Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Working Around A Recovering Finger

Yesterday I managed to get a few routes climbed in between the showers.  I was down in the Peak visiting friends, so trawled the guide looking for quick hit routes that would be finger friendly.  That meant aretes and slabs.

I had recently worked in the roadside bay at Lawrencefield and finally found out what a couple of the aretes were called and graded.  These seemed like good options to start on.  First up was Brain Cells in Collision E3 5c*.  After abseiling down and brushing (which I was glad I did), I flashed the route.  A good exposed few moves around the arete make for a cool route.  The Next arete was The Last Day of Freedom E4 6a, a nice little route, all open handed on the side that mattered.  I was happy to flash this as well.  A massive shower hit, so I went home for lunch.

After a couple of hours of dry windy weather, I ran out to Froggatt to bag a couple more routes.  I climbed Indoor Fisherman E4 6a**, which I toproped clean first go, then soloed.  The guide marks this as open handed/slopey, but it was quite edgy until the very top section.  This was evident from the ground and I didn't want to start up with a recovering hand and get over committed.  I'm glad I did this, as it was right at the limit of what my finger could take at the moment.  I changed climbing style for the final route and headpointed Hairy Heart E6 6a* on the Great Slab.  Climbed on sight on a rope, then soloed, a total gripper!!!!  I wish I had manned up and on sighted it, but nevermind.  A good route though, and one more E6 on this slab to do, then the harder ones.

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