Malham Ice Skating
Saturday 27th October. I had planned on getting to the Anvil this weekend but with a poor forecast I started to look further afield. Yorkshire looked like it has seen some dry weather in recent weeks, thinking Malham would be dry I contacted Owen and was glad to hear he was keen to visit too.
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The Malham catwalk, home to some of the most technical routes in the UK.
It had been nearly six years since my last regular visits to Malham. In 2001 I had a good spring season from Jan-April before the foot and mouth outbreak. Prior to that I managed Raindogs and made good progress at the starts of Overnight, Energy Vampire (both F8a+) and Magnetic Fields F8b. Having visited Malham a lot over the late 90’s was initially disgusted at its polish, hideous holds and technical sequences. I’d gotten over this by opting to visit in the cooler winter months where on a clear day the catwalk temperatures were perfect for redpointing.
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Magnetic Fields F8b, Malham Cove, North Yorkshire.
Having tried Magnetic Fields over several years I was keen to try it again. Getting back on the route it was a push to warm up on the start. The heinous undercuts moving up to the crux proper had been dubbed F7c. Refreshing my old sequence I struggled to work out a foot sequence (a common problem here) and link it to the crux. I worked the crux of the large undercut my old way. Stretching for the pocket back muscles strained and twisted painfully. After a few goes I managed to rework the sequence and link it through. I was keen to redpoint later but the weather had other plans as condensation rapidly built up on the face (from the weather transition from cold to warm and moist) making climbing impossible. In all managed the route in three links, not quite the redpoint I had imagined but I suppose its motivation to train harder as always.