Coat of Alms

I went to Almscliffe yesterday. Is it Almscliff or Almscliffe? the signs in Huby have the 'e', but all climbing reference omits it. I had a cracking headache on arrival and it didnt depart until I got back in the car on the way home. And, it was freezing! as I arrived a big storm cloud loomed over the stainburn forest, but delightfully it missed the Cliff and all remained dry, and windy - so windy! The car said 3.5 degrees, so with windchill must have been around 0. Struggled to warm up at Morrells wall, but there were people at Underhand so I took my time. The crag seemed busy, and there was almost nowhere to park, but thinking about it, this must have been because it is half term.

I moved to Underhand and could immeadiately see my dreams of flashing it were not going to come to fruition. Its not that its not flashable, certainly, if you knew what to do then yes, it could go down, and I had watched a video of Adam Lincoln doing it on YG, but I couldnt remember what he did, so I did the following (not to success) : both hands in the cleft at the back, right out to undercut, left foot heel toe cam, then left hand to rubbish undercut, bump right hand to better seam, left out to edge in roof, scum right foot and left hand go again to good pocket in roof, now release heel toe and swap feet, left foot out on nubbin in roof and then right heel on ramp below the seam - not very helpful, now slap and hump up to pinchy undercut on the corner of the roof (I got here), and then presumably go again to edge above. Now from here I didnt do this bit, but I kinda guessed you'd want to go right hand a third time to a better edge in the seam, and indeed this is what Adam does in the vid, and what James Foley recommended. Then its easy. I flailed about a bit and then gave up to go look at Jess' roof.

Previously when I've tried this on my own, its been with two pads, which means you can make a slide out of pads so you dont bounce into the crevasse on your back. Its too scary on your own with one small pad. Gave up and had a walk around by Matt's roof, ending up at the Matterhorn boulder. I'd never climbed on it before so had a bimble on the arete, which was nice.