Diabaig - The Main Cliff

My knees seemed to resuscitate overnight and when I met Kathy I said I was up for climbing till I dropped - little did I know!

Today we're off to Diabaig - never been there before although I've heard there's not many easy routes there.

Mick headed off up the four star Route Two with Robert & myself seconding. John and Kathy were going to follow on leading on pre-placed gear. Robert headed up no problem, then it was my turn. I made the first few moves onto a ledge at 3m and that's as far as I got. No matter what I tried I couldn't get off the ledge. After probably quarter of an hour I was returned to the ground, which caused all sorts of problems as I was carrying gear to resupply Mick for all the pre-placed gear he was leaving on the route. Eventually it was decided I'd pass the gear onto John & Kathy would tie onto my rope.

I took up my role as "expedition photographer" and watched as John and then Kathy overcame the moves that I'd failed on with relative ease.

I retired back from the cliff with my lunchbox and camera so's I could get a good view of the crag and the goings on higher up. I tried to work out what had gone wrong. I didn't feel too tired from yesterday. It was only a 5a move, so shouldn't have been near beyond me. I'd just got into a mess and given up. I remembered Mrs L's comments from my pole vaulting days - she reckoned she could always tell whether I'd get over a height by my demeanour on the runway - in other words if I believed I'd get over it then I'd get over it - so somehow today I got myself to the point that I didn't believe I'd get off the ledge so therefore I didn't.

The other thought that occurred to me was that if I'd been a bit more annoyed at failing rather than quite enjoying watching the antics of our and the other parties on the crag from my viewpoint then perhaps that would have shown a level of ambition that perhaps was missing - whatever, I settled down, had my sandwiches and took a few good photos.

Today's photo shows Mick leading up pitch two with Robert belaying, while John is bringing up Kathy on pitch one. There are another two groups on the crag with their leaders both on the same belay stance - one is doing Northumberland Wall E2 5c and the other The Black Streak E1 5c.

Once our group had all returned to ground, I was quite happy to continue my role as photographer (more lack of ambition?), but got convinced into doing a wee Severe which was nice and "got me back in the saddle".

Meanwhile John was leading up the intimidating Evasion with Kathy seconding, then Mick decided he wanted to lead The Black Streak and Kathy fancied seconding that too, which left John without a seconder!!!. Robert had had enough for the day - so there was me untying the rope from Kathy and following John up - and I loved it. Given the weather forecast for the next couple of days the chances are that this would be the last climb of the trip and it was a far better way to finish off than remembering being stuck on a ledge 3m off the ground. I must confess though to being a little unenamoured with the last 4m of the route along a heather ledge, past a holly tree, up a wee slab and then some damp slippy avalanchey heather, all of which John had done above his last bit of gear - daft Irishman! I suppose I should also confess to being a bit of a whimp on the "walk-off" descent over steep heather with a few bits of rock thrown in, but that nice Irishman shepherded me off okay.

My routes today:

Route Two 70m HVS 5a **** - just got off the ground and no more!
Apprentice Bhoys 20m Severe 4a * Mick Lead, Robert & I Seconded
Evasion 45m VS 4c * - John Lead, I Seconded