Caley

Above: In the crux of Tip Off

I met up with Ed and Elliot at Caley today to find a bit of shade to hide in. After yesterday, I was not feeling my best. so was keen for a chilled day.

We walked up to the main crag and warmed up on a few easy problems. In the shade the conditions were perfect. This got psyched to try High Noon E4/5 6a***. I started up it, but soon realised my body was not up for it today. Noonday Ridge E1 5b*** was still a good consolation. Elliot then led it and Ed followed. We then moved onto Tip Off E2 5b* which I led, then Elliot and Ed followed again. I also led Rip Off E3 6a* which climbs the arete. Ed follow this as well to continue his day of getting in some mileage.

Below: Getting further away from the gear and closer to the crux on Rip Off

Elliot was keen to try Fingerknacker Crack E3 6a* which is a steep and surprisingly powerful crack. Elliot made good progress up the boulder problem start, where the hardest moves kick in. This is unfortunately as far as he got. I had a go and found that my fingers are slightly smaller, this was to my advantage. After the hard moves to get into the upper crack, it was not too bad to finish. Feeling a lot warmer now, we threw a rope down Fred Zimmerman E4/6 6a/b. This used to have a bolt just before the crux which made it E4, now the hard section is protected by a skyhook which bumps it up to E6. Thinking this might be a horror, and not having a skyhook a quick toprope seemed fair. The crux was not too bad, a reachy hard 6a sequence I thought. We extended a loop down to the level of the bolt and led it like that as an E4, but I will defo go back and do it the right way.

We the soloed a few HVS's to finish a good day.