Beer makes life more pleasant....well, kneebars at least!

Tash successfully made it back to the UK with her car over the weekend and then flew back here yesterday, so we're now a one car family! Given that we pretty much always climb together and drive in to work and back together it seemed completely pointless running two cars out here.

This morning she passed her 'daddy car' inititation, driving to Masriudoms, so she'll be allowed to drive my car ;-) She might need to practise some parking manoeuvres though, as mine is about twice as long as hers!!

The weather was pretty different to the last few weeks - very overcast and it had rained a bit overnight, so there was only one choice of destination this morning really.

Masriudoms framed by the almond blossom.

I made sure I warmed up properly today, after the flash pump I got last week. So I went up and then downclimbed ATP 6c to get a bit more blood flowing, before putting the first three draws in my route again ('Ricacera' extension - F8a+). The air was very still and humid and the rock felt quite cold and damp, so I wasn't sure how I'd get on with the rest of the route. But thankfully I came down, belayed Tash on her warm up, and then climbed the route first go. I felt way better today after a decent warm-up and had also made a kneepad by taping Tash's beer towel round my thigh, so I could stay at the kneebar rest a bit longer (way more comfortable with some padding!). I actually felt recovered when I left the rest today and, apart from a worrying moment when my hand slipped out of the big wet (and muddy!) pocket just after the kneebar (I was so close to falling off!), the rest of the route felt fine. Pumpy, but it all felt well in control. And most importantly, another amazing long route. Again today I felt a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment at having climbed it, as that leaves only the routes on the right wall for me to do...or maybe I need to borrow a drill and try my hand at putting up some more routes!

Me at the half-height kneebar rest, showing the line of the route. F7c+/8a to here and F8a+ to the top. This is where the beer towel came in useful!

And then afterwards Tash climbed her project first go too, despite having cold hands! Which means she can now get stuck into one of the extensions, where the wall steepens up and the good tufa climbing starts (though it'll be a bit of a step up, as the easiest is F7b+!!).

So with both our routes ticked off in quick time, we headed home for a cup of tea after a short but satisfying morning's work!