Never Forget Frodsham.

Views to the Mersey from Woodhouse Hill.

The southern side of the Mersey Estuary is dominated by a series of high bluffs that bound the river from Runcorn to Helsby. These steep banks have in previous epochs repelled the spread of the river, hemmed it in, corralled its waters and directed them to their destination. In recent times they have stood watch over the march of human progress. On the plain below, mans industrial ambitions have ebbed and flowed with the estuarys' tides. Salt, chemicals and fuel have shaped the shadows cast by these hills and towns; trade and transport have also played their part in this evolution. As the landscape shifted and shaped, the hills looked on impassively, crowned by sandstone crags that burnt red, orange and umber in the fading light of a future that was to be built in smoke, sweat and progress.

Alec climbing through the steepness.

Cheshire's estuarine hills have served as an antidote to its industrial ills for centuries. The crags that populate this ridge have fascinated and frustrated many generations of Merseysiders, providing a welcome distraction from the man-made and mundane. Helsby's crag towers above the valley; its ramparts and flutings mimic those found in the land of castles to the west. This was once a forcing ground for climbing standards, however things are quiet now. Frogsmouth Quarry on Runcorn Heath is the place for Merseysiders to be seen now that its walls have been decorated with shiny bolts and pigtails but, despite being in vogue with its new look, Frogsmouth still doesn't pull in climbing's top models. One other venue far more suited to the tastes of the boulderer sits on the ridge;  yet, overshadowed by the reputation and accessibility of its neighbours, it has become a quiet place. However if you live near the heartlands of North West Sandstone Bouldering you would be crazy to forget Frodsham.

Frodsham's crags sit on the crest of Woodhouse Hill to the west of town. A steep, wooded path leads you up to a series of buttresses that stretch the length of the bluff. In terms of height these red and ochre sandstone outcrops range from three to eight metres, or in other terms, from bouldering to highballing to suicidal stupidity. The common thread that binds all of Frodshams' buttresses is that they are steep- they overhang, majestically shading those who play here from the worst of the Mersey's weather.

Ochre rock and hard eliminates up on the hill.

 Frodsham is a peaceful place, a tapestry of trees, rock and traditions, developed by Banner, Boysen, and Crew. Frodsham sits proud in both its natural and historical landscapes. Climbing a pure line here is like breathing life back into greatness, playing on lines that heroes forged back in the sixties. Each line has a character of its own, super steep and juggy, technical and thin; all personality types are represented. Super hard, pure lines may be hard to find (the majority of the climbs found here are in the sub V5 category) however you'll be glad that the holds are big when you're stretched out, fully horizontal, ten feet above the ground with a heel toe engaged. Those who want their grades big and their fingers tested to destruction should not turn away from the rock on Woodhouse hill; there are plenty of hard eliminates up there on the brow- however I'll talk about them another time.

Frodsham's heyday is far behind it now and, like shipping on the Mersey, the volume of human traffic on the hill has wained. The watery tributary that washes the hills feet once attracted the heavyweights of the shipping world: Blue Funnel, White Star, and Cunard - but these great vessels are long gone, forgotten. The present titans of climbing no longer follow that wooded path up to the buttresses on Woodhouse Hill; however the heroes who developed it can still be seen on a summer's evening swinging through the steepness. Tom Leppert and Martin Boyson are rarely wrong! Frodsham has been good enough for these legends for fifty years now, believe me its good enough for you.

Pex problem of the week #4.

This week's adventures through the numbered holds on pages 178 and 179 of the Cheshire and Merseyside Sandstone guide illustrates that different approaches can lead to the same result when ordering from the eliminate menu.

Silly Boy Direct V5 (Done two ways).

This problem is essentially a harder version of Silly Boy V4, however it is amazing how removing one key ingredient can change the flavour and overall feel of a problem: in this case removing hold 38 (a small crimpy mono) turns Silly Boy into a far more robust dish.

Two main methods can be used on this problem; these methods will appeal to very different palates.  The first is the way I originally climbed Silly Boy- it is a brash, flash-fried affair, fleeting, fresh and bursting with big flavours. The second is a slower, more controlled dish that allows flavour to mingle, develop and yet still allows a bit a spice to come through at the end. This second method is my preferred preparation for this problem; it is subtle, delivering a more rounded, fuller experience of the Pex eliminate!

Method 1 - The Dyno.
Start matched on hold 7 with feet in low pock marks, move the right hand up to a three finger stack in hold 21, put the left foot up on hold 1 for balance and move the left hand to a stack in hold 20. Now place the right food high on the ledge next to hold 3, lean your body weight to the right so it almost feels like you're laybacking the hand holds, dip down once and dyno to the break.


Boy Direct V5 (method 1) from Owen McShane on Vimeo.

Method 2 - The Rock Over.
As for method 1 however, once you've gained the stacks in holds 20 and 21, swap feet on hold 1, lean to the right and place your left foot deep into hold 6 making sure it is square to the wall.  Now slowly move your weight over to the left until you have gained as much height as you can. You'll end up short but a small pop to the jug in the break will release the complex flavours you've been seeking.


Silly Boy Direct V5 (method 2) from Owen McShane on Vimeo.

So there you have it, slow cooked and complex, or flash fried and fresh! When it comes to Pex eliminates you really can indulge yourself with the dishes that suit your particular tastes.

Pex Problem of the week #3

Remember the Pex eliminate topo which nestles inside the New Cheshire and Merseyside Sandstone guide is needed to make sense of this post

                                   

Red Flash - V5.

For me this is one of the quintessential problems of Pisa wall; it is what slightly overhanging walls with big holds were invented for - flight (dynos to you and me!).  Red Flash is used as a staging post for many on their journey along the sinuous path that leads to the Seven Foot Dyno which also inhabits this section of wall, however it can stand on its own as a dyno of merit and quality.
                            
This week's problem gained its name from a legendary vehicle that taxied Liverpool's bouldering scene around the motorways of the UK in the mid naughties.  Red was a feisty 1.4 Astra that  could accommodate five willing (or at times unwilling) passengers, their pads, their kit and their psyche! This vehicle was a veritable tardis whose mystical qualities extended to its acoustic abilities; if you wound the front windows down an inch and cranked the Jungle up, it metamorphosised into a living, breathing bass cannon; an organic speaker unit of which you were an integral component.  Flash would often be spotted undertaking in the slow lane at breakneck speeds, those interred on the back seat holding up handwritten notes for other motorists. "Help me I've been Kidnapped" would regularly be read by those who actually adhere to the highway code.  Flash blew up twice whilst out on duty serving the climbing needs of Merseyside's bouldering lieutenants.  He is missed by many- brave in the face of adversity, decorated for deeds beyond the means of his motorised peers.  I will apologise now if this eulogy has opened old wounds for some- Flash is gone, but not forgotten!

Right, back to the problem. This one is obviously hard to describe but I will try my utmost to get you through its complex technical moves as efficiently as I can. Take hold 6 with the left hand and hold 7 with the right, put your left foot in a pock mark and put you right foot high on hold 1.  From this position sway down once and leap to the next break with the right, on the way up stay close to the wall, then it's a matter of latch, match, and dispatch.



Red Flash V5 from Owen McShane on Vimeo.

Pex Problem of the week # 2

The pathway to eliminate heaven.

Remember you will need to refer to pages 178 and 179 of the new Cheshire and Merseyside Sandstone guide for this adventure into the world of elimination to make sense!

Week 2 - Stretch V4.

I must admit I had not done this problem before starting the filming of this series. I had done all the individual moves in other eliminates, but not strung them together in this choreographed way. This problem is a Farley guidebook special, a shining example of what brilliance and balance can produce! Needless to say this feels hard for its grade and is a definite step up from Silly Boy.

A playground of possibilities?

Three elements will lead an aspiring ascentionist along the pathway to success on this problem:
1. Use the power of the three finger stack. Excluding the start hold, all holds on this problem were made for stacking, this problem embodies all that is good in a world defined by this strange art.
2. Clean the holds. It's amazing what a soft bristled brush can do to the frictional properties of these dish like holds! Removing the layer of chalk and grime that inevitably builds up on them over time can turn a marginal, frictionless mess into a skin rasping lockable hold.
3. Use those feet to gain height; your biceps won't help you here. Pisa wall is all about foot work. Dance your feet along its pockets and ledges and victory will be yours- pull too hard on those dishes and all that will be left on the wall will be your hard earned skin.

The problem starts sitting matched on hold 2. Move your weight to the left and reach up with your left hand to the first three finger stack in hold 11. Kick your right leg through to the left to create a funky flag and reach up over the top with the right to stack number two in hold 20. Now the magic starts; move your bodyweight way over to the left by dancing across the dimples lurking at the bottom of the wall. With your left foot high and right hand securely locked onto hold 20, reach up with the left to hold 27, keep reaching, reach some more and when you think you've extended to your limit reach that little bit extra into the hold. At this point you will wish that you had spent some time cleaning: the dish (27) which forces the third successive stack on this problem is good but feels terrible if overly chalky. Once latched use your feet to gain the necessary height and go for the break like you mean it!

Stretch embodies all of the subtle elements that make Pisa Bouldering such an addictive activity; its balancey, technical, reachy and involves stacks! This is a must do problem for the aspiring Pex hill Warrior!


Stretch V4 from Owen McShane on Vimeo.

Ruthin Reloaded - Pwllglas Project Finally Falls.

Skinny Dogs always look miserable when humans are trying to link problems.



Projecting power endurance lines is always a soul destroying activity: You train, you get strong, you travel to the crag, you warm up, you fail on the crux and realise that you will need to make another twenty hand movements before you have even a chance of a send that day; a few more attempts and you have made a hundred moves and yet come away with nothing.  This has the been the cycle of things for me at Pwllglass for the last year or so, continually trying my object of desire, and always returning home with my tail between my legs.

Angry Jones showing the way on one of the easier problems at Pwllglas.

Today was different, I can't put my finger on what changed: Angry Jones was with me and possibly his unique brand of life coaching had a positive effect, alternatively four days of failure in Font may have forced me to finally get things sorted.  One fact that I am certain of is that the weather did not help. It was baltic, and my fingers burned with the cold as I hit the final jug, but hit the jug I did and thus my pilgrimages of failure to Ruthin can finally stop.

The problem starts sitting on a prominent chalky jug down and left of the big flatty that marks the start of the problem Another Million.  Moves on slots and small holds allow you to trace the lip of the overhang rightwards until you reach a rest on the flatty.  From here long moves on small crimps and a choice of flatties lead to Fritillary Flake and the finish. The back wall is in for feet, obviously the big detached block under the flatty of Another Million is not.   I've called the problem Lead Rain after an autumnal incident at this very same crag which involved some men with guns, a cross wind and some very worried boulderers.  I think its comes in around the 7b mark and is well worth the walk up the hill.  If that description is too vague a video of the first ascent can be seen below.


Lead Rain 7B from Owen McShane on Vimeo.

Pex Hill - problem of the week!

This post will be the first of many written for Merseysiders, and those interested in Pisa Wall eliminates specifically. The purpose of this series is to show how the eliminates on Pisa are climbed, and to help to sustain people's interest in Merseyside Bouldering; the more people get to our venues and make their presence felt the thinner the carpets of glass at the base of the crags will become. The recent publication of the Cheshire and Merseyside Sandstone guide has introduced many to a local resource and has revealed the potential that still remains to others. For me a lot of the quality problems on Merseyside are eliminates, hated by many but cherished by the devotee. These short snippets of prescribed rule-based movement may not stand up to the equivalent problem in Font, but my word they will get you strong, they will make you think, and they'll keep you coming back for more!

To truly understand the information given here you will need the new Cheshire guide; you can purchase it from here:

http://www.thebmc.co.uk/kop-a-load-of-the-new-bmc-cheshire--merseyside-sandstone-guide.

You will need to refer to the Pisa Wall Eliminate Bouldering section written by Ben Farley, page 174 to 179 (more specifically pages 178 and 179) where Ben has produced an excellent photo topo with all the holds on Pisa wall numbered.

The bible of Pisa Wall eliminates.

Week 1 - This week's problem is probably the most popular on the wall and, by my reckoning, soft at the grade; so get on it.

Silly Boy - V4.

Start matched on hold 7, reach up with the right hand to hold 21, move your left foot up to stabilise yourself, bring your left to hold 20, move your feet to bring your body weight over to the right, lock up to the small crimp/pocket with the right hand, get a left foot up and pop to the break with either hand.


Silly Boy V4 from Owen McShane on Vimeo.

Top Tip

Using a three finger stack in the rounded dishes (holds 20 and 21), will make things a lot easier.

Ruthin Escarpment - Pwllglas Bouldering

Butterfly buttress in all of its glory.

My pilgrimages north from Pembrokeshire to Liverpool began at the age of 14.  My sister had, without the guidance of a magician, performed a complex vanishing trick which led to her reappearance on Merseyside.  I would regularly visit her, hitching lifts with family, friends or even strangers, traversing Wales by a myriad of different paths, with all roads leading me to Bala, funnelling me to Ruthin, Mold and the industrial wastes of Ellesmere Port. One of my regular travelling companions loved the chemical complexes of Cheshire with their cancerous chimneys.  As a former urbanite, exiled to a rural existence, he said that the scenes from "Blade runner" that flowed out in front of us polluting eyes, ears, and lungs in equal measure helped to construct his concept of home and sense of belonging.  Suffice to say we don't speak anymore.

It is around this time I became aware of the escarpment of limestone that crowns the valley above Pwllglas.  As a fourteen year old it was simply a curiosity that interested the eye as we meandered past. However as Liverpool drew me in, firstly as a student and then as a climber, this scarp morphed into a place that needed investigation, somewhere where some sport may lie. However as I settled down in the North West my journeys through the Cambrian Mountains, up and down the Welsh backbone, dwindled and the limestone edge up at Pwllglas melted away as my attention was drawn by grit, rhyolite and sandstone.  Over the next fourteen years I would occasionally pass through Pwllglas and rediscover a need to explore its potential only to ignore this impulse again and again.

Linking one of the sit starts into Flatillary flake.

A rumour pulled me back.  Loose words and tall tales got me fired up, potential lines in Clwyd! How could I resist?  I hadn't made the connection between the crag spotted in my youth with these stories of unclimbed lines; whispers wafted like seeds on a breeze, passed imprudently from person to person until they took root in the ever-fertile depths of my psyche. All things being equal I wouldn’t have trudged up that Cambrian brow and laid siege to Pwllglas' potential had it not been for Angry Jones.  Angry is a complex character misjudged by others. He's not actually angry; he just likes to paint his pictures of the world with a mallet rather than a soft delicate brush! His verbal pallet is wide but he likes the brashness of primary colours, short words with harsh syllables and big meanings. You know where you are with Angry, and if you don't he’ll make you aware of where you've ended up with the minimum of fuss. 

We set out for Pwllglas on a wet day with little hope and a scrap of worn paper to guide us. I had the briney goat-punctuated scent of the cave in my nostrils and dreams of projects in Llandudno's upside-down world in my mind's eye. I felt that Clwyd's undulations were no place for a sane climber on a grotty day, Angry had other ideas.  He explained in four letters or less why we should commit to the walk in, and I had nothing to counter his rather eloquent explanation. His motivational speech got us there and for this I am eternally grateful.  As we trudged through the damp undergrowth and walked along the crags the rumours of potential seemed to morph into wet empty promises; but the overwhelming feeling of a walk wasted disappeared when Butterfly Buttress opened up in front of us.

Tuffa pulling on the start tothe best of the linkups

Butterfly Buttress is the reason to visit Pwllglas; it sits high above the valley like a Welsh Woodwell with vistas.  The buttress is made of a compact, steep, sweeping limestone wall with an  undercut base.  Sit down starts and link up lines are the beasts you’ll discover here, lurking amongst Lee Proctors sport routes.  Just like Woodwell roof climbs inhabit the same space as highballs, however the super-hard lines that set Woodwell apart are hard to find here.  What you will find is quality on holds that will keep you coming back for more.

Mark streched out on Andy's start to Flatilary flake

We went back! We went back several times and we took Manchessie Si with us. He’s a man-mountain made of biceps and beta, with the uncanny knack of unlocking the sequences that would eventually coax this crag out of its obscurity. Two lines existed before we got there, Flatillary Flake and the Butterfly Collector- by the time our activities had waned ten new sit-downs and link-ups had appeared. The best of the bunch would be Si's start to the Butterfly Collector, Andy's start to Flatilary Flake, and the not so eliminate Cassius Clay.  All three of these problems weigh in around the 7a or 7a+ mark and are worth the journey up the hill. Details of our exploits can be found here:

http://www.northwalesbouldering.com/newsitem.asp?nsid=550

Topos can be found here:

http://www.northwalesbouldering.com/upload/members/Ruthin%20topo%20V6.jpg  

One word of warning- ignore the grades we gave to these problems, they were ball park figures that, with subsequent ascents proved to be slightly inflated. Others visited Butterfly buttress, left their mark, lifting the crag from its once esoteric status to a venue worth visiting in its own right.  Even the legendary Ben Showtime Farley graced the crag with a visitation, displaying his silky skills and flawless technique on more than one occasion; this fact alone must conclusively confirm Pwllglas to be a limestone crag of some merit.

Alec pulling shapes on the Butterfly collector.

Many things of little significance to most have occurred on that hill on the edge of the Clwyidian range. Angry fell in love, a love that could not transcend the duel barriers of species and gender! Fletcher the Lurcher, all legs and affection, was rescued by Andy and introduced to the outside world on that limestone hill. Manchessie became a hero, rescuing me from certain breaks and embarrassment as I plummeted from the top of the crag whilst topping out on a jug that just wouldn't stay put.  I had enough air time to plan which limb I would sacrifice, I also yelped like a little puppy as the ground approached (why be manly about it?).  I think if you’re going to hospital its best to display your vulnerability before anything major happens, it helps the professionals know what they are dealing with. There is no point being brave, your frailties will only be exposed later on. I escaped unscathed, Manchessie however was bruised, battered, and out of climbing for a week after his instinctive intervention.  The scouse crowd also adopted a new member under the shadow of the Butterfly Collector, however I’m sure Alec would sprint for his VW camper if he knew he was now considered one of us.  Smooth Pete almost lost his thumb when he decided that this extremity would be the most elastic, forgiving thing to land on from height. Manchessie, in the quest for new lines, regularly removed rocks from the buttress like the quarrymen of old looking for building materials and again injuring himself in the process.  It has to be said that days at Pwllglas are never boring. It's worth the effort to walk up to that last gasp of the Cambrian Hills and sample the climbing; believe me it will draw you in.