rantings of a total madman
summer has jolly well started but things are already getting weird- the many times we gazed out
from smallacombe to bonehill and never noticed anything strange, last sunday changed all that..
“what the hell’s that” I mused, noticing what appeared to be one of those mobile climbing towers
on the horizon “dunno” was the unanimous answer- maybe it has always been there- “ it’s ‘top hat
at houndtor “ came another suggestion...” as always the ‘all knowing oracle’ kicked in “ oh...so
they decided to finally move that granite pillar two kilometers down the road then “ that’s when it
all kicked off......yep, it’s al gone bloody ‘twin peaks’ again!
Friday, 14 August 2009
so five of us have now
moved into the barn as
our official residence..well
it seems like it as we seem
to be down there a slightly
more than usual
did I really spend twenty
minutes at the top of the
big wall talking to another
climber about general stuff
while our belayers below
locked us off and cursed
upwardly...well yes!
left- johnny on the big old
pumpy orange lead...power
orbs dude! ruth watching
and fab doing his thing on
the important end
right- ruth on si’s
F6c+ with that top
move- it was the
highlight of that
session as one by
one we found a
new way to nail
that little bit hairy
and exposed top
crux move
also at the moment we are working on weeman’s ‘gentlemens really really (we are so going to get
letters) dangerous club...still can’t decide on how to word the disclaimer yet...anyway, that’s soon-
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THINGS WERE REALLY WEIRD
they go and get plain surreal...picture this, four of us decide to do a u-turn on our way to the barn
as none of us really wanted to climb (I couldn’t..slightly bust ankle)
nic and I deposited at her home, fab and ruth disappear in their homes direction, “ I need some
painkillers, my ankle hurts “ so sainburys and beer are on the agenda- once there I commence the
customary thousand yard stare at the shelves until grabbed by inspiration to purchase, when nic
comes out with “ fab’s chuckin boxes! “ eh?......sure enough, he was-
fab had somehow returned unnoticed and crept into the cornflakes isle “ they’ve run out of my muesli “ he griped kicking another empty box at the display
not wanting to be part of the great sainsburys cereal riots, we retreated soon to be followed by fab
as a very large employee made in our direction to break it up-
“ no way man..they’ve totally run out “ he went on “ might as well get an alternative then...ah this
cheeky bottle of red will do “ and with that, we all departed
a few routes before the ankle
incident- mca trying to stay out
of the midday sun ‘summer haze’
V3 6a smallacombe
left- ruth on the
really frustrating
‘death jug mantle’
V1 5c right from
the back of the
cave, hard at the
best of times but
in THAT heat, woh!
-up smallacombe
summit sector way
great video footage
of andy nailing the
very same problem
so some more bits
for ndcc twenty four
hours world of film
dept-
andy on the flat
wall in the alcove, problem 13 V1 5c,
smallacombe
he attacked every
route he could find
before complete
systems faliure
due to the heat
not long after we
all experienced a
mini whirlwind,
sheep went nuts,
nic thought that
horses were cows
and then, for no
reason, she fell
over really hard!
a really worrying trend has recently come to our attention....’rural buttie terrorism’- apparently due
to the rain, people have been looking for alternative activities- this totally unimaginable and
uncalled for act of drive by violence involves the fully lycra clad cyclist and a car full of sandwich
weilding peasants- the intention is to aim a randomly plucked sarnie from the tupperware box at
the back wheel of the moving velocipede creating a fun filled fountain of foodstuff all over the rider
much to the amusement of some people- the chosen weapon of choice is tuna and sweetcorn
mayo on sliced white as it gives an impressive ‘hit’ comparable to a form of seafood based nepalm
‘hands...time and too much’ springs to mind- participants.....you should be ashamed of yourselves
and as far as the ankle injury....well it’s been a while since I last really knackered it- a simple step
down a grassy knowle at smallacombe resulted in me going down hard enough for the others to
start scanning the area for the sniper who administered the fatal shot- only when they realised
that no gunman was involved in my demise, they proceeded with the “oooo are you okays”- so..
as I lay there with my bag on one side of me, the boulder mat on the other, not to mention the
rapidly growing amount of pain in my lower right extremity, my gaze fixed towards bonehill as I
started to scan the horizon...that’s when I saw it...”what the hell’s that ?” I said
ndcc does not condone the launching of foodstuff from fast moving cars....don’t do it please
players of tunes, eaters of butties