Watty Quarry New Routes

With the new Lancashire guide in the final stages, I was informed of a small quarry that had a couple of good lines left to do.  Watty Quarry was the place, and a scratty little thing it is too.  When I first walked up to, I thought I must be at the wrong place. However, after a closer inspection,  it was it.  Pretty disappointed, I thought I'd look at the lines whilst I was there.

My knowledge of the proposed routes was very limited.   So I picked out what looked to be best and tried them. The left hand line on the steep face made sense to be a straight up route with no deviations. This made it a bold little number, with a tricky move highish and bad landing.  After one flash on a rope and clean I soloed it to give Watt the #&#& E3 5c.  The line to the right made sense to go up through the low roof before passing the second on it's left. A further tricky move to the arete led to an easy finish.  Despite having a cam low down, the tricky moves higher up would not be protected  and the landing is pretty bad.  Again one quick top rope and I soloed the route to give Watt a Load of #&$@ E5 6a.

Despite the look of the venue the climbing was quite good.  That said, it would only really be of interest to a local.  I'd be surprised if these routes ever see a repeat.

Bolton School Spainish Rock Trip

Adam enjoying the techy climbing at Abdet

Ben Loving the views

Andy in Echo Valley

I have spent the last week working with students from Boy School Boys Division in Spain. The aim was to give them a good progression from all they have learnt at home with me and their school staff. A lot of ground work has been done, so we were very hopeful for a good trip. The temperature was high for this time of year, 32 degrees in the shade at times. Which presented a different challenge. The lads adjusted well, we found venues with shade at times and got fully stuck in.
 


Anosh cooling off by the sea on a nice 5

 

Ethan on El Albaran Volador 6a***

Anosh on Es Carlota 5***

Anitesia 6c***

After a toprope each on the first day, they got straight into leading. This theme continued through the whole week. I was really impressed with how they took everything in their stride, and really focused on pushing themselves everyday with no imput from us. Each day had success and setbacks as they tried routes that suited and did not suit their styles. This seemed to drive them on more as they learnt from every route. The second last day at Montessa seemed like a sendfest. 3 of the 6 onsighted their first 6b's and 1 redpointed his first 6c. Others fought hard to break new ground, but the week had taken it's toll. The week finished at Bellus, with a wide range of 3 star routes on good steep rock. Everyone, despite being tired dug deep and were rewarded with some good ticks. One of which was a top 50 6a that some flashed in great style. I even took advantage of the quality climbing and onsighted a 3 star route at every grade from 5-7a, with a 3 star 7b thrown in as a quick redpoint. An awesome venue.



Rokodromo.com 7a***

SPA Assessment

The last 2 days was spent in a damp Peak District running an SPA Assessment for McKinlay Mountaineering. A busy course with 8 candidates. Personal climbing was in tricky damp conditions at Froggatt, but all did well. We then moved to the Foundry to cover the climbing wall aspects of the assessment. The group management section was done at Lawrancefield and Millstone to give a mixture of rigging and management challenges, but all did well. A very successful course, with everyone passing. The first for a while.

Rainy Days

I had a couple of hour at Woodhouse this morning to continue my attempts to get fit and stronger again.  After all the rain, it was the Clingen Face that never disappoints.  The arête was soaked through, but the slot not too bad.  So, I plugged it up to dry and warmed up on a number of the eliminates.  Whilst lying around in between problems, I noticed a sequence I had never seen before.  Truly eliminate, but offered good moves.  As the slot was still wet I did a shortened version to give a nice little font 7a.  Once the slot was useable, I managed to link the whole thing.  Climbing Angelface Reverse into the new finish to give Rainy Days 7b+.  I then did the 7b edge eliminate and a few other things.  My attempt to video Rainy Days failed on the last move as I'd used up my fingers on the problem after the F.A. Error.  Did video the short version though whilst waiting for slot to dry.

Rainy Days from Adam Hughes on Vimeo.

Busy Weekend

On Saturday I was at The Leeds wall running a CWA Assessment for McKinley Mountaineering.  The 2 candidates did a great job, and both passed comfortably.

The worlds smallest spotter

After a pleasant 50 miler on the bike on Sunday morning, I had a quick hit at Woodhouse in the afternoon.  This is one of a handful of sessions I've had in the last few months, so repeating some of the hander problems I know well is really helping me get so  strength back.  After warming up and then doing the 7b+'s on the Angel Face.  I was really happy to redo Interfacing Angel 7c, which I put up last year.  It's strange for me to find some strengths coming back quickly, but my fingers struggling to come back.  Hopefully they won't take too long

The crux

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SPA Assessment and Scary Monsters

Over the weekend I was running a SPA Assessment in the Peak for McKinley Mountaineering.  The candidates did a great job a Burbage North for the personal climbing section, before we moved to the Foundry.  A long session at the wall set them up nicely for the group section of the award at Lawrancefield and Millstone.  This went well for all but one, but everyone worked hard throughout the day.

Yesterday I managed to sneak a quick route at Trowbarrow.  This was the first since June, so I was pretty happy with my flash of Scary Monsters E5 6a*.  Fingers crossed it's not so long before the next one.