Members present: Lucie Crouch, Gareth Williams, Dave Wylie, Vicky Alderton and Duncan Lee.

Guests present: John McDonald, Kieran Lee and Patrick

High Stoney Bank
A fine, dry autumn day saw the seepage on the rock disappearing as the day progressed, but right from the go there were enough dry routes to keep us all happy. The biggest problem was trying to keep Kieran and Patrick dry as they played manically in the stream and sand piles near the rabbit warren.

On the climbing front we all warmed up on the left hand end of the crag. Lucy & Dave did ‘Arbitration’ (F4c) which caused Dave’s DIY hand injury to flare up, thus curtailing his climbing for the day. Everyone else then did ‘Mutton Jeff’ (F5c) before Lucy and Dave set off for a walk down to Gordale Scar.

Back at the crag ascents were made of ‘High Flyer’ (F6a+), ‘King Flush’ (F6a+) and ‘Straight & Narrow’ (F6a) before Gareth’s clip stick was used for its designed purpose as he put the quickdraws in ‘Jocasta’ (F7b). Earlier the clip stick had come in very useful for retrieving Kieran’s favourite bucket that had some how gone an incredibly long way down a rabbit hole!

Gareth then worked the moves on ‘Jocasta’ and even made me have a go in order to see how not to do it. With the sequence nailed John led ‘Mr Shifter’ (F6a+) whilst Gareth had a rest before the red point attempt, which saw John doing air traffic control.  In Gareth’s words “Didn’t get the right hand match properly, threw for the jug regardless but didn’t stick it and lobbed off, so keen for a rematch.”

A good reason to revisit a great crag...

Yorkshire Limestone meet - High Stony Bank - Sunday 24 September, meet leader Duncan Lee

High Stony Bank is a pleasantly situated crag that has a good selection of sport routes that range from F4c - 7b as well as a bit of trad, so there's something for nearly everyone. Including fantastic walking and scenery.

I plan to get to the crag about 11am which should give things a chance to warm up a bit seeing as the crag doesn't come into the sun until early afternoon.