Swiss Ticks and Local Hits

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here but life has been busy over the last four weeks. A new job and a new dog (Rest in Peace Vixen!) to name but two. But it's been far from quiet on the climbing front. First of all on the 3rd of April i headed out on a two week trip to Switzerland. I was really excited about this trip as i never get to go away for that long and i really wanted to try to climb well, so I'd set myself the goal of trying to climb 8b on a trip. As it turns out, despite less than perfect preparation on the lead up, I smashed that goal. I wrote a trip report for the moon blog which if you want to know more you can read here http://www.moonclimbing.com/MOONBLOG/Mike%20Adams%20–%20Swiss%20Ticks-n-1002.html There seems little point in re-posting it here.

Sofa Surfer Direct 8b Photo - David Skoczylas

A little video which show all of my hardest sends can be be found below. I like the video but it is spoilt by the fact i lost a lot of quality in the editing and posting and i don't have the time to redo it.

Since getting back I've been out a lot on the Magnesium Carbonate, or Magnesian limestone as I've been told is its official name. This is mainly due to the lack of time, i can climb there after work, but also i love my local venues and the rock type, most of all i love the peace and quiet.

First up whilst out climbing with Ned who was trying Fire in the Rain and Dave Mason at The Wave area at Anston , i cleaned up and climbed a righthand finish to Black Crow (7c+). This rather than going left and climbing the corners (or lamely just dropping off) takes on another roof using a rather good heal to hand move and a bit of power. Black Hoe 8a is the result and is quite a quality addition.

Secondly I managed to track and spend a nice session down at venue that the Copley brothers started to develop before jetting of to pasture new, you can read their exploits here http://liamcopleyclimbing.blogspot.com/2010/07/doncaster-boulderingwhat.html It turns out its Levitthagg Quarry close to the Sprotbrough wall developed by Mo. It has some okay problems that are a bit small and over graded , as well as one really good prow that the boys left unfinished. I managed to do it finishing directly up, rather than rocking right onto a big shelf. This gives a really nice problem which I'm going to call Lightworker, just because there is already a problem called into the light. The grade is around 7c+ish and i even got a nice little vid of the first accent:

Thirdly i climbed a project on Woody's rock at Anston Stones. I don't tend to climb on this buttress as it is very slow to dry and as such it has more or less been forgotten with no one showing any interest in it, which is a shame as there is one really very good roof climb on it. One of the main project lines on it i had abandoned about three years ago as being too hard and too out of my style. I went back to look at it and see if i could capitalise on all the dry weather we had recently and it turns out i was almost able to make the crux moves. Spurred on i spent another two session on it and managed to piece the moves together. On the Fourth session after resting with good skin and in good conditions i managed to get the red point. which i am very happy about as it shows me i am making gains in my weakness. I'm going to call the Line Vanilla Sky and suggest a grade of 8a+/8b, but it could be easier as i was climbing out of my preferred style. I have put together a little video which shows the problem nicely: