Adult play day 2

For our second day of fun we decided to try outdoor climbing for the first time. I'd done an indoor course a short while back and had done some indoor climbing, Steve was training in lead climbing indoors and Ivan had climbed ourdoors before and had some gear. Trawling through the climbing guide we read that Goblin Combe is quite often the next step up from the climbing wall to outdoors.

The forecast was not good, Ivan texted in the morning to ask if I'd seen it, I replied I had and what did he think - his reply was he was game if we were. We figured if it was too awful we could always do a walk. Having walked all round there before I knew it would be nice either way. We arrived at Bristol Docks to meet with Ivan (he lives on a boat there). It had started to rain already, we all agreed we probably would have been better off (and drier) caving! Ivan had his cave mobeel all ready - he has a big transit van stuffed with anything and everything ourdoor related.

Off we set, and the heavens really opened, then they opened some more. At one point we had to be stopped by some guys who were attempting to unblock drains where they were flooding the entire road, thankfully they were still letting cars through, just one at a time. It carried on raining. We arrived at the Combe and there was an outdoor group set up on the carpark crag - they seemed to have ropes on quite a few of the climbs so we decided we'd better keep out there way and went for an exploratory walk down the Combe to check out the crags and see what length of rope we would need. It was so wet in the Combe there was a river running through the middle of it (there isn't normally any water there) (when I say river I mean more of a  stream). Some short while later we found a crag and decided to give that a go, so it was then back off to the car to get the gear.

I was feeling knackered already!

We were top roping the climbing due to mine and Steve's lack of experience, and probably not having enough gear to do lead climbing. So we needed to find a way to the top of the crag. We headed up an exit gully which was impossibly slippery relying on dodgy rock hand holds and tree roots on an almost vertical path wasn't much fun. The sun had come out though so it wasn't all bad.

Ivan and Steve rigged the rope, but when working out what length we'd need we hadn't factored in anchoring it to trees and where the climb described in the guide ended. I blame the fact it was still morning. Sleepy heads still on. We'd also forgotten to take the longer rope up with us, so off I trundled back down the gully of doom to get the long rope. I almost came a' cropper when I started descending a bit faster than intended and lost control, narrowly avoiding getting impaled on stick up my bum I managed to grab onto a tree and stop myself. Glad the others hadn't seen my foolish fall and no worse off other than a very muddy bum it was off to get the long rope. I proudly tied it into the end with a perfect fig of 8 (I am still amazed I can remember how to tie a knot) and sent it on up.



We then whiled away some time messing around on some climbs which were way above our ability, but still good fun. We gave up on one section and the boys went back up to move the top rope to a slightly easier looking section. They both asbo'd down from the top - choosing to avoid the gully of doom. Ivan is pretty unflappable, but looked a little scared coming down on my belay devise - I think he'd rigged it the way round which gave allot of friction and it kept getting stuck as he was trying to come down.














Lots of the climbing seemed to involve shoving fingers in tiny cracks, some which were still quite slippery and wet from the rain. Ivan and Steve both made it to the top of the crag, a mixture of technique and brute force. Ivan having a bit of a hairy moment when trying to get to the very top swung out on the top rope (he will be wearing a helmet next time I climb with him!).












Sarnies and huge wedges of cake munched Ivan derigged the pitch and it was off to the car park to have a go at the climbs there. Rigging the top rope wasn't easy, I got half way along the top and gave up because my fear of heights was kicking in. Ivan and Steve continued and managed to set up a rope. The rope we rigged was a little too short, but none of us could face going back and the first section of the climb started from a ledge anyway.

I was pretty tired by this point so didn't achieve very much. I was finding it quite hard still and was longing for something easy. We all mused as to which bits the beginner groups had been climbing earlier in the day.









Another palm of slimb..







Some climbers came along whilst we were there to lead climb it with all the right gear. I could almost hear them as we packed up to go laughing internally at our ramshackle  ensemble. Who cares though? We'd had a grand day messing about in the glorious location of Goblin Combe. Here's to some hopefully grander days of climbing!

PS I'm still scared of heights!