A Salvaged Day in The Scalp

The rain was no reason not to go climbing today - too many sessions in the Cave had obviously left us in some sort of denial that rock suffers from it's effects!

We tried Glendasan, but managed to deduce that because the windscreen was so wet we could hardly see out, that the rock would be wet too...

What to do, what to do...

We hit the Scalp - I hadn't been there in about a year or more and was psyched to get on LDF (6c) and Dark Angle (7a)

We headed up to Gully's Problem (6b+) first and John and Matt crushed it. It took myself and Tom a good few attempts to figure it out, but we got there in the end. The move up into the undercut is lovely and feels precarious at first (especially in the rain!) but as you move higher on it, the hold gets better and better and allows your right arm free to grab the hold at the top. Nice move.

The descent from the top of Gully's Problem in the rain stressed me out big time today. Rock shoes do not stick to wet rock or grass or pine cones and it took me quite some time to calm the freak out I was having and get down the grassy rocky slope that falls away quite dramatically... I felt like a wuss!

Not surprisingly I made it down in the end and Tom gave me half his sandwich to eat - a good combination of Chicken Tikka, Tomatoes and Red Onion.

Matt and John had headed off to try Crimpnarris (7a) but as it became wetter and wetter the lads gave up and came back up to join us.

We made our way over to LDF which is across the road from Gully's Problem. Alas it was wet and John suggested we all head up around the back of LDF to another set of low ball boulders that might be sheltered from the rain. John and Matt bailed right, while Tom and I bailed left... The left hand side ascent up the slope was a bad combination of nettles and ferns - completely over grown and again, left my nerves in shreds!

We had a couple of attempts on the lines up there, but in the end the rain won and we decided it was time to leave. We went down the other side which was nettle free!

None of us felt like we'd had a work out though and so we hit the Co op and completely destroyed ourselves trying the problems there.

Shattered now.