Two New(ish) Venues

          I was shown two new venues today, both with development potential and within walking distance of each other.  The first woodland fancy is in a lovely, quiet location, off the beaten track.  I didn't actually get up anything here.  It had started raining on the walk-in and the developed bit of rock was wet but we did clean a little roof that may yield some decent lines and I tried and retreated from some soon to be good problems because of grotty tops, some of which were brushed in preparation of a future dry visit.  Kept getting some glimpses of more rock through the trees and the area's certainly worth some further exploration.

     So across the valley to a more developed area, I was surprised by just how good the blocks looked, unfortunately there wasn't much dry.  The picture below is my first outdoor problem this year and one of only a few that weren't wet, the only other one I tried was a little too hard and the light was fading fast.  This one involved a nifty little heel hook changeover that felt really cool and balanced.
     There is a fantastic-looking arete here, a really inspiring line, unfortunately it is the current project of someone who's put a lot of effort into the cleaning of these blocks but I imagine it is near the top of his to-do list.  The holds looked fairly un-positive and it would probably be too hard for me anyway but hopefully it will have been 'claimed' before my next trip here.