Gardoms

On Saturday we went to Gardoms in the peak, I was pretty pleased with the choice as it had the fine Moyer's Buttress which I had wanted to get on since the last trip here.

We were fairly early out for us and Johnny arrived as Ali was parking up.  We walked in and then decided to warm up on some reasonable bouldering, the reasoning being that whenever I do some hardish bouldering as a warm up i find routes a hell of a lot easier. Ali showed me to Mark's roof, we didn't have the bouldering guide but on the third go dispatched Mark's left hand which I am really pleased with because depending on where you read its Font 6c or 7a. I also had a little play on Mark's proper a 7b and managed to sort of static what i thought was the crux, might be worth coming back for well at least to the Peak with these soft bouldering grades.

We headed over to Moyer's buttress, Ali went to have a go at the E3 of Stormbringer a heinous mantle onto a tiny ledge. I climbed Moyers pretty quickly and was very impressed with the route - it was superb, the move onto the face was just a giant rock over and great fun. Well worth the visit.

We then headed over to the other must do E1 of Eye of Faith. I have to say I wasn't massively keen as it looked pretty pumpy but Johnny was happy to have a go. He didn't commit to the moves onto the flake so i went for a go and soon found myself rocking onto the flake and I was committed. I was pretty pleased with this route as certainly not my usual style but went reasonably ok.

Feeling confident we walked to Crocodile an E3 with the intention of having a look. It looked really slabby and encouraged by heckles (Jamie) of "looks like the easiest E3 i've ever seen" I decided to have a go. It involves easy moves up to a couple of runners then a tricky sequence up to a small flat hold and then a coupe of feet above a reasonable break and the next gear. Falling off above the flat hold would probably involved a deck out but it looked easy.. You can probably see where this is going. Placing the gear much up and down climbing happened before i bottled it and handed the lead to Ali.

"I am glad you didn't lead this" Ali proclaimed having just had a foot momentarily pop going for the break. It wasn't all over and easily fluffable. I seconded it and wrong handed myself on the small flake above the flat hold,  pulling back on it wasn't easy and I remember thinking how i would be absolutely shitting myself f I had been on lead. We finished that, Jim had a go following too and then head back to Sheffield for a slap up Szechuan Chinese banquet and some of the hottest but tastiest Chinese food I have ever had.