May 29, 2010 George Foster

The Key to Reinspiration……….

…………is gritstone soloing dummy!

Had a day off yesterday from the ‘hustle and bustle’ of my restaurant job so went up to the Peak with my mate Nick for some form of climbing. We hiked the bags up to Stanage (which i hate – or used to at least) with a view to leading stuff then promptly ditched them and soloed stacks and stacks of easier lines with the crag pretty much to ourselves.

It was AWESOME. 

Managed to complete a little goal of mine that i’ve had for, well, pretty much since i started climbing that was soloing Flying Buttress Direct. It’s incredible. I led it first as to be honest it seemed pretty intimidating – think stories of grieving widows leaving wreaths at the foot of it and Devon tradsters full on sketching and lowering onto dodgy gear! Leading it is fun, but if you can climb steep 6a at your local wall then solo it (if you die it’s not my fault), you’ll absolutely piss it. It’s incredible….again. Hanging about on heel hooks from the world’s best Dolly Parton’s is amazing (apologies for the photo below being so blurred think i was smiling so much i broke the camera!). I think you can award yourself a smug little pat on the back afterwards!

We finished the day with a quick little boulder in the plantation where i managed a quick grab of Green Traverse, a nice little V6 amongst the sheep and trees. Yay!!!

P.S. Went to Wales for a couple of days earlier this week. Got horrifically sunburnt on Cloggy but got some nice routes done, well one nice one (The Troach) and one ‘supposed to be nice but is actually over-rated shite’ one (White Slab). Went up to the Cromlech the next day to do Right Wall but (notepads at the ready) i was knackered, sunburnt beyond recognition (forgive me skin!!?!), a little feminine, psyched out, keen to get home at a decent time, and not up for queueing sooooo sacked it off and climbed a scary-ass E3 called Memory Lane up the arete of Left Wall. I will go back before India though!! 

P.P.S. Heading down to Cornwall tomorrow to see what Sharpnose is all about. Hope the weather holds or i’ll kill it!!

Comments (2)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.