In defiance of common sense, me, Debbie W, Helen and Dave P looked out at the rain yesterday evening, eyeballed the met office rainfall radar and decided to head out to Brimham anyway. The narrow band of rain passed quickly and the crag was dry when we arrived. My main target for the evening was to get Debbie some more outdoor experience and impress upon her that gritstone is the very finest of rock types.
Not being sure how long the rain would hold off, we plonked ourselves on Cubic Block. Dave and Helen headed up Heather Wall while me and Debbie went up Great Slab. I offered Dave a lower off Cubic Block to save him the nasty step off, which he declined – I suspect he regretted the decision when he saw the step but he didn't use any bad language. After this team Helen/Dave did Great Slab and Cubic Corner while I did a recce on Thin Line, a slabby HVS I've been fancying my chances on (one reason being you can easily bail to the arete). Got 2/3 of the way up but then couldn't see if there was any more gear, so bail I did. Moving up the arete I could see there was actually a place to get gear, so that's now a target for next time I'm at Brimham.
By this time it had somehow got to 9.00, gloom was gathering early and little wet drops were appearing on the rock, Helen was muttering about a pint of beer, so we skedaddled.