What's Next at Malham
A little update on what has been happening at Malham. Next time we went back we tried to make the 65m line as difficult as we could - triple webbing Type-18, blueWing and Sonic plus 10mm DMM rope. This was an interesting line and we learnt a few things; this was not as hard as we might have though - the weight makes it move slower so you have time to control it before it throws you off and as we had it a low tension the movements kill themself. After tensioning a bit it becomes harder as the weight then has some power which you have to control. This was a beautiful sunny weekend and we had a lot of fun and couldn't wait to get back...
Next, time to size up - 120m double Type-18. After deciding we could rig this line, going home, acquiring a long enough pice of webbing from the very generous Philipp we had to wait one week and the psyche was super high to set up something bigger than either me or Dan had walked or even tried before! We went for double webbing as we didn't have long enough rope - it can sometimes feel a bit nicer but I personally like having a rope underneath to help dampen the oscillations caused by the wind - and we did get some wind!
When I started trying lines around 60m the longest line I had walked was about 28m so I was setting the president to try lines double what I could actually walk and now its time again - I walked the 65 and now 120 is the goal. So we got there and rigged the line with no major problems, its quite off level but what can you do. We could use boulders on both sides but that meant having one side ~10m higher than the other. Trying this line it was not as impossible as it could have been and I would love to come back every week to try it, learn how it moves and give this line a really good go.
We had one nice day of beautiful weather but what happened on Sunday way surprising and quite frustrating - after a leisurely breakfast we were ready to go on the line but the wind had picked up, the line was loose after being left up overnight and was blowing in an arc towards the cove. Dan went on and had a good go at standing up but with the line still arcing underneath him it was pretty difficult. It had started snowing and as I went to go on the line the vibrations through the line were getting stronger. We decide we had to take the line down as we could see a wall of white blowing up the cove. Somehow the bottom of the cove was unaffected and some climbers were getting on with there day unaware of what was happening above. By the time the line was down a good few inches of snow had settled and we were soaked as well as all our kit. It was a shame not to have a second day on the line but still it was worth setting up this line as now a project has been set.
I can't wait to go back but unfortunately Peregrine Falcons nest at Malham Cove and they are protected by law so we are not allowed back until June. This is so disappointing but as always there are other things to do in the meantime so i'm sure we will keep ourselves occupied and come back to this line in the summer. Has anyone experienced bird bans like this before as it would be interesting to know more about it? I will leave you another little video from Dan.
Oh and you can follow me on Twitter now too @SarahRixham
