It’s been a while since Sarah has joined us for a climb, so we let her pick the location. I was happy when she picked Moses Rocks, which always offers a fun outing. There are two areas of Moses Rocks that she hasn’t climbed at, but the conditions today were not conducive for either of them. To be honest neither Rongy nor I had anything in particular in mind. So we dumped the bags at the first area the walk-in takes you past, and started climbing. Picking lines that we had not been on for a while:
Rumpoles Rocks was one of the areas Sarah hadn’t climbed at, but the routes can feel a bit tricky and maybe would have felt harder in these conditions. That said not all the ones we climbed today were Sarah’s cup of tea, but she was happy to simply be out and jump on routes that looked appealing. I was pleased this included Hathersage and Stanage Youth, just because the names have references to the Peak District in the England. But Classic Thrash, above, and Kami-kaze Catfish did not pull her in:
The latter almost being a bit too much for me and I almost peeled off. Deciding to move to another area Sarah was still not too keen to jump on rock, allowing Rongy and I to pick a couple of choice routes on Hands Up Wall. Both selecting climbs named after characters of the satirical British comic Viz, founded in 1979 and very popular in the 80s when the routes were established. Rongy enjoyed delicately slabbing up Johnny Fartpants, which inspired me to have a bash on another route I haven’t led for a long time:
Fat Slags, above, climbs in a similar fashion to Rongy line but is just that bit steeper. Good friction is required to avoid popping off especially at the very start. Fortunately, despite the high tide, rough swell, and strong onshore winds, the rock was in great condition. These conditions did however keep us out of the Zawn, below, being the second area Sarah hasn’t climbed in. While I didn’t falter on my climb, Sarah made me almost fall over afterwards by saying she wanted to have a climb, on lead:
Since I have known her, she has adamantly stated she would never lead climb. And I’m still not sure what made her decide to change her mind and have a go today. I’m not however one to hold people back when it comes to having a go on lead. She’d also picked out the route based on the description in the guidebook, which I wrote, so I have to say she picked well. Mini Thor is a short but great line, so after a bit of tuition on lead climbing she set off. Whatever was holding her back from following us up the other lines, was vanquished:
Not showing any signs of nerves and placing great gear, which is plentiful on this route making it a great beginners climb. Rongy couldn’t recall previously climbing on this small face, probably having walked past it numerous times and overlooking it because it is so short. But after climbing Sarah’s route, his eyes were drawn to the slightly overhanging wall to the left. Offering the slightly pumpy Blake and the Thoroughbreds. Maybe it was the steepness but Sarah wasn’t interested in that line, and had even taken her harness off:
Not a reptile was in sight, despite both of us checking lots of nooks and crannies. Other than the occasional passing gull, the only creature spotted was this tiny Deto marina. It probably wasn’t more than a few millimetres long. Sarah spied it, and my eyes would never have noticed it without a magnifying glass. It is a genus of the woodlice family, and known to live in intertidal zones on or under rocks feeding on algae. There are five confirmed species, but only this one is listed as having been sighted in Australia on the Atlas of Living Australia:
To give you an idea of scale, a small part of my thumbnail is at the bottom of the image, so some may say I’m forgiven for not having noticed the creature. Sarah surprised me one more time when she said she was keen for one more route, but this time on second. So her harness went back on, for Many Hands on wonderfully rounded holds to round of our time at Moses Rocks. While they may have thought the climbing was over I led them on merry way back to the car that included just a wee bit of scrambling:
Sandbagged 