Cave + Hills = Happy

Days off dawned bright and sunny once more and finally Wales seems to be having a season.  I had rested for four whole days, and as normal I was shit first day on.  Normally this level of punter-dom would have annoyed me, this week I decided not to care.  Recently I have realised its going climbing I love, not sitting stressing about the hardest thing I can possibly do.  Obviously these little battles and sieges are a big part of working towards your limits and surpassing these is massively satisfying, but and its a big but, single minded determination is sharp on both sides, for me its good to relax and smell the roses sometimes.  So I headed out and put some effort into a project, used the best of my skin and energy before heading up to meet a team at the Mallory boulder.  After an amusing chat with an elderly lady about carrying mats all the way up the hill just to boulder, quote of the day:

"we just landed on the floor, mind you I suppose we occasionally broke our ankles"  

 I reached the bloc just as Si and Doylo were leaving the cars, which meant I could hang around and watch this sweaty mess storm through the heather cursing the walk.  After some attempts on Cosmic Wheels a great 7c/+ that I first climbed in 2002ish, and a few throws on Will, Huffys great 8a (I think it is anyway)  

Huffy on the first ascent.  I completed my aforementioned relaxing with a lovely Stella and a Stella view. 

After a few beers at the crag I retreated home and had a few more before hitting the heights for a few more and great plans were made for the following day, there was no one who wouldn't be out and no where that we couldn't go.  Suffice to say my recent sobriety saw me hammered, and at 8 am I checked to see if it was dry it wasn't and I felt like shit, so back to bed to try again in a couple of hours.  After a bacon butty, coffee and some ibuprofen I was back to a slightly less sweaty mess, with a sinking heart and a banging head I was put in Joe's van and taken to the Cave,   

Louis Armstrong 8b

Horror struck deep into my bones, here I was in this place once again, after a few years of avoidance it keeps on coming back to this climb inside or climb in the cave.  On arrival it was fairly dismal, but with much repeating of  "oh yes sticky damp" the team got stuck in, Jack surprised himself by almost doing Left wall High and Lou Ferrino, Joe got stuck in with redpoints on Lou Ferrino, finally free of the hernia that has stopped him trying for a while.  I amused myself by going from the start of Left wall to the start of Rockattrocity, which I instantly claimed was a problem in its own right that should be known as Pil 7c/+, Pete arrived and got rid of the /+ for me.  After this I dropped the last move of Halfway House due to it being sopping wet.  It appears that Cave Psyche is back for both Jack and I, and instantly we went back the next day, after dropping the last moves 3 more times in fairly horrific conditions I decided it wasn't a random fluke which made me happy.          

Lou Ferrino 7c+

Hold drying on Trigger Cut

All in all a great set of days off, the cave is back on my agenda, and it feels like this year I might even get one of the bigger lines done, I did get keen last week when I wrote that list.  Hopefully this time I will focus and follow through with one link rather than flutter about before doing another Lou Ferrino eliminate.  Still they are good.