Halldale Quarry

Above: Approaching the Crux of Dark side of the Room 7a+*

The weather has been a lot better today, but there were showers forecast. These possible showers and the fact the Em is not overly keen to belay me on tricky trad routes (seems fair), meant a spot of bolt clipping was in order this morning. I was not going to be climbing all day, so a few good value routes that could be onsighted or ticked quickly would be great. Halldale Quarry seemed to fit the bill with routes of 22m and a couple of 7a+'s to try and onsight. This was probably another venue that I would probably only visit once, so it was all good.

A quick warm up on the only 3 star route in the guide, Burning Spirits 6b*** which has some nice easy climbing to the roof, then a short nippy crux up through it. I then started up Spooktakula 7a+**. Again this was pretty easy to the roof, where a bouldery crux and wet,dirty hold saw me blow the onsight. After a good brush the move was still tricky, but I could now pull on the crucial hold. Nice to get it second go.

After chilling out and looking at some fossils in the rocks around the bottom, i got on Dark Side of the Room 7a+*. I thought that this was the best route of the lot. Steady, but interesting climbing all the way to the crux, which was a massive reach to a hidden hold, which I failed to get and tried to pull through on a total horror. Failure!!! Again this route went second go.

Below: At a good rest before the crux of Dark Side of the Room

All in a few good routes, but onsighting here felt tricky due to the fact that the climbing was a little reachy and the holds a bit hidden.