A monday evening trip to Wilton 3 near Bolton brought success and new experiences. On such an unassuming evening big moves were made and progresss was chartered!
Firstly Jordan G’s girlfriend Ellie had her first climbing experience. From the sidelines I witnessed a rollercoaster of emotions. Joy at the purchase of pink shoes, excitement at the prospect of climbing, abject fear at the realisation that climbing isn’t as easy as it looks and relief and jubilation as she topped out on her first route. A little bit of coaching and coaxing was needed to get her up her first climb a rather dirty, dusty V diff! Has the seed been sown for a lifetime obsession with climbing? Only time will tell!
The rather more momentous occasion was Will climbing his first E1! On arrival at the crag I bounded about with enthusiasm and told Will of my own success on Shivas arete, E1 5b. Pointing it out I could see a flicker of interest in Will’s eyes. He was looking at it with a definite intention of leading it.
It’s certainly a great route as a first E1. It’s pretty much VS until 2/3 of the way up, then suddenly the wall turns a little blank and rather technical. The bonus is that there is a nice cemented peg to protect it all without too much danger of hitting anything on the waydown if you do fall!
Will climbed the route with confidence, worked out the tough upper section and gracefully topped out with a jubilant battle cry!
Considering climbing an E1 was this years goal for Will, I wonder what else he might achieve this year! E2 maybe?
VerticalThoughts 