Gardening @ The Works

In a bid to offer some easier sport at The Works we gave Simon a shovel and saw the other day and left him to have some fun excavating the slab just to the left of the main cave at The Works.
He did a fine job clearing a huge amount of moss, loose rock and small trees and once one of us gets round to bolting it should offer about 3 lines somewhere between M3 and M5.

Garden Wall....soon to be bolted.

Paddy finished bolting his new line recently, just to the left of the start of Guardian it begins up the slab before attacking the crack line through the roof to join into the last few moves of First Blood.
After some fine redpoint attempts Paddy kindly offered a go on the the sharp end to Andy who dispatched it in fine style and confirmed the excellent nature of the climbing. "Quick Release" goes at about M10+ and is a powerful little number with some big moves and slightly disturbing axe releases. Good work Paddy on getting the line bolted and cleaned.

Paddy Cave redpoint attempt on Quick Release.

Winter has certainly arrived now, a lot of snow on the fells as of late and routes getting done on the Ben and in the Corries. Hopefully it will be a good winter and all the training that people have been putting in at the cave will see some hard routes ticked. Winter doesnt really start for me until the new year, axes will be the last thing on my mind whilst in Dubai!

Keep up the training!

The Battles Continue...

Great session down at the cave on Sunday.

There was a huge amount of psyche bouncing off the slate with a big team present from all corners of the country. People were trying personal projects old and new, bolting new lines was taking place and generally it was just a great atmosphere helped along with some good tunes from Mr Boswell's iPod.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Andy has bolted a new line from the very back of the cave to link into Guardian somewhere around its crux (?!), the route is going to be jaw-droppingly long. Andy could be in for a lot of suffering once redpoint attempts begin!

Greg was trying to get the 2nd ascent of Guardian and pay homage at the same time to those euro crazies by doing it in a "sans yaniro" aka no fig4/fig9 fashion. How that affects the grade god only knows.

Got to say thanks again to the guys at Petzl/Lyon for all their help with the draws for the routes, we had 50 full quickdraws/maillons a couple of months ago and now they are all hanging down from new routes at either Masson or The Works. Thats a lot of bolting!

Some great shots of Greg attempting Guardian of the Underworld (M12) courtesy of Andy Rutherford.........

Ongoing Goings On

Just a quick post to keep the topos updated.......

Things are moving at fair old rate of knots it seems just now in terms of route development. So here are a couple of shiny new topos for Masson and The Works.

Main changes, Simon Chevis' Blind Luck at Masson is no longer based on luck and has apparently become Sick Boy (and upgraded) after the route was changed slightly to make it more user friendly. Not been on it but reports sound good.
An extension from the lower off on Sick Boy has also been bolted (again by Mr Chevis...he's on a roll) along the lip of the cave climbing past the Marginal Gains lower off to finish at the red lower off on left side of lip. Still a project at the moment and lacking any in-situ draws on the newly bolted section.

Oop North at The Works, Andy finished off Guardian of the Underworld (then immediately started bolting something even harder and longer) and Simon bolted and ticked the link-up of Bloodline into First Blood creating Let There be Light! M10+, named due to the number of headtorches required to aid the first ascent.

Updated Masson Lees Topo (Main Cave) Nov '12

Updated The Works Topo (Cave Area) Nov '12

In other DT venue related news, if you around on the 24/25th November, you should get yourselves down to White Goods for their new Annual Gathering. Bound to be a cracker.

Between Angels and Insects....

Strange blog title i'm sure you'll agree. Its in homage to Andy's latest creation at The Works, 'Guardian of the Underworld', as surely if your in the underworld your somewhere between the angels and the insects??? No? Just me then.

Anyways, i've had no time at all to get out recently and the guns are rapidly developing into water pistols. All i've been listening too is reports of projects being sent and new lines being bolted. Its no fun working too much.

Andy posted the original footage of a redpoint attempt on his blog the other day and i've gone and edited a little vid out of it. I'm still new too all this editing stuff so its a bit rough around the edges but then again it was filmed on an iPhone.

Enjoy....



Guardian of The Underworld Redpoint Attempt from Tom B on Vimeo.