Today was a good day, despite the inclement weather and the small numbers. Once again we went to Trebanog, (if anybody can think of a different trad crag that has an easy number of trad lines and is in the Valleys be my guest!) and it was surprisingly dry! With only a little bit of seepage to spoil the otherwise pristine walls (I exaggerate). The first route I tried was a solo of Jaffa Buttress HVS 5a, which Olly had soloed last time he came to the crag. Damn him and his lanky arms, I got halfway up it on solo and could see exactly what he had done, with long arms one could reach from the good side pull straight to the top out. But I couldn't reach that far! And so after calling for someone to put me on belay (I had tied the ropes to my harness prior to the solo) I placed an 'meh' size two and ran through two shit intermediate pulls until I could reach the top which was sopping wet! Definitely and 'ergh I'm going to fall' moment then! Anna then seconded me up it.
Once anna had finished the route she went off to the help the freshers with a bit of an explanation about belays at the top. I on the other hand ran down to the bottom to have a look at the next climb I wanted to do whcih was called 20 B & H And A Packet Of Rizlas Please, HVS 5a which was an interesting onsight route. Basically it was a run-up a vertical wall to a lip which bulged into a slab above it with an easyish finish. The crux was going over the lip, but the main problem was hanging around on the crimps under the bulge trying to place gear that just wasn't there. Whilst all the prospective belayers were elsewhere I got bored and started up climbing, trying to place gear and then reversing the moves back to the floor; Tiring stuff! And then I ran up my Wild Country size 4 cam to what I thought would be an adequate placement (it wasn't) and went to place it only to find the bloody thing had broken! The pulley for the trigger had snapped on one side, and it was my favorite cam! argh! Mercifully it didn't break whilst placed in the rock as I would never had got the fucker back otherwise!
Once the belayers came back, this time Duncan, I prepared for the lead of what I thought was going to be a hard HVS. It wasn't. Well it was... sort of. It a very difficult one to judge as I half headpointed it. I think it probably does warrant the HVS grade, but only just. It was a good fun route though, with the exception of Mick's Little Viper the best HVS at the crag. Duncan at this point lead another HVS round the corner called Playing Away and the girls were trying a severe next to Jaffa Buttress. Bored with waiting about, I tried my hand on the ivy covered Howell's Arete Right HVS 5c, a 6 metre solo above the brambles. I onsighted it but only just, as the top of the arete was covered with bracken and there was some very scared, very ungraceful thrutching on my part trying to grab a tree that hopefully wouldn't come out in my hand and hurl me back onto the brambles and broken glass below! Then for some reason I did the HVS solo Howell's Arete HVS 5a on the other side of the arete. This one was smaller, but also wetter!
I played on the E2 6c, but couldn't move off the mono side pull so gave up. It has the same tech grade as Indian Face though so I don't feel too bad. Then as the last route of the day I on-sighted Penultimate HVS 4c which was technically easy but a bit bold, a cam at just below half height and a shit nut that popped just above it. the holds were also quite friable and I thought some of them were going to peel straight off when I weighted them!
5 routes concluded, I lay back on the bouldering mat I had been lugging to the bottom of all these routes (just incase I fell!) and watched the others do there first leads of their life with a nice sunset over the the wind turbines, how lovely. Then I realized we were in Trebanog and it was fucking freezing so went home.
The End
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