Wales - A reflection by Chuck B

We've had a great start to the summer holiday. It's fair to say that we were both a little skeptical about heading to Wales - mainly due to previous wet weather experiences. However, arriving in a heatwave and soon getting onto solid rock, we realised that Wales has so much to offer, including Pete's Eats, cheap camping and scout blasting!!

This blog and UKClimbing logs are our diary of our 10 days in Wales but I wanted to add a bit...

Leading multi-pitch routes on rock has been brilliant. Louis' coaching has pushed me to lead slightly harder stuff in a controlled and supported environment. Crackstone Rib felt great, largely due to the fact that Louis was on hand to help out at the slighest squeak! I can't imagine many people have that gift of an opportunity in their early stages of leading - thanks. I'm more than happy to be a fake (aka melamine) client! Louis is a master of rock skills and is always willing to impart knowledge to others, for which we are all really grateful. 

Jenny's text on Monday 21st July, which planted the seed of the girls tackling the Welsh 3000ers, was a real gem. Some research and route planning ensued and although we didn't complete it, we felt very chuffed with our attempt, having done about 22km and 2000m in about 9 hours from Crib Goch to Y Garn. Jen's nav skills were bob-on in the clart and we've done a good amount of recce-ing for next time! Thanks for being so motivated and I'm sure we'll succeed in May 2015!

Thanks to Tom for letting us come join the lovely Wood cottage in mid-Wales for a night. I enjoyed my blast round Coed y Brenin, although I look forward to having a go in somewhat drier conditions. It's rare to be biking in rain that feels like someone is constantly pouring a bucket of water over your head.

Thanks to Oli for braving the midges on Little Tryfan and seconding me up a Severe on the slabs. Also thanks to him for showing me a little bike maintenance and for letting me pick his brains on road bikes!

Thanks to Tim for 'giving up' so many lead climbs and for being the best of climbing companions this week. He's never whinged when I've taken ages over gear placements or setting up belays. There have been some classic routes and it's been great to have shared them. I feel to have benefited from the momentum of doing lots more lead climbing and look forward to 'swinging' the lead on routes in future. Or are we going to toss a coin for the lead now?! 

As for our dinner with Johnny Dawes on Wednesday.... It was great to have some chit chat with him. His comment about climbing being harder than you think has been thought provoking. He claims that if you're not shouting at the rock, you're not climbing hard enough. Fair comment. I guess every climber has their reason for climbing, whether it be cruising up an easier graded climb or pushing their limits on something nails. At the moment I'm quite happy to continue attempting some more of the easy grades of trad (with any willing seconds...!) although I'm pretty keen to second harder stuff or maybe try some sport routes. Hopefully the rest will follow...