mass midge attack on PMC1!
Another week, another washout weekend forecast. Bah humbug. Me and Rob decided it was time to use some midweek holiday time before the next typhoon hit, so off we went to Curbar.
After a quick and pleasant warm up on PMC1, we headed for Avalanche Wall. For some reason I had got into my head that this was a delicate slab, must do my research better. Anyway, it looked amenable enough, and fairly geartastic, so on we got. From below it looked as if the crux was reaching the niche, in practice both of us found getting into it wasnt so bad, it was the getting out again that caused cursing, and it was hard to avoid getting sucked in both to place gear and for the welcome moment of rest (I'm sure someone comes and tilts the angle of routes a little steeper once you're on them, it definately got steeper once I was on it). Anyway, we got out full value out of it, first I led, then abbed off and stripped the gear, then Rob led, then I did it again on second.
After this we were both sweating buckets so looked for something a little less full on. Owls Arete, fitted the bill, this was the only non-crack of the day. Some nice moves, if only the route was more independent I think it would deserve a couple of stars. Argosy Crack looked like fun too, but by this time the midge equivalent of a facebook party was in full swing, not even slatherings of smidge would deter the little fiends, so we noted it down for another day and legged it in search of a midge free zone.
Stop 2 offered up a couple more interesting looking cracks, short but steep looking. Inch Crack was good offwidthing fun, not nearly as much of a thrutch as the guidebook made it sound, and provided an outing for the Monster Cams of Doom. Little Innominate just to the right looked interesting…
Little Innominate turned out to be the sandbag of the day. You have never heard so much swearage as me and Rob tried our best to make upward progress, even the midges (who had returned with extra mates) were complaining . Turns out our jamming needs a bit more work, neither of us managed the thing cleanly, will have to get back to Curbar soon – preferably accompanied by a squadron of extremely hungry bats with an appetite for Midge on Toast.