Away From It All

The best Sunday for quite some time, a glorious blue day, we thought about trying somewhere a little different - so it was off to the Western Peak just for a change. The team (me, Dave, Graham, Dave, Steve and Dave - a bit confusing on the crag) headed for Hen Cloud; not to the vaunted classics of the Bachelor's Area but away to the right where the routes see little traffic. We did a set of great little routes, as ever with out-of-the-way spots the routes were a bit dirty and some of the grades were on the dodgy side.
The find of the day was Short Man's Misery a superb little arete. It needed a bit of gardening to remove some stubborn heather sprigs, but when clean gave a great little route that saw half-a-dozen ascents in rapid style. The grade in the current guide of HVS is a bit a sandbag, we thought it a stiff E1 5b - and then only if you are 6 foot+!