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!
