Mad Sheep and Englishmen

A very hot day and another venue to check out - White Stone Crag - well that's what it says on the OS map! look more like boulders to me? The boulders are just south of Stoney Wicks on the Scugdale edge, you can see the large West face boulder in the distance as you head towards the Horse Hole valley.
On arrival after a quick scout through the thick bracken round the boulders and across Rank Edge below the White Stone Boulders, We decided to get the mat out on the Humble Boulder (Topo Here) adding a line on the right hand end using a faint crimp and pocket - no arete

Toe Jam - Font 6a - Humble Boulder

Next onto the west face of the flutings boulder, attempting a hard sit start to the left of the Picture but no success! so settled for a stand on a nice problem with a spicy top out.....

Nice and Spicy - F5+ - Flutings Boulder

The Prowler - SS Font 6a - The Prow Boulder

A traverse can be done to the left from sit finishing up Prowler

The best problem for me on the day was Pusillanimous SS Font 6b** on the prow of the Ripples Boulder - Trying to get round a big sloping bulge was very tricky hard work in the heat! well worth it.

Pusillanimous - SS Font 6b** - The Ripples Boulder

Pusillanimous Top out 

West Wall Central project

Feet sorted and pulling for the next even smaller Hold  

The West Wall had two project lines as far as I could see - The Central wall finishing up the sloping rail and the left hand end without the arete - both projects need a good clean and the left end may have some loose flakes? so take a rope to clean it.

In all the boulders were quite sandy and in need of a clean - yet they kept us entertained and the view of Scugdale was priceless.

The Best so Far

Half a year into exploring the bouldering potential of the North Yorkshire Moors and the experience has been more enjoyable than I expected it to be, Thanks to the inspired Ram-Man, Dooge and Franco, cheers lads, and after finding some what I think is pretty world class bouldering, on some quite isolated problems, yet awe-inspiring sandstone,  anyway here is a hit list of the best so far and the odd project. (shown below in bold)

The Prow, 7a, Wainstones
Body of a Greek God, 6c, Wainstones
Submariner, 6b+, Captain Cooks Crag
Lion Arete, 6a+, Rosedale
Rosedale Monologue, 6b, Rosedale
Rosedale Monolith, Central Route 7b upwards, Rosedale
Philleas Fogg, 7A, Camp Hill
Body Torque, 7B+, Stormy Hall
42, 7A+, Tranmire
Oak Wall, Somewhere 7B upwards, Oak Crag
Oak Wall Arete, 7B upwards, Oak Crag
Strict Arete, SS 7A+, Camp Hill
Knee Deep, 6a+, Camp Hill
Waylander, 6C+, Ingleby
Pannierman's Arete, 6B+, Round Crag
The Hunted, 7A+, Goathland
Elephantitis, 7a, Hagg House Boulders
Corpus Hypercubus, 7a+, Dali Boulders
Corpus Hypercubus Extention (Dare I say in the 8's), Dali Boulders
Thor, 7a, Thorgill Boulders
Torsång, 6c+, Thorgill Crag
Piton Crack, 7b upwards, Ravensdale
Desperate Dan, 6c, Ravensdale
Keyhole Surgery, 7a+, Ravensdale
Beacoup de Gifle, 6b, Duck Boulders
Project, 6c upwards, 2nd Buttress, Bridestones (shown below)

Early in the year at the Bridestones

Blog re-vamp and Dreams of Wicklow

Five weeks to Ireland and have started researching and investigating some of amazing granite monster blocks, around the Wicklow Mountains, with no fear of the midge, I cannot wait, it looks stunning!

On the home front Ram-Man has managed the sit start to a great moors test piece, well done mate.

 Body Torque Font 7b+*** at Stormy Hall

Ram Man on Vimeo.

A Surreal Obsession with Landscape

After last weeks visit to High Crag, another visit was on the cards, with a good crew to try last weeks finds, which they seemed to enjoy!
We had a second sweep of the boulders in High Woods, working out what could be worth cleaning up to get a worthwhile circuit in the area. Not fancying a major clean up session in the woods, I made a swift exit to Tarn Hole and the bright, clean, white-looking boulders up on East Bilsdale Moor.
A few lines at Tarn Hole were spied, but not enough to get the shoes out?

Dali Boulders (East Bilsdale Moor)

From Tarn Hole I headed towards a track on the top of the Moor via a Grouse-butt path. The Boulders were buried in the Moor! Luckily enough for me I dropped down right onto them.

Firstly the blunt arete with no success - looked like it could stick somehow and was a good height. Moving left, a good little problem emerged via a mono and a break (but with no block for feet).

The Persistence of Memory Font 6a+*

Then onto the main event - the left hand roof section. This went right back under the split boulders, about 6 metres. Starting this far back would need a stunning achievement of jamming, bridging and various other techniques. Too hard for me; so gained a sit start further out of the cave.

Corpus Hypercubus Font 7a+***

Holding the pinch before pulling hard to the high jam with the right hand!

The start was easy to work out; but getting the right hand jam in above and left was hard. Moving on from that proved to be very entertaining, with some of the best and most varied moves I have done on the Moors and at a pretty good angle.

A Lost World

High House Crag has been on my hit list for a long while, so I could not wait any longer, even putting off a trip to Oak Crag with Ram-Man to test out the sloper on the Oak Wall project - for me the crag and surrounding boulders were worth the 40 minute walk in!

Right Hand End High House Crag

The stunning landscape that High House Wood and Tarn Hole are hidden away in is pretty awe-inspiring, as were the bouders scattered around the woods and beyond - The crag itself contains some big roofs with steep landings but for a change they had holds under the roof with some projects to go back for.

High House Crag

After a big sweep of the crag and the woods, the boulders to the North East, outside the wood looked like a good place to start, after spying a Font like block resembling and Elephant. it turned out to have three quality lines on it, and more lines around to keep us entertained.

Truncation Arete Left-hand Font 6a

Steve Dennison holding the sloper on the brilliant Elephantitus Font 7a*** 

Great effort from Steve as he had packed his shoes away and whipped them out and quickly dispatched the last move in style.

Project from a hard sit start just up the hill

Steve on the micro crimp on Hägg font 6a**

Another problem on the Hagg House Boulders ,Quality bouldering on good rock, back again soon with a rope! to give High House Crag some attention.

Thunder Claps and Mighty Oaks

Destination Thorgill Crag and the boulders a bit further north that looked promising - some tall shadows on Google - After parking on Blakey Ridge, we headed towards the Thorgill Boulders first , pleasantly surprised with the boulders and most of the landings.

Thorgill Boulders

Keen and after a quick clean, some good lines were done - Billy found a nice traverse block with some striaght ups and a short arete on the next block.

Billy's traverse 'Bilskirnir' SS F6a+*

Billy on 'Thor' F7a***

After a good scout the best of the field that we found was 'Thor' God of thunder (Since the farmer appeared after some loud shot gun blasts! wielding a mighty big gun!) with the arete variation F6b**

Thorgill Boulders

Next on to Thorgill Crag, a very vegetated Crag and cluster with some high and dirty boulders, worth the visit as hidden under an Old Mighty Oak a steep apex boulder held three quality lines on great rock - after some major cleaning. The left arete 'Thorsminde' F6c* The right arete 'Torsång' SS F6c+** and a central line finishing just below the apex to the right Bermuda SS F7a** all toping out just right of the apex.

Billy on the right arete 'Torsång' SS F6c+**

Steve hanging the crimp - on the more direct 'Bermuda' SS F7a+**

The boulder field could do with more of a scouting mission - as the highball boulder in the middle of the field looked good and we never checked out the lower left-hand boulders (as you face the crag) - again another good days bouldering with some great problems done on the Moors, Cheers boys.