Peak Scar was the venue on Tuesday and it was pretty busy with 8 club members there and another four people wandering around with full racks on, looking confused and not climbing anything. The tree felling has continued apace and completely changed the character of the crag. The middle section now gets quite a lot of sun and the whole place feels a lot more inviting. Also, more rock has been revealed opposite the crag. Might be some new routes there if you fancied clearing two feet thick vegetation from it…
I had to nip into town before driving over, so to avoid holding up Peri and Rob I drove on my own. Bizzarrely, I still managed to arrive an hour before them to find Simon fighting his way through dense ivy at the top of a rarely climbed HVD (Jonas), a different finish to the one he'd done the previous week. I believe having climbed almost everything at the crag, Simon is now also climbing every possible variation of every climb as well.
Me and Peter headed over to Jam with Sam (VS 4b *) which Simon had suggested would be a good first Peak Scar VS. I'd definitely agree with that advice. After negotiating the nettle forest at the bottom, it's a great route and can be laced with gear. I placed pretty much my whole rack (and some of Peter's) and took a while plucking up the courage to do the final exposed moves. After finally committing to them, I was horrified to find the topout was steep loose grass with seemingly no solid rock. Luckily, a bridging/belly flop manouver got me onto safe ground. Simon later showed how the route could be done, cruising up with about four bits of gear in under 10 minutes!
After taking out all of my stuck gear, Peter said he was too knackered to do anything hard and suggested we do some easy VDiffs for the rest of the evening. He therefore chose to lead Birdland Direct (MVS 4b **) with minimal gear. This is another good route with a tricky and strenuous crux in the middle and another good finish.
Meanwhile, Dave and Gordon were getting through a few routes including Wings (S 4a **) and Gone (HS 4b *) and Cef, Rob and Peri had arrived. Rob warmed up with an impressive onsight lead of Cosmonaut Direct (HVS 5a *) before following Alan up the 3* classic Frenesi (VS 4c ***). After battling nettles on Solitude (S 4a *), Peri and Cefyn headed for Jam with Sam just as the sun was setting. To add to the this-is-definitely-going-to-be-an-epic feeling, Cefyn took a hanging belay above the nettles as Peri set off into the dark. The rest of us gathered at the bottom hoping for some good entertainment (though Rob was a bit concerned about his lift home) but were disappointed when Peri saw sense and decided to down climb (this in itself looked fairly exciting with some fall potential).
Simon and Carmen had somehow squeezed in another two routes with Carmen leading Cosmonaut (VS 4c *) and Jordu (S 4a **).
So overall a productive evening at the new look Peak Scar and we even had some nice warm weather.
Tags: nettles
… and nice pint withe the 'locals' in the Hambleton Inn (?)
It was 10 club members that ended up at Peak Scar, may even have been 11 if Debbie had packed her change of clothes….