Our initial plan was to head to North Wales this weekend to do a series of link ups in the Llanberis pass and Idwal valley. However, the weather up north wasn't in our favour. So saving this idea for another day, we stayed local and headed to Daddyhole in Torbay.
I'm renowned for not wearing the most appropriate footwear for the approach to a climb, and today I continued the tradition. Armed with flip flops, we made our approach down a slippery runnel, controlled falling from tree to tree, to a scree slope running down to a boulder strewn beach. We boulder hopped to the base of the crag and made a plan for the day. Having not climbed in a while, we decided to get on something safe and relatively easy. Triton (VS 5a), a two pitch VS with a sting in the top pitch!
Not appropriate, but I can do pretty much most things in these bad boys |
Top pitch of Triton. |
But isn't hindsight a wonderful thing.
Upon leaving the belay, I had placed the size 4 to protect it. From the base of the climb, the top pitch looked as if it would swallow a rack. And to be fair, it would. A rack of large cams that wouldn't look out of place in Yosemite and a rack of large hexes seen on the waist of VDiff novices (i'm just stereotyping here, I have no beef with novice climbers, we can all relate to that stage in our climbing careers). A tiny size 10 wallnut and not much else was eaten up by the corner crack, but it still remained hungry and empty. The 5a move at the top of the pitch took a while for me to commit to. It was a layback, and I'm not overly keen (i.e crap at) laybacking. I managed to find a mediocre cam placement, relaxed the disco leg and committed. It didn't help my confidence with the sea lice falling out down my arm, but I pressed on and topped out into the trees.
belay below the top pitch. The size 4 cam went in in the crack above my head. |
We found the abseil point back to the beach where we were joined by a party of 3. They were aiming for our next route, Gates of Eden (HVS 5a), so being considerate, we let them crack on as we had already done a climb and they were gearing up. But, they were slow, which they admitted to us before setting off and offered for us to go ahead of them. I didn't want us to hold them up, but hindsight is a bitch. After an hour, we called it a day and headed home as the other climbs all shared the same first pitch...which they were still on...
Hanging abseil back to the beach |
The other team starting up the 2nd pitch of Gates of Eden just after we had left. |
A few lessons learned today:
1. Wear appropriate footwear, now matter how 'cool' flip flops are.
2. The guide book is the Bible, Approach descriptions are Commandments...Follow them!
3. If another party offer you to go first, DO IT! Be like a French guide (with a touch of Britishness)
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