Millstone, on a wet day.

Headed off out to Millstone, north bay. Weather sunny with a bit of a chill in the air. Arrived around 11 o'clock, headed up to the North bay to attack Remembrance Day 22m VS 4c 1* . Super route which gives all the way, climbed this route last year(2013). Brought john back to concentrate on tech grades, and not cloud him with adjective grades. Looking to find at what grade (tech) he is comfortable on. Seems that 4c was at the top end of comfort, so looking to drop a couple of grades down to 4a and see how he goes. We are just grading him on second at the moment to find his comfort zone then will move that into the adjective and tech to give a comfortable lead grade for him to work on.

Remembrance Day VS 4c right of picture.

The route sits at the middle right of the picture.

I started the route, got around 15ft up really feeling the chill on the hands. The day was certainly cold, you could see the weather closing in. Most likely going to get just the one climb in before the rain.

Tried to force a Roxcool pose out of john when he was on the last little pitch before the top.

Exiting up the chimney at the top.

Belay pose, once sat down out of the wind it was really pleasant and quite warm with sun on your face, hence the cheesy smile.

Back on terra firma, john paying Doogle with bacon butty bits for guarding the kit whilst we were up on the crag.

Camp Millstone.

Next session, moving on round the corner.

Set off round to Great slab and the Embankment to look at some double pitch routes. The Scoop at Diff was going to be our choice of route but Mother Nature had different ideas, down came the rain in torrants, so off to the Outside shop for coffee. Unfortunately so did everyone else, cafe was chocker block. So we headed off up to Colemans Deli, superb coffee and a scotch egg.

New plan afoot, we headed off to Burbage South full of vigour. Vigour was soon defeated by Mother Nature.

Rain rain rain, light misty rain. Everywhere was drenched in mins.

So, we decided to use the time and put it to good use. We wandered around looking at different types of routes which had the tech grade 4c attached to them. This gave john a wider view of the grade on different types of route. Lots to think about, so it's off home for coffee and sleep, or sleep for Doogle as he's shattered.