13th 14th June: No one to climb with, huh?

Well the grit rash has cleared up off my arms and hands. I've also finally showered. For a week that started out looking like I'd would have no body to climb with, it been a long weekend. May as well start at the beginning...

My diary is full of who's available when. Maybe I am a little obsessed with climbing, but obsession is just a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated (I must confess I stole this off Becca). This weekend seemed like there was going to be no one to climb with. Shopping, families and life in general seemed to be taking up peoples time (not that I blame them). Many hurried messages were sent out and eventually a reply from Uncle Rob. Seems we were going climbing in saturday in Llangollen, then Toaf offered an early morning climb on sunday, before he met a friend. I think he knew I was going to go crazy.

So an early start saturday to drop my parents off in Birmingham (they were going to London for the weekend) and then off out to Ludlow. Obviousley I missed the turning to Robs house, but I got there eventually. This is probably where the early start wore off as we sat around drinking tea whilst deciding where to go. We settled on Llangollen, so to High Sports in Shrewbury for the guide book. By the time we'd got to Shrewsbury however, plans had changed and we were now heading for some Rhinog grit. We picked up Nicky in Welshpool and set off. The traffic was pretty bad so as we drove pass Cwm Cywrach. Surprise surprise! yet again plans changed. From hard limestone,to grit outcrops, to mountain rhyolite, eventually we got somewhere.

At Cwm Cywrach we headed over to Craig Llywelyn. The short walk in dropped us at the base of a massive buttress of rhyolite, which was pretty well endowed with plant life. We spotted a few cleaner lines and set off up towards Archeron (HVS). In fact we ended up on Doom (VS 4c) as this looked cleaner but also with better climbing. We swapped leads with Rob taking pitch 1 then me. The climbing was great, combining some gymnastic moves with a bit of loose rock and lichen covered holds. This was definatly a mountaineers route as opposed to the a clean multipitch crags you find in the pass. The last pitch proved a gearless overhang, topping out in heather which we belayed up. The climb definatly got a veg rating of 3. With more traffic this crag would be really popular, sadly it doesn't seem to get it. It probably gets used for winter climbing quite well (I plan to go back there). Me and Rob decided to find more out of the way crags and esotertic fun over the rest of the summer. This may result in a brush for cleaning holds becoming part of my rack.

We descended and walked around to Tap Mawr, hunting for some sun. We got there, eventually, after a scrambly walk through a tonne of bracken (which incidentally filled my shoes). Sadly however the bane of all life that is, midges, drove us off the crag and we ran back to the car. We found some awesome muchrooms whilst balancing on a log over a river. It just had to be done, but it did lead us to some large Dryads Saddle mushrooms. My mother still won't allow me to eat them even though I've told her they're edible. Anyway a pint in the local pub of purple moose brewery ale ended the day.

A long winding drive home took us back to Robs for a venison burger. Seriously nice burger, I just had to mention it and some planning for the next few weeks away so we definatly get some more climbing in. Eventually I got home at 2230 ish to get to bed for another 6am start in the morning.

Well Toaf was wide awake and ready when I got to his house (this can be rare occurance). We still sat around talking and set off 10 minutes late though. We drove tiredly up to Ramshaw. Toaf stayed awake, quite good considering he'd been out partying the night before. We pulled up to Ramshaw and wandered over. I've mislayed my BMC Roaches guide, so we were using my copy of On Peak Rock. I think we just planned to start at one end and tick off all the routes we could do working along the crag. We jumped on The Crank first. At VS 5a I thought it would be a good introduction to Ramshaw grit (which I swear is pointier!). Some great jamming lead to a awkward exit, but I ploughed in my new cams and made it up. Toaf enjoyed it too. I know I enjoyed seeing him semi-jam-come-laybacky-smear his way up. We had a good laugh on it.

We then went to take a look at Traveller in time. Take a look was the operative phrase here as at E4 6a, it would be the hardest climb I've ever attempted. We had a good look at it, trying to glean as much information as we could without actaully abseiling down it. I thought I'd give it ago anyway, so we flaked out the ropes, I chose my gear and headed on up. I can see why Flemmy spent most of the year raving on about it. Its got great gear up to the crux, which proved to be a reachy move right, matching the hands, then mantle-shelfing up on onto it. I don't know what I did during the mantle-shelf but I hurt my chest near to the point of tears. Toaf thought I was having a heart attack! Itook a breather and I was fine, just scared. The top out was a sketchy clamber up on slopey holds. I sat on the top and screamed with happiness, more so that I'd not fallen off.

I think this fed my rat, at least for a few days as we went to look at Ramshaw Crack and didn't fancy the struggle. Neither me or Toaf could get inspired to climb anymore at Ramshaw, so he went to solo some routes whilst I lay in the sun and tried to catch up on my sleep. We spent the rest of the day, eating, rescuing Toaf from Hanley Park toilets, drinking beers in the sun and watching Black adder.

For a weekend with no-one to climb with I seemed to get alot of climbing done?