Gritstone.  You either love it or loathe it.  “God’s own rock” some dorks proclaim, but for me, coming back from a very short, midge-infested crag, that leaves your skin utterly trashed and your body aching like it’s gone 20 rounds with Mike Tyson AND his tigers is not a particularly pleasant experience.  Simply, the climbing isn’t ‘that good’.  Mind you, you can avoid the midges if you climb within a 17-day window in midwinter when there’s snow on the ground and you’re freezing your ass off and have no feeling in your frost bitten extremities.  Grit.  Oh joy.

So we go up to Millstone Edge.  30mtr routes and yes, it was FREEZING… no sun, windy as hell, basically painful.  Luckily, Lawrencefield just over the road is sheltered…

“Wait, what?  Routes over 8mtrs you say?  Actually worth tying in for?  Sun?  Pleasant climbing??  And this is gritstone, right?  In England?  And no midges?”

“Yeah, a quarry.  No midges yet…”

Oh… quarry… hmmm…

Yeah, but the rock’s quite good.  Solid, and with more crimps than usual for grit

Crimps, you say? <raises eyebrow>

And so some very pleasant trad climbing was done today.  Noteworthy routes: Three Tree & Delectable.  Cordite gets a star in the guide but we thought it was a bit of a minger…

Tyrone, VS 4c   Nova, HS 4b   Three Tree Climb, HS 4b   Delectable Variation VS 4c   Red Wall VS 4c   Cordite Crack VS 4b