Today I had the pleasure of Dave Evans company, we had made loose plans for soem adventure, somewhere, although we had hoped to go to Red Wall, the overnight rain made it possible that we were going to be going somewhere else. As it was the sea fret was still about when we arrive at SOuth Stack and as we fretted over whether to go down or not, it would clear and get worse.
In the end we headed down, and went for another minor classic Blue Remembered Hills, an E3 5c, 5c. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be up for it to be honest, as 5c on this rock is pretty intense due to the gear at times. As it was Dave lead the meat of the route, which was way harder than you’d think as it was fresh from any chalk meaning he had to battle his way upwards figuring out the rock as he went.
He did and amazing job, and the cliff lets you keep going as you shuffle from ledge to ledge with just enough rests to make you forge onto the next ledge. As he inched up the climbing looked to be pretty sustained for an E3 up there. I had sat on the belay, enjoy the glorious sun, and had all but convinced myself to back off the last pitch.
A quick pep talk from dave, and I gave it a look. After an age deploying half my rack in the first 30ft, I commited. Dave mentioned the body language I had when I first got there compared to when I commited. I have to admit that until I had all the runners in, I was pretty keen to veer left and up the top pitch of Wendigo. Having got some kit in, and decided that there was holds out right, I commited to the move up to the flake and onwards.
It was probably the first time I have really pushed myself into climbing something near my limit this year, and it was great to feel more or less in control out there, as you have some serious space below your feet as you move into teh bottomless groove, beyond which the climbing was blind. However it all worked out, and having commited I have to admit to feeling comfortable on that kind of terrain again.
Again, above the hard climbing with the end in site the type II fun style of climbing became apparent to me. I also ticked my 96th route at Gogarth, four more to do. A friend scared me the other day, as he asked what my 100th route was going to be. It is strange because I saw his point, what route should I choose when reaching this massive milestone. To be honest it will probably be just another route, but it would be nice if it was special, so any suggestions please add a comment.