STOP

Stop watching this space

U will only know more than u know now.

I will, b changing your view on, @@@@@@@@@@@battlleoooooooooates

WHY, ASK YUR SELF

Just lookin ??

10:00 o'clock meet, no, not what your thinking. Just looking, and watching. 

Good friend of mine, Clifford Hopkins was meeting a new boy. A new boy to climbing that is, this was to be young Justin Leah's first ever climb. So cliff set up the top ropes and I merely watched. A little guidance here and there as Cliff is looking to do his SPA soon, Cliff Lowther you would av bin proud. (single pitch award) and he asked for my advice, which was nice. A most enjoyable hour spent discussing rope work.

Young Justin making the last move to the top.

The Holy City

WTF. R u on about. Need to know. So movin on.

What a roller coaster of a weekend, if your not a climber you will have now idea what or why we do what we do.

The weekend started on a bit of a, yeh yah no goin here there, doin an abseil. Ok wat ever. This is how it went. BLOODY AMAZING, finished work at 12:00 came home fell asleep, shook it off went out with Doogle for a walk. Ok now the real stuff, kit check, cool alls good. Sat morning bit of a sleep in then up. Re kit check, alls good. 13:30 heading off to Marple ie Rope Race. Meet up chat coffee and were are off, so off to what, mega abseil.

Yep, gonna go from the centre of the dome to the bottom of the shopping centre, 100 plus feet. Well iam not, the guys who have raised all the money for charity are, and must say what a brave bunch of chaps and chappesses. Not easy, so hats off to you all.

Hungar pangs started to kick in around 21:00, so time for Battle bar, god it's gettin borrrrrrrrrrring now. Never stop hearing about bloody @battle Oates. Well they just work. Anyway, I think it's time to move on. New horizons, finished my last bar on a high, literally (112) ft up. Went out with a bang, sun down, moon up, amazing. 

That's it, keep chewing and keep buying, good luck battle Oates. http://www.battleoats.com/

Life is an amazing space, you just need to fill it with things you like. We sent over 50 happy people over the edge, from 19:00 till 01:00 in the morning, god I love this work.

Finished up having a maccy D in Coventry at around 02:00 in the morning, ok William Swann it's not good, private punn.

SUNDAY

Now we r talking, the real deal. Climbers heaven, yep got bak at 04:30 in the morning and I've got a climb on at around 10:00 with Dean. 10:00 door goes, nockerty nock. Yep, dean on time. I feel like poop. So man it up, or MTFUP, private joke, john. 

Sick of these private jokes. So what's the deal, we are off to Rivelin Edge (The Holy City) very close, can nearly touch Sheffield from here. One word, wow, bloody wow. Ok 3 words, who's counting anyway. Never bin before, why I don't know, it's an amazing place, just wanna stay for ever. Me un dean just ran riot with imagination of routes to come, like a new world washed up in front of us. It never amazies me how the Peak District throws up new stories to be told and read. This is a classic, it's like we just started climbing for the first time, we are like children in a new park running round trying to grab each and every new toy, toy being the climb.

Guide book time

Climb time

Rivelin Needle, amazing piece of kit. Next time.

So, warmed up. Ready to push our boundries.

Ran a couple of routes prior to the top rope sesh. Left edge at a nice Vs 4c for a starter then dean lead out Face climb, super route.

Now for a bit of push un gurr.

Dean climbing hard on Party Animal at trad E3 5c. We've popped a top rope in with a trail to practice gear placement prior to the first lead. Alls good with a great run, no probs for dean. I ran the route, but didn't bother with the trail as dean had geared the route, so I just cleaned it on the way up. Not an easy route and hats off to John Allen in 1963 who made the first lead, 51 years ago. In fact bloody amazing. 

Never diss this type of climbing. Top roping hard routes is the way forward. Climb hard at your level, then top rope outside that level. See the difference, you will ,move on very quickly. So happy hunting, and remember, it's all about the stories told and the memories had. No one gives a fffffffk wat level u climb at, just enjoy the time spent and spend it well. RIVELIN EDGE, yep it's cool.

Wired with nowhere to go

So, battle Oates and Monster Ripper.Both mix well, felt absolutely super ready for climbing. 

What a combo.

Did a little Foot Selfie (@sfootselfies) while I was there, looking down towards South Burbage.

So got to North Burbage ready to climb, feelin great and guess what weve been beaten to the crag by the mmmmmmmmmmidges. God we were gettin eaten, we were going for Brooks Layback HS 4b.

Super route, looked ace. However, couldn't stand the midges so we ran for home.

My running face

Anyway, ref the Battle Oates. http://www.battleoats.com/ 

and the Ripper http://www.monsterenergy.com/us/en/bands/ripper/

This is a super combo, energy levels well high. Looking forward to seeing the results on the rock without the midge attack.

Re route ya routes

Re route, routing at Wingather rocks Derbyshire border.

Went up to my local crag today to look for new routes amongst the already routed slabs. Warmed up for a few mins then ran a few boulder routes. Went into the old quarry at the top end to the top wall which is around 15 ft. Some great boulder problems.

I picked out a super route on crimps, really small. Cleaned them off, used three crimps then a high left to make the route complete. Great afternoons fun, I named the route (lonely sheep)

Stand and be counted

Ok, who the heck reads this stuff I put out, is it usefull, is it just meaningless. It's a record of a guy goin climbing in real time. So, send some feedback, comment or something. Would be great to hear your point of view.

Crag Karma

People-less, absolutely still, not a soul to be seen. On Baslow Edge that is, curbar edge was another matter. Baslow is a much side tracked gem in the Peakdistrict grit calendar. Short routes of varying grades and difficulties. Super crag, well worth a visit. 

A lovely pictorial plaque showing the surrounding villages and crags.

Loads of history here, a nice old mill stone not fully completed. This now serves as a dog bath or watering hole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baslow

So to the Karma side of things. We did a little rock hopping to get the old muscles moving and the blood flowing, not that the walk up Curbar gap wasn't enough. 

Here's JB doing his Karate kid impression, more dingo than flamingo I think. So warm up done, Doogle decides to play CPR victim.

Save me, save me.ok we just pass on by.

We warm up on a couple of nice little routes on Gullies Wall, mod to diff and a finish on Route 3.5 at a nice grade of VDiff number 15 in the picture. 

We move round the corner to Right Hand Gully (Diff),super route really good fun with a nice hex placement inside the gully for protection on the move out.

JB Route finding on Right Hand Gully, not a favourite of JBs deep chimney cracks, so I take the lead on this one and JB does a very nice second.

We also did a bit of work on gear placements and balancing to points of protection whilst on lead. 

JB just starting the crux move out of the chimney.

Wobbly block time, Gully Wall. Soon as your up and on you grab the block and it's wobble time. JB sprouted wings at this point and jumped off. Thinking he was soon to be chased by a huge grit block down the climb, block just wobbles nothing more. However if you don't know this it's a bit of a shaker upper rur. http://youtu.be/Xq3FPcgDSmE

So if you've got a bobbly block just pack with a healthy bar of Battle Oats, that will stop you rockin.

http://www.battleoats.com/

Another little photo shoot for the Battle Oates gallery. 

Not just supplying fibre to the inside, but also to the outside. Super new extender protector and classy advertising.

Next target an old favourite of mine, Pensioners Bulge VS 4c. What an amazing route, can be an absolute sand bagger if your not carefull. This route has a very committing move out onto the face before you top out. 

Beautiful route up and out over the overhang. John is learning fast, he's confident with his anchor placements for belay setup and he's starting to think more around feet and hand placements whilst on lead. So all in all a great days training session.

Time for home, a nice couple of shots on the way back across the moor. One of some flora on the grit stones at the side of the path and the second a super boulder with some great routes on, another day.

Coughing, not climbin.

Days of gloom, fecked off with havin a chest infection. Carnt stop coughing and wheezing all the time. Carnt climb, carnt go far, carnt get into work, just got no energy.

So, from a few shots of Stoneymiddleton taken last week on a recky trip I thought I would put a BLOG up of what I was meant to be doing this week.

First off I went to Horse Shoe Quarry, I remember it was a super sunny day, no one about.

The BMC notice of rule.

The little track way leading into the quarry bays.

A panoramic view of the quarry from Stoneymiddleton end.

Must admit, didn't give me feelings of hope here. The routes are abit chossy, however I must admit, as yet I am not a total convert to limestone.

So making my way in past one of the first walls close to the road.

As I was passing this wall a guy was self belaying, about halfway up.

A nice little video for the picture above. Carnt add much detail as yet to the shots I've used as I haven't bought the Peak Limestone book as yet, not good but there you have it, said I wasn't a total convert yet.

http://youtu.be/CsdF5aRr278

So, sat here at home feeling shit thinking of what we should have been climbing this week. Oh well, there plenty of time, I think.

All of the above climbing would have been powered by Battle oats bars.http://www.battleoats.com/

Training away from home ground

                                    Blogger, that's me. Fuelled all day by Battle Oates.

                                                      http://www.battleoats.com/

Four men in a van going training, plus one trainer. http://www.roxcool.co.uk/ cliff Lowther of Roxcool is taking us to the local training wall, http://www.sunderlandwall.co.uk/ to start off this weekends SPA course.

 

Super venue with excellent facilities

Cliffs going through kit uses and technical data, lots of information ready for the main body of the course which starts tommorrow at Scugdale. http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=893 super location.

Sorting out the gear ready for the training session at Scugdale crag.

Walking into the crag Cliff discusses methods of engaging with your clients/group. Whilst heading up we talk about local history and it's routes plus flora and fauna. All important subjects to make the whole experience an enjoyable one, for you and your group.

Time to get supple, bit of team engagement in order. This can be suited to each crag how you warm up, different crags offer different options. Cliffs method was superb, really got the team motivated.

Cliff set us some pretty hard tasks in the way of anchors, not an easy place to setup at. If you want to see more then sign up on one of Cliffs courses, see dates below.

So the day was tough, but fun and exciting. Lots of new techniques learnt and chances to test those new found skill sets.

 We did get chance to run a few routes as well.

Next route Adam lead Oak Tree Wall at HS, another super route.

After a full day at Scugdale 09:00 till 18:00 it's off back to the climbing wall for some in door techniques which will cover rescues and stuck climbers all on top rope. 

So not easy as you have to tackle the proplem on your own using what gear you have or haven't put on your rack. Interesting as we all don't setup for this eventuality, or certainly very few of us do.

So day two, were are up early to pick up the guys and head off to Bowden Doors Northumberland. 

Bowden doors http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=824

Anchor setup, don't worry Alec is stood on terra firma not hanging off the crag. We had a great session here as again the anchors were not easily had or to hand. You had to think about what you were doing, and how you were going to do it.

Time to climb, and test our setup.

Next stop http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=838 Kyloe-in the woods.

Busy location, not alot of parking to be had. Cliff has a great GREEN policy, were possible the use of one vehicle only to reduce the impact on the local area and the crag.

Alec bringing up his partner, guess what. The partner had no clue as to what will happen next, nor Alec I think. Oh dear your second is stuck, get to it. Cliff looks on, and makes sure safety is in first place before anything is done. So it's time to use those skill sets learnt at the climbing wall, of course if you want to know more then book yourself on a course.

Rescue system being setup.

So it's getting late, we make up the gear and Cliff gives his feedback to each student as we walk back across the fields.

It's the long trip home for me back to Derbyshire. Must admit, better to do the course away from home as it makes for a super weekend away and the chance to climb somewere new with new people.Ten out of ten for the course, can't wait to come back for the assessment in September.