I ran into James McHaffie when I got back from Scotland a few days ago. He is also on the Winter ML bus at the moment, although he has his assessment the week after me. When I ran into him he had the Friday off, so wanted to go climbing, being at a loose end I said yes. I knew even as that word of agreement left my mouth, that it was going to be a hard day, even before we decided on a venue.
So Friday arrived and the weather looked good for half a day, so we decided on a quick Tremadog hit. Vector into Void was what Caff suggested. Now Void is hard even on a dry day, and Vector is relatively straight forward on a Dry day. So I opted to take the first big link up pitch to the Void belay. Caff had packed the rack and I had robbed Llions ropes.
So when I go to rack up, I see that caff has 8 quickdraws and about 8 cams, and plenty of wires. Looking up at the very long and winding pitch I am about to do in damp to wet conditions, I immediately feel under equipped. I can get 8 runner in teh first we 40ft ptich! So I headed up being as economical with teh runners as I could, I got to the start of the Orche Slab, and had a moment trying to get onto the slab on damp holds, a move or two up the slab and the crack was running wet, so I had to pull on the sorry excuse for a peg, before making it rather shakerly to the top of the groove. Where I had no more quickdraws ot get the next 40ft to teh Void Belay.
My answer was to make a belay where I was and bring caff up, and get him to lead through and bring me up to the Void Cave. At the Cave he quickly shot up the pod and the crack above, as caff would. I then here the words safe, and no sooner had caff said on belay climb when ready, did the rain start! Now be under no illusion, I am not anywhere near climbing fit at the moment, and Void would be be on a very good day, and now the route is getting wet!
Caff had to endure a lot of me shout “TAKE!!!!” at the top of my voice every few seconds. As I struggled my way up. It was such hard work even pulling on the limited gear he place! I will now ache for days! Anyway thanks for the day out, although it was a baptism of fire for my Trad climbing.
