Day 154 - Submission

Burbage Valley

It was a beautiful day for climbing today...indeed it was a beautiful day for anything.

With Anna away in the Estados Unidos, it was just me and my main man Jezz...we headed up to Burbage North in the Peak District for some easy lead climbing. 

The valley looked magnificent in the late Spring sunshine, and it was very warm at the base of the crag...conveniently it was breezy on the top, so belaying was pleasantly cooling. 

I wasn't sure what I wanted to climb, and had no personal goals or aims for the day.  The main purpose of our trip was to give Jezz an opportunity to get a bit more Trad climbing mileage under his belt. 

Once we were climbing, I really wasn't sure where my head was.  Since my 50@50 required a full on soloing mentality, reverting back to lead left me curiously uncertain, despite being ostensibly safer...

Whilst lead climbing I found myself almost distracted by placing gear, and protecting the next hard moves...whereas whilst soloing, I just got on with it and climbed...and so I found that I really wasn't in the mood to be trying anything too challenging...

But then a route called Submission called to me, and I was unable to resist. 

In truth, it looked a lot easier than the grade suggested...it was rated at Hard Very Severe, but it looked as though one bold, reachy move across a high slab would see it done.  

I hadn't really wanted to climb an HVS without Anna there, and I haven't climbed a route of this grade yet this year...but when my eye was repeatedly drawn to it, I was intrigued.  When I found myself stopping halfway up an adjacent climb to have a look at it, I realised I wasn't going to be able to resist the temptation.

I gave it a go, and as expected, it was one committing move across the slab on slightly suspect protection, after which it was a romp to the top.  It probably doesn't deserve the grade, but hey, I'll take it anyway! 

Here's me, taking it anyway...

do you give up?

Jezz had a good day too, leading his first VDiff, which as you all know by now, is a grade that (somewhat confusingly) is called Very Difficult, is generally understood to be Fairly Easy, but can often turn out to be Bastard 'Ard!

He also built his first anchor entirely unassisted, and (once at the top) I assessed it as Bomber (short for bombproof, to mean it won't fail).

Here's Jezz revelling in his own awesomeness:

stance of power

A good day on the rock!

B-)