Grochan climbing

Crag: Clogwyn y Grochan, Llanberis
Routes: Nea (VS 4b,4a,4b:led p.2), Brant (VS 4c:sec)
Back on rock after six months absence: as such, this was inevitably something of a shakedown and we got very little done. A lovely week of early spring weather, so the south-facing Grochan seemed likely to provide good conditions. Pleasant sunshine as we warmed up on the old classic Nea, which I last did in 1992. A fine line, with pleasant climbing up the juggy groove. I then led the simple gangway pitch up the slanting continuation of the groove before following Vic up the exposed final wall. A pleasant relaxed re-introduction. We were eager for more - but after abbing down the wall, a jammed rope made that unlikely. I had to scramble up Goat's Gully to free the rope - tedious and time-consuming. However, the sun was warm and the wind dropped for the first pitch of Brant. Great to be back on warm rock, with a nice pitch up an awkward wide groove to a delicate traverse line leading left to the big ledge. Very pleasant, but the sun dropped behind Llechog as Mick (who arrived later) followed. Discomfort seemed likely, so we abbed off and did Slape Direct instead. A frustrating day was then made worse by my failure to do the final technical move cleanly. Still, the lack of action meant I was able to squeeze a brisk 10k run in later - my quickest loop since the injury.