Most people seemed to be walking or cycling (or perhaps on the bus), but I wanted to cover off some of the villages on the eastern edge of Leeds. I also spotted that the A63 stops near Colton (M1 J46, or specifically the A63/A642 roundabout), only last time I drove down it I could swear it went from their on to Selby, so this was clearly a target too.
A days driving round West and North Yorkshire (with Jenny making excellent notes - even whilst doing laps of roundabouts!) and we've covered bits of the M1 (missing slip roads and the missing junction 47), the A63 out to Selby, completed the missing bits of the A19 between Escrick and Riccall and the A162 at Towton, the A642 and A655 between the A63 and M1, roads between Scholes, Barwick-in-Elmet, Aberford, Micklefield, Kippax, Thorner, Sherburn-in-Elmet, Cawood, Ozendyke, Ryther, Ulleskelf and Church Fenton. The routes were recorded using my GlobalSat BT308 Bluetooth GPS Receiver with a Nokia N73 and the Nokia Sports Tracker software, and esported to GPX format.
Of course, that's the easy bit - we now need to use those tracks (and Jenny's notes) to edit the map. We've made a start, and I think I'm getting the hang of JOSM, although it has it's little "quirks".
When we've finished, and when the revisions have been rendered, I'll try and post a before and after view of the map. Plus I've got a couple of photos from the morning meetup at Starbucks on Albion Street (sorry we didn't make it back again!).
Meanwhile, it's 03:33, and time for bed I think!
15/09: Octopush Bats - Photo
As promised, here's a photo of the octopush bats, taken in the garage whilst the final coat of paint is drying. It's not the most fantastic of photos for so many reasons, but it should give some idea of what I've spent the last couple of weekends doing. I'll try and do something more "arty" when I have time (2008, perhaps?).
One point worth briefly discussing is what paint to use. There was a suggestion about using fence stain because being a stain, it colours the wood, so doesn't wear/rub off - hence bats wouldn't need repainting. However, we knocked this in the head on the grounds that staining wood (which is generally coloured already) isn't really possible. So I was quite surprised to find Cuprinol do in fact to a white fence stain. Except it's not really, it's just an exterior white paint. Still, I figured it was worth a go, and initial results looked quite good - the texture and feel of the wood was still there (something you can loose with proper paint) and the bat's were white. At least, they were until we started using them. The stain/paint rubs off very easily, and at the end of last weeks session, the black bats (painted in matt black enamel - B&Q didn't have the Cuprinol Black Ash) looked in good condition, and the white bats looked completely battered. So they're now hanging up in the garage again, having been repainted in Humbrol's finest matt white enamel. (Which is much nicer to use than the fast-drying enamel B&Q sell. Almost makes me want to go and buy some Airfix models...)
10/09: Octopush Bats
Last weekend was spent making some new bats (pushers, sticks, whatever you want to call them) for the York Uni Octopush team (that's underwater hockey, or just plain hockey, to anyone outside the UK, apparently). Dave leant me his bandsaw, and Benson & Ben (both New Zealand players) popped over (well, down from Newcastle) complete with wood, plans and experience.
After a hard weekends work (and eating and drinking), we had 8 pairs of normal bats, 2 pairs of left handed bats and 3 pairs of small bats for the club, plus I think Benson and Ben took away about 3 pairs for themselves. Many late nights eventually got them painted up, and tonight was the first chance to try them out.
Feedback so far is that everyone thinks there much better than the Brit Bats the club already has, although more practice is required to get people flicking properly with them.
The only down side is the paint. The black bats are done in flat black (ie matt) enamel, which was mostly fine although has left marks on the puck and white bats, and the white ones were done in exterior wood paint/stain. Alas, the white ones don't look very white any more, so I'm going to have to dry them out, sand the paint off them, and repaint them in matt white enamel.
Oh, and I also discovered that one of our new members, who could do with a small bat, is left handed, so I now need to make a couple of pairs of small, left handed bats. Plus I've got my own version of these to make, and an order from Jamie for some for the Durham club (although they're paying - so that might fund a belt and disc sander to make the next batch easier to make).
I've tried taking some photos but haven't had time to process them. Not sure I'm happy with them, so I may try something different, but hopefully next time there will be something to see.
Finally, for anyone interested in making their own bats, the article by Benson that I've linked to before is back online again here: "Concepts of Underwater Hockey Stick Design".
After a hard weekends work (and eating and drinking), we had 8 pairs of normal bats, 2 pairs of left handed bats and 3 pairs of small bats for the club, plus I think Benson and Ben took away about 3 pairs for themselves. Many late nights eventually got them painted up, and tonight was the first chance to try them out.
Feedback so far is that everyone thinks there much better than the Brit Bats the club already has, although more practice is required to get people flicking properly with them.
The only down side is the paint. The black bats are done in flat black (ie matt) enamel, which was mostly fine although has left marks on the puck and white bats, and the white ones were done in exterior wood paint/stain. Alas, the white ones don't look very white any more, so I'm going to have to dry them out, sand the paint off them, and repaint them in matt white enamel.
Oh, and I also discovered that one of our new members, who could do with a small bat, is left handed, so I now need to make a couple of pairs of small, left handed bats. Plus I've got my own version of these to make, and an order from Jamie for some for the Durham club (although they're paying - so that might fund a belt and disc sander to make the next batch easier to make).
I've tried taking some photos but haven't had time to process them. Not sure I'm happy with them, so I may try something different, but hopefully next time there will be something to see.
Finally, for anyone interested in making their own bats, the article by Benson that I've linked to before is back online again here: "Concepts of Underwater Hockey Stick Design".
10/09: Cawood Craft Festival
This was a few weeks ago now, but I thought I'd add something here as I entered the competition. The Cawood Craft Festival runs over the 3 days of the August bank holiday weekend in Cawood, a small village in North Yorkshire between York and Selby, with the aim of promoting local arts and crafts. Although we're local, I've only made it to the festival once, as I've tended to be away that weekend. Anyway, this year, I though I'd enter the photography section of the craft competition. I selected the Damselfly photo here, although I re-edited it properly (sharpening only the in-focus areas, and dealing with a few artefacts here and there). I also picked the silhouette of Ed climbing, as it was topical and I like it. Photos had to be 10" x 8" and framed, so prints were ordered and the frames and mounts bought.
Unfortunately, entries had to be handed in at the church between 10am and 5pm on the preceeding Thursday. Fine if you're retired or doing it full time, but not exactly convenient for hobbyist such as myself. Fortunately, Jenny decided to take the afternoon off and was able to hand them in for me.
Friday saw the results, and the first time to see the competition. Jenny had already told me there were 50+ entries before mine in the photography section, so I didn't have high hopes. Overall, there were some good, and possibly even great photos. I didn't win anything, but I'm not too disappointed. Next year I know what I'm competing against, so I'll try harder. I should also say there's some fantastic local artists and craftsmen (and women), so it would appear that the festival is meeting it's aims.
Well, my heel is mostly better, and certainly good enough to climb on, so another trip to Almscliff was arranged. Mike's having his tonsils out (3rd time lucky!), and Gordon's gone to pastures new (BT), so it was just me and Ed. Hence no new photos (the one shown here is Ed on Low Man, from a few weeks back).
We started on the South West Face, and I repeated Bird's Nest Crack, which I'd lead with Mike last time out. This time round, it didn't seem quite so enjoyable (read "easy"), but perhaps the troubles after climbing this during the last session altered my perception of it? Ed didn't enjoy it either.
Next up we decided to try Central Crack, which defeated me last time. This time I'd come better prepared with new (and stickier) rock shoes, and more importantly, a large crash/bouldering mat. Getting off the ground is easy, but as you gain the crack, you run out of, well, everything. A few false starts led to arm jams across the crack, shortly followed by a nice soft landing on the crash pad, but eventually I worked out how to get into the crack, at which point it's a case of wriggling up it. Reaching the ledge gives some good gear placements, but then a rather exposed rib is the next challenge. I made it, although not exactly elegantly. The annoying thing was the guys busy climbing all round us without ropes - probably on harder routes. They did ask Ed why we were doing this route, as it's not very nice. I kind of agree, but at least I cracked it after last time.
On their recommendation, we moved on to The Traditional Climb, a VS 4c, so a little harder than what I've been climbing to date. The first couple of moves were OK, and I got a good friend placement. But from there on, it all went pear shaped. I made the next break, but there wasn't much to hand on to, and the next vertical crack flared the wrong way. End result was I found out the hard way how good the friend placement was! A combination of that plus the crash pad (yes, I decked out) meant a reasonably soft landing to my first lead fall. Unfortunately, I skinned my fingertips in the process, as they were jammed in a crack at the time. I had another go, but didn't even make it as far (although the friend got moved a bit higher). Ed took a go, and made it about half way up, but was too knackered to finish, and ended up lowering off of a large hex. Determined to finish it, I ran up top, set up a belay, and top roped Ed up to collect the gear. Not entirely sure we've made friends with either Leeds or Yorkshire Mountaineering Clubs, as they all turned up just before we started, and seemed to be waiting for us to finish messing around so they could have a go. Also, it was rather busy up top, so finding a belay point was somewhat challenging (a large sling around the top of the large boulder (someone else was using the base) was the best on offer).
Time for a break, and a look at the guidebook. We did look at The Goblin (too green and slimy), Zig Zag Direct (busy) and The Nose (didn't like the look of it), and then settled on Central Climb on the North West Face. The start went OK, but again I got a little way off the ground and bottled it, lowering off two nuts. Ed solo'd up to retrieve the nuts and we decided to call it a day.
So, in total, I clocked up two routes:
- Bird's Nest Crack (Almscliff Crag #56, HS 4b P1 **) - lead
- Central Crack (Almscliff Crag #48, HS 4b P1)
and I failed miserably (again) on two others:
- The Traditional Climb (Almscliff Crag #58, VS 4c P1 **) - fell off, bounced and skinned my fingers
- Central Climb (Almscliff Crag #108, VS 4c P1 **) - got off the ground, go stuck and lowered off
Route numbers and grades are from the 1998 edition of Yorkshire Gritstone, compiled, revised and edited by Dave Musgrove.
I'm really frustrated, and there seems to be little else available to climb at Almscliff without at least moving up to VS/4c. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be getting any better either. I'm half wondering whether to quit leading and either get Ed to belay from above, or set up a top-rope instead. Maybe that way I can concentrate on the technique and moves with less worry about the exposure? Alternatively, I'm going to look for somewhere else to try - perhaps Baildon or Ilkley (although I seem to recall Ilkley being similar - lots of poorly protected routes, and limited number of ~Severe routes). It looks like plans for Great Western may be on hold for this year.
Oh, and I did say I was after some new toys following the last session. Well, I acquired said bouldering mat, and it was well worth it. (OK, not sure it's worth the money, but I was very glad we had it.) Plus I got some Mad Rock Mugen climbing shoes, which are really good, if not exactly as comfy as my old pair. That just leaves the following on the shopping list (none of which is likely to be any real advantage):
- 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)
- 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)
