Ascents in The Noisy Place

Mossy

First time on it. So psyched to come back! Slightly awkward size for me at baggy fingers but can’t get a ring lock. Excellent gear, took a decent whip going for the viccy hold. Next time!!

Hardest crack on lead to date!

Climbed with hands and feet exclusively in the crack this time, a bit of a contrived challenge to up my game in preparation for the Creek. Felt really hard.

Claiming 24 for my hand size! Tried a few times and felt super hard and painful. Really good though. I actually must admit that with proper taping it can go at 22 indeed. It was mostly pain that stopped me from pulling harder. Also the tree for a TR anchor is like 7m away from the edge so bring heaps of rope or tape

Felt quite easy but I struggled to fit my feet in the crack.

Felt very easy, perfect hands. I didn't like the top out though.

Harder than it looks from the ground. Perhaps the moist interior of the crack made it feel a bit stiff, perhaps being belayed by my 9yo little girl made it feel even stiffer 😉. Good little crack, will be more enjoyable after few months of summer drought.

So good to plug some gear after being deep in project mode over the last couple months.

Seconding Zac, taped first two fingers and climes better, more linkage, then on previous top rope solo attempts… Might be possible on lead with practice and gear placements sorted…

Aid climbing day

Lol, aid onsight, can't get over it. "I aided this route, without resting"?!?!

This climb was just 1.5 hours of sheer terror. No shit I've never been so fucking scared. Having a nut pop while bounce testing it and falling onto my cam hook did not increase confidence, especially a few metres off the ground. But first time using sky hooks and cam hooks and considering that first cam hook caught my fall, I'm sold!!!

What on earth is an aid onsight, let alone an aid flash?! Gonna take the aid flash for this one, lol.

3 laps - first aid lead ever, then another lap to jumar/second clean, then a third just because I love aid climbing now?

Came to practise doing it in a froq in my customised activewear, which proved most successful #doitinafroq

Feet are clear, so no need to adjust hemline #doitinafroq

Clean 19ish to the crux which aid/dogged thru. Holds have clearly been broken off in the past, leaving not a lot to go on, and "the hole" is not what it seems from below #doitinafroq

To extend the former paraphrase president's former saying, in this case "Ah smoked and Ah believe Ah may have inhaled, becuz Ah found myself at the top hyperventilating, but Ah do not remember how Ah got there". Yessir, aided thru the dang crux an dogged the rest. #doitinafroq

Hmm, fingers and hands still kinda work but my footwork sucks on account of my feet… Maybe, maybe.. but wouldn’t be able to stand around placing too much gear, so maybe maybe not…. See what happens…

Differences from the crack 3m right: lower angle, wider, corner, wall holds ... all good reasons for 8 fewer grades

Tried the pure layback and gassed out on last two moves. Blame the next door crack, not Science Friction.

More froqqing: dogged the lower crux, at least under my own steam, then hardly steamed up the crack. No chance of a frocked-up lead.

Came to train for Frog in a Froq and got thoroughly defrocked. But to paraphrase Bill Clinton's second most famous saying ("I smoked but I did not inhale"), in my defence "I sagged, but I did not haul", despite a dogfest more rancid than yesterday's recycled running thermal, rendered largely unnecessary by significant global warning since the last visit, and the amount of finger-busting calories expended. Even took off a shoe to try an old-school toe jam to no avail, layed back weirdly off crimps, opposed locks, sagged a zillion times and finally technically crawled over the top. Froq!

More 19 than 17, like The Prow at Cosmic, only weirder, with sketchy move at last bolt balanced on arete.

Tried to layback at speed and slipped off ... blame the conditions, and coefficient of Science Friction below 10° if you will. Or not.

Red lichen with 1 carrot at 5m - extreme lower moves with 2 rests, a shoulder-stretching pocket haul off a gritty foot sloper finishing with two appalling belly and chest-high mantles. Probably exited via Gomorrah, or was already in it.

Grey dry lichen with carrots at 4 & 6m, OK start ending in perplexing kneebar into high reach so piked off right.

Funny how climbing in a beanie, thermal, fleece and puffy when it's 6 degrees with a brisk breeze sets the mind on warmer things. Like hot buttered rum, and pint mugs of mulled wine before a roaring log fire. In the old Hartley schoolhouse, for example, the interior scene of which began to appear with remarkable clarity. In fact I could hear the exact tones of Peter Martland (who told me he could have purchased said building for a paltry sum in the 80s): "Stop freezing your arse off and come on down Leper, you old dog, all the usual suspects are here." And there there were, Crunch, Penney and Sebco, in various states of relaxation, with gravelly old Leonard singing "Who By Fire" in the background to accompany the progressive immolation of giant logs in the hearth. But no doubt had I arrived the old 'co would have been rendered comatose by an excess of the fruits of his amateur horticulture and substantial doses of Inner Circle OP rum, Penney aled on Sheaf Stout, and Crunch ridden home to the heartfires on his Ducati.

I have much to learn

Probably my longest standing project, mostly because finding a belayer for "desperate ringlocks with nothing else to do at the crag" has proved difficult... maybe I should change my marketing strategy?

Filthy and average.

Really should've brought reasonable shoes for the thin jam. But the ring locks felt solid.

Repeat, but technically I've never led this before. Downclimbing is a solid alternative to walking off lol.

Ordinary start and finish, perplexing middle. Not a modern 25. Hard DS.

Not a sandbag, just proper 22. Not a warm-up though. Boulder start and then very pleasant locks and jams.

Unfortunately you end up in the pod. Only shares one hold at the top and the climbing is good and sustained. The crux is hard and the last bolt is weirdly placed, I'm guessing to keep it away from the crack.

Crux seemed to defy logic

Top rope magic unlocked the crux sequence

21-25 height dependent. 22/23 for most. Multiple cruxes and nice movement. Tricky OS, specific beta takes out a lot of the sting. Stick clip first bolt for a sport route. Very well bolted.

Trou amélioré. Trois à deux. Not sure about trying to force the direct start. Quite the technical and pumpy top half. Very well bolted.