High Sports on the Grit

June 12, 2010 – 3:11 pm by Sean

Due to the classic summer weather we’ve been experiencing lately, a few members of the High Sports team turned their attention to the fast-drying gritstone edges of the Roaches.

Trip number one consisted of myself, Joe and Laurence “wonderboy” Thorpe. The sun reared its head and we ticked through some classics, Laurence made his first trad lead on Yong (HVD 4a) and his second on captain Lethargy (VD).

We made a group ascent of the brilliant Via Dolorosa (VS 4c 4c) with Joe leading us through the thrilling top pitch and then after a quick warm up on the eliminate Something Better Change (E2 5b), I smeared my way to the top of the magnificent hanging slab of Elegy (E2 5c).

A few days later myself and Joe returned, but faced with much worse weather (and about a million abseiling city-kids) we decided to go and check out the secluded skyline slabs. After both soloing Prelude to Space (HVS 4c) and munching a lot of Hobnobs, Joe patiently belayed whilst I crawled my way up wings of Unreason (E4 6a). On returning to the upper tier, the weather had improved and the outdoor centers left so we made a swift ascent of Crack and Corner (Sev 4c 4a).

All in all a good couple of days including some classic repeats and my first E4 (well pleased).