Yo,
The past few weeks have seen the ushering in of the grit season, leaves falling, thermostats dropping and grip increasing. This is my favourite time of the year, and despite the weather not being perfect I've managed a few great days out on the grit of late.
Through early October I spent most of time completing bouldering projects from last year. Its always a nice feeling when things feel much easier, and retrospectively I'm happy that I spent most of my summer in the cave at Raven Tor getting stronger. Theres a quick video below of some of the classic gritstone blocs I finished recently including my major nemesis The Terrace and the neo classic Mossatrocity.
Video of Grit Boulders - https://vimeo.com/51595830
Since then Ive decided to focus on my trad. My main regret from last winter was wasting too much time sieging boulders when i could've been out on grit routes. Ive been trying Simbas Pride of late and I'm keen to get back to Burbage South and finish that off soon. Otherwise, I had a great day at Ramshaw where I headpointed the Simon Nadin Classic, Dangerous Crocodile Snogging. This routes has some superb and unique moves and covers a stunning line. It shares the buttress with the arguably even more impressive Clippety Clop, I will have to go back for that one.
Finally, yesterday I made an ascent of Gaia at Black Rocks. Id tried this route once before last year but was unable to do certain moves due to temperature/general punting. But on Friday the weather was great; cold wind, cloudy, 4c, gritstone perfection! The lead went without a hitch and as I left the top groove I had no fear of doing a Jean Minh style swing into the arete below! I find it hard to comprehend the mental toughness and confidence that the people who've flashed this route must have, they are the true heroes without doubt.
Theres a video of these ascents here - https://vimeo.com/52278354
Onwards and upwards,
Ciao, Leeroy.
