Flow

Choosing venues at the weekend can be a thorny issue. This saturday looked beautiful on paper, but a quick skim of facebook from the comfort of my bed revealed that those unhinged enough to rise with the dawn had seen a deep inversion layer and valleys thick with cloud. Yet the warm sunshine meant a grit hit was premature. In an attempt to balance choosing the right venue with a desire to go somewhere new we got it half wrong and went to Nudas Tartan.

Nudas Tartan - Tarantula

Nudas Tartan is, it turns out, a great little venue, but not one that is dry in high humidity. We managed to towel off a couple of problems which kept us busy for a little while. I worked out a cunning sequence on Tarantula (above) which turned out not to work, so I took my feet off and campussed it instead. Jules spent some time working out a sequence on the 7b lip traverse Meltdown and then crushed it first try. A good tick for her, since she's not much of a boulderiser.

On Sunday we faced the same conditions dilemma, but I had to go down to Two Tier in Cheedale to try and repeat Rupert's new 8a+, Flow. Opinions on the name vary from "I like it" to "It reminds me of tampons", but everyone is in agreement about the 3* nature of the route. The climbing is a mixture of Rupert's trademark mono-packed gnarl-fest and chunky pulls on big sidepulls before a wildly optimistic lunge brings the climbing to an end.

One the 'wildly optimistic lunge' at the end of Flow, 8a+. Photo: Keith Sharples

When Rupert was working the route I would highlight his inadequacy by comfortably lapping the route from the second bolt, and exhorting him to get it next go, because I wouldn't wait forever. I like to feel that my unique brand of support contributed to the multi-day siege that saw Ru repeatedly falling from the last move. Since he climbed it, the route has seen fast repeats from Dave McLaughlin and James Noble but (as yet), not by me. Given my previous performance I was confident of doing the route first go.

Ah. Mark Twain said: "All you need is ignorance and confidence and success is sure". After two goes falling from the last move I no longer had either. Two more goes falling lower down and failure was damn near assured. I thought of the pressure I'd put on Rupert and tried to feel guilty, but I'm out of practice. Instead I recruited my secret weapon, and got Keith to get his big lens out. With my ego properly motivated, a successful redpoint was a mere formality. Everyone said how great I was* and then it was back to my place for a dinner of fish finger sandwiches and baked beans. Fun times.

*this may have happened only in my head