On the 8th of october an elite team of Guernsey climbers, made up of Andy,Paddy,Chris & Nathan, were dispatched to Jersey to siege their hardest climbs. Well not quite the hardest, but we still had fun.Arriving in Jersey on the redeye friday morning, we were greeted with torrential rain, Me and paddy were still excited and weren't phased by it however the look on andy's face was just utter dissapointment. After a pit stop at Mcdonalds the rain had stopped and we were ready, a quick bus ride out to Grosnez and we were tied in and ready to climb.
We headed to the Rockscience and Kneecap area and Paddy started us off by cruising a severe with a long runout, I then pressured Andy into leading a hvd which he got up with minimal trouble and we finished off with me getting utterly spanked on a hvs, not the start I was hoping for...
Picture - Paddy pulling through the crux on ' The wrinkled stopper S 4b' at La pilier Dangle on saturday.
We spent the night bivvying behind some shooting range targets and met Nathan in the morning, I could tell Nathan wanted to make the most of his trip and this led to him doing some of the most impressive Leading I've seen him do, 10-15ft up, no gear placed, feet on wet holds, and full on body disco, even I thought Nathan was going to die and this was only on a vs, imagine what it was like when he was on an E1.
Below - Nathan making the awkward mantle on Gentle Retainer Hvs 5a
That night we managed to find a bistro that provided the much needed beer for Andy, we slept alot better that night and managed to wake up at the crack of dawn to head to the pinnacle. Standing beneath it i was in Awe and definetely nervous, A 3pitch Hvs heading straight up the middle but being shot down on a hvs the first day was still fresh in my mind, because the pinnacle was damp from fog, and we were scared we decided to give it a miss, But I've got this route kicking me in the back of my head, I need to return to do it sometime soon!!!
On sunday we only got 3 climbs in at Guns cliff, It's called this because after the war the big German turrets were thrown off the cliff here, and they still lie at the bottom. So to summarize, we had 3 days of sunshine, got alot of routes done, and finished it off with a pizza hut, PERFECT.
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