Hmmm it's been a while, I have been a lazy blogger! Well I finished at Glenmore Lodge in April and am down in Sheffield at the moment chilling out, seeing family and friends and climbing. Since being back I've been to Horseshoe Quarry with Robin and Andy- great, never been there before, Stanage Crow Chin with Pete and Windgather with Kiri and Kelly. At the moment I'm just trying to get out lots and get my leading head back on. I'm finding that I much prefer to be in the mountains to single pitch cragging. I guessed that the mountain routes in Wales would be drier than Scotland, based on my experience of last spring and summer in the Highlands, which was quite a wet one. I was right, it's still snowing up there. At least I don't have to go and dig out the lodge car park anymore, hurrah! I have also been open boating on the Matlock slalom course on the Derwent with some guys from Edale, which was fun. May bank holiday saw me enjoying three days of climbing in North Wales :) The weekend was organised by the Christian Rock and Mountain Club which I am a member of. The club is really active, and has for a while been putting on training days for club members wishing to aquire new skills etc. On Sunday there was a space on a multi pitch improvers type day with Llanberis based mountaineering instructor and general legend, Andy Newton. As I didn't manage to get out loads last year (due to shoulder injury) and had a few questions, I thought I would join in. We went ot Little Tryfan for this. I had a great day and picked up a few things I'll definitely be applying to my climbing this year. I had a day with Alice climbing ordinary route on Idwall Slabs and Cneifion arete on Saturday - a pleasant yomp in the mountains! the Arete was climbable in mountaineering boots. On Monday Rachel and myself climbed The Slant on Clogwyn y Tarw. We were both belaying in gloves, having not really payed attention to the guidebook which said the crag receives evening sun - we climbed in the chilly shade looking on at the rest of Ogwen which was bathed in sunlight! This route definitely requires a confident second as it's hard to protect the traverse with gear above knee height. The pictures are on Cneifion Arete and Little Tryfan (Andy teaching Marisa and Martin how to escape the system).
Whilst at Little Tryfan I also bumped into Sam Leary who I know from the Lodge. We arranged to climb next week and she suggested Gogarth, well excited... a bit scared! I read the route description for The Dream of White Horses... the reminder to not forget your prussiks sticks in my mind...
