The Little Gap

Without a doubt, today was the best day I have had outdoors this year! The sun has been shining for the past few days in a row and so, brimming with hope and expectation, my friend and fellow filmer Ryan Atkinson and I set off deep into the heart of the Valleys back to my crag, The Little Gap, to try and develop  the remainder of the crag. Unfortunately after a brisk walk up the hill we found that the quarried section of the area was seeping like Mooby's mother on a night out with the Bristol Rugby team, and so had to divert our attention to the natural outcrops found surrounding the quarried area. 

How lucky we did though, as today we found some of the best problems to be sent thus far. We started off for a warm up on the face immediately left of Arriva (v2); a similar problem, which starts under the overhang in the middle-left of the face and travels through a series of medium quality holds until one can scramble for the an awkward Fontainebleau-esk mantle as the top out. After several tries by Ryan and I, the route eventually yielded to my gung-ho h mantling (Ryan apparently doesn't like mantles :)!) and was dubbed:

Kleptocracy - V2+ - F.A Jamie Maddison,  16/08/2008 (Photos will be up shortly!) 

Ryan, a bit put out by this outdoor boulder malarky, had a go at the problem on the arete just left of this  which after a bit of discussion on how the crag is based around a political themed nature dubbed it as Hegemony. Unfortunately, he didn't finish the whole route due to an awkward and slightly wet top out, but I have recorded it here, as the location of the crag must becoming easier and easier to guess and so I have been asked to record it as a project (Yeah yeah I know, how ironic  given my recent controversy on the South Wales project scene) so hands off anybody who might go near it! 

A bit pumped and a bit tired we moved to the upper tier above the Little Gap area, affectionately dubbed the Littler Gap to have a look at the seemingly only problem up there. A shorter route than most, on first appearances it look like an almost Grit stone hand-jamming problem. Upon closer inspection and an hours worth of failed tries its turned out to be a lot more varied, with yet another Fontainebleau top out! After receiving a bit (ok I admit it!) beta from Ryan I finally managed to send the outstanding problem which I dubbed:

Plunder Economy V3-V4 (I'm not too good on the bouldering grading scene, I think for the local area this is an acceptable grade, perhaps more v3 than v4... but hard none the less!) 

F.A Jamie Maddison 16/08/2008

Little Gap from Ryan Atkinson on Vimeo.

Despite the glorious weather egging us on to stay longer, our bodies had pretty much had enough by now so we decided to cap the day with a recky around the area to see if more bouldering was to be had. Who would have known it but there was not just one area but three! We quickly dubbed them for convenience and identification's sake, Traverse Wall Area, Unnamed Bay and for some bizarre reason only know to Ryan, Tomato Buttress Area, all had a huge potential for new routes on them. The Topo, when it is finally  released, will have to be quite large to cover this whole area! 

To cap the day off, Ryan managed his first problem of the morning by onsighting Great-8 (I believe this is the right name?) at the far left of the Traverse Wall Area. He graded this V0. The route included a left to right rising traverse, starting on the outside of the obvious wide corner. Apparently using the chockstone at the end is cheating!

With a good day in the bag we retired back to the train station only to be befriended by a group of 12 year old Valley girls who proceeded to tell me about the amazing climbing at Penwyceiber (The worst crag in the South Wales guide book). When asked where it was, she turned to her friend and asked "Where's that cliff at Penwyceiber?, you know, the one you pushed me off" 

!!!! Classic valley chavs!!!!

And the best bit is, if the weather holds I will be back tomorrow! Keep watching this space for the photo Topos of the routes as well as some cool pictures of me on Kleptocracy.

All credit must be given today to photographer, cameraman, director and editor Ryan for having the good sense to actually bring a camera along and get some footage shot!