Friday 23 October 2015

Monk Life (Font 8B+ / V14) Kyloe-in-the-Wood, Northumberland


I first visited Kyloe-in-the-Wood in August 2015. As it was my first visit to the crag, I was keen to try many of the problems and especially, Monk Life. I had heard lots about Monk Life, from climbers at my local bouldering wall, Alien Rock 2, and had read all about it in the guide book. Also, as I am Scottish and the problem was first climbed by one of Scotland’s best, Malcolm Smith, in 2003, this is a problem I was really keen to try. On that first visit I had only a few attempts and didn’t even reach the crux! However, I was instantly blown away by the problem and the moves. I knew, straightaway, that I wanted to come back to complete this.   

On my second visit, on Tuesday 13th October, I was lucky to be able to work with another climber sharing both beta and boulder mats (as the problem, in my opinion, is quite high!) Using this new beta, I was able to reach the crux on my first attempt of the day and suddenly the problem seemed possible. Throughout the day I got very close but didn’t manage to stick the dyno to the break.

I returned again to Kyloe-in on Monday 19th October for another session, where I hoped to make progress but had no real expectations of climbing it. I did a couple of problems to warm up, and then decided to give Monk Life a warm up go, just to get back into the flow of it. However, before I got on my mum insisted we put the camera on, just in case. At the time this seemed a bit far fetched, but I'm very grateful we did, as on that go I managed to climb it perfectly, caught the dyno move and did it! At the time I couldn’t quite believe it, and I haven’t stopped smiling since! 



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