Racing the rain

Unsuitable for motor vehicles. How did i miss this sign on my last visit with the mondeo?

Quite a late start really considering i had this to contend with moving in from the south-west - it had arrived earlier than i had expected - i thought i had until about 4 to climb hence my vague optimism at visiting Brown-Beck and Ash Head but the updated radar suggested i had until 1 so I was out the door asap (10:30):

Now anybody that has been to Ash head before may be doing their maths right now and thinking this guy is on a different planet. for one its miles away and when you get there there is a 40 minute walk in. I reasoned it through that I only needed 5 minutes to do the route, anything else would be a bonus and i could always walk back in the rain. Buy my calculations i would have 1 hour to climb for an hour and a halves journey to get there. Now I'm thinking i must have a screw loose..


The walk in is tedious but easy along a track and as i pass Sypeland (another crag i need to revisit) I swear it starts to spit.. I've almost convinced myself at this point that i should have driven the car down the dirt track after all i drove a much more expensive one down this very track many years ago with no lasting problems (except it got nicked and burnt out a few weeks later)..

A view of Ash Head Crag on approach

Thunder crack in all its glory

I arrive and jump straight on Thunder crack the 3* route i had journey for until 12:10pm to get on. It looked good that was my first impression followed by it looks like a ROUTE route, not a solo. ahem.

Well what a good idea this was. One mat, no phone signal on my tod, about to solo quite a high route which looked a lot like some of the big VS's at Almscliff (which i have never soloed). I traversed the hand crack from the arete and what you can't see in the video is that it is substantially higher than the video frame. the bouldering mat looked small and i knew it would look even smaller on the next move so i bottle it, dropped off knowing that I would have to come back. Gutted!


I climbed a few other things, i first got on a route called The Horn a HVS with loads of cool protrusions but again bottled committing having visions of me falling through the roof of the shooting lodge which was just next to the crag. I lowered my game and got on the HS 4b of Barn storm, did the traverse but again bottled it. I was beginning to think I'd walked into some sort of sandbag central, I eyed up  a couple of other lines supposedly E2 and VS.... yeah right!!

Finally I found something i could do, the no star arete of Windy wall, it was pretty good actually with cool flutings and an exposed step onto a very windy wall for the top out. Good value - if all the no star routes are this quality then this place is amazing. It certainly looked like the routes have been understarred.


I walked around to a block called the Rhombic block and climbed an appealing little line called The Result a HS 4b up a diagonal crack and then a traverse to finish on a slab, the climbing was a bit dirty but I have to say really nice moves and situation, another no star gem. As i topped out i remember thinking how silly it was to not check out the descent.. great fun ensued as i realised i could not find the easy way so descended some cracks blindly although thankfully i later discovered were the cracks of Rhythm a V Diff.

The Result climbs the diagonal crack on the right before stepping left / crawling around the ledge to finish up the slabs up on the left.

As if like clock work the heavens opened at 1p.m and i bid farewell to Ash Head crag, not relishing the thought of walking back but at least armed with the knowledge of the quality that is on offer here. The routes in my limited experience seemed undergraded and understarred and well worth coming back for with a trad mentality and obviously a plentiful rack

.

Bouldering potential all around, lots of roofs - this one was higher than 6ft and massively long.

Pretty sad that it started to rain and i failed to complete Thunder crack

Looking back on Ash head crag the buttress contains some cracks called The tea party HVS 5c... LMAO... sloppy jamming to a slopey break.. Having a laugh!

 

The trusty Mauritius soaking wet after a 40 minute walk out in the rain - she ferried me home. Back for 3 pm (3 and a half hours travel for 1 hours climbing)