Cedars Birthday

I had planned for my last full day to be a very relaxing affair, wandering the streets of Yangshuo. It was Cedar’s birthday and when he and Tim raised plans to climb one of the easier multi-pitch climbs I found it hard to say no, even with the wet misty weather outside. At the base of the crag, I felt pretty excited at the thought of climbing some trad routes. The small group simul-climbed a cool but very damp route to a ledge at 200ft. Everything seemed pretty great, even with the wet but things soon went downhill when we pushed higher up the wall. The idea was for Cedar and I to climb a mixture of sport and trad pitches whilst Tim took photos of our adventure. Great in theory, not so in practice. Wet and loose rock is a bad combination and on my first trad exploration I came incredibly close to pulling a big-screen TV sized block off on top of me. As I climbed past it, I knew it was loose, and so made sure 95% of my weight was on my feet. All seemed to be going well until I was almost on top of it. I pulled outwards with about as much force as needed to open a quick draw and the whole thing came away. I threw my weight in over my feet and miraculously the block stopped. Sheepishly, I carefully traversed left before pulling my self together and getting on with the job in hand. If the block had fallen, I don’t think it would have killed me but it wouldn’t have been pretty. Thankfully the pics looked great, and that’s all that matters, right? ;) Next it Was Cedars turn. What we thought was an existing 5.10, turned out to be a very bold first ascent. Lose rock came flying past the belay at regular intervals and after seconding the pitch, I can honestly say it may be the worst route I have ever done. The taxi home was a very welcome sight. We all got ready and headed out to for Cedars Birthday. It was a really fun evening, complete with an amazingly intricate cake. Sadly, the stripper we had tried to organise through the Chinese Mafia never arrived, although on second thoughts, maybe that was a good thing. Well that’s pretty much it. I leave tomorrow for a day in Guilin before heading on the long road back to England. It has been a cool trip and I have had a great time. Here’s to the next one…