernej Kruder of Slovenia, became CWIF champion with a display of immense power and strength that showed why Jernej may just be the strongest man in Slovenia (and one to watch in the coming years on the World competition scene).

In the Womens final, our very own, Climbing Works mild mannered receptionist, Katy Whittaker triumphed by the narrowest of margins over Melanie Sandoz of France. Katy sealed her win by flashing problem number 4 but it could be oh so different if Melanie had managed to hold the cut loose / swing on problem number 3.

The full results are available to view in pdf format below:

(each bloc has 2 columns, the left hand side is the amount of attempts it took to get the bonus, the right hand column is the amount of attempts it took to reach the top hold. A 0 means that the problem was not topped out)

 

Mens Final Results>>

 

Womens Final Results>>

 

You can view some more photos online at our Climbing Works Picasa albums here. We'll get more up over the next few days along with some film footage.

You can watch some of the highlights from the qualifiers on our website here>>

 

For any mor einfo head to the climbing works blog HERE