Stanage Far Right, again

Stanage Far Right is fast becoming a favourite area.  Easily accessible from Sheffield after work, and the walk in is fairly short and easy - even if we stay until sundown it's not hard to get back to the parking.  It's also really nice rock.  After our recent trip to The Henge we already had desire to try the Huge Slab area so as soon as the forecast was good plans were made.

The Huge Slab is easy to spot and we walked in, landing next to The Cube.  A little bit of Head Scratching on Cube Left made me decide to warm up elsewhere, and I soon bagged the straightfoward Upper Cube Traverse before going back round and working at Cube Arete and Cube Left, comfortably getting them done.  At this point Liz was attacking Lower Cube Traverse so in her rest breaks I was trying Slots but just couldn't get it to work for me.  After a brief look at some of the problems on Huge Slab itself and deciding they weren't for me we moved on to Gripple.

Landings are pretty sketchy with a jumble of rocks at the base of the rock, and it's quite high, but Gripple One was dispatched On-Sight with only a few sketchy moments. Gripple Two needed more work being higher with worse holds and there was a moment when topping out when I thought I was going to topple backwards, but it all came good. Gripple Three looked too green, too high and too poor over a bad landing to even warrant an attempt.

Around the corner Ed, Kelly, Andy and Kelly were already on Gripple Nipple so I went and joined them, but was struggling to link it all up.  The start was fine, thanks largely to some significant reach, but going up from the slot to the top was not working - I was repeatedly chickening out of throwing for it and making neither one thing nor the other moves which weren't going anywhere.  I carried on working it while Ed was grappling with Gripple Graunch, and it was getting rather frustrating.  I switched from trying Kelly's beta from matched on the slot to Andy's beta of pressing down on the left hand in the slot and going for the top with the right.  Eventually my right hand stuck - just - and I matched the top and hauled myself up the wall with more than a bit of noise.  For something I worked so hard I was expecting more than a 5b out of it, but I'll take what I can.

After catching my breath again I joined Liz, Andy and Kelly on the Pert Block, going straight up Pert Wall then making a meal out of Pert Bloke by trying to climb it on the steep overhanging side rather than the slabby side.  With this pointed out I got up it and then ticked off Pert Block Arete too before we called it a day as the sun was setting.  All in all a good session, and just what I needed to clear the head after an indulgent weekend.

Bouldering at The Henge, Stanage Far Right

The weather was looking good - not too hot but dry, and plans were made to head outside. Plans were made over coffee at The Climbing Works on Sunday and we drew up a shortlist, which resulted in a decision over curry later to go for Stanage Far Right (often classified as part of Stanage Popular from a Trad Climbing point of view but worthy of it's own area when bouldering) and look at Easy Jamming (though that might be high and scary), Huge Slab, Henge, Snout and Rim.  I picked Liz, Kelly and Kelly up after work on Monday and we drove out to meet Ed, arriving to a beautiful moody peak sky - and a fair breeze, so I was glad to have packed long trousers and a hoody.

We walked in and decided to start at The Henge as it was Liz's most favoured area, and we could always try more on the way back.  The walk in wasn't too bad and the weather was lovely for climbing, not as hot as on recent trips so the rock had a lot more friction to it. We started out with Tweedle Dee, Steps and Tweedle Dum which were beautiful to climb if a little high for a first climb of the day biut landings were good and the rock was full of solid holds.

Moving on from here it was more of the same with Hook, Line and Sinker then on Slotted Wall it was starting to get a little more technical - nothing too taxing but on my first go I decided I had broken too far left to count it (verging on to Slotted Arete) so repeated it being careful to stay centre, then quickly knocked off Right Hook and Slotted Arete.

We then headed further along at took a look at the Quick Wall area.  I bottled it before even pulling on several times and we got confused by the topo, in Peak Bouldering it appears to stop before the top so we decided it was a matched top hold rather than over the top climb, and eventually I built up the courage and flashed it, but I think that was far too easy to be a 6A+ so I am guessing it must go further than we took it.

I then took on the sit start on Staircase Flake and then Front Flake before looking at The Henge itself - this has lovely looking breaks but is rather high so I let others go up it first before getting on.  As it happens this was a really nice climb and at no point did I feel uncertain but when I got to the top my heart was racing and I realised I was breathing fast - I think I forgot to breath all the while I was climbing it!

Finally it was time for a very rapid ascent of Sparky Slab, if nothing else because the previous area was very sheltered and we were getting bitten a lot, getting around the corner meant a bit more breeze to keep the midges down. I was really enjoying myself, the rock here was lovely, but the light was beginning to fail and we needed to head home.  I'm already itching to get back outside again, I have got my head properly into it again and I need to start pushing my grades.  Hopefully it won't be too long, but this weekend sees Cliffhanger and having failed to make it along in previous years I have this firmly in my calendar.

First outdoor climbing of the year: Stanage Plantation

The weather was finally right for an outdoor session in the peaks, and what a beautiful day it was for it. Last year we went out in February but it was bitterly cold and we got snowed on whereas this was such a gorgeous day it was easy to forget that it was still only March.

After a quick Parkrun (new PB, natch) and breakfast at The Pie Parlour Liz, Kelly and I headed out to Stanage Plantation to meet up with Ed and Kelly.  It looked as if everyone in Sheffield had also decided that it was time to hit the peaks and we were worried about finding parking, but as we pulled into the car park​ we saw Kelly who had just arrived and quickly nabbed a spot before a short walk in.

With no major ambitions for the session other than to get used to rock again we headed to the Pebble area and started getting to grips with some nice gentle problems on the back of The Business Boulder which all went fairly easily before Big Business had me defeated as I just had no confidence cranking on the big flakes. It was then on to the Bullworker and then the Crozzle Block, where I started pushing myself a bit more.

The Crozzle Slab (f5) went on-sight, but I had to really work at the Crozzle Wall which was rated at Font 6a+ so I was really pleased when I finally got it sent.  Others in the group had got more, playing at other harder and more well known problems, but I didn't have the confidence for a lot of them as I need to get my rock head on again.

We moved on to Crescent Arête which I chickened out of even trying, instead noodling around some smaller boulders nearby, when suddenly an Andy appeared.  He was running from Sheffield to Fox House and was crossing Stanage when he heard voices he recognised so dropped down to say hello.  He didn't stop long as he didn't want to drop out of the zone, but we did formulate plans to meet him at the pub later.

We were all getting tired now so packed up and walked back to the car park, driving over to the Fox House where we had got drinks in and arranged enough chairs outside when Ceri turned up to collect Andy.  As the sun dropped in the sky the temperature reminded us it was indeed only March and a rather tired looking Andy turned up.  Now huddled in all the warm clothes we nattered and relaxed, heading back to Sheffiewld as darkness fell. All in all a good day's climbing and already looking forward to the next one.

Check out my full log over at my UK Climbing logbook for the day