late on saturday the relentless rain relented and the forecast for sunday was good. The text summons came round – Cefyn, Peri (yac) Dave Roman and Andy(not yac) were all up for a day at Brimham. Sunday came and so did the sun! loads of it! We hit brimham at the crack of 10.45 and kicked off on Rough Wall(VS 5a ***), which finally allowed me to lead it cleanly. After ritual yelps and whoops from me at the top (this thing has spat me off more times than I'v had packed lunches) Roman arrived and led the thing coolly onsight. Pshaw.
Next Cefyn led Square Root(HS 4b) as he wanted to try out his shiny new tricams in the little pockets. He was very pleased with them and Roman thought it best not to mention that the bottom one had popped until he topped out. Andy led Cubic Corner then we all headed for Cleft Buttress where Roman led Lancet Crack (VS 5a), while me and Cefyn headed over to Cracked Buttress. I decided to try a lead on Parallel Cracks (VS 4c), which went all very smoothly till I decided to try for the left exit with the hidden hold. Ah, problem. Couldnt find the hidden hold. remembered its a long way back, had no idea where. Chickened out and teetered precariously to the right hand exit – ah, no big cams left, they are all on the left side. Major wibbling set in, I managed to pop in a dodgy hex and decided to just hurl myself at the top, leaving the other hexes dangling, a decision i was later to regret. After an undignified but clean top out we discovered that one of the unused hexes had slipped and wedged itself securely and an hour long gear epic ensued. Eventually I decided to bring in Dave, the King of Gear Recovery, so went back to Cleft Buttress – what were they still doing there? – where I found him and Roman busy having an Overcammed Friend Recovery Epic.
So. To cut a long story short, dave and Roman had bets for beers on who could get both sets of gear 
out and eventually all was recovered, Andy led Right Hand Crack (VS 4b) which he has wanted to lead for ages , dave led Duggies Dilemma (VS 4c, totally unprotectable) and then dave me and cefyn (Roman and Andy had left for family responsibilities) headed to Lithos (HVS 5b) at the back of the Pig Traverse area. Dave made a tremendous start on the lead but ran into difficulties just below the top, the move was very tenuous, the gear was dodgy and coming off would result in a huge pendulum smack into the corner with no helmet on. So he wisely accepted a sling from above as insurance – better to blow the onsight than make a sticky mess on the rocks – and then topped out. Me and Cef followed him up, and all I can say is, it was a fine and bold lead even if not completed cleanly , the crux move was pure evil.
Missions all completed, it was now 8.30 pm, we had been climbing in warm sunshine for 9 hours solid and had ticked lots of ticks, so we retired to the car park for warm beers from the back of my car and went home. It was the best day of the week!
Tags: brimham
can't blow the onsight by accepting a sling if you have top roped it beforehand!
Basically it was a headpoint with pre-placed gear….. or maybe a headpoint into a top rope – i dunno
They were Black Diamond C3s not tri cams, although the new 0.125 is really dinky……You also forgot to mention the nice 45 minutes I had resting, belayed at the top of Parallel cracks whilst teams of people tried to get the stuck hex out, but it was a great day.