East Woodburn – Feb 2007

What: First climbing trip of 2007—for some of us
Where: East Woodburn—15 miles north of Corbridge
When: 3 February 2007
Who: Sam Judson, Jonathan Dixon, Mark Surley
Why: Because it’s there!
Links: NMC Guide new routes - tinyurl.com/yryaej

Some optimistic fool put a post on the NMC forum saying that the weather looked good for Saturday 3rd February. There then followed a now familiar routine of debating a) the merits of believing the Met office weather reports and b) which great Northumbrian venue would be graced by our presence. As the weekend fast approached and the number of participants settled (as did the weather forecast) we took the suggestion of John Dalrymple that East Woodburn might be a good venue to try out. It seemed to have just enough of the easy stuff (VDiff-S) to get us going with the possibility of some harder stuff if we felt adventurous (HS-VS).

Arrangements where made, phone numbers exchanged and a time of 10am at the crag was set; we were ready, the first outdoor trip of 2007 was underway, nothing could stop us now.

We found the crag easily enough, located through 2 gates a couple of 100yards after East Woodburn, the turning now signposted to High Nick Quarry (contrary to what the guidebook claims).

The weather was brilliant, a very light breeze and a warm sun kept the temperature up. A quick check of the rock showed it was wonderfully dry.

After a brief look at the guidebook (and already lamenting the fact I forgot to print off the new routes from the NMC web site) I took the lead, racked up and set off up the very lovely Green Slab (VD). Not as green as its name suggests, but do mind out for the guano - a wonderful first climb of the year, plenty of gear, easy going but still interesting.

Then we went for your more typical 'Northumbrian' VDiff, Stilton. Only got 1 piece of gear in, which probably wasn't that good anyway - very glad to get to the top.

Then I convinced myself that a VS was the order of the day, and with only 2 in the guidebook to choose from went for Patties Route (VS 5a). This turned out to be John Dalrymple's only remaining route in the county (that isn't currently residing under Kielder Water). Except I didn't quite get it right.
The route we did climb doesn't seem to have a name (at least according to the NMC web site) so I think I actually ended up climbing a new route. It takes the corner just to the right of Patties Route up to the break, and then step right and up the crack of Pedestal and Crack (also a new route not in the guidebook). I don't think it's the same as Pedestal and Crack, but I'm not 100% sure. If it is a new route we're calling it "Hairy Arsed Crack"; you really don't want to hear the conversation that was going on while we climbed the route which inspired the name, suffice it to say various mental images went through various people's heads and they may never recover from the trauma. I reckon its probably a VDiff, and I'm giving it one star as well as it was a very nice route with plenty of gear, nice solid holds but still requiring some thought in parts.
So after the disappointment of not leading my first VS I took on the challenge of The Arete (HS 4a*). This was a lovely route, took me a good 5 minutes to work out the correct starting position. After that it was pretty much plain sailing, although a bit more effort hanging around placing gear than the previous routes, and the gear kept wanting to go where my fingers were.