toprope dreams

Went on another moors bashing mission with a relatively large crew yesterday. First stop Oak Crag and I got to try the move I've quite literally been dreaming about on the steep wall there. It was very hot and humid and I was pinging off the crimps quite regularly. It was ok though, made some progress with the move and did all the other moves on the problem (thanks to getting a rope down it). Need it colder and to get a bit lighter and I think it should go. Not sure how hard it is but the move up to the sloper from the position in the photo is hard enough for me:



The other guys enjoyed the routes hereabouts and had a dabble on the project too, nice.

Next headed over to Raven's Scar. Paid back some belaying debts before deciding to try Three Screaming Popes. Just got on it on toppers since it was described as bold and looked pretty dirty. Anyway, cleaned it up and raked lot of dirt out of a thin crack with my nut-key, uncovering decent wire placements to protect the crux section well. Got the moves pretty quickly, really good bouldery sequence. The climbing's quite similar in style to the top section of a different kind of blue and it's on the same high quality rock that's present in the higher reaches of the crag. Was late in the day but thankfully had enough in the tank to do it on the sharp end. Really good route I thought, 2* for the moors I'd say. In a clean state (ie. now!), it would be a really good E6 to try to onsight/flash/ground up. Guy got some footage so will try and get my hands on that and whack it up on vimeo.

Tom got the moves on toppers too so I think he's keen to get back and headpoint it, might head back with him to try some other lines.

All in all, a really good long day - good to be out with some more people having a laugh and enjoying the moors sandstone.

Francis Bacon's screaming pope:

^ some googling has revealed that 'Three Screaming Popes' is classical music by Mark-Anthony Turnage apparently inspired by some Francis Bacon work, so there you go.