Mountains “I will be back” ;-D!

Life is goodJ!!

Every month I am trying to get involved with some kind of adventure.  For the past 8 years I was living in Norfolk. East Anglia was too far from my favorite landscapes. My husband Luke and I were always planning to move up North. Finally at the beginning of this year we made it! Right now our base is York. North Yorkshire is so close to Lakes, Peaks and Scotland. Every other week I can enjoy rock climbing while I am waiting for the Scottish winter.

This summer I had the opportunity to go away climbing with my climbing partner Paul to North Wales.  Full body harness –check, helmet – check, climbing gear – check, over sized trousers and tops for my baby bump – check. We left York on Wednesday  at about 16.00. The journey was good, it took us only 3 hours to get there. Usually I am camping or just bivviing, but now I am a bit different, so we agreed to stay in Ogwen Valley Bunkhouse.

In the morning we knew that the weather wasn’t going to be good till about 14.00. We travelled to the Tremadog. On arrival we stopped off at Eric’s Cafe for a cup of tea and bite to eat. And guess what?!? We met the famous Welsh climber and base jumper Eric Jones.  Mr Jones is the owner of the Cafe and Campsite/Bunkhouse below Tremadog crags.  Eric is one of my row models for his solo ascent of the Eiger’s North Face.  After the brunch break the weather still wasn’t looking great. But we could not wait much longer. We picked one of the easiest climbs on the crag, so if the rock is still wet we will be able to climb it.

 

Hail Bebe Climb.

 I should say that at the beginning I didn’t really liked that climb. Very slippery start, a bit okward first pitch for a baby bump. On the way up there were too many trees and it turned a bit easy with not much climbing necessary, hardly even a scramble.  After we passed the tops of the tree line, suddenly amazing views appeared in front of us. Sunshine finally started to worm up the Welsh land. It was so amazing to be near the top of this climb in bright sun shine.

Christmas Curry.

I think it’s going to make my top 100 climbs! Strong start, hard work, muddy but well worth it! This had similar features to a chimney climb and you had to grab in and use strong arms to pull yourself up – tough work out.

The next few days we had bright sunshine and were able to climb at Llanbaris Pass and Tryfan.  Scary multi-pitch climbs I had never done ascents like these before the challenge kept reminding me about why I love climbing so much. Some of the moves were so scary I could hardly look down. Pitch after pitch my heart was pumping with happiness I was in my niche...Life is good!!!

That is it for this year. Literally within the last few weeks my belly has got so much bigger. I went to the local wall for a climb and realised that the only grades I could manage where 3 to 5a, ha ha I can’t recall ever climbing grade 3 in my life :-D. 

As of now I have got ‘just’ 5 walking trips planed to make up for not being able to climb. Pretty soon I am expecting to be too tied for even that. After Christmas I will join all the new year’s resolution hopefuls as I try to get back into shape. Hopefully I will manage to escape to Scotland to do some mountaineering before hitting the Alps in the summer of 2014!

Mountains “I will be back” ;-D!