Thursday 30 October 2008

The Grit Conditions Light.


My car has a little orange warning light that comes on when the temperature reaches 2°C or less. Supposedly the frost/ice warning light, it is no such thing. It is The Grit Conditions Light. When that light comes on, one knows it is properly cold and the grit is likely to be properly frictional. A cause for much celebration during the season.

That light has come on quite often during the last few days :).

Bloody hell it's got cold hasn't it?? I've been out a a few times recently (including a cool "crack of dawn" start at Curbar), mostly bouldering or soloing, and some of those times have been pretty baltic!! With a bit of breeze in particular there's been some superb grit conditions and it's not even November yet....shocking. Of course, during the 5 following months of grit season (which of course is Lleyn Season really but that's not always feasible), anything can happen and that anything will almost certainly include long periods of rain and warm moist Southwesterly SHITE, but even so, proper winter this early shows some promise.

Stanage late Monday afternoon:
Curbar early Tuesday morning:

(I recently downloaded Microsoft ICE and used it for these panoramas - well chuffed with the quality)

Does my climbing show promise?? A bit, I've mostly been pottering, but I'm liking the style, feeling the grit love. And the elbow ain't too bad, although I might buy a handwarmer and strap it to it... Hanging out with mates a lot too, which is nice.

1 comment:

Sarah Clough said...

It was -3 degrees on my car thermometer the other day, can't wait to get to Vegas and put the shorts on, gonna be strange but GREAT! :)