The Wainstones

Today me and me da headed up to the Wainstones. Steve and Karin had mentioned that there had been a flurry of activity recently. I always like to try out new crags and this place is only 45 mins away from my house so we thought we'd check it out. For some reason I never head down to the moors but I might start checking it out more.

The problems... We warmed up around the boulder with the easy crack (pic) problem on it, doing some fun eliminates and sit starts. Notably just to the left of the crack, the left arete/pillar climbs really well. I then did Redhead's roof, which is fun and necky. Very good at the grade - 6bish.

Then it started raining so we hid under the bivvy roof. A local lad, Sam had told us of a problem coming out of here at around 7b which I then flashed. Start on the bloc in the back of the roof with hands and feet. I then went straight to the lip but there was chalk on an undercut in the roof if you're that way inclined. Throw your heel round and a bit of a thrutch and bobs your uncle. The wet slab topout was interesting! I thought 7a for that one. EDIT - Just found this problem in this video - "Hand to hand combat"

I then tried The Hollow Sit Start from this video. Nice little prob, around 6c or + To the left of this there is a problem called the finger (pic below). At first I thought it was nails and couldn't do the first move into the mono. [I've since found out the established prob starts at the mono, not the ledge.] I thought I might as well try the move from the mono and got it about 3rd go. The pic was meant to be a vid but dads can't work cameras :p In my opinion there is a good crouching start at the lip which I tried a bit but couldn't work out the move to the mono. Someone taller would be able to lank it with their feet under the roof but I couldn't reach, maybe 8a ish from there?? I think the grade is a bit of a purely belter, about 7b from the mono. Fat fingers need not apply! Someone had also started cleaning a problem to the left again. I had a quick feel but couldn't work out a sequence. It felt hard. The ground was really boggy underneath so I didn't pursue it.

We then walked down to what was to be the main event... The big prow thing. 7a+ on one side, Cruel Intentions - 7c on the other (also featured in above vid). Unfortunately the rain came back and this time it was heavy so we had to bail. Fortunately though, this group of boulders are at the bottom of the hill so next time the walk in will be a little bit easier. Hopefully get back to them soon!

New sets at Durham and the Matrix

Last Friday I'd been asked to do a reset at the Matrix in Sheffield. So Thurday evening I travelled down for a quick session at The Climbing Works, it's always nice to check back in and see what's changed since my time there. Not finding anyone I knew to climb with I got stuck in on the comp wall. After about an hour and a half I was totally spent, having despatched a fair number of the 7's (though I avoided the hand jam yellow) and thoroughly enjoying the death star volume bloc through the roof. Anything that goes feet first gets my vote!

I was up bright and early the next morning and working by 7.30!! I met up with Kook, Diego and together we stripped and reset the wall. 75 probs in total. Not bad for a days work. As it's the first set of a new university year they had requested an easy set but I did stick one 7b+ in there on the woody ;-)

Yesterday I was once again up bright and early and setting at Durham by 8am. Thankfully no stripping to do here... and a good job too as I moved a load of the volumes around before setting 35 problems ranging from 4-7c This bell curve of difficulty for this set is once again shifted to the right (they're all harder than last time), however, there isn't anything as hard as the two hardest problems from the last round. So if you're looking to maximise your score, it's concentration and session stamina that are important rather than maximum strength. Have fun, any feedback welcome and encouraged...

The last couple of months...

It's been a fair while since my last blog. Here is a round up of what I've been doing over the last couple of months....

Firstly I sold the van. Sad sad times but after a little bit of renovations I ended up making a slight profit on it, just like property ladder but with vans!

Rosie was accepted to Durham University to study a masters so that meant we had to be located in the North East for at least the next year. With this in mind we swapped wheels for walls and moved into our quaint little bungalow in the suburbs. I've been keeping busy doing various bit of renovations and such like.

Not long after I'd been home the management at Durham Climbing Centre contacted me about building a symmetrical systems board in the centre. Training on boards has long been the secret of the elite boulderer as revealed in Jerry Moffat's autobiography - revelations. After deliberation on the all important angle, the board was built. 45 degrees and 8ft wide. Hayley, the manager had asked me to set the board so it was perfectly symmetrical which was something I'd never done on this scale before but was up for the challenge. The holds were delivered by Dan Varian from Beastmaker on Friday ready for a full day setting on the next Monday. After lots of measuring with tape measures and spirit levels (not the usual tools of a route setter) I finished it and set some preliminary problems. I'm rather pleased with the result and have regularly been lured out of my own garage to train on it, high praise indeed!

One of the sample problems I set

Soon after the board was finished it was time for Durham's summer bouldering ladder. Round one kicked off with a delivery of some brand new volumes. Myself and Michael Page set the 35 problems which competitors then toiled away on for the next few weeks. I have since set the next two rounds on my own and have been pleased with the feedback from the competitors.

People trying the comp problems

I've also been training fairly hard, and eating hard too. I've gained about 5kg which I'm happy with. The standard train heavy in the summer and climb light in the winter technique will hopefully pay off once the weather turns cold.

The project, more on this later...

Oh, and I heard the weather man say it's officially autumn in meteorological terms. Woo woo! not long till this dastardly heat buggers off, what what

Home

Well, we're back in the UK. The time has come to sell the van. If you're interested in buying it then send me an email or a facebook.

Small enough to park, big enough to live in!

Santa Gadea was really fun. The temperatures stayed hot which meant climbing hard was limited to the early morning or late evening. In the end I didn't do anything worth noting. I kept trying Yogano over and over but despite continually having my hand on the jug I just couldn't keep hold of it. Perhaps I should have left it and tried other things? It's incredibly hard to leave something you could do on any go though, and I think it is the best line in the area. I did do a lot of other cool problems but nothing that hard. I came close to Killer Eyes - the 8a at Resconorio but fitness, skin and heat were all against me and I couldn't close the deal on that one either. I did brush a project but didn't do that either. No doubt that scoundrel Richie Patterson will get it done while I'm away!

Lots left to go on this wall. Richie eyes up his next target...

The tone of this blog might sound a bit depressing but it's not meant to. I genuinely enjoyed ticking a lot of slightly easier blocs in a stunning location with no crowds or polished holds with nice people -oh my god I'm turning into a climbing hippie- Or perhaps I might have had I not returned to font

We got to Font in the middle of the Easter holidays in sweltering heat. Awful conditions for climbing. Though Adam Watson did manage a repeat of Elephunk, top effort young lad! Anyway we met up with my parents and decided to just embrace it and do some circuits. Circuits were fun for a while and then I decided to try some harder things and ticked some 7a's which I'd never done before but didn't really have the motivation or the means to try harder stuff once the sun had set. More than anything the general atmosphere of the place was more like a Eurocamp holiday club and I didn't like it. Quite a culture shock from the past couple of weeks.

Quite the family affair, we exchanged my parents for Rosie's sister Katie, who wasn't really interested in spending the whole time climbing so we adjusted our usual regime to show her the sights and sounds of Fontainebleau. At the same time Disco Dave Yarwood arrived ready for a slightly different tour of the forest (involving more boulders). Together we climbed a fair bit but on the whole it was just too hot. Dave did supply us with some lovely Mammut treats for which we are very grateful, thank you Dave!

Dave under and on Egoiste, Apremont.

To summarise, I'm a cold weather climber. I'm a sweaty bastard at the best of times. No hard problems were sent towards the end of my trip which is a bit of a waste of a golden opportunity, however, I did have fun watching my skin disappear in the heat falling off 6b's.

I should have gone to Magic Woods but the tale Spanish weasels scared me off.

Time to train. Time to work. Roll on an early cold Autumn.

See ya'round yeh!

Santa Gadea part the first

On the morning of leaving La Pedriza our gas bottle ran out. The last time this happened was in Font last year and caused one of the biggest stresses of the trip so far - it convieniently happened when the fuel strike was on so we had no gas or diesel. After last time we thought it couldn't be that bad again and promptly headed to the petrol station to get a new one.... Only to find they didn't have any. The girl behind the counter did say the next one down the road stocked gas bottles so we went there.... To find they only had one type of bottle which wouln't fit onto our regulator. At this point we started to get worried, our bottle was a french one bought in France, what if you couln't buy the same brand in Spain??? Surely not we thought, and even if it were the case we would just buy a Spanish brand and re-plumb the van (I'm a dab hand at van gas plumbing since the font fiasco.)

As we were about to drive to Santa Gadea anyway (3hr drive), we thought we'd just stop in every petrol station along the way until we found a garage selling gas. 3 hours later we arrived in Santa Gadea with no gas. Shit. Fearing the worst we stopped in a Mcyd's to check the on the internet stockists of our particular brand of gas bottle. Typical French! France only! Shit! So again we set off on the hunt for any gas, any gas at all that would fit in the van.... Another 3 hours later we had reached the French border. Massive gayness. The very last garage in Spain sold a Spainish brand of gas bottle!! Talk about kick in the teeth! We nipped into France anyway and bought a french replacement for our french bottle. 7 or something hours later we reached Santa Gadea again. Lesson be learned people.

Rosie crushing a 6c

This is what we found! We had a good day pottering around Santa Gadea, which is really nice. The boulders are hard sandstone, not to disimilar to Northumberland when its good. The shapes and problems feel very different though.

Next day we met up with friends from Pedriza (Talo, Roser and Dhana) and headed to the "gritstone" venue Resconorio. The rock here felt quite similar to Slipstones to me and the problems and shapes quite similar too. Resconorio is a bit higher up so it was colder, though we still went through lots of skin. We didn't take any photos but will go back. Lots of cool problems were done and I nearly did an 8a second go but right at the end of the day so just left it. We'll go back no doubt.

I think its really cool here. We're staying at Santa Gadea, which itself is a very very small village (church, town hall, 1 bar, 4 farms, thats all) We can park in a lovely spot right next to the climbing. Very nice place to be if a little in the middle of nowhere.

The best problems so far... (that we have photo's of)

Angel 6c+

and

Yogano 7c. There is also a "direct" at 8a

Unfortunately its really really hot. I got sunburned the other day. Its even worse than heat on granite in a way because at least with granite there are usually holds to pull on, here its just friction keeping you on. Hopefully it will cool off soon.

There isn't lots and lots of hard stuff here but I think that's mainly because it's still waiting to be climbed. The amount of rock around everywhere is staggering. I've been given this:

and been told to use it. There are a few things I want to get done first but hopefully I might yet get to do some cool first ascents. Richie P was here on the weekend and did a first ascent on the crag above Gadea (which had lots of lines left to go still). Always good crack and on hand to tell you how many apples is too many apples (its a kilo if you didn't know), he's heading back over for a few days soon so that should be fun.

The only downside of climbing here would definately be the remoteness. The nearest big town Reinosa is 30 - 40 mins away and is the only place apart from tiny rip off corner shop in Arija to buy stuff. It seems like they've only just invented the wheel in this part of Spain, nevermind wifi. I'm writing this in the local library :(

Anyway, enough whinning. More climbing. I promise to take some more photos. The more intelectually gifted among you will have found links to my flickr page via the above photo's if you want to see the rubbish shots too.

¡Saludos!

La Pedriza mola

The end is nigh, tonight is our last night here. We've had a really good time climbing here. The park, called la Pedriza, is simply beautiful, full of pine forests and rivers and of course tons and tons of granite boulders! There is loads of potential for new blocs and even opening whole new areas. However, we had been rather preoccupied with trying such classic lines as "I want to believe", "el groucho", "el chulo", "air"... the list is rather long! At present there is no guidebook, (something which our wonderful hosts Talo and Roser are currently working on) but the website www.entreansias.blogspot.com is fantastic for topos, news and general information. So come and have a go, if you think your (skin is) is hard enough ;-)

It's fair to say we were a bit unlucky with the weather, a rather unusual amount of rain and a couple of really hot days (see below)

On the plus side the granite dries out really really quickly, so we've managed to get some really good problems done. For me the standouts were: El Chulo sit, 7a (below)

P1000232, a photo by michaelstainthorpe on Flickr.

I want to believe 7a+ - stunning (below)

P1000269, a photo by michaelstainthorpe on Flickr.

At 7c "Air"

was the only hard thing I did, though it wasn´t for lack of trying. Groucho 7c, Far West 8a and Viajero 8a? all had one sessions work (though not in good conditions!!) but eluded me. I guess it just means there are things to go back for!

A bit of info if anyone is considering a trip:

-March was a little hot and wet for me so maybe go a colder month, though watch out for snow!
-Staying in a van is fine, or there are hostels and hotels and a campsite in the nearest town to the park, Manzanares el real. There is also a good supermarket there (Eroski) and plenty restaurants/cafes etc and also a very well stocked climbing shop. The town is quite small so you can just walk around till you find what you're after.
-La Pedriza itself is a national park and can get (very) busy with walkers on a weekend if the weather is nice so watch for that, weekdays are fine. Also, there is a handy stream running through if you are staying in a van.
-There is no bouldering guide as yet but this website has lots of topos and even a cool interactive map on it. There is a guide being written and I'm sure that website will have info on that when it is published!

La Pedriza is hot hot hot

You´d have thought we might have guessed it but we were lied to by the weather forecast! Indeed La Pedriza is awesome, there is so much rock here it´s amazing. However, the rock is very rough and considering I was struggling with skin in font in colder temperatures it´s no surprise I´m a bit hesitant to do too much at once. Goes are precious. Rosie is already climbing with all her fngers taped (though because the rock is so rough you can still climb quite well - I flashed 7a yesterday with this method). I think if I had a full "proper" session on a problem I would be bleeding from every tip.

The first day here was really nice, very cloudy and alot of wind meant it was seriously cold. I did a cool 7c roof thing called La Belen. The ascent was just in time to make it into this video, which also has some other cool things in from La Pedriza:

Granit Playground from Talo Martin on Vimeo.

Other good lines we´ve seen here are:
I want to belive 7a (Amazing. Hopefully have a video of Rosie doing this soon).
Groucho 7c (vid here)
El Chulo 7a
And one I´ve only seen a video of but want to try: Far West 8a

Unfortunately though on the morning of my birthday I had a wee look at my thermometer and it was reading 45 degress C (in the sun). Apparently it was forecast to snow the other day too? I hope it does cool down but at the moment I´m in full summer gear (shorts t-shirt flip flops) and more motivated to sit and eat olives and drink beer. Hopefully it will turn cold again!

Speaking of colder temperatures here´s the vid of me doing Les Beaux Quartiers in Font.

Les Beaux Quartiers 8a from Michael Stainthorpe on Vimeo.

If you are interested in bouldering in La Pedriza check out http://entreansias.blogspot.com/
Also, thank you very much to Talo and Roser for cooking me a lovely paella style thing for my birthday the other night, it was lush! And also thankyou for being our guides. You have been amazing!