The last couple of days have seen me continuing to try and get back into rock climbing mode. Winter climbing does nothing to help keep those fingers strong and stop you getting pumped when holding anything but a handle. On Monday I had a chilled day, relaxing in the morning until Greg finished work and could give me a belay. I went to North Queensferry Quarry to climb a route called Nearly an Angel. This is not a well trafficed route and has some suspect rock, so an adventure in a short distance was expected. The route has some excellent climbing on it, first through the roof, then the finger crack crux. Although it is low in the grade technically, the nature of the rock makes it hard to relax and commit to some of the holds. Overall the route is solid, with good gear and good climbing and well worth doing.
Today and team of us went to upper cave at Dunkeld. Myself, Greg and Mhairi have not yet done Hamish Ted's although Greg has been on it this year already and is super close. I was not so hopeful with my lack of fitness, but thought it would be good training none the less. After a quick bolt to bolt session Greg was ready for his redpoint. The previous work showed as he made short work of the first hard section to the rest in the crack. He then battled on to the rest at the arete. After a short shake out he cruised the top section to the chain and big smiles.
Mhairi and myself both got on better than we had thought. Despite the lack of training and fitness we were both making good attempts on the redpoint, failing at the crack. after a long day and some long falls we will be back in the week to try and finish it off.
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