Stealing the odd short day out over the last couple of weeks, Neil Kershaw has been easing his way back into it after a shoulder operation with a brace of new problems up at the permanently en-vogue Carrock Fell.
First was the development of the hillside above the Du-Al boulder. The achingly obvious "rocking block" roof perched in the trees went down to give The Man They Couldn't Hang 6c/V4 and some classic commitment above an atrocious landing. 100m directly up the hill is a large barrel of black gabbro just behind a previously climbed shattered block. Two punchy powerful sit-starts reside here; a crimpy 6c+/V5 on the left and a slappy 7a+/V7 on the right, and very worthwhile. 100m higher again is a pale flat craglet. So I guess the secret (?!) is out! Highball, bomber fine-grained gabbro above a perfect flat grassy landing, with a full-house of some of Carrocks greatest lines. Only two done so far; the easy line on the right I Can See For Miles 6a+/V3 gives quality climbing, but for a bona-fide problem which would put in a serious bid for country-wide recognition look no further than the prow bounding the left end of this wall.
In the same breath this sharp wedge effortlessly rivals the bow of the QE2 for impressiveness and perfection of line, and Cindy Crawford for sensuous curves. Bear-hugging the bow from a dignified sitting position leads to the bulbous sloper at the lip, and the highball flow of the exhilarating high-heels top-out. Get to it and Sing a Rainbow 7a/V6 before it gets dirty, a lot of cleaning effort went into it!
Further to this Neil investigated the blatant perched boulder on the hillside immediately upon leaving Mosedale. The clean flat wall gave Misty Mountain Hop 6b/V3, and the obvious hanging blocky bulge became the classic Clay Machine Gun 6c+/V5 from sitting. This boulder also has a couple of other easier problems. Finally the jutting wing boulder 100m above this had its sheer right wall scaled by the weird dyno of Tijuana Cha-Cha 7a/V6.
EDIT 17-10-10: We have knocked up a basic PDF topo for this circuit which is available here.
On the roadside(well almost) Undercut boulder Jim Arnold climbed the surprisingly good Ground Force (7a+). This traverses the sloping lip rightward from the base of the undercut arete on the right of the roadside face. The name refers to Tim Carruthers's fine effort in pulling a large annoying block from below the lip.
