The Dynamic Duo 'rock' it again

Not always want you want to see at the bottom of a climb 

We were soaring with the Peregrine Falcons yesterday down in the Avon Gorge, watching them play fighting or something in the air while Mike was perched on a route and I may or may not have been focusing on the birds rather than the fact I was belaying whoops good thing it was only a VDiff!

So we set off early as if you've ever watched Mike climb he is slow so a whole day is needed! I love you really, I'm just glad you don't fall off I think I would crap my pants if he did. Well I turned out to be the super slow one after getting stuck on almost every tricky bit of the two difficult climbs we did, I'm not too proud that I can't admit that yes I cried and was lowered off the HVS after I couldn't reach the awesome handhold round an overhang.

So less waffling, what did we do!! An early start got us to the gorge at 8am-ish, we parked up and Mike sure wasn't kidding when he said it was right next to the road with no walk in as we were plagued with traffic noise all day. We dawdled down the road in search of the Main Wall where Mike's main desire (other than me ;) ) lay waiting- Malbogies at HVS. So having followed him up an E1 before I consented and he led on up and standing at the bottom watching his careful movements definitely made me a little apprehensive. However apparently the first pitch is the most difficult so I just had to get up that and we would be fine. Mike set up and I crept up after, now when I say crept I mean, whined, groaned in frustration and heaved my way up. It

definitely was tricky! I'd say I'm a pretty fussy climber I like big hand holds and as little overhanging stuff as possible which of course was not what I got on this climb. However I hung on in there and finally got to Mike after some ungracefulness and huffing and puffing. Now comes the funny part, we swapped over and Mike went off again and got to my nemesis a little overhang that had a great hold just over and up which made it easy to conquer, so he bossed it up that and disappeared up the face. After some the rope was all pulled in and some insistent tugs I figured he was safe so I unclipped his belay and followed him.... well about 5 metres to the overhang where I miserably failed at reaching the jug hold. I swear to god Mike has gorilla arms in comparison to his body and I have stubby ones! I found myself at a loss to find anything else I could reach to get me up, so followed a few minutes of screeching up to Mike that I couldn't reach. I then heard in a lull of the traffic "lower you down" and I started going down. Which was pretty wretched I hate it when I can't do things!!!
On getting to almost the bottom (there's a bit of a scramble up to the main base of the cliff) I freaked Mike out by untying as he was going to reshuffle things and give me more rope but I wanted off that stupid thing I gave up on and marched myself off to the bottom in shame. Mike abseiled down collecting his gear before we walked to the top to collect the rope and admire the view. One silver lining was seeing a peregrine falcon (which were nesting on the face next to us, causing some restrictions on climbing) as I was sulking at the bottom.

Mike however really enjoyed the climb and of course anyone who knows his obsessive nature trotted off to do an easy one, mainly to cheer me up I think, but hey I didn't mind! So it was off to the
Morning Slab and Evening Wall section to do the Arete- VDiff which linked onto Bob's Climb VDiff connected by the very aptly named Lunchtime Ledge. The Arete was a really nice little climb and easy so of course fickle me liked it, we had some biscuits sitting on lunchtime ledge in the sunshine before sidling over to start Bob's Climb. Mike headed out over the slopy ramp and got up a little step and then basically headed right and up a steep little bit to the top. I followed and all was good, definitely a theme for all the routes we did was the annoying amount of polish on the rocks. It definitely is unnerving when you're balancing on your feet and you shoes slips a little, it does not give feelings of complete security in the rock.

I got up the top flopping myself over like a beached whale across Mike's lap as he always likes to sit on the ledge and watch over me but makes things awkward when I tried to top out, so I plopped myself down on the cliff top amid a few bird watchers with enormous cameras!! Obviously watching out for the peregrines which we had seen at the bottom fly up to it's nest and fly around again. The ironic thing was, we seemed to see them as we were climbing but they never appeared when we saw the birdwatchers, devious birds.

So back down we went via the descent route and back along the road probably looking like goons to most people kitted out with helmets, jingly metal things at our waists and harnesses walking along the road. Then I was led onto another classic of the wall Piton Route VS. This route was definitely made harder because of the polish I actually bypassed the crux section by going left and up that way quite deftly if I do say so, then I went on and cheated a little pulling myself up with the rope to get over a lip due to a loss of hand holds that I felt comfortable with, my crimping and pinching skills are most definitely not on par with Mike's. But afraid 'll make his head grow too big I won't praise him too much!
The next pitch was a shorty and Mike whipped up it and I came scrambling after. It was the last I really enjoyed, on seeing Mike go slowly up a steep section at the very beginning (I think mainly due to a lack of protection around it) when it was my turn, I thought I would struggle but surprisingly got up without much fuss. I do surprise myself sometimes, I made Mike laugh by whooping up to him and doing a little dance singing I got over it (he was peering over the edge watching my progress). After that I quite liked it, probably because of the three pitches it has the easiest technical grade at 4b but even so I really enjoyed it.

At the top we discussed whether to do another as it was only half 3ish but then thunder struck, literally it started thundering and weird hail stones starting hammering down. Squishy ones like polystyrene balls but still fell with some force which made me laugh when I saw the bowed head and wincing face of Mike helmetless while they bounced off my beautiful green helmeted head mwahaha

The joke was on me though after I took quite a slip and slides walking down the steep descent path, gripless rubber shoes, hailstones and wet ground make for an entertaining walk. Safely at the bottom we headed back to our damp stuff and packed up. Climbing on wet rock wasn't very desirable for lazy me so we headed back, only to look back at the drying out but I hustled Mike into the car and we drove back. Which was great actually because we turned up in time for dinner and had a good night's sleep, waking up to some brambly scratches and sore muscles or at least on my part, Mike is a climbing machine and is hard as nails. Except when tickled then he's a useless pile of squirming mush, told you I couldn't compliment you too much ;)

We rock ugly faces

Mother Duck's Final Bow Out

Well it's been a while since I got out and did anything adventurous or even remotely interesting, it has mostly been work and university assignments however I made sure that I was out this weekend on the Uclan Mountaineering Club's trip to Wales. For the most part because it is the last one I am able to go on due to my imminent departure from university life and entrance into the real world. Which for me means a few months working with kids on a centre doing some really fun, awesome activities before graduating and spending a month in Malawi so overall not a bad introduction to adult life!

Anyways back to the trip, we were camping this week in the Ogwen Valley with the hopes of conquering things like Tryfan and Little Tryfan however the forecast wasn't quite on our side so we had a soggy first night on the Friday, cooking in the minibus and playing cards until we all escaped to our tents. Never fear the morning brought promise of sun for the day. I got out of my tent and into the fresh morning air to find the sun peaking it's way over the hills shedding light on the fine dusting of snow that had fallen in the night along the tops of the mountains. It reminded me of when you have a cake in the oven too hot and it comes out with the big peak in the middle so you sprinkle icing sugar on it to make it look better, is that giving you a clear enough picture. For clarity there were big brown mountains covered in snow.

We drove off to meet Bear at Tremadog as prearranged and seemed to leave the nice weather behind as it got very wet the nearer we got, even sleeting. So a new plan was hatched, we waited until noon for it to blow over and headed to a little fast drying crag nearish Tremadog next to the coast. Thats the best description you're going to get as I didn't catch the name or even actually remember it, sorry!

So a few routes were set up and the group got their first taste of Welsh rock for the weekend, the weather was fantastic it had completely cleared up and we were basking in the sunshine overlooking the gorgeous coastline. Overall pretty idyllic. So that was our first days climbing some pretty nice routes, nice people and nice weather. Back at the campsite it was dinner time!!!

Afterwards we went on a little jaunt up to little Tryfan which for anyone unaware it is basically a huge rocky mound next to Tryfan one of the most awesome looking mountain in Wales. We all wandered up and soaked up the dusk view before back down with the sun and into our chilly tents for the last night. When I say chilly I mean chilly, in the morning the tents were covered in a thin layer of ice!

Up and at em we were and quite proud I was of everyone's efficiency save a few unnamed individuals but we split from camp really early and even beat Bear to the layby. I remember the name of the place we went to on Sunday and it was... was erm.... Moel Hebog!! A pretty extensive crag in the same area as the Saturday and the weather once again pulled out the stops and gave us a great day. There were some cracking routes set up and we split into little teams to try them all. My cohort blasted through them and we even discovered a crows nest right on the route of the tricky climb which we promptly took down again after getting cawed at by the parents for being around. We started scrambling back through the bracken and brambles and I was collared to second Ben so we went and did a Severe which ended up being quite interesting. Then it was onto de-rigging the set ups and ambling back down the crag to the minibus to start the long sucky drive back north which involved lots of snacking, singing and feeding the driver like a baby bird.

       

It was nice to be on a club trip again and helping people experience the outdoors in a positive social way, it was also nice to have a co-pilot in coordinating the masses, go Cora and Ben! However as I've said it the last club trip I'll be on but I will keep going on adventures and causing havoc in some part of the world, keep your fingers crossed for the Malawi posts they will be good. The blonde takes Africa by storm! And with the promise of further future ramblings I bid thee adieu!