Giveaway Project of the Month - December

Went for a walk with the family on Christmas Day. The quarries was all snowy and seemed a popular destination for crimbo jollies with foot and paw prints going off in all directions. We got as far as looning the tube before the Boys tummy was rumbling, But Got a couple of snaps off that reminded me of an old project..


Now above the Oildrum Glacier is an Water course that freezes each year, Its in the shadows in the above photo (important), I've blown it up below off a different angle.

You can see the bottom half is well whited up; this is a forty five degree slab, above it the water runs over blocky ledges and often mushrooms in winter, It looks a little lean in this piccy.

Of course Its all thawed now, but it does seem the right time of year to giveaway a winter project, and I'm sure it'll return.

Enjoy

Two steps forward..

Had a rare afternoon to flog myself up to the Mighty 'Tashe boulder last sunday, This is my current vaguely secret pebble obsession on the lovely hillside of Wales somewhere. Despite the cold I still found myself puffing a bit on the slog in (wellies this time -top kit) although that might be because I was also dragging up my new bouldering pad, a 4ft by 8 stunt pad curtesy of "Clash of the Titans".
The 'Tashe itself is a 30ft long sliver of slopeyness, that I started toying with last year, getting two upward lines, and half the traverse (left hand 'tashe) done. With a feeling of leaness, and doing rather well in this pulling on plastic stuff, I thought I may have a chance at the Full 'Tashe itself.

It took a whole session to get the Left hand bit..

Plastic strength don't mean much, I've got to get up in them thar hills.

Once again praying for babysitters..

Never Trust a Hippy

Well Its about time I moved onto my next project...
About 2 years ago I gave a friend a list of about 5 unclimbed trad projects in the slate quarries as he said he was quite keen to do one. As of today they are all still unclimbed. I thought I'd have a go at this one:


My memories of it were a widish crack going up a corner, So blessed by babysitting I had 2 hours to run in abb down, clean and run out again. I set off fast and light, with abb rope, helmet, harness, a few screwgates and my cleaning kit. This was 15:30, I was in place by 4 with the light fading. The crack seemed steeper than I remebered. Once over the edge I saw that the abb rope was touching down 2m from the face, With me without a rack to stitch myself in.
Arse.
With the bottom 2m cleaned, I had to get out in the dark, scaling 2 pipes in the process and was back at the homestead in 1hr 58. nice if frustating day.

Operation "never trust a hippy" will continue....