Glan Marksie: With no ticks!

A sunny Glen Marksie (Proteus)

With the gates open through to the Dam, GlenMarksie is only a 10minute walk from the car. Another good sunny forecast, ensured day two of the trad season went well.
Despite needing a good brushing, the crag revealed itself to be good, with 5 routes ticked. The routes varied from awkward, to slabby, to silly awkward to hard!
Sea of tranquillity was my favourite I think the classic two pitch 3*HVS . Andy was on good form, making light work of some other awkward numbers. Proteus makes you wish your legs are 6inches longer, fortunately Andy’s are.

9ft Wing Span

Callisto

I also found Callisto hard for it supposed 5a! Still 6 pitches in the afternoon sun.

.

The really nice Sea of Tranquillity.

Trad Season gets off to a start.

Andy and I headed over to Huntly's cave to make the most of the place before the midges arrive! A good afternoon ticking the major lines such as Double Overhang, Diagonal, Dead Tree Wall, Hanging Groove etc... I was not on the best of form, but a nice afternoon non the less, with a couple of non too stressful routes. Thought Diagonal, was top quality, Dead tree wall has a real sting in the tail for the very last move. Still you can sink your entire rack en-route! The day finished with a go at Petes Wall, but that one will have to wait!

A few shots.

End of Winter: Trad Season!!

Winter seemed to fade very quickly, so no more routes to report since mid February, very disappointing. However, Bec and I did have a fantastic time in France, and returned to spend a lovely week in the lakes with Becky’s family.
The skiing was fab with sunshine on most days and a couple of days of heavy snow in the middle of the week. Not quite as much powder as last year, but still good enough!
For some reason all we videoed was pretty boring slopes, but the fun stuff including my full front flip and 30 seconds of unconsciousness, and my 20minute adventure through the woods off piste, the best run of the week, remained off camera.



As for the lakes we managed one climb, I’m not allowed to say Becky enjoyed it but I think she did really, she just doesn’t perhaps know it yet. Anyway we nipped up the Classic Little Chamonix before spending a day in Keswick.
So with winter gear put to bed, we better have a good spring, it is Trad season afterall!

I think the look says it all!