A state of mind...

Rain, or bad weather in general. I've been saying it for a while, usually in response to "but its raining...". My following response is usually something like "rain pffft, its a state of mind". This coming from a guy us gets grumpy and depressed every time that bad weather stop him climbing is odd.

Anyway I'll explain what I mean. If I wait for only days of perfect weather then i'd only get a little bit of climbing done. I mean seriously how much climbing would anyone get done in only perfect conditions. Therefore I figure rain is a state of mind. As soon as you realise this then you accept that getting wet is part of a day out, then you can change your objectives (or just aid them) and aims for the day depending on this fact. Sometimes this might mean not going out and waiting till another day, or sitting in a cafe till 2pm and them climbing till the sun goes does instead (missing valuable pub time).

I've had some great days out climbing in the rain, usually they have ended in me retreating off a route, or cutting short down a big plan to a more managable (but wet) one. You never going to be climbing super hard in the rain, but at the end of the day it usually beats sitting round in B'ham/Stoke/ insert crap city etc.

So rain, yes it does pour from the sky, soak your ropes and gear, make holds slippy, greasy and wet. It does always appear on that long planned weekend, or the day you forgot your waterproof jacket. But eventually you'll realise that in fact, you will dry and so will your gear, it'll turn your VD or S into a life and death epic but you'll love it.

That is if you can get past the fact that your soaked...

Alps training!

Getting in sunday night I was surprised to find out that my brother is leaving for Germany on monday. Not that this would usually be a problem, but I'm away in the alps the week after then when I get back, my parents are away for three weeks or something. I'm not going see him for a month (or my parents for that matter), if I miss them on Saturday. Just came as a little shock is all.

Getting in Sunday night suggests that I've been out for the weekend, which is true. I've been planning heavily this weekend for the alps. Me and Dan are heading out the to Ecrins and have a few routes in mind. Admittedly we've probably left doing some training a little late, that said we've done quite a bit of climbing together (and walking) especially over the past few weeks. I think we know each others strenghts and weaknesses quite well. We went this weekend to practise moving together, biving, eating and using our "alps rack". We've planned for a day on a glacier practising some crevasse rescue, but hopefully we'll not have to use it.

We packed up on friday night and set of on a late start on saturday. Other than giving us a lie in, it also (in theory) meant we would get caught out by darkness and would be forced to bivi down somewhere. Like I said in theory. We headed over the wales (where else) and firstly to V12 as Dan needed some new rock boots. We started to gear up at ogwen cottage in the early afternoon.

I think we must have looked quite a sight. Because of the risk of rain, we opted to go in thermals and waterproof trousers. This is all good, except for we started just in skin tight thermals. We got a few funny looks to say the least. At least we didn't start roped up as if we were on a glacier! We walked in pretty quick, realising on the way in that we'd fogotten the guide book (it was too heavy anyway). We headed over to the glyder facet to begin with.

We roped up and Dan just picked a line up the broken ground along the NW edge. I wasn't really hard climbing/scrmbling, but had a few difficult sections. I have to say Dan was off like a rocket and I felt like I was struggling to keep up. Trying to keep the rope taught, but not too tight and take gear out. Everytime I was on a difficult section, seem like Dan had reached an easy section and he gunned ahead. Eventually we established some better communication. We topped out and moved to the base of the Sub Cneifon Arete [VD].

It was my turn to take the lead this time. I started up, wacked a sling over this massive flake then pulled up on it. The thing damn near came away from the face and ended up on Dan. I pushed it back, removed my sling and found a chock instead. That was a narrow escape to say the least. We headed up ok this time. Seemed a bit different with me leading and Dan seconding, then again it was a little harder than some broken ground. Couple of points required some quick belays but it all went well. We dropped our rope and took a break at the top whilst watching the weather. It seemed to be building and trying to break but not quite managing it.

So we headed to Idwal slabs with the intention of doing Hope [VD] and make a decision about a harder route on the next wall. Seeing as we seemed quicker with Dan leading headed off first. We moved with about 10/15 metres of rope between us. I shouted instructions as to where the route went from below. We moved up with few problems, overtaking one party. I did almost come off, but manageed to gecko myself on the wall. Thankfully Dan clocked this and hung onto a large spike at that point. Arriving at the top of Idwal we opted for Javlin Buttress [VS 4c] (as there was someone on Lazarus).

For this pitch I took the lead. Last time I did Javline buttress I was in my rock boots and wearing a rucksack. I had to leave my sack below the crux and haul it up after, I also had a full trad rack. This time I've come equipped a tiny rack and I'm in my big boots! Self doubt had started to eat away already, then I dropped a cam! I've no idea how, but it slipped off my harness. Instead of falling to the base of Idwal, it hung on a runner (clearly a myrical?!). I quickly put in a belay and Dan rescued this cam, thankfully. This allowed me to keep climbing. At the crux I puzzelled for a while about how to do it. I rememeber it being really awkward last time, but I must have been doing it all wrong. I nipped through it and belayed above. Annoyingly I cut my thumb and bleed everywhere.

I brought Dan up and we snacked before the final pitch, Ashel. At S 4a it wasn't the hardest route on our list, but not the easiest either. It had started to rain as well and Dan um and ar'd over the start. Eventually I made the call to bin it, it was rain. Theres not point getting wet for the sake of getting wet at the end of the day. Only fools practise suffering. We would later check the guidebook (which we forgot to bring) and would read about the "desperate start" to Ashel. Something we thankfully avoided. We headed down from Idwal in double quick time. Not wanting to miss out on the fact we carried enough gear to bivi and because we had nothing else to do, be had tea tucked away under the roof in the Ogwen carpark. This was Freezer bag soodley noup. A concoction of cheep noodles, cuppa soup all made inside a freezer bag (which doesn't melt with the addition of boiling water). You then put them in your hat so you don't burn your hand and hey presto! instant noodles, with no washing up.

With nothing much else to do, and no tent as we forced ourselves to bivi we headed to find some beer. The Brenin saturday night lecture (and bar) seemed like a good idea. Its a shame that the lecture was on "paddling around the world". I mean it could have been interesting, but me and Dan were pretty fired up over climbing so. We still enjoyed a nice pint of Brenin ale, before heading out to find a bed for the night. We ended up in the slate quarries in a blast shelter in the slate quarries. As a place to doss for the night it was great and could easily fit about 6 people in there. It also had a good view over Llanberis. We sat in Vivian enjoying after a hard day out, till we heard a large rockfall someway off and decided to head to bed.

Sunday rolled around (as it always does) to rain. Alot of rain. Again no point getting wet for the sake of getting wet, and still knackered from the day before, we headed to Pete's from breakfast and home.

As a weekend of half a rack, bivi gear and moving together, I think we did really well, pushing ourselves to move quicker and making sound decisions. I think we'll be alright in the alps, and I can't wait.

Alps and stuff...

Well I left work early yesterday (I'm going to get busted if anyone at work reads my blog) but I'll put in the time somewhere else. Probably working my lunch for the warhammer painting competition I'm running. You know when you naively take on what is suposed to be in reality a nice simple job, but then without warning it starts spiraling out of control. Welcome to warhammer club. Other than warhammer club admin at work is very boring. Least I'm getting paid so I should stop complaining.

Went to Stoke last night. Why would anyone willingly go to Stoke I hear people ask? Well I love being in Stoke, and think its a great place to live. Other than that I needed to claim back my guidebooks and Toaf's mom's quiche dish from Ceara house, and sit down and plan some alpine related stuff with Dan.

Thankfully planning has paid off. We now know when we're going, what ferries we're getting. The car is sorted (other than insurance). We also spent part of the night rescuing each other from a cravesse. I should probably point out, that if your mate ever does fall into a crevasse, then anchoring off a nearby desk isn't advised. We also practise some tying in in coils. All in all a good evening.

On top of all of this we're going away this weekend to put most of this into practise. I'm not starting my weekly ritual of praying for decent (or at least half decent weather). I'm not to sure whats its going to do. We'll be in Wales, only because we know where everything is and should make the climbing easier. I hope it goes alright as I could do with a hard weekend out climbing.

Anyway I attached the link for the video from last trip to Idwal, and no doubt me and Dan will try and make another.

http://lifeattheendofarope.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html

A weekend off?

Well so much for the WMC trip to the Lakes. It'll be alright as there'll be one there at the end of the summer so we'll go on that. Being honest I did miss going as I was so looking forward to some Lake District rock. Anyway, enough moping, I blame the weather.

As I said we'd planned for the Lakes but it looked bad weather wise, so me and Stewie decided on Llangollen as a meeting point. Being close enough to north wales to head over on sunday, but far enough away that we could bug out if the weather was bad this seemed like a good idea. I'd gone up to Stoke with Toaf to pick up Ceara on the Friday night. As it was Alex flemmy's graduation we went to ember and got way to drunk and stayed up too late. In the morning we all groggily got into the car, got as far as Spar and Stewie called saying the weather was bad and we should bail on the Llangollen plan. We planned a day in the peak on sunday instead.
So we had a massive breakfast (mainly thanks to Ceara) and chilled out all day watching movies. Claire and Anna came to join us and eventually we got our arses into gear and went slacklining. We took 2 lines (mine and Dan's) so had a really long yet slack slackline (by the end of the session I couldn't walk to the middle as it was on the floor it had stretched so much) and a really tight short line. Toaf was feeling really ill from the night before so he went shopping with Claire (brave lad). The rest of us just slacklined the afternoon away.

I love slacklining. Apart from being great for your balance and core strenght its just plain good fun, regardless of how good you are. That said it takes a while to be able to walk along it. I remember when I started and used to watch Dan walking backwards and forwards. Damn I was jealous. Thankfully determination set in and many hours slacklining alone in the park listening to the ipod paid off... Now I can balance on a piece of webbing! (note: use of sarcasm)

Anyway its almost more fun when your learning, as you fall off alot more when just standing is a challenge. I'm trying to think up more challenges at the moment. I find to hard to tighten the line when I'm on my own enough that I can jump on it. Dan and Alex helped set up the line, so it was super tight! Therefore a day of simple jumps and 180's ensued, with varying degrees of success. I landed a 180 once so thought I better leave on a high note.

As we were all still feeling the effects of the night before (ie me, ceara and Toaf) we had an BBQ at Andy's house. A good and proper British BBQ hiding under a tarpauline from the rain. Holloway came out and brung some guys from Stanley Head down and we drank the night away (eventually having to move inside due to the weather). It was a good night including the dumb game (obviously invented by the guys) which involved throwing a haki-sack at each others crotch. Guys will be guys I supose. (having proof read that I sound rather high and mighty and also like I wasn't involved... I was).

We made an omlette for breakfast. Well me and Anna did, after we'd found all the spare breakfast food we'd not been able to eat the day before. Seriously Ceara did like 2 packs of bacon, 12 sausages, beans, egg, mushrooms and toast... for 3 people! We spent alot of the day deliberating about the weather and eventually went to the Roaches. I dived straight on the Pincer (VS 5a) and promptly came straight of the slab section. Its a great route. Proper little boulder problem start until you get your first piece of gear, then a traversing crack to a slab. I put some high gear in and then tried to step out onto the slab. I had 1 slopey foothold, very poor hold for my hands and I just couldn't do it. I was also ademant the route didn't go that way (still have not checked the guide book). I tried it anyway and once I'd stood on the slab I realised I couldn't reverse it. I carried on up on crap smears, and slid off. I tried this again and fell off before I admitted defeat to the slab and used the traversey ledge and smears, then crack to finish. This felt much more like 5a but I'm not going to complain.

It turned out that my first piece of gear had been left at the start (Ceara!) and after several unsuccessful attempts to reboulder the start in approach shoes I got some help. To guys watching me fail toof pity on me so Claire knelt down and then the random guy bent over making a large and wobbly staircase to rescue the gear. I only wish we'd got a picture of it.

We headed over to Left Hand Route (HVD 4a) on Blushing Buttress after this. It was Ceara's lead as she'd been begging to go out all weekend. Left hand route is also no push over. Its got a really commiting rockover/mantle on it, above your gear. Not looking confident she set off up the route, placing her gear well and backing up the final peice before the crux. The wind was blowing a hoolie (don't you just love that phrase?) as she went for it......and of course she made it, shouted she was safe and built her belay. Claire and Laura seconded the route. Laura decided the crux was beyond her and Claire decided the crux was stupid as of the lack of holds, but made it up. For Ceara's hardest lead to date she did well.

We then went to join the to others who were playing on Black and Tans and Sloth area. Anna was going to lead the Sloth (HVS 5a). She had a whale of a time on it as she was grinning manically when she finished. She did manage to drop her sling for the cheese block, but all the haki sack throwing practise paid off and I launched it back up to her. Watching her on it, I thought to myself "you know what, you should do it, stop putting it off". So I did.

The start was easy and getting to the cheeseblock and slinging it went well. However I couldn't work out how I was going to get out under the roof whilst I stood on the pedestal. I stood there for ages self doubt eating away at me. I seem to have a knack for falling off or bailing off classic climbs (dervish, cenotaph, Valkyrie...). I could just envision something going wrong.

I'm not sure what changed, but I eventually I went for it. I headed out into the roof and started to enjoy it. I enjoyed it enough that I cut loose from the handjam on the edge (just as Stewie had told me I had to). I topped out well and Paul came up. Ceara gave it a damn good go as well. And so ended our climbing in stoke. We had pizza for tea and then spelt in Ceara's living room ready for another 6am start back to Birmingham for work.

All in all, a very good weekend.

A weekend in Stoke

Well so much for the WMC trip to the Lakes. It'll be alright as there'll be one there at the end of the summer so we'll go on that. Being honest I did miss going as I was so looking forward to the Lakes rock. Anyway, enough moping, I blame the weather.

We'd planned for the Lakes but it looked bad (weather wise). So me and Stewie decided on Llangollen as a meeting point. Being close enough to north wales to head over on sunday, but far enough away that we could bug out if the weather was bad. I'd gone up to Stoke with Toaf to pick up Ceara. As it was Alex flemmy's graduation we went to ember and got way to drunk and stayed up too late. In the morning we all groggily got into the car, got as far as Spar and Stewie called saying the weather was bad and we should bail on the Llangollen plan. Instead we planned a day in the peak on sunday!

So we had a massive breakfast (mainly thanks to Ceara) and chilled out all day watching movies. Claire and Anna came to join us and eventually we got our arses into gear and went slacklining. For once we took 2 lines (mine and dan) so had a really long yet slack slackline (by the end of the session I could walk to the middle as it was on the floor it had stretched so much) and a really tight short line. Toaf was feeling really ill for the night before so he went shopping with Claire (brave lad). The rest of us just slacklined the afternoon away.

I love slacklining. Apart from being great for your balance and core strenght its just plain good fun, regardless of how good you are. That said it takes a while to be able to walk along it. I rememebered when I started and used to watch Dan walking backwards and forwards. I mean damn I was jealous. Thankfully determination set in and many hours slacklining alone in the park listening to the ipod paid off... Now I can balance on a piece of webbing! (note: use of sarcasm)

Anyway its almost more fun when your learning as you fall off alot more, when just standing is a challenge. I'm trying to think up more challenges at the moment. I find to hard to tighten the line when I'm on my own enough that I can jump on it. Dan and Alex helped set up the line, so it was super tight! Therefore a day of simple jumps and 180's ensued, with varying degrees of success. I landed a 180 once so thought I better leave on a high note.

Then we had an awesome BBQ at Andy's house. A good and proper British BBQ hiding under a tarpauline from the rain. Holloway came out and bring some guys from Stanley Head down and we drank the night away (eventually having to move inside due to the weather). It was a good night including the dumb game (obviously invented by the guys) which involved throwing a haki-sack at each other crotch. Guys will be guys I supose. (having proof read that I should rather high and mighty and also like I wasn't involved... I was).

We made an omlette for breakfast. Well me and Anna did, after we'd found all the spare breakfast food we'd not been able to eat the day before. Seriously Ceara did like 2 packs of bacon, 12 sausages, beans, egg, mushroom and toast... for 3 people! We spent alot of the day deliberating about the weather and eventually went to the Roaches. I dived straight on the Pincer (VS 5a) and promptly came straight of the slabe section. Its a great route. Proper little boulder problem start untill you get your first peice of gear, then a traversing crack to a slab. I put some high gear in and then tried to step out onto the slab. I had 1 slopey foothold, very poor hold for my hands and I just couldn't do it. I was also ademant the route didn't go that way (still have not checked the guide book). I tried it anyway and once I'd stood on the slab I realised I couldn't reverse it. I carried on up on crap smears, and slid off. I tried this again and fell off before I admitted defeat to the slab and used the traversey ledge and smears then crack to finish. This felt much more like 5a but I'm not going to complain.

Ceara seconded me up this and then we headed over to Left Hand Route (HVD 4a). It was Cearas lead as she'd been begging to go out all weekend. Left hand route is also no push over. Its got a really commiting rockover/mantle on it, above your gear. Not looking confident she set off up the route, placing her gear well and backing up the final peice before the crux. The wind was blowing a hoolie (don't you just love that phrase?) and she went for it...



... of course she made it, shouted she was safe and build her belay. Claire and Laura seconded the route. Laura decided the crux was beyond her and Claire decided the crux was stupid as of the lack of hold, but made it up. For Ceara's hardest lead to date she did well.

We then went to join the to others who were playing on Black and Tans and Sloth area. Anna was going to lead the Sloth (HVS 5a). She had a whale of a time on it as she was grinning manically to finish. She did manage to drop her sling for the cheese block, but all the haki sack throwing practise paid off and I launched it back up to her. Watching her on it, I thought to myself "you know what, you should do it, stop putting it off". So I did.

The start was easy and getting the block round the cheeseblock was aswell. However I couldn't work out how I was going to get up it whilst I stood on the pedestal. I stood there for ages. Self doubt eating away at me. I seem to have a knack for falling off or bailing off classic climbs (dervish, cenotaph, Valkyrie...). I could just envision something going wrong.

I'm not saure what changed, but I went for it. Maybe it was Claire yelling "your built for this"? Anyway I headed out into the roof and started to enjoy it. I enjoyed it enough that I cut loose from the handjam on the edge (just as Stewie had told me I had to). I topped out well and Paul came up. Ceara gave it a damn good go as well. And so ended our climbing in stoke. We had pizza for tea and then spelt in Ceara's living room ready for another 6am start back to Birmingham for work.

All in all, a very good weekend.

Another trip to Gogarth

Soames and Tom came this weekend. These are two guys who I really enjoy climbing with but have not really had chance to for almost about a year. This seems really stupid as I found out Soames lives about 30 minutes from my house. We planned for one day climbing at Gogarth. Soames used to live in North Wales and his favourite place in the world is Gogarth's Main Cliff.

Me and Toaf drove up on the Friday night, not too late. We had enough time to go to the pub for a few beers and then slink off to bed. By this point however Dan had arrived with Claire and a load more people to bring to the party. Ensued was a night of drinking, meaning the next day we all suffered badly with hangovers. We went to Llanberis and Pete's from an extended breakfast, we then drove out to Holyhead to wait out the weather.

Some would think of weather waiting as good for developing patience. I thought it good for recovering from hangover and waiting for Soames and Tom. Eventually (like predicted) at about 2pm the weather cleared up. We had a final brew in the cafe then headed off. Dan, Claire and the others went to climb on Holyhead Mountain. Me, Soames, Tom and Toaf headed for Main Cliff.

The walk in was damp underfoot. I tried in vain to stop the water entering my approach shoes, but they are so full of holes I lost anyway. We geared up at the very top of the descent and hid our bags(Soames said theres a theft problem). Main cliff is not an abseil, but a walk in. Sometimes I think abseiling would be safer. We had undercut grass paths, slippy mud, wet traverses on bad rock and a initial descent gully was loose as hell. All in all I found it a good laugh. Tom got a little gripped on one traverse and told me he couldn't understand why we were here. I told him I loved it and got an odd look.

After a rest and a well need smoke for some of the party, we flaked out the ropes for our two routes. Me and Toaf planned to assault Emulator (E1 5b) and Soames and Tom Imitator (VS 4c). I looked up at this massive dihedral groove with a little worry. Even though it got less steep near the top, the middle section looked steep as hell and I worried about the bridging. Either way I'd come to climb, so wasn't going to let something like a little self doubt stop me. That I and the fact that I'd equipped myself with the biggest rack I could so I could stitch it all the way if needed.

The initial groove was quite steep, but I went up on good incut holds finally placing one of my micro cams (I haven't had much chance to use them since I brought them, but Gogarth seems to be the place!). As I headed up to bridging got more and more technical, and I was praying my feet wouldn't pop off any of the smears. It was a hot day, and I kept chalking up. Each time I did I wondered how Toaf would fair as he'd left his chalk bag in the car. I got to the crux, well I stood beneath it on a couple of crap ledge. I'll be honest and say I thought about lowering off. I couldn't do this, I'd fall. There was nothing for your feet. Eventually after standing around for ages and placing some gear as high as I could, I went up. I didn't mean to of course, but I climb past where I could reverse it and had to carry on. One foot jammed in a crack and the other smearing. I ran it out hoping for a good ledge or a rest. Eventually I found one, looked down and smiled at Toaf. As I put in more gear I yelled down something like "your gonna love this". After a sting in the tail, I topped out and sat looking out to sea. I don't think I could have been happier at that moment.

I have to give it to Toaf he seconded the route well. He saved a cam that I'd almost lost and brought up may shoes to boot. You should have seen the amount of gear he topped out with. Rife with dehydration we moved together (ish) up the grass slope to a save belay and settled down to wait for Soames and Tom. We both fell asleep I think. When they arrived, me and Tom decided to attack Bezel and Toaf and Soames walked out. Tom took the first pitch and juts couldn't do it. I then tried and through way too much effort I gained the Belay. I proclaimed the pitch a sandbag as it was no way 4b. I then abseiled off and me and Tom walked out. The pitch in fact is a 4b (albeit a polished 4b) me and Tom just had not read the description well enough and went the wrong way.

Although Tom seemed to not enjoy the walk in, he just walked straight out with no problems. I guess the climbing at Gogarth made the walk in seem less serious. We headed back to the cars and back to the campsite for a night of heavy drinking.

Sunday rolled around and I woke up hurting. The amount I drank and stayed up till was making me suffer. Guess it was all my own fault. Instead of heading out to Gogarth again, we nipped to skyline buttress in Australia wall. A nice lazy day on slate seemed the order of the day. I lead what I thought was "Ronald Regan meets Docter Strangelove" (E2 5b). There was no way it was E2 or 5b, and it seemed to have been completely retrobolted. It was also falling apart, so I gave it a good clean on the way up. I checked the slate wiki and its a new route put up at F5b+ apparently. I skipped clipping most of the bolts anyway. Toaf lead "Billy two Tokes" and "Digital Delactation" which is a great route. Apparently the wind picked up when he went for the ledge and mantle. Then Tom lead "Digital Delactation" and skipped the finish due to heavy rain.

We then packed up and left, choose to sit around the cars having another beer before we headed to the pub and home. It was a good weekend. Going out with Soames has left me feeling like I've got alot stiull to learn, which is good as I have something to work towards. I'll take away alot from this weekend, and not all of it will be based around climbing.

(Soames [black hat] and Tom [stripy hat] chill with a beer)

Climbing after work?

Now if I lived in North Wales, Lakes, Peaks or even in Ludlow, this wouldn't seem like such an odd idea. However I'm stuck in Birmingham. Climbing after work takes a little planning. Planning seems synonyms with getting off work early.

I planned to go to newport bouldering anyway on thursday, but when I messaged everyone Ceara cheekily asked if I'd go out climbing on wednesday instead, and pick her up. After much debilberation I decided if the weather was good I may as well go. I'd asked Toaf to come too and he informed me that he would definatly be able to get off work early so we could dodge traffic.

Wednesday came around and the weather reports predicted heavy showers. Not wanting to go all the way to the Roaches to get rained on, but not wanting to risk missing out on a night out climbing meant this was a dilemma. I decided to risk it in the end, but Toaf couldn't get off work as his boss was going on a paranoid rant!.

I got to the Roaches at about 7 with Ceara. It was still really hot and muggy, not excellent grit weather. We did Sifta's Quid (HS 4b) without the final squeeze as I am too big. I really did try though. We then watched a guy take a great lob off the mancer. Right where you leave the overhang and head up the jamming crack. He said he just could get a decent jam in (he was up to his arms in crack) and fell off. We arrived to see him falling upside down and into the wall. I thought it was a hosiptal case but he was unharmed (cuts and bruises). They offered to let me finish the lead for them, and I Jumped at the chance. I've wanted to do the jamming crack to finish for ages, but havn't managed the start. Anyway I jammed my way up, arms deep, suffering from immense rope drag and a srtuck rope at one point. I finished, tied off the rope as it was jammed again and abseiled down to free it, covered in grit rash and smiling broadly. The guys, after see my struggle opted to rescue the gear by abseil.

Me and Ceara then went for Valkyrie (VS 4c) something I've never finished. I say finished as I've done most of the second pitch then it rained so I ab'd off, and backed off another day from bad Juju. I did the first pitch, and brought up Ceara. After the little traverse she was shaken (she hates traversing) so instead we sat on the ledge and talked whilst everyone walking past asked if we were stuck and need a headtorch!.

We reversed the traverse and headed home.

I stayed over at Cearas in the end, as driving back late at night seemed dumb prefering an early start instead. All in all, getting off work early and going climbing till late worked, though I've been really tired for the rest of the week. I'll be out climbing again mid week before the summer holidays are out!