One foot after the other, one hand after the other. The sort of methodical pacing that got me into a couple of crags recently, and seemed to keep me climbing reasonably once I got there. It is a bit of an anathema to go to the excellent and usually reassuring Wester Ross for mileage when there are such inspiring challenges up there, but I still have a few places to potter around at... Stone Valley is on the cusp for me as there are both gentle routes like The Thug and Demon Razor to play on (both good fun and good value), but also the imposing Cat Burglar looming over, whispering and tempting. Common sense and rain showers forced a retreat to a swift rope-tarp shelter, and ensured I will have to return to the utterly anti-Fiend 30 minute murderous heather slog at some point....maybe.
Diabeg Peninsula is another crag I don't really want to have to walk to again, as the apparently flat 45 mins around from Diabeg Main is an endless trudge on the roughest of all "paths" with a final sting to get to Rolling Wall - a gentle Leaning Block-esque stroll this is not! Nevertheless I have been reliably informed than the splendid and desperate-looking line of The Applecross Jam is actually "E3" so I might be tempted as I avoided it this time. I also avoided succeeding on Aquamarine, but this was actually bloody desperate. So I have gone from a crap climber failing on easy routes to a crap climber failing on hard routes, more small progress. Mileage on a couple of other routes there went fine, and Brave New World is a truly brilliant E2.
Stone valley local pondering on sandbagging us with duff beta.
Camalot 3, C3 000, two slings, some rope and a rope tarp. Bear fucking Grylls or something.
The final "avoiding challenges" venue has been Rosehearty, by far the best cliff for the E2-5 climber on the East of the UK between Bowden and errr....well I guess you could follow the coast around to Sheigra?? Suffice to say despite several visits I am still dabbling firmly at the lower end of the scale. 2 months ago I was hugely fired up for some slightly harder routes there, at the moment I have to potter, not least because the massive steepness is pretty much my anti-style. Still there was plenty to potter on, and as on previous visits the contrasting slab climbing was even better than the more extensive thuggery on the sea faces. Having a small social group out (all 3 of us!) meant I actually got some nice photos taken too. At the end of the day I might have stood a fair chance on something tricky, but the Essential 1 hour time window between the sun drying the smeg off and the sun making the rock too warm had closed, and I will have to wait for a fresher day. In the meantime there is a lot more training to be done and the fairly dire forecast looks very suitable for that.
Photodump from Rosey in distinctly non-dire weather:
2 comments:
Golden-ringed dragonfly, although they're meant to have green eyes so it'll either be a young one or an old one.
Probably old! It was a bit doddery and couldn't be bothered to fly off.
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