Kevin Whitworth / Jacurutu

No photos from this weeks climbing session I'm afraid, so you'll have to make do with this one from the previous week of Ed topping out on Pinnacle Flake Climb (S 4a *) on Low Man instead.

The reason for the lack of photos was that there was just me an Mike this week (although Steve turned up later and did a spot of bouldering) meaning there was lots of climbing (well...see later) and not much time for photos especially as I was constantly on one end of a rope. I suppose I could have asked Mike if I could take him off belay to take some photos, but I'm quite confident I know what his answer would have been!

Having had a good bash as Low Man last week, I thought it would be nice to try the main crag this time, and the South West Face seemed to have a reasonable selection, so we went straight there. Starting left to right (or going backwards through the guide book), we started off by Bird's Nest Crack (HS 4b **), which went fine, and was probably a good intro to jamming on grit for Mike. The next obvious choice was the next HS, Crack and Wall (HS 4b) up the left corner of the Crucifix block. Clearly I was feeling a bit cocky, as I'd ignored the P2 warning. The first couple of moves are fine, but then you've got a couple more moves up to the ledge atop Crucifix with no protection (well, I couldn't get any in). A size 3 friend wedged in the horizontal break at the top gave me the confidence to mantle up on to the ledge, at which point I recovered the friend for the next emergency and replaced it with something else. So far so good. The guidebook then says: "step up and left using flutes into the chimney", which sounds easy. It probably is, but it's very exposed, and there's not much in the way of either gear placements or decent hand holds. And the break for your feet slowly disappears underneath a bulge. After much dithering, I figured the only choice was to go for it, and hope that the break above the flutes actually presented a half decent handhold. Not quite a dyno move, but if I'd not found anything to grab on to, I'm not sure what would have happened. Once in the chimney the rest of the climb was fine.

So feeling good, and thinking I'd got the hang of HS 4b climbs, we looked for the next one. This is Central Crack (HS 4b *). The guidebook says "grunt or glide up the wide smooth rounded crack...” What it didn't say was that the crack sort of starts about 3 feet off the floor. There are a couple of decent jugs to hang on to, but the first foothold is at waist height (and rather polished). I managed to get off the floor a couple of times, but simply found nowhere to go - one arm (that's arm, as in hand-to-elbow) wedged (just) in the crack, one holding onto one of the big jugs, both feet on slippery rock, completely off balance and nowhere obvious to go to next. After a few attempts, I gave up. As consolation, Steve tells me the bouldering guide has it down at 5a, although quick cross reference with French/indoor grades puts it at 4/4+, which given I've been leading up to 6a indoors, doesn't act as much consolation.

So, keeping going left, the next possibility is South Chimney Layback (S 4b). This is a vertical crack leading to a ledge and flake. Clearly the crux is jamming up the crack (it says so in the guide book). OK, sounds fun. Except the start is rather polished, and there's nothing much for your feet. I spent a lot of time looking at it, with my fingers in the crack (which is quite narrow - hand jams wouldn't have been as much of a problem). Starting from its left gives you an option to layback (slightly) up the crack, but really nothing for your feet. Starting on the right gives you a small rock to stand on (extra height!) and a small niche I could get a toe or two into. This seemed like the better plan, so after much looking, testing my fingers and looking for a proper hold (there aren't any), I wedged my fingers and left foot in the crack and pulled. Hurray - off the ground at last. Then "Oh s**t!" as my fingers let go. I landed heavily on my left heel, followed by my backside and rolled over backwards. Not very elegant, and my heel hurts (hence the "possibly broken" of the title).

I know when I've been beaten, so it's time to move down a grade to South Chimney (D). "The prominent chimney is something of a thrutch as a start." Well it's only a Diff, so it can't be too bad, can it? Well, it can. Actually, it's not that difficult. The trick (to the first bit) is to start facing the correct way. Unfortunately, it's not a wide chimney (and I'm not exactly svelte), so the traditional back-and-feet approach doesn't work. Feet, knees, back and stomach seemed to do the trick, but it was hardly graceful and elegant. Clearing the first chimney, it gets somewhat easier, but then you end up in a similar position higher up. If I keep climbing chimneys, I'm going to have to find a harness which racks gear more round my sides than my back, because everything is now heavily scratched (about a month ago, most of my outdoor gear looked pristine). I doubt it did my little point-and-shoot camera much good either, which was clipped to my harness as well. Once on top, things didn't look much better, as there wasn't much obvious for rigging a belay. I got it done eventually (and Mike realised why it took me so long once he'd got up), but lets say I wouldn't have liked to test it (mostly because I'd probably have ended up halfway down the chimney, rather than it wouldn't have held).

So, after struggling up a Diff, it was either time to give up and go home, or go try something I knew I could do. I didn't want to be defeated, and Mike was still up for carrying on, so we headed down to Low Man, which was looking decidedly busier than the South West Face. Pinnacle Flake Climb (S 4a *) looked free (someone was on both Fluted Columns and Low Man Easy Way), and although I'd climbed it last week, Ed lead it and I seconded it (well, thirded it as Gordon went second), so it was a chance for me to tick off another lead. Having flown up it the week before, it brought home the difference between leading and seconding. The tricky bit is a couple of moves above the start: "and awkward step up and left is made onto a sloping ledge". I'd seen Ed and Gordon struggle slightly, but it didn't phase me - until I was trying to lead it. Suddenly you feel the exposure. After that it was a breeze, although I don't think I put much gear in towards the top (mostly because the only thing I have that would go in the top break is a #9 Rockcentric, and I'd used it lower down (doh!).

By now Fluted Columns (VD ***) was free, and although it was getting late and cold, I persuaded Mike to do one last climb. It started spitting with rain just as I'd got racked and roped up, but we figured it wasn't going to be a problem, and we'd be off before the nastier looking weather arrived. Although I didn't struggle with the climb, I have to say it wasn't exactly elegant. Atop the columns, I was feeling very exposed and had to resort to putting a #3 friend (I think) into Fluted crack. The final slab above the columns was done functionally (rather than prettily). I think by now I realised I was actually quite tired (and probably hungry, it being 8 pm and not having eaten since lunch at noon), and it was definitely time to call it a day.

In total, we clocked up five routes:

• Bird's Nest Crack (Almscliff Crag #56, HS 4b P1 **) - lead
  
• Crack and Wall (Almscliff Crag #50, HS 4b P2) - lead
  
• South Chimney (Almscliff Crag #39, D P1) - lead
  
• Pinnacle Flake Climb (Almscliff Crag #7, S 4a P1) - lead
  
• Fluted Columns (Almscliff Crag #8, VD P1) - lead

and I failed miserably (and painfully) at two others (which I intend to seek revenge for):

• Central Crack (Almscliff Crag #48, HS 4b P1) - got off the ground and stuck
  
• South Chimney Layback (Almscliff Crag #50, S 4b P1) - got off the ground briefly and fell off (ouch)

Route numbers and grades are from the 1998 edition of Yorkshire Gritstone, compiled, revised and edited by Dave Musgrove.

Overall it was an enjoyable session. Lessons learnt include eat something (I even had some Trackers in my bag!), listen to Steve when he tells you Almscliff is horrible because it's all polished and listen to the guide book when it tells you climbs may be undergraded! I've spent most of the weekend aching, and hobbling to keep my left heel off the ground, although it's feeling better now, so no serious damage. Octopush tonight helped with the aches - and introduced some different ones (thanks Benson)!

Finally, whilst a poor workman never blames his (or her) tools, this trip has left me with a shopping list:

• A bouldering mat/crash pad - falling off before you're first bit of protection still hurts, plus (dare I say it) I may even try my hand at bouldering
  
• A new harness - to better organise my lead rack, and keep it away from my back for doing chimneys (OK - this is a lame excuse, but I just fancy a new harness, and I spotted a Wild Country harness in the shop at the Leeds Wall which looks pretty much exactly what I've been searching for ever since I started climbing, and up to now hadn't found)
  
• New rock boots - more friction required (I've noticed Mike seems to get more traction than I do, and I'm sure it isn't just to do with my weight)
  
• Bigger protection - I'm thinking a #4 Friend or a #9 Rockcentric (or bigger - I'm sure you used to be able to get a #10 Hex from Camp, when you were allowed to buy them and rope them up yourself)

The crash pad and boots are real possibilities. My boots are getting on a bit (even though they haven't had that much use - perhaps the rubber degrades over time?), and the crash pad would both help with some of the more dubious landings that exist, help me start with clean boots, but more importantly might get me into bouldering. I've never really seen the point of sitting down and pulling your backside off the floor. However, given that some of the bouldering routes are basically the lower half of climbs I've done (or failed), I'm thinking it might help my technique, which in turn can be put to practice on routes. With any luck, this should help me with my long term objective (which has been around for many years) to lead Great Western (HVS 5a P1 ****)...

Fortunately it's up and running again now, but I thought I'd frazzled my PC at home.

Last week I was round at Steve and Ally's place, and Steve had a couple of matched pair of Corsair TwinX 1024 MB sticks left over after upgrading his machine. Having been thinking about upgrading the RAM in my machine (photo editing consumes lots of RAM), I bought them off him to save him sticking them on eBay. Today I put them in the machine, and following his advice, manually configured the BIOS settings as by default they are detected as having a CAS latency of 3, even though they are sold as CAS 2. Alas, that was the last time the machine would even get as far a the POST.

Much cursing and swearing later, consulting Corsair's website, MSI's website, various forums, and the manual for my K8N Diamond motherboard, I remembered that there's a set of diagnostic LEDs that give you a clue what's going on during the boot sequence. The conclusion I came too was that the BIOS couldn't decompress to the RAM, and then I recalled you can probably reset the RAM with a jumper on the motherboard. Turns it it's a switch, which made life easier, and hey presto, the PC fires up and POSTs again.

Re-reading the info on the Corsair site, it turns out that the CAS latency should be set to 2.5 (and not 2) for AMD systems. This done, and hey presto it restarts fine. The info from Corsair is reproduced below (as there's no direct link available):

Why are the timings shown in the SPD set to CAS 3?
All of our XMS-3200C2 will have their SPD set to JEDEC defined values for the specific memory IC used to make that part. This is done to ensure maximum compatibility with a wide variety of motherboards. The tested settings Cass 2-3-3-6 for Intel and Cass 2.5-3-3-6 for AMD need to be manually set in the BIOS.

In my travels, I also dicovered that 2-3-3-6 refers to CAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS. It's still mostly greek to me (not much of a geek am I?) There's some (possibly questionable - see editors note) info on the CAS latency Wikipedia page.

On another note, my next door neighbours Paul and Margaret asked me to have a look at their PC as it stopped working. Turns out the hard drive had failed, and I've had much more success in replacing that an re-installing WinXP home. Unfortunately I had to talk to Microsoft (for activation) and managed not to fail the trick quesion "how many PCs is this software installed on?"

Anyway, I'm now off to see if my new, improved memory makes my photo editing software work any better.

It's silly o'clock in the morning, and I've now finished editing the rest of the Almscliff photos. Given that I am supposed to be up early tomorrow, that's probably a bad thing (as is writing this...).

As usual, the best few are available in my Flickr photostream, or specifically in the Almscliff Set. Those, plus a few more which didn't make the Flickr cut are available on the photo album on this site, either directly or in the Outdoor Activities section.

Fingers crossed for good weather on Friday, as we should be back out there again. Alternatively, I guess it's either an early night, or perhaps a trip to the wall instead.

Meanwhile, sleep beckons...

The full set of everyone's photos (well, everyone who gave them to Mick Crook at any rate) are available online on Orange Photos.

Photo credits are as follows:

• CS - Chris Sims
  
• DF - Dave Faragher
  
• JF - Jeff Fleetwood
  
• KW - Kevin Whitworth (me!)
  
• MC - Mick Crook
  
• MT - Mike Turner
  
• SB - Sarah Bennett

A big thank you to Mick for finding the time to sort all the photos and get them online!

http://photos.orange.co.uk/album/6110728

We'd planned on going to Caley Crags for a boldering session last Tuesday, figuring we'd get a bit more time on the rock given that I had to be back in York for 20.00. However, it turned out Jenny was not at band practice, but actually had a gig on, so I didn't need to be back until 21.30. With the extra time, me Ed and Gordon decided it was worth a trip to Almscliffe instead.

And what a fantastic evening it was too! We headed straight to Low Man (because I've climbed there before and vaguely know my way around it) and enjoyed glorious sunshine, only slightly spoilt by the breeze on top of Low Man (Ed got a touch cold belaying Gordon and myself up Pinnacle Flake Climb). We only got in 3 routes (so slightly better than the last trip to Caley), but I thouroughly enjoyed them, had no dramas with gear falling out (although putting longer runners on the top break of Pinnacle Direct would have made the rope drag much more manageable...). Plus Ed lead his first climb outdoors, which is great news because hopefully it means we won't be reliant upon me to lead stuff all the time (and maybe I can take more photos!).

Everyone brought cameras, so there's a reasonable selection out there. Ed's are in his climbing set on Flickr, and Gordon's are currently on his machine at home until he pulls his finger out and edits them for upload onto Flickr as well. Saying that, the silhouette of Ed is the only shot I've processed so far - the rest will make their way onto the photo albums on here and onto my Flickr account in due course.

We still only managed 3 climbs, but as I said above, they were very enjoyable:

• Pinnacle Direct (Almscliff Crag #6, HVD P1) - lead
  
• Fluted Columns (Almscliff Crag #8, VD P1) - lead
  
• Pinnacle Flake Climb (Almscliff Crag #7, S 4a P1) - seconded (Ed lead)

Route numbers and grades are from the 1998 edition of Yorkshire Gritstone, compiled, revised and edited by Dave Musgrove.

We're off again to Almscliff on Friday, this time with Gordon, Mike and possibly Steve (who's fresh back from the Alps), but no Ed this time.

Since I started playing octopush again, I've been dying to mix octopush and photography. Sure, I could shell out lots of money and buy a full waterproof dive housing for my Nikon, but I simply can't justify the cost for the amount of use it would get. I've looked around for waterproof housings for my Minolta G400, but with very little luck. There are many dedicated solid housings around for other point-and-shoot digital cameras, jut not mine. The best option I came up with (until recently) was the D-MM housing from ewa-marine, but that's about £50.

So, rather than splash out on that, I got myself a couple of disposable underwater cameras from Boots. I've had some success with these before (they were actually from Max Spielman) when out in Jordan a couple of years ago. However, the results this time were non-existent. They don't have a flash on them, and there simply isn't enough light inside (let alone underwater in a slightly murky swimming pool) to get anything resembling a half-decent exposure. Cue one strip of practically unexposed negatives.

After that, I thought long and hard about the ewa-marine housing. However, having realised that flash was key to getting a good exposure, that housing has a potential design flaw - the entire front of the housing (which is really just a heavy-duty waterproof bag) is made from a sheet of transparent acrylic. The downside to this is that the flash could reflect off this and on to the lens - causing flare and other artefacts.

A bit more research turned up a Korean company called DiCAPac. They make very similar housings to ewa-marine (ie a heavy-duty waterproof bag), but there design is slightly different. They have a dedicated lens port, which is enclosed in rubber - helping to isolate the acrylic plate from the flash (similar to dedicated solid housings which are available). Whilst some of the ewa-marine housings also have a dedicate lens port, it tends to be made of transparent material, again risking lens flare etc. Plus, with shipping from Hong Kong from Digital Rev's eBay shop it only cost £21.00. The model I got was the DiCAPac WP-400, which seems to be designed for zoom cameras (it appears the lens port is slightly longer to allow extension of the lens).

As I said, the WP-400 is basically a sealed heavy-duty plastic bag with a port for the lens. It's sealed with a zip-loc closure, which is then rolled over several times and held shut with velcro (the ewa-marine housings seem to have a more substantial closure system using two metal bars to clamp the bag shut). Having guessed on this model, the camera fits in it OK, but the case design has the lens port slightly off centre, whereas the G400 has a more-or-less centred lens. At wide angles the port can cause vignetting if the camera isn't in exactly the right place, but it's manageable.

I tested the case in the pool down to 2m, and there was no sign of leaking (no air bubbles, and the tissue paper inside wasn't wet at all), so I tried it with the camera. Taking photos is a bit tricky - the focus speed isn't particularly fast, and the shutter lag is terrible. (Is this because it's underwater, a bit dark, or just because I've become spoilt by the D200?) Also, the housing has some buoyancy, as do I, so it's difficult to stay still. The flash seems to do the job, but there are a few artefacts in the photos - probably from dust on the lens. However, with the camera set to full auto, the results are only acceptable. Shutter speed seems to end up at 1/60s, and as the flash isn't lighting the whole scene (much of the exposure is from ambient light), there's noticeable motion blur (octopush is a fast moving game!). The G400 is also set, on full auto, to automatically select the ISO, so given the lack of light, it's turning it up a bit resulting in quite noisy pictures. I might try it on full manual next time and see how I get on. Failing that, my next project will be to work out how to trigger an external flash (I don't think I can get an optical cell and Skyport in the DiCAPac case as well) and build a case for one of my Nikon Speedlights.

I should also report that I noticed a small amount of moisture inside the housing after a few minutes use with the camera, so rather than risk the camera, I quit whilst I was ahead. I suspect this was condensation as it really was a small amount of moisture, and there were no sign of air bubbles. I'd loaded the camera into the housing on the pool side - a warm, humid environment - and then taken it into the pool, which is significantly cooler. Next time I'll stick to the shallow end I think (where there's more ambient light as well).

All in all, I'm pleased with the DiCAPac WP-400. It has it's problems, but for £21.99 I can't complain. It's much cheaper than a new camera + housing, or a waterproof camera (even a second hand one like a Nikonos V - and I have seriously considered that!). I'll persevere with it to check it is condensation on the inside (easily fixed with some silica gel) and not a leak, and to try and get the hang of taking decent photos underwater with it. Watch this space!

As an attempt to extend what I'm doing with this blog, and to motivate me to climb more outside, I'm going to start recording routes I've done.

I started writing this about 15 minutes ago, and wrote a long, detailed review of what we (me, Mike and Ed) did tonight at Caley Crags. Unfortunately, I then hit the wrong keys and closed the browser, loosing it all. So here's the short version.

Having only been to Caley once before, I decided to start on familiar territory, so we started with Pedestal Wall. No major dramas on the climb itself, other than all but one piece of protection falling out, and what was left wasn't going to do much more than stop me rolling all the way down the hill to Otley. I figure there must be a name for the jangling noise made by your bombproof gear placement falling out and sliding down the rope to stop on a ledge - but it's a noise I'd rather not hear again!

Second up was Square Chimney, another route I'd seconded on my previous visit. Much easier (well, less exposed), and much better protection (none of it fell out). And climbing chimneys is always something different after so much time at the wall. (Although the climbing wall in the gym at the Royal Marine Commando Training Centre at Lympstone has a chimney!)

Unfortunately, we ran out of time after that, so for the record, I did the following:

• Pedestal Wall (Caley Crags #64, S P2) - lead
  
• Square Chimney (Caley Crags #68, HVD P1) - lead

Route numbers and grades are from the 1998 edition of Yorkshire Gritstone, compiled, revised and edited by Dave Musgrove.

Afraid there are no pictures this time (unlike the last visit in August 2005) as I was constantly leading or belaying Ed and Mike. Hopefully they'll start leading outdoors soon, so I can sit back, enjoy the scenery and play with the camera.

After my second visit to Caley, I'm not sure I like the place. I think I probably need to explore a bit more, as I'm sure there are plenty of good Diffs and Severes to play with, and I probably need to get my head round leading outside and making good gear placements. Still, we're all feeling dead keen to get out again, so hopefully next week we may make it back to Caley (perhaps for bouldering, which should give more time on the rock as there's less faffing with gear and belays), or maybe even to Almscliffe to revisit some of the first routes I did outside on Low Man back when I started climbing around 1994/5.