York Alpine Club Blog

Archive for the ‘Bouldering’ Category

Scuggy Sunshine

Saturday, July 3rd, 2021

Thunderstorms were forecast for later in the day so Guido, peri and I got an early start to Scugdale for a quick hit on the sandstone. We started on the usual easy stuff and ticked the routes we knew well, despite some curious aspects of Franco's new guide,.

After an hour or so we were delighted to be joined by team strong, Russ and Sarah, not by arrangement but by good judgement.

We all got baked and with a stack of pads as large as an American pancake breakfast we felt quite safe. We scurried up 20 or 30 routes each until we had worn out our fingers, and the lure of the bike-shop cafe in the village (recommended) drew us away.

Posted in Bouldering, Climbing | No Comments »

The Heat is on in Wales

Thursday, July 5th, 2018

Rob under tension

The June weekend meet saw nine of the club members heading to North Wales to stay in the really nice, if a little quirky Chester Mountaineering Club hut located part way up the main tourist path from Llanberis to the Snowdon summit.

With the recent dry weather all the mountain routes and generally damp north-facing mountains and crags were in fine condition.

Saturday Peri and Dave W took on the ambitious link up of Main Wall on Cyrn Las (HS) and Gambit Climb (S) on Clogwyn y Ddysgl. A big day out and two top 50 routes, sounded excellent and one that's definitely going on my list to do one day. Dave headed home quite late but satiated.

choo choo

A handful of us took the opportunity to join the crowds on the Snowden track and head up to cloggy, a place I have heard a lot about but never climbed. Jamie, Rob and I headed for Llithrig HVS 5a a three-star historical classic according to the
guide, some exciting climbing and fun to be had on the tension traverse.

simon on great slab

Carmen and Simon also headed to cloggy tackling the three-star VS Great Slab, another one for the list. We all met at the top and descended together and with queues on nearly all the easier routes (VS/HVS) on the eastern buttress and time running out we all headed to far west buttress and made a mass ascent of Slab Climb Right-hand a starred HS. Nice climbing in the evening sun proves there is the odd easier

mike soloing !

route at cloggy, but don't expect much if any gear.

mike leading Llithrig P1

Pete W and Pete B headed to the pass to climb on Carreg Wastad, clocking up a bunch of stars with the excellent Crackstone Rib (S), Skylon (HS) and The Wrinkle (VD). This would have been a decent day for most but not Pete W who decided a short jog halfway up Snowdon and back would be a nice way to round of the day.

On Sunday we somehow all managed to survive my cooking with no lasting effects and awoke to another gloriously warm and sunny day.

Pete W’s mate Rhys joined us for Saturday night and they planned a nice gentle ride by the coast for the Sunday, only a 100k I think in the end!

Pete B, Rob and I made the most of the dry conditions and headed up to Gambit Climb (VD in our guide!). Finding the start was a little tricky but once on the route, all was clear, lots of short awkward corners broken up by ledges. A tough short and well protected final pitch (4b ish) brought us to the ridge and a gentle stroll back to the Pass.

: rob on top pitch

: carmen main wall

: spot S&C !

This time Peri and Jamie climbed in the pass on Dinas Mot and tackled The Cracks (HS) yet another top 50. Carmen and Simon were first on Main Wall in Cryn Las, confirming its quality when we met up in the pass with Simon declaring it possibly the best route he’s ever done.

Suitable Knackered we all jumped in our various modes of transport for the journey back to York. A great weekend in Wales with even better weather, unfortunately, the tick list isn't getting any smaller, at least I managed to climb on Cloggy.

Posted in Bouldering, Climbing, Road cycling, Weekend Meets | No Comments »

Grey Scuggy

Wednesday, November 1st, 2017

camo-paul

Paul and I headed up around lunchtime for an afternoon bimble at Scuggy. We packed our wellies(always a sound idea for the approach) a couple of mats and flask of coffee. There was one other team at he crag and no big surprise. It was grey, overcast but with a strong wind drying the exposed faces.

We ticked a few routes down the far end, kept out of the puddles, fell off Tippling Wall, a lot, and stuck to the dry rock. Where exposed to the wind the rock was fine but in the shelter very damp and scritty making it uncomfortable and nervy as well as potentially damaging so we avoided those routes. Pingers was Mingers.

Sipping coffee sheleterd from the wind, we watched he light rain south and west of us before a few more routes and making our way home
There's a new cafe in Swainby (closes after 5.30) called Rusty Bike or similar looks good but we thought it'd be closed so drove past.

Aother jolly afternoon avoiding the housework.

Posted in Bouldering, Climbing, Crags, Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Spring had sprung at slipstones

Friday, March 31st, 2017

With a glorious forecast Karl, Mike, Jamie, me, Peri and Crofty went to Slipstones last Saturday. We were all overdressed (in varying degrees) for the Summer like weather and even complained it was too hot – in March! We were not alone the red goat had gone on mass as well.

Lots of bouldering, some roped climbing & lots of sleeping by various members of the party.

Mike chose a super pumpy HVS 5b for the first climb of the day – good effort. I backed off a VS & let Mike and Jamie take over. Great day to be out.

Sunday it was an early start (groan) and off to the Peak District for the Edale skyline. Simon & I were running/walking independently. Having overtaken him on the first hill – he over took me whilst going along the first edge. I had almost caught up with him about 1/3 of the way around when I did a superman dive going through the forestry section – doh! Didn't see him again until the finish. Thanks to Gav & Justine for the support going up Mam Tor. Glorious weather for the race. Main mission accomplished – not timed out and not last to finish! The fall has resulted in a bicep injury which developed on Tuesday – hoping I may have enough movement to test my arm later next week.

Posted in Bouldering, Climbing, Crags, Fell running, Running | No Comments »

400% success at the Red Goat

Sunday, March 1st, 2015

An impromptu session at the red goat (York's premier bouldering establishment) on Saturday morning had a good turn out by club members. After warming up on the yellows, some of which are quite stiff for the grade, and ticking off the remaining blues, still one to do that requires insane amounts of body tension to overcome a roof, we turned our attention to the green routes.

Rob failing on the last unconquered blue at the Red Goat

After working the route on the slab for a while, plus a coffee break, the more working of the route, we managed to get up another green. That now makes four attempts on green for rob and four completed since the reset, 400% success – because that's how percentages work. Right?

Posted in Bouldering, indoor, Walls | No Comments »

Tea, coffee and slabs

Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

The sun was shining on Saturday morning so I fired off a quick email to the club and rushed off to Slipstones for a spot of bouldering. Despite only being 25 minutes from my front door, Rob and Paul miraculously managed to get there before me – probably something to do with the fact that they were on route to the Goat (apparently the weather was rather gloomy in York) when they saw my email. That and the small matter of a cooked breakfast and second pot of tea between emailing and leaving the house!

Tea Party Slab

Jamie inching up the slab

The short, sharp walk-in and unseasonal temperatures had us all striping down to t-shirts before kicking off with a few problems on the lower tier. Several were ticked, most notably Tea Party Slab which finally succumbed to the relentless assault from the three of us. A highly dubious font 4+.

Rob at full stretch

So close

After a pause for coffee and slabs of Soreen/banana Soreen/bananas (delete as appropriate) we moved on to a few steeper problems with mixed success. Before long the clouds were gathering, and as the temperature began to drop, so did our energy levels and we called it a day.

Posted in Bouldering, Climbing | 1 Comment »

Eat Your Greens

Friday, January 30th, 2015

Greens 6 : Rob 0
Last week The Goat changed yellows, blues and greens and on a short trip on Monday evening I failed on every new green route 🙁 I can usually puff my way up about half of the greens so I was a tad disappointed with my performance.

red-goat Our regular thursday night Goat session (YAC members get a £1 discount) I caught up with Paul (no Carmen, Mike, Will or Anthony though – slackers) who was resting himself on the sofa. He'd twisted an ankle (falling off can hurt) but thought it'd be ok. After some warm ups and a round of some blues and yellows I discussed my failure and Paul reckoned he could do some of them. So we set off in quest of the soft touch, the green range is V3..V5 and I reckon i fall smack in the middle of these (usually).

Sarah and Peri arrived and a couple of prospective members introduced themselves to Paul (in his YAC t-shirt), who then introduced them to me whilst I was 4ft up, mid move on a blue :-). Sarah's tales of multi coloured toe-nails (not in a good way) kept us amused for minutes.

With a bit of Beta from Paul and some working between us we started to tick off the greens, tea and cake and a chat stopping us for a while. The other thing stopping us is the fact that some of them seem impossible to me, I realise that i wont ever do them all but I now have some targets. Paul left and I stayed a while mixing with Peri, Sarah and a few randoms before heading home at 9.15

Greens 2: Rob 9

Posted in Bouldering, Climbing, indoor, Walls | No Comments »

First Goat of the year

Friday, January 9th, 2015

Returning from the US a few notches to the left on my belt and soft as petal skin, it was never going to be an hard core night at the Goat for me. A good team were in evidence, Will and Andy on the harder stuff, Sarah, Peri, Paul and Mark attacking the greens as I familiarised myself with the new yellows an blues.

I got myself a monthly pass, which at £35 is perfectly priced (cue some input from Karl!) to make me visit often to get my monies worth and make short sub hour trips worthwhile. Remember on Thusdays YAC members get a pound off entrance.

See you down there….
https://www.facebook.com/TheRedGoatClimbingWall

Posted in Bouldering, Climbing, Walls | 3 Comments »

Scuggy on fire

Monday, January 5th, 2015

Cold crisp day with bright sunshine is no time to be indoors or sat belaying and messing with gear so I headed for the ever reliable beauty spot of Scugdale on the moors after sending a desperate plea to stop me being billy-no-mates….

Approaching the dale across the solid ice on the shady road I was wondering if I'd be able to make it as plumes of smoke drifted across the cloudless sky – making it look more like Manchester than the moors. Only a few people were there (some typical shite parking) and I wandered up to the crag with a father and son team from Manchester. Sat at the bottom of the crag chatting i realised I was missing more than some friends, my rock boots – plonker.

As the rock is soft sandstone, climbing in muddy walking boots (or any muddy shoes, or in the wet) is very damaging to the rock so I was resigned to a going for a w*lk. I decided to try and find the mythical Snotterdale crags and wandered along to the far end. 5 mins later Jamie turned up which was excellent news as I could pretend to have mates.

We did a few routes, chatted with the other brave souls, checked out the excellent new bouldering guide, as we wandered back along the edge. Jamie's rock shoes being 3 sizes too big for me made the routes interesting but the friction was good even if the cold was a bit numbing on the hands. We played around until the sun had lost its warmth (not helped by the smoke) around 3.30, and headed home.

Scuggy never fails to deliver