Rest for the Wicked?

After over two weeks of excellent weather, we finally got a day's rain and a chance for a bit of a rest and to catch up on all the jobs that have needed doing. We have done some great routes, including High Priest (on the Priest) yesterday afternoon, getting back from just as the sky started to turn milky and the wind started to get up.

We had arranged to go out in Thorbjorn's new boat to gets some crag-shots of the Priest, but the strengthening wind and the fact that we were late down due to a jammed abseil rope (hats off to Colin for eventually extracting it from the depths of the crack) meant we decided to leave for a calmer evening!

Lofoten - reprise

Great to be back in the 'Magic Islands' and so far (3 days!) the weather has been kind, in fact almost too hot! We spent the first evening poking around Paradise, and yesterday on Pianokraken, where 8 pitches were dispatched in good order. Highlights were the excellent jamming crack of The Piano Player (6 - about HVS 5b) and the superb finger crack of Tapir (7- maybe E3 6a) - good to report Colin is going as well as ever!

Northwards

The North Sea ferry was a little bumpy (just for a change), but we arrived at Bergen OK just before sundown. A two hour drive got us to Gudvangen, where it had just stopped raining for the first time for four days - the waterfalls were spectacular - as the photo shows.
A cruise on the Nordlys, up the Norwegian coast under a clear blue sky - apparently whilst still raining in the UK - was excellent, we crossed the Arctic Circle whilst we slept and arrive in Bodo a few hours before Colin jetted, from Edinburgh via Oslo. We spent four days climbing in the area, the shot is of a typical Grade 7 route at Bratthammeran. After getting suitable rested we drove on north to Skutvik to catch the two hour ferry crossing to Lofoten - it was was clear blue and flat calm.

Pokketz Rockets Rocks!

A quick mid-week visit to Birchen was in order - Mr Gregory was desperate for a day out and his car was playing up - so I took along a copy of the brand new Pokketz guidebook to give it a quick test-drive (test-climb?).
The volume performed as expected, locating the routes was easy AND it fitted snugly in my trouser pocket. We did a dozen routes and at the end of the session the guide had performed admirably, which is more can be said for the climbers - they were a little worse for wear (combined age of 128 probably had something to do with that!). We showed the book to a few other climbers and the response was favorable - and although there may be no need to carry the book up a 10m gritstone climb there is obviously potential on mountain crags and sea cliffs - anyone for a Gogarth Pokketz?

Northern Soul

After weeks (and weeks) of dodgy weather, the weekend held the promise of something just a little better, so Friday night we skipped up to Colin's and Saturday Bruce joined us for a day on Highcliffe Nab on the North York Moors, it was a breezy squally day, with impressive shower clouds being pushed along on the wind. We only got wet once though, checked out some good routes and got all the photos I needed.
Sunday was better again, Colin had an afternoon appointment in Scotland so we galloped along to Hadrian's Buttress, and zipped up it (Severe!!!), he headed north and we walked out via the Roman Wall.

On to Causey Quarry for a bit of bouldering, one last photo-shoot, then its back on the road to Sheffield - as successful a weekend as we could have hoped for.

Wet, wet, wet.

The two weeks of grey weather followed by the wettest June ever (wettest MONTH ever according one report) have stopped me getting back up north for the final bits of checking. Grabbing the odd day in the Peak has had to do, though at least I have all the shots I need for the new guide.

Today was the wettest yet, it rained from dawn to dusk, sometimes light, sometimes heavy - but it kept on coming. News reports suggested chaos in downtown Sheffield so at 5:00 we decided to pop to the park to see what was happening - impressive stuff!
I returned a couple of days for a look to compare what had happened and the place was back to normal! The solitary silver birch is a useful reference point. All clear at our end of town but it still sounds rough in the lower Don valley and further down stream - ans there is more rain on the way.

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The New Stanage Guide

It arrived at last, and has been very well received. It is good to see my years of research come to fruition; Nial has done a grand job with the book, fresh, up-to-date, anecdotal stories a-plenty, plus inspirational pictures, just the ticket really. Stanage finally has the guide it really deserves.
A slight surprise is the lack of new routes since the 2002 guide, I think we must have pretty much squeezed the place dry working on that one.

Negatives: almost (almost) too few to mention,

• I am not a fan of the front cover, it doesn't encapsulate the Stanage Experience the way a guidebook cover should.

• The bouldering circuits, I will hold judgment on these, a very brief dip in found the layout and the information confusing, maybe that is my old brain. I'll be interested to see the environmental impact in a couple of years on the more isolated areas too.

I was pleased to see that despite being the villain (in some eyes anyway) of the Stanage Saga, my contribution to the cliffs superb repertoire (over 100 new routes) hasn't been ignored. I nipped out on Tuesday to do a new Direct Finish to Fern Crack HVS 5a that we explored (sounds better then top-roped) at the weekend - so it is out of date already!

The Sheffield launch was a convivial (and bloody hot) do, stories were swapped, beer quaffed and curry troughed. The pub was bulging with faces old and new, including Ron Townsend (first new route on Stanage back in the 1940s!) Dave Gregory (who has been involved with Peak guidebooks for 50+ years) and Malc Baxter who's superb drawings have graced generations of guidebooks.
I think it is fair to say a good time was had by all.