Work and Second Ascents

It has been a good couple of day.  Yesterday I ran a CWA Assessment, based at Leeds Wall which went well for some, with a couple of folks needing to return to redo a few bits.

Today I have been down to Manchester to see the folks at Challenge 4 Change to sign of procedure etc. which all went swimmingly.  It made sense to visit somewhere to climb on the way home, so I opted for Warland Quarry.  This is a strange choice at hear say, but for us daddy daycare types it has a couple of new additions.  All I can say is thank god for Nik Jennings!  He is as overly keen as me to make the most of his time off from childcare and work, to climb in the local holes.  I had noticed he had been an added two new slab routes over the weekend, so thought I would check these out and save his new one in Summit Quarry for the flash when I have a belayer.

On arriving at the quarry I was very happy and surprised to see Nik there.  The landing on the routes where worse than I thought they would be, even with mats.  So I decided to have a quick toprope to check out the easier of the 2.  Twenty20 E6 6b is never that hard, but has a terrible landing that would send you flying into some bounders further back.  Even though I could belay myself on a gri gri and climb the route, not falling off on any try.  I took advantage of Nik and pinched a belay.  One of the old aid bolts was possible to clip after the hardest climbing was done.  It was beyond shit, but made me feel better.  I hindsight it was easier to climb without clipping the bolt, but nevermind.

Next up I got stuck into Face of Grace E7 6c.  This is an excellent steep slab climb, with hard moves to an un nerving height.  Nik's beta made working out a sequence quicker, but being a little taller meant I could do it a slightly different way.  Nik had thought about upping the tech grade before I did it, but thinks 6c is a fair grade for most.  I would say that it will be fierce for the short though.  After a belaying myself a few time, I soloed the route above a couple of pads, which does improve the landing slightly, but not the run off.  As the bolts are so poor, Nik is going to remove them asap.

There are a couple of other new things to do there, but I would imagine it would only interest the most dedicated locals.

Short vid from Nik