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Having had a little introduction to outdoor climbing in 2010, 2011 was a year in which I did a reasonable amount of trad climbing, to the point I'm probably at least a competent punter :)
I successfully climbed 45 routes in 2011, from Mod to HS4b; that's on 10 climbing trips. There were two failures, one due to being too lardy to squeeze through The Elephant's Arse, and another due to simply not being good enough; I took two leader falls (above my gear, which held) while trying Nerd Corner before admitting defeat (and faffing around to ab for said gear).
We took advantage of some fine spring weather to get to Harborough Rocks, with has a selection of fairly easy (if sometimes sparsely protected), short limestone climbs, for an afternoon of reminding ourselves how to climb trad. Harborough Rocks don't exactly have the greatest of views (they're just behind a brickworks), but it's a pleasant enough spot. Next was a weekend in Wales, for our first trip to Holyhead Mountain. We got three nice Diff/VDiff ticks before spending some silly time failing to do the aforementioned Arse route. Holyhead is the place climbers go if it's raining in Snowdonia (something we did later in the year), and they aren't up for a big day on the Gogarth sea cliffs (which are generally suitable only for those happy at HVS and above), but actually there are some commanding views from the cliffs, the walk-in's short for North Wales, and there's a good variety of short climbs. Rather than climb on the other day that weekend, we walked the Snowdon Horseshoe in perfect conditions.
Later in May, I introduced a friend to trad climbing with days at The Yat. The limestone there's a bit variable - it can be really juggy and good fun, but some of the routes are awfully polished; one of those was the first route we tried, but I'm glad it didn't put us off! Said friend did a couple of fine leads, and I got my First HS - Cascade. Symonds Yat is an odd venue - there's a car park and tea room at the top of the cliff, but you have to hop a fence to walk down by to the foot of the cliffs. The cliff itself is mostly shaded by trees, which means it keeps out of much direct sun (or rain), but just occasionally you get to a gap in the trees, and then there's a great view down the Wye Valley. Most of the climbs are one or two pitches, which means you can do quite a spread in a day.
A couple of months passed before my next trad, which was my first introduction to Gritstone (I'm still not sure if I'm sold on it or not!) at the midge-tastic Castle Naze. This was another outcrop of short routes, meaning I got 10 ticks in a day (4 of them were solos at Diff or VDiff, though!). A windswept day at Stanage End in August kept the midges away, but did mean belaying was a bit cold! This time I actually got some gear in the HS route.
An August weekend in Wales was, perhaps inevitably, mostly a washout, but we managed one route on The Moelwyns, and the mini-epic on Tryfan Fach (which shouldn't be possible!) - I climbed up the downclimb, set up an abseil, retrieved the gear, then we decided that we'd rather climb the main face than go back down the downclimb unprotected (it was pretty slimy); once the adrenalin from all the falls and faff subsided, it was a nice simple sunny climb!
Rashly, I went back to Wales, and the weather still wasn't terribly kind. We worked our way up Wrinkle on Carreg Wastad, but the wind was sufficiently strong that we couldn't hear each other at either end of the final pitch. Being able to look down on the cars driving down the Llanberis Pass, and up at the Snowdon Mountain Railway on the other side of the valley is a pleasant feature of climbing on Carreg Wastad, and it seems to catch afternoon sun pretty well. Holyhead was dry, though, so we picked up a couple of ticks, although I got properly scared near the top of Candlestick
I successfully climbed 45 routes in 2011, from Mod to HS4b; that's on 10 climbing trips. There were two failures, one due to being too lardy to squeeze through The Elephant's Arse, and another due to simply not being good enough; I took two leader falls (above my gear, which held) while trying Nerd Corner before admitting defeat (and faffing around to ab for said gear).
We took advantage of some fine spring weather to get to Harborough Rocks, with has a selection of fairly easy (if sometimes sparsely protected), short limestone climbs, for an afternoon of reminding ourselves how to climb trad. Harborough Rocks don't exactly have the greatest of views (they're just behind a brickworks), but it's a pleasant enough spot. Next was a weekend in Wales, for our first trip to Holyhead Mountain. We got three nice Diff/VDiff ticks before spending some silly time failing to do the aforementioned Arse route. Holyhead is the place climbers go if it's raining in Snowdonia (something we did later in the year), and they aren't up for a big day on the Gogarth sea cliffs (which are generally suitable only for those happy at HVS and above), but actually there are some commanding views from the cliffs, the walk-in's short for North Wales, and there's a good variety of short climbs. Rather than climb on the other day that weekend, we walked the Snowdon Horseshoe in perfect conditions.
Later in May, I introduced a friend to trad climbing with days at The Yat. The limestone there's a bit variable - it can be really juggy and good fun, but some of the routes are awfully polished; one of those was the first route we tried, but I'm glad it didn't put us off! Said friend did a couple of fine leads, and I got my First HS - Cascade. Symonds Yat is an odd venue - there's a car park and tea room at the top of the cliff, but you have to hop a fence to walk down by to the foot of the cliffs. The cliff itself is mostly shaded by trees, which means it keeps out of much direct sun (or rain), but just occasionally you get to a gap in the trees, and then there's a great view down the Wye Valley. Most of the climbs are one or two pitches, which means you can do quite a spread in a day.
A couple of months passed before my next trad, which was my first introduction to Gritstone (I'm still not sure if I'm sold on it or not!) at the midge-tastic Castle Naze. This was another outcrop of short routes, meaning I got 10 ticks in a day (4 of them were solos at Diff or VDiff, though!). A windswept day at Stanage End in August kept the midges away, but did mean belaying was a bit cold! This time I actually got some gear in the HS route.
An August weekend in Wales was, perhaps inevitably, mostly a washout, but we managed one route on The Moelwyns, and the mini-epic on Tryfan Fach (which shouldn't be possible!) - I climbed up the downclimb, set up an abseil, retrieved the gear, then we decided that we'd rather climb the main face than go back down the downclimb unprotected (it was pretty slimy); once the adrenalin from all the falls and faff subsided, it was a nice simple sunny climb!
Rashly, I went back to Wales, and the weather still wasn't terribly kind. We worked our way up Wrinkle on Carreg Wastad, but the wind was sufficiently strong that we couldn't hear each other at either end of the final pitch. Being able to look down on the cars driving down the Llanberis Pass, and up at the Snowdon Mountain Railway on the other side of the valley is a pleasant feature of climbing on Carreg Wastad, and it seems to catch afternoon sun pretty well. Holyhead was dry, though, so we picked up a couple of ticks, although I got properly scared near the top of Candlestick