A further break from Tradition; France 22.05.09

A trip involving 4 days driving, 2 days of family fun and a further 2 climbing on a little known, large crag in the foothills of the French Pyranees. With only a handful of 5s and a 6a climbed, it would have been nice just to have had an extra day to make the most out of this impressive venue. The trad seems to be off the agenda all of a sudden. Sport climbing has been the focus of the last month's activity, with a trip to Harpur Hill followed by a bout of bolt clipping in France and an encounter with Blackwell Halt, and with this a blog about a journey back into the world of trad climbing! Oh well, what ever floats your boat. All in all, it's been enjoyable. 

Firstly, the trip to Harpur Hill was geared around its proximity to Buxton. Taking bikes on the train with us, we managed to cycle most of the way, giving in to two particularly steep hills, in about 20 minutes. There was a fearce wind blowing and I was worried that it would be too windy to climb but skirting round the back to the so called Dark Side we managed to find a peaceful area devoid of turbulence and with a nice bit of sunshine too. 

Climbing without a Topo (AC printed off the better buttresses but not this particular one) I elected and easy looking unbroken slab which turned out to be a 5+ which had a tricky start, almost too tricky for the Crabb , but not quite. The next was a short bouldery vertical route with one really bad hold in the middle of a sequence moving up on undercuts. The top was fairly bad and the chains were worryingly rusty. They held though and I turned it into my first 6b+. Redpoint. After that, I repeated a 6a+ that I did on my first visit to Harpur Hill, though this time with a rest below the crux(!) at which point it was surely time to leave.