The Works- Dry Tooling

Toady me and Ed went up to the works at Hodge close near Cointon in the lake district dry tooling.
this is a specific dry tooling venue in an old disused quarry in the tilberthwaite valley, the routes go from m4 to m12 and beyond.
There are two main areas at the works, theres the industrial area and theres Bakestone quarry each with own qualities.

For full details on all the routes check out http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=18038 or see the mountain circles blog which has topos of all the routes http://mountaincircles.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=the+works.

On arrival at the car park at Hodge close we got approached by an older bloke asking if we were part of the orienteering day, which we replied no we're climbing and with a poss twang sed 'isnt it to cold for climbing'.
(hes the one running around in tights on a wild goose chase). we didnt realy know what to reply to that one so sed see ya in abit.

Today we headed down to Bakestone quarry (the easier of the two areas, but only just) as i wanted to lead a few easier routes and check out the fang, a large fang shaped feature hanging down from the roof of the cave and about 5.5. ft off the floor, so its an intresting start to the climb
.
first we did right slip which was M5, a nice slabby route with a tricky, technical start.
The next was left slip M5 which is a great route and has a few more nautural moves than the other routes int the quarry.
I then set up an abseil so i could clip outside leg M5. this route goes up a steep wall via a large flake to a good rest then over a overhanging bulge to finish at the rings, a highly enjoyable route.

I then decided it would be i good idea to have a crack at The fang, videos and the rest of the post will be added tommorw once the vids have been uploaded

Back into the wall

So I was back into the climbing wall (roperace)yesterday with my girlfriend and dad (Ed) for a small session after getting back from Norway.

 Thankfully they had reset all the routes in the bouldering room, so that was good to come back to and they've done a great job. I also got told I came second in last months bouldering ladder so that was cool.... 1st this month!!!!

 We started of with a bit of bouldering to get warmed up and I went through some basic climbing movements and skills with Melissa as she's new to climbing.

Once the blood was flowing we got out onto the main walls and after a few routes we broke out the schmoolz ( see www.schmoolz.com for further details)  and I got on to the big overhang to practise my figure fours and stamina on roofs. After a good forearm burning blitz on the schmoolz I got the rope out and lead a few routes to finish off the session as I could see Melissa was getting tired.

I'm now in a hotel room in Prestatyn working away till Wednesday, so it's hotel room fitness workouts till I get back. Whoop whoop.