Myths, Legends and Grit - 25-8-12

Anyone who knows Goldie will have heard of a multitude of his friends, the names of which mean nothing to the uninitiated.  Some may even have started to believe that they did not exist and in fact only occur in myths and legends.  This was a weekend when I at last met Greggor, Hauke, et al. and it turned out that yes these people were as friendly as Goldie had always made out.  It started, as all great trips to the Peak should, in the Three Stags Heads and with one or two too many pints of Black Lurcher (possibly one of the mistakes that Dave MacLeod suggests 9 out of 10 climbers make).


So, with hangovers charged and in a swarm of midges the like of which you might expect in the NW Highlands of Scotland we trundled down to Burbage.  After as much faff as I could manage......in part in tribute to the imminent departure of Goldie and in part as an effort to allow the hangover to subside it was time to take the plunge and try to add to my summer of E1's (ok, well, this would be my second).  And so it was I was stood a the bottom of a seeping Long Tall Sally. 

 After slipping off the first few moves which were still wet I managed on the second attempt to get established.  So well established in fact that I made little progress! But eventually with consternation over every move, checking of gear, cursing that I had placed the gear in the holds, and when all else failed just manning TF up I made progress.  After what seemed like an age and a lot of sweating I rolled exhausted on to the top after an intense 12m of climbing with faint memories of a cry of 'long tall sissy' drifting up from below.

Zeb then dutifully made me feel better about my climbing by struggling his way up behind me.  This set a bit of a trend for the day and put me in mind of a suitable subtitle for Zebulon 'top roper' Levine.  After a few more routes at Burbage the call went out that only means one thing - find those reserve cans of MTFU, open them up and head across to Higgar Tor.  For me this meant seconding one route (my MTFU was all used up) but those more talented among us ticked the Rasp, the File and a few more classics.

Goldie saying farewell to Grit and a fair amount of skin on the File