Tales from Wales

Its nice to get out and about and try new problems. I get pretty bored trying the same things over and over again and lately I have been putting a bit of time into a tricky roof (Ned’s average description of climbing font 8b’s. Dan). Anyway that got finished off so I was free to go exploring.

We decided a trip to Wales was in order, then we decided we needed another one etc. We have been getting there quite a bit recently and have been getting a few classic problems done along the way.

The caseg boulder is home to some of the most font like rock this side of the channel, with lovely sloping holds that are a joy to pull on. Anyone climbing in the 7c region needs to go and do main vein. It is the best problem in wales. How can essentially a 2 move problem be so good? Go and do it and you will see.

Another amazing problem is the the caseg groove. I was lucky enough to bag the sitter to this just as it was getting dark (and conditions became better than terrible). The difficulties in the problem lie in moving your feet beween bad smears while pulling on slopers. The crux (for me) succumbed to a ninja kick foot move, which fired the left foot on to a smear as the right foot shot off its own foothold. Brilliant! The only thing keeping me on the rock was a few mm of (stealth) rubber and my core, tensed to the point of hernia.

Another venue we visited is the gop. This hardcore little roof was developed by the Cattell’s – no points for guessing how hard you will have to pull there. After a quick warm up I managed to bag the classic pinching problem ‘Push the button’, followed by Thompson and Mason. Next port of call was the sit start to blokesmoker (genius problem naming from danny). This fell to a basic sequence after I spent 20 mins trying to crowbar some technique into a basic power problem. Will I ever learn? Thompson and Mason also did the deed (after much fannying about!).

Between these 2 problems is a project of Doylo’s. He kindly let me unleash on it and after figuring out the moves I managed to not link it! I will be back….