Keeping my hand in #2

Another brief day out, this time at The Pass Of Ballater. Did a couple of easier routes, felt fine on them, felt on reasonable trad form, and that's what I really needed to know. I had hoped to get on some harder routes there but the conditions were pretty odd. Sunny and cloudy, breezy and still, cool and muggy, dry and sweaty. It just didn't feel the right time to push harder. The Pass is a funny place. I've realised I don't actually like the granite much - awkward, angular, and polished, and thus pretty conditions-dependent - but I do really like the look of some of the harder routes there - Peel's Wall, Smith's Arete, Cold Rage and Doctor Dipso - which take more stylish lines up more elegant rock. Unfortunately neither I nor the weather were up to those lofty tasks today, so The Pass remains a sort-of project crag for me, despite it's seeming crag convenience I will have to carefully take advantage of just the right time (a cold, fresh time!) to make the most out of it. Ah well.... More mileage somewhere else next time.