Castle Inn climbing

Crag: Castle Inn Quarry
Routes: Line One (f4c:led), Smartie (f5c:sec), Appenzeller (f5c:led), Line Two (f5c:led), Rosecomb (f6a:led), School Mam (f6a:led), Cakewalk Direct (f6c:sec), School Mam Original (f6b:sec)
An unusually early start to the Welsh rock climbing year, with warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine. Worrying from a planetary perspective, but it seemed wise to take advantage with an opening salvo at a venue I've been visiting for nearly 30 years. Despite the temperatures, there was a strong wind blowing, and we kicked off with a couple of newly bolted routes at the sheltered far right of the crag (I think I've done every route here - with a couple of hard exceptions). These were new, however: an easy line up the crumbly right-hand arete, then the two delicate 5c's that I'd done before. Then came Line Two, another similar 5c, and a slightly harder line (tricky start) on the left that is given 6a. These are all short routes, though, so after a bite we headed across to the windy main face where I led old favourite School Mam which is probably f5 by the most logical line up the cracks. We then upped the grade considerably, for training purposes, with rope above. Cakewalk Direct has always been one of the harder routes at the crag, big numbers for February, but to my surprise I managed to despatch it cleanly (although I have done it before). It has some technical moves on tiny edges and flakes to gain the overlap: crux moves over this, very powerful initially with an awkward side-pull, gain the chain. After the slightly easier line to the left (still technical) this felt like a good start to the year.