The Roaches

Our head torches cut thick, white cones ahead of us, stopping abruptly against a wall of inpeneratable fog. We followed the path to the hut, each isolated in our own small puddle of light. The hut windows made hazy yellow beacons, and gave the building a strangly sinister appeal, like the lone house that is always conveniently located on a desolate moor, when a young horror-film couple experience mechanical difficulties. The mist pushes against the crenulations and boulders that form the structure of this odd hut. We shut out the cold with doors and beer.
The next morning, the crag is still damp from the touch of the fog, but the sky is clean and cold. The hut is right at the bottom of the crag, so we can oscillate between cold climbs, and hot tea and toast. We climb until it is dark, and I am minorly humiliated when I get stuck in a tiny squeeze chimney at the top of a route. After much swearing, giggling, bruising and sheadding gear, I finally give up, and plop back out of the hole. This was despite Will's best efforts at pushing me up. He spent a considerable ammount of time standing between my flailing legs, causing him to comment that he felt 'like a gynaecolagist'.. nice. We got drunk and giggled the eavening away, helped by obscene conversation and bangers and mash.
The next day broke, and we once again found ourselves in a whiteout. Cormac swore lots, and was emotionally bullied into makeing tea for everyone. The mist lifted, and we finally went back to the crag. Sarah taught me how to prussik up a rope, which meant I spent a long time spiraling and bouncing on the bottom of her very strechy rope, and moving in any direction other than up. After that, Cormac led us up Valkyrie. I managed the first pitch, despite falling several times near the start of the route. I sat on the belay ledge shivering, as Sarah sped up the route. Cormac began the nasty traverse at the start of the second pitch, and the fog closed in again. He eventually back off, and we ab'd off back to earth. By this time, I was very tired and cold, and was finding concentrating a challenge. We warmed up with cheese on toast, and reflected on what an awesome weekend it had been. God, I love these weekends- why can't real life be like them!?