Victory!!

Well this evening was perfect... Caroline and myself arrived at the crag in perfect conditions and feeling fresh. Dry cool rock, good light and a gentle breeze. Most importantly Caroline's skin was feeling better and her goal was obvious. Warming up on the 6b the rock felt great. Right then straight onto the 7b+. I lead up it putting in the draws and lower off, brushing the holds even though they didn't need any attention... just following routine at this stage. Caroline ties in and flows up to her redpoint crux at half height. Chalking, I could tell she was going to send. Left hand onto the crimp, right foot stepps through, left foot way out onto it's ticked edge and now the crux ... Caroline moves her right hand from the big undercut and latches the small crimp, but only for a moment, she immediately moves it onwards to the high right hand edge... hitting it her body flexes away from the wall and i can see her 3 fingertips just latch the high edge, fingers straight. Previous attempts saw Caroline ping off at this point but this was different, she bounced her right hand into a half crimp and moved her feet across and up onto her familiar edges and slopes and eyeballed the base of the crack marking the end of the technical crux and the beginning of the final 3 clips worth of draining, off balance, stabbing up the finishing flared crack. Switching into auto pilot Caroline just executed each move as she had done countless times before... not making a sound until clipping the chains and letting out a scream that echoed around the crag! Over two weeks of effort and around 15 redpoint attemps. Rain, cold, 27 degree heat waves, fatigue, thin skin, sore shoulders and split tips! Awesome!! After seeing all that I felt motivated to get on El Rincon again – falling off the initial crux move between the first and second bolt I hung on the rope. It was feeling good tonight. I chalked up and pulled on with my feet probably 2m above the ground. Every hold felt positive and I moved through the sequences I had worked placing the draws as I climbed. I made it to the chains without falls or rests!!! YES! Feck!! Now I know it’s on!!! Brilliant!! I gave it two more redpoint attempts but fell off one move from the change of angle and the good undercut above the crux! We finished up with a few laps on Extreme ways for a finger friendly pump. I'd say that was a productive Friday evening alright!!