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Deja Vu

Repetition gets a bad name. Parrot fashion is a bad way to learn something. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a form of madness. Going to the same place every weekend is unimaginative; don’t you want to try something new, go somewhere new, experience something fresh and original? Part of me does. But the other part of me is locked into an increasingly addictive and very enjoyable cycle; throwing myself up against something that feels too hard for me and the necessary improvement this demands. Once I’ve invested a certain amount of time, I feel like I’m in too deep and need to see it through. Weekends away are tempting, but the siren song keeps playing in my ears. Maybe this is the weekend, this is the one. Imagine how good it will feel to get it done, how satisfying it will be. You’ve put so much effort into this, don’t give up now. Finish the job. Back at the crag. Bolt to bolt, clips in. Its so fucking long, this route. Back on the ...
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The Cliff

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Almscliff I moved up to Leeds in May 2017. In large part, this was due to proximity to rock. I can’t say what a positive difference it has made to my life. Driving 20 minutes to the crag is infinitely better than driving an hour and a half like I did from Leicester, or 4+ hours from Suffolk. Quick hits after work in the summer, long weekend days, speculative ‘lets just have a look’ sessions on days of marginal weather; being nearby gives the freedom to fit climbing into your life whilst also having time for everything else, and I value that immensely. The best gritstone crag in Yorkshire is to my mind, unquestionably Almscliff. The Queen of Gritstone sits on top of a hill, surrounded my farmland and exposed to all the weather that Yorkshire can throw at it. 9 times out of 10 its windy there, meaning that the problems dry in minutes. Marginal days frequently become perfect, the crag acting as a bizarre divider of weather systems. Sitting up there you can often see bad weath...
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What Do You Do?

The 6 months I’ve been doing my first ‘proper job’ has been a strange combination of being pleased with having more money than I’m used to and strongly displeased with the demands it places on my time, particularly compared to travelling. Before you roll your eyes and mutter something about millennials, I know this par for the course and very few people can, or indeed want to maintain the transient travelling lifestyle forever. But the bottom line is I think I think about work differently to a lot of people. I’m not placing a value judgement on that, its just my own interpretation. I start from the standpoint that the number one reason we all go to work is to earn money. If I could work less I would; I wouldn’t go in for the satisfaction. Ergo, money is the main driver behind my getting up every morning. Secondly, I can’t help but view the concept of a career with suspicion, like it’s a dirty word. Because I’m an awkward bastard, I don’t like the pressures our society puts on me/u...
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We Need To Talk About Stokes

First things first, this isn’t a climbing blog. Narrowly speaking, this is a cricket blog (the other sport I follow messianically), but more broadly its about when violence is justified or not. Bear with me here. If you follow sport, you’ll have seen Ben Stokes, England allrounder and possibly the best player in the world right now, was arrested about a month ago on suspicion of ABH. The raw facts are available all over the internet, just google it, but briefly there was a fight on the street of which video footage exists showing Stokes first being hit with a bottle and then brawling with two other men, one of which he knocks out after scuffling for a while. At this point, the footage ends. Stokes’ private defence, it seems, is that he confronted two blokes who were shouting homophobic abuse at a gay couple. One thing led to another, Stokes is threatened with a bottle, he gets hit and then proceeds to lay the other chap out. As he put it – ‘they started it, and I finished it.’...
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A Numbers Game

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Malham Cove Its been a while since I last wrote one of these, because it seemed to me that what I was doing with my climbing wasn’t that interesting (if it ever was!). In the first month I was in Leeds, I spent probably over £100 in fuel driving to and from Malham. The vast majority of that time I spent either warming up, resting, or hanging off one of the four bolts on Raindogs. It was a fairly big change to how I’ve always climbed; a trad climber at heart, I’ve always preferred to ‘get some mileage in,’ do as many routes as I could in a day. The concept of leaving the crag without having done a single route was anathema to me. But Malham was a big reason for moving up here. I absolutely love it there and recognised that I wouldn’t really mind projecting something there because its such a nice place to be. The river bubbling up from below, the sense of community on the Catwalk, the ubiquitous polish- and of course, the predictable, ever-dry conditions.  I wanted to...
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Los Endos

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Los Endos from below. Onsight trad climbing, as many people far more qualified than I have commented, is the best. ‘its just more.’  (copyright Squib from this excellent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxy01Xdww9o).  In every way, its more. It’s the best way to test yourself physically, but especially mentally. Of course sport climbing and bouldering are hard on the brain too, but not in the same way as onsight trad. It takes *so* much longer to place gear, you get way more pumped, you’re constantly grappling with ‘what if’s in the back of your mind. Sure, that piece is bomber, but the bit below it wasn’t…better put some more in, just in case. Those holds look good, but I’m not 100%...up, down, up down. Before you know it, you’re fucked and you’ve blown the onsight. And you’ve more than likely just sat on the gear you weren’t sure about, and surprise surprise- it was fine.  It can be really shit blowing the onsight, especially if you’ve bigged ...
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