We’re starting to get into the groove of climbing the longer rock routes in the valley. Although there are so many to choose from, it’s still critical to be picking the right grade, style, aspect, approach time, method of descent, weather forecast, length of climb, kit to carry etc etc, so its taken a few days to almost ‘remember’ it all. Being a potentially busy Sunday, we chose a newly developed ‘out of the way’ area that had a 30 minute hike up and subsequently, had the whole sector to ourselves.

After a short grade 3a scrambling pitch followed by 60m of steep path, we located the base of our chosen route. The climbing was just right – steep enough to be absorbing but not too steep for major concerns! We followed the line of bolts upwards through a series of buttresses, steadily gaining height with each 30m+ pitch.

The final slab pitch was billed as the easy finale, but it looked desperate – Steeper and blanker than anything we’d been up. Clare went up to check it out.

Although from below it was very steep, some good hidden holds made for an exciting finale and it was soon dispatched.

I arrived at the top chains as the sun was reaching the base of the crag. Perfect timing, as we’d been able to climb the whole route in the cool of the morning shade.

From the top belay, we had to make a difficult diagonal abseil to reach the previous anchor. This involved some wild swings out left across a wall in an attempt to defy the physics and gravity that were pulling me back to the fall line. The abseil belays had been replaced with good anchors or at least with new rope connecting the bolts, so we didn’t have to ‘refresh’ ones like this. (The sling was yellow in the underside and cracked and creaked when I touched it). We used the fresh chain nearby and made one final 55m abseil right to the rucsacks.

There’s a fixed rope leading down a steep path from the base of the cliffs and another new abseil anchor to protect the final section – 30m back to the path and worth it rather than down climbing.

We were glad to have our walking poles for the steep descent back to the forest and road. Before driving away, we picked some wild strawberries, which were growing all across the forest floor!

We hadn’t paid too much attention to the clouds that were slowly building, but as we got in the car to drive home, it started raining! As we drove down the valley, we could see many teams up high on the crags, pulling on coats and preparing to descend. We were home by mid afternoon for showers and brews while the skies darkened. In the evening, I drove down to the valley for a drink with my university friend John from the Lake District, who is working here for a few weeks. He was with a few other friends who I’ve met through work, and Steve, who he was here with last summer – so nice to have an annual alpine catch up!