Fun Saturday at the roaches with Louise, Antonio, Alex, Camilla, Liam on the Upper Tier a few weekends ago.
Also a lovely surprise to bump into Rebecca and Alex! (Sadly missed Hattie and Aaron)
I lead Jeffcoats Chimney again – a fearsome “Vdiff”, only redeemed by the premature second pitch. Despite this, I heard lots of enthusiasm about how much fun the route was and eagerness to repeat it when we got down.
Instead we climbed Black and Tans, thinking it was a HVD. The journey to the belay ledge was a bit like a tree climb, and the “crux” was more intimidating than difficult.
A few extra footholds leaving the belay ledge, and I was up the second “crux”… and out of cams. Above: wavey wavey climbing not too difficult – but only protectable with cams – which had now been placed below me.
I headed on up – reasoning that although it was runout, I was now high enough to avoid a ground fall if I took a whipper.
In the end, I found an extremely marginable “confidence nut” which I placed for moral support and finished the route.
Both me and Lou agreed it’d been the most enjoyable route we’d done at the The Roaches, and at Severe – the hardest multipitch I’ve lead according to the grade.
Afterwards we went to the pub and had a well deserved sunning in the beer garden!
Originally posted on this post on Instagram
