Castle Naze – Wednesday 26^th April

Attendees: Sean Clancy, Yvonne King, Dylan Smith, Brian Tarnowski, Daniel Arrowsmith and Jessica Bailey.

Jess and Daniel climbed - eventually - after wandering around for what felt like half an hour whilst deciding what to do. Some climbing was later achieved with the pair completing Keep Arete (VS 4a), Scoop Face (HVS 5a), Scoop Direct (HVS 5a). Jess commented that Keep Arete was “just a bit of me, that”, which is in my opinion complete gibberish, and I would like everyone who meets her to let her know that. Whilst not spouting nonsense Jess made steady leads of Keep Corner (S 4a) and Footstool Right (HVD 4a), with Daniel somehow making a pig's ear of both on second.

Brian and Dylan climbed together with Dylan taking all the leads and a good selection of routes in The Niche (S 4a), Studio (HS 4b), Keep Corner (S 4a), and Green Crack (S 4a) in his stride. Thry also completed the classic (three stars in my opinion, Rockfax) jamming crack Pilgrim’s Progress, (HS 4b) with Brian battling behind. “Give me 30m of that and I’ll be a happy man” said Dylan, preferring his jamming routes to be precisely 2.5 times longer than they actually are. Hopefully it was a decent enough warm up before your trip to Arran, Dylan!

Sean and Yvonne visited several buttresses with Sean leading all of Slanting Crack (HVD 4a), Zig-a-zag-a (VD) and Central Tower (VD) whilst Yvonne led her way up Easy Crack (Diff). The duo did not seem to want to leave the crag with torches seen well after sunset. Rumour has it that they are still out there, somewhere, living off the land…