I’ve been out to Ravenstones a few times recently, to try a moorland gritstone project. Ravenstones is a crag quite out of the way so a limited amount of people actually go up there.

I’d been up there in the rain to brush down this project. I went back on my own the other day in a batch of good weather and the friction was amazing, maybe some of the best I’d ever felt on grit. I managed to toprope the line a number of times but didn’t have anybody else with me or a belayer so felt that I couldn’t really commit to the line at a place so out the way.

I managed to grab a belay off my friend and we headed back up there last Saturday.

Anyway I managed to do the project which I was really pleased about, it has a excellent but slightly worrying crux move right at the top off a couple of pebbles with a really high step. You can put some gear in on the route after doing 1 move so it won’t protect you, but I think I would stop you rolling down the hill as far if you did come off. Anyway its not really one to fall off so I was definitely psyched to do it first go. I called the route The Bigger Picture and reckoned it to be in the E7 6c range, but I find it hard to grade new routes after headpointing them, so it could be easier, it could be harder.

After climbing my project I then tried the E7 6b to the left known as Black Mountain Collage and managed to make the first flash ascent of the route. So in the end it turned out to be a really good day.