After work warrior!

This year my climbing has been mainly midweek, fitting it in as best as I could around my busy schedule of work and regular visits to and from Amsterdam to see my lass.

Midweek trad sessions are tough. There's no two ways about it, limited time, drained brain and too much psyche often don't result in flying performances. That being said, I've had a pretty decent year with a few E3 onsights at the mighty Auchinstarry (Gold Bug), Limekilns (Through the Motions) and Loudoun (Lunge). I felt like I was going well after my trip to the Dolomites with Neil and had been keen to try Ivy League at Limekilns for a while.

Someotherbloke on The Ivy League

I've been eyeing this one up for a while as it looked technical, moderately protected and challenging! Tonight after a perfunctory warm up of re-leading The Dead Ringer and seconding James up Elgins Crack I got started. The first few moves went ok, got some thin gear in and committed to making moves towards the wider crack/pod with its lure of holds and gear. Unfortunately I misread the sequence and took a small fall. First fall onto an RP4 for a while...

Had a quick go after too little rest which resulted in a quick rest/retreat. Not really a proper go. I had a proper rest after this and got started up the fun lower sequence, this time getting it right and making it to the crack. Kicking myself slightly for fluffing it the first time I kept ploughing onwards until the top crux. After contriving a semi-rest I committed to the tricky sequence, a bit off balance I made a lunge for the break which took quite some effort to hold!  

Pulling over the top I had that nagging feeling that I was more than capable of onsighting this route, but had just failed. Just.

The thing that is gnawing at me is that I wasn't scared, wasn't afraid of committing to the moves and didn't back down. I just got it wrong. Pure and simple. And annoying. Probably a case of being too rushed by fading light and midges. 

Riglos write up coming soon...