UKC

Hi - I'm after some advice on Malham and Raindogs.

I climbed at Malham when I was young (20 years ago!) and spent a few weeks travelling there every Sunday with my Dad to tick a route - starting with Hartley Hare and finishing with Chiselling The Dragon all done and redpointed in a day. Raindogs was next but that week whilst at home training I tweaked my shoulder, cue 9 months out injured and in the end after coming back reinjuring myself. After 18 months out and continued issues with my shoulder I gave climbing up...

A couple of years ago I took climbing back up. And recently have started to feel pretty strong (not insanely strong, but strong enough to start thinking about what was). So I want to go and do Raindogs, unfinished business and all that.

Couple of questions as I talked to my younger brother about it (who works at Leeds climbing wall) and his advice was useless...

1/ When does Malham get into ok condition to climb? I now live in London so will be coming up for 2 -3 day sessions so need the rock to be ok to climb. Thinking April or is that ambitious?

2/ My brother said getting on Raindogs is impossible. Queues and if you're not good enough you'll get told to get off. He said I should tick some 8Bs before going and doing it! When I was climbing at Malham it was always a nice atmosphere. Is it that bad?

My plan is to come up mid-week rather than weekend in the hope that I can get a good few days on it without hacking anyone off.

Any advice much appreciated. Thanks all.

In reply to simonacarr:

1) I think after such a shit winter Malham is wetter than it usually is this time of year, but Raindogs is one of the drier routes (a pocket low down often seeps but it is common to put a plastic bag/foil in it). I was trying it in Feb-March a couple of years ago. There's a useful facebook group for conditions updates.
By April time I'd be more concerned about it being too warm on a sunny day. I seem to recall it gets the shade from about 3pm

2) It can be busy, but you should be fine midweek. I never found it so busy that you couldn't try it, but it depends how anal you are about sharing a route with others, having you own draws in it, other people greasing up your holds etc...

In reply to simonacarr:

It does depend how keen you are. I'm tempted to head up there this weekend, clip up it, have a look. Takes me forever to redpoint, just got a terrible memory for routes. Then when conditions improve, I can hopefully finish it off quickly.

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:

Thanks both, appreciate it. My original plan of hitting it midweek seems sensible then and as long as I'm not a dick it'll all be fine (climbing it is another matter). Maybe I'll head up in March rather than April. Will also check out that Facebook group you mention.

In reply to simonacarr:

There's a photo attached to a Feb 1st post on the FB conditions page and it look very, very wet

In reply to simonacarr:

Raindogs tends to stay pretty dry as a rule I think, barring the aforementioned pocket. Haven't done it but been at Malham on some pretty shitty days and RD has always been fine.

2) the atmosphere at Malham is also great in my experience, I've redpointed the warmup routes and never had a problem with people telling me to get off etc.

Ignore your brother and get on it!

In reply to simonacarr:

I'm keen to get on Raindogs in the next few weeks, however Malham looks grim from a recent photo. I don't want to climb it with various bags and towels hanging from it.

Re: queues etc, just get psyched, it's a fantastic route that you just can't help but be enthused by. A grump met with a positive attitude doesn't stay a grump too long (on my one session I shared it with two very polite young lads)

Good luck, hopefully catch you on it.

In reply to Wood for Trees:

I'm even more psyched now! Wood For Trees - let me know if you get on it and if its dry in the next few weeks. I've joined that FB group for conditions updates too.

Thanks all - as I thought I need to ignore my brother and get on it!

In reply to simonacarr:

Raindogs has always been popular but now it forms the start of Rainshadow as well so it is super busy. On the other hand the level of co-operation is better than 20 years ago. Now it is common to offer to let strangers use your rope or sort draws out for them or belay each other if it helps speed things up. I cant imagine anyone I know telling you off unless you were unfairly hogging the route.