In reply to Cragrat Rich:
in the end i managed to find a willing belayer (thanks again gaz) and had about 3 hours at bowden doors. wish it had been more but it just gives me incentive to go back. such a beautiful place - one of the best views from any crag, great lines up lovely rock. but if (like me) you're used to grit then you'll be in for a surprise when you put your hands on those holds that look like grit and find that there isn't any friction (or maybe there is when it's cooler but there certainly wasn't any on a warm summer evening).
the breaks aren't all rubbish. i placed a number of solid cams that i would have been happy to rest/fall onto had the need arisen. or did you just mean that they are rubbish on the trial?
thought canada crack was excellent. solid but fair at the grade.
thought main wall was excellent. if anything a bit low in the grade.
thought lorraine was excellent. but unquestionably the hardest vs i've ever done.
rant about lorraine. i'll do this 3 ways, - the short version for those who like mtv, the medium version for those who like the independant and the long version for those who have nothing better to do than read it.
(a) Lorraine - VS my arse
(b) "Climbing grading system is going to collapse unless governments forget about anything important and launch inquiries into the injustices that have so long been perpetrated by locals in Northumberland". This was the message being repeated time and again by visitors to the county as they got spanked by a route that quite simply would not be VS anywhere else in the country. Said one visitor, "there might be a grading system that is local to the Lorraine buttress which qualifies this as being VS but in the rest of the (real) world it would be at least E1". This visitor was later found hanging by his testicles from a lamp post in belford with a note that said "no it wouldn't".
(c) Well it's just so inconsistent isn't it? Yes I agree that it wears its heart on its sleeve and there are no surprises, but of the routes i did that night, the scoop at VS 4c seemed about right, canada crack seemed about right at hvs 5a, scorpion seemed about right at vs 4c and main wall seemed about right at hvs 5b. lorraine had more strenuous climbing than canada crack and i may have got my hands the wrong way round but i found getting established on the flake at least as hard as the crux of main wall. the gear is bomber but for someone who's maximum grade is vs it would seem very hard to place - especially if your small cams are on the wrong side of your harness when you need them!
i tried to come up with lists of vs's that are harder and couldn't think of any. the hardest i can think of in the peak are alter crack and the file. lorraine is much more strenuous that both of these. the crux is harder than alter crack and, so long as you can jam, definitely harder than the file. ergo it would be at least the hardest vs in the peak.
i then tried to think of hvs's that are easier than lorraine. this was easier than the previous list. i thought main wall was easier. in the peak (i'll stick to classic hvs's where the grade is not in question) i'd say that chequer's buttress, tody's wall, queersville, eliminator, agony crack, valediction, bond street (do you need me to go on?) are all easier.
ergo it is at least hvs.
now, i can think of a number of hvs's that are harder (i'll start and finish that list with matinee) and i'm certainly not going to suggest it's e1.
which leads us to the conclusion that either (a) it is hvs or (b) everyone in the peak is soft.
since grades are arrived at by consensus and there are many more climbers in the peak than northumberland (why else would we have only seen 2 other people on such a perfect evening) then the evidence does lend itself towards the first option. however, i don't wish to find myself hanging from a lamppost in belford so i'm going to say it is definitively vs, just a bit hard for the grade. and probably easier to solo if you feel up to it.
can't wait to go back for more
