Nose city
No im not talking about dave. This is a big day for me, lots of planning, lots of practice. The Staffordshire Nose, 31 climbs in a day all first done by Don Whillans and Jo brown. Its basicly a crack climbing masterclass in a day.
My preparation is complete a few days prior, ive got lots of tape, ive bought loads of crap energy food and ive stopped climbing and training so im fresh, now its all down to the weather. 2 days before lift off, me and Andi are texting back and forth debating which day the weather is best, it's the worst case scenerio, there is no best day, just a day it is less likely to rain....bumber
But the show must go on, it just means we have to tweak the plan. We originally wanted to start at the Roaches, then Hen cloud and finally Ramshaw, we worked out that we save precious minutes and psychologically the end is closer.
Sadly this didnt happen, its the morning of the challenge, its damp. We know what the score is, The Roaches needs time to dry, we must start at Ram. 8am we plan to start. It's half ten when we do, we need to work fast. Andi leading first, and again on the next route, now its my turn, browns crack, this is one hard e1, i do it without a fall, but the upper section has screwed me over, i feel like ive had a full days workout and we've only just started, neterless we complete the remaining ramshaw climbs and head to the roaches. We start on the upper tier, Aqua we said. Disaster its green and wet, we need some breeze on Aqua so we can solo it. Sauls crack first then Aqua. Andis lead, done 4 mins easy, ok aqua now, we have to lead it. 3 times as long this way, but its done now. ok my lead now - the sloth, easy done. Downstairs now, climb by climb, cursing the wet conditions on each. We hit the crux climb of the, crack of gloom. The names in the experience, but were both ready for it and both do it without a fall, ok now its game on. You see we have a time to beat, set by the wide boyz Tom and Pete. 9 hours 31 mins. Its a 50/50 chance at time moment, as we've had everything against us so far, but lets crack on.
One by one we complete each climb in good style. We reach the end of the roaches, now we know its just the hen to go. 9 climbs i think left.
We head over, and its my lead, but the problem is very apparent, we've hit a psychological brick wall, basicly were knackered, and what should take 3 mins is taking 10. this isant good. we've got four hours to do the climb. it should be plenty, andi's climb next... done, but the wear and tear is showing.Andi 's turn again on delstree. He makes it to the top, but again it took a long time and even worse andi is clearly suffering with arm pains. we just need an excuse to call it a day. Ok my lead, reunion crack, wat a joke. i approached this relatively easy VS as if it were an e5, it took me ages. ok to the other side, slimeline. Andi is up again. He gets to the top and tells me its game over, deep down i agree but we just havent had the excuse to quit, ok im up next, seconds retreat - andthere it is - the excuse, its wet, its over grown and its clearly getting dark. We know it, Were done. the time now is 10 hours, 4 climbs from the end we call it a day.
All the way down, we tell each other, next time, next time, next time. We'll be more prepared, conditions will be better.....
well lets see hey