A tale of two days

Well a weekend of two halves. Saturday was a poor day at Trowbarrow. Although conditions were top I fell off the pit problem lot’s of times and had similar luck on Vitruvian Man. Not much more to say about the day.
Sunday was much better. I hooked up with Tom and Greg for a St Bees fix. An early start meant we were at the car park for the south head by 10.30. High tide was 11 so we had to head over the cliff top path, down the fisherman ropes and landed up at the Cave boulder area. Although it was baltic in the car park the magical weather trapping powers of St bees meant it was warm and it was pleasant to do a few warm ups in the Sun.


Greg on the Cave Boulder

After team sends on Hueco Curve it was time to brave the decent down into the Cove area. Tom wanted to try the excellent arête of Killer bee but the tide was still high so it was pretty impossible. As the guys had a look around I got on the Kraken and to my surprise I got it first go. This was a bloody relieve as I had had a couple of battles on it before with no luck.


Me attempting the Kraken on a previous visit (c) G.Chapman

We then dropped down onto the platform of the Cryptozoo area. Tom and I got stuck into trying dead calm. A cool wall problem that involves a dead point to a match stick edge crimp. As conditions were good Greg decided to reclimb his Supposition test. This climbs the blunt diagonally right trending rib and involves using a poor sloper on the arête. When this was climbed in summer the sloper was hard to use but today Greg managed to get into the finishing hold first go only to be spat off as the bottom of it snapped off. Greg declared the sloper to be in mint conditions so me and Tom got sucked in. With the beta Tom got it first go and then Greg soon followed. I made slow progress at first finding the heel toe hard to use. Then it all worked and to my surprise I found myself topping out this excellent problem. Conditions were good and as such Greg and Tom felt it was significantly easier than when first done in the summer of 2009 possibly 7b/+.

Me getting it right on Supposition test

Tom and I then returned to dead calm. After Tom stopped pissing around trying to static it and committed to the dead point sequence he got it sent. A couple more goes and I managed hit the edge and top it out. Ace it was turning from a good to a very good day.

Me attempting Dead Calm on a previous visit (c) G.Chapman

After a sandwich (Chicken Mayo for food connoisseurs) it was time to have a lesson in balance and mantling on the majestic scoop. Tom lanked his way up it with grace, Greg got it pretty quickly and then after 5 or 6 goes I managed just to stretch my way up and just catch the good hold. Another very good problem in the bag. Bo!
We then headed back to the cove for Tom to try killer bee. Tom opted to use the heel round the arête beta for this problem. His first go was pretty good and he looked close but a few goes later it wasn’t looking good. He’d split a tip and the holds were in the Sun. But he really wanted it and taped up so he could hold the crimp. A few more goes and he caught the high arête hold and then latched the top. Cool. Greg then showed us the other method which involves a big dynamic move from the starting arête hold and the starting crimp to the top. This looks like a really ace move.

Tom on Killer Bee

Then it was time to head off to Sinbad’s Wall way round the coast for some new problem sending. Greg climbed three new good looking wall problems and Tom managed another one to add to the tally of good problems at St Bees. I opted to rest here as I had another problem in mind.
As the sun was setting and on the way back to the car we stopped off at the Liberty's End Boulder for the final flurry of activity for the day. Tom demonstrated Iron hide stand up for me this was a problem I had failed on earlier in the year. Today was different and after a few shit attempts I was flopping over the top for my final tick of the day.
An excellent day out coke and smiles all round.