Catch Up

So here it is - my blog!

I know winter started a while ago and already some stuff has been going on so a quick round-up to start things off!

2009 - pre-christmas routes! Welsh winter started nice and early so quickly scuttled off to Cwm Idwal to get into the swing of things with Andy and we bumped into Dave Rudkin too who tied in for a route although he didn't have a harness.

Andy scooted up The Screen which was fun if a bit wet in the middle and then I dragged myself up The Ramp, getting a go at swinging the cheating sticks - ie Andy's Nomics - brilliant things they are too!

After christmas, Andy and I headed off for a 10 day trip to the Ecrins (where conditions were pretty poor compared to back home) with some dry-tooling (actually soaking wet tooling), some ice climbing in Freisinnieres and Ceillac and a couple of days skiing we drove back - crikey it's a long old way poor Daisy was feeling quite tired.

Oooh yes, and on Boxing Day we took the opportunity to head up and climb Kinder Downfall - although by a slightly indirect route due to wetness - very cool.

Back in the UK we had a small window to screech back over to Wales and have 3 days out in the most amazing welsh conditions. Day 1 for me was with Libby and we headed over to Cwm Silyn, unfortunately we got beaten to the bottom of our route and had quite a wait until the team ahead of us got out of the way! Anyway, Bedrock Gully it was and the old Welsh Winter Guide is USELESS and gave us some pretty duff beta which meant I ended up on some frankly quite tricky climbing on the lead but somehow despite both feet shooting off I managed to drag myself up and Libby appeared looking serene and continued on up the steep icy section and out into the finishing gully.

Day 2 and I found myself standing at the bottom of Craig y Rheader with Turner and we ended up on Central Ice Fall coz there were lots of people around and they wanted to do Cascade (Stu, Dave E, and Ailsa) what a route! Looks nothing like as steep as it is or as sustained - "pumped out of mind tiny mind" was the phrase for all pitches. Fabulous!

Day 3 and it was time for the fickle Devils Appendix - once more with Andy and again a brilliant route and easier than the day before which was a bonus!

2 Cold Climbs ticks in Wales - pretty good going for a bumbly winter climber.

Thank you Andy for dragging me up them - next time maybe I'll be going first?

Then to Scotland for the season, hopefully a very small amount of work, lots of climbing and not too much Fort William minging rain.