Met up with Gary after pretty much a year of not climbing with each other and conditions were lovely, so we decided to do a repeat of my first multipitch route in Avon that we did together all those years ago. But this time I gave Gary the pleasure of doing pitch 4, which makes the route.
I lead pitch 1, 3, 5 - the climbing was a lot easier than I remembered and gear placements everywhere. Even Gary remarked on how quickly I was moving on the rock and that I wasn't spending long at all with placing gear and moving on.
Pitch 1 was pretty straight forward.
Pitch 3 was delicate. Instead of moving high to get the 2x No.4 placements, I opted to stay on route and place micro's instead. It made moving quicker and negated the need for a sketchy downclimb from the gear placements.
Pitch 5 - there isn't a pitch 5, but the old belay tree at the end of pitch 4 is no more. So Gary set up an anchor and belayed me across the traverse. The anchor he had built was the best he could manage with all the broken rock... I very much doubt it would have held a fall. But luckily the gear coming off the belay stance and before climbing into the muddy exit was bomber and I placed a fantastic couple of nut placements which would have taken a fall all day long. A heavy rain storm came in as I got on to the muddy exit and with no way of protecting it, I climbed quickly so I made the most of the remain grip that was quickly being made slick by the rain.
I create an anchor at the top off a concrete pillar and belayed Gary up... poor fella. Wet limestone and wet mud are not fun to deal with 70metres up, but he climbed well and joined me up top within 20 minutes.
