Grit Rash

Dry days- 105
Days of rain- 96

Damn this weather!! Today I was going to go to Thorn as the forecast was for dryness. I was out quite early and when I was driving up the M6 at 9am, in the drizzle. It dried up as I headed North but on the way over to Thorn the cloud was down on the tops. I realised the walk would be a waste of a day, so plan B had to be formed. Options? Well 1. exposed Lime, which means either Farleton or Newbiggin. Option 2 would be free standing grit- Thorn or Windy Clough.

I went for option 2. It drizzled a bit on the walk in, so when I got to the rocks they were wet. But not as wet as my shoes and socks. Balls. I sat and late my lunch (at 10:30) and waited. It stopped drizzling and after a while the rock dried off. As an aside the rock up here is getting quite worn, the slopers sdeem either over brushed or well used.

I had a crack at Country for Old Men which was pretty much dry by this point. It took a good number of goes to get the move- it's basically a one mover from two shit edges to a good flatty. I found I needed to use a foot jam for all it was worth to even pull on. After this I moved up to Live Evil, although the arete hold was damp. This went quite quickly, so it was time for a look at Mr. Owl ate my Metal Worm. It took me a while working out a sequence between the crack and the finish- eventually I just did it as a flop move. It took a handful of goes to link it, the last move spitting me off a couple of times due to scrittle.

I was getting tired by now, but I had a look at the two mat boulder. I did the 6b+ wall second go, then failed on the wet groove. At this point I sacked it off and headed back to meet the Doc for a coffee. On the way there were a few pheasant chicks in the verge, but as I passed mother pheasant flew out of the hedge and under my wheels. Orphans created I guess, and I feel a bit bad about that but there's not a lot I can do now.

Windy Clough Revisited from GCW on Vimeo.