Collected Steve Tree from his place at around 8.00am and headed for Pennard. Steve and I had arranged the trip on Friday at the wall and in a phone call I said I wanted to to "Skive" on High Pennard.

Come the morning and after a little too much wine the night before, I felt slightly rough. With that and the cold I was not up to leading much and me leading Skive went out the window!

I coaxed Steve to lead it instead quite confident that he would breeze it.

It was cold and blowing a gale. Steve went up got a few bits of gear in and then climbed back down to warm his fingers. After a quck coffee, up he went again and reached the crux quickly. He spied the the "Hidden Spike" without any prompting and was quickly at the top. Well led!

I unroped and got changed and started climbing to the first overhang. Then one of the oddest things happened. On the easy ground probably only about v.diff., I stood on a hold that wasn't there and found myself plummeting downward. Scary, in that it shows that you should always be vigilant!

Went over the first overhang and had a struggle with a small nut Steve had buried deeply under the second overhang. I bacame quite tired and asked Steve to give my arms a rest and give me a tight rope. Once I had both arms working on the nut it came easily.

The second overhang went ok and now freezing cold I stood at the crux. I launched up but the spike seemed to far away. I had got myself a little too much to the right and while I had a good hold for the left on which I could swing over for the spike, my fingers felt numb as hell and I sagged on the rope. Bit miffed.

Got to the top, Steve was buzzing of course.

Walked over to Shire Combe and Steve led Anemone Wall. Good gear again from Steve.

Packed up and and went to the Joiners. Met Tom, Stealth and Joe Lush there and had a couple of pints.

A good day out.

P.S. Steve lent me the Pembrokeshire climbing video. Imagine my surprise when I saw Dingo on it leading Red Wall at Porth Clais!!