3 Men and a ledge

It was the day when ‘Pedestal’ was knocked off, ‘Black and Tan’ was tanned and ‘Rotunda’ got her buttress well and truly kicked. Even the great ‘Sloth’ turned green.
WM instructors Jim, Jay and Mike headed over to The Roaches for a bit of a play.
Base camp was at the foot of ‘The Great Slab’ on the upper tier and our arrival prompted the sun to come out and watch. He was so impressed with what he saw he stayed with us all day!
Pedestal Route was chosen for our warm up and as soon as ‘Jimmy 2 ropes’ was sorted he was off and lead a faultless climb, apart from the beginning, middle and end.
After a couple of hours Jim made himself safe and Mike and Jay quickly followed him up.
The appearance of the sun caused Mike to take his windcheater off and the appearance of a school group and two families caused jay to take his t-shirt off!!
With the temperature nudging the 80’s, Jim decided to leave his jacket on?
Black and Tan was next on the list and it was Jim’s bright idea to practice multi-pitch climbing on this 30m classic.

After a tricky start Jim soon made it up to the ledge and promptly made sure he had the most room whilst Jay who arrived second soon set up a nice patio table and recliner. Mike was less fortunate but by using a one-finger crimp on a pebble and actually sucking the wall! he managed to stay on.
The second pitch was lead by Jay who quickly disappeared from view while Mike and Jim pondered as to why he hadn’t taken the second safety rope! Oh well.
Next Jim decided to give Rotunda Buttress his full attention and stalked her base, guidebook in ond. This 18m ascent had already chewed and spat Mike and Steve on a previous visit some 3 years earlier (all be it during a horrendous hailstorm) and Jim was avin none of that!!

Before you could say “Jay, flex your muscles there’s some people coming” Jim was off and made light work of the first 10m. Then the language turned a bit blue as Jim said Hi to a couple of slopers.
The final push was made and Jim cleared the summit to much ollering n hooting, from Jim and a “what do you think you’re doing mate”? from a veteran BMC member. Well done Jim, great climb.

After a great day out we returned to WM to reflect on the day.

One of us laughed.

One of smiled.

One of us cried.

But we all agreed to do it again someday.