UKC

Went up to the hitching stone to do a bit of bouldering tonight, taking advantage of the long evenings and nice weather. Some thoughts...

1/ how rubbish I am now. I mean, I was never any good, but 5 years ago when I was climbing more regularly I could do most of the tech 4c and a lot of the tech 5a problems I tried at Shipley and almscliff. Looking a the guide book, I was horrified to find that The Tube is font 4, which is 4c in old money. If it really does go up the left side of the arête, then I couldn't even work out where it goes never mind climb it.

2/ its pretty big. The problems on the west face looked nice, and easier, but were pretty highball for my taste. It's a long way back to the car with a broken ankle from there... They looked like they would take big gear, and were high enough (?6, 7 m) to be short routes at about vdiff/severe, but there didnt seem to be anywhere to belay on top. Will just have to come back with a spotter, and a pair, I guess... Also, some of the routes eg The Crack were pretty lichenous- in midsummer, after a fairly dry spell. Is it ever clean? Not that there's much risk of me being able to climb far enough up it that the lichen would be a problem for me...

3/ its got some odd features- the big cave and the cavity on top of the boulder didnt look natural. Has it been quarried? Also the tube- though I've seen similar features at Brimham. Struggle to see how erosion could produce these, but why would anyone drill a foot-wide straight tunnel most of the way through a big rock in the middle of nowhere?

4/ there was an in situ knotted top rope giving access to the cave on the west side. Odd- it didnt look hard to climb to it even to me, but why would non climbers get a large nut, and a length of rope, to give access to a small cave with a large puddle in it?

Anyway, a pretty impressive piece of rock, like a mini cubic block dropped on the moors above keighley. And only 10 mins from my house- sometimes I do feel lucky about where I live...



Gregor

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Yeah West Yorks is great for evenings bouldering. After the twee charms of the Peak I found that the austere post-industrial landscape took a bit of getting used to, but I grew to love it (and then promptly moved home).

I only went up to the Hitching Stone once, in the depths of winter. It was high, it was grim, it was green and it had a very cold moat. I didn't put my boots on.

I went up to Earl many times though: fantastic bouldering, but uncompromising. Stuff seemed high, and balls were often needed. Went with a rope once too - apart from the completely out of character soft E2 on jugs (what the hell's that doing at Earl of all places?), the whole thing was a write-off.

Shipley's the best though! Coolest problems ever, never a dull moment.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Yes,earl crag. The new Yorkshire gritstone guide has upgraded one of the moderates to v diff

Earl- where even the mods were sandbags...!

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Bumped for the day shift- any Yorkshire activitists got any idea why the fixed rope is in place?

And is The Tube really F4? What do you do above the break, couldn't see any holds at all, never mind ones I could actually use...

Cheers
Gregor