pen trwyn raiding

On the first day of the new month your dear narrator embarked upon a daring raid on North Wales. My brother drove us down and despite some rain on the way down, Llandudno was drenched in sunshine when we arrived at half past ten.

We warmed up in the Split Infinity cave, traversing and generally getting the fingers working. We moved into Parisella's Cave and I tried Rock Atrocity for fifteen minutes or so. I could do all the moves and linked from the start to matching on the flake. It is very powerful and fingery though, I think I need just a little extra to be able to crush it.

With my appetite for bouldering satisfied for a short while, we moved up the hill and Matt got straight on to Fears for Tears, a F6c. He lead it with little trouble and I lead it after. I got surprisingly pumped on it - too much trying to recover on good holds in a poor position, instead of pushing on through harder ground to a good rest.

We walked on to the next sector and I tried to onsight a F7a called Bring Back Fred Gwynne. It was really steep, but big holds. I made it to the second bolt after a couple of false starts but found myself very tired so rested on the bolt. I bolt to bolted the rest of the route. It was just too steep for me to hang around working out sequences! I was pretty frustrated but I armed Matt with my knowledge and encouragement and he had a wicked flash attempt, failing at the final section of hard climbing and only just - he missed a crimp by about 3 inches. Psyched by Matt's efforts I tied in and did it clean. I messed up the sequence at the top, I didn't quite get the crimp right and instead of adjusting I just cut loose, swung my feet round and pulled through to a good hold. Spicy, but excellent!

Here's a photo of me shortly before failure on my onsight attempt, trying to recover on jugs with no feet and not realising a knee bar could be had just one move away...


After this we played on some of the boulder problem starts to the routes nearby and then drove round the corner to do a F6a, Belay Bunny Bounces Back, a good climb and well within our capabilities. We drove on further and I had a play on Pill Box Original, a steep V6 problem, but didn't manage it.

I was feeling very tired by this point, it was about 4pm. Matt tied onto a F6b but couldn't get past the first bolt. We seemed to have hit a wall so we called it a day and drove back to Saltaire.

Some analysis then. It was a really good day trip and overall, I'm very pleased with it. However, it could have been much more successful if I hadn't had a split focus. I should have just concentrated on routes with Matt instead of playing on two very powerful boulder problems.

My endurance is still not up to snuff. I need to increase my stamina so that I can hold on long enough to work out sequences.