Tuesday 7 August 2007

Malham & Kinsley

Ok, now we’ve been back from the hols for over a week now and I’m no longer two weeks behind in my ramblings…. Im just one week behind! Anywho… The Tuesday after we got back to the UK we were keen to keep the momentum from the holiday so we took on the 80min drive to check out two of the UK’s most impressive crags: Malham and Kinsley. Malaham is truly awe-inspiring and it really IS in a fantastic location. We parked up and walked in to take a look around. The main climbing is divided into two tiers and has a huge concentration of hard lines up to 9a+. The only two downsides to this crag, as we found out, are the piles of tourists that flock in to look at the cove and the fact that according to a local “Malham is a sweaty hell hole in the sun”. Right…. We did a full tour of the place but never racked up to lead anything. Afterall this was just an investigation. After a lovely sunny picnic ontop we walked back along the limestone pavement at the top (Creepily similar to the Burren in Ireland) and back to the car – we couldn’t be dealing with the tourists but we did get a great vibe from the place. Luckily Kinsley is just around the corner – like the dark side of the force – Kinsley has a VERY different character to Malham and needless to say theres no tourists attracted to the place. It is a hulk of a lump of rock, plopped by the roadside, always in shade and always overhanging. Tis a dark place! We walked in and jumped on some routes – did a 6b+ and a 7c (with a fall at the start) before packing up and heading home. Kinsley has some great lines that I would love to try but they were all taken up by topropers, projecting their first 8a’s and obviously training hard for them by hauling up every logo in the catalogue. After being climbing on beautiful friendly rock in the quiet peaceful heaven of the tarn it was too much to come back to a dark, tweaky, polished, dirty crag full of egos and beta police. I’m sure we’ll be back there but not just yet.

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