Froggatt Edge Climbing

Present:  Andy Stratford, Jim Symon, Dave Wylie, Colin Maddison, Mary Stuart, Elliott Brown, Gowry Sisupalan, Gary Thornhill, Duncan Zerafa, Emily Pitts, Roger Dyke and guests Isabel Prause, Matt Haisley, Andy Pierce, Jennifer Lee & Brendan.

 

A fine warm day and dry rock – what more could we ask for?   Some initial entertainment would be good?  That was provided by Jim – a very smooth lead of Tody’s Wall – followed rather less elegantly by Andy S and Gowry.

Then Andy made up for his struggle on Tody’s with a masterly ascent of the adjacent Motorcade, E1 5a, to be followed by Jim, Duncan, Gowry and Emily.

Meanwhile, Dave Wylie took Matt (out with us for the first time) and Gowry up the delightful Heather Wall.     

Duncan led Tody’s Wall relatively smoothly, followed with less elegance by Emily – then they went off and zipped up the much easier Sunset Crack.

Sunset Crack and the unprotected Sunset Slab (HVS 4b!) had a quick visit from Andy P and Isabel, while Elliott and Gary enjoyed one of the Meet Leader’s old favourites, Terrace Crack.

Andy P made a steady lead of Three Pebble Slab, and was followed by Isabel, Jim, Gowry and Duncan.

Dave W took Matt and then Roger up one of the few HD at Froggatt, Slab & Crack.

At this point we moved camp to the Allen Slab area, where Dave turned his mind to tougher climbing – the incredibly polished Slab Recess Direct.  Matt found this quite hard to follow, and was reminded by his support team that it’s a good idea to take the leader’s gear out before it’s down at foot-level.

Brendan & Jen checked out their jamming skills on Diamond Crack and found them well up to standard.

Gowry led Roger up Gamma – and found it no bother at all after her trips up way harder routes earlier in the day.

Andy S made his first ascent of the delightful Allen’s Slab – how had he missed it for the last 5 years? - followed by Jim and then Roger.

After a steady lead of  the “Top 50” Chequers Buttress with Andy in tow, Jim decided he’d had enough of these delicate routes, and launched up the hand-shredding Broken Crack.  Andy S found the start of the route quite a challenge to follow, and even had to leave a bit of Jim’s gear behind to be retrieved later but rejoiced in the ‘’perfect jams’’ in the upper 2/3 jamming crack, so much so, that when he had been lowered to extract the stuck nut, he re-climbed the route!

Andy P took Isabel up Chequers Buttress, and Roger was entertained to see her fall off at exactly the point where he always fell off himself.

Later Duncan took on the Chequers Buttress challenge – and found it indeed a challenge, even with the encouragement floating up from his belayer, Andy P – but enjoyed it enough to write afterwards “…. a route I really enjoyed climbing and worthy of it's praise”.

Colin and Mary slotted in a quick ascent of Green Gut, then took Roger up another of his old favourites, Sickle Buttress, before drifting off to Sunset Crack then home…

A good day out!

Roger Dyke