All at Sea with Bobby Shaftoe

Well, today was my birthday. Pete and I travelled to 'the county' last night and camped out in the woods. We found a fantastic spot with a soft bedding to sleep on and after a knock out doob we were fast asleep. Woke up at 6am to rain on my face. I crawled under the waterproof tent outer and went back to sleep until 8am. After coffee and a cable I was psyched to see what Rothey had to offer. We are not used to finding grit on county missions so this was a bit of a treat. The ferns were high and the ground was boggy but we made it to the best looking area - the arete area. Unfortunately, I decided to warm up on Hanging Arete 6a/V3. Pete climbed it very quickly but I fucked around on it for ages. I was getting completely owned. Must have taken a dozen goes before I climbed it. I was furious and as always it felt ok when it went. It is probably the best line at the crag using odd holds and powerful moves - not my thing but hey... Also climbed The Rounded Arete 6a and Pockets Wall 6a. Things hadn't started well and I was having having a shocker. Pete spent some time trying the sit start to Hanging Arete at 6c+ with good efforts but no joy. We moved over to the crag area to try some of the 6bs but a lot of the problems were wet or, in the case of Gloom, absolutely shit. Pete liked the look of The Long Reach 6c+. I had a few goes as well but found it hard and grim on the skin. Pete on the other hand manned through it in half a dozen goes. Definitely the send of the day. 

We left just as John "earl of northumberland" Earl turned up with his crew. We had seen as much of Rothley as we wanted and were slightly disappointed. We gambled with the weather and the petrol light and went to Bobby Shaftoe. Another county gritstone effort. this crag is much better. We should have gone there first thing. We went straight to Arete land and we both had a proper struggle with Classic Arete 6a. Thankfully I climbed it on the same go ad Pete so I wasn't too angry this time. I climbed a problem called The Long Reach 6a. Pete couldn't do it after two goes so gave up. It goes from an undercut up to a crimp and top (photo - check out my neck gun). I was a bit more psyched for it so gave it a couple more goes. 

Moving on to explore more of the crags. The place just got better and better. I completely failed on two 6bs but got one, Classic Arete Sit Start 6b. It was easy though, especially compared to some of the other problems around. Pete made a good but forceful ascent of Crease Classic 6b. A really nice problem which  I really want to go back and try. We were more or less spent but went the cob area and failed miserably on some further problems. 

All in all, it was a great day out in the county and the rain never came. We climbed for nearly 8 hours and were completely owned by the end. Shame its not as good as St Bees!