It is pouring outside at the moment but last weekend was rather nice. Tony and myself headed to Kvarnby - Tony wanting to make some progress in his quixotic (that's a challenge not a doubt Tony!) 7x7 quest - seven grade seven routes this year, so far he has six still to go. It was hot and rather sweaty but Tony managed all the moves on a rather fine grade 7 trad route that goes the height of main cliff at Kvarnby. I managed something rather less than all the moves, but did find a better sequence for a hard section low down, to play my part as the faithful Sancho Panza. I'm sure he'll lead it by the autumn. I also belayed in the sunshine and generally enjoyed the birdsong and being out in the countryside after an abnormally political week that kept my mind in London, long after the rest of me was back in Finland.
Name these flowers (i.e. does anyone know what they are because I don't?)
High summer is so green. Everything is green. All shades of green. Nothing has started dying back yet. The forest is thick; cliffs you normally think of as being quite open disappear behind this thatch of growth. The forest is busy with life, both flora and fauna.
Tony high up on great, moderate unnamed route
The rope catches the light low down whilst above your correspondent does battle with the ants
I did one unnamed route on the left of the cliff that I had seconded before, but not led. I was quite happy with a reasonable go-for-it-attitude, although this may well have been more to do with ants nest that seemed to be deep down in the crack at the crux, meaning speedy upwards movement was the only option to ant in your pants. One still managed to fall into my eye as I pulled through the crux - an unusual objective hazard!
Tricam in a horizontal break
We also messed about with the tricams that I'm testing for UKclimbing. Tony began as an utter sceptic of the "what's the point?" school. Five minutes of fiddling with them and including both of us trying to unseat the placement above and he seemed to have been converted!
Heading home through the green
Name these flowers (i.e. does anyone know what they are because I don't?)
Tony high up on great, moderate unnamed route
The rope catches the light low down whilst above your correspondent does battle with the ants
Tricam in a horizontal break
Heading home through the green
I think those flowers might be harebell, or something related to that:
ReplyDeletehttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Harebell_160605_3_kpjas.jpg
The genus is Campanula (which includes harebell). There are lots of species of Campanula that look similar, it's hard to tell which one is which.
ReplyDeleteThanks Toby for your encouragement. I finally lead the route yesterday. It was slightly damp, but the crucial holds were all dry. Five more to go.
ReplyDelete