Posts Tagged ‘nettles’

Climbers vs Nettles

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

On a still and humid Tuesday evening Simon and myself headed to Peak Scar in an attempt to avoid the midges. Instead of midges we found ourselves battling through a flourishing sea of nettles, but at least it was a pleasant temperature. Unfortunately the tree clearance a few years back has opened up more light and space for the nettles – dread to think what they are like at Whitestone Cliffe at the moment.

Having made it down to the far end of the crag with just a few stings, I decided to have a go at one of the new (2010) routes by Tony Marr and Mike Tooke – Solitude Direct MVS 4b. All in the name really – a direct take on Solitude. It does have some nice moves going over a small overhang – however the upper ledges are rather filthy – moved back left at the very end to finish at the same point as Solitude.

I had heard some thrashing in the undergrowth whilst climbing the route, and when belaying at the top the culprits identified themselves – we were joined by Paul and Jamie who had taken an alternative approach via the far right of the crag, from where they had to fight their way through the last few metres of nettle forest, probably discovering a few new species on the way. They soon made it around the corner for Paul to lead Downbeat (VD). Meanwhile Simon took over the lead for a repeat ascent of Cobweb (VD) which goes up the outside of Murton's cave – a pleasant route apart from the muddy top-out.

We then had a swap of places with Jamie (brimming with enthusiasm) leading Cobweb – which he admitted enjoying afterwards. I went around the corner and led Gone (HS 4b) which we had not done for a few years. Steep but juggy climbing – didn't seem as loose as last time but not sure about the overall security of all those blocks! Fortunately they held and Simon was soon up to join me. We met the others at the top and retreated back to the car in the fading light. As if we didn't have enough already, Simon managed to bring a monster pet slug or snail back with him – with trail all around the boot of the car and over all the stuff dumped in the hall upon arrival.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Climbing, Crags | No Comments »

Missing out

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Once again most people apparently had better things to do. And for a while it seemed that they were all right, as we sat in the car at the top of the crag watching the rain bounce off the windscreen, while listening to the man on Radio 4 tell us that northern England was currently bright and sunny.

But we wandered down anyway, and found the crag itself remarkably dry, sheltered from the rain. Donal and Luke were already there, gearing up at the foot of Sidewinder, the best of the routes at the seldom-climbed-on left end of the crag. Everyone else was conspicuous by their absence!

I thought I'd try White Wall, an obscure Severe just to the left. Got a few metres up, retreated onto the Mod on the right to gain height to inspect what was coming up. Noted the complete lack of gear and holds on the overhanging wall, pencilled it in as a sandbag to be top-roped sometime, and wandered off to find another route now the rain had stopped and the evening brightened.

Due to a rope miscalculation (only a 45m half rope, when the shortest route is 22m and the belays mainly some way back – oops), Donal and Luke called it a day. So we climbed by ourselves in the evening sun (the rain stopped quickly), a glorious end to the day.

Photos courtesy of Donal!

Routes climbed:
Sidewinder – VDiff *
Wings – Severe **
Birdland Direct – MVS 4b *

Tags: , ,
Posted in Crags | No Comments »

Peak Scar

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Carmen leading CosmonautPeak 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.

Rob leading Cosmonaut DirectMe 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.

Alan leading FrenesiMeanwhile, 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:
Posted in Climbing, Crags | 2 Comments »