Thursday 23 May 2013

Primitive Man

Over the last month I've been beavering away at the white (grey) stuff and although it felt quite brutal to begin with, in comparison with trying to levitate on gritstone slopers all winter, it has now started to pay off with a decent summit.
On Monday evening I managed to grab the finishing hold of Primitive Notion 8a+ at Kilnsey and make the fourth ascent of the bloc after such notables as Dunningdinho, Back Two (whose foot beta, I hope has improved since joining Scarpa :) and the boy Jones.
Although you always feel a little awkward bouldering at Kilnsey, the variety of moves/holds and rock quality on PN more than make up for bouldering at such an esteemed routing crag. I'd even go so far as to say it was one of the 'best' limestone blocs in this fair isle. Footage will feature in the extras section of 'This is Yorkshire' and no doubt DT will crush the fifth this week.

Thursday 2 May 2013

End of the Season

As the grit season is now drawing to a close, I've been casting around for a few summer projects and even dabbling in a little early limestone. Having said that though, I managed to piece together the first half of Ullola 8b at Caley. The initial slopes to half way are rather good and around 8a/8a+ for the link. The second half was unpleasant, snappy and very hard...not something I'll go back to! Hopefully the young bucks will get involved.
Pottering around in the Peak and at Longridge and climbing a few 7c/7c+ blocs has been good fun and I now have few projects to keep me occupied over the summer and next winter. I'm also reasonably close to a hard lime proj in the Shire which I'm really keen to get linked over the next couple of weeks.
Keep ya eyes peeled for 'This is Yorkshire', the trailer has been well received even with my close up!