In reply to The Ivanator:
A great topic for a dreary December day.
For me 2015 has been a pretty decent year; with over 100 days out and 400 new ticks/memories accumulated. More quality than quantity this year; consolidating my grades and enjoying some great classics in good company.
Highlights have included:-
Gritstone season head points of
Retribution Rib Direct (E5 5c) and
Thumper Direct (E5 6a) and my hardest on-sight to date;
Blasphemy (E4 6b).
My luck ran out in May, on
In Memoriam (E4 6a), with a 20+ foot ground fall from the last real move; resulting in a badly sprained ankle, a long hobble back to the car and several months of painful rehab.
A trip to Mallorca, in March, included an accidental onsight of my hardest sport route to date
Ojo clímbico (6c+), after being sandbagged by the locals, and I enoyed a visit to the brilliant Mallorcan crag X, "El Bunker"; also courtesy of the local lads. Seeing Iker Pou smashing a 9a, at Fraguel, while we played on our 6's and 7's, was v. impressive too.
A trip to the Langdales, in July, included onsights of some classic E2's
Astra (E2 5c),
White Ghyll Eliminate (E2 5c) and
Big Dipper/Mirrormere (E2 5b). This flared up my ankle again, but was well worth it. I also enjoyed sharing a belay with the James McHaffie and Emma Twyford climbing machines, who were sending
Impact Day (E8 6c), whilst we were climbing Astra.
My first visit to Lundy must rate as the best adventure of the year, with loads of classic E1's bagged and a somewhat scary onsight of a very dirty
The Promised Land (E3 6a), above a rapidly encroaching tide (This one needs a lot more cleaning of the upper pitches in order to make it a reasonable prospect at the grade). I also enjoyed cleaning and climbing the much neglected
The Ocean (E1 5b), with the help of some of the MoB lads (Trundling the deadly shattered first belay, which some bright spark had previously used an abseil anchor, was quite exciting, but the route should now be good to go if anyone else has it on their list).
With my cankle finally healed, a visit to some of the crags in and around the Costa Blanca area, in November, has fired me up nicely for the coming winter season, in the gym and on the grit, particularly
Montesa; which, for some reason, reminded me of the Brimham pinnacles with added sunshine! As it's still fresh in my mind,
La Panxa (6b) was a beautiful climb with great variety. It was also nice to see Vick push her onsight sport grade from a 3+ to a 5+ over the course of a few days; keep up the good work Ms Plum (10%er)
So here we are, in damp December and I still have 3 E3's and 2 E4's to do, in order to hit all of my targets for the year. Hey ho, you can't have it all but sometimes what you can have makes it all worthwhile