Dear John

Dear John, sorry went without you.

At least I can console myself in the fact that you may have tried to talk me out of my actions. Actions you say, oh god, your gonna do something, yep, daft. Well not daft, calculated. Remember Windgather, the VS, ROUTE 1 I soloed. Well that was the run up to today, tell me more.

How about a picture to start you off.

Jolly Green Dwarf 6m VS 5a at Baslow. Superb route. Soloed this one to start the campaign off. Nice route, thin on the ground for holds. Gear, don't bother, might as well top out than fiddle around trying to find a brass nut to fit the crack at 2 kn breaking strain, not gonna do much at 20 ft off the ground.

Dean comes up on second and enjoyed the route, banter at the top and we are off to the next route.

Oh yeh, forgot. Dean bagged Pensioners Bulge for the first route of the day in fine style. He's been after this for a while, well within his grade just a case of putting it to bed. I came up on second, chucked myself onto the crux with plenty of gurrrrr, no issue here as I am on top rope so it was nice to just push the boat out.

Pensioners bulge.

Let's up the anti. Actually let's go back a step, we also did the standard warm up. Innnnnner tube here we come.tie the tube to a tree and do the exercises. Warm those joints.http://youtu.be/uXPERAqyExw

But not before we have a little tipple, monster tipple that is.

Before any anti starts, let's up the temperature on them there soles.

Feeling good, friction is amazing at this point. Amazing to think,woke up at 08:30 with rain beating on the window and the postman banging on the door, and now it's climb heaven. This is why we live in the Peak District, it's bloody fab.

Up a notch. Climbed (rough wall climb) at VS 4c. Oh yeh, on second. Ok warmed up, again, as if it wasn't warm enough today. However the up lift of the air from Froggatt is amazing. It's almost like a glacial wind.

So down to business.

The pictures above are of (Coarse Commie) HVS 5a. This is an amazing route, soloed the route with a trailing rope. To be fare, dean and I discussed this. Soloed with trailing rope with a rack on the harness, so is it climbing with intent to place gear. Is that a solo, or a lead. Well who cares, I climbed the route clean without gear and all went well. Me and dean were happy with that, maybe the solo police might not be, catch me if ya can.

Finishing route, or routes.  Dean and I finish the day off with a tandem climb. Dean bagged (renaissance) at V1 5b, in old money E1. Bloody bold climb, and on solo, so hats off. I bagged a little lower at (resurgence) HVS 5b, still bold for a solo climb. We both topped out and decided to go down to the Outside shop http://www.outside.co.uk/ for a natter with john and get some chalk.

The walk off.

BASLOW EDGE, wow what a super place we live.