Arching my back, straining my neck, I could see Pete in the
upper part of the continuation chimney of ‘The Hoarmaster (VI,6)’. As he waves
back to say he is all right, I’m shouting ‘Hurry the fuck up’ deep from inside
my belay jacket. But unfortunately he
never heard me. Standing on the belay
ledge, I stared at the pinnacle which is home to ‘The Gathering’ and ‘Pick in
Mix’. They were absolutely buried in
rime. Despite having climbed them both,
I was struggling to work out exactly where they went. They were certainly ‘in condition’ but I
suspect significantly more challenging in their current state. A few weeks later I saw the winter UKC forums
kicked off with the usual ‘whats acceptable’.
It made for entertaining/dull travel reading to Chulilla.
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| Pete following pitch 1 of The Hoarmaster |
Prior to our Chuililla holiday, I thought I better get some
last minute endurance training in for these 40m routes. So I ventured over to the Torridon Boulders
and focused on 5 move boulder problems.
I can confirm that I still have mental block on Malcs Arete. Slapping the top of the boulder 99% of the
time now, I can’t commit. I’m too busy
preparing myself for the landing before I pull on. Yet, I managed to make short work of the
Potential 7 (Font 7B) the next day.
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| Me on Potential 7 |
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| Mhairi Stretched |
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| Crag guardian giving Malcs arête beta. |
Winter made an appearance early on in November. Peter Herd and Myself arranged a mellow
day. The howling wind certainly blew the
winter cobwebs off my tools. Plan A was
abandoned so a stroll into Lochain was next.
Having never climbed the ‘The
Hoarmaster’ but seeing it so many times, it seemed an appealing choice given
the weather. Pete lead the second pitch
but the cheeky bugger belayed just below the top of the crag leaving me to top
out into the ming. I love unconsolidated
snow sat on slopey granite slabs. I
actually thought I was going to get blown off backwards. No joke.
So I waited patiently (well as best I could) for a slight lull. The walk out was easy. We were literally been blown back to the car. Winter, you got to love it!
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| Windy (Photo: Peter Herd) |
Whilst Scotland was blessed in with high pressure, Mhairi
and I left on an Easyjet flight to a pissing wet Spain. I won’t lie, sat in the airport comparing the
Scottish forecast with the 10 day forecast for Chulilla did make us both feel a
bit sick. But you never know… Arriving in Chulilla, there were mini rivers
flowing down the roads. Unloading the
hire car, we both got soaked. I suspect
you are all sat there waiting for a grumbling blog about how shit it was and
how I suffered major FOMO. Well, there
is none to report. Chuililla is an
amazing place. With the walls being so
tall, the crag bases remained dry. Fair
enough some Tufas seaped and there were times that conditions were not amazing
with humidity. But in actual fact we did
the same amount of climbing whether the sun was shining or not.
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| Chulilla |
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| Sometimes it looks like this... |
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| ..but mainly this. |
I must not forget to pass my thanks to Peter Herd and Amy
for restalking me with tea. I find
Spanish tea bag collections shit. I
thought I took enough normal ones, but part of the way through, I recounted and
feared the worst. So Peter who was
flying out during the middle part of our trip kindly took some. Legend.
Thanks!
 |
| Thanks! |
Highlights include, Mhairi onsighting 'Las caquitas de Nazarten 7b'. It was a pleasure to hold her rope. For me, nothing new, just the treading water
of regular 7c+ onsights with the occasional 8a first redpoint. The golden rule
was, if Rob Greenwood had onsighted it, I had to onsight it. If Rob had red pointed it, I still had to
onsight it. Moon Safari 7c+ when I was
knackered before I started was memorable.
I turned 30 years old as well. My
knees are sore, my hips are sore my back is sore, and as for my elbows, they
are fucked. Old age eh! And of course, socialising with The Evans, Martin,
Katy, Alex, Emma, Rory, Pete and Liam was good fun.
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| Mhairi warming up on 'Top of the Rock' |
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| A nice day |
Thank you to this lady for her patience. Chulilla routes are not short.
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| Mhairi |
Back home now, winter has gone. Good.
We have all heard it before, Murdoch’s winter strategy, I’m going to
boulder more and become stronger’. But
we all know, when the snow arrives, I’ll be wetting my pants.
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| It was good fun. |
