Fate dealt a joker off the bottom of the pack tonight. I had settled for winter and abandoned evening climbing for this year, then summer returned. Faced with a blood red sun, deep blue skies and temperatures from another country, the Cliff was the only option.
As I walked in it was like a festival, every boulder had a party of people on top who had come to climb but were starring transfixed at the huge, melting sun as it headed for the horizon and turned everything a spectacular orange. One couple had champagne, cut glass and fine tailoring it was bizarre. I was looking for the sound system.
I bouldered on every west facing piece of rock I could find. The whole sunniness of it all, meant I couldn't concentrate, actually I didn't really want to. Stu and Karrie arrived and the we bumbled around for a bit longer. It wasn't about the climbing, it was about the whole crag, sky, sun thing. So as it turned dusky we headed up to the top of the cliff to take in some more. The orangness ratcheted up another notch. First planets, then satellites and finally a good proportion of the galaxy came into view. We lay around nattering for half an hour or so. Just drinking in the views and marvelling at the fact that that this years warmest evening came in September. Then down we went, into the dark and off. Winter I'm sure will be long, dark, cold and unrewarding. However if thats the last night out this year, I'll take it and head into the abyss grinning like a loon.
