the great big little mis tor mistery
small-fun sized lumpette, residing on the left, half way up the track to an equally confusing
great mis tor (when it comes to making routes fit the guidebook, that is!)
we have climbed all of the routes that it has to offer and strangely, each time there is a fair bit
of conflict as to what routes belong where- “phew....that was a strangely mature V Diff with a
subtle hint of menace” it was announced to the world “yeah, yeah” came the reply “it’s
an HVS dumbass!”....anyway, there do appear to be a few variations!
not the first time this has happened- I took nic to great mis once so that she could try her first
lead on a fairly simple Diff “mistake”........well the clue was in the name because due to a really
spectacular mistake on my guidebook interpretation, nic crawled up “mistory” HS 4a-
I thought she took her time as she fumbled with her gear and started to pull ‘expressions’ at
the bold mid to high section-
funny enough, she made it look easy as she topped out and set up belay, but you can imagine
the burst of language when I later informed her of my error-oh how we laughed.......well I did-
we are still confused, and this guide may not be accurate, so if you are in any doubt, suggest,
climbed this route and this is what it is...but if it isn’t alternatively it may be this one then” dept.
the routes here were taken from a popular and much purchased guide for the dartmoor climber
......now things get a tad confusing!
Thursday, 30 October 2008
“my guidebook
doesn’t work!”
be warned-ponies wait for the second gear placement before they proceed to eat your stuff
1a
1
‘the cube’
a bit like the one at bonehill
2
2+3 start
3
2a
3a
2a+3a start
funky line-but whatizzit?
1“hidebound” VS
well duh! fairly obvious but
it could be 1a if you look
at it from a different approach so you just have
to tick that box too-
2”piebald”VS 4c
um..ok!...below was the
first interpretation, also
shown is the variation 3-
but then we gave it more
thought and came up
with 2a and 3a-
3”palomino”D
not too sure where this is
supposed to end up!
4
4”hacking”VS 4b
or so we thought-
there were one or
two other options
on this route too
of course- ok..my
head is starting to
really hurt now!
look below for the
alternative 4a-
it kind of fits the
guidebook again-
anyway...it’s yet
another route-
5”pony trek”HS 4b
kind of convinced
that this one’s right
..........maybe!
boulder problem
4a but maybe not!
6
5
5a well....we just had to!
6”pale horse”
HVS 5b
fairly obvious
certainly feels
like an HVS-
(does all of the
lichen give it a
harder grade
as it tends to
make one slip
off on the top
mantle?)
yikes...that took care of a whole day’s climbing and added quite a few additions to the logbook
(well way back in the day when we were busy filling it up)
so what have we learnt then?.......guidebooks- brilliant things to have and usually very obvious
at most places- if, for whatever reason we mis-diagnose the wording.....so what!- you may end up climbing routes that don’t appear in the book but may provide a lot of extra fun- you never know,
it may just be possible to be the first to climb a new route and send it in to the very guide that sent
you up it in the first place- cosmic universe eh?
there is some good bouldering here (remember ndcc dvd no.1 footage)- we took
ages to do a full traverse of little mis with another option of a full girdle traverse
for those of you who are ‘wellard’ and were blessed with teflon thumbs-
in conclusion little mis tor provides some enjoyable mini-routes- or highball stuff
for those who can jump 20 feet onto your sponge if you slip on the rock shrubs-
traverse
traverse
pumpy full traverse
but avoid using the top-
plus various “ups”
‘the dysfunctional tor guides’