Great Weekend away

Well I've just had one of the best weekends away in a while over in North Wales from Friday till Monday.

Friday

Me and Rog set off from the pool on Friday morning and popped down to Gogarth. I'd never experienced sea cliff climbing before or even used twin ropes, so it could have been a baptism of fire at Castel Helen, but mercifully the weather was great and the sea calm. We mutilated 2 VS routes Pel and Lighthouse direct with some interesting offline route finding by Rog and some tricky elimnate style climbing by myself, thinking certain holds couldn't possibly be in! Rog somehow managed to drop a set of my small wires into the nether and said he might have to hand his MIA back in for that show of ineptitude!
It was a great day out, and we rounded it off by popping into the pass to meet Christine, Rog and her went off to Carrag Wastad to do some route and I puntered about at the Cromlechs ticking off easy gaps in the problems list in the back.

Saturday

I managed to hitch a lift up to the pass from Nant peris campsite and met up with Ben and the Shire Horse at the Roadside. We did a good warmup circuit where I flashed a new V7 James Pond RH and then went over the road and did some brilliant easy highballs on Pont Y Gromlech including the Seam which was classic. Continuing on we went over and did NASA and then uphill to the Lizard King block, which looks stunning. I got the beta off Ben and tried to flash Emyr's Arete the V7 on the right and blew off the sharp left sidepull when going for a small positive edge, nasty! I chalked up and got it done next go, cool problem. Ben then did the scary and rarely clean line of Envy V6 about 80ft to the right.
Ben had to get off to soem party, so me and Si missioned down the hill over to Jerry's Roof and I decided to try Bus stop again as I was feeling quite good the last 2 sessions on it. It was well windy so Si stood on the edge of the pad and I pulled on, I stuck the first move perfectly and then just kinda flowed through the rest topping out with ease! My first font 7C and hopefully not the last! I almost feel ready to try some of Lorenzo's brutal problems in Italy in the next 2 weeks, but probably need to do a bit more training. It was nice that it felt like a path when sent which means I am hopefully capable of climbing harder this year, we will see!
I celebrated with a nice fry up at Pete's Eats and then got dropped off at Llyn Peris Lake by Si to check out Fish Skin Wall (one of the finest V7's in the pass). It took a phone call to Ben to get a location and a few minutes later I was stood beneath this fine looking wall full of edges and layaways. It took about 20 minutes to work out what I was doing and when it did go down it felt like the polar opposite of what I had done that day, technique, balance and footwork.

Sunday

The weather was looking grim but I headed back up to the boulders on the bus and went to Jerrys Roof again, managed to get Bus Stop again first try of the day then put my mat under Jerry's Roof. Sadly the wind ripped my pad from under the roof and sent it about 100ft down the road! I gave chase and went off to the roadside to seek shelter. James Pond roof was still dry underneath so I worked the sit start and got it in a few goes at about V8ish, worthwhile! Bored of this venue, I checked out Fear of a Slopey Planet down at Ettws and got it in a few tries once I corrected my appauling top out sequence. Tried Boysen's Roof Sitter and got thoroughly shut down for a second session! I need to get some beta on this nemesis.

Monday

On the wind down day, it was blowing a storm again so me, Dave and Si H met up around the Sleep Deprivation roof and worked some of the links. I finally got Sleep light sent avoiding the rock by sacking off the use of pads and pulling a front lever over the lip. With this in the bag and psyche rising again, I got on the Roof crack that I had always avoided for some reason. It got done in 2 halves fairly quickly and then got sent about 20 mins later. Me, Roger and Kris went back to Beris and had a coffee before we had to head back to Liverpool and start packing for Italy!

I am so psyched for the trip with Tom to visit Lorenzo and can't wait to get fat on red wine, pizza, pasta, surfing and sunbathing! (+ maybe some crushing? YES.)