Chamonix 3 (contamine-grisolle)

Contamine-Grisolle and Mont Blanc du Tacul:

We went back up the Aiguille du Midi with another couple of routes in mind. The afternoon was given over to resting in the sun and packing the bags up, making sure we didn't forget to bring crucial items such as a headtorch. Finney dissappeared off the get the tickets for the telecabine while I packed everything. We arrived with time to spare and enjoyed a quiet ride up with an English chap named Rob (and his guide) who'd been living in Chamonix for the past 12 years. He'd actually grown up in Cheadle and spent his youth bouldering at Churnet.

When marking out your dig, over estimate.

A completed circle of snow...

... which barely fits the tent!

Armed with a snow-shovel (that we brought together) setting up the tent was reasonably easy and we were soon snuggled down in bed trying to get some sleep. Anndy slept soundly all night, I didn't. I just couldn't settle for some reason and just lay there rolling occasionally when a part of my got sore waiting for the alarm to go off at 0144. When it finally did go off it was all action stations. We breakfasted, brewed up and got the tent down as quick as we could. We walked across the crisp snow of the glacier in a direct line to the snow bridge that signified the start of the Contamine-Grisolle.

porridge pant, nice

Finney tying on

The route itself was rather reasonable. We moved together up the first 150 metres (or so, I couldn't tell as it was pitch black and climbing via headtorch) till I hit the first crux pitch of the route. This pitch itself was fantastic to climb through! The start was a thin ice runnel, at the back of a wide open crack. I could still only just reach with my tools and gingerly stepping up on little ledges with my crampons. Surmounting this I was greated with a beautiful scene in front of me. The sun still wasn't up, but it was close enough to provide that erie twilight and seems to bring out the white in the snow. The pitch ahead of me was monocromatic and I marvelled at it's beauty. I wasn't sure if we had enough rope for this but it made more sense to continue that to just stop and I carried on, smiling.

Finney, just finishing the mixed section

Finney setting off on lead

It really was a great pitch of mixed climbing but we were soon off moving together as soon as I brought Andy up to me. He shot off up the snow slopes and through the easier mixed terrain covering it quickly. We only had one more pitch of climbing after this, another excellent mixed pitch before we hit the ridge itself. We checked the time, congratulated ourselves on actually hitting the guidebook time and decided to rest for 10 minutes. By now the sun was coming up properly and I just sat there eating saucission trying to gain some warmth from it's rays.

Making the most of the morning sunshine

Me, with our very British guidebook cover

Th last of the mixed sections

The snow was in better condition that last time we'd descended from the top of the triangle face and we opted to carry on up the ridge to meet the Normal route up Mont Blanc du Tacul. This in itself was not without risk. Walking together roped up I watched as small slabs broke off with every other step and we walked the ridge. It was a risk, but it was worth it because instead of just carrying on down, once we met the normal route it just made sense to carried on heading up. Tacul was only half a km away as it was. I'm not really one for summits, I'd rather enjoy the journey as you climb, but there is a sense of a achievement it topping out. It almost feels like I've given the day a sense of purpose. Standing on top of Tacul definatley did that for me.

The photo a kind guide took of us. He made us get Mont Blanc in the background

Descent was quick. The normal route up Tacul is apparently a long plod up the snow, with a bergschrund to cross. I was fairly disappointed that I'd seen so many people trudging up it over the time I'd been there. It didn't really hold anything for me, other than a quick means of getting down. I don't doubt that there is immense value in the routes and I don't look down on people who do it. It's just not my cup of tea.

We did have one funny moment when both of us, only 500 metres from the tents punched through a snow bridge and into a small cravasse... each with our right leg at exactly the same time. Tired and dehyrdated all we could do was pull ourselves out and laugh at how lucky we could have been. It just goes to show that the climb is never over till you're back somewhere you can call safe.

Me melting even more snow, a seemingly never ending job

yep, he's fast asleep

Chamonix 4 (Frendo Spur)

I'm not sure when I decided to do this route, or specifically why but it's been there eating away at me for a while now. Sitting typing away after I've done it I feel quite lost, because I've yet to find something else to obsess over. What was nice was being able to put into practice everything that I've learnt over the last few routes. Even little things count for a lot like my down jacket. I don't wear it climbing but I've taken it with me every time I've been up to Valle Blanche. It's just excess weight at the end of the day, so I left it behind in favour of my ME Fitzroy. I tried to look at every single item we took in the same way. What would be need, what could we leave behind, what could be do without.

It was a phone call from Stuart Sherwood (climbing partner and a friend of mine, with much more alpine experience) which really gave me the confidence to do it. He just called up to see how I'd found the route (another friend has been telling people I've climbed it, mistakenly) and I told him we'd not. He told me not to worry about the difficulties, he was confident that I'd be more than happy on it and warned me that route finding was probably my biggest worry (he did the route a couple of years ago himself). With this is mind, we really set about going to climb it. The owner of the Hotel L'areyvon [check spelling] let us print off an great topo we'd found on the net while we were having a beer one night and the next day we checked the conditions with the guides buerau. They told us to go for it and it would be in good, not excellent condition. They agreed that the plan to do it in 2 days was most sensible. There was a little risk, as there was bad weather forcast for the day after, so we'd have to actually move quickly. We walked out the the guides buerau in a kind of exstatic state... Frendo was actually going to happen!

We didn't have the smoothest start in the morning. We'd intended to catch the first telepherique up, but we missed it because it took longer to pack up the bags (the downside to your climbing gear being part of your normal everyday gear) and I had to take my camera apart to fix it before we left. It didn't matter because we still had tonnes of time when we stepped off at Plan D'aiguille at 0830. For some unknown reason we had it into our heads that the walk in would only be 40 minutes, this was wrong as we struggled down the moraine and across the boulderfield and glacier with our heavy packs on. The first icefield (only about 40/50°) really took it out of me for some reason and little bits of doubt started creeping into my mind about whether we could climbing something so big.

Team picture before the start of the route.

The last crevasse

I didn't let these worries stop me or let Andy know how I was feeling. It didn't matter because feeling aprehensive about doing something that big is probably a good thing. It meant that I wasn't over-confident. We scooted round the berschrund on a snowbridge and started soloing up the ramp. This was just loose and chossy terrain but easy enough to climb on. I guess roping up here would have just wasted time and the ropes would have just flicked a load of rock down on the poor person belaying. The actual climbing seemed to start on the slanting ledge and we carried on soloing up this because it was, well easy. It was oddly similar to Idwal but I've come across this similarity between climbs I know in England and new rock I find (Soames and I last year in Ecrin's just seems to compare everything to different bits of Llanberis Pass). It wasn't until we hit the steeper head wall and the ramp trending rightward that we roped up, with one half rope for speed.

He wasn't even posing for this, just drinking at the opportune moment

The loose rock in the first 1/4

The last toilet stop before  roping up

Finney leading.

It's hard to describe the climbing, just because there was simply so much of it. We had the first crux about 3 pitches in, a horrible overhanding crack that would have been an easier proposistion in rock boots without a pack on (we didn't have the luxury of this). I ended up skirting round it on a slab and then it was back to good long pitches over easy angled and climbable terrain. Our route finding was going well, mainly thanks to Andy noticing a lot of things but by the time we climbing up to the exposed col the afternoon cloud enveloped us, sealing us away from the outside world in a white mist. It didn't make the climbing any harder, just affected the moral a bit.

A brief break in the afternoon cloud

My failed attempt at the obvious (yet off route) dihedral

Consulting the guidebook

old wooden wedges. This made me happy seeing this.

Hitting the exposed col and the obvious dihedral was a great uplift to our spirits. It was good to know exactly where we were, even if we didn't know how long it would take us to climb the rest. The dihedral itself was pretty perfect, so I went for it getting 40 metres up before I realised I'd made a stupid decision. I down-climbed for 10 metres, and added my own piece of tat to the route as I lowered off. I was pretty pissed at myself for such a stupid thing to do. The spanish topo we had cleared stated to avoid the dihedral and to skrit left to easy ground. This error cost us an hour in total.

We were pitching everything now as it was 4a/4b climbing with easier sections, just seemingly constantly climbing. Pitch after pitch went by in the fog, with little idea how high we were or how far we'd got to go. We knew we'd eventually hit another crux, marked as “fallen block” on our topo. It wasn't a single fallen block, but a mass of fallen material, full of nice sharp edges and awkward climbing. Once I'd lead through it though and was sat on my belay the cloud broke and we could see sunshine and blue sky. More importantly than that we could see all the way up th ridge and how far we needed to go (roughly). I think it was another 4 pitches after that (including a horrible thrutchy chimney which nearly had me off) before we hit the easy ground on the ridge.

By now I was feeling tired and thirsty. I should have just stopped and drank some water but I didn't prefering to keep moving. Looking back this was a pretty stupid decision as staying better hydrated would have made climbing easier. This was one of the many littl things that I learnt on route, and it was a steep learning curve! I made a bad decision climbing a really loose groove just before the bivi ledge until Andy called me down and pointed out a better path. It was all worth it though, to top out onto that ledge. The ledge we'd seen people biving on from the Aig telepherique all those times. It felt amazing to finally be there and to make it better the sun was setting casting an orange glow over everything whilst we looked down on a perfect cloud inversion. Only the peak sticking up over 2500 metres poked out and the cloud went on as far as the eye could see. I couldn't take a good enough picture to express it.

My first view of what was in store on day two

The day wasn't over but the ledge was massive so we just spread everything out and got a little more organised. The jetboil was on straight away to melt snow for brew after brew and to rehydrate the food we'd brought. I'm always surprised at how much hunger makes everything taste incredible. We spent most of the time deciding whether to go left or right to finish on the next day. Left is steeper and slightly shorter, but the sun hits it first. Right is longer and had a little couloir to finish (from what we'd seen) but it stayed in the dark till mid-afternoon. You can guess which one we picked. The right hand finished just meant we could loose the pressure of time and just climb happily instead of racing the sunshine. We were snuggled down in sleeping bags by 2230.

exhaustion

Silhouette

Team shot at the end of day one

A tired looking Finney

Andy slept, I didn't. I normally sleep anywhere however my brain doesn't seem to switch off when I'm biviing and I lay there watching the sky and the mountains, shifting occasionally when I got sore in one spot. Lack of sleep is one thing but I still got some rest, just being able to lay there still for a few hours. I just felt like I was waiting everything to re-freeze rather than sleeping.

After what seemed like a eternity for me, 0500 came around and I started the jetboil again. The morning was cold and we were ahardly efficient getting ready. We didn't start moving till 0630. Today my pack felt so much lighter. I think the removal of all the ice gear really made a difference but plodding up the arete was still hard work. It gradually got steeper and steeper until I could justify placing a ice screw and wandering off on our own line to take the right hand finish. We must have simuli-climbed 200 metres of up to 60° ice before I ran out of screws and had to build a belay. We'd agreed to block lead this section, until we hit the easy snow slopes to finish and thus we did.

All geared up with another day to go

Ready to set off

how thin to ridge was

60 meters out. The piece of gear it where I turned off the ridge to head right

Finally some warmth

The last 60 m of moving together. 

And back to pitched climbing

We kept kidding ourselves everytime we looked ahead that it would only be 1, maybe 2 pitches to the final couloir. In reality it was 4, full length pitches that were simply a joy to climb. The ice was about 70° and we hugged the rock so we could take adventage of any available gear. We really did climb efficiently up the ice and just didn't seem to stop moving until we finally hit the couloir. Suddenly there was this fantastic little mixed pitch with some good ice on it as our last section of hard climbing. I could believe it and loved every metre of it, despite being very tired. I realised when I topped out that we were now behind the Rognon and only the final slopes were left. I belayed of the last piece of ice and Andy lead through to top out. It was over.

setting off, only 2 pitches to go...maybe

...4 pitches later

The last mixed section

Me being brought up the last slope

and a final team photo, back in "civilization"

I felt an immense sense of loss and sadness when the route was over. I'd just wanted it to go on and on. I guess everything ends eventually. Frendo was a steep learning curve and felt a lot like the sum of all my climbing being put to the test in one route. There'd been rock, ice, scrambling, clambering, walking, route finding & navigation... it was just all there and I'd loved it. I actually felt like an alpinist, rather than a british lad bumbling around the alps ticking off routes that looked like they belonged in scotland in winter. 

A well earned Midnight Express Burger

Two bottles of wine down and he's fired up ready to go!

Chamonix 5 (Aiguille Du Chardonney)

Failure:

I think the title probably describes my feelings towards our last trip into the mountains, at least in part. We failed in our objective which started as the Messner Route (on Aig' du Argentiere's north face) which was then adjusted to either [site both couliors on Aig' Du Chardonnay]. We didn't actually climb anything that day but I think calling it a failure is wrong. True we did fail, and it pissed me off immensly but what we gained was worth the loss of climbing a route.

What we gained was experience. Mr Twight states that failure is par for the course and you should just accept it and learn from it, making the most of what can be a valuable experience. After making it to the base of the route we bailed the main reason being that Andy had a really bad feeling about climbing the route. I wasn't 100% but I'm generally of the opinion that if you don't risk it a little, you could miss out. The route was a bit of a stone schute at the time and it freaked Andy out enough for him to want to go back down. I was happy with this decision and when I said I was pissed off it was with the mountain, the weather, time and everything else under the sun other than Andy. Failing because of bad juju is more than acceptable. The give him some credit after he'd been lowered off and I was waiting for him to more further away and the ropes to pull tight it almost felt like the mountain didn't want me to be there. Rocks and stone of all small sizes started flying down the route, most missing but enough glancing and hitting me. I was stuck in the firing line with nothing to do but sit it out till Andy pulled the ropes tight. It was a dangerous situation and I think we both knew it. You shouldn't put yourself in a position where you need to be lucky, and I just had.

I was mainly pissed at myself.

Here are some photos:

Shameless selfshot taken on the walk in

Aiguille du Chardonnay

Long exposure shot of the mountains when the moon came out

Star wars?

Some of the debris visible from the bottom of the route

Proof that a bedsheet can be transformed into suitable headgear

Idwal Link-up... finally.

A link-up on idwal is something I've been trying to complete for a few years but each attempt has been thwarted by bad weather, tiredness or just plain laziness. However this time it was different. I had a reasonable free weekend but was struggling to find a partner for the whole 2 days when Killian said he was free for the saturday afternoon and sunday. A plan was hatched which entailed us driving up late on the saturday, then walking in to bivi out at Idwal so we could get a pretty early start. The early start would then lead us to climb and climb and climb up Idwal, Heather Tree Wall, Continuation Wall and finally Grey Slab to evetually top out and tick off the summit of Glyder Fawr to make it a mountain day. This was the great plan anyway. Added to all the climbing, because the weather was so nice I'd be shooting as much video as I could on the day. 

Like I said I've attempted link-ups on Idwal before, I've also attempted to sleep on Idwal before and had decided against that as an option because of a few reasons. I simply value a good nights sleep (this is coming from a guy who regularly couch-surfs or dosses under a boulder). I'll define a good nights sleep as at least 6 hours, good sound sleep on a comfy thermarest, then the ability to make a cup of tea with minimal movement from from sleeping bag. See my criteria isn't exaclt stringent, but lugging all that kit up 300m of up to VS climbing didn't exactly sound like fun. I knew sack hauling would have been nessessary so instead we opted for a different approach. That was the other reason; climbing light (well relatively speaking). We'd sleep at the bottom, enjoy an early(ish) start and leave our kit behind carrying only our little 25litre "day" sack, rack, ropes and water. In the end we carried a pretty full rack. I know you can climb up most of idwal with just a decent (read: large) set of wires but I'd thrown some extra cams in just in case. I didn't know what grey slab area was going to be like for gear.


Enough of the planning. Lets just suffice to say that it was like all good plans. We made it hastly with rather ambigious arrangements like "Do you have a bivi bag?" "yep" "right then we'll bivi, just pack light ok?" "ok". (Our planning really didn't amount to more than that). Infact we took 2 stoves in when we could have got away with just the one. We parked up by the boulders near the ogwen car park. Seeing as the actual car park doesn't offer any way to pay for a ticket overnight, we found a place to stay without paying. I really resent doing this. I know that the national park needs to generate revenue from somewhere and me dodging parking fees is well, it's a little off. There a few things that they could do to encourage better uses of facilities and generate more income, like overnight parking options, a decnet bus service with an understandable timetable and a car sharing mentatily (ok the last one is there because I needed a third). 


So parked up (for free) we first enjoyed a nice brew in the evening sun. Having arrived much earlier that I thought we would. I had originally planned a late walk in, like when it was dark. Anyone would think that we'd be rearing to go. But we'd both had crappy weeks at work and were just glad to be out of big cities and in the mountains. With this is mind we took a leisurely walk in, taking the path to the right round the lake and along the beach before finding a spot to crash right at the base of Idwal. We'd brewed up, done a little soloing before the bloody midges came out. Then the fun started.


We spent the next 2 hours wandering around the idwal area searching for any breeze that would  drive them off. It go to the point where we decided that leaving all our stuff there and going to hide in a pub, or car would be the best plan. Instead we stuck it out. We actually met loads of nice people who where finishing thier days out walking and borrowed midge repellent (that didn't work) off them. After what seemed like an eternity the temperature dropped and the midges left us only to drink tea and snuggle down in our sleeping bags. 


I woke up to a weak sun at 0440, it couldn't have been a more perfect wake up.


I didn't actually get out of bed until around 0700 because there was no way I was moving from my nice snuggly sleeping bag (didn't need the bivi bag either). Instead I dozed, brewed up, and only got moving when someother eager people arrived at the crag and got moving before we'd actually got out od bed. They didn't actually seem too amazed by our sleeping out.


As for the climbing, well it was just great. The sun slowly climbed ever higher into the sky as we climbed onward. I'll avoid a pitch by pitch description for once. I've climbed Tennis shoe so many times over the years but that doesn't take away from how much I love the route, it's just that I'm sick of writing the same description. However what was different this time was watching my friend Killian on it. He took pitches 2 and 4 and it was great to watch him lead them. See I've not really climb with Killian much, in fact this was our first mulitpitch route together and he seemed a little shakey at first on the lead. Soon enough thought he found his feet and was flying up the 2nd pitch, filling it was gear. So we'd reached the lead of the last pitch and made the little walk across to rebelay beneath it. In my mind the pitch was a decent 4a line with good gear. I guess I must be getting old as my memory is fading a little. Kill jumped on the lead (well more of politly shoved) and set off. Considering the sudden exposure and polished footholds he didn't back down and made good upward progress. I actually felt really bad as he struggled to find more gear than was present but he pushed on. I felt even worse when I actually seconeded the pitch and realise what a shock it must have been to suddenly have that much exposure. I was glad the see a relieved smile on his face as he belayed me up.

Then we scrambled across the top of Idwal and did Javelin Gully (HS 4b). It followed the first pitch of Lazarus, which Killian took much to his amusement. It seemed like a massive clamber which kept swithing backwards and forwards up this wide gully. He even manged a ligitamate heel hook for one of the last few moves. I took to second pitch which was as the guide described runout, but it's only runout in the top second after the difficulities. It is actually a really good route and great value for HS. I had a bit og trouble getting myself up at the few points. I carried straight on to lead groove above (S 4a) after I'd brought Kill up. This route isn't just all about the first move (which is bloody hard) so I'd suggest that everyone should do it. 

Then a rest, a scramble and amble (like scrambling but with red socks on) till we found the little scrap of flat ground below grey slab area. After a brief foray into the guide book I selected to go Grey Rib (VS 4b) and then the second pitch of Grey Slab (VS 4b) which gave us 100metres of decent climbing. Kill was tired so I lead. We scrambled up Grey Rib as high as we dared and belayed. I then linked both pitches together but still only managed to find about 4 pieces of gear. Then we belayed again, did a short pitch to beneath our final pitch (grey slab, p2) rebelayed and I set off, again only finding something like 4 pieces of gear. I tooped out happily thinking that these routes confirmed our grades from the routes I've put up at the Lleyn (here & here). Killian flashed up these and than haistly pulled off his shoes as he was suffering from cramp.


And it was just easy scrambling up Seniors ridge to the top. Once we gained it we had to descend down the back of Idwal to get out cached kit which had been safety just left at the start of tennis shoe, under the premise that no-one touches the bag of climbers at Idwal because they just assume they are climbing a route above them. Then we walked out, a little dehydrated. 


I actually really enjoyed just being able to spend a night out in the mountains. I think we took the right approach with out day kit, but in future I'll be carrying more water.

A single route at Tremadog...

I woke up at about 0500 to rainfall. I remember looking upwards and seeing the roof of our boulder, then tuning my ears into the rain. My heart sank, but I leaned forward and checked that my stuff sack wasn't getting wet. Laura stirred next to me as I moved and I mumbled something about it raining. My stuff sack wasn't getting wet and it was 5am, I pulled up my sleeping bag and snuggled down.

I woke up again at 0615. I didn't know the time when I woke up but I scrambled to find my phone and cancel the alarm only to find out I was an hour early. I cancelled it anyway and lay still, gently fighting for some room between Andy and Laura and watch the sky get clearer as the sun rose. It was going to be a nice day I though, only not here, here it'll be damp. We'll need to climb somewhere else, and already at the back of my mind an idea was eating away at me.

Up early enough to miss Old Rosie demanding her pound. I do take umbridge to the fact that you get charged, but it does encourage a speedy wake up and early start. We started off with a little early morning bouldering, but with weak cold morning muscles and new boots I wasn't used too I got nowhere. I though I'd nail the problem this time, shows how wrong you can be I guess. An early start meant some shopping in Llanberis. Andy's got paid recently and need some more gear so V12 was where we headed. I looked at a bewildering array of skyhooks as I was supposed to be picking one up for a friend. After looking at 4 different hooks, I gave up. Pete's provided breakfast and then we set off again heading for an old favourite in times of odd weather, Tremadog.

I'd at some point got it into my head to lead Vector (E2 5c). Vector was the first route put up on Vector Buttress and snakes through taking a wandering line but sampling the delights of the cliff, namely the infamous hanging "Ochre Slab". To be fair its a much easier offering than some of the other routes on there (Cream, Strawberries etc) but it's a classic. Being a classic meant that climbing it first try would mean so much more, I have a habit of falling off classics. Added to this Toaf has seen said hanging slab and marvelled at it. It had bitten him as well so I asked if we'd team up for it. At the same time Laura and Andy teamed up for another crag classic, Christmas Curry, with the Micah eliminate (HS 4b). We pulled up at Eric's paid for parking, skipped on a brew, and set off. Fear was already building in me.

I pointed out where the line of Christmas curry went to Laura and Andy and Toaf described the walk up to them. They had a guide book and a single rope so we said they could walk round and rappel off our ropes if they beat us to the top. We carried on walking towards Vector.

Toaf had already looked at the topo and said he'd take the first pitch (5a) and the fourth & last pitch at (4b). This left me with the 5c and 5b pitches in between, including the slab to deal with. I'm going to the say I mind because I always like taking the harder pitches in a route, but I was really happy Toaf was taking the first pitch. Climbing is always about honesty, so I'll be honest about Toaf and he won't mind me saying it. He's not confident leading. This seems to silly as he climber harder than me. He'll knock off 6a moves easily, but isn't happy leading so him taking the 5a pitch was good.

Gearing up at the base was scary. I had the weight of a hard lead already bearing down on me. I felt it heavy on my shoulders as I settled down to belay. Toaf headed off confidently and climbed his pitch well, after deciding on the appropriate line. At the belay we laughed and joked about the next lead and how I could just back off if I didn't like it. With my new boots on I stepped out... and then quickly stepped back. It was a hard move off the belay! This wasn't cool. I'd ran this through in my mind all week. It was supposed to be easy and I'd cruise up it, not start of with some 5b move to the next good hand hold. I did just carry on across anyway, as Toaf added encouragement, until I was below the slab. What!!!

So this was the crux then? actually gaining the slab off either some bouldery moves up the thin rib, or some thin face climb just to the left. I opted for some face climbing and backed up my gear. Sorry, that sounds like I confidently headed up this next section. That is not the case. I sat on ledge for about 20 minutes trying to not back off. After trying it over and over and talking it through with Toaf I ended up just going for it. My mind crawled inside my own head as soon as I realised I was above my gear and couldn't reverse the last move. I could hear Toaf yelling encouragement like a lunatic at me, like someone shouting down a tunnel. I'd focused on my next placement the horrible old ring peg. I could hear him yelling "clip the peg man, clip it" as I did.

"It's really sh*t, mate!"
"better than nothing, it'll slow you down anyway"

I wasn't trusting myself that that peg, so I plugged a cam in the crack next to it. This was also my hand hold, but it was worth it.

"I got a cam in, woooooo"... And I crawled out of my mind.

The slab was sketchy to say the least. I got a little more gear in but the climbing was easier and I made my way up it. As I left the top of the slab I thought it would be easier climbing, but I was wrong, so with rope drag I pulled around into the crag belay, happily shaking as adrenaline coursed through me. I clipped pegs and nuts together and hung back, yelling I was safe to Toaf. What at pitch. It had just put me in the place where I just thought I was going to fall off and I'd pulled through and made it. The weight of this classic route had started to lift.

"You coming up?"
"Yeah, just having a fag"
"haha, you'll need one after this pitch too"
"sh*t!"
"What?!!"
"I've just dropped my lighter, it's exploded"

Despite not having a fag, Toaf arrived at the belay smiling from ear to ear. "You should have seconded that man, you should, I mean take the fear out of it and its fantastic climbing!" I knew it was fantastic climbing, but I loved being out on the lead. Toaf took the bouldery line to get the ochre slab. He raved about it. Maybe I'll go back and second it.

We re-racked all the ropes, sorted the gear enjoyed a few m'n'ms and I set off after we'd ascertained the right line. I daunting looking overhang stood before me, but it went easily after I found a couple jugs, that meant the 5b section was still to come. As I nipped across a slab I saw a guy leading up my final section. It seemed that he'd done The Weaver which joins Vector at this point. I did at the time think it was rather rude, as they'd seen us on the route already but had started up anyway. Either was I didn't get in his way and let him lead it while I stood around getting cold. His second apologise profusely for keeping me waiting on lead, but it didn't matter. He mentioned that this was a right sting in the tail he remembered when he'd done Vector.

A quick yell to Toaf and I was off. Bridging was the order of the day apparently, and I mean serious bridging. I had a micro and an RP in below me and I was at full bridge with my calves cramping up, not where I want to be. I fought for a cam placement which took up my hand hold. I manged to get 2 in making me feel a little better and then came the move. Trying to convert my bridge into a layback off holds I couldn't reach. I tried and missed the first time, but regained my bridge and then made it the second time. I snuck in my lucky number 7 nut and powers up on good hand holds to the next belay.

Toaf joined me puffing, panting and complaining that that was the hardest move on the climb. From here we soloed up the last pitch on a high. We'd just completed Vector, one of the classic routes. We ran round to the top of Shadrach and abseiled down to start the hunt for the quickdraw. Only when I'd given up hope did Toaf managed to spot the tiniest bit of metal in the undergrowth, we got it.

We sauntered back to Eric's to try and find Laura & Andy and get a well earned brew and cake. As we lay in the car park several different people came up and asked me if I was the guy they'd seen on Vector. We I said I was they asked me how it was, and congratulated me on my climb. One really old guy came and shook my hand telling me it was years since he'd lead it. His smile was almost as big as mine as he remember it...