Steve and I made a trip to Fairy Cave to sweat our way up a clutch of after-work routes. Teetering up Four Steps to Heaven was a particular highlight of the evening, matched only by Steve's discovery of Elysium (Ultrabeat) on the journey home.
Our morning began on Gabriel and the Pearly Gates at Stoney Middleton. A tremendous downpour meant we beat a hasty retreat which pleased Blackmore, whose intolerance for jagerbombs the night before had turned the polished limestone from solid Type 1 fun to very sketchy Type 2 fun.
The weather soon cleared so we nipped across to Stanage for a trip up my last remaining Peak Classic Rock. Quite a contrast in rock from the morning's route!
Today at Castle Naze we did a girdle traverse. This means that rather than climb upwards for 10m on any of the normal routes, we instead traversed horizontally for most of the width of the crag. Incredibly fun but also highly antisocial! Some climbers find these routes horribly contrived, we thought it was hilarious.
After work trip to Fairy Cave Quarry, home of endless slabs and softly graded routes. I'll be back for some E2 before long.
Yesterday's claggy weather was gone and with Snowdonia bathed in sunshine we unwisely chose to hide in the shade on Glyder Fach. Direct Route took up most of the day, shivering and slithering up the final steep chimney, before returning to the bottom to balance up the runout Alpha.
A great day out with Becky, which began with a rainy lap of Tryfan, before we escaped to the Llanberis Pass for some lower crags. We began on Nea which has a superb 3rd pitch, followed by Diagonal on Dinas Mot which had a pair of excellent first pitches, although we sadly abb'd off after that with darkness impending.
