The Shock Of The New 2022 - Routes

Routes:

Wales:

Bryn Castell:

End Times

This was a funny one.... Ever since the cool new Moelwynion guide, I've been keen to go to Bryn Castell and repeat Terry's "Cantorix Is Dead" E3 5c **, up what looked like a cool arete on the main buttress. At the crag I realised - with some insider beta from TT - that CID actually goes left around the arete into a slightly grubby crack, not quite the line I wanted! So I decided to try the arete direct, it all went fine until getting my hands over the top above a micro-cam and slightly-too-good fall potential. I couldn't commit to the blind / sloping pull over, so reversed to a ledge and clipped in whilst my partner Adam H went around to inspect the top. A bit of brushing and digging later, he suggested that *I* also go around and inspect the top as it looked "worryingly bold", so I did. It turned out that there was a good jug slot that just needed a bit more cleaning, I got back on the lead, pulled over, and it was "worryingly easy". I wish Adam had known me a bit better and told me to go for it as it would have been fine first go. Still, it's a cool line, and name comes from this arete being a near twin to TT's "End Action" E3 5c ** at the far end of Carreg Foel Gron, just over the hill.

After this, TT and Mari and Ross B turned up, I already had Noodles at the crag, she escaped her collar to slither down a grass slope, then I watched Ross do some bouldering and Noodles started squeaking because she was bored and once again got told to "stop that nonsense".

Dead End

Another arete which required an "end" name, and could be appropriate if one muffs the final moves. Despite a great line higher up, this has an average start, a scruffy middle with hollow rock, a deviation to place side-runners, and the possibility to hit a sharp glacis edge - so why am I pretty chuffed with it?? Because the moves on the exposed upper arete are just so damn good, perfect elegant monkeying-up-a-stick via spaced flakes jugs and crimps, that will feel pretty committing but very rewarding on an onsight. This was done with Cian K who had joined me on my sole Red Walls adventure lead of the year, the typically excellent Communication Breakdown - the easiest route I'd done on South Stack for a while, and unfortunately highlighted how downhill my climbing had gone when I found it slightly more panicking than exhilarating in places. Anyway on another day I introduced him to the delights of the Mignient with an unpromisingly damp Bryn Castell. We decided to do further cleaning and play on a pre-new-routing top-rope to see if it cleared up, and lo it did, and the final route project at the crag was complete, and we finished by repeating Adam's pleasant Super Infinite HVS 4c too.

Lancashire:

Winewall:

[ Coping Mechanism / A Guided Detour / Exhume To Consume / Whump!! / Soul Searching ]

Coping Mechanism

Named after the amount of quarry cleaning / guidebook work I was doing last summer, which was my main coping mechanism to deal with persistent elbow injury and related persistent shit climbing ability - better than being an alky or a junkie or sitting in a dark room playing games until my eyes bleed, some of it was even good elbow rehab too. This was the first line I spotted in the now legendary Winewall Quarry when I went there on a hot summer's day after doing some cleaning at the lovely Deeply Vale, to meet R-man who was developing some impressive bouldering potential on an adjacent sidewall. It was far too hot for me to climb so I just lounged on his pads and heckled - but only after I'd had a good recce around the quarry and been impressed by the existing lines, and even more impressed by the potential new lines! This began a whirlwind romance with the quarry which still continues this year as I sporadically pick off established routes - it was genuinely exciting to find some much potential in a roadside crag I'd never heard of before. This particular arete has the best Font 5 climbing in the quarry, but the landing drops away too much to make a highball, so easily placed siderunners were needed. A tight line but fun.

A Guided Detour

Named because, well, it's a fairly circuitous, but with the right guidance about where to go on this wall, it's actually got really good climbing. This was a good example of salvaging a decent route out of an impressive face that didn't work direct. Trying to mantle on the lower sandy break leads you into a gearless dead end or too close to the rocky gully on the left, but traversing in from the VS crack is a real nice technical teeter that culminates in a bit of a jump for shorties, and then a fun finish up the headwall. Minus 1 star line, 2 star climbing I reckon.

Exhume To Consume

Named after the Carcass track of course, which I first heard on the legendary John Peel show, and also after the adjacent gully with some unfortunate farmer's debris in. The insalubrious gully aside, this is THE line of Winewall, searing an afterimage into your eyeballs as soon as you look left after the 1 minute approach, it would be a 3 star classic if it wasn't for the start. Originally intended to be gained from the adjacent First Vintage, more perusal of the start and some initial squirming unlocked a direct ascent and enough protection to make the classic arete moves feel reasonable - until you're on the post-crux final easier rock-over...

Whump!!

Named both for the prolapse-inducing lurch to a jug over the roof, but more pertinently in honour of UKB's glorious insect overlord Shark, who had posted a thread complaining about people throwing mats down next to him at Raven Tor (whilst sieging Ben's Roof Sans Kneebar - Day 8304) and kicking up dust in his face like the ignorant bullies they are. This unusual complaint about climbing ethics resulted in some light-hearted mockery, and me sending him a few videos / screenshots of mat throws around the Peaks. The response was an edited screenshot with the motto "The Bigger The Whump, The Bigger The Chump" :). Anyway this route was quite a late discovery after cleaning the adjacent HVS had me spotting a jug in the headwall on the left and yet another new line!! I didn't like bouncing around on the ab rope trying the lurch over the lip, which is very much hostile to the short heavy climber, so I hadn't practised that and had to work it out on lead, which was pretty satisfying even if it's not my favourite sort of move.

Soul Searching

Named because a lot of soul searching was required before deciding to place a peg on this route - especially in the context that at the time a group of passionate Lancs climbers were campaigning hard to get BMC North West Area approval to remove several pointless retrobolts that were ruining good, established trad routes at Winewall. I pondered on the ethics - including the general principle of avoiding fixed gear (I could do the climb easily as a headpointed new route without the peg, but it would provide more encouragement for onsight ascentionists), how it affects the experience (it doesn't protect either crux, but does protect a post-crux grovel onto a ledge that would be a groundfall), and the possible degradation of the peg (it's in a long seam and would be easily replaced) - before hammering it in as it makes a better trad experience for others. Were it that all people placing fixed gear in Lancashire quarries actually applied as much thought and consideration to a single piece of gear, let alone changing a full route...

The route itself was an interesting experience, I'd spotted a line of sidepulls on the seemingly blank lower wall, but with just those it looked too hard and bouldery and I was going to leave it to Dave "mono front lever" Mann. Then a bit more owl-like head-swerving had me spotting opposing sidepulls, a possible compression sequence, and nearby runners, and I had to hoard it for myself. In a twist of fate, Dave came along to do some routes and belayed me, went for a heavy beta flash, fell off reversing a duff sequence on the lower wall, only just clipped the peg, and generally had a jolly fun time and confirmed the grade and quality. Halcyon days!

Peak Grit:

[Omibozu / Bolt Thrower / Gloom Keep / Mobster Lobster]

John Henry Quarry:

Lobster Mobster

Named because the name is fun, I like nautical / marine names on Western Front crags, and it's also a slight reference to a Swollen Members lyric "...mobster, used to eating steaks and lobster...". Yet another route on the impressive right wall at the totally underrated JHQ, revealed after more extensive cleaning - just check out these pictures in the video above compared to the topo picture in the guide. I suspect this wall is now full, and now one of the best training walls for safe and pumpy extremes in the area! This line is a bit escapable as you end up on the edge of a niche shared with the E2 to the right, but still climbs well and is very safe with lots of cams. My other route "Pirate Error" E3 5c * to the left was repeated and enjoyed on a Rucksac club meet this year and the grade and quality confirmed - I then repeated Andy S's very new "Longendale Frights" E3 5c * the same day - a fun action packed day with far more people on new routes than guidebook routes!!

Cracken Edge:

Omibozu (aka Too Hard For Mark20)

Named after a Japanese mythological sea monster that I had been facing in the Nioh PC game, and Cracken Edge tends to require sea monster names... The working name is a both a play on Too Hard For Mark Leach and also a reference to the gritstone ninja who belayed me but somehow declined a beta-flash repeat.... M20 had original been pencilled in to do this project but when I inspected it more thoroughly I found it was feasible for a gritstone punter as a pre-practised new route. M20 did at least repeat my "Summon The Kraken", which I then failed to cleanly repeat on second, ooops. That didn't put me off too much as the teetery Omibozu is a different kettle of sea monsters, so I went for the lead, albeit with some trepidation which made it more rewarding (as well as the neat, delicate moves).

Oldgate Nick:

Bolt Thrower

Named because, well, it's nicknamed Cat Tor, the grossly inferior E5 is named Catapult, I needed an ancient artillery name... Trebuchet? Bolt Thrower! And since that coincided with the mighty Brummie war metal legends, I had to do it as a matter of urgency! This line is a right jolly jaunt and, as can be seen from the brief intro, probably the line of the buttress. I originally went to check out Catapult which looks pretty dire - a couple of campus moves above a leg breaking ledge - but finding this was a greater reward. Apparently it hasn't been done before, well it has now so if you've warmed up at Windgather, have a wee trot over the road!

Coombes Edge:

Gloom Keep

Named after Map 5 from Episode 1 from the mighty Quake PC game, a game which pretty much defined my earlier life when I was doing more gaming than living. Still it's a firm favourite and the very start of this map is one of my favourite scenes from the game. There's old graffiti saying "Keep Off" on the crag and the name just occurred to me.

Anyway this was a pretty significant climb for me to do last autumn. A few days before I'd had a major emotional breakdown as part of acutely recurring depression and had to run away to my friend Katy's for a night where I shuffled around like a zombie but did appreciate the company and support and dog cuddles. On my return I was still extremely fragile and shell-shocked, but the weather and Coel's availability aligned to at least get out of the flat and give this line a go - partly encouraged by it being a glorious evening for a crag with the highest "amazing view to minor esoteric crag" ratio in the area. I faffed around, worked it out, hadn't fully done all the moves on the ab rope, so when it came to the crux turning the lip, I had to properly go for it, and had a moment of unadulterated exhilaration as I did it (just audible at 5:30 in the video). This was quite a surprise after some very bleak and anhedonic days where such simple pleasure was unimaginable. I even managed to walk semi-normally around the Mottram Tesco on the way back without being in emotional trauma just looking at the other, normal, people...