Risky Business...?

I had a cheeky day off work so took the new climb-mobile on a day trip to north Wales, and baked in one of the hottest days of the year so far. Which is great if you're sat on your arse, not great if your slogging up scree slopes. Especially not great if you're a fucking idiot like me and decided to NOT bring enough water, but also to only include the 'feast' of five Jaffa Cakes, having reasoned on the way out, 'it won't take me long and they sell pasties at Ogwen Cottage...'.

I ended up climbing/scrambling up Waved Slab in Carnedd y Ffilliast . It's a Mod climb, looked easy in the guidebook AND on the walk up to it from Ogwen Cottage, so I gave it a go.

Knackered at the bottom. Changed walking boots for rock shoes. Looked up. No rope. Bash on...

It was a superb route, and exhilirating without belays: despite the fact that the climbing was straightforward and the angle was easy, it's easier still to look down and think, 'One false move....' and imagine your body cartwheeling down the face.

Which brings me to the crux of the problem. I went to visit a friend in Brighton this weekend and got into a heated debate with his girlfriend about the merits of climbing/scrambling without a rope. I reasoned, without bragging 'cos I'm not a knob about things like this, that because it was easy and I was relatively experienced that it was a calculated risk, and one I was prepared to take. But her - very good - point was that YOU'RE ENGAGED - it's not just about YOU any more. If you mess it up everyone pays, not just you.

And I sort of agree with her. You can be Tenzing Bleeding Norgay and still pull on a crumbley hold. But will I carry on enjoying myself when the limits of what I'm 'supposed' to do are drawn in around me? I don't know the answer yet, but I guess it'll come to me the next time I'm out on my own and I see a buttress to have a play on.

In the meantime, here's the vid:

E1: The Hallowed Grade

Climbers are like train-spotters. 

There's an massive amount of list-ticking involved in the sport: First climb on gritstone, first winter route, first lead (ie going ground-up, placing protection as you climb, rather than having a rope safely positioned at the top for you), or even your first fall.

But there's one tick that seduces more than any other: and that's E1.

Take a look at the 'jargon guide' to your right. You'll notice that E1 is the first of the grades labelled 'extreme'. And that's for a reason. E1 seems to separate the wheat from the chaff. Climbers in the E1 club can consider themselves pretty decent. These are sustained, technical climbs where a fall is going to have your sphincter twitching and your belayer wincing. To me, at least, it feels like you have to earn the right to jump on an E1. And if it spits you off you're going to know about it.

I'm not in the E1 club. I've been leading VS confidently for a couple of summers, HVS sporadically. Just when I think I'm making progress I'll have two weeks off for weddings, parties, piss-ups, work, then it'll rain, and when I finally get out of a weekend again I'm crap again. As weak as a kitten.

But that is all going to change this summer, though...........or that's the plan anyway.

Me and JT, my climbing buddy, have made a pact with the devil that we will have both lead an E1 climb, 'on-sight' (which means we don't practise it first, or read lots of instruction on it from guide books) by the end of the summer.

I'm 29. I'm settling down. I'm not the mentalist I once was. Life and work is starting to get in the way of my dreams. I'm 30 next year. I've had a few career set backs this year and I need my E1. If I do it, it'll open a new chapter and make the dirty thirties seem less terrifying. Or so I hope. Either way it'll be fun finding out what happens.

Here's a couple of my early E1 contenders: 

Looning the Tube, E1 5a (Australia quarry, Llanberis, North Wales)

Shivers Arete, E1 5b (Wilton, near Bolton, Lancs)

The Tippler E1, 5b (Stanage, Peak District)