Northumberland Bouldering

Newcastle based distributor The County Climbing Company have now made their popular Snap bouldering mats and accessories available for purchase online at their website snapclimbing.co.uk.

The County Climbing Company was formed in 2006 by North-East legends John and Andrew Earl (right testing his products in Switzerland). You can read reviews of the Snap pads here.

Teenager Adam Watson has been making his way through many of Northumberland's hardest and boldest climbs with quick repeats of Masterclass (E7) and Off the Rocks (E8). Yesterday Adam added his 3rd hard tick in a week, taking advantage of the recent dry weather to grab the 3rd ascent of Dave Cuthbertson's County Ethics (E7 7a or highball 7c+).

This weekend the 3 part regional BRYCS competition will wrap up at Sunderland Wall and it is the last chance to have a go this year. The top 3 in each category will go on to the final at Ratho on the 28th June 2008. More info and application forms are available on the BMC website.

This weekend's BMC festival of climbing and walking in Northumberland kicks off tomorrow night with a slideshow by father and son John and Andrew Earl on the Development of Northumberland Climbing. A preview of the slides has revealed some classic photos old and new and it should be an unmissable event. More information on the weekend's activities is available on the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club website.

Andy Earl returned from a Europe trip last week with a tip off that the Roadside Wall at Shaftoe had a sit start that might go. It was no easy send though, Andy's bad skin from his trip combined with the sharp holds on this, made for much tearing before he completed the problem in his third session. Andy is offering 8a for this cracking bit of climbing on possibly Shaftoe's most picturesque boulder. Here's the video...

Dan varian was the last person to get a new problem in the 2008 Northumberland Bouldering Guide which went to the printers last week. Dan completed a project on the steep wall right of The Eyes of Silence to give 'Knock Yer Block off' at around 7c. Dan described it as 'nice and high, the last moves are the crux'. And it's a big bit of rock, check out the size of his bouldering mat in the image on the right!

Back at Hangman's Rock above Old Bewick, Chris Graham completed perhaps the last line up the boulder with a sit start to his recent problem Paranoia. In his blog Chris writes, 'I'm giving the new problem, Paranoia Sit Start, a grade of 7c, just slightly harder than the right arete. It's great climbing, blemished slightly by the loose rocks at the sit start and not knowing where to stand. Fortunately the hard climbing is above this so it matters little'.

Here's a video of this great boulder...

Whilst much of Britain looked out at stormy skies yesterday, yorkshire climber Martin Smith made the most of some freak good conditions to make a rare (the first?) repeat of The Bitch (8a+) at Back Bowden Doors. No stranger to the Northumberland crags, Martin is a closet Northumberland fan, often bypassing his local crags to make the long trip up North at weekends. More about Martin on his Scarpa blog.

Image (above): Martin succeeding on The Bitch. Photo by Mark Savage.

The Bitch was first climbed in 2000 by Andrew Earl and despite significant improvement to one of the holds, remains a testpiece to this day.

The final push for problems before the forthcoming bouldering guide is sent to the printers at the end of this month has produced a couple of cracking new problems.

In February, on a tip-off from local legend Bob Smith, Andy Earl set about adding a new problem on the steep triangle of rock between Prime Time and Australia Crack at Kyloe Out. Northern Territory (7c+) starts with a brutal drop knee sit start and continues dynamically to the apex of the triangle.

Meanwhile up on Hangman's Rock, above the hamlet of Old Bewick, Chris Graham has been waiting for the right conditions to complete the sit start to its steep right hand arete. In a similar vein to Northern territory, Jeux sans Frontières (7c) saves its most difficult move as getting off the ground. The spectacular boulder has several more problems courtesy of Alec Burns.

At the other end of the spectrum, Si Litchfield has been plugging some gaps adding Scraping In (brit 5b/c) at Goats Crag in the centre of the wall left of the excellent Lost Arete, and Y Direct (brit 5c), a direct finish to Y Crack at Wolf Crag. Si reports that both could be considered highball problems with enough mats. Finally, all the way North to Berryhill, Chris Graham added a short problem on the wall right of Satanic Curses. Following the theme of hard sit starts, Golden Grahams (6c+) makes a difficult sit start off the ramp in the centre of the short wall to gain slopers and the top. Send your new problems/gossip in to news@northumberlandbouldering.co.uk

Images: Above Top...Northern Territory at kyloe Crag. Above Right...Jeux sans Frontières, Hangman's Rock.