Not put off by the weather forecast Jamie and myself decided to brave Burbage North. The weather was lovely in York on Saturday morning and for the majority of the drive down. As soon as we were in sight of the crag the clouds descended and we found ourselves at a lovely damp crag. Not to be put off we decided on some routes, Ash Tree Crack and Ash Tree Wall, interesting choices given they're crack climbs and proved pretty interesting when attempting to jam in the damp confines! Moving up in the grades we moved onto Ring Climb, still damp but we managed to climb it. A few climbs completed and getting confident I decided that Hollyash Crack was on the cards, a lovely off width in the Knights Move area. At the crux I jammed at least 50% of my body into the off width section of the crack and started to perform my most elegant thrutch upwards. This didn't last long, within sight of a good hold the friction ran out and I slid all the way back to my former stance. Given my body was staring look and feel like I'd been wrestling the buttresses of Burbage rather than climbing them it was time to move on to something else! Jamie lead Sill Orange, a nice route with a the hardest moves saved for the final jamming crack, then Billberry Arete (not the Mod the other one, but easier than the S4b grade it gets), and the reachy Triangle Buttress Indirect.
York Alpine Club Blogfor members to let us know what they have been up to
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How the hell did you manage to find a damp crag in the peak this weekend? I was down in the peak for a bouldering weekend and it was glorious both days. Which was what pretty much what the met office weather forecast had been predicting. We were at cratcliff and robin hoods stride on saturday (scorchio) and then burbage south sunday (still scorchio) in fact by sunday afternoon we were even talking about moving into the shade to avoid sweaty hands. It was overcast to start off with on saturday morning but still dry, so we lingered over cups of tea and by the time we hit the crag at 11 the rock was dry as a bone
anyway, sounds like you had a good (if slithery) time 🙂
We got an early start! The weather cleared up later in the day but we'd had a go at several routes by that point. It was a nice afternoon but I was a bit pooped by this point.
Saturday morning was damp in the north of the Peak. Even in the south, where we were, the sun didn't appear until late morning.