Thursday 5 August 2010

3 awesome days of climbing instruction



I'm sat at home, belly full of fajitas and G&T, very contented after 3 great days of 'work'. Today I took out Adrian for his first sea cliff climbing experience. Adrian is over on France for holiday and thought he would like to have a good bit of Welsh adventure climbing. We met at South Stack, Gogarth and made the short walk down to the top of Castell Helen. This is probably the most amenable of the Gogarth sea cliffs - it has solid rock, big holds, great gear and a good selection of mid grade routes. It also has a fantastic outlook, amazing coastal scenery and today views all the way to Ireland and the Isle of Man! It is one of my favourite places to climb and I never tire of making the 60m abseil to get to the bottom. I love how disconnected and isolated you feel at the bottom of a sea cliff - despite the fact that there are tourists wandering the cliff side paths above your head.
Adrian turned out to be a great climber and after climbing Lighthouse Arete and Rap (both 'very severe') we decided to up the anti and get on North West Passage - one of the best E1's at Gogarth.
What a great day! I was working for my friend Silvi of The Rock climbing Company today.