Crummackdale

We got up a little late today; the after affects of yesterday’s wedding party!

After much guidebook scanning the short approach walk of Yorkshire Limestone was selected. Plus, not having a long mountain approach meant we could take a decent camera to get some good pictures of the Salomon Elios 2 GoreTex approach shoes I got to review this week from Fitness Footwear. As usual the delivery was ultra fast, arriving the day after they were ordered! 😎 The colour scheme suggests a woodland theme – Swamp, Thyme and Wood Beige.

They have lots of features

• Waterproof oiled nubuck leather
• Mesh sandwich
• Molded EVA Midsole
• GORE-TEX® Extended Comfort Footwear membrane
• Gusseted tongue
• Anatomical EVA footbed sockliner
• Protective rubber heel cap
• Protective leather toe cap
• Heel foam upper construction
• Waterproof bootie construction
• Contagrip® Outsole
• 3D Fit Padding

One of these features I’m bit worried about is the leather toe cap. Approach shoes get a hammering from the rock and I’m worried that the toe area might get holed quickly. Perhaps they might be better described as Salomon trainers? There is no sewn-in loop behind the heal for carrying them on your harness for walking down after a rock climb, so that also supports the “trainer” definition. However, having said all of that they do function great as approach shoes…

It’s been raining solidly over the past week, and thanks to the Gore-Tex they kept my feet nice and dry walking in to the crag over the saturated ground. 🙂 Something that Laetitia didn’t benefit from, unfortunately she had wet feet by the time we got to the cliff base. 🙁

After all the shoe testing, it was time to climb…

We finished on Definite Trods Revived. Laetitia had a fright at the crux though… Exactly when she didn’t need it I screamed (a manly exclamation) – I’d felt a cold slither across my ankle! I glanced down and saw a light brown snake¹ sliding across my new shoes and ankle! 😯 I “exclaimed”, panicked, and kicked my foot out wildly! Both shoe (which was unlaced) and snake flew off down the grassy slope beneath the cliff! 😳 A few minutes later after my heart had stopped pounding madly Laetitia got back to concentrating on the climb, it’s a good route but it did have a little lose rock! At the final move, after all the difficulties, I’d stopped concentrating and had started chatting about the ‘snake incident’ to Laetitia above belaying. At that moment the massive chunk of rock (about a foot square) I had my right hand on broke off! 😮 It tumbled on to my right thigh, ankle, and foot! :angry: Luckily I only sustained a few grazes, and even luckier there was no one standing at the base of the crag, it would have certainly killed them! Ouch, my ankle is stiff and sore now! 😥

¹ On reflection after the initial panic had subsided and I’d had a chance to calm down a bit, I think it was probably a slow worm not a snake. We’d probably disturbed him enjoying the sun at the base of this unfrequented part of the crag.