New Project
Saturday 30 - Sunday 31 October. This weekend I headed back to the Camel to try a project I had equipped. I had been told by Neil Shepherd a few years ago that there was potential for a couple of hard lines on the right of the Camel up a steep sweeping bulge. Others had put me off checking it out for myself with tales of choosy conglomerate. In late July I finally visited the crag for myself and was pleasantly surprised, the rock looked interesting and was fairly solid conglomerate. Abseiling down the bulge the lines looked impressive and hard but would definitely go. A couple of weeks ago I took a day off work to equip and clean the line but ran out of time before I could try any of the moves.
On Saturday I headed up early to try the route and camped out ready to meet up with Lindsey the next day for a belay. After some more cleaning I finally got to try the moves on a jummar. The bottom section of the bulge had a few stiff moves. I managed to work out a sequence moving right to a handrail using small slopey sidepulls and toe hooks. The top section had slightly easier longer moves on cobblestones panning back to easier vertical climbing. Based the moves and some short links I thought the line might be F7c+.
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Trying the new project.
On Sunday I met up with Lindsey. After some problems finding a belay stance on the steep gully I got cracking. I had a lot of trouble trying to link the bottom section and could only manage three links. Regardless I went for a redpoint only to rip off one of the pebbles on the crux quite spectacularly. A found I could do the move without it and continued. As I tired the top section started to feel hard and I could only manage short links with my fitness was waning with so little training. After reassessment I felt the line to be F8a/+.
With the winter chills on the way I’m going to have to get fit quick to complete the line. My finger has been getting stronger every week and I’ve managed to finger board ok, but have been shutdown on my crimpy board problems. Hopefully it will steadily improve so I can get stuck into some PE training again.