Pennine Lines w/c 20 November 2023
|| Mixed but cooling off || This could be it! ||
Burbage North || More than just a utility crag
|| Focus On... ||
A Classic Test Piece
On occasion the prevailing weather, daylight, time and other circumstances conspire to turn certain crags into a sort of black hole, from which only objects with sufficient kinetic energy in the opposite direction can escape. Without that energy you’re well beyond the event horizon long before you’ve driven past the Norfolk Arms, and regardless of your intentions you’re going to end up there inevitably. Burbage North is one of those places, Almscliff is another. So far this November that gravity field as been well and truly in place. When self-driving cars really become a thing I will put money on most cars just driving to Burbage North automatically in the run up to xmas unless you hack the firmware.
I love Burbage North but in many ways a lot of the bouldering here is weird. It’s not even like the rest of the grit crags to be honest. Case in point; Banana Finger is a great example of the ‘local test piece’ genre in British climbing. A lot of crags have one of these; an old-ish problem, probably pre-dating bouldering mats, that’s reasonably hard, a sought-after tick, but objectively not actually that great. AND YET if you’ve done it you will probably go on to do it again and again. Banana Finger is very much one of those.
Banana Finger || Climber: unknown
Another way of looking at it is it’s the sort of problem that you’re going to think is crap if you go there specifically for it and find that you can’t do it. You’re going to wonder why this is a classic at all. It’s not much to look at for a start. It’s got an awkward landing, and the crux revolves around a grim finger match at the back of a slanted overlap. This is not “super fun moves on this cool bloc” per social media parlance. It’s not a sexy problem. It matches a slot which those of us with big fingers are going to struggle to get more than the fingertips of back two on one hand and back three of the other hand in, all the time squatting ungracefully underneath. After which there is a tricky move up which for most people, definitely including the shortarse community (and it IS a community), involving a sort of awkward roll and thruch up to get your body over the bulge. Or what’s even worse is having suffered on the finger-match tall climbers can just ignominiously lank through this with back foot still on the lower slab, and hence suffer again - this time from the howls of derision from your less vertically endowed brethren. You can’t win!
If you DO do it, the success will jaundice your opinion of it so much that you’re barely able to be objective about it any more. Is it even any good? What WAS it that I just did? At least it’s over with now. However, it doesn’t stop there, because you will then immediately get drawn into trying the Direct, a similarly ungainly morpho thrutchfest, this time straight up not horizontal.
Banana Finger Direct || Climber: unknown
In an early draft of the Grit Blocs problem list/spreadsheet I will admit that Banana Finger got on there somehow. Probably by virtue of being a classic. But once I really broke down what I was after for the book it was rapid replaced, I wasn’t looking for classics - everyone already knows what the classics are, and I was trying to shine a light on gritstone from a slightly different angle. Also Banana Finger just isn’t that photogenic, a fact I was reminded of when looking for photos for this email, because despite having climbed it (and seen it climbed) dozens of times and spent innumerable hours stood next to it, I could only muster one single image of the actual problem. So if anyone out there thinks they can throw some wild shapes on this one for the camera get in touch!
All this sounds like I’m hating on this problem, but really, I’m not. I don’t avoid it, I will always climb it when I’m passing. With it’s untidy-stack-of-hardbacks-slipping-off-a-cushion topography it’s totally representative of Burbage North - weird awkward slanting break-to-break stuff that you don’t really get elsewhere, and there’s a lot to be said for that. And while I don’t necessarily think it’s objectively a great problem, but I always get some sort of perverse enjoyment out of doing it. Maybe it not being that pleasant is part of the appeal, the rite of passage element of it? When I first tried it god knows how long ago I found it absolutely nails and couldn’t do the match, couldn’t really touch it. I still have to try hard, and the imprint of the memory of struggling on it is still there, and serves as a sort of reminder of progression. Sometimes just little things take you back - a smell, a texture, something out of the corner of the eye. For me that match on Banana Finger takes me back to being an entry-level boulderer struggling to get up things, but at the same time with a world of climbing possibilities unfurling in front of me. That’s enough to keep me coming back time and time again.
Monkey Crack - a better problem || Climber: John Coefield
|| Watch out for.... ||
After last week's email about Caley it's come to my attention that the BMC Yorks area are in the process of organising a crag cleanup day this winter, which should do wonders for the crag in general and hopefully ensure some of the greenness is kept at bay. So dust off your brushes and gardening gloves, and keep an eye on the Yorkshire BMC social media for any updates on this once they have a date fixed up - maybe I'll see you there.
|| Vertebrate Discount ||
Our friends at Vertebrate have kindly shared with us a 30% discount code in the run up to Christmas. Yes, that’s not a typo, thirty percent - TRENTA PERCENTA! This is more than you’ll find by just going on their site, and more than by signing up for their newsletter too. The code is valid until the 21st December, and should work on everything on their site including Grit Blocs. If you’ve not got hold of a copy of Grit Blocs yet then COME ON PEOPLE, I bang on about it enough, so here’s your best chance. It’s pretty good. Also available are a number of my favourites from recent years, including but not limited to; Beastmaking, Echoes, Deep Play, Mont Blanc Lines, Lakes bouldering and Mastermind.
The code is:
VPSUBS30
|| SUPPORTED BY ||
|| Recently Through the lens ||
Not a lot of action to report but I think this sums the weather up nicely.
|| Fresh Prints ||
I don't really do all the Black Friday nonsense, but since it's the run up to Christmas here's a discount code to help you sort out a few presents for family and friends. Valid on ALL prints. Deffo not Black Friday though. It's actually the anniversary of the assassination of JFK this week, so if anyone of you are tempted to go Lee Harvey Oswald and pull the trigger on a print or two now's your chance.
The code is:
GRASSYKNOLL20
The last order date for prints is looking to be about the 11th Dec, to be on the safe side, so this code is valid until then. Anyway, to get us through the poor weather here's a couple of prints ideal for the board lover in your life, in the Print Shop.
