Climbing again..

another amazing day in Cumbria...blue skies and sunshine; although we sat outside in Keswick eating our ice-creams with the forecast saying snow on Tuesday - mad!

Back to today; Claire and I decided to have another go at climbing - an reasonably early start saw us at Brown Slabs on Shepherds Crag before the madding crowd. The fact that Shepherds gets the afternoon sun meaning we had a couple of hours as being one of only two parties on this part of the crag.
Brown Slabs (Diff) was first on the menu - the first route that I had led for nearly a year as well. I felt ok on it - it is polished but not to oblivion and I could potter up ( I have done the route several times before) to the top ok(ish). Claire did a really good job of following - the top does steepen a bit and become quite arkward - with a couple of high steps that are easier for me with my longer limbs. However, she climbed really well - using her feet well - and soon joined me on the summit.

After an amble down we found a few more people arriving at the bottom and so staked our climb for Brown Slabs Direct (V.Diff). The start to this was horrendously polished and the gear a bit minimal for the first 30' or so. Once above that; the rock improves a lot, the gear is spaced but excellent and I really started to enjoy the climbing. It was good to feel like a proper climber again; picking my way up a route. After the tree; which is a possible belay the route steepens a lot but the holds are all there and the friction is good...I was soon on the top and watching a bravura performance from Claire. Claire climbed the route faster than I did and showed really good technique. More to the point, she seemed to have enjoyed it as well which is the key thing.

The crag was getting rather busy as the sun had hit - so it was time for lunch and a gear spree in Keswick. With Claire working nights this week, we might need to test her new fell running shoes out!!