Ralph’s Place

As if one weekend out climbing wasn’t enough, the following weekend Indoor Wall Boy was off to Pembroke No big story this time but it was a cracking weekend! However, it was one that nearly didn’t happen.

Last week was “a busy one” to say the least, but when workload increases and deadlines can’t be shifted, hard work, long days and the chance of going into the office on the weekend looms close. Thankfully it wasn’t necessary, but at 3pm on Friday afternoon it was still up in the air! Only really minutes before I knew I had to go, did I find out for sure I could. Even so, I still wasn’t packed (although wasn’t unpacked from last weekend either which helped lol) but miraculously we were on the road by 8pm. Thank Christ for that, Penfro here we come!

And what a weekend we had! In 2 days Mark and I climbed 7 routes, 2 HS, 3 VS, an HVS and an E1. I didn’t lead at the dizzy heights of HVS or anything ‘E’, but the rest were mine, and damn pleased to get them and find them all ok (despite a bit of swearing, in hindsight it was ok ). We’re back there again in 6 weeks, and I’ve a good idea of what I want to do. At least 2 routes are realistically on my list, and there’s a third I wouldn’t mind a bash at if they go ok. We’ll see anyway, there are other trips planned to the Lakes and Font before then… aren’t I lucky!

Pics to follow soon…

If, like me, the majority of your climbing is done on brightly coloured pieces of plastic fixed onto a large piece of plywood, then an invitation to climb on real rock is one that can’t be turned down. At the weekend 3 of us “Londonites” made the treck up to Nottingham and the Peak District to do some of that “outdoor climbing” we’d heard so much about!

It didn’t start well. Even if you ignore the fact the holds are the same colour as the rock and thus much harder to find, “nature” plays much more of a part outdoors and these things called “conditions” have to be taken into consideration! In the relative calm of the indoor wall, you can climb come wind, rain or snow… but outdoors you have to be more careful.

On Friday, it was windy. Very windy, and this also meant it was cold. Working on holds kindly marked with chalk by a native pixie, I found very quickly that even though I was clearly holding onto something, the sensations in my fingers were not there to back this up! And since I like having some sort of feeling in my fingers even when I’m safely on the ground, a change of plan was in order. We asked the locals for advice and they told us that there was another piece of rock more sheltered from the elements. We set off in search of Lawrence’s field.

We got there and I quickly discovered my hearing was shit. There was no field, just trees and rock. No problem, the wind was gone and that’s all I cared about. I could feel my fingers again and was raring to put on a harness and start climbing. The next problem I was to discover though, was that there were clearly no bolts or clips on the rockface. Instead attached to my harness were to be a number of small metal wedges, carabiners and bits of material tape. Quite what I was to do with them I wasn’t sure, but I was assured I’d figure it out. I set of to climb a route called Gingerbread, with some confusing grade “VS 4b”. The natives all understood what the VS meant, I didn’t want to look stupid so I kept quiet. At least I’d heard of 4b before, this couldn’t be that hard!

About half way up I started to get scared. “Get some gear in then!” I heard someone cry. Fair enough, I thought, but what does that mean? Again not wanting to lose face, I decided I’d have to figure it out for myself. So fathoming that the bits of metal must be used for something like this, I wedged a couple into a crack, clipped some carabiners to it and then clipped the rope in as if I was back at the wall. Suddenly I felt much better and I continued to the top. When I got there, far from just lowering off I could see that others were staying there setting up a “belay”. This basically meant throwing a bit of tape (which I was later to learn is actually called a “sling”) around a rock, tying into that and then belaying backwards while your partner climbs. How odd.

After this strange experience I thought I’d just let the locals get on with it. I followed one of them (a short strong one occasionally referred to as Obe Wan) up a much harder route. All I knew really was that it was graded “E1″ and that I wished there were cracks in the wall indoors that I could practice climbing on. The best technique is apparently to shove your fingers in and twist your hand. That hurt and I wasn’t very good at it so I ended up laybacking that bit. It was hard.

After that, I was tired and it started to rain. According to Obe Wan, this meant that we should get back to the cars and head home because his “Duvet Jacket” was getting wet. I didn’t really understand that either…

The next day with renewed energy and confidence we set off to Wharncliffe (I’d cleaned my ears out by this point) where there were more routes with names (another new concept that I got to grips with quite quickly), in particular I wanted to climb another “VS” which was described as “The classic of the crag”, Himmelswillen. It was a bit further to walk to the rock from the car park and we had to pass a lot of “nature” on the way, but I didn’t care. I was both excited and scared. I can’t remember ever feeling like that climbing indoors… I’m usually on the tube and there’s nothing exciting down there.

We got there and Mark jumped onto an “HS” called Tower Face. In just a few minutes he was at the top, having quickly worked out what all the shiny things on his harness were for (or maybe he’d done this sort of thing before, he didn’t say) and he brought me up on the rope. Suddenly something felt very familiar, almost as if I’d done the moves before… I couldn’t explain it, so I ignored it and figured I was just getting better at finding the holds without the need for paint, or even chalk marks!

Next it was my turn. After my experience of crack climbing the day before I couldn’t explain why the (albeit slightly more “flake” like) upper crack looked so inviting, but I roped up, attached my shiny things (or nuts as I heard someone say) and started to climb up the initial arete towards the ledge/cave at just under half height.

All of a sudden everything seemed to feel so natural. I placed a cam at the back of the break, I’d only seen them used earlier in the day, extended the quickdraw and climbed to the right and reached up to gain the crack. It was perfect! Laying away to the left my fingers sunk behind the flake and I felt completely secure. After throwing a couple of nuts into the crack I laybacked up to gain a ledge back left on the arete. From this brilliant position another nut went in then it was another couple of moves up to the top. Awesome!

I belayed Mark up, then we set off to do a few more routes before settling down with some food to take in the experiences of the day. On the way home I realised that this outdoor climbing was what I wanted to do most of. I also thought about how I seemed to have picked up so much in a short space of time, taking to the rock quickly and eventually climbing like a regular. Not yet up to the standard of the masters like Obe Wan, but I was definitely not a complete beginner. I couldn’t help but think maybe I’d done this sort of thing before… perhaps in a previous life?

Thanks everyone for a great weekend! (and of course well done to all the people on the leading course who got some good leads in on Saturday then battled blizard conditions on Sunday learning rescues etc!) It was awesome to get out on some real rock for a change, I hope to be back up to see you all again soon!

Spotted this today… I particularly like the last paragraph

Malaysian monks face ant dilemma

They cannot encourage anyone to harm the ants, but the chief monk says that if someone turns up unbidden and deals with them without the monks’ involvement then that is the will of the universe.

Yep, I’m writing this on my shiny new MacBook. Not quite figured it all out yet, but it looks pretty

Looking forward to getting music, photos and videos etc transferred over so I can turn my PC off for good. Hopefully not too long now!

Also can’t wait to play with Final Cut Express, just need some decent video footage to use first. I’m sure Font will come up trumps for that! That’s not til April though, in the meantime, life goes on… and I search for more rock to climb

The beginning of the month marked the date for the UNUMC annual dinner, which meant a trip to one of the wettest places in the country, North Wales. With a few of us heading up early to get some rain in before the club arrived, the first day failed to disappoint and we got a good soaking in the slate quarries. Certainly an impressive sight though and definitely somewhere I’d like to go back to on a dry day!

Thankfully (and unbelievably) the next few days the rain gave way to a good handful of routes, my first in the area and I really hope not my last!

A Step in the Clouds (VS) - Ali led this and made very strange (yet I was to discover, justified) noises on the second pitch. Awesome moves in a bold position… must’ve been great to lead!
Meshach (HVS) - Definitely a grade harder than the last. The crux was only 5a, but on lead must’ve felt much harder (nice one Ali ). Not only a grade harder though, arguably also a grade better! Easily the best route I’ve climbed in years, and one of the best I’ve ever done.
Hope (VDiff) - A trip to Idwal Slabs to climb the ultimate classic VDiff. Ali and I led through and I got the “infamous twin cracks” awesome. Overall 4 pitches of water soaked, brilliant climbing. Would love to go back on a drier day and try something harder.
Merlin (VS) - Finally a VS lead! My First in almost 2 years and - I was shocked to discover - my 3rd since I’ve been climbing! Climbing with Martin, I led the crux first pitch and got through it ok, albeit a little shaken

Saturday night it was time for the dinner, which was excellent. Good food, better company, lots of wine and great speeches. I’m sure a great time was had by all I doubt anyone cared that the next day was a washout.

Thanks to all for a great night and an excellent week