Mindgames

Tuesday 3rd July 2008

Me and Sonya made our way up to dunkeld yesterday for an afternoon of trad.

Both of us had great ideas of trying to crack some of the classic VS's up at Polney, but come the actual climbing, we both felt differently!

Sonya led the first pitch of Kestrel Crack (Sev), with some uncertainty, not being overly confident with the gear or the rock. Despite the initial difficulties, she stormed through the hanging chimney and onto the belay. I made my way up with relative ease (having done the route 3 times in the last 3 weeks), then finished the last pitch.

On to my lead, and unsure what to do, we spent ages in the guidebook trying to decide where we should climb. Bollard buttress direct was my decision, coming in at Hard Severe. A nice climb with some delicate finger cracks but nothing too challenging. That didn't stop me taking about 20minutes to complete the crux, and put in half my rack protection just to reasure my head. Once past that move, i made quick progress up, and brought sonya to the top, before abbing down hairy gully.

It was 8 by that time, so we just called it a day.

Off to Logiehead with Amanda and mel tomorrow. guidebook looks brill, loads of severes and Hard severes, with some 3 star VS's thrown in.

Report and photos on my return!