Up tut North

Heading up to the Peaks again, this time to Curbar with my eyes set on Gorilla Warfare (7a). The plan was to head down for the week and visit other places such at The Roaches but unfortunately could convince others to join for some out of season grit. Luckily my girlfriend was willing to join me, this being her first outdoor bouldering adventure and she done really well considering she has only been climbing for about a month and mainly top roping.

Headed over on Sunday morning at about 7am, got there at about 10:30 and the weather was perfect, nice warm and dry with a good bit of wind. Warmed up then attempted Gorilla. I spent probably about an hour and a half (including rests) working the route and I had it in 2 sections that overlapped but I didn't know why I couldn't link it all. Tired and getting chilly from the wind we ventured back to the car for lunch, planned what to do for the evening and decided to give Gorllia Warfare another go. Got on it and smashed it first go... Typical. I should've realised this by now that going away for a bit and coming back works wonders - also the magical powers of bread and houmous. Off to Burbage for the next instalment of the trip.

Here's the Instagram video of me on Gorilla Warfare

Over at Burbage the psych levels started to drop, I only warmed up but this gave Frankie a chance to pull on some boulders and work hard. We even had a look at a weird off-width boulder problem graded something like V0- and couldn't even understand how. With the wind starting to pick up and sun going down over the valley we called it off early and headed back to the car.

To save money and to test things out, I converting the car into a place to sleep without the need of a tent. It worked pretty well at the beginning of the night with the air bed in the boot and back seat, boulder mat wedged in the footwell. Then the problems start to begin. Comfy in the back about to watch a movie, we both need the loo which is entertaining trying to get out a 2 door car with the front seats folded forward, a fully pumped air bed, and no internal boot release. A decent night overall apart from the early wake up at about 5am with the sun blasting through the rear windscreen (I forgot about curtains). Tipping it down with rain we decided to call off the trip and head home.

For anyone who heads up to the Peaks I highly suggest wild camping and watch the sun set over the valley as it's pretty amazing!