Youth 0: Guidebook 1
Twas a balmy Friday afternoon and the youth and I decided to visit the palace of unearthly delights of the Popular End. After James being initially bamboozled by the complexity of the guidebook, we ended up at the bottom of Heather Wall, which I had seconded some 7 years ago. I remember it feeling hard then, but it's obviously grown a few more holds in the intervening years. Jugs, gear, jams, more gear, more jugs, the top. Bish bash bosh, first VS of the year.In a t-shirt and everything. Good stuff.
James teetered his way up Grotto Wall, thanking his lucky stars that he wasn't a few inches shorter, which would have entailed some laying one on. I then pootled up the vertical jamgasm of Crack And Corner in my continued bid to lead every route in the graded list (again, I'd seconded this one in 2004, god I'm old).
Emboldened by his initial HVS crushing, the youth picked the appealing, but tough-looking, line of Rugosity Crack. It turned out to be appealing, but tough. I was just beginning to think he might back off and I would be spared having to haul my tubby ass up after him, when he busted some funky manoeuvres and made it to the top. On the blunt end of the rope I huffed and puffed and had to use some serious try to get up the route, but I managed it in the end, to discover James had used some innovation to try and anchor his belay to a slightly blunt spike. If he starts thinking for himself on a regular basis like this we could all be in trouble.
Things were getting a bit chilly, and James had to be home early to catch a train, so I finished the day with a romp up Lancashire Wall (complete with obligatory head jam), before James discovered that slabs can be pumpy too during a glorious failure to lead a nearby E1.
Le headjam classique
In other news I bought my flights this morning to Lofoten in June. Maximum enpsychification.
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