BinaryJam

Picture Courtesy of Walking Britain.

Isn’t it absolutely beautiful.  This is a view of World’s End above Llangollen in North Wales.  A day just like this back in 1993 or was it 1994.

It was a lovely summer’s day and just perfect for climbing. We had planned this day out relatively quickly, but when you have a rucksack full of gear and a car full of petrol there’s not all that much to think about.  It’s a long trip from the midlands. Certainly a lot further than we would normally travel.  Having had a glut of “The Roaches”, Cheedale and Markfield Quarry it was time we did something different.

Together, Steve, Geoff, Girlfriend (at time) and myself set off.  What a great drive.  We approached Lllangollen and Steve points up.  “That’s where we are going, up there”.  The car snaked through small lanes and crossed a stream that was also the road.  We could go no further by car and had quite a trek up the hill. We had passed some quaint houses at the bottom of the hill, must be nice to live round here if you don’t have to work I thought.  We rounded the corner to a tall limestone wall, not particularly high, 40-50ft as I recall. Around the base of the crag, close to the road, plenty of rock strewn boulders. None big enough to climb, but big enough to trip over.  The guidebook told of good climbs with names like “Starship Trooper”, probably named after a song by Yes considering the year it was named.

We settled down for a day of climbing, flew up some good routes, I am not a fan of limestone myself, but I too enjoyed them.  More climbers appeared two sets of two and started doing other climbs along the crag.  The climbing was good, the rock was dry, the sun was shining, the view was stunning everything was just perfect.

Girlfriend to climb next. Steve flew up an easy route and set up a belay.  “Climb when ready”.  Girlfriend tried hard, as I recall, and was progressing up some “VDiff” climb.  It was at the halfway point Steve shouts “Stop, I’m going to lower you off”.  “What’s going on” I said.  “Just do it!”.  Girlfriend slowly gets lowered down, almost down just 4 feet to go.

It was at that point a scream, a fall, a thud.

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