Team Slovenia - Day 10

With Jakob going on the Saturday night Team Slovenia wasn't really a team any more but following the CWIF after-party arrangements had been made to bring the team back up to full strength. To replace Jakob in came Klemen Becan and honorary Slovenian (for two days) Nalle Hukkataival - Team Slovenia hadn't just been brought back up to strength - it had got a whole lot stronger with three climbers who had done at least Font 8a on board now! Thankfully yours truly was aboard and somewhat hungover to boot to keep things in the realms of respectability for a while at least.

Once Team Slovenia had been fuelled with Red Bull and the like it was off to Stanage for another day of crushing - first up was that perennial favourite Deliverance which was quickly dispatched by all concerned.

While we were there we were joined there by Ned Feehally, Nick from Outcrop Films and a few others just to add a bit more crush to the team and the send train on Deliverance continued. As is usual there was a fair bit of banter going round and eventually the (possibly mythological) story of the basketball player sending Deliverance came up. This naturally descended into a plan of sorts and a runway of mats was set up and off they went. One by one the problem went down until there was just one guy (whose name I forget) left. Again and again he tried but kept falling short so to help him up the problem an Oreo biscuit was placed on top to that extra bit of motivation.

© Klemen Becan

It worked.

© Klemen Becan

From there it was over to Brass Monkeys - Jernej proved that winning the CWIF hadn't been too much of a strain by doing the honours yet again with the usual flash of the problem. Nalle and Klemen both gave it a good go but ultimately got shut down on that so it was off to try Help the Young SS instead.

It has to be said that trying Help the Young SS probably wasn't the best idea of the day as it was catching the sun on one side on what was already proving to be a warm day and while the standing start may have been done by one or two of the team the SS eluded everyone and after a while of futility it was sacked off for other things instead.

For Jernej that involved a very quick introduction to trad climbing. He had been wanting to get on Unfamiliar (E7 6c) but thought it best to try a couple of routes first and so we sat at the bottom of Millsom's Minion (E1 5b) while I explained as best I could what everything was and how to use it. Suitably (or not as the case may be) educated in the intricacies of placing random pieces of metal he shot off up the route and made it look easy whereas I (who had actually seconded this route cleanly years ago) failed to get past the crux in a display of such ineptitude that words fail me. It also means that there is clearly a lot of work to do with getting back into some sort of non-bouldering mental state if I am to get back on a bit of string again this year.

We then went and had a look at The Unfamiliar (well Jernej did) but a lack of a static rope and also something meaningful to attach it to on top of the route without a load of frigging about meant that setting up a top rope wasn't going to be easy. After a bit of thinking about it we decided that it really wasn't that much of an option and added it to the ever growing list of things to do next time and went to see what the rest of the squad were up to.

Walking down the crag we found them below Ulysses where a huge pile of mats had been placed so that it became a problem of highball (yeah right) proportions. I took the sensible approach and got out the camera instead - a far better proposition I thought. 

 

As far as I can remember Klemen sent it, Ned sent it and Jernej flashed it with his usual calm style and weird flat foot smearing style.

Once that had been done by the majority then attention was turned to White Wand instead and the send train got rolling with a vengence - Ned flashed it followed by Jernej followed by Klemen.followed by at least one other who decided that he was going to do the whole route which led to some very tense minutes for the onlookers (and I guess him as well) high up while he figured out the rest of the route.

Finally it was time for the team to get on Careless Torque - Ron Fawcett's classic line on the Not to Be Taken Away block. Ned got it sent again, Nalle and Jernej both got sent packing by it and Klemen...

Careless Torque Trailer from Outcrop Films on Vimeo.

Team Slovenia - Day 6

Day 6 dawned a bit grey and overcast but by the afternoon Sheffield was clear and sunny so it was off to Stanage. We arrived sometime after 1PM and headed up to the Not To Be Taken Away block to warm up - Jernej quickly doing NTBTA again while I headed off to try a few of the easier problems on the slabs to get into the groove. After a bit of sitting about in the sun I pulled on my shoes and did Back Cover on The Nameless Block again just in time to see Jernej topping out Big Air  (E6 6b). He had committed to the jump across a couple of times on the Tuesday (the crux according to the BMC guide) and had obviously decided that leaping back again wasn't providing enough of a challenge any more. No mats or anything so it was definitely done "trad" style and as far as I am concerned onsight as well.

I congratulated him on that and did Shady Slab (with and without the starting block) before moving rightwards onto The Mental Block to try the problems there - again nice slab problems but that little bit harder and that little bit higher as well. I blew the start on the flash of Scoops Groove but got it second go and following some tenuous padding I got to the top feeling somewhat relieved and just in time to see Jernej halfway through an onsight solo of The Don (E4 5c). I spent the next few minutes enduring that strange sense of fear you get when watching someone on something a bit necky until he got to the top of the main arête when I went back to enjoying the sun instead. With the main part of the climbing over I provided a few instructions on where to go from there and when he returned I asked him what he thought of it to which his reply was something along the lines of "Didn't like it much as I had to mantle!" Nothing about it being hard, scary or the like, just that it had a mantle in it and from there conversation drifted onto Ulysses (E6 6b) which he was sorely tempted by but ultimately refused as it was only two days before the CWIF.

I wobbled up Scoops Slab which again featured some scary padding moves but kept at it as the guide said it gets easier as you gain height which is probably true but it didn't feel that way at the time and topped that out to Jakob having just sent his first confirmed Font 7c+ (Brad Pit no less). To say that he was pleased would have been an understatement - he was seriously made up by the fact and for good reason as it is a world class problem and not a bad one to move up the grade on either. He had been trying it on the Tuesday when conditions hadn't been as good and not had much success but with better conditions on the Thursday it went down first go!

Just to put this into some form of context I had just witnessed Big Air and The Don being soloed and Brad Pit being sent and we had only been at the crag for probably 90 minutes! It usually takes me that long to pull my shoes on...

Once things had calmed down a bit Team Slovenia then decided to get back on The Storm as it was out of the sun. Jernej was managing his skin so sacked it off early but Jakob was looking really good on it though quite how you can get this close to the final hold without doing the problem is beyond my ability to answer.

Perhaps the crag had decided to fight back as The Storm remained an elusive tick for Team Slovenia on that day as well and after it was off to The Pebble so that Jakob could have another look at Deliverance and Jernej could have a second attempt at the Joker.

The Joker quickly got sacked as it was in the sun and the holds were not working so it was down the hill to Deliverance. Jernej did it again with probably the highest foot placement I have ever seen used to do this and then it was up to Jakob. After a few attempts including one too short, one too high, one where he let go of the finishing hold in shock and with the added bonus of trashing the toe of his shoe on one of the pebbles it joined the list of problems dispatched. No such luck on my personal nemesis - Pebble Arête - I bailed after one half hearted attempt as I was just wasn't feeling the love for it. There were just too many people about and the last thing I needed while trying to climb it was a random collection of fuckwits masquerading as spotters with an accompaniment of blooring on about the science of placing mats and the like.

To get away from the above I went and had a play on Green Traverse and felt pretty strong on the opening moves but while I was trying to work out the crux the random collection of fuckwits masquerading as spotters returned to haunt me again (much to my great joy) so I went off and had a look at what Team Slovenia were up to. As previously mentioned they had done Captain Hook on the Tuesday and had turned their attention to the neighbouring problem Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out. True to its name it did - there was some seriously shredded skin (Jakob was bleeding on and off in a manner that can only be described as profusely) and there was also the odd random gurn on show for those who had a camera handy.

Regardless of the blood letting and gurning directed at it Bentley's refused to fall to the onslaught and while they both got close it ended up another problem to come back for instead.By this time the sun was dropping below the horizon so it was back to the van and a quick drive up the road for The Buckstone Dyno. This was one of the things on Team Slovenia's list of things to do and by the time we arrived it was rapidly getting dark so Team Slovenia didn't have long to crush. They didn't need it to be honest - one quick warm up later Jernej flashed it and Jakob got it second go - something which was becoming almost normal.

In summary another impressive day of crushing from Team Slovenia but all this crushing was taking its toll - how much longer could the skin last?

The tyranny of faff

Back on a piece of string today at Stanage Popular End with Skippy - unseasonably sunny weather for October it has to be said but not hot enough to be sweating off holds - all in all a quite enjoyable day at the crag if the truth be told.

The days tick list:

• Black Hawk Hell Crack - second.
• Manchester Buttress - lead.
• Gargoyle Buttress - second.
• Heather Wall - lead.

Admittedly nothing really hard there and I had done the first three routes before but it wasn't really a day for pushing hard - more a refresher course in the tyranny of faff. Must say that Manchester Buttress was greatly improved by continuing up to the top rather than throwing together a belay on the big ledge after the traverse back round to the right. Doesn't add any hard moves to the route in all honesty but just makes it feel that little bit less of a cop out which was how it felt when I first did it a few years back now.

Heather Wall was a new one for me though and I came very close to blowing the onsight on the opening moves - got established on decent handholds and the sloping foothold and then the foot blew. Thank god for decent hand holds as I just locked the left and held it before throwing in a cam and making a few moves, throwing in another cam which was pretty rubbish and finally a decent nut and then calmed down. From there it was all good really - nice moves from break to break and gear where you needed it and the added bonus of knowing that I can still onsight VS occasionally.

The good things about the day (apart from the onsight) were that I seem to be moving well on the rock at the minute and I am probably not quite as far off route fitness as I thought I was. Even after the moment on Heather Wall I still found it fairly straight forward from a fitness point of view and while it can be argued that the moves are only 4c tops and most of the breaks provide a decent rest if you work a bit it is still a lot bigger than I have been used to climbing recently.

On the flip side - my gear selection is way off after the best part of two years not working those skills on a regular basis and while it was improving marginally as the day progressed there is still a lot to do on that front. I also seem to have tweaked my left shoulder early on and the Heather Wall incident didn't improve matters which is not good as I was toying with the idea of a session on Conan the Librarian tomorrow.

Will just have to see how it is in the morning and go from there.