After bolting 15 routes this year i wanted to finish this bolting campaign with a big project. During the many days i spent trying Temple of Gloom in the main cave at Llandulas last year i spent a fair amount of time eyeing up the line to the right. There was another obvious weakness which looked just as good if not better. I went up a few times this year to have another look. It's even more dark and gloomy in there in winter so it was hard to see much. I returned with my clip stick and aided up the new 6b that starts on the right and climbs diagonally into the top of Zoidberg. I abbed off an appropriate bolt and came down the finish of the line. There seemed to be many potential holds and sequences, just the ticket! I returned again with the drill and bolted the end of the route. I spent the next few weeks pestering Tony as i needed a ladder off his van to bolt the roof sections. Unlike Temple of Gloom no one had looked at this line before so there was nothing in the roof to assist bolting it. Tony sacrificed his Saturday morning and we slogged up the muddy hill with the kit and ladder. I ended up sticking five bolts in the roof section. It was very interesting to see the holds close up and feel them. My first impression was that it seemed a bit harder than i had imagined from the floor. The intitial depressions only yielded a couple of holds and i had to prise off some loose stuff that i had expected to use. However there seemed to be a sequence, that was the main thing. You can never tell without trying these things properly but i'm optimistic that it will go down. If i can crack the start i'm sure it will go. A seige is not a problem, if this is what it requires a seige i'm the man for the job. I'll probably hold off trying it til i'm climbing a bit stronger again. It looked brilliant and it actually steepens a bit sooner than Temple.
Happy with my efforts i went off to do some bouldering at a little bouldering cave we'd found. There was a hard project there which i was really keen for. It was just what i liked, steep limestone overhang with a big crux move off a lovely small pinch. I knew i wouldn't be up to it at the moment but i was keen to see what it was all about. After doing two very nice easier problems i had a go. There was some mud in the back of the pinch so i scraped it out. It had become a much juggier pinch which didn't upset me too much. I tried to pull on and the flipping hold came off. I should have replaced the mud with resin.
Darn, well you can't win em all! Off to work again next week so i've handed the bolting baton over to Norm and Tony!
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