by Mick Ryan GO FOR IT “Two fearsome doglike beasts are said to stalk the undergrowth from dusk till dawn. The first of which (The Cappel) is said to be a ferocious creature with an unrelenting blood lust, much akin to Connan Doyles creation in ?The Hound of the Baskervilles?. The second, and less imaginatively titled ?Headless Hound?, is said to be a more phantom-like critter and to bring death to those it is seen to follow. The generic title for such incarnations is a Shuck.” So writes Greg Chapman, Lakes bouldering guru, describing how he came to name a new limestone buttress on the northern flanks of Longtail Wood in a close proximity to the well documented tiers of Fairy Steps. Now I´m not allowed to big up Chapman too much as he will lose street cred at his hang at UKBouldering.com (as most of them read UKClimbing.com…and word travels fast), but here´s another of his little bouldering video guides to this recently virgin buttress CLICK HERE Now..back to what some call ´proper´ climbing……the gears good, you are way above the deck, your harness is tied correctly, your rope is new, the potential fall is clean, your belayer is trusted. The crux is above you and above that are great thank god holds with a fat crack and easy to place gear. Time to put it all in the black box, fasten the lid, throw it over your shoulder and………… GO FOR IT, just like this CLICK HERE Hmmm. I think most of us would yell. Have a good bank holiday weekend. Hope you are climbing.
