Gratuitous Gritstone Goodness

The aches and scrapes of gratuitous gritstone goodness have subsided enough for me to type about what we got up to last weekend in the Peaks, so here goes.

On Saturday morning, we dropped Lise in Hathersage to meet the MountainGirl crew, and - pausing briefly for much-needed coffee at the fantastic Coleman's deli - Ant and I headed up to the Edge.

Looking grim and imposing in the early October fog, it still felt like we were back - we headed for the very first buttress by the car park to induct Ant into the arcane mysteries of anchor-tying and climbing call sequences. After about an hour, with Ant fully indoctrinated into the Cult Of Malisms ("..always ask yourself, does it work? Is it safe? Can ah improove it?") it was time for him to try his first outdoor lead.

We chose Fire Curtain (VD), on the grounds that it was
a) short
b) only a VD
c) close
and
d) right next to an easy descent route, so that once he had tied his nachor and shouted "safe!" I could dash round and up to check it before seconding.

It's a thoroughly unremarkable route, but a good one for your first trad lead for the reasons above, plue it's out of sight of the hardcore elite climbers further down the crag, gleefully soloing E-umpteens as if they were stepladders.

Ant lead it without any problems, placed his protection really well, and tied a nicely equalised anchor at the top, and came down smiling, but said "I think that's about as hard as I want to lead today..."

(yeah, right!)

So off we toddled to find something a bit more interesting for my lead. After a frustrating couple of minutes trying to get started on Crack and Corner (HVD 4b ***), but failing miserably on holds as smooth and slippery as ice, we settled on Black Hawk Hell Crack (S 4a ***).

Stanage being as popular as it is, just as I was getting myself psyched up and sorting out the rack, someone - from a scan of the logbook at UKClimbing.com, it might have been Owen W-G - nipped in ahead of me and solo-ed up the damn thing, nicely deflating my ego before I started... but he did shout down the very useful nugget of advice - "There's some threads! Bring slings!". And there were indeed some excellent threads at about 3/4 height, just before the tricky finish. It was a really great route, up there in the enjoyability stakes with Flying Buttress in my book. As I belly-flopped over the tricky top-out I was breathless and pumped, but grinning like an idiot and feeling rather chuffed with myself. Ant comfortably seconded the route and likewise, came up over the mantle with a huge grin on his face, breathlessly enthusing, "what a great route!"

Encouraged by a solid second of a Severe, Ant reckoned he was up for trying a lead at that grade, so for the last climb of the day we chose The Bishop's Route (S 4a ***) - a meandering 25m expedition that thoroughly deserves its 3 stars. I was almost tempted to suggest that we did it as a multi-pitch, with the first belay on the obvious ledge behind the tree, and in retrospect this might have been a good idea - if you do it in one, once the leader has got past that ledge you can't see him, and the increased friction from the rope dragging round the corner can't be fun at the top.

But it was still a great climb, another route that, like so many at Stanage, leaves you flopping breathlessly over the mantle in a great ungainly slapping of palms, but chuckling at your own lack of grace and grinning like a cheshire cat at the exhilaration of the route you've just completed. Ant lead it confidently and capably, and still managed to tie a decent anchor despite the distinct lack of big boulders at the top. As the light started to fade and the mist began to descend once more, we hobbled our aching, abraded bodies down the crag and headed off into Hathersage to meet Lise after her bouldering course, for the traditional post-crag pint-and-pie-of-the-gods at the Old Hall Inn in Hope.

Aftermath

I ache. Everything aches. I can hardly lift my left arm. Peeling myself out of bed this morning required a Herculean effort, but it's a satisfied kind of ache. The feeling of knowing that you pushed your body about as hard as it could go, but you had a great time doing it.

Lise was on her bouldering course all day Saturday, so Ant and I set off for Stanage popular end, with the aim of getting Ant comfortable with leading trad, placing his own protection and tying safe anchors. I'll type more when I can move my fingers again.

Goody New Shoes - LaSportiva Katanas

My old faithful 5-10 Spire's have finally had their day. They were a great shoe for the beginner, but after almost a year of heavy use, they've all but lost their friction and they're curving up badly at the toes. As I'm starting to push higher grades - I'm regularly bouldering 5B problems now, and I'm pushing 5C - the holds are getting smaller and smoother, and I need a more technical, pointy-toed shoe in order to progress.

So after an agonising wait until pay day, I finally bought a pair of LaSportiva Katanas. The shop assistant said that a lot of people end up with Katanas because you can go really really small before they get too uncomfortable, and he was right - I'm a UK size 11 in normal shoes, and as of yesterday I am now the proud owner of a pair of size 8 Katanas.

They certainly made a difference straight away. I cracked a 5A screw-on-smears-only boulder problem that has been bugging me for a while, and felt confident enough to try an arrête-and-features-only 5B toprope route. I got about halfway up before admitting defeat - I think laying back against an arrête is a technique I'm going to need some tutoring in - but compensated by going straight up a 5B bolt-on route on the same rope, without much trouble.

On the other hand, I found I was almost fighting against the shoes for flat smearing. They're very concave and pointy, which makes them perfect for tiptoeing on tiny holds, but it was quite hard to get enough of the sole in contact with the surface to get a decent flat smear. Excellent friction when I did get good contact, though. So much so, that I almost had problems switching feet on holds, because the foot I was standing on had too much grip to slide it off.

And painful? feck me are they painful to walk in! They're so pointy-toed, I had to walk on the sides of my feet, looking like a ricketts-stricken coal miner. I also found I had to take them off while belaying, to restore the circulation to my tingling toes. Mind you, I'm sure that's entirely down to me choosing to go so far below my normal size, and I'm expecting them to relax a little after some more use.

I'm sure I'll get used to them soon, and where better to test them out than good-old Stanage next weekend.

How to tie knots - with animations

I just found a very handy guide to tying some common climbing knots over at Grog's Climbing Knots. Each one is explained in words and animated step-by-step - a great reference if, like me, you're just getting started on "proper" trad climbing.