4 days out of 9 climbing with Martin Kocsis

Day 1 - 7th Aug - The plan was to go to John Henry Quarry, and we needed some action photos for the new guidebook, but the persistent overnight rain changed plans, and we went to New Mills Tor first, and did one route, 'Alcove Crack' (HVS 5a) and a photo of me on that will proberbly be in the guide. Next, we stop at 'The Gherkin' cafe in New Mills, both mine and Catherine's stuff was kindly paid for by Martin (on BMC expenses...). Next we go to John Henry, and Catherine also get a guidebook photo, with the ascent of 'Crikey Crack' a 2 star VS 4c. Finally, we head to Hobson Moor Quarry, where i repeat my new route in the previous post (what to do on a wet sunday afternoon?) for martin's camera, and guidebook.

Day 2- The day start with Martin and Penny picking me up and driving through the cultural heritage centre of 'StayleyVegas' on the way to Rob's Rocks, in the Chew Valley. We slowly slog up the hill, and climb one route at Rob's Rocks itself, 'Nameless one' (VS 4b). It was all going smoothly until Martin told me to stop climbing, and wait for the sun, and a better photo. "the sun is moving up the valley" "Almost here" and all that ensued. When the sun finally arrived, martin said, "oh, Drat, the wall you are on is in the shade..." All this time I'd been getting pumped, but i finished the route eventually. We then moved along the skyline, to a lone route called 'The Vanessahole' (VS 4b) which is steep, but has good gear and good moves, all went well, but an imaginative belay was necessary, opposing slings tied together...worrying! we then walked down, and drove to Rick Gibbon's house for a brew and cake. After that, the group of now four of us, went to Far Black Clough and did one route of HVS 5a standard.

Day 3 - An epic on Kinder south, which involved 2 and a half hours of sitting under a roof at 'The Pagoda' watching the mist roll in and clear again, and rain falling, fun times. We finally got one route done and walked down to the pub to eat chips and stuff on yet more BMC expenses.

Day 4 - Off we went to Crowden Great Quarry, up the steep hill from the youth hostel, I did one route. 'The Ghost of david Beckham' (VS 5a) on the opposite side of the quarry to the 35m wall, is a shabby little buttress with one 10m splitting crackline, this is where the route goes, and it was surprisingly good, with a beached whale style top-out.

12th July - Hobson Moor Quarry

NEW ROUTE - So i agree to go to hobson Moor with Dan Fawley, However i have done all the routes i can at Hobson, so i set off on a new route, onsight, with no inspection. The route starts up 'Dragon's Route' then traverses rightwards at the break, to a reachy dropdown move at the end of the break, it then crosses the next wall, and finishes up 'The Harp'. I climbed the route first time. I called it 'What to do on a wet Sunday afternoon?' and gave it a grade of E1 5b, because although the crux is well protected, with a cam above your head, it is pumpy and reachy to get to there.

There is a photo of me on the crux, which will proberbly go in the forthcoming BMC Moorland Grit guidebook, but unfortunatly i cant publish that photo until the guide is out.

A weekend on Portland - 3,4,5th June

9:00AM on Friday morning, and in the car we get, as lesson start all over the country, me and my dad are driving down the M6 foolowing signs of Weymouth.

When we arrived for our sport climbing weekend, we found the campsite, set up camp, then our next port of call was 'The Cuttings', an old railway cutting, from the quarrying days on the island. I had a good afternoon, Onsighting what turned out to be the hardest route of the weekend: 'Brief Encounter' (f6A+). On reaching the belay, i was confronted by a seagull with a wingspan of roughly 5 feet, presumably with chicks, on a ledge a few feet above me. I hastily faffed around at the lower-off and got the fuck out of there! Later that evening i climbed the classic 'Consomme' which is a flake crack which was a little damp, but also goes at f6A+.

View from 'The Cuttings'

Day 2: We got up fairly early, and walked into Blacknor North in the early morning sea breeze. Our plan was to work our way from north to south for as long as seemed sensible. However, by the time we got to the edge of the North section, we were both knackered, so we moved on to the semi-tidal boulders of 'Fallen Slab' and 'Fallen Slab Arete' (both f3) and 25m long.
Me at Blacknor North

Day three, we returned to the east coast, but to Battleship Edge this time, we didnt do much of quality that day, apart from a 1 star f6A climbed mainly for the name: 'Never Drive a Car When You're Dead'. we stopped climbing by 3PM and took a leisurly walk onto Chesil Beach, Britain's longest longshore drift.
Chesil Beach

Wet weekends, dry Wednesdays!

So recently the weekends have been wet, but the weekends dry...

Still not to complain, its better than nothing. So the usual Wednesday lot went to Windgather (yet again) and I soloed around, doing about ten routes on this occasion. However, the main entertainment of the night came when we departed for the pub in Disley, which involves a country lane over the hill...except BigDan had forgotten which road it was, so we ended up in Poynton! We got to the pub just as the others were leaving, Dan picked up his tent from Hugh, and i got home just after 11.

2 weeks later, Hobson Moor Quarry was on the cards, as rain looked imminent, however, i managed to persuade the group otherwise. I only did one route worth noting, which was a headpointed lead of 'Dragon's Route' (E3 5c), however it is possibly the the world's easiest E3, and the world's easiest 5c! Still, i'm not complaining!

14th June - Red Tips Rock Trip, Stanage Plantation.

So me, Liam and Brandon Copley and Tom 'Fennerz' Fenwick decended on Stanage Plantation.

The Copleys obviously wanted to do their usual pebbling thing, so we left them to it. Me and Tom, went routeing.

Firstly, i tried 'Left Unconquerable' (E1 5b) and got totally pumped and had to rest just below the crux, as soon as i got back on it i was fine. Then i went and onsighted 'Tower Face' (HVS 5a), which to be honest, felt more like 4c, or even 4b!

Me on 'Tower Face' (HVS 5a)

But the highlight of the day, was Tom's attempt on 'The Strangler' (E4 5c), i will let the video do the talking...http://www.vimeo.com/5170853

31st May - Millstone

It was just over a month until my next trip outside, which was a scorching day at Millstone Edge, a quarry just above Hathersage.

So the day kicked of with a lead of Great Slab (HS 4b), although there was a surpisingly little in the way fo gear, so i was over-joyed to find a perfect Zero 6 pocket near the top of the slab.

We then moved on the the Embankment area, where i led the first (VS 4c) pitch of 'Embankment 1' and with slightly more dificulty 'Embankment 2', which is also VS 4c.

'Embankment 2', but not me climbing.

I then tried 'Embankment 3' and with dificulty reached the peg and just clipped it, my foot promptly popped from its tenuous toe jam, my first lead...slump!

Finally i tried to toprope 'Time for Tea' (E3 5c) and i found the crack, which is apparently only 5b, really hard, and cruised the 5c faces moves above.

But i have an excuse for the falling off, It was nearly 30 degrees. :S

Wednesday 29th April - Castle Naze

The Wednesday gang went to a windy Castle Naze, and we had a surprisingly productive evening, most notably i climbed 'Scoop Face' (HVS 5a) surprisingly easily, after a rather polished boulder problem start. Dad and Ben tagged along that day.

Back to the glorious rain....

...but it does mean we have a good excuse to do some steep bolted limestone redpointing.

Off to Rubicon Wall in Water-Cum-Jolly dale, we drove, i had already had one day working on the route 'Rubicon' (f7A+), i arrived, started clipsticking up it, when i look down, and think back if you will, to the day i had at Stanage in the snow (earlier in the blog), I met a guy on the train and walked to the crag with him, we there he was. what a fluke, totally by chance, Luke Holmes had come to the same crag on the same day, to to the same 'effin' route as me, what are the chances?

So anyway, i topropes it a few times, to make sure i could still do the moves, and it was dry and clean. Luckily, it overhangs, and has trees which keep the top section dry, as it was rain quite heavily at times. All was good.

Quickdraws in place, and sequence memorised, i set off on the lead. quickly climbing the 6A+ wall at the base. Undercut fingerlock with left hand, reach round the quickraw with my right, i slapped up with my left, and then matched. clipped the next 'draw. the next move was hard, but not the crux. cross-over to a crimp with my right hand, throw my right heel up, level with my chest, left hand level with my right, and pop again to a thin pocket, bounce, and throw for a flat hold with my right. with my feet swinging off, it feel great, again i clip. take a rest, then reach out to a tiny intermediate crimp, before deadpointing rightwards, now, the crux, a lock-off on the crimp, and reach to a juggy side-pull. i have done it i thought to my self, pumped out of my face, i launch up for the jug on the lip, without a thought of footwork, and i fall, i turn round after a 3metre fall to see proberbly 15 of the dreaded ramblers, stood, hands over eyes, thinking i was dead...

the next time all went smoothly and i had lead my first f7A+.

The start of summer...kind of.

Me and my dad headed out to Stanage Popular end for the day on 11th April, and as we set off the cloud came over, but we were at the carpark by that time. so we wandered up, hopefully to Robin Hood Right Hand Buttress. between the showers we managed a good selection of three star routes, including: Hargreaves Original Route (VS 4c), Robin Hood's Right-hand Buttress Direct (HS 4a) the splitter crack line of the popular end, easily definable from the road, and Bishops Route (S 4a). Just as we started packing up, we hear and then see the Mountain Rescue helicopter, which was worrying abut interesting, on arrival of the carpark, the hilicopter is parked (or landed...) in the field nextdoor, near this sign:It turns out a climber had his abseil anchors come out whilst he was just going over the edge of Mississippi Butress.

That was the first day of a week aff school, so on that wednesday i arranged to get a lift to Hathersage with my mum and pick Ellie Boylan up and drop us both off at the bolt clipping crag, Horseshoe Quarry. But not after a stop in Outside for bags of chalk, one for me and one for Liam Copley, the owner of www.red-tips.com, who was going to come and give Ellie her red tips shirt on his way to Rubicon. Whilst he went somewhere (proberbly to look at a pebble, or as he calls them boulders) we hid his mat halfway up the cliff.

Me and Ellie had a very sucessful day, in between the showers of heavy rain.

A few wednesdays later, 'the Wednesday Gang' decided a trip to Windgather Rocks was in order. Although there isnt much i can push myself on, there is an awful lot of solo-able short routes. so i did that. and only led one route all night, 'Portfolio' (HVS 5b), my hardest onsight to date.

BMC Leading Ladder Final

So then, on the 6th April 2009 was the national finals of the BMC Leading Ladder, a competiton that had been happening all winter, i had qualified for the finals in 6th out of 10 places.

It was held at 'The Foundry Climbing Centre' and they did a good job of hosting it too, a big thumbs up to them, due to the massive number of people there, and the awesome route setting.

I onsighted all the routes upto the f6C which i fell off twice then gave up as it was just too steep and hard, at the end of an already long day.

I came 4th in the end. Not bad.

From Bowderstone to April...

F*ck me, I've not been on here for ages.

Since getting back from the lakes, i have been to: Froggatt with Ellie Boylan; went bouldering at Stanage Plantation with Jonny Davis; went exploring new problems on Cown Edge Rocks with Adam Bridges and had an evening at Hobson Moor Quarry with the Wednesday gang (DanDan, Hugh, Gareth, Lindsey and occasionally Dave, Ben and Caroline aswell).

Firstly, my trip to Froggatt with Ellie. It started at Chinley train station (as most of my trips do) at 9:12AM this time, for the train to Hathersage, where I met Ellie Boylan for the first time on the train. I had arranged to meet her through www.red-tips.com, we decided she would get on at Hathersage, and find me on the train, where we would both depard at the next stop, Bamford. That all worked a treat, so up the hill we went, with rucksacks on our backs, through the trees, and finally over the road to the crag. We started off with me leading 'Trapeze' (VDiff), and whilst sat on top, belaying Ellie up, i decided that i we would do no more leading as it was just too cold and windy up the top. So i dropped a top rope down 'Long John's Slab' which goes at E3 5c, i, much to my surprise, flashed that, after hearing a shout from the next route: "is the your blood on this wire?" this knocked my confidence a little as it was a route that needed to be soloed as there was no gear. Next we walked down to the infamous 'Three Pebble Slab' (HVS/E0/E1 depending on who you listen to)which Ellie had her eye on, so up the toprope went, and just as we were de-rigging that, i nice guy, called Mark decided he would lead it, so i fiddled with the set up slightly, and got on abseil, with camera in hand. Here's the result. Later, we sat at the bottom of the crag, eating lunch, as you do, when a woman, who would have fitted in the film 'The Omen' perfectly stood maybe 1/2 a mile away,at the top of Curbar Edge, waved, so we waved back to her, totally un aware who she was. anyway, 10 mins later, Ellie says, "SHIT, there's that woman we waved to...", oh, how we tried so hard not to laugh...! After lunch we toproped another route called 'Slab Recess Direct' (HS 4c). Finally Ellie decided it was time for her first ever trad lead, which went swimmingly. Video here. The route was, 'Nursery Slab' (Mod). By this time we were getting cold, so we trooped back of down the hill, and got to the train station 30 mins before the train arrived...ahh, well, it was a good day.

Two weekends later (22nd March) i decided i wanted to go and boulder at Stanage Plantation, so of i went, all on my ownsome, from Hathersage train station nice and early as usual. I got my shoes on, did a few problems, looked up, to see Jonny Davis, one of James Oswald's friends thst works at Awesome Walls Climbing Centre, i had talked to him a few times, so we agree at do a bit of bouldering together, one of the more notable problems i sent was Delivarete sit start (V4), a classic arete to the right of the even more classic dyno problem, Deliverance (V8/9). And that was the end of that day.

So then, i finish school at 2:25PM on Fridays, so said to Adam Bridges, a friend from school who climbs a little bit, "D'ya wanna go check out this new bouldering crag i found?", of couse he did. so 2:25 came round, we speed walk to my house, dive inside, get changed, grab the bouldering mat, and dissapear up the 35mins aproach from my house. when we arrive, it bloody windy, so climb whilst wearing gore-tex's we did, working along the edge made about 25 first ascents of problems for VB-V4.

Finally, we managed to get to Hobson Moor Quarry on a Wednesday, with Dan, Gareth and Hugh. I repeated stuff i had done before, and onsighted 'Gideonite' a HVS 5a coner crack.

Bowderstone

I have been in the lakes over the half termasnd managed to get about a single hour of climbing at the bowderstone, I did a font 6B+ and a 6C+, which both felt really easy compared to climbs of the same grade on grit. I really like rhyolite as a climbing medium and hope to do alot more climbing on it.

I also walked up Scafell Pike (977m), which is england's highest mountain and saw Birkett's E9 test pieces. I also walked up Skiddaw (931m).

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

I have still not been able to get out much, although i did have a 'unusual' day 2 weeks ago.

I was intending to meet the usual suspects at Stanage Plantation as they were getting a lift. I get on the train, all OK, The guy that normally take my money got into an arguement with some gypsy about how much ti costed to get from god knows where to chesterfield. so that kept im ocupied whilst i walked off the train at hathersage. Another guy with a mat got off at the same time, we got talking an it turned out that he was going to plantation too. so i walked up with him. Oh and by the way the snow was at least 6 inches deep.

About 1 hour later i was at the plantation, after many phone calls with brandon which resulted in him telling me that he was going to the works because he reckoned it would be wet, from the melting snow. He was right and i left almost straight after i arrived.

Oh and on top of that i had to be back in Glossop by 6:30pm for my dad's birthday meal.

Indoors

I have not been climbing outside since I lasted blogged, although i have been climbing inside a fair few times doing general training. Hope to get outside again soon.