Robin Hood's Stride

It was a bank holiday weekend, there were no plans, and the weather was fine.  We'd been talking idly for a while about trying some crags away from our usual stomping ground, and Cratcliffe was one we'd highlighted as it is a bit of a different setting, with jumbles of boulders in amongst trees - almost reminiscent of Fontainebleau.  With others in our group having things on it ended up being Liz, Kelly and I making the 1hr journey down past Bakewell, and parking up for a short walk in.

We followed the Limestone Way until we could see Dorsal Fin, and walked over to Green Boulder before dropping down to The Lower Boulders. Joy of Ledge and Joy of Noledge went quickly, but Flake Slab and Flake Slab Arete seemingly had no joy in them and as we were warming up still we moved on and tackled The Arch, T Slab and T Slab Arete - a few non commital attempts at Arch Direct and we decided that the description of "A desperate static move" was not very enticing, so wandered back up to Green Boulder and paused for a bit of lunch.

Kelly and I decided to take on Short Arete, and after a bit of cleaning and a bit of effort Kelly got up it, but I just could not get comfortable enough on my feet to enjoy it.  I am currently climbing in either a pair of Evolv Shaman II which need resoling but it'll have to wait until after Font now, or an utterly destroyed pair of Five Ten Anasazi's - the Shamans are miles better where I need good feet but I am saving them for Font in a few weeks at the moment - currently on the lookout for another pair of Anasazis to tide me over as I'm all too aware I could destroy the Shamens if I am not careful.

From here we moved on to Dorsal Fin which was a really nice bit of rock, we soon sent Dorsal Arete, JT and JT Crack and then Vandals went soon after - so named I assumed after some fairly terrible behaviour several years ago. Potty Time really wasn't worth the effort required to send it (but we did anyway) and Flipper / Flipper arete were frankly terrifying.  I'd have tried harder on Flipper Arete were it not for the fact the landing was terrible - a huge lump of rock behind you just where you would fall.

After this we headed to the Main Edge and Muscle Slab.  Kelly got up it with it's interesting mix of slab and overhang, but I again suffered a lack of foot confidence and bottled it despite having cracked the first big move eventually.  From here we headed to The Square Block and some nice slab/mantle practice, finishing up on Angle Arete before it was time to head home for a barbecue.  We will be back to Cratcliffe, plenty to explore on the main crag which we never even got near. For now though it's time to wash the sunscreen off and fins some meat to grill :)

Logbook for the day