Wood, Rock and Plastic

Setting again! This time Milton Keynes. I always liked MK's Big Rock, it's close(ish) to where I live, it's fairly cheap, easy to get to, the staff are friendly, yeah it's a bit old when it comes to the holds but it's got some cool angles and some Silly Goat climbing holds! For many of you that don't know, Silly Goat climbing holds are some wooden blocks, similar to Beastmaker, but more rugged and different made by one of Big Rock's locals Steve Goode. Some of the shapes he's made are really cool and just completely different from some of the stuff I've seen elsewhere, from some wacky slopers, to some weird tufas. These are what I was setting with. Having no idea what the holds where like I took my time but still managed to get up all the V3-V5 problems that were needed, from basic balanced problems to some more complex stuff. I may have sandbagged a few but I did make some rather soft to crossover with the lower grades. One of my favourite problems out of this set was on the islang in the middle on the arête. It starts with this cool slopey pinchy woodpecker hold which moves up to one of the tufas where you then have to bump your left hand as far up as you can, shuffle the feet, put heel to right hand, right hand out to a good sloper, heel to the lower end of the tufa, and crossover to the beautiful crimp on one of the volumes, after that its a match, little flick with the right hand out to another good sloper on a volume, high left heel and finish. Really heel focused and slopey which is my kinda style! Definitely one of the harder ones out of the set but still my favourite.

Ridiculously tired after the set and test, a long drive up to the Lakes... luckily there wasn't much traffic but the journey felt way longer than it should've. Upon arrival at Kendal wall at about 10pm, sort a couple e-mails, kit the car windows out and a cold sleep in the passenger seat. The car is surprisingly comfy and if I could've been bothered I could've blown an air-bed up in the back and slept on that, but too much effort after the drive. As a side note - The refurbished shower at Kendal is actually really nice too! especially after a chilly night.

Saturday... What a disaster. After finding no one to climb with and no one at the wall wanting to or able to come out I head to Kentmere alone. Kentmere is this beautiful little village in the middle of the Lakes composed of about 10-15 rather large houses, a car park, a B&B and a church. The drive in is also pretty stunning and I highly recommend going, even just for a walk around the hills! The car park there is owned by the B&B and is just as a £3 courtesy thing. Before having to explain the next bit and others who have had an old car (or a car without central locking) will know this motion, but when I get out of the car I normal take the keys out of the ignition, attach them to me, open the door and push the lock so I don't have to faff around with them again or can carry more stuff out of the 2 door "thing" I have. This time I manage not to take my keys out of the ignition and lock them in the car... No keys, mat still in the boot, phone with no signal... F***! Luckily a local walks by with her cute dog and allows me to use her landline which in turn saved me! Trisha and Jussie, if you ever read this, THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! Mechanic takes an hour to get here and takes less than 1min to get into my car... if I had thought/known how to do what he did, it would've saved me all the panic. Exhausted and fed up, I skip out and give up on Kentmere for the day. Luckily had a friends to stay at this time and slept in the warm but on the boulder mat in the living room :)

Sundays time to shine... or so. Weather was beautiful and perfect conditions to climb in but still no climbing partner, which is a shame, but I head out to Kentmere again and remembering my keys, head to Little Font. Quick warm up with the sheep (that sounds totally wrong but I don't mean it in that way) and get climbing. Finger held up pretty well but wasn't the ideal place for climbing as everything is so sharp! Didn't end up climbing anything harder than V4 just to be safe but I did try this dirty little problem called Bass Line Venom (V8). managed to get the top but not the bottom with the dirty pocket. With it getting dark I head back to the wall to help out with the strip. Back to Si's house for dinner, a few beers and an intense game of Who's Who (a budget game of Guess Who) with him and his girlfriend.

 

Setting day again. This time Kendal's routing roof, circuit board and orange area. I don't normally set routes and over past year I wouldn't give myself the title of a route setter but rather a boulder setter. Cracking on I set this super nice flowy 7a in the rood, cool slopey 7b and 6a on the circuit board, as well as some cool problems on the barrel. After the set a very tired but quick 4 hour drive home for a nice long kip with a few days off then back to work again.