Blocktop and Army

A few days ago me and Tom had our first tower experience with desert tower expert Crusher. The route on the agenda was ‘Blocktop’. It was a tower that Crusher had never done before so I think he was psyched to get another summit and the only (sensible) way up there was via some offwidth and squeeze chimney, so he was happy to send us up first. The route turned out to be about 5.11a, (or two pitches of E3) with some classic Llyn Peninsula choss at the top! I apologise for knocking some loose rocks down on Crusher as he then dropped his climbing shoe 300ft down the offwidth. Anyway I was pretty pleased to be able to get to do a tower and the whole experience was really enjoyable - apart from maybe the 350ft jug back out from the tower.

"Don't fall off" Checking out Blocktop

The White Rim view from Blocktop

After some tower climbing with Crusher we were ready to head back down to the White Rim, with Peewee, to battle against some more roof cracks. However that wasn’t possible until we’d retrieved our lost tent, which had blown away half a mile down the road from our campsite. With a little gaffer tape, it was as good as new.

Brit/Canadian (French?) team

The main objective for me and Tom down on The Rim was to make the 2nd ascent of ‘Army of Darkness’ 5.13d. The last time we went down to the White Rim we spent half a day just working out all the moves, but this time we were ready for some linkage.

Because ‘Army’ required some thin tape jobs, Peewee sat us down for a lesson in his extraordinary Canadian tape technique. The resulting thin hands masterpiece, with super glue and finger straps, would be enough for people to pay good money to see. The precision and technique used just to tape up was quite something - but don’t worry Peewee, the secret’s safe with me. After the schooling we gave it ago, but Tom’s started peeling round the edges before he even made it to the first jam and my wrist loop went baggy and ripped on the first sinker hand jam. After some readjustments they stayed on a little better. Ahhhh...nothing better than a Brit tape job.

Tom repairing his dodgy tape job

Tom was first up on ‘Army’ and cruised in fine style to top out on his first redpoint attempt of the route, for the second ascent. He said he forgot a load of the sequences and “fudged it,” which in retrospect I would agree with on the start section which he absolutely puntered his foot sequence. Overall though, it looked smooth as a criminal from the belay pit. I was up next and made it on my first redpoint aswell for the 3rd ascent.

Pete resting in the double kneebar on 'Army of Darkness'
(c) Alex Ekins 

I reckon ‘Army of Darkness’ was one of the best repeats we have done this trip. The quality of the moves were excellent and required a good variety of crack skills from fingers, hands, wide pony and smoke in the eyes. Despite the success in ticking, the route wasn’t without a few minor mishaps, (I blame Peewee there, because nothing ever goes wrong when me and Tom climb together...) with Tom decking out whilst working the route and both Tom and Peewee each got on Angry Pirate in the eye - classic!