19 October, 2006

Tonight, Tom, Chris and I were joined by Doc Tom and Darren (Yarrow). Doc and Darren are part of the Nepal Everest 2004 crew (see the adventure documented on Creative Giants ).

 We noticed that our favourite Black One has been removed and replaced by an un-graded Black route. Damn pity, because we all cleaned it last week and were ready to show off our talents This new Black route actually didn’t pose an issue with Tom and I. We cleaned it on our second attempt. Chris joined in and after a few tries also cleaned it. We would rate this as a Black One.

The Red One on the wave wall arete fell to Chris this week. Inspired by the layback approach to the crux that Tom and I had attempted, Chris made it through and bagged the climb!

Meanwhile Doc Tom and Darren were working the slab. Darren was ambitious and quickly worked his way up the grading scale: Yellow, Blue, Purple, Green, Red and Black. The Red and Black was too ambitious The good Doctor was a bit more conservative and was happy working out on the Purples.

We all moved onto the Wave wall, but deliberately only did the Blue and Purples. Chris then moved onto the Nose where he bagged the Green climb. Still to get it clean, but impressive to watch. Tom also jumped on the Green as his "warm down" climb and bagged it cleanly!!

Check out the pics from last night on my Gallery.

–Mel