I got up early today, as I have my first programming lesson in Bangor at 2pm, but this morning we headed out on the Slate to a route that I last played on with Jack Geldard, and pretty much got the sequence.
Today I did the route clean on my second top-rope, my instant reaction was ‘Shit, I am going to have to lead it!’. So I pulled the ropes and went for it on lead. It felt really good, and I made my way up the arete, past the first crux, made the deadpoint to the mono pocket, and set up for the last hard move.
As I threw for the cornflake hold, everything felt on, and as I caught it the slight reduction of weight on my foot, meant that it popped off. I was gutted the route is basically easy after this move.
In my frustration, I pulled the ropes and went for it straight away. Mistake, I should have just d0gged to the top, lowered off and rested. Sadly in my second attempt I nearly reach my previous high point.
All in all a good morning climbing, as a near miss on F7b is one of my recent climbing high points, as I am not much of a sport climber. I have only climbed this grade once before, when I onsighted a route of that grade when DWS in Lulworth many years ago. Still the route is there for the taking. So watch this space!