You win some, you lose some. Yesterday me and rob set off for Pot Scar, and retreated after only one route – the one which finishes inside Elaines Cafe. No sooner had we distributed gear into sacs than the heavens opened and the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, he who is called Really Heavy Rain, came thundering forth. And lo! the people did retreat hastily to the wall which is called Harrogate.
That evening I cast the runes, sacrified a goat, examined the entrails of a chicken (which seems about as reliable a method as reading the weather forecast) and determined that the weather gods had decided East was best. So late on sunday morning Dee, Dave Shield and me headed for Scugdale. Several unbelievers defied the gods and headed for Almscliff instead, wrathful deities hurled gales at them and they too fled to the Wall of Harrogate.
Meanwhile the righteous enjoyed a fine afternoon soloing short routes on Scot Crags. Dee did really well, having only been bouldering/climbing outside a few times before she succeeded in topping out on the classic Pingers (VS 5a) in fine style. The weather was still quite blowy, a bit disconcerting on balancy stuff but nothing unmanageable as we were sheltered from the worst of it by the crag, and the forecast occassional light showers came to no more than the odd slight spit. We even had some sunshine!
Below: Dee throwing shapes on Pingers.
dee getting started on pingeers
success!
Tags: scugdale climbing
We took a risk on Sunday and headed for Bamford. Bad decision, it was drizzling steadily. So we carried on to Stoney Middleton in the hope that it's reputation for staying dry in poor weather was at least partly deserved – and lo and behold, it was! The crag was quite busy, mainly Mark Pretty and the guidebook team doing new routes, but plenty of routes to go round. I led the recently cleaned Rosehip Wine (HS 4a, probably S 4a really) and Lost Horizon (VD but more like HS 4a). In between, Carmen led both pitches of the fantastic Gabriel/Pearly Gates combo, pitch 2 in particular was fantastic, sustained 4c – I'm glad I wimped out of leading it!