Torn nostrils

Jim was not happy after his axe blew out mid figure 9....

A not happy Jim

If you look closely you can see he has ripped his left nostril right through. A wound that resulted in 3 layers of stitches to close it up and a few hours in hospital. Bad times.

Jim leading Ibex

Before this happened though we were having a pretty good day. Jim and I went up to Ibex and Bambi, the 2 dry tooling routes listed in the Quarry in the new winter guide book, and probably the only 2 climbable routes in it at the moment! Jim led up Ibex (D8), and I had a very disappointing go at top roping it after. I didn't even get to the top despite resting twice. Rubbish. It was only my second go though and prior knowledge of where the placements are makes a huge difference. 

Torquil on Ibex

Torquil then came along and joined us. Getting Ibex clean on top rope. Jim then led it again, with Torquil getting some good photos suspended next to Jim. The best of these photos are all on my Picasa album. I then had another go on top rope and got it clean, knowing where the drilled holes are makes such a difference.

We then set up a top rope on the more difficult 'Bambi' (D9) and we all had a play. It's pretty difficult just making the first couple of moves, with all sorts of techniques being used. I managed to get past this 'stopper' move but then couldn't do the next, so lowered off. I had used a figure of 9 to get just enough height to make this long reach. Jim then got on and tried a figure of 9, he got his foot over, and was bouncing around a bit setting himself up when the axe popped out the shot hole (which is a very slight downward sloper) into his face, and he fell off and dangled only a foot off the ground. With Torquil and I laughing at the comedy figure of 9 fail thinking he had done no harm.

'They wont be laughing in a second' Jim thought once he realised he wasn't actually fine, and turned round to face us, and true, we then, were not laughing, as blood was pouring out of his face. Torquil thankfully had a little wound dressing which Jim used to stop the bleeding and I drove him down to hospital and we left poor Torquil behind to de-rig the ropes and remove all the quick draws on abseil, in the newly arrived rain. He got soaked. Jim is fine now, with a gnarly stitched up nostril luckily. The joys of dry tooling. I'm seriously considering getting one of those face shield things to bolt onto my helmet for that sort of thing. 

Jim on the difficult first moves of Bambi

Me on Ibex