Third time lucky at Mont-Ral...

Today I finally managed to climb successfully at Mont-Ral.

The first time I tried was back in January 2009 - the day my old car died and left Matt, Tash and I stranded on the C-14.

The second time was in June 2009 when Tash came out to visit me but it was far too hot for climbing and we just ended up going for a nice swim and picnic at the river below the crag!



The second unsuccessful climbing trip - a good swim though!



Then after that I forgot about it and never went back...until today, of course. It was pretty warm again today but infinitely more climbable than in June. And it turned out that the crag is actually pretty awesome!

I warmed up on an amazing 6c called Calipso and then did the 6c+ to the right - another great route. Tash then on-sighted a 6a+ and also did Calipso, which she was obviously really pleased with (only her second 6c on-sight ever!).

After that I did two more of the classic routes at Mont-Ral. First 'Alamut' (7b), which starts up a brilliant steep pocketed wall to a rest then continues up the technical wall above. Then the 3* classic 'Solo para ella' (F7b+), which starts up the same pocketed wall as 'Alamut' but then heads up rightwards on a steeper and more sustained bit of wall. This was easily one of the nicest routes I've done in ages. Really interesting pockety rock to start, then strange blocky limestone above, to finish up a crack.

Tash then managed to on-sight her first 6c+ ever!! Which she was obviously even more pleased with (but maybe that's just cos she's going to have sticky toffee pudding tomorrow night as reward!). And I finished off with another 6c and 6b+ to end the day. So all in all a far more productive day than Tuesday and nice to finally climb at Mont-Ral - we'll definitely be going back!

Some dude on Alamut (F7b) at Mont-Ral (pic stolen from UKC as I didn't manage to get any photos - but it looked the same today!)