Saturday on Bonehill Rocks
Aug. 2nd, 2014 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylWith the others delayed by traffic around Stonehenge, it wasn't until midday that I caught the bus out to the Park & Ride for the first part of the trip to Dartmoor. The signs weren't encouraging: within seconds of stepping out of my front door, it had started raining; by the time I was on the bus, it was torrential; and when I got off, the roads were like rivers. Fortunately for me, the strong winds had driven the rain east by the time the car arrived and I managed to avoid a complete drenching.
With the others showing signs of hanger — hunger-induced-anger — we stopped at a petrol station en route to pick up some food. Sadly the place had been picked clean and all that remained were Dairylea Lunchables and Cathedral City cheese & pickle snack packs, but that didn't stop our valiant climbers from refuelling on the finest processed cheese known to humanity. Which was just as well because we took a long detour on the way to Bonehill, ending up in Manaton after falling back on dead reckoning. After passing Becky Falls a couple of times, we finally got back on track and arrived at our destination about twenty minutes later than expected, to find the moor it's usual brooding and spectacular self:
After getting our bearings we moved round to the warm-up wall and started with a couple of easy problems.
T managed the problem with no trouble at all:
N make it look easy:
And there was never any doubt that H would send it without the least effort:
Me? I scraped up my knee on the first attempt and really, really didn't want to trust my fingers to a horrible flake that promised to rip them to shreds if my feet slipped. Not a great start to my career as an outdoor boulderer!
Not being greatly sold on the warm-up landing, we moved round the corner and spent a good chunk of the afternoon working the Cube.
T&N check out the first problem against a spectacular sky and the land dropping away towards Widecombe:
H made good use of the cube, first practicing his full-on supervillain pose...
... before shifting to misunderstood superhero:
N sit-starting one of the problems:
A quality heel hook for the next move:
H doing some close range spotting:
The view from above as N sticks the handhold:
Even I managed to get some decent work done on the problems and thanks to H's sterling work with the camera, even if he did change the exposure settings radically enough to wash out some of the later pictures! — we have photographic proof. Not only did he catch me in flight, throwing for the next hold:
He also caught me making it stick:
At which point it was trivial to send.
We then moved round the corner and spent the last part of the afternoon working on the problems around Greg's Dyno:
Snapping away from the top, I caught H in mid-dyno...
...and landing...
...and finally on a subsequent attempt:
We all then worked the next couple of problems, starting with T on the arete:
H's turn:
N doing the slabby bit:
Finally, again thanks to H's camera work, an almost complete account of Yours Truly doing the same problem, starting with a shot that catches me at the start of the transition — heel hook in place, leg bloody from the very first problem, left hand in mid-air...
...on the deadpoint as I come up left...
...and as I make it stick — just look at the tension in my left arm!
And from that point it was just a simple matter of...
...popping left...
...thinking...
...checking the feet...
...and standing up on it!
With time running out on us, we packed up, headed back to town via Ashburton, and stopped off at the hotel to allow the others to drop off their kit. Washed and tidied — well, N was, as least — we drove out to Honiton to pick up H's mother in law for supper at the Hare and Hounds out towards Sidbury. The Australian contingent went for the carvery, I went for a charming butternut squash pie, and V had a veggie korma from the children's / small appetite menu. We had a nice evening, talking about everything under the sun from the 2011 Brisbane flood to the mechanics of eBay to whether pubs and cafes might be a suitable environment for doing some pen-and-ink drawings.
Tired and happy we headed home, dropping V off in Honiton just as the van carrying the pigeons off to their next race was about to leave, before returning to Exeter; me to my place and the others to their hotel in St Thomas.
With the others showing signs of hanger — hunger-induced-anger — we stopped at a petrol station en route to pick up some food. Sadly the place had been picked clean and all that remained were Dairylea Lunchables and Cathedral City cheese & pickle snack packs, but that didn't stop our valiant climbers from refuelling on the finest processed cheese known to humanity. Which was just as well because we took a long detour on the way to Bonehill, ending up in Manaton after falling back on dead reckoning. After passing Becky Falls a couple of times, we finally got back on track and arrived at our destination about twenty minutes later than expected, to find the moor it's usual brooding and spectacular self:
After getting our bearings we moved round to the warm-up wall and started with a couple of easy problems.
T managed the problem with no trouble at all:
N make it look easy:
And there was never any doubt that H would send it without the least effort:
Me? I scraped up my knee on the first attempt and really, really didn't want to trust my fingers to a horrible flake that promised to rip them to shreds if my feet slipped. Not a great start to my career as an outdoor boulderer!
Not being greatly sold on the warm-up landing, we moved round the corner and spent a good chunk of the afternoon working the Cube.
T&N check out the first problem against a spectacular sky and the land dropping away towards Widecombe:
H made good use of the cube, first practicing his full-on supervillain pose...
... before shifting to misunderstood superhero:
N sit-starting one of the problems:
A quality heel hook for the next move:
H doing some close range spotting:
The view from above as N sticks the handhold:
Even I managed to get some decent work done on the problems and thanks to H's sterling work with the camera, even if he did change the exposure settings radically enough to wash out some of the later pictures! — we have photographic proof. Not only did he catch me in flight, throwing for the next hold:
He also caught me making it stick:
At which point it was trivial to send.
We then moved round the corner and spent the last part of the afternoon working on the problems around Greg's Dyno:
Snapping away from the top, I caught H in mid-dyno...
...and landing...
...and finally on a subsequent attempt:
We all then worked the next couple of problems, starting with T on the arete:
H's turn:
N doing the slabby bit:
Finally, again thanks to H's camera work, an almost complete account of Yours Truly doing the same problem, starting with a shot that catches me at the start of the transition — heel hook in place, leg bloody from the very first problem, left hand in mid-air...
...on the deadpoint as I come up left...
...and as I make it stick — just look at the tension in my left arm!
And from that point it was just a simple matter of...
...popping left...
...thinking...
...checking the feet...
...and standing up on it!
With time running out on us, we packed up, headed back to town via Ashburton, and stopped off at the hotel to allow the others to drop off their kit. Washed and tidied — well, N was, as least — we drove out to Honiton to pick up H's mother in law for supper at the Hare and Hounds out towards Sidbury. The Australian contingent went for the carvery, I went for a charming butternut squash pie, and V had a veggie korma from the children's / small appetite menu. We had a nice evening, talking about everything under the sun from the 2011 Brisbane flood to the mechanics of eBay to whether pubs and cafes might be a suitable environment for doing some pen-and-ink drawings.
Tired and happy we headed home, dropping V off in Honiton just as the van carrying the pigeons off to their next race was about to leave, before returning to Exeter; me to my place and the others to their hotel in St Thomas.
