Saturday 24 July 2004
The day started with an early start (6:00!) but the weather looked
promising and we were raring to get at some natural rock. The car journey
seemed quite short but tiresome. We decided to go to Castle Inn
crag, small but yet fun. The sun wasn’t shining but at least it wasn’t
raining. Matt and I decided to start the day’s climbing on an easy 5+
named Route 1 (how original). The start moves didn’t really tell
how easy it was as they proved a small challenge but once you got to the
jugs it was easy cranking to finish off with the weird tying-in-thingy.
Nathan had also started with an easy climb known as Finale which
he seemed to breeze over. He then quickly did Route 2 6a (these
people have such great imaginations). Matt and I then moved on the schoolmam
6b which seemed to be blank until you got up there and there were
some small things that we managed (Matt better than me) to get our fingers
round and crank hard to finish off. Nathan, deciding that three’s a crowd,
finished it after both of us with me belaying. While he did that, Matt
was being scary pooh and went for Route 3 6c, straight up the centre
of the crag. Both group’s switched positions (Matt going further left
than where I was) and I was given the challenge of doing the 6c which
I was not looking forward to. I started off well on the overhang and got
stood up on it, to be told that it got much harder. As I continued my
climbing and confidence seemed to degrade as I got higher. I did the crux
and with a sigh of relief and clipped the next bolt, which lead me to
complete the climb and end the day. Before I had finished though, Matt
had done the outsider 6c with plenty of style to spare. This style
was quickly lost when we went to Joe browns and he decided to buy an extremely
cool but camp hat.
Sunday 25 July 2004
A well earned lie-in after the long journey yesterday. It was raining
and instead of the original plan of practising gear placements at the
Mot Slabs we had to make do with the courtyard canopy. We learnt lots
of new techniques when setting up stances and difficult situations. After
the refreshment of tea and toast, we start to clear the area under the
pipe challenge. This proved to be easy until we met our match of a huge
boulder weighing at least one tonne. After a battle to the death which
lasted well over one hour we defeated the beast and dug its grave. This
brought it up to dinner time and a viewing of terminator 2. That’s it
folks. I’ll be back!
Monday 26 July 2004
Matt’s day with Dave:
wwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We arrived at Tremadog
after an early start and a lovely breakfast. I found out that I was climbing
with scarily hard Dave, we wanted to start on something easy so he could
check my gear placements. We decide this would be best done on Yogi VS
4a 4c. The first pitch was very easy and more like a scramble, the second
pitch however was graceful and to do something a little more challenging,
I chose the classic E1 of Tremadog; The Plum E1 5b, 5b. After a quick,
dodgy ascent of the first pitch of Christmas curry we were at the start
ready and raring to go. The first pitch proved slightly damp and harder
than I expected overcoming long reaches and small greasy foot holds. Pitch
two looked like a giant crack of lightning which eased up into a slabby
aręte. This proved difficult but inspiring. With not much time left before
the end of the day’s climbing, we managed to squeeze in a fast ascent
of One Step in the Clouds VS 4a 4c 4a. The first pitch was lead by dangerous
Dave, placing his first bit of gear 30 odd feet which was a size zero
nut. I lead the second crux pitch which was pleasant climbing. The last
stance was a crowded one but we weren’t there for long as Dave speed climbed
the last pitch. A great day with a great guy.
Everyone else’s day:
As Nathan and I had never done multi-pitch leading we needed to start
on something easy but enjoyable climbing. This climb was to turn out to
be Christmas Curry HS. I lead the first easy pitch which seemed like more
of a scramble than climb but I set up a bomber stance ready for Nathan
to follow up. We decide that Nathan would lead the second pitch which
was much harder. He made it look easy with good gear placements all the
way up. He set up his stance and I followed with a bit of haste to try
and get the most out of the day. His gear was so good that it took me
at least two minutes to try and get each one out. To speed things up,
Nathan lead the third short pitch up an easy and safe slab to come sitting
on a big ledge ready for me. I seconded the pitch finding his gear a lot
easier to take out this time due to his quick placing. The final pitch
was given to me to lead and it was the best out of the four. It start
by moving up a finger crack with mainly smears for feet to come on to
the big aręte. The rest included easy climbing and breath taking views
to the left but bad gear, therefore I did a five metre run out to go over
the top. Nathan followed with ease and seemed to go much faster than I
expected (probably the adrenaline rush). We then decided to go on to a
classic Merlin Direct (E1 special start). Nathan got ready to go as Mr.
A came down on abseil. He started up the E1 pitch, climbing well and with
ease until he got to the crux which involved slinging a spike then doing
the move. He did this well and made it look quite pumpy. He then finished
the pitch, set up the stance and I followed. The gear on this section
was easy to take out as he was in a rush to out it in but never the less
they weren’t bad. I sailed up the crux to meet Nathan on a surprisingly
big ledge. I geared up ready to go for the next and final pitch, The start
was quite easy with high friction smears placing gear with precarious
feet placements. I then had to go on to the mahussive flake crack with
bad gear placements until I got further up where there was a great nut
placement. The next few moves were a wide step out onto a small hold with
some crystals for hands. The next part was to move up a great finishing
crack and heel rockover onto the top. After the stance was ready Nathan
followed up quickly and efficiently. We than went down to the bottom and
decided to do an abseil so Nathan quickly lead up the first pitch of Oberon,
I followed and we had Mr. A came up behind me to set it up. The abseil
was ready to go so Nathan went down with ease but I wasn’t heavy enough
to go fast so it took me quite a while to get down. With Mr. A near the
bottom, Nathan and I got ready to go and end a great day of climbing.
Tuesday 27 July 2004
Another early day today with a 7:00 o’clock start. We started up the day
with maintenance work by doing the Mohawk walk where we had to take of
the old tape and tighten up the bolts. Afterwards we had to tape it all
up again with fresh new duck tape and we had a little play play on it.
We all had a couple of goes on it and on Matt’s last go he slipped of
and cut his leg but luckily there was no blood. Next we moved onto the
zip wire were we had to change the wire around. We took down the wire
and stopped for a bit of lunch. After lunch we started to finish of the
zip wire. We got so far when we realised that we needed a new rope so
we asked Jez to get us a new piece, but what we didn’t realise that he
had gone down to lake so we asked Ann for a bit and she gave us some.
Then we finished of the zip wire and washed all of our stuff and performance
wellies. We had a bit of rest until we had dinner. For dinner we had steak
pie with hew potatoes and cauliflower. After dinner we decided to go and
practice our gear placements and do some bouldering. As we stopped of
at the car park opposite the Cromlech boulders and guess who we saw……….Johnny
Dawes bouldering and we had a quick chat and as we walked of to practice
our gear placements and he drove of quite quickly because I think we scared
him. We went to the Mot slabs and started of practising our nut placements
and had a little competition and Matt won. After that we did some cam
practice where Joel won this time and I come last on both because I place
nearly the least amount of gear each time. The next thing we moved onto
was bouldering at the Cromlech boulders where we were the only ones there.
We stayed here for about 45mins where Joel at the very last minutes before
we had to leave did a V4, and this was the last thing that the day ended
on almost because we saw Dave and he told us about his experience this
night about someone falling down a mountain. That ended the day on a bit
of a funny note.
Today was predicted to be nice and dry but the weather and roof of the common-room had different ideas. What I mean by this is that the plaster in the common-room had gotten damp and fallen down on the seats, the first job of the day was to clean this up. We did this quite quickly with the Hoover Henry and the other Hoover (in French) Henry to suck up the debris. We got that done A.S.A.P, walked outside to find that it was torrential drizzling. This was not enough to dampen our spirits and it was decided that we would go to THE GREAT ORME and do some of it's crags. The first crag we went to was the Parisella's cave: an amazingly overhanging cave with grades from V4- V13( nice). We came to the decision to go for the easiest V4 there was which turned out to be a climb known only as V4 (How original). I did this after a few goes and Matt was quickly to follow in the completion but unfortunately Nathan didn't manage it. The next problem was in the nearby crag of split infinity, the problem was a low traverse known as split traverse V3 this was flashed by all as it wasn't very challenging, a climb which was a challenge was the V5 The Argument. All three of us had many a crank on the problem trying different methods but in the end I came up with the winning solution of using a small unchalked side-pull to pull me towards the finishing hold which in then popped-to to finish the climb. After this problem we went back round to Parisella's to try a V6 climb called the Pillar Start. All of us trying with tired arms to complete it but none doing so. Matt then saw an opportunity for a great lead which turned out to be F7a+. He tried to do it with style but the over hang and the bad crimps made him come off. We needed to get the quick draws down so Nathan volunteered to go up and try the climb. He fell off once but got to the top to get the rope and quickdraws down. We then went over to the tidal crag of lower Pen Trwyn which proved to be a bit of an adventure to get to as we had to go all the way along a road then back underneath it along sharp, barnacle-covered rocks to get there. The tide was slowly coming in so we had to get on with the climbing. Matt and Nathan went together and I climbed with Mr.A. Nathan went for an F6a skin deep which he got a bit scared on and fell off. Mean while I had decided to go for an F6b called Kaffe Fasset. It started on small painfully sharp holds to get up to a sloppy ledge which required a rockover to get to a slopey pocket and then to a sharp ledge. I then got very scared and came off. I had a rest, got a bit further but in the end I came down of tiredness and sheer terror of the next move. The tide had moved even further in so we had to squeeze one more climb in. I chose an easy 5+ and Matt and Nathan also both did a 5+. Both were completed by all. We packed up and were ready to go just as the tide came rushing in. I was ok because of my water sports shoes but the others successfully avoided falling in. today's climbing was great but I got the dummy for forgetting my helmet.
"YES! It's a dry day! Maybe we climb today?!" Witch I no now is what we did, and I'm here now to tell the tale; we started in bus stop quarries were Nathan did fools gold E1 5c and Joel started on Solstice HVS 5a. Joel then went on to do fools gold while Nathan did Gnat Attack. After both succeeding I did the very challenging 1,000 tonnes of chicken shit (very naughty name). I did this several times because I enjoyed it so much. We moved to Serengeti where I did seamstress HVS and Joel and Nathan did seams the same. Nathan and I both then went on to do Stack of nude books meats the stick man E4 6a. Sir then went up to the top of Watch Me Wallaby Wank, Frank E4 6a which Joel and I both did but Nathan wasn't able to. We then went on a bit of an adventure down to the Monkey Bar area to see the monkey bars. Whilst there we saw some scary, dark tunnels which may of lead to a labyrinth of tunnels but we didn't explore without our head torches. We went back up to Dali's hole, picked up our bags and trekked back to the car.
I'm writing the diary again today me, Matt. Lovely weather but we had to wait for some special delivery which in fact never came, now I'll skip to the exciting part of the day. We were in Mr A's room with Dave and the idea was suggested that we would go to the Vivian Quarries (I was very scared when this was suggested as I wanted to do the hard 'Comes the Dervish' E3 5c). After I ate no dinner because I was sooooooo nervous we made our way to the quarry. Me and Dave run off to the start of Comes the Dervish which is about 200-250 feet above the car park. Getting there is not easy because the steps are very big! After the last step over the 80 foot drop we were there. A lady of the age of 51 had just finished possibly the oldest women ascent? And me 15 possibly the youngest? I started up the climb it was very polished an had no gear for about 6-7 meter where I came to my first RP and some hard thin moves to some good gear. The next crux I didn't find very hard with the next hard moves at the overlap. "Go on Matt" is what I heard a loud voice in the distance it was Tom, Joe and Russ offering there support! I finished up the run-out top easy slab, I had Comes the Dervish E3 5c. Whilst Joel and Nathan went to Mental Lentil which was HVS. This climb is a great milestone in my climbing career so far… back for an early night and a big bay tomorrow.
Saturday 31 July 2004
Matt's and Nathan's day:
Today we decided to go to the Llanberis Pass. When we got to the Cromlech
boulders we decided who was going to go with who. We decided that Joel
was going to go with scary Dave and me and Matt were going to go together.
Joel and Dave headed of to Dinas Mot whilst me and Matt went to Gareg
Wastad. Before we started Mr A told us that we had to make our own way
to the bottom of Crackstone rib S. On the way there Matt took us up the
wrong path way to the bottom and nearly put his hand in a rotting sheep's
corps. At the bottom of Crackstone rib the sun started to come out and
stayed out for the whole day (yyyyyeeeeesssss). I was all geared up and
ready to go and on the first pitch there was only about 2 pieces of gear
I could find. Matt seconded it with ease. On the second pitch it got a
bit harder but not much plus, it had a lot more gear. The stance I set
up seemed to be okay and my nut placement I placed was bomber and so was
my sling. The top bit was almost the easiest part except from the bottom.
Matt did the next climb which was Elidor which was E1 and matt seemed
to get a bit lost at the start and kept on going from left to right until
eventually he found it. It was easy work up to the first pitch which was
a really comfy stance. The next pitch was the crux where there was a nut
stuck at the bottom of the crux. He seemed to do the crux and the rest
of the climb with out to much trouble. The only problem with the climb
was that there was a big bulge and so that we couldn't hear each other
so Russ had to tell me what he said. I did Shadow wall which wasn't very
hard but at the top there was stupid people belaying of at the top and
nearly squashed me against the wall with his abseil rope. Also at the
top of the climb there was this lady who was going to abseil off with
out any prussik loops so I had to show her how to use them.
Joel's Day (with Dave):
Today was to be my day to climb with scary man Dave. The original plan
was to go with the others to the Wastad but Dave decided that we would
do something different. This alternative plan was to do a few classic
climbs on Dinas Mot. I was really looking forward to doing some decent
well moved climbs. The first of these was to be The Cracks, named this
because of all the cracks we climbed up. Dave lead the first two pitches
together with ease but quite slowly. I followed up taking out his amazingly
but scarce gear. The moves were enjoyably easy and we changed over gear
on a big ledge. I then had to lead under an overhang and round a corner,
also placing gear quite scarcely. I got quite scared when my bottom (and
only at the time) piece of gear fell out. I quickly whipped out my walnuts
and placed one before I could do anything the wind picked up and knocked
a size four out of the snap gate and down the crack. I made the choice
to tell Dave and carry on with the pitch. The next section was up a corner
crack (which we later found out was a 4c crack and much harder than the
proper way) which involved lots of painful foot jamming. I placed two
cams and several nuts to get on to the ledge. The next move was an easy
mantel shelf onto a ledge which then lead to the crux of a nasty move
onto the stance. I made this move into about a 5b move. I set up the stance
and Dave swiftly followed me up but he couldn't find the nut I had dropped.
We descended picking up a sling and snap gate on the way down and got
to the bottom to find that a man had split open his hand on the bottom
of Direct Route. I had a look and it was quite gruesome with the blood
and muscle showing. Dave and I then agreed to do Lorraine Direct, a challenging
HVS which we made into a 5b. Dave lead the majority of this route with
massive run-outs. Dave almost ran out of rope but fortunately set up a
stance so I could follow up on the nice moves to go slightly above him
onto a ledge. HE quickly followed up then led the final pitch. We quickly
descended so we could do Direct Route but we were just beaten by some
"weekend climbers" as Dave called them. He called them this
because they took ages to do the first easy pitch. Dave and I finished
our lunch to find that they had just got to the end of the second pitch.
We geared up and Dave started swiftly up the pitch with big, quite scary,
run-outs. He did this pitch quickly and I followed as fast as I could.
The moves were pleasant and enjoyable so I could see why it was a classic.
I passed over the gear and he then lead the second pitch with even bigger
run-outs than the first time. At this time we were going quite fast so
fast that Dave caught up with the weekend climbers at the top of the third
easy pitch. This involved a great hand traverse along. I placed my feet
carefully but I didn't see that one of these placements was a moving rock.
I trod on it to which it wobbled violently. I swore loudly as I thought
that I was going to fall off. Dave laughed and told me to get onto the
ledge he was on. He then went for the final 5b pitch with ease and then
finished off with setting up his stance. I then followed but I found the
bottom move very difficult as I could not reach the good flake straight
away. I managed it though and finished off the climb. We descended, packed
up and went to meet the others at the car.
A rare phenomenon happened today: We had a lie-in! I think we awoke at about 9:30 to find out that we had a very relaxed day. This would include doing the shopping, a bit of bouldering and getting packed. First of all we decided to do the bouldering before we went shopping. The venue for this light session was to be Yellow wall. We arrived, walked past some scary moo-cows to come face on to our destination. We started on an easy V2 which was flashed by all. We then looked at doing a rock over climb (a one move wonder) which was graded about V6 but it was no way near as hard. It took a bit of working but it was eventually done by all. The next climb was up a small faded arête with slopers and small spiky crimps. I figured out the first few moves, Nathan then clone this to finish it first. Matt then finished it, quickly followed by me. Our new challenge was to traverse the whole wall. We all had several goes at it but it was Nathan who finally finished it by a lankifying move from an undercut to the finishing hold. We then were forced to shop at the most unholy place in the whole world; Tesco! (this was because they don't have Sainsbury's in Wales). After that outrage which shall mentally scare me for the rest of my life, we decide to go back for a rest and put the fridgable food in the Mountain Centre fridge. We then rushed back out to go Bouldering at the Pine Tree Boulders (also known as OOOOWWWWW). We went round the area doing problems including a nice dyno. Nathan managed this by using his wind to jet propel him up the wall. After a pretty hard session we ran back to the car pursued by a swarm of midges to go home and watch a very long but exciting film named Black Hawk Down. (Nathan got the Dummy today for his breaking wind).
Today we were moving out to the barn, and leaving the KMC behind until Friday. We got to the barn about 9:45-10:00am. We unpacked all of our stuff out of the car and into the barn with about 100-125 yard walk up a stoney hill. After unpacking all of our stuff into the barn and went to the outside shop where there was a half price sale on all climbing gear, but when we got there, there was only clothes and walking boats. After the outside shop we went to Tryfan for some climbing. We got there and the weather was quite good and was meant to get a bit wet just after lunch. Before lunch Me and Joel did Direct route Vdiff whilst Matt and Mr A did Super Direct HVS. Our climb was a really good climb which was quite hard at the last pitch. Matt said that his HVS was an excellent or even the best HVS he has done so far. After lunch we did a climb swap and when Matt started the second pitch of the Vdiff, and I got half way up the first pitch of the HVS it started to rain a little bit. So when we both got to our next pitch's Mr A decided to carry on up to the pitch Matt had just finished, where we saw Johnny Dawes. We then decided to abseil of because it was just to wet to carry on. After all of us had abseiled down except for Mr A we found out that the one and only Mr Dawes was using our ropes to abseil down. After we had all abseiled we sat down for about 20-30mins talking about Mr Dawes new climb he thought was about E8 6C and a lot of other stuff. After talking to Mr Dawes we came home to the barn for so dinner which was none other but Kedgeree, this was delicious. After dinner we had a rest and try to stick a bad sloper which we all managed to do. After that we had a cup of tea and some cake which was scrumptious Matt went a bit mad and tided up all of the kitchen and moving around the tables and tiding up the toilet rolls which I think should make him get the dummy.
Our first full day in the cottage. And it went well. We decided to go to the Clogwyn y Grochan, and I was to climb with Nathan and Joel was to climb with Mr A. Nathan wanted to climb Kaisergebirge Wall HVS and Joel wanted to try Brant Direct HVS. Joel succeeded with style. Nathan however was a little more, well, scrappy but still good (even though two pieces of his gear popped!). I took up a half rope so we could abseil. I started off until I reached a bit of gear which wasn't ours with lots of fiddling and faffing about, I cracked the puzzle and got a nut!! The rest of the climb was easy and I had the task of setting up the abseil. "it doesn't look as safe as sirs" is quoted form Nathan as he was just about to abseil but it was.
After a spot of lunch, Nathan and I set off on a big adventure on Brant VS via Brant direct start the first pitch was hard but enjoyable. The second pitch however was not as good, but maybe that's because I got a size 5 nut stuck. Whilst on the second stance we saw a very big traction engine being filmed. The third pitch was not very nice at all I got sort of off line and climbed 100 foot odd with two bits of gear! The forth pitch was when our battle against the midges begun I was defiantly on the wrong route and I wanted to be at home, in bed, warm, dry, away from midges. This pitch was 150 foot and I put two bits of gear in (it was easy). This nightmare climb was only matched by the descent and the more forceful attack by the midges. After we survived the descent we went to the DMM 2nd shop where Nathan realised that the harness his heart was set on was in fact too big. The Llanberis shops awaited us to buy a size 5 nut.
On the way back to the barn we saw Fred Dibnah and suddenly realised that it was him driving the traction engine. We have just had dinner and having a read of the book with rue bits! Great day and a good learning experience for all.
Today was nothing but interesting and successful. We were to go to the coastal crag of Holyhead Mountain on the isle of Holy. This exposed rock is some of the oldest in the world, after some in Australia (not Aires Rock). When we arrived we were immediately surrounded by fog. We strapped up and set off for the crag, walking through clouds of mist. It was kind of spooky. Then up ahead, we were faced by a big boulder field and behind it, an 80ft rock face. We scrambled up to the starting point of our day, got geared up and warmed up on VS (Tension) and an HVS (Watch Emily play). Matt finished his with style whilst Nathan cruised up his. I seconded Nathan taking out his quite badly placed gear, doing the moves to greet a smiling face at the top. Mr A. also did his second with attitude. It was then my go to do Breaking The Barrier E1 5b a technical and challenging route. I did this quite well but not as stylish as it should have been. Sir abseiled off to get my gear whilst Matt was coming across on a two pitch E2 named Tinseltown Rebellion. He seemed to do this with his will to be a macho man and did a sparkling clean ascent. Matt and Nathan, after both completing it, came down and Matt was told to do Breaking the barrier whilst Nathan and I went along a bit so he could do King bee Crack- HVS 5a, the classic of the crag. He started up and in no time at all was at the crux of the climb. His gear looked bomber so he went for the move and did it with a bit of complaining about the wet crack. Never the less he finished it as the first proper on site of the trip. I then went to second it without a nut-key (big mistake). I took the first few bits out easily but then I was faced by a nut which needed to be pushed in not up so I had to climb down pick Matt's up and then take the nut out. I then finished off the second, came down and got packed ready to leave. We trekked back to the car and came back to the barn.
Today we went to the Cromlech. Were we going there nice and early so we knew that we were going to get a parking spot and get some good climbs in. The way up was really scrambly and a lot of loose rocks. We got there and Joel nearly wet him self when he saw there and got below it. I was climbing with Mr A whilst Joel was climbing with Matt. Joel and Matt went to do Sabre Cut VS which has 3 stars. Joel had 1 pitch and Matt had the other pitch. The first pitch was done by Matt and he said that it was good fun and Joel did the second pitch which he also said was good fun. I lead Noah's Warning VS which has 3 stars as well. It was an amazing climb with two pitches which was around about 4c-5a the whole way up. The next climb that was done was really impressive by Matt and doing Left Wall E2 5c which I had to second. He made it seem like a piece of cake, and when I got up there he had to abseil as well as me because there was three pieces of gear that I couldn't get out. Matt got the first piece out and I had to get the next to pieces out. After that Matt had to second Joel on Cemetery Gates E1 5b. He said that this was quite pumpy and not that good of climb like it said it was in the guide. Joel seemed to do this climb quite easily with out much trouble except for taking the wrong crack line at the top. When Joel finished I started Cenotaph Corner E1 5c which was a excellent climb and one of the best climbs I have done so far. I used almost all nuts except for a stuck peg and a cam. I also ran out of quick draws at the top. I started abseiling of the top and as I was about to go over the edge Joel shouted up and asked me what I was doing because he was tied on for a second. This was the last climb of the day with Pete's Eats coming up next. At Pete's eats Mr A got us all a special pudding. This ended the day and a high note for everyone.
Friday 6 August 2004
We were moving from the cottage back to the KMC we got up usual time of
about 7:15 and after breakfast we started the big clean! I took the toilets
and Joel had the kitchen with Nathan helping. By the time all the handy
work had been done it was about ten and a bit of a late start if we wanted
to get a good days climbing. The Mot was the choice, a good one for me
as I found a DMM bug belay devise on the way to the Mot. The routes chosen
were West Rib HVS 5a (which Nathan and I were to do) and Western Slab
VS (Joel and Mr A). After Nathan set up the stance with the most drag
in the world I began climbing the one star route which was enjoyable.
This climb seemed to improve the higher you got especially the wrong route
that Nathan took at the top which was surprisingly good. We stopped for
some lunch and realised that it was two o'clock and we would have to rush
to the barn and then back to the KMC to finish the maintenance which we
did in time for roast. A nice relaxing evening concluded a hectic but
fun day.
Today's activity was to prove a very fun and exciting trip, it was to be sea-level traversing. This was to take place on Holy Island which was quite a drive away. We kitted up and set out. We hid our bags under a ledge then went round to the starting point which was a tricky traverse. We did this with ease. We moved round the cliff face doing various challenges set by Mr. A to get to a jump pool. We all managed a front somersault and a Peggy into the seemingly deep water. We kept on traversing round to get to THE hard traverse (or at least we thought it was). It took some time but after some bumps and bruises we all completed it with style in our performance wellies. After this success it was time for a challenge of coordination: the slip under the boulder challenge. We had to time it so that the current would push us under. This was great fun but quite scary-pooh. Another higher jump pool presented itself to us so we pencil jumped in to get our waterproof tops filled with water (how good are they). We had a spot of lunch then continued with the day. Then came the 'ardest traverse (very challenging) it started with a wide bridge (which Matt fell in on) and then went round to very tricky manoeuvres, through a hole, jump in and swim to the end of the tunnel. We found a few more jumps and fun stuff but we decided to go back to the big jump and do a few more BBBIIIIGGG jumps! After this we came back home washed the stuff up and relaxed for the rest of the day.