Giveaway Project of the Month - March

Things are looking up in North Wales, The sun is shining and the clocks have gone forward. The winter's seepage is slowing and the summer's seepage has yet to begin. Not been out much yet but I managed twice in a month which is a 100 percent improvement. Local giveaway's are in the pipeline, but for today we're back on St Mary's in the shadows of the twin otters.

This is Runway Buttress, predictably at the end of the islands airport runway. Its about 15 meters high and has some evil jamming traverses. Only one route so far; "Just like Jackie Chan" an HVS that bounces up the left arete. The Project in question is the central arete which I top roped back in the day to the flared break. It involves a cool 6a dyno and felt about E2 to the break. With a brush it should then push through the bulge via the rounded flake. Really class line.

Enjoy

Once were young

A younger hairier more naive version of myself on the first ascent of the Excoriator. This was one of the first handful of new routes I'd done In the Isles of Scilly. It was here I was bitten by the new routing bug, and here that I learnt that long sleeve tops were useful for off widths.
Its basically a highball on a large marble shapped 30ft boulder between the lighthouse and the giants castle at Peninnis. The ear shaped flake starts at shoulder height and requires tenuous laybacking until the flake fats up to sloper hell and a rockover onto scissored armbars begins the squirming. I think being unaware of bouldering nuance at the time I just reckoned it HVS 5c.
The thing that makes St Mary's special is the rock is so scoured by the elements that the lines are often laid bare and glaring at you. relegating you to the position of a slightly sticky kid in a sweet shop.
That's not to say that the lichen and occasional scrattly patina doesn't lend spice to the ground up experience..

New Shed

A successful Mothers day led to a chance to get out before work today, and a new shed has been discovered.
Although firmly in the wilds, its not quite on lovely CROW land. As such I'll guess I'll have to keep it to myself, which is a shame as it catches the sun, and doesn't require cleaning at all. Pure plug and play.

Another day another highball, and true to form, It veered off and got tricky at the top. No Problem with your attentive spotter to readjust the copious matting. Slight problem when your on your todd.

More probably to come from this shed, so for the moment I shall assign it the name Kerplunk.

Back in the game

After what seems like an eternity of poorly shoulder and no free time to play, another project goes down.

A trip to the bends brought me to Moose's wall and my old Nemesis the main wall highball. I'd been trying this since getting not the years done, but was having to wait for cooler conditions, then I kicked a hold off, then rain and injury set in.
Happy Days.
Something something Darkside is about F7A and will appear on NWB shortly no doubt.

now the Beast..