M - Drove to May Cottage, Pembroke. Hip stretches.
T - Met up with csl at the White Tower. The crag was still quite wet from the weekend downpours. Got the motorway out of our legs on Sea Groove (VS). Tried Sackless (E1) as the less-wet of the two easy cracks in the white sheet. Slipped off a wet handhold, and nearly the route, so beat a hasty retreat. Waited for it to dry some more but felt abnormally tired and sleepy so called it a day. Held the top-rope for Conor on White Heat.
W - Feeling bleurgh so decided to have a rest day whilst csl spent more time working White Heat. Hip stretches in the hut.
T - Returned to the White Tower. Superb conditions - bluebird sky, a brisk easterly - and the rock was bone-dry. Conor led White Heat first go which was great to see. I was still very tired so didn't try anything. We relocated to Stackpole which had been my main aim of the trip. Silver Shadow and Swordfish were dripping up to the main roof so we moved over to Heaven’s Door which was drier and looked great. I led the first 5a pitch, feeling as weak as a kitten, but the next one did not go as planned. I down-climbed back to the ground to get us out of there, no gear was weighted so the onsight is still on! We alpined up the ridge between Stackpole and Mowing Word and took consolation in The Curver (VS). Not much climbing but a fair bit of walking and scrambling and I was shattered at the end of the day.
F - Still feeling bleugh. Cloudy and breezy, great for climbing but neither of us had much energy so St Govan’s it was. I followed Conor on Army Dreamers (HVS) and dragged myself up Panzer II (HVS) which felt about my limit. Several recovery stops en route made for a very slow drive home.
S - Shoulder conditioning. Lots of sleep. King’s Place (The Guardian’s offices) for Michael Wollny and Kit Anderson piano duo improvisation, Euro-jazz and Liszt-style respectively. I’ve seen Wollny with his piano trio several times (excellent) but on this occasion I didn't think the different styles complemented each other and they only intermittently sputtered to life.
S - Hip stretches. Mini fingerboard session. Lots of sleep.
Always great to be in Pembroke, the weather was excellent and conditions were great other than some seepage. We had May Cottage to ourselves for four days, met one party in St Govan’s car park and saw one other at a distance the whole time we were there.
My climbing was disappointing as I had felt quite fit last weekend and was looking to get on some E3/4s. Picked up the “10% head-cold, 90% fatigue” bug doing the rounds at the moment and possibly should have avoided climbing completely but didn’t feel that bad. Plans for next week depend entirely on how I recover from this.
T - Met up with csl at the White Tower. The crag was still quite wet from the weekend downpours. Got the motorway out of our legs on Sea Groove (VS). Tried Sackless (E1) as the less-wet of the two easy cracks in the white sheet. Slipped off a wet handhold, and nearly the route, so beat a hasty retreat. Waited for it to dry some more but felt abnormally tired and sleepy so called it a day. Held the top-rope for Conor on White Heat.
W - Feeling bleurgh so decided to have a rest day whilst csl spent more time working White Heat. Hip stretches in the hut.
T - Returned to the White Tower. Superb conditions - bluebird sky, a brisk easterly - and the rock was bone-dry. Conor led White Heat first go which was great to see. I was still very tired so didn't try anything. We relocated to Stackpole which had been my main aim of the trip. Silver Shadow and Swordfish were dripping up to the main roof so we moved over to Heaven’s Door which was drier and looked great. I led the first 5a pitch, feeling as weak as a kitten, but the next one did not go as planned. I down-climbed back to the ground to get us out of there, no gear was weighted so the onsight is still on! We alpined up the ridge between Stackpole and Mowing Word and took consolation in The Curver (VS). Not much climbing but a fair bit of walking and scrambling and I was shattered at the end of the day.
F - Still feeling bleugh. Cloudy and breezy, great for climbing but neither of us had much energy so St Govan’s it was. I followed Conor on Army Dreamers (HVS) and dragged myself up Panzer II (HVS) which felt about my limit. Several recovery stops en route made for a very slow drive home.
S - Shoulder conditioning. Lots of sleep. King’s Place (The Guardian’s offices) for Michael Wollny and Kit Anderson piano duo improvisation, Euro-jazz and Liszt-style respectively. I’ve seen Wollny with his piano trio several times (excellent) but on this occasion I didn't think the different styles complemented each other and they only intermittently sputtered to life.
S - Hip stretches. Mini fingerboard session. Lots of sleep.
Always great to be in Pembroke, the weather was excellent and conditions were great other than some seepage. We had May Cottage to ourselves for four days, met one party in St Govan’s car park and saw one other at a distance the whole time we were there.
My climbing was disappointing as I had felt quite fit last weekend and was looking to get on some E3/4s. Picked up the “10% head-cold, 90% fatigue” bug doing the rounds at the moment and possibly should have avoided climbing completely but didn’t feel that bad. Plans for next week depend entirely on how I recover from this.
