Good and bad day at hedbury

Today produced some good ticks for all involved..The weather wasn't the best but we still headed out and it had its results. Myself, Phil and Stuart Headed to Hedbury for a days sport climbing.

We did the usual warm up thing climbing easy graded routes, I then wanted to try this route called "Of mice to men" it was only graded at 6b but I have seen allot of people struggling on the crux section, I started up the route and apart from a little balancy point it wasn't that hard, I was happy to clip the lower off a get the onsight, next up stuart decided to try a route called "sureshot" He had been on the route before but hadnt got it clean, he seemed to maneged the first section pretty easy heading on up into the layback crack, he tried clip from a low position causing him to get pumped very quick, after a few screams and nervy moments he manged to get the clip, but had to rest as still to pumped, after resting he moved on up and cleaned the rest of the route.

I was up next and decided to give it a go as well, I didn't find the first section hard at all, I got to the roof before the layback corner and couldn't seem to find a comfortable position to clip from, I kept trying but was getting to pumped and had to rest, I had a quick look around and found a bomber hold under the roof, I finished the rest of the route and clipped the lower offs, the route isn't technical at all, its on of those routes that is overhanging all the way up with no rest and no let offs so you do get pretty pumped on it.

After a little rest myself and Stuart both managed to lead the route clean and get the tick, I was pretty happy with this..

Layback crack on "Sureshot"

Phil was up next, he had been working this route called " It cant be Denied" 7b, he had a little play on it to work the crux section out and then went for the redpoint. He climbed very smoothly and didn't seem to have any problems at all, the crux section looked flipping nails from the floor but he seemed to know what he was doing and after a sequence of moves he moved out of the crux and up to clip the lower offs, pretty impressive stuff overall. We then went on to climb "jumping the gun" 6b and let Stuart have a go at "Bob Ceroc" 6c, I have onsighted this route before and didn't think it was that hard, just had a very balancy crux section. Anyway Stuart set off up the roue with me belaying, he moved on up just past the third clip, he was holding onto an undercut just before the rest ledge, all of a sudden the hold snapped causing him to pop off, a rock probably the size of a child's hand came down the face and smashed me in the chin just below my lip, at first i was a little dazed but the blood was instant, i was thinking this must be bad with this much blood, but fortunately it wasn't that bad, It had caused a small deep cut to my chin, Phil took over at belaying while I got myself cleaned up, Stuart finished off up the route. Myself and Phil both managed to climb the route again clean, I still don't believe the route is 6c, I would give it 6b maybe 6b+ for the short. Phil and Stuart decided to climb one more route before heading home, I didn't bother had had a headache by this time plus I had already done the route on a previous visit to the crag.

Overall a great days climbing with great company....shame about the new scar to my chin tho.

"Sureshot" 6c

"It Cant be denied" 7b

Crux of " It cant be Denied" 7b

Phil on "Jumping the Gun" 6b

The Damage from falling rock