Lil' Pete // www.FAO2.co.uk's photostream  

And after that title, there's little else to say!

Sunday saw a far too brief rendezvous with the amazing Mina, Lisa and Amanda. Friends who I had the pleasure of playing with many moons ago, sadly given time they've gone off their separate ways and I've been awful at staying in touch. After five minutes it was clear that nothing had changed, we still get on amazingly despite the time gone by. Exactly how friendships should be.

My rather slimmed down rack - Read more at www.fao2.co.uk

The Ramp Challenge

So the Ramp Challenge, an idea conceived by Ged and Woody after climbing Tour de France and realising the last move was probably the single toughest move on the Ramp at Seawalls, Avon. Wouldn't it be great if that was the final move of a huge bigwall, multi pitch route? Shame there's no big walls in Bristol …

So what's the solution? It's obvious right? Enchain all of the starred routes on the ramp starting from the right and working left in sequence until the final climb, Tour de France and the final move, 'that move'.

Today Ged and Charles took that plan, formed by ill minds, and put it into action. On possibly the most perfect of winter days a reasonably prompt, but equally civil, start at 9.30am led into an all day effort leading to the final climb, in the pitch black lit by a shoddy head torch with failing batteries and shining from the sidelines the brightest cyclelamp known to man.

The result? E2, E2, E5, E4, E3, E6, E5, E3, E5, E6, E3, E6. Up until the final route all routes were ticked clean on lead, with gear placement alternated between the two of them, a few slips here and there, but ropes were pulled through and re-sent. The final route was always going to be the crux and had the day started an hour or so earlier, the chance to do it in daylight and with a bit more time to relax may have made all the difference. That said Ged took the baton, tied on and despite an unenthused start soon found himself a lot further up than he expected cheered on by Gaz Parry, Joe Day, Archie, Ben and others. Just at the final moves, squelching his finger into the soggy mono at the top he popped off and took the late night lob, undeterred but unable to re-climb the lower section he pulled back on to the wall and sent it up from there to the top, it might not have been perfect style but it was sure as hell impressive. All that remained now was for Charlie to pull on and do the business too. In a similar exhausted state to Ged, he too took a couple of little falls but at the end of the day, most importantly pulled up and over to the railings as well.

If today wasn't inspirational, I don't know what is.

Good work boys.

Follow up:

Ged Desforges: good stuff pete, cheers for sticking with us! and cheers to Gaz for the torch. And the other random people who, for a reason I still dont understand, happened to be up on the ramp late on a saturday evenin ing january.

Charlie Woodburn: Great shots Pete, massive thanks & and as ged says the moral support was awesome. Perhaps the casual 9.30 start coupled with neither Ged nor I bothering to bring a head torch was a little blasé in retrospect. But let's face it, it wouldn't have been nearly so much fun and blindly fumbling around in the dark on the crux of a E6 after 11 pitches was exactly how woody would've wanted it. The challenge is there for anyone who wants to do it. Big up mr Woods, we'll always remember you via evenings like last night.

The Ramp Challenge

So the Ramp Challenge, an idea conceived by Ged and Woody after climbing Tour de France and realising the last move was probably the single toughest move on the Ramp at Seawalls, Avon. Wouldn't it be great if that was the final move of a huge bigwall, multi pitch route? Shame there's no big walls in Bristol …

So what's the solution? It's obvious right? Enchain all of the starred routes on the ramp starting from the right and working left in sequence until the final climb, Tour de France and the final move, 'that move'.

Today Ged and Charles took that plan, formed by ill minds, and put it into action. On possibly the most perfect of winter days a reasonably prompt, but equally civil, start at 9.30am led into an all day effort leading to the final climb, in the pitch black lit by a shoddy head torch with failing batteries and shining from the sidelines the brightest cyclelamp known to man.

The result? E2, E2, E5, E4, E3, E6, E5, E3, E5, E6, E3, E6. Up until the final route all routes were ticked clean on lead, with gear placement alternated between the two of them, a few slips here and there, but ropes were pulled through and re-sent. The final route was always going to be the crux and had the day started an hour or so earlier, the chance to do it in daylight and with a bit more time to relax may have made all the difference. That said Ged took the baton, tied on and despite an unenthused start soon found himself a lot further up than he expected cheered on by Gaz Parry, Joe Day, Archie, Ben and others. Just at the final moves, squelching his finger into the soggy mono at the top he popped off and took the late night lob, undeterred but unable to re-climb the lower section he pulled back on to the wall and sent it up from there to the top, it might not have been perfect style but it was sure as hell impressive. All that remained now was for Charlie to pull on and do the business too. In a similar exhausted state to Ged, he too took a couple of little falls but at the end of the day, most importantly pulled up and over to the railings as well.

If today wasn't inspirational, I don't know what is.

Good work boys.

Follow up:

Ged Desforges: good stuff pete, cheers for sticking with us! and cheers to Gaz for the torch. And the other random people who, for a reason I still dont understand, happened to be up on the ramp late on a saturday evenin ing january.

Charlie Woodburn: Great shots Pete, massive thanks & and as ged says the moral support was awesome. Perhaps the casual 9.30 start coupled with neither Ged nor I bothering to bring a head torch was a little blasé in retrospect. But let's face it, it wouldn't have been nearly so much fun and blindly fumbling around in the dark on the crux of a E6 after 11 pitches was exactly how woody would've wanted it. The challenge is there for anyone who wants to do it. Big up mr Woods, we'll always remember you via evenings like last night.