Having spent most of Saturday stuffing our faces at a series of barbecues, we thought we ought to get out for a bit of exercise. As we'd been sociable all day (hard work for the likes of me) we didn't have too many qualms about snubbing Peri, Cef, and Alan's planned trip to Froggatt (I've done almost all the easy routes there), and instead made for Millstone.
A less than promising start on Great Slab (HS), on which I faffed for ages within 3 feet of leaving the ground, luckily didn't set the standard for the rest of the day. Carmen made short work of the one route on her tick-list, Eartha, a lovely HS flake crack. 
This was followed by Embankment 2 (VS 4c,4b) – I hadn't planned on trying it, as it looks (and is) very steep and strenuous, pitch 1 being a pair of steep jamming cracks with little opportunity for resting. But there was nobody else around, which is quite unusual, so I gave it a go, and got to the top with relatively little dithering (one advantage of its steepness, there wasn't a handy faff-ledge!). Great fun, and highly recommended if you like hand and foot jamming – which I didn't, but do now 🙂
Continually expecting the promised rain to arrive (it never did), we just kept climbing with barely a pause for lunch (and an occasional stop to watch people climbing some rather hard routes). Next was Covent Garden (VS 4b,4b), an interesting first pitch leading to a hugely run-out second pitch, with 1 nut placement in 12m. Followed by Lambeth Chimney (HS 4b), low in the grade (would be low in the grade at Severe) but superbly exposed at the top.
I was then thinking about The Mall, a nice-looking corner crack, apparently high in the grade at VS. But it was occupied by a top-rope. On examination, the top rope was anchored using 3 cams in friable rock, and I really should have said something to them. But I didn't, and they didn't die, so all was well. But next time I'll speak up…
Scoop Crack, a nondescript first pitch, which I misguidedly joined on to the steep awkward cracks of the second pitch – even 60m ropes weren't long enough to reach the belay, which was well back from the top. Luckily, we had double ropes, so I could belay with one and bring Carmen up with the other.
Finally, a quick solo up The Scoop (Diff) carrying the kit up to the top of the crag where the path to the car started – Carmen had more sense and walked up – brought the day to a close.
Tags: jamming
"one advantage of its steepness, there wasn’t a handy faff-ledge!"
and what definition of "advantage" would this be using?
See Rob's comment about your ascent of Tody's Wall!