Callum Harris and Tony Musselbrook and assisted by Mark Alderson
Diary
Day 1 - Yorkshire
By Callum (with humorous comments from Tony)
It
was 6:00 am and we were at school and packing our stuff into the car,
getting ready to leave for the BIG trip. We said good riddance to our
mummies and left. After a 7½ hour drive, having stopped once on
the way, we arrived at the youth hostel. The owners weren't in so we decided
to go on a short walk. We walked to Malham Cove and we nearly wet ourselves
when we saw it roar through the trees in a God-like manner. It was like
so big, like Yosemite only not as big, the climbs had to be done as two
separate routes (pitches). It was also very cranky. We came to this conclusion
by realising that only one climb was below F7a, with the hardest climb
being F9a+. There was also some trad off to the left and right sides of
the main crag. This was much lower and we found two E2s that looked very
astronomical (good). They were both three star classics, though obviously
not as good as some of the Peak's ripest plums! We shortly left this crag
- due to heavy flooding - and set off for Gordale Scar, the waterfallful
place. We both needed to make toilet and we went round the corner (separately)
and found that we were the ones being urinated on by the crag. We decided
to try and cross the river to look at the climbing on the other side but
we only succeeded in getting wet and crying. Nevertheless we did not give
up until Mark had taken some photos (we are now allowed to call Mr. A,
Mark. Aaaargh!) On the way back from Gordale Scar we saw a pooing Tiger
and we all gave off a mindful chuckle. Tony is now midway through doing
anti-terrorist exercises throughout the hostel. We can sleep soundly tonight.
No dummy today, because there is no dummy, which means we can be stupid
and not get punished!
Day 2 - Yorkshire
By Callum (edited by Tony)
We
woke up to a very annoying sound - the sound of raindrops falling on the
ground outside. We switched on our bedside lights, blinding ourselves
in the process, and then, once we had showered, we went to breakfast.
Whilst eating we decided to go to Kilnsey Crag, aptly nicknamed "the
big umbrella". It doesn't get wet there because it is sooo overhanging.
Having almost wet ourselves for the second day running, we set about trying
to find some climbs. Tony settled on an E3 6a called Open Road. Although
having a trad grade, the climb was actually bolted, but Tony decided to
do it as a trad climb anyway. He was doing very well, although he was
taking about a million years to place each piece of gear, making sure
it was absolutely bomb proof. However, when he got to the section before
the overlap, he came to a grinding halt and reversed the last couple of
moves in order to lower off of the bolt. A slightly annoyed Tony opted
to eat some food and then it was my turn to climb. I also decided to try
the same climb but I only got as far as Tony before I too was forced to
lower off. Because the route was sooo overhanging, I had a really big
swing at the bottom and the rope nearly broke on a sharp arête.
Following our disappointment, me and Tony decided to practice placing
gear and making stances at ground level. We found a traverse at ground
level and we lead it, making the shortest pitch in the World (2m). We
have named the climb Tony and Callum's eighth wonder of the World Mod
2b (see picture). Soon it began to rain, so we decided it would be an
absolutely spiffing ideal to depart from the crag. On the way we had to
cross a river and Tony was holding a guidebook. Mark went across first
and told Tony to throw the guidebook to him. Tony threw it a bit hard
and it hit Mark in the chest. On the way back to the youth hostel, we
saw a baby tiger being breast-fed. Me and Tony, being the immature girlies
that we are, burst into fits of giggles. We got back to the hostel and
decided that after dinner we would set off for Malham Cove and do some
VS's and HVS's to get back into the trad mind-frame. However, just as
we were setting off, we discovered that Mark had left the static rope
at Kilnsey and we would have to go back and get it. On the way, we saw
a stupid sheep lying on the road. It got out of the way but then two more
sheep decided it would be funny to run across the road and then stand
and laugh at us when we had to break suddenly and give ourselves whiplash!
That was badong (bad/wrong). "Word," agreed Tony. We eventually
arrived safely at Kilnsey and had to cross the river again. I realised
that it was possible to jump across but not until we had tested the ground.
We went across to test it but Tony forgot and began to make his way up
to the crag. He suddenly remembered and came charging down the hill at
a million miles an hour. He fell over at the bottom and landed on his
derrière, but, more spectacularly, he bounced back up again and
carried on running. I went and tested the ground and I told Tony that
it was rock solid. We went back across the river and then jumped back
across again at the place we had spotted. What I hadn't realised was that
the ground actually wasn't hard and Tony sunk in it and sprayed mud up
the back of his legs (haha!) He told me it was fine so I also jumped across
and sunk with the same effect. Tony laughed at me and he made me cry.
Mark didn't find the rope so some annoying person must have tea leaved
it. We came back to the hostel and chilled. Today was obviously badong
because it is Friday 13th! Peace out.
Day 3 - Yorkshire
By Tony with helpful additions from Callum (the diary writing guru)
Last
night, Callum and I were discussing where to go tomorrow when suddenly
it hit him (the book I threw because he wouldn't make up his mind.) We
eventually decided on Giggleswick, otherwise known as Gigleswiggle. A
fine crag that was home to some rather corking little numbers. Just before
we went to the crag, we went to a shop in Ingleton to buy a new abseil
rope. However, we walked out of the shop carrying the rope, a rope bag,
two new guidebooks, two slings and some chalk. The power of advertising!
On the way to the crag I fell down a rabbit hole, which was probably the
highlight of the day, until 5 minutes later Callum did the same and it
just became old hat then. We were told to do an HVS each before we cranked
some E's, partly because of yesterday's successful failure. Callum did
"Meerschaum," HVS 5a, with ease and I whizzed up, at an incredible
speed of 2 metres per hour, "Satori," HVS 5b. It was pretty
clear that we needed practise placing gear and quick. Callum decided to
do this on some nice little E1's: "The Arches," 5c, a fantastic
undercut smeary route and "Slap and giggle," the fine arête
that cuts the air like a knife, 5b (I got 5 no-hands rests seconding this
and fell off only twice). I on the other hand decided to push my grade
up a little faster ready for "Right wall," E5 6a. I did "Mint
sauce," a one star E2 with a classic finisher move and I just about
managed, "Go Johnny go go go go," (minus three go's) E2 6a (Mike
Raine says it is definitely E3 6a and he is the famous one that did a
load of routes in Wales with Johnny Dawes AND is good friends with Mark.)
Just as we finished climbing, we heard an almighty bang. It turned out
that we had witnessed a car crash with our ears. It must have been tres
serious because there were lots of "nee nah" noises. We went
back to the hostel and had spaghetti Bolognese for dinner. For pudding
today we had sticky toffee pudding and homemade custard. The custard went
a bit wrong so we had slices and chunks of custard with our pudding and
it was even funnier when Callum and I had to dispose of the left-over
custard. Let's just say that there is a custard shaped hole in the kitchen
floor right now and we don't know how it got there. After dinner we were
intending to go to Malham Cove. Unfortunately, it was too dark and even
Tony's shaky torch wouldn't have been sufficient.
Day 4 - Yorkshire (special Tony day)
By Callum (occasionally dictated by Tony)
We
awoke today and I decided that I would rather be asleep again. However,
I was rudely awakened by Tony rustling about because he has fleas in his
bed (I'm not joking.) Today we went to the very steep and scary and big
and intimidating, etc. crag named Almscliff (which sounds like and looks
like and feels like, i.e. Armscliff.) We warmed up on a couple of very
good E1s. Tony's was a very long traverse called "Blackpool Promenade"
and it was very fun. Some silly men were criticising Tony for going off
route, even though they didn't actually know which route he was doing.
It turned out that Tony was actually on the correct clamber. After this,
I did an E1 called "Shuffle Crack." The crux was a traverse
left on awful slopers with next-to-nothing for feet. I got very scared
and it took me quite a few minutes to pluck up enough courage to do it.
In the end I did do it and it wasn't as bad as I thought. When we got
down, we walked round the corner to find an E3 for Tony to do. It took
him ages to find one, because the one he wanted to do took an almost identical
line to a climb that I wanted to do. However, after a lot of wasted time,
we realised that the climb I wanted to do actually went up a different
line. I immediately jumped on the wall (tying in before obviously) and
began the climb, which was a 4 star HVS called "Great Western."
It was a masterpiece of fine jamming moves, which offered a variation
to the original finish. It was a more exposed and jammy line but it was
much better. It was undoubtedly the best HVS I have ever done. Following
this, Tony decided to go for his E3. He was doing very well, considering
the difficulty of the first few moves, combined with the angle of the
wall. By the time he reached the crux, the little tucker was just too
weak to make it through the rest of the climb. He lowered off on a very
good cam (only just held his weight.) Neither of us felt like leading
anymore, so we took the opportunity to try some of Yorkshire's best boulder
problems. These turned out to be absolutely fantastic and we spent a couple
of hours shredding our fingers on small crimps and slopers! We also took
some excellent photos and used Tony's new video camera to make some videos.
Eventually, we managed to tear our bleeding hands away from the grit and
we left this awesome crag for good. When we got back, we made dinner,
which was Kedgeree (yay!) I was the unfortunate one who was made to wash
up (actually I kind of offered.) My already sore fingers were made even
worse by the boiling hot water. About an hour later, having spent about
59 minutes trying to remove the left over Kedgeree from the bottom of
the saucepan, me and Tony were back in the room playing cat's cradle with
the super large slings that we bought yesterday. We then realised that
we needed to do our video diary. The camera, however, was still in the
car so we decided to go and get it without being seen, and, with use of
our anti - terrorist skills, we succeeded. That concludes this absolutely
cracking day and the end of our stay in Yorkshire. Laters y'all.
Day 5 - Peak District
By Callum and Tony (the style guru...honest)
Today
we departed from the flea infested youth hostel of Malham. A few and very
uninteresting hours later, we arrived at North Lees Campsite, having driven
through Hadfield (the location of League of gentlemen.) We put the tents
up and decided it was time to climb, so we headed off in the vague direction
of Stanage - popular end. Callum was beaten by Tony until he agreed to
do "Flying Buttress Direct," E1 5b. After he cranked it like
a mother, Tony decided to get closer to his new traddy state of mind by
seconding in bare feet! At the top he said "heel hooks in bare feet
hurt *whimper, whimper*." Next we walked a short distance down the
crag until we reached Mississippi Buttress area, so that Tony could also
crank like a mother on "The Link," E1 5b. This he did. Having
had a jolly good day out, we decided to go shopping (verb) to buy shopping
(plural noun.) On the way, the sheep from Yorkshire appeared in the middle
of the road again. As we swerved and rolled off the road, the sheep laughed
at us, as he happily trotted off into the sunset, leaving our burning
wreckage behind. Anyway, having safely arrived at Safeway, we shopped
until we dropped and left. We appeared back at the campsite and went to
bed.
Day 6 - Peak District
By Mr Harris and Sir Musselbrook in 3D
After
eating our breakfast this morning, we went to do the washing up. What
we didn't expect to find was Joe Brown…in beetle form. The beetle was
attempting the tiled version of "Cenotaph Corner." Unfortunately,
the crux proved too hard and the beetle decked out, breaking all his legs
and succumbing to a bubbly, yet clean death amongst the washing up. Soon
after this trauma, we decided to enjoy a lovely midgey day clambering
all over Stanage. First up was Callum on "Namenlos," E1 5a.
It was given a fluttery heart symbol by Rockfax themselves! Callum breezed
it and Tony found it so easy, he decided to go off route onto a new route,
E3 6a! Sadly it was only on top-rope so it didn't count as an ascent.
Next on the agenda was "Left Unconquerable,"E1 5b, which was
led by Tony. He found it surprisingly easy, considering it conquered him
last year. Callum got a sick pump on it because the gear was so damn hard
to remove. Callum then decided to push his grade up a notch to E2. He
chose the three star classic, "Tower Face Direct," E2 5b. The
main protection being 2 peanuts behind a loose flake! This lived up to
its good reputation for Callum but Tony was too busy finding another photogenic
line, this time looking about E4 6a. With this unwritten competition of
who could do the hardest climb going on between Callum and Tony, Tony
thought it best to go for "The Stretcher Case," E2 5c. He did
it and after retrieving all of the gear, Callum was forced, by the big
mean slopers, to come down. After this excitement, Callum had a nice little
go at the old school line of "Tower Chimney," E1 5b. Much Callum-blood
was shed on the sand-paper-like grit, a belay stance was made, and then
re-made, and then Tony climbed it (the climb, not the stance.) Finally
we all walked back along Stanage to the last climb of the day "Shelf
life," E3 5c. This had a reachy symbol in the guide book - and it
sure deserved it. None-the-less, Tony flame-grilled it with style - and
a cool nut placement. Callum promptly fell off…twice, but held a good
dyno at the top! After a brilliant day climbing we walked down and just
to ruin Tony's good mood, he fell over. When he did so, there was a loud
crack…it was his ankle! The worry of him not being able to climb for the
rest of the trip caused him to get very stressy, with lots of foul language.
Fortunately it was nothing serious, apart from the partial deafness of
Callum due to Tony's misuse of the French language. A well deserved rest
was in store for us as we turned off the torches and lay down our sleepy
heads, only to dream of many wonderful things like…(can't remember.)
Day 7 - Peak District
By Tones and Cal. In loving memory of the late Joe Brown (beetle.)
Waking
up today was not the nicest of things to do. The excessive rainfall was
the main cause of this. The rain took a break and gave us the chance to
eat breakfast and arrive at Froggatt, only to come face-to-face with more
rain. We looked at all the hard climbs and Tony begged to attempt the
waterfall version of "Strapadictomy" E5 6b. Luckily he didn't
burst into tears when his proposal was thrown out of the window and sent
to Australia, where it was later found, burnt and tortured by satanic
warlords. We lunched in a cave and discussed the possibility of top-roping
"End of the Affair." An hour later we arrived at the car park
for "The Edge Climbing Wall." Unlike at the Westway, we were
not amongst the hardest group of youngsters there. We came across the
Whitakers. We got very scared, so naturally we retreated into the bouldering
room. Here we did some V6/7's and below, shredding our fingers immensely
in the process. We eventually went back leading where Callum did a 7b,
but Lucy Creamer was just too scary. This led us to go shopping in the
shop that has a million square miles of stuff. Did you expect us to not
get lost? Yeah right. We ventured around for ½ hour and got told
off for reading all the books by some crazy golf man!? We had dinner out
then went straight up to Stanage whilst the weather seemed ok. Tony got
to the top of "The Tippler," E1 5b and lightning struck over
in Hathersage, under 2 miles away. Tony had to lower off very quickly,
ripping the gear out as he descended the rock. It took us 10 minutes in
the pouring rain to get back to the car where we sat back and enjoyed
to light show. Fortunately our tents were still there but Tony and Callum
had to check the area for terrorists. None to be found.
Day 8 - Peak District
By Bony Tony (Callum sat in the corner.)
Day
eight and the weather was predicted to be unpredictable, again. Because
of the uncertainty in the forecast, we all thought it best to go to Millstone
as there is little commitment at this crag. We pulled up to the car park
and like a magnet I was drawn to "London Wall," E5 6a. 5 minutes
later the rest of the gang found me in a hole, shaking with fear. Mark
said I could top-rope this later if I belayed Callum on both pitches of
"Embankenment 1," E1 5b. The first pitch was ascended well in
no time and shortly after Callum began the second pitch, he reversed the
moves. "Oh dear," we all thought. He had another few goes but
they all gave similar results. Eventually Mark told us to swap jobs. I
was thinking at the time, "This will be a breeze!" I wish it
were true. After several falls I decided to sneak up a small gully several
metres right. "Right," thought Mark, "I'll stick him on
a top-rope of it." Even on a top-rope I kept failing repeatedly.
Being the one with the abnormally violent stress problems I stormed up
the gully and down the descent path, roaring as I did so. The idea of
lunch being tossed around cheered me up though and we all ate happily
ever after. We then knew that there would be less wind over at Lawrencefield.
We packed up and walked across the road to here. At this lakeside crag
it was suggested that I do "Suspense," E2 5b. Despite having
no "reachy" symbol in the guide, the climb had several moves
that I was just inches away from easily completing (probably because most
adults won't find it reachy at all.) This climb also had very spaced gear
and each peace was terrible. I placed: A nut behind a hollow flake, a
cam in a 90° flared crack, a cam with only 2/4 cams cammed (over-cammed)
and a rusty old peg. Callum seconded it with ease and so went for "Great
Peter," E1 5b. Once he did this I decided to do it with a bit of
Johnny Dawes style. I jumped from a boulder about 3m away from the starting
holds, to the starting holds causing Mark to hum the tune of Spiderman.
Onlookers laughed at me, but I could tell they were jealous. We moved
on and I did an E1 with a "dodgy" mantle in it but it was a
pile of P155. In the evening we were going to go to Plantation to boulder.
However, it was too late.
Day 9 - North Wales
By Callum (sshhhh…Tony is asleep)
We awoke today to a very pleasant experience…breakfast in bed (or
on Karrimat.) When we had finished our food, we began the tidying up and
packing away procedure. This didn't take long and we were soon on our
way to North Wales. This was the worst journey so far, particularly since
there was a traffic jam near the end for no reason other than people deciding
to deliberately annoy us. Having gotten past this small obstacle, we arrived
at Tesco (pardon my French) to buy supplies for the next few days. Tony
kept criticising my trolley pushing skills, but then I got one over on
him by proving that I know how to spell Bolognese! We left the shop, food
in hand, and began the last leg of our journey. About ½ hour later,
we arrived at the bottom of the hill leading up to the barn. Tony decided
to try to be hard by carrying all seven bags of shopping up the hill,
with his bag on his back. He left the car first but arrived at the barn
last, sporting large, red indentations on his lower wrists. Somebody hates
life! We went to bed quite late because we were attempting to catch up
on all the diaries we had missed so far, though we still didn't manage
it.
Day 10 - North Wales
By Callum (Tony is being unsociable with his music on very loud)
We
woke up nice and early in time for the weather forecast today. It said
we should be expecting sun with occasional showers. Cursing the occasional
showers part, I headed off to the shower, knowing full well that breakfast
was in 30 minutes. I got out of the shower in good time and, 20 minutes
after breakfast was ready, Tony appeared in the kitchen doorway! He said
he couldn't understand why the power gauge made the shower hotter and
the temperature gauge made it more powerful. We headed off towards the
pass a little later than intended, with no idea of where we were actually
going to be climbing. It turned out that we were going to be climbing
at Dinas Cromlech!!! When we eventually arrived at the base of the crag,
it was suggested that I do an easy multi pitch route to get back into
the swing of things. "Noah's Warning," VS 4c 5a seemed like
an ideal start. However, one of those nasty occasional showers suddenly
hit us and in no time at all, the climb was soaked. Well actually the
climb we stood under was soaked. Having run the rope through and tied
on, Mark told us that Tony's guidebook understanding wasn't up to scratch
and we were actually standing under something completely different. Anyway,
it didn't matter because all the climbs in that area were soaking wet.
Only one thing for it…"Cemetery Gates," E1 5b. This so called
intimidating route was nothing of the sort and, although the climb was
considerably wet, I didn't have much trouble and we were soon at the bottom
eating lunch. After we had finished, Tony nearly wet himself when he was
asked if he wanted to do "Left Wall," E2 5c. Whilst Mark told
Tony about everything that could go wrong on this climb, I got out my
North Wales Bouldering Guide and set about trying to identify the various
venues on the other side of the pass. Soon Tony was beginning his ascent
of "Left Wall." He reached the crux and then wasted no time
placing protection and then finishing the climb. When I seconded, I decided
to do a direct finish, rather than traversing left. It wasn't any harder
than the rest of the climb and would be an interesting variation finish
because it doesn't have much gear. At the top I had to set up the abseil.
This took ages because the ropes got all tangled. Eventually, however,
we were at the bottom and preparing to descend back down to the car. Oh
yeah, half way through Tony's ascent, Mark noticed about a hundred sheep
on the road, blocking all the traffic! Anyway, we decided o eat dinner
at Pete's Eats and then go bouldering. Tony was very disappointed at Pete's
because Johnny Dawes wasn't there. After dinner we went to the Cromlech
Boulders. We warmed up on a couple of V3/4s and then decided to push our
grade and beat the maintenance crew by doing a V6 "Johnny's Wall,"
first ascent Johnny Dawes. After shredding our fingers on side pull monos
and really crimpy edges, we eventually topped the climb and decided it
would be a good idea to return to the Barn and finish the diary.
Day 11 - North Wales
By Callum and occasionally helped by Tony when he isn't looking in the
rude book
After
a very good nights sleep, we were woken up by Mark, who subsequently told
us that we had 30 minutes before breakfast. Today was a little better
and we were all in the kitchen within 38 minutes. The forecast for today
was supposed to be terrible but we decided to look at the super duper
special amazing fantastic forecast in Plas Y Brenin. This actually seemed
a little more encouraging. We still decided it would be a good idea to
go to Tremadog though. On the way, I decided to have a go at "Vector,"
E2 5a 5c 5b and a last ungraded pitch. The first two pitches were particularly
good, the second one being the crux. They didn't seem particularly hard
and I got up them with no problem. However, problems occurred on the third
pitch. I clipped the wrong rope into the first runner and I didn't extend
it far enough. This caused the rest of the sequence to be messed up and
I eventually ended up with about 1,000,000 tonnes of rope drag and a couple
of twisted ropes. Just before I reached the third stance, I heard puffing
and panting below me. I looked down to see somebody soloing "One
Step In The Clouds," VS something. At first I didn't recognise the
climber so I just said "Hi!" However, when I was at the stance
and he was sitting next to me, I realised it was the man who came round
last night (who I forgot to mention in yesterday's entry.) it turned out
that he had hitched all the way to Tremadog using two cars, and it had
taken him just as long as it had taken us. Anyway, when Tony arrived,
I decided to continue with the gear I had, and try to do the last pitch
without using my hands. I got some distance and then placed a runner (allowing
myself to use my hands for that.) I then realised that I needed a long
quickdraw and I had left all of those with Tony. I decided to give up
on no hands and go and get the quickdraws. I then continued the pitch
and belayed Tony up it. He did manage to do the whole pitch no handed,
even the hand traverse. After lunch, it was time for Tony to crank. He
had his sights set on "The Plum," E1 5b. Having found the bottom
of the climb (with some difficulty), Tony proceeded to ascend the first
pitch without placing any gear, making my gear removal job considerably
easier. He then began the second pitch but commented half way up that
he didn't actually know where the route went. He decided to push on in
the direction he thought best and, as luck would have it, his instincts
served him well and he was soon at the top of the climb. Now the problems
began. I couldn't hear his climbing calls and he didn't use the radio.
The first call I heard was "Climb when ready," which surprised
me a little because I hadn't yet taken him off belay. Anyway, I radioed
back and began climbing. The pitch was awesome, the top half being quite
exposed, on a rib. It was really long and it involved a very varied array
of techniques. Eventually I too was at the top and we were soon in the
car and on our way back to the barn. For dinner we had Ugly Breakfast,
as designed and made by Mr Tony's Dad. It was basically an omelette with
beef burger, bacon, tomato and cheese in a sandwich. It was very nice
and we will hopefully be putting the recipe on the website for y'all to
see. After another very successful day, I have come to the conclusion
that this trip is seriously heinous, dude!
Day 12 - North Wales
By Tony (Extended by Callum.)
I
shall start today's entry from last night when Callum woke us all up with
his rhinoceros impression (snoring VERY loud!) Because Callum kept us
awake for about an hour - the worst hour of my life - we got to have a
1½ hour lie-in this morning. Hurray!! Another reason why we got
to have a lie-in was because it was raining exceedingly hard outside (obviously
not inside.) Un-Hurray!! Despite being less tired this morning, Callum
still spent half an hour in the shower (again) causing us to exceed the
time limit of 30 minutes between waking up and having breakfast. But as
far as important things go about today: After we descended the V Diff
from the barn to the car we set off in search of a dry crag. The route
we took led us through the Ogwen valley and into Anglesey. With no sighting
of any decent climbing we were forced to go indoors. At least it was The
Beacon and not the silly Plas Y Brenin wall. We started off on a quick
warm-up, a traverse of the whole building (those of you what have already
been there will know it as "The Purple Traverse.") It proved
difficult but our fore-arms were still okay to lead on, so we did. We
both led a 6b+ each - to get a bearing for the grades. Compared to the
Westway, the climbs were about one to a half grade under graded. We then
led a series of climbs between the grades 6c+ and 7a+. The 7a+ we did
was brick-hard. It involved a 30º wall on square-cut crimps until
you came to some "Font" style slopers and finally, a rest. After
the rest there were about 3 or 4 moves to a fat sloper from which you
had to dyno to the top (just under 1.5 metres away.) After and extreme
session of leading, we went and did some bouldering. Callum messed around
on problems about V5 for a while whilst I was wrecking my fingers on the
slate wall with some ridiculous mantle moves. Mark got his camera out
and started filming us on some huge dynoes. Before long, the place was
swarming with helmet-heads so we made a speedy getaway into the new bouldering
room (painted by Shelly Hockney.) Here I continued to dyno, whereas Callum
chose to crank some badass mother problems. Here we got some more neat
footage. Sensibly we left the wall with our fingers still intact and voted
to go to Pete's Eats for some cake and stuff, during which I was told
that I could go and do "Comes the Dervish," E3 5c (Note: I still
continued to eat.) I finished it with relative ease, using all my gear.
Whilst I was belaying Callum up it, the air became moist which was particularly
bad seeing as we both went shirtless. On the way down we saw the family
of mountain goats that live in the quarries and on Tryfan. We got a couple
of pictures and I have decided that I want to be a goat when I grow up.
Luckily we just got back down to the car in time to not get weed on by
the sky. We got back to the barn pretty late, eating at about 9 and warning
Callum that if he snored he would die! Night.
Day - 13 North Wales (still…hooray)
By Callum (having survived last night)
Having
woken up, showered and breakfasted, we descended the hill to the car,
not sure whether to go to Gogarth or Great Orme. In the end, after driving
around the roundabout for about ½ hour, we decided to go to Great
Orme. This was an absolutely smashing idea because I really wanted to
try some of the finger trashing test pieces in Parisella's Cave. When
we arrived, we looked round the corner and came to the conclusion that
the neighbouring cave of Split Infinity looked a bit more inviting for
warming up in. We started with a V5 called "The Argument." Having
totally massacred our fingers and not even come close to topping the problem,
we thought it best to sit down for a while. However, being the hardcore
boulderer that I am, I couldn't resist the temptation to keep trying the
problem. Eventually I managed to slap the last hold, but that was the
closest I ever came. After settling down for a spot of lunch, we went
back to Parisella's and tried a V6 called "The Pillar Start."
Tony got past the big pinch on his first attempt, but then couldn't really
get much further. I took a couple of goes to get past the big pinch. But
when I did, I too failed to get any further. Feeling sorry for our fingers,
we decided to leave this place and head for Ogwen. Mark told us about
a really small crack behind a boulder. I found it in my guide and it was
called "Idwal Squeeze," V? It sounded fun! When we got there,
however, I was worried to see that the crack entrance was about the size
of my thumb…honest! I went in first and was surprised to find that I could
actually get into the crack. It really wasn't too hard and we were soon
out the other side. The rain decided to be in its relentless phase, so
we were forced to return to the barn. After putting the tents away, Mark
set up some scenarios with ropes. Me and Tony had to get out of them on
our own. One of them involved me hanging from the ceiling by a pulley.
It was really uncomfortable! When all the equipment was put away, me and
Tony read magazines while Mark prepared dinner, which was Spaghetti Bolognese.
After finishing this and the desert of pineapple squares, I proceeded
to write the diary.
Day 14 - The same place as yesterday
By Callum (because Tony didn't want to, although he did make random additions)
The
hours that succeeded our hour of waking were proclaimed to be wet with
sunny spells. For that reason, we figured it best to go to either Gogarth
or Tremadog. As I had a climb which I wanted to do at both venues, I didn't
really care where we went. In the end we decided to go to Tremadog (even
though the wind direction suggested that Gogarth would be the better crag.)
When we arrived, the first thing that we realised, with the aid of Tony's
special binocular thingy, was that the rock seemed to be wet and slippery.
However, there were a well good severe what we done, even though it was
a bit wet. Tony lead pitches 1 and 3 whilst I lead pitch 2. It was actually
a really excellent climb and I enjoyed taking a break from all the brick
'ard things we've been doing. After eating our midday snack, I was given
the opportunity to try the climb that I wanted to do "The Wasp,"
E2 something. However, during the abseil from the first climb, I went
to the liberty of inspecting the top pitch and found that the foot holds
were all wet and slimy. Therefore, I opted out of doing this climb and
let Tony do a climb. He decided to lead the first pitch of three climbs
(they all shared the same first pitch) and then decide which climb to
do when he was at the stance. Once I was at the stance, Tony started up
"Titanium Man," E3 6a. It went over a really big roof. He found
that the moves above the roof were too hard and so, after uttering lots
of obscenities, he was forced to lower back down to the stance. By this
time, I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. He then decided
to try "Tensor," E2 5c.this went under a long roof and then
over another one. Again, he found the climb somewhat challenging and had
to come back down. I was now really really uncomfortable at the stance
and so I offered to lead something. Unfortunately, Tony had to lead again.
This time he did "Tantalus," HVS 5b. He didn't have too much
trouble reaching the top of this one, and for some peculiar reason, he
was surprised to see that I had actually turned into a belay bunny. Following
our escapades on the rock, we decided to go and get some ice-creams on
the way home. We headed towards Eric's Café. However, our run of
bad luck continued and the café was just closing as we arrived.
We were forced to leave and decided that we could stop in Beddgelert instead.
For a reason currently unknown to me, we drove right through it. Instead
we stopped at a small car park near Llanberis. Here we bought mahoosive
99 flakes and I got some in my hair. We went back to the Barn and began
the cleaning ceremony. After this we had dinner. Today was a very special
day because we had Kedgeree and Spotted Dick. I then proceeded to write
the diary, which sadly must come to a close, as we settle down for what
is to be our last night. Word.
Tony's thing to say
After I had fallen off the E3 I had lost all motivation to climb,
this is why I came down from the E2. Mark and I both agree that I could
have done it if I wanted to. You don't have to believe me but it is the
truth.