Routes with D and P
Oct. 26th, 2016 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylFun morning of climbing with D&P at the Quay. P had to repeat his sign-off tests because they'd lost his paperwork &mdsah; probably because, when he renewed last week, they had to set up a new account because whoever had entered his initial credentials had misspelt his name! But once we were over that glitch, we stormed the auto-belays as a warm-up and climbed some top-rope routes to finish.
I climbed a pair of fun new routes, graded 6a+ and 6b+ respective. The 6b+ was probably graded a bit soft, with a few fingery crimps and technical bits but nothing that prevent me from on-sighting it. The 6a+, on the other hand, was extremely difficult indeed with a complete absence of feet in several places. The second move involved a massive reach — P couldn't span it and he's a good deal taller than me — which I was only able to static by working a hand up a bad arete feature and cranking up enough with one foot to get a couple of fingers on the next hold before throwing for a hand match. Then, once past that, I got to the penultimate move, also very short of feet, which I eventually managed to complete with a cunning heel/toe hook, a reach back for the next hand, and a campus for the finish.
Makes me wonder if the grades might not be the wrong way round: I could totally see the easier route as being a hard 6a+ an the harder route being a challenging 6b+, but I'm sure their current ratings aren't correct. Sadly, they hadn't been added to the setter's whiteboard, so we couldn't re-rate them.
Afterwards, I accepted the offer of light lunch after discovering that they'd got a loaf of sourdough bread from the Magdalene Road Bakery. It was utterly fantastic: firm, chewy, and a completely different species to the terrible supermarket stuff. A real treat.
I climbed a pair of fun new routes, graded 6a+ and 6b+ respective. The 6b+ was probably graded a bit soft, with a few fingery crimps and technical bits but nothing that prevent me from on-sighting it. The 6a+, on the other hand, was extremely difficult indeed with a complete absence of feet in several places. The second move involved a massive reach — P couldn't span it and he's a good deal taller than me — which I was only able to static by working a hand up a bad arete feature and cranking up enough with one foot to get a couple of fingers on the next hold before throwing for a hand match. Then, once past that, I got to the penultimate move, also very short of feet, which I eventually managed to complete with a cunning heel/toe hook, a reach back for the next hand, and a campus for the finish.
Makes me wonder if the grades might not be the wrong way round: I could totally see the easier route as being a hard 6a+ an the harder route being a challenging 6b+, but I'm sure their current ratings aren't correct. Sadly, they hadn't been added to the setter's whiteboard, so we couldn't re-rate them.
Afterwards, I accepted the offer of light lunch after discovering that they'd got a loaf of sourdough bread from the Magdalene Road Bakery. It was utterly fantastic: firm, chewy, and a completely different species to the terrible supermarket stuff. A real treat.
