I was hesitant to make a blog because in the back of my mind I knew I couldn't keep it up. Very true! I've been climbing on and off, no major advancements towards my goals, but I've had a lot of fun regardless and I've been reasonably high on psyche. And isn't that more important? At the moment I'm not thinking of improving drastically, I'm busy having fun!
I went down to Chamonix with two others to try some out-there climbing on the granite alpine faces. It was a total loss. It rained every day and the van began sounding like it had a very expensive problem. We left two days early. I did manage to get a proper taste of grim offwidths thanks to Thai Boxing; it's strange how frigging your way up a dark crack in the most uncomfortable and painful positions, falling off and feelin sick can pass for fun... but it was AWESOME! I will be looking forward for some more offwidth masochism in the future.
A chance call to Ian resulted in me popping my twll mawr cherry, where a new route awaited me. And what a route! It's not often I get scared on a second but I couldn't help shaking because of the exposure and the eerie atmosphere down there. Easy, juggy climbing on the first pitch was bifurcated by two hard (6a/b?) moves to move out of a groove on to a slab and back again. The following three pitches provided some of the most enjoyable moves I've done on slate, with a belay on the observation ledge, allowing us to look down on what should be a 3* trade route from now on. I even got the bonus of Ray Wood coming and taking photos of us, one of which is going to be the fold out back cover. Aaaaand I'm on the DMM website!
I thought that was all. Hosey B had posted a giveaway project some months ago that led Ian to cast his eye over another obvious line running top-to-bottom again that, at first glance, would offer equal quality and difficulty. Again (luckily) I was involved in the first ascent and was very, very impressed. Even better than the first - and harder! And i seconded them all onsight and absolutely pissed it! I even thought the first pitch was mid 6 when it was actually 7a+, so I must be doing something right. So the whole route was graded 7a+, 7a, 7a. Three stars and three pitches of the best climbing on slate! Never been so happy after topping out on a route. Some other bloke who joined us on the first ascent commented that the third pitch was "a five star finish". He ain't wrong. Get out there and try them! Plenty of approach info et al online.
And thanks to Mills, I've been getting out in the Pass, great! I did mabinogion in less than favourable conditions and wind, kaisergebirger wall and little groover are my other ascents. I out-of-my-mind psyched for some harder stuff, just need to get rid of this 'don't want to fail' mindset.
But oh, oh dear, oh dear. I have neglected my running! The race is a month away and to this date I've done about 3 miles of running. Crap!
