My first mountaineering club meet started on a dark Friday driving through Wolverhampton on my way to Steve's house who was going to give me a lift up to Wales. We loaded up the car and headed off, stopping at the off license to stock up on wine to go with a mountain of cheese that Steve had brought along. The conversation flowed quite well as Steve had a fantastic range of stories to keep us entertained and his friend Mark talked now and again about his time in Russia where he worked.
The new experiences kept on coming that weekend as I arrived at the club hut and settled into a bunk room with a group of complete strangers in my cheap thin sleeping bag. We sat in the living room on mix of old chairs wrapped up in jumpers and coats as the open fire offered only enough heat to warm the people sat closest to it. Chatting and digging into Steve's vast cheese selection and pickles. These strange new characters would soon become friends and partners out in the hills.
The next day started cold and wet, and I suddenly realised I hadn't got sufficient waterproofing (a sign of my inexperience). Steve luckily suggested heading indoors to the Beacon Climbing Centre which had just held to the Welsh National climbing Championships. We stopped off via Pete's Eats (a local climbers café based in Llanbersis) for breakfast before heading off to the centre.
The transition
The movement from the safety of a top rope to the hazards of leading are plain to see. A miss clipped quickdraw and a long fall is assured! I start off by following Dan's commands under the safety net of a top rope while leading off another, clipping into the bolts as I moved up. Once I had the basic principles I felt confident to take on the towering main wall on one of the easier juggy routes up the overhang. If you can't walk, you may as well run. (Well that was my logic!)
However, before that I got to enjoy watching Steve get a lesson to how to lead belay off Dan. This involved Dan climbing half way up a route, pulling up an arm length of slack and jumping off. The end result was that Steve could sufficiently stop a fall, but also he had a large graze as he was pulled violently against the wall by Dan's falling weight.
Getting ahead of the rope
Once tied in securely and a trail of slack rope hanging behind me like slug slime I headed off. I started steadily clipping bolts and then unclicking bolts to turn the rope the correct way around as not to become free of the wall if I fell off. My venerable position soon became ever present hanging ten metres from the ground and several feet above my last point of correct with the wall, meaning a longer fall then I was normally use to and a heavy contact with the wall. From here on out it was a head game, edging myself higher each time as I clicked into to each piece of protection and then battling not to freeze as I pulled up a length of slack to make the next clip.
Within in a few minutes I was nearing the top of the route and the safety of the lower off bolts once I was securely attached to the them. However, things were on not going so smoothly in my mind. I constant repetition of "Please don't fall, please don't fall!" and "This is it Joe, your going to have to explain a broken wrist or ankle to your mom!". My left leg suddenly turned to jelly and began shaking uncontrollably, a kind of Elvis impression about 20 metres off the ground. And then their were my arms, tensed and wooden as I gripped each hold for dear life! The final click came and one big effort to pull up 20 metres of rope on one arm and attach myself safely to the wall and allowing me to let go and be lowered to the ground.
Saturday night when the lights are low
The return to hut that evening had a great sense of achievement and sweetness as everyone else had endured a day of being blasted by heavy rain and wind on the hills around us. The drying rack above the fire hung heavy with saturated coats and pants, and the air damp with wet bodies. I once again sat huddled on a old, yet comfortable settee listening to tales of adventures on the peaks of the Karakoram and foot hills of the Himalaya. This might not be everyone's dream night, but it was pretty cool to me.
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