Success on the Welsh sport climbs
13th May 2011
After a somewhat unsuccessful session at Rubicon on Tuesday I was keen to get back to Llanddulas Cave to take care of some unfinished business.
After a quick warm up on a 6a we jumped straight on Pump Action (7a/7b+ depending which guide you look at!) Craig went up first, putting in the clips and ticking the crucial hidden hold. It had just started spiting with rain but I decided to have a go anyway despite being pretty cold still, the steep bouldery starting moves felt desperate and I could barely feel my hands so at the third clip I bailed and sheltered in the cave as the rain started to get heavier. Five minutes of arm swinging and jumping around wearing my hat and coat and I was feeling much warmer and the rain had subsided so, despite the top being wet still, I went for it. The starting moves felt easy this time and I cruised up to the semi rest ledge at half height, the holds all felt amazing and I even missed out a good jug rest and shook out on a crimp instead, pretty soon I was clipping the chains!
Craig went next, the rain was still coming down and on his first go his foot slipped on a wet hold so he lowered off and jumped straight back on, this time he made no mistakes and cruised all the way to the final sketchy mantle which was soaking by this point, a little frantic chalking and he too was also clipping the chains!
As the heavens opened, we headed to the upper tier to shelter in the big cave, we noticed a 7b that was still dry as it was steep, El Tigre, I dogged my way up, putting the clips in and checking out the holds, it looked all there so I lowered for a rest. I gave Craig all the beta and he went for it, he crushed the hard boulder problem start and pretty soon was shaking out at the halfway jugs, he launched up the upper headwall and cruised to the chains, a fine flash!
I decided to get straight on it whilst it was fresh in my mind, I sketched my way up the hard boulder start (maybe working at a bouldering centre has paid off!) and lunged for the halfway jugs, after a good long shake out I headed up the upper wall. I suddenly found that I had completely forgotten where all the footholds were that I had spotted earlier and was getting really pumped but after a bit of scrabbling around and a very sketchy clip, I too was clipping the top, my first 7b, get in!
After a quick Tunnocks Tea Cake break we decided to take a look at Mudjekeewis (7b+/7c) this proved to be much harder than the other routes with a hard technical crux sequence then a really pumpy steep upper section, we both managed to make all of the moves using different sequences, this is an awesome route and I’ll definitely be back soon to give it some more work!
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