Great Gable, New Year Meet

Sue and I had driven up last night and met up with Trevor and Carol, bryon and Alan, at Wasdale head.
They had been up in the lakes for a few days already but had been suffering from colds and bad weather.

The clouds lifted slightly today so Trev, Carol, Sue and I headed off for Napes Needle - they had tried to find it yesterday but lost it in the clouds.

The climb was occupied by several people having an epic ...  they messed around for so long we were frozen by the time they ab'd off.
Trev and Carol struggled up, but Sue and I passed as we were cold.

The original idea was to continue up the ridge to the summit, but that was out too. so we retreated to the valley.

Back in the valley, I persuaded the others to have food, and a drink then head up Scafell to see in the new year.

So we were heading up the "normal" route at 9pm.

Bowes rocks, Local meet

A sunday at Bowles .. making the most of a dry day ...  A number of the usual routes.

Tryfan, Snowdonia meet

Slightly better weather, and we headed to Milestone buttress on Tryfan.

Climbing with Sue and a young lad  ..  Direct Route and Soapgut.

To finish off the day we headed up the ridge to the top and adam and eve.

then back home

Lliwedd, Snowdonia Meet

A damp/ wet day so we decided to do an alpine style ascent of Slanting Buttress on Lliwedd. Along with Sue, Tom and Peter we headed up the miners track and across the scree the other side of the lake almost crossing underneath the mountain.

Then up the gully, then onto the ridge.

Getting to the top we debated going right to the summit of Snowdon or left and down.  The weather picked left for us.

Wintour's Leap, Wye valley Meet

Slightly better today, and Bryon did not need his canoe.

Back to Wintours Leap and ascents of  Central route, and great north wall.

Simmonds Yat, Wye Valley meet

The weather was poor and there was rain in the air, so after a lazy start we headed for Symmonds Yat.  A bit of scrambling around on wet slippy rock before we got fed up and headed back to Wintour's Leap.
Not sure what we did there but probably the usual short routes.

Lundy

Sore heads today... I could not face any climbing, as well as packing. The ferry was in the afternoon, so time for a walk around this island and say goodbye...  definitely not the last time here.

Back on the Oldenberg ...  and sailing back to Bideford. The long drive home and we arrived in the early hours.

The Needle, Lundy

A trip to Lundy would not be complete without climbing the Needle.
Dave, Sue, Carol and I headed out to it..  It can only be reached either side of low tide, so we had to wait for the tide to drop enough.
Carol had already climbed it with Trevor, but wanted to repeat it again, which was useful as she could show us where to descend, and also to take a spare rope to leave on the descent to assist the re-climb.

We climbed up the route called integrity then descended the ordinary route.

Then after some food we headed back.

This being the last night for a lot of the visitors to the island, the night in the Marisco Tavern, turned into a big entertainment and general variety show.
As the bar closed everyone still had several pints and a surprising amount of Whiskey, we continued well into the early hours.

As the party broke up we returned to the Light house, and the conversations continued on.

St. Patricks, Lundy

Dave and I had been planning to do a route just down from the lighthouse ... Formula One, We did a warm up on Eclipse first then around to St Patrick's Bay for the route.

Absolutely fantastic route ... one of the best I have done .. diverse, strenuous, and exhilarating.

We definitely earned our beer in the evening.

Flying Buttress, Lundy

dave, carol, sue

horsemans, fb direct
satan'slip

Today Dave, Carol, Sue and myself headed for Flying Buttress, and after looking around the old battery, and finding the descent route, we scrambled down below the impressive sea arch.

We climbed Diamond Solitare and Horsesman's route from here

After lunch we headed back via Devil's Slide .. Dave and I wanted to complete Satan's Slip .. a very thin, very direct, and sod all protection up the middle of the face, in two pitches. A fall means major friction burns, but no real danger.

Seal slab, Lundy

The morning was wet, so we hung around the village, and frequent brews ...  we had caught our first rat which had to be disposed of.. all the innovators from the previous days ran away and hid, and it was left to me to dispose of it ethically in a binbag!

after lunch ... we headed down to seal slab - Dave Sue and I completed Seal Slab route with Nick.

Not really impressed with this in the damp, we went back to Devil's slide and Dave and I climbed Albion, as the weather improved.