The siege begins!

Jo wanted to spend a day with me, i think she has got some random idea that this is acceptable from a mate who will remain nameless who gave up yesterdays sunshine to spend a day with his mrs... a  slippery slope mate!
After a bit of "discussion" we managed to get it down to Primark or Almscliff. Thankfully Almscliff won and we headed off to the crag.  

A disappointed matt and over-exposed photo next to Sloper patrol

I got straight on Underhand and met a couple of polish guys who knew the beta - i wasn't a million miles off but it became very apparent that i lacked the pre-requisite core strength to hold the heel and toe  on so i vowed to go home an do some sit ups before next time and sacked it off. Not surprising really as it is 7b+  2 grades above my top ascent. So i settled on Sloper Patrol - i had sort of done this before going right to left but had never been satisfied that i had topped it out in the right place so i opted to try left to right which is  a bit more logical. Jo spotted and i made pretty good progress working out a good sequence but fluffed the last moves and couldn't work out (or didn't have the patience to work out) the sequence to top it out - my wounds from yesterday were also not enjoying the grit. The polish guys i met had headed up on my recommendation to try Bancroft's roof - one of the best highballs IMHO at Almscliff. I wanted to have a go at Si's arete after they had told me some good beta for it. The Polish guys sent Si's so i settled in for a session, eventually managing to get my weight on left heel, rock fully over reach left crimp static then reach up for the right hand sloper. Problem is i couldn't stick it and it was quite intensive on the legs, having to pincer the arete - my legs were getting tired of squeezing. I had a play on the start to Bancroft's  - a bit disappointed that i had forgotten how to do the move especially as it had taken me 2 sessions to work it out a year or so ago. Strong polish man on sighted it with  a very hard method involving a tiny crimp, slightly less strong polish man managed to get to the top but dropped off, on the final attempt he slammed from full height onto his side but appeared to be unscathed.. worrying!

I finished up on the 7a slabby boulder traverse from yesterday and reminded myself how much i liked the moves, and worked out a possible way of topping it out although it felt hard and that wasn't even from the start. GULP!

So another nil pois.. I think my priorities lie with Si's, sloper patrol and the slabby traverse - i'm going to go and do some sit ups and leg raises before next attempt on underhand to get that core a bit less beer infested!