Camp Butters

Been down to Camp Butters (formerly known as Rubicon) for the last couple of days. The hardest Font 5 in the world is getting easier and while it is still nowhere near a certainty every time I did manage to chalk up half way through it. A minor success as linking into other stuff still seemed a long way away but I felt tired yesterday so not that disappointed about that. Also had a play on Dragonflight Traverse - the moves don't feel that bad but the pain in my feet was excruciating - hopefully this is down to the shoes needing to break in a bit more.

Back again today and warmed up, did the 6a+, some variation going direct to the penultimate sidepull of the former problem and then played about on the Three Tier Traverses to the right. I had thought that these were all 6b but a quick look at the Peak District Bouldering website soon knocked that idea on the head - from the top 5+, 6a and 6b+. At least that would explain why the lowest one feels monumentally hard and the two above not quite so bad. Finished off with a couple of attempts at Miller's Dale - going again to the crimp with the left not a great idea when your skin is trashed - it hurts - a lot!

Unlocking the sequence

Decided to take a look at Carls Wark at Stoney yesterday. There was few reasons behind this, the first being that it was somewhere that I hadn't been before, the second was that it had easier problems to attempt. The final (and probably most compelling reason) was that I couldn't be arsed to drive to Rubicon with the intention of not going anywhere near A Millers Tale, ultimately failing to do so and end up having a rubbish session on it due to the exertions of the day before.

Given all the above I set off mid afternoon to go and locate the crag which for me proved a lot easier than the descent to it which was interesting to say the least. Once there I had a quick look at the left hand wall and decided that the 6a was a bit much for some lonesome bouldering action given it's highball rating and so attention was turned to the more amenable right wall instead. It was baking in the sun so an hour was whiled away with short bouts of brushing a few holds and forming some ideas regarding sequences and longer bouts of general idleness until the sun disappeared behind the trees. There are worse ways to lose an hour of your life I think.

It was action time - the 6a looked deceptively simple - left hand on the sidepull, right hand in the break, right foot low, cross through to an obvious foothold with the left and mantle up to the flake\sidepull with the left hand at which point it would all be over. All in all it looked far too easy for the given grade and seemed that way as my initial sequence resulting in me flowing upwards until I reached up for the flake\sidepull only to be stopped a couple of inches short and after a couple of attempts at something different dropping back to earth. OK it is probably not 6a for the tall then... Thought about it some more and then tried a higher left foot - no discernible difference to the amount of height gained so try some different handholds - same again. Tried a few more various combinations all of which resulted in tickling the very bottom of the sidepull and no more - things weren't going quite as imagined while I sat and looked upwards at the holds in the bright sunshine.

Deciding that I needed time away from this particular problem I then flashed the 4 in very bad style, again seemingly obvious moves proved to be otherwise in reality but a snatched fingerlock got it done first time. Tried a few more different ways of doing it and finally hit on one which made the grade seem feasible but more importantly that I felt did the problem justice in terms of style and movement.

From there it was a quick step right and onto the 6a+ which was similar to the 6a but the move upwards was to a slopey two finger dish for the left hand. I actually reached the dish once and kind of held it for a brief second before finding myself back on the mat with some sore fingers after they ripped out without warning. Experimented some more with foot positions without success and then back to the 6a for a final few goes which stubbornly refused to bow to my theory that I could reach the sidepull and use it.

With that a retreat was beaten back to the van and home where a few hours later while watching The Matrix (an entirely unrelated point) the one thing I hadn't tried crashed into my conscience - turning the right hand into an undercut. As far as unlocking the sequence goes it was a bit belated but if it works I take it. Hopefully it will make the 6a problem feel more stable and provide the necessary couple of extra inches of reach and there is a chance that it could work on the 6a+ as well.

Rubicon 3, Butters 1

With the aid of the new shoes I finally got the warm up traverse done today - the difference a pair of climbing shoes makes over a pair of Turkish slippers is amazing. Got through to the usual point where I would be so pumped that I would just fall off with something left in the tank and grabbing a quick half rest before proceeding to the end of the hardest Font 5 in the world. Now I have finally done it the plan is to to get it a bit more wired and then there are a few options - reverse the problem, backtrack into the 6a+ or carry on through one of the three obvious lines that carry on from there. The possibilities while not being endless are many.

Then spent a while belaying the Broken Beagle on Salar which I gather is quite hard to judge by the commentary and probably used up his quota of expletives for the week in the progress. Once Broken Beagle had got the draws in and lowered off we then spent time going backwards and forwards between our main events.

For me it was the second proper session on A Millers Tale (I am discounting the last session as that was more getting the sit start wired) which made short work of my theory that it was going to go in two sessions from a stander. Am I disappointed? Not a chance - I now have the bottom section wired pretty much to the point where the moves up to the go again with the left hand is better than 50\50 every time now so progress can be measured in real terms.

Will it go in three sessions? Possibly but I am refusing to put a deadline on it now - I am just going to enjoy the problem for what it is - bloody hard but really enjoyable at the same time.

New Shoes II

Out last night with Lord Sloper of Grindleford for a few beers followed by a few more beers and then to the curry house. A good night apart from handing over far too much money in forfeit for my lack of skill at Backgammon. Quite why I was playing for money is debatable as I could count the number of games of Backgammon I had played prior to last night on two hands probably so I got what I deserved to be honest.

Anyway after depositing the Sloper back in Grindleford where he could lord it over the proles once more it was off to Outside to change the too small Dragons. Luck was with me as they had a new delivery of Anasazi V2's in and so it was a choice between a half size bigger pair of Dragons or the V2's - choices, choices, choices. After much debate I went for the V2's - they just felt better overall on my random feet and while the heel of the Dragons was by far the better of the two they were also promising a world of pain in my toes until they broke in. OK the heels on the V2's are not the greatest - there is a fair bit of dead space in them and they are going to be pretty uncomfortable while they break in but the day any climbing shoe manufacturer (let alone Five Ten) produce a shoe that actually fits my heels will be a cold day in hell I suspect.

New Shoes

Finally convinced myself that I could afford\wanted\had to have a new pair of climbing shoes specifically for the lime - the Five Ten Turkish slippers of doom just weren't cutting the mustard on the white stuff.

The original plan was to go for the Anasazi V2's reasoning that they are a decent pair of shoes for the lime but it seems that Five Ten are not producing them in an 8.5 at the minute. Tried a size 8 and that was a non-starter - major squashing of the toes and the 9's had enough room to fit a small child in the heel so the nice man in Outside suggested Dragon's. I had discounted these as they are super aggressive compared to both the Verde's and the Anasazi V2's and being a punter they seemed a tad excessive for what I require. Having tried them on though I found that they fit my ultra weird foot shape - think very low volume and no heel to speak of - and I can lace them down tight so after procrastinating for a while I bit the bullet. Now all I need to do is take them back and get them a half size bigger and it will be time to crush the greasy lime which will hopefully be tomorrow or Sunday if the weather plays ball.

One other piece of "news" is that I have found the colour printer at work and reasoning that it was a shame to have such a nice piece of kit sitting there and doing nowt I would put it to good use by printing off the Stoney mini guide and also the excellent St Bees North guide. Both are outstanding pieces of work (you can really feel the love that has gone into producing them) and they get you syked to go to these places and pull hard. They also shows the climbing community in a great light as these are free to download and print off (especially if you have the works printer available). Kudos to those who produce these things - reminds me that I really should think about sorting one out for Helman Tor.

Rubicon 2 Butters 0

I dragged Broken Beagle down to Rubicon on Sunday after giving the idea of spending the afternoon belaying him on red point attempts of Lockless short shrift. Was a reasonably good session actually - felt OK on the traverse of doom though I have yet to complete it but it will go with some new shoes. The faithful and much loved Verde's are a fine pair of shoes for climbing on grit but when it comes to lime I have no doubt that a pair of Turkish slippers would probably offer better support.

Having said that I managed the rising traverse (given 6a+ in the guide) so well pleased with that - feel like I should probably have flashed it but got the final moves wrong and I was back on the mat. No repeat second time around - reach up, get the big sidepull\pocket and pull to glory.

From there it was back to a Miller's Tale - gave Broken Beagle the beta along with a caveat that it was possibly junk as it was "Butters specific beta" and showed him the rather improbable but ultimately awesome flag move and we were off. Me being me I decided that instead of concentrating on the stand up version and getting that in the bag I would take a quick look at the sit start which was being touted about as something like 6c reasoning that it was going to be too hard and therefore I could try it and then move on. Obviously that plan went to ruin pretty quickly as I found I could get off the ground and while the footwork wasn't obvious it was all there and so a new siege was engaged. Thankfully Broken Beagle wasn't making things look easy which the evil part of me was pleased about as it meant that time was on my side to have a good go at the sitter. Managed eventually to get one move from the standing start and that should fall into place with a bit of thought and then into the meat of the problem proper - I really am my own worst enemy at times.

Broken Beagle sent it from the sitter with one last gasp effort that I honestly thought he was going to drop on the last move after skipping a move going for the final hold. Not sure who was more amazed that he held on to be honest but he did and then we all retired for beer, Sheffield Tapas and talking rubbish - a good end to a good day.

Round Up

Finally got out yesterday after the best part of two weeks where I seem to have done an awful lot of things but not one of those was going climbing.

The weekend before last was taken up with Broken Bell End Berry's stag do. Arrived back in Suffolk on the Friday night (it was raining so no stop over at Pleasley on the way through) and straight down town for a few beers and a few frames of snooker which went rapidly downhill as we were playing for shorts. Ended up getting quite remarkably drunk and falling in more than one ditch on the way home which in retrospect was not the greatest of ideas.

The stag do started where it had left off the day before for us and then proceeded to Norwich where there were far more fit women there than I had expected - as the great McFiend once said (of somewhere else entirely) "it was wall to wall flange". If there was anything in Norwich worth climbing then I would be heading there every weekend but there isn't so that rules that out. It is also full of the old enemy - namely supporters of Norwich City F.C. so another good reason not to go.

Sunday drove back and Monday was the start of four of the hardest shifts I have worked in a while - it was one of those where lots of things just went wrong one after the other. To say I glad to have got those out of the way was an understatement!

Friday I just felt awful - one suspects that the result of falling in too many ditches the weekend before was one of those summer colds that seem to knock the very life out of you for 24 hours and for those of you who are thinking man flu it was so bad I actually refused an offer of going to the pub for a quick beer.

The other thing about Friday was that I had a dog to look after. Damien McDoom is one of those dogs who is a fine beast (unless he's trying to steal my bacon sarnie) but who, ultimately, proves to be totally rubbish as a climbers dog as you have to pay far too much attention to him to to be able to concentrate on anything else. With that in mind it a quick nine mile walk out from Hathersage to Bretton and back via Abney and over Shatton Moor was of the order of the day. Stopped for an obligatory pint at the Barrel (great pub but doesn't sell pork scratchings) and then back to Sheff for a couple in the Sheaf (even better pub and does sell pork scratchings) afterwards. A nice day out with spells of sun and showers though it was incredibly humid at times - that combined with the after effects of the cold I had made any hill seem like a true effort. Lord only knows what the people we met coming the other way thought of us...

Sunday I will deal with in another post tomorrow - thinking of the Sheaf has put me in mind of beer.