hibernation over....let’s play!
waaaake uuup squirrels, the snow has gone, the nuts have run out and the sun is warming up the
granite!- well that was a long winter, great for snowboarding, pointy ice whacking devices and
avalanches but for the average sport, trad climbers and boulderers it’s just hardship, frostbite and
wearing a duvet jacket all the time-
last session of 08 saw us going all ‘little mis’ for the bouldering but it has to go down as the
shortest climb on record- the clue was in the fact that nobody was getting out of the car in four
winds carpark, a clue that became all too apparent when we started walking up the track-
a force 8 north easterly was bringing the chill factor down to cryogenicallytastic levels, even with
best will in the world, my duvet jacket said “sorry captain, I just can’t hold out, I just can’t take any
more”- (another pretty good clue was the fact that back at powdermills, our toilet and shower had
managed to turn to solid ice)
the memory of the previous day at the barn was a long way off, all we wanted to do was get a few
problems in and some footage for ‘ndcc three’ dvd and go- the saying of the day was “just take the
damn film, my fingers don’t work anymore!”
it was about this point that ironically the reason that I tell my students to wear helmets presented
itself dramatically, resulting in me sitting on the ledge halfway up ‘palomino’ holding my slightly
frozen head in my hands (stood up, five feet nine inches..four foot nine inch max headroom..doof!)
which brings us to 2009....happy new year!
bad, bad news about the George at Hatherleigh..we wish them all well and hope that the re-build
is going to be successful.....bovey woods has sustained a fair bit of damage with the biblically
proportioned bad weather recently which has seen the bridleway that seperates the woods of
bearacleave and stonelands getting HUGE ruts and craters from all the water- dartmoor national
park had closed it with high tech wood bits and tape but they seem to be down at the top end so
not too sure if it’s still closed or not, just take it easy if you venture in that direction
and talking of bovey woods...last sunday...yay, warm and sunny, bit chilly up top so we went down
to do the stonelands sector...didn’t start well though because as I struggled to get the boulder
mat downstairs, my knee decided to have a go at moving the unmovable doorframe that has been
there for several hundred years-then it was the coffee table’s turn...large bruise..swollen...BUT
WHO CARES...IT’S SUNNY AND NOTHING IS GOING TO RUIN IT
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
warm
not warm
above- just a few photos of our grand day out, I had to bin most of nics video footage as
she had a particularly wobbly moment on the red dot boulder where the top out denied
her access to perform the now mandatory pixie dance on completion...let’s just say that there was language...
A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
well anytime within the next few weeks- cairn rocks which have been neglected for a while,
really need a bit of a clean up- tools of mass destruction and a few people to use them would be
most welcome to get the bouldering here back on the right track
lee bridge routes have been fiddled with- apparently the granite blocks have been re-pointed so
the grades would have crept up from seriously hard ‘screw you guys...i’m going home!’
same venue has also suffered from ‘piton theft’-now leaving a couple of the ‘up/down’ routes
unprotected, so it’s back to the ‘slings and karabiners of outrageous fortune’.........oh well
still no second ascent of the whitepebble beach ‘smoothie boulder’ as yet although we mean to change that next weekend with the seaward arete revisited and the ‘dark side’ full traverse now
to include the ridiculous boulder bridging finish at about ten feet with a stupid landing- photos
and grades to follow real soon
still looking at the xxx quarry, the routes look good but the big quarry around the bend (no names
as they now have security to protect a dis-used hole in the ground) has a fence-this means that the stepped slab by the building is no more unless you can outrun very large german shepherd
killing machines