The side panel needs extending but the gap shows how much steeper the board now is.
I still need to board out the top section.
I haven't climbed at all since last Friday until Thursday when I met the Guru at Kilnsey for another Massala session. I also had a secret plan, which I revealed as soon as we arrived at the crag so not that secret really. My current best onsight/flash performance was 6b, which is a bit lame and probably indicative of the fact that really I have done very little sport climbing, and most of it has been working harder routes. So I planned to try and get my flash grade up to something in the 7's, and there is a short bouldery little 7a+ called Smooth Torquer at the far right end of Kilnsey that seemed like an ideal candidate. And it was, first 7a+ flash, which is nice. Nice route as well, I'd recommend it to any boulderers tempted to try sport climbing it really is bouldering on a rope (are you listening G?).
Anyway that was a decent warm up so now it was time to get cold again whilst the Guru had a session on Massala. The I had a little play on the middle bit, which was feeling very steady despite my cold fingers, and then on to the first move. The basic idea was to approach it as a boulder problem, but with a harness on and rope tied on. Should I (or the Guru) hang the hold then the other person would quickly attach the pre-threaded Gri-gri and off you go. I was almost confident but it wasn't to be, the left hand sloper you dyno/slap off was a bit warm and it felt wierd having harness/rope on so my balance felt a bit out. Anyway neither me or the Guru managed to hang the hold and we got side-tracked on another bit of rock. But just before rushing off I decided to have one last throw, and promptly dropped it again. The Guru was the obliged to have a final pop, and landed the hold. Only to realise he didn;t have a chalk bag or a quickdraw for the first clip. We sort of sorted that out then off he went but the faffing had done him in. Oh well next time.
Went to the Cliff with G today, conditions were actually pretty ming. I almost broke my back greasing off Patta's Arete (which incidentally isn't as good a problem as is made out IMHO), G almost did Pebble Wall RH, I mean really very nearly almost. Next time, with slightly better conditions I'm sure he'll crush it. Feels a bit reachy for me though. Then we had a play on Fieldside which seemed really hard, I did all the moves but linking it wasn't going to happen today. I think it probably feels significantly more steady when the holds aren't damp under touch. Then we moved over to Caley, we had a brief attempt at Horn LH which also felt uber-damp, so I binned it to save skin for tomorrow (Kilnsey, get me a full on sport climber now) whilst G continued to cover himself in glory by cruching The Horn (having giving Horn LH up as a bad job). He then ruined the aura of climbing prowess that surrounded him by flailing pathetically on Mr Smooth. I had to head home then and now I'm contemplating a spot of DIY to fully complete the board steepening (apart from lashing on a load of new holds on the new top section). Gonna get strong or broken in the next few months methinks...
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