Given the success of the recent pebble wrestling, I propose further heresy.
Anyone fancy sport climbing down at Portland this weekend? Not super warm, but very low wind, so the west side of the island (Blacknor areas) ought to be good all day.
Bit too cold for camping I imagine, but the YMCA apparently does very reasonable rates.
Any takers?
Would have loved to but sadly I’m in France for a 30th birthday next weekend. Have fun!
Looks cold… but with no wind the west side is a sun trap, so it might be good.
Tempted… but it’s a bit late for booking.
The bunker is fully booked the bunker
YMCA might be too, but you need to call to ask as far as I remember.
Do you know what happened to yha portland ? It’s listed as permanently closed!
I have no plans as yet so I will keep an eye on the forecast and might pop over and say hello if it looks sunny (the met office appears more pessimistic in this regard with dark grey cloud all weekend, but it’s early days yet).
As I have the van I can late-notice it, Andy. Could also do one of the Swanage crags if that’s closer to you?
Hi Paul,
Coincidentally I am visiting a friend who lives in Weymouth this weekend and was planning to boulder at Portland.
I still want boulder for one of the days but happy to bring a harness and ropes to sport climb on the other day.
Cheers Ian
The Portland Bird Observatory usually has space at this time of year.
http://www.portlandbirdobs.com
Intriguing!
Just to add, surprisingly, the bunkhouse has available spots for the weekend
What are people thinking of doing?
Met office is currently suggesting wall to wall grey all weekend, which will be cold. BBC seemed to have more optimism about Saturday last time I checked.
Hi Andy,
Paul wants to sport climb on Saturday and then on Sunday I might have a morning boulder but that all depends on what my (non-climbing) friend might have for the day.
Cheers Ian
Do you have a plan for where you are going, beyond presumably west coast (I know Paul’s views on the cuttings and shelter from a NE wind suggests west coast in itself)?
If the sun comes through tomorrow I may try to pop over and to say hello at least. I have a dodgy shoulder currently so will play it a bit by ear as I am more keen to be healed up for Spain at Easter than to climb tomorrow 
Will be bouldering on Saturday I think - not quite sure where, but suspect it will end up being the cuttings so I can get back on Lost Decade….
Lost Decade is a good problem and it’s surprisingly sheltered in the Cuttings Boulderfield
Everyone’s favourite Boulderfield V6!
The Boulderfield is generally quite sheltered but LD itself is out on the edge of it which is probably most likely to catch the wind from the direction it is on Saturday.
I don’t know how much people have done there but happy to provide a recommendation list for other stuff there if helpful.
Probably because it’s the softest - I’ll still take it if I get there…
Recommendations for other stuff that’s not too reachy (5ft 1 girlfriend) would be very welcome!
I have actually softened on the Cuttings! And I need to tick Holy Hand Grenade
But due to wind direction I’m thinking Blacknor North, so I can finally open the account on Spanner Eyes.
It certainly feels in a different league to things like Petty Thief to me, but then since I can’t do the move on Petty Thief I can’t exactly comment on whether it’s that one which is wrong! It probably helps that it’s fairly indoor style and doesn’t have a notably hard move on it (some of the older Boulderfield stuff can be pretty cruxy). The extension over leftwards, years around the sun, is worthwhile once you’ve done LD and not an enormous step up from it. V for Vendetta is ok as well, fairly basic “steep wall small crimps” sort of thing.
I’ve put a list below. I’ve noted what I can about reachiness but where it’s someone quite a bit shorter than me it starts to get to that point where our beta may look completely different or feet that are too high for me are in just the right spot or whatever.
At the new cuttings Phat Slapper (6c+) is great. Everyone has to lay one on for the last move, someone short couldn’t do it off the feet I used but this is one of those where there’s a bunch of options and there might be some higher ones that work. Most of the rock here is very compact and the harder problems are good - and much as with Neddyfields if you can climb well here you are unlikely to find a Portland route crux that significantly troubles you - albeit I’ve tried rather than ticked them!
Liquid sun (7a+) I spent some time working and saw a bunch of kids trying it so it definitely has beta that works for smaller people. I found the “v1 mantel” there good fun.
Streamline sitter and The Scene are both pretty nice (both 6b, streamline has a 6a stand)
There’s a decent collection of things to do around the Crack boulder and the lip starts by Petty Thief, mostly about 6a-b
I like the tank boulder and it has some good easier problems (5/6a) - most harder things on the front face (crouching start hidden agenda, Vasco de Gama, virgin albino) are definitely going to be harder for the short since there are key foot locks at the back and not many feet in the middle of the roof itself
I thought lemon jelly/Lance Armstrong/Neil Armstrong were all really nice. (6a-7a spread)
Andy
How was the bouldering then? (I gather the routing was cold!)
My in-laws are down next weekend which might give me the opportunity to get out on Saturday if anyone is about.
I’d potentially be interested but the forecast is atrocious for the foreseeable - very cold and wet