Back in Blighty!

So I’ve been slack on the blog updating front recently…that’s cause I haven’t been climbing!! But now I’m back, and, most importantly, I’m back in Britain!

This week, PJ and I are doing a road trip around Wales and a bit of England, giving PJ a taste of the British Trad climbing!

Our plan is roughly as follows:

Today and tomorrow = Pembroke: We’re staying with my Ma and Pa Evans at the moment in Swansea, which means a little more driving, but a comfortable bed and nice food in the evenings! I’m going soft…

Tuesday – drive to North Wales, maybe an evening on Llanberis slate. I have my eyes on Poetry Pink on the Rainbow Slab. We’ll see. On Tuesday night we are guests with Jo and family in Abergele.

Wednesday-Thursday: Jo has taken these two days off and so will be joining us to climb in North Wales. No firm plans yet but maybe some sort of adventure up on Cyrn Las, with The Skull? Maybe a day on Scimitar Ridge? Maybe even up to cloggy if it’s dry? We’re staying a night in the CC hut in the pass, and then thursday night back in Abergele.

Friday – drive to the Peak, climb at the Roaches. I have a loong ticklist of slabs there: Elegy, Smear Test, the Swan, Chalkstorm, Track of the Cat, Wings of Unreason etc. Friday night we meet up with Ian, Paul, Fran and Kenny to camp.

Saturday – one of the eastern edges. Probably somewhere like Curbar or Millstone. I should imagine that Stanage will be heaving. Another night in the campsite.

Sunday – lazy morning, maybe a bit of bloddering, drive to airport, home to BCN.

Sounds fun, huh?!

Yesterday we had a quick afternoon on Gower to warm up. PJ did the classics Isis (HVS) and Lazy Sunday Afternoon (E2), and I ticked one of the few routes I hadn’t yet done on Fall Bay Buttress, Seth. It starts up Osiris/L.Sun.Aft. before splitting off right and up a nice crack. It gets E1 5c but at that grade it is a total sandbag, I reckon in another part of the world it would be soft E3!! (Gower is reknowned for it’s stiff-grades – small man syndrome reaction to Pembroke I reckon!)

The tide had come in, and with Yellow Wall still bird-banned, we walked over the other side of the headland to Trial Wall at Rhossili. Very different in style, a smooth quarried wall with some fingery routes. I did the Adulteress E2, which I’d be meaning to do since I saw it on the cover of the 91 guide (20 years ago! – I started climbing a few months after that guide was released!) , and PJ did the semi sport route next door, Blackman’s Pinch. It gets E4 but with a couple of bolts protecting the two cruxes, it feels more like 6c/+. Disappointingly, I fell off when following him, which doesn’t bode too well for the rest of the week!

So, off to Pembroke today, in theory, but would you believe it, it’s raining…