Over the years I have reintroduced many people back to the sport of Rock Climbing and Mountaineering. In fact it seems so popular, I think I am going to start a new course with that name, as an introduction or intermediate courses don’t seem to fit the description of what some of my clients are after.
Typically the people I have on some of my climbing courses are best decsribed as people who for a period of their life the commitment to family and work interfered with their climbing. A few years down the line and the desire to climb returns, as children become less time consuming and the work/life balance re-introduces ‘free time’.
For the last couple of days I have been working with toni, who loosely fits this description. Although he has still climbed indoors but struggled to get outdoors for various reasons. So I have been getting him used to the rock again over the last couple of days. Yesterday we played a wild card given the weather and managed to find dry rock all day at Holyhead Mountain. We climbed about 4 routes in the Alcove, then the Ramp by the Sump and a gully to the left of the Alcove. A great day out made better when we arrived back at the cafe only to have the heavens open!
Today we did more of the same, but at Tremadog. Despite wrapping up warm in thermals I found myself reomving more layers with each route. We climbed Obleron, Christmas Curry and the first pitch of Grim Wall. Again Tony did great, and we enjoyed the sunny conditions and warm rock. Although given its proximity to the recent floods, you could see that Tremadog had taken a hammering from the weather over the last few days!
Not sure of the venue for tomorrow, I need to see the weather. However I also ran into Steve from the Beacon and a Caro who I used to work with at the Brenin many years ago. Steve informed me that the D day for the New Beacon is 23rd July. I might try and head down for a look before then. If I do I will try and blog a few sneaky photos. The wall sounds awesome. It has about 5 metres additional height to the current wall, and will overhang 7 metres at this point!