A faff-tastic few hours at Mont-ral...

This morning ended up being A LOT of faff for very little actual climbing. After a fairly late start, Xav came round to pick me up. We were still unsure of where to go, and neither of us had any real preference, but after a bit of umming and ahhing we settled on Mont-ral. We then decided to try the alternative way of getting there (via the long and windy road up past La Mussara instead of up the fast C-14 and then into the hills), which turned out to be a mistake as it took way longer - about an hour!

Then for some reason we opted to explore some different sectors, which meant parking in a different place. Unfortunately the guide wasn't very clear where to park, so we spent another 15mins driving around Mont-ral trying to find the right spot. Eventually we found it, but after driving up the narrow forest track we found a caravan parked up in the clearing where you're supposed to park - cue an Austin Powers style thirty-point turn to turn around and drive back out to park up at the end of the track. Luckily the path down to the sectors was easy enough to find!

So after walking down and checking out some of the different sectors we settled on a nice looking wall with some decent 7a's. After yesterday's debacle I learnt my lesson and warmed up on a good 6c! Then I did a very nice 7a just next to it called 'TKT'. All going well so far.

Then Xav decided to have a go at 'TKT'. Unfortunately he just couldn't do the steep crux moves on it, and spent a long time trying to get past the bulge. Eventually he gave up trying to climb it, but wanted to get to the top, so came down to the floor and fashioned a clip stick out of a branch. Then climbed back up to the crux, lowered some rope for the stick and used this to get the next draw in. Finally he got to the top, and I managed to nip up a good 7a+ before it was time to head back for work.

So not much climbing for me today, but I guess we did explore a few new crags. And at least I didn't have to redpoint anything!