A climber on Seamstress - Seams the Same is the second crack to the right of this
© Sarah Clough
Standing at the bottom of Seams the Same some of the thoughts and feelings that I have just recounted were buzzing round my head. But crucially there were some differences. I can't claim that I was confident about the climb, but I wasn't intimidated. My thoughts were more, "let's give this a go and see what happens" rather than "oh my God, why am I trying this?". Seams the Same is an easier technical climb. It used to be an E2, but has eased with traffic; however it is still described as being somewhat bold. I think it helped that I had climbed Seamstress - the VS I mentioned in Chapter 1 - on the same slab and a few feet to the left. Something felt familiar and I had already made it to the top of the buttress.
I guess I had a bit more of a mature attitude to preparing for the climb as well. I did some stretching; I bouldered up adjacent to the climb and then traversed left to Seamstress and down-climbed it. I stretched some more and cleaned and squeaked my shoes. The climbing on Seams the Same is 5a/5b from the start and stays that way all the way up. I started with perhaps no great expectations of finishing, but with a much more positive attitude than a year before. The moves are a bit like on Seamstress: lay-back a bit on horizontal ledges in order to get your feet up nearer to your hands, rock over and stand up to get the next crimp, or (if you are lucky) larger ledge. The hand- and foot-holds are much smaller, and perhaps a bit further apart, but the moves are beautifully in balance, much more so than on its sister VS.
I got in my first wire, felt secure enough to look up and contemplate the rest of the climb. It seemed like more of the same (see what I did there?); so if I could manage this far, then why not the next section as well? I think this attitude helped me. Before, I had been so put off by the second half of Fool's Gold that I had gone to pieces. Here I didn't worry about the rest of the climb, just the next section and placing some more gear. I had a brief shake and proceeded to do just this. I passed an in-situ jammed cam and clipped it for the hell of it. Just past this I had my first pause for thought. There is a slight bulge at this point (about two-thirds height) before the more vertical lower slab transitions to the gentler upper slab. I backed up the cam with a DMM Peanut that had been a Christmas present and convinced myself that it was a good bit of gear (denial can be positive as well as negative I guess).
I dipped my fingertips in my chalk bag, tried not to think about the gear and committed to the move. It felt smooth and easy and well-oiled, a by-product of all the other 5b moves below and I was now on the final slab.
The next few moves were probably easier with the more amenable angle; maybe one or two at 5b, but mostly 5a. However I had passed all the possible gear placements and had a third of the climbing left (maybe 9m). This was a time for maintaining the same measured fluidity that had got me this far. A time for thinking nice thoughts about climbing VS 5a slabs at Craig y Castell. I guess it was also a time to rely on the confidence I had acquired from the steeper section of the route. I kept on deliberately; not too quickly, making sure my foot-placements were secure and my weight was in the right place; but equally not really pausing, just flowing slowly and smoothly upwards.
I guess the point at which I nearly blew it was just short of the top with the final jugs about 3m above me. Here for the first time an unbidden thought popped into my head "you know, you are going to do this!" Such thoughts can prove fatal I guess, maybe literally so. For a very different reason, the bubble had nearly burst as it had earlier on Fool's Gold. Not without some effort, I managed to bury the thought and concentrate on the next move. Where was I going to step up to? Where is my next hand hold? And then focus on the next move and then... Oh I seem to have my hand on the belay ledge! A quick mantle and a quick expletive later I'm at the top and more pleased than you can imagine. The grin didn't subside for several days.
Interestingly my happiness was not just getting the Extreme tick, nor was it "slaying the beast" of Fool's Gold (with immense apologies to Neil Gresham and a marginally harder Welsh route). Yes both of those were things to be pleased about, but the climb had just been a really good experience. Despite a couple of pauses to think about what to do next and despite my potentially premature feeling of completion, the overall feel had been of being "in the zone" all the way. It had been easy, it had felt natural, it had felt that I was meant to be there and meant to be doing this climb. Feelings that were a million miles away from my experience a year earlier.
Continued in: Things that Made a Difference
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