Not quite with it, may be the best way to describe the feeling this morning. Better however than last week, when I was feeling distinctly ropey due to a bug I brought back with me. A phrase I was surprised to find Howsie was unfamiliar with. Admittedly another colloquial phrase from the homelands, but one I thought would have spread across the oceans sufficiently. It was this reason I suggested we may want to head out in separate cars today. While definitely on the uphill, as opposed to going down, why risk it:
Weather wise the forecast was suggesting the west may not be best, with a likely sprinkle in the air. Keen to find some dry rock we therefore headed east, to the beast. This meant, like me, we were going uphill. Howsie, also didn’t seem quite with it when he suggested a 6:30 meet at the crag. The above image was taken at that time, being a good twenty minutes before first light. Arriving at our agreed more sensible time saw us get there when it was both light and very noisy. The bridge that was closed four years back is finally being worked on:
It’s been eight weeks since we have been here, and on that last trip I finally succumbed to the fact I needed to get checked out. The diagnosis was golfers and tennis elbow, compounded by a chipped elbow. Making me reside to lower grade routes during my weekly visit rock, without which I would get grumpy. I rarely led and if I did only easy stuff, and have done no additional training. Heading to the unforgiving Welly Dam, hence the earlier beast reference, would be a test for sure. Whether it was a sensible one or not, we would just have to see:
Howsie said he’d had second thoughts about coming here. Not sure his body was ready for it. As such we started the morning with a slow wander to check out the bridge construction, and hopefully watch the sun rise. Due to a thick bank of cloud hanging on the horizon there wasn’t even a hint of the sun, so it was back to the quarry where we started very slowly. Howsie romped up, but after pulling the rope my ascent was way more clunky. Not trusting my feet, feeling heavy, and not seemingly able to make moves that should come naturally:
As such we wandered back to the dam, to see if the sun that would be higher enough to be visible. It was as shown above, and after having sufficiently soaked up the views we plodded back. It was shaping up to be a very relaxed session, neither of us being keen to push the pace. I was also happy for Howsie to be on point for each route, like our last visit here. It was a good move on my part. I got up the next two routes I won’t argue that my style wasn’t the best. The grades were heading upwards, and the next line made Howsie work hard:
Another clean ascent at least. Strangely I was getting my mojo back and while I didn’t run up it, it felt like I was climbing that bit smoother. Still with the rope above me of course, which takes out the head game that Howsie had to battle with. As I sat atop preparing to rap down, Howsie used the time to make a brew. The car park was fuller than normal during our weekday morning sessions, but we were the only people in the quarry. The other cars that had rolled in were workers heading down to the bridge:
With a brew inside us, Howsie set off again. The short break, tea and biscuits were however not enough to allow him to recover sufficiently. Kym had messaged me just before Howsie set off on this route, asking me to video him taking a whipper. I don’t think Howsie did it to appease Kym, and after the fall he admitted he was toast. Meaning that it was time for me to get on the sharp end to polish the route off. We then upped the grade again, but sensibly top roped that. My eight weeks of being sensible seems to have paid dividends, and everything held together pretty well:
Sandbagged 