Yesterday Greg and I went into Lochain to try to push ourselves a bit more. I got on Big Daddy. This is a VII 8 that was down graded from VIII 8, so I was expecting a bit of a hard time. It is fair to say that I was not the daddy as the route gave me a kicking. I would like to say that it was all down to hard conditions, but this is not really true. Conditions are quite heavy for hard mixed routes. Tough to move rime, the corner/groove needed a lot of cleaning to find gear all added to challange.
After my extended failure, Greg decided to give The Crack another go. This was thick with rime and useful ice, and had good cracks for gear once cleaned. He had a good go, but the heavy rime though the crux section took its toll as it took 45 mins to clear. We finished up Astroturfer which is in great condition (virtually and ice route), so at least we got a route done.
On reflextion it is good to fail. I could easily go out and climb route I know I will succeed on, but would not learn half as much. I am looking forward to many more battles and failures this season, hopefully I will win a few.
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