Black Wednesday

Abbing down a line and being the first person to touch a hold or guess a sequence is really cool. Its ace how mother nature supplies us with holds and features and its up to us and our imagination to connect them. Abbing down the Big Crunch on LPT was cool as that will be another hard classic one day. Although i guess Carson or Moffatt may have checked out every line down there.
Yesterday i did the other line i bolted left of Shakin Stevens. This turned out to be a bit easier but brilliant and probably 7b. I haven't done that many new routes but this is one of the better ones i've done. A cool crux starting sequence leads to two jugs and then a hard pocket move. The finish is what makes it though. The wall slabs in then steepens out on big undercuts and the stiff last jug to jug pull is a great last move. It went down first RP luckily. The name is Black Wednesday. For those North Waleans who may have been wondering where this place is we're gonna keep it under wraps while development is ongoing and there's still lines to do. It is on private land and although we have a verbal access agreement its worth testing the water a bit longer to see how it pans out. When it does get publicised properly strict parking arrangements will have to be specified as that was one of the farmers main concerns.
Then i went to the other place on a bolting mission. There is a line that is akin to a George Smith overhanging Gogarth E6/7 but limestone. A diagonal undercut groove feature that trends leftwards. Really cool and unique for a North Wales sport climb. It was epic sorting it out! Because most of the way underneath me was an undercut roof i had to have my legs high placing a lot of pressure on my hips which were already weighed down with bolting equipment. I had to dust of my trad rack so i could aid along on cams. I had a quick go on lead which was also epic, a big block i was standing on gave way and i was left swinging. I was also left swinging when a cam i was clipped into ripped. Seriously i can't believe i used to be a trad climber, its so dangerous! Climbing up massive cliffs and hoping bits of metal that have been stuffed into cracks don't come out when you fall off. Whats that about, i must have been brave back then. It climbed really well but the easiest sequence was far from obvious as the whole route is basically a hold. I figured it out anyway but it was dark at that point and the old king had had enough. Tricky one to grade, it could feel 7b for the redpoint or flash but i think a pure onsight would be significantly harder and may feel 7b+. As climbs are graded for the onsight i guess that makes it possibly 7b+. Mmmmm, answers on a postcard.