Team Slovenia - Day 5

Should you ever find a couple of Slovenia crushing machines in your house the following  "rules" will keep them more than happy.

• Feed them lots of tasty home-cooked food.
• Let them stream Futurama off the internet to keep them entertained whenever they are not climbing.
• Drive them about in a van with a big sound system with the bass turned right up and Techno on demand.
• Take them to lots of different gritstone crags, point them at various things that are famous\hard and watch them crush.

Day 5 saw Team Slovenia having a rest day following their exploits at Stanage the day before and therefore it was declared that it was my day to crush (albeit at a more mortal level). Given this it was an easy decision to go to Curbar for Round 1058 of Butters vs. The Ulitimate Gritstone Experience but before that though there was time for a quick guided tour of Baslow and another look at Fatworld.

We stomped over to the Eagle Stone and upon seeing that any idea of a rest day  was put to bed for Team Slovenia. After hanging off various parts of it in the guise of warming up Jernej got on the Send Train with a quick flash of "A Fistful of Beagles" and not wanting to be outdone Jakob promptly did the same.

Having dispatched that, attention was turned to "For A Few Beagles More" which prompted a few raised eyebrows with the guide book describing it as a highball and following a quick consultation regarding possible sequences Jernej was off.  He floated (almost literally it seemed) as far as the top break on the flash attempt before dropping off as it was more than a little dirty but after a quick brush that too was added to the list of problems done with ease and Jakob then did the same in (I think) two attempts.

Me? I just stood there and wondered what the fuck had just happened - two of the hardest problems on The Eagle Stone had been done in a total of six attempts! It was a bit of a shock to say the least.

They then looked at a The Bright Concept as a final possibility but the line wasn't that clear and it looked to be suffering a bit of run off so I suggested that we go and look at the hard classic of the crag - Flatworld - instead. I was hoping it might provide a bit more opposition to Team Slovenia but Jernej gave me barely enough time to get the camera out before he flashed it with what turned out, in retrospect, to be a duff sequence - a conclusion arrived at after he had done it a couple more times to provide beta for Jakob. As it was Jakob gave it more than a few good goes but even with the beta he couldn't get it sent though that was down to sore skin more than a lack of talent.

 

After a flash of the rather scrittly slab to the left by yours truly we had a look at Fatworld which I still can not figure out how to do. I have pretty much ruled out the high foot method as just feels totally wrong to me so I played around with the smear up the face method.instead which doesn't feel any easier but at least it feels possible. Jernej and Jakob both did it and both said that it was never Font 6a which led onto a consultation of the BMC guidebook grading charts. Now I have always worked on the assumption that V3 was somewhere about Font 6a but the BMC put this round about 6a+\6b which goes quite a long why  to explaining why I am regularly getting shut down on problems of that grade. Moans about grade conversions aside they seem to be consistent across the board so it is just a matter of adjusting ones sights accordingly and getting on with it.

Having solved that we set off to The Ultimate Gritstone Experience and by the time we got there I was really up for the problem and was convinced that the extra SYKE from Team Sovenia would be enough to get me up it. After a couple of goes to get the sequence refreshed in my head it was back up to my usual highpoint and I was feeling really solid on the bottom section. The foot swap was going really well with no sign of cutting loose and the moves were feeling about as easy as they have ever been to me. Third or fourth go I actually had both hands over the lip and realised that I had no idea what to do so I hung in desperately trying to figure out what to do before descending back onto the mats far quicker that I had got up there. From then on it was a matter of getting back to a similar point and trying something slightly different every time in an attempt at unlocking the top section and while none of them met with success I think I have a reasonable idea of what to do now. All that is required now is the small matter of doing it come round 1059... 

Heavy gravity day

Just found this post that I wrote a couple of weeks ago but abandoned as the siren’s song of The Sheaf was too much to resist...

It had all looked so good in the morning, the overnight rain had blown through and had left sunshine and a breeze in way of trade so I decided to risk a raid to Secret Garden to have a crack at First Bulge. This had seemed a reasonable proposition on my last trip there and the wind had dried most of the problem but unfortunately not the slopey bulge above the crux holds, which was still suffering some run off. Hoping that it would dry off later I set to working the lower section from a standing start and after a bit of effort managed to figure a way get to the crux holds without feeling so stretched. As an added bonus I also figured out a way to do the crux that I am pretty sure will work. 

Having done that I sorted out what seems to be the logical line for the lower half of Sitdown Groove which, again, looks pretty doable - quite where the top half of the problem goes is anyone's guess but I will assume just to the right of First Bulge. The two lines are so close that they pretty much bleed into one another above half height but given that it looks to be easier ground above it’s probably not so important. 

Also had a play on what I think is the line for Topless Crack and managed the start and could get stood up and stable but a small and rather sharp pebble in the one of the pockets I was using stopped play after a few goes when it ate through my skin. Definitely one to go back for but I will almost certainly have to work out a different sequence in an attempt to avoid the skin mangling pocket.

A quick look at the top of First Bulge revealed that the crag wasn't going to dry sufficiently to allow success I bailed and headed off to Calver for a chip butty and then it was off to Baslow to try The Highland Circuit - something I have been meaning to do for a while. Even if I do say so myself, this seemed a very good idea, in fact I thought it was an idea with an element of brilliance about it that lasted all the way to the crag where I found out that I didn't have the guidebook in the van. Great - no guidebook meant no brilliant plan and so it was back to the familiarity of Curbar and the Trackside block instead – not such a brilliant plan it has to be said but it would have to suffice.

Did a few of the usual odds and sods to warm up and then got stuck into the ramp line problem but the move to the final hold was proving elusive to say the least. It certainly felt doable but try as I might I just couldn't seem to get in a position to get it statically which is the way it will have to be done as far as I can see. Putting this ineptitude down to the chip butty consumed earlier I decided to sack it off but got tempted to have a quick go at Strawberries before I left. It felt absolutely nails, so nails in fact that I couldn't do it. 

Damn that chip butty!

Preparation be damned

Decided that the weather was far too good and we were far too battered following Saturdays exertions to justify spending money to go climbing indoors so we met up at Burbage for a bimble on the boulders there instead.

Had a really good session - didn't do anything new but it was good to be out on the rock and feeling that I was moving well. Helped that the conditions were pretty damned good - not optimum but close would be my assessment and it certainly helped in my best attempt so far on the The Armoured Car Traverse. Still going to require a bit more work through the crux but it feels the closest it has been yet.

Today was another good day out at Curbar - I was feeling ever more battered but decided that I would go and check out the stuff behind the Gorilla Warfare block that is listed in the new Froggatt guide. Slightly disappointing with what I found to be honest - the problem on the back wall was green so that might be better with some dry conditions and a good brush. The two problems on the other face looked less than enticing though - the arête problem has a block that sticks up at the base providing a landing that looks pretty nasty and the face problem to the right has a pit underneath it. I didn't try either problem so it might be a bit of a false impression but neither one really made me feel that confident given I was out on my own.

Back to the old favourites then - did the problems on the slab below Gorilla Warfare and then walked acoss to The Prow which I got utterly spanked on a few years back and haven't been near since. My loss is all I can say - the Left Hand Arête is pleasant and easy enough, the centre line proved tricky to start and I thought that it would be all over once I had negotiated that part but the crux seems to be moving off two decent crimps for the top. On paper it should be easy but it feels really balancy and tenuous and getting the top from there first time was a good feeling - so good in fact that I eliminated the decent hold for the left hand at the start and utilised a small crimp instead. Made no difference to the overall grade that I could tell but it felt that little bit more satisfying to do it that way. Last but not least was The Prow itself and it is a magnificent problem. Good handholds all the way but you have to work to get the feet right - should really have been a flash but I cocked up pulling on so it went second go with a slight wobble reaching for the top when I realised that the mat was placed in a less than optimum position.

From there it was down to Trackside to be confronted by some of the worst chalk abuse I have seen in a long time.


The picture was taken after 2-3 minutes of brushing chalk off with about four different brushes. You could see the break all the way from The Prow - that is how much chalk the bloody idiots had smeared in the break in an effort, one can only assume, to dry it out. Whoever was responsible really needs beating to death with their chalk bag and while it might take a very long time for them to die it will be worth it after I tried the problem and my left hand blew at the top of the mantle resulting in two very skinned knuckles. Still I suppose at least I got to bleed a lot and swear a lot more - not a total waste of a day.

Following that I repeated Strawberries first time - go me - and then played about a bit on what seems to be Crack 'n' Pockets in the new guide. Have played about on it before but today it felt feasible though no progress was made as the crimp for the left hand had been sitting in the sun for a while and so was not feeling great and my skin was feeling in even worse condition. Gave it up as a bad job but it has been added to the projects list for the winter anyway as something to try along with the Ultimate Gritstone Experience.