CHAPTER 73
Once again, I should have seen that one coming.

“By any chance, reasons that might be blonde?”

The younger woman turned sharply, fixing me with quite an intense gaze.

“You still manage to surprise me, Di. I get so used to you seeing things so clearly it throws me when you miss something in plain sight. Sammy hasn’t”

“Eh? Why Sammy?”

“Lots of chatting, me and him. You know that, and you know the state Candice was in. That whole fucking job… Sorry, Di. Don’t normally swear, do I?”

“Not to worry, love. That job?”

“Yeah… I really think we were dropped in it on that one. So much shit in one case that I think some brass somewhere was playing pass the parcel, or at least for bits of it. How long did we spend in the wet and cold, in the end? That whole shitty thing about dead dogs, that was not fair. Things go on… Di, no offence, OK? Sometimes you miss things in the team, stuff when you’re not there. Candice was breaking, really breaking, over that bit. Covers it well, but she wasn’t in a good place. I missed some of it, being sort of in hospital, yeah?”

“Being sort of shot in the head, YEAH?”

“Yeah, well. Not doing that again, am I?”

That set us both off laughing, and as we wound down, she continued.

“Then there’s Barry. Soft lump that he is. Did you clock the state he was in?”

“I know he was a bit wound up”

“Did you know that would have been his fifth real shot? The fifth human being he was being asked to put a bullet into? He’s another who hides it well, but Bryn? You know Bryn, his partner?”

“Of course”

“Friend of my uncle’s, he is. They served together. Bryn’s a lot harder than Barry, and he was getting worried as well. I know you won’t cause problems, but please let the two of them make their own jokes, just for a while. And watch Alun. He’s really down”

I looked at her as she stared off towards the bulk of the Carneddau, and she was steady in her gaze, but her fists were clenched.

“Lexie?”

“Aye?”

“How did you get so bloody wise?”

She turned to grin at me. It was still slightly forced, but it was a beginning.

“Watching and listening to the rest of our team, Di. We all stuff up occasionally, but there’s someone there, every time we do it, someone who catches us before we really get stupid. It’s like Enfys there, with the ropes. Let us get really silly, it did. Knowing there’s something, someone to catch you. I just…”

The grin was gone, and there were tears instead, so I took her to me, held her until the sobs had finished, as she wailed about being stupid, and I was so glad that I kept my mouth shut because what she was talking about was the team.

“How could I even THINK of leaving, Di? I’d be bloody lost without you all!”

It took a little while, but we got ourselves back into a sort of P, P, and headed back to the others. I had noticed Enfys watching as we held each other, and she was gentle with us.

“You really have had a shit time, haven’t you?2

Jon put his arms around both of us, smiling in a sad way at the young guide.

“You could say that. We’re all a bit wound up just now. Can I be really silly?”

Enfys cocked her head.

“What particular type of silly did you have in mind?”

“This has all been nice stuff. Gentle climbing, yeah? Nothing really strenuous”

That got me laughing out loud.

“Just a bit bloody high, Jonny Boy, like that Geoff said about his Missus!”

He shook his head.

“Not what I mean. Look: an easy walk up here, lots of climbing, lots of time to think. Is there anything a bit more energetic, something that would burn some of this angst off?”

I watched in more than a little apprehension as a wicked look crept over Enfys’ face.

“I think I can arrange that. Follow me!”

I was expecting her to lead us off somewhere else, but all she did was walk around the base of the slab.

“Nothing too high here, but there are a few of what the serious climbers call ‘problems’, ah? This is one of my Dad’s old friends called Curving Corner. Easy way off the back, but you have a little bit of gym work to get into it”

The bit of rock in question looked rather like a kids’ playground slide, but one that had been folded together. A V-shaped cleft, with a crack up the back, that started out almost flat and then steepened steadily to the vertical. The real problem, however, was that the flat bit was about six feet up a blank wall. Enfys was smug.

“I go up the back and set up a belay, a top-rope this time. You then climb into the corner and follow it to the top. See that slot on the right-hand wall?”

We all nodded, and she continued.

“There are jugs there, big handholds. What we call ‘Thank God Holds’, ah? Get up to them and it’s easy. You can climb the corner either of two ways: back and foot, or jamming the crack. This is jamming”

She held up her hand, folded the thumb across the palm and showed how it made it wider.

“Yes, it can hurt. Your choice! Who wants to go first?”

I had to be the one who asked.

“Yeah, but how do we get to the corner in the first place?”

“Layback”

“What’s that?”

“See that square flake there? You grip the edge, lean back and walk your feet up the rock, moving your hands up as you go”

We all turned to look at Jon, Blake summing up the general opinion.

“You knob! You can go first!”

Enfys did as she had described, showing us the ramp that led easily up the rounded pillar to its summit, her mate ensuring all our harnesses and helmets were properly secured before tying Jon onto the end of the rope.

“Take in, Enfys!”

“Aye aye!”

The rope went taut, and after a few more words, Jon took the edge of the flake of rock. It took him three goes, his body almost horizontal, before he made it into the corner, standing there panting as he looked at the rock.

“This back and foot thing, Enfys?”

“Aye. Face to your right for this one. You’ll want to put your feet on that wall, bum and back on the other one, right hand out behind you to push on the rock… Yeah, that’s it!”

What followed, for all of us, was a lot of grunting and panting, as one by one we did as instructed, and I have no idea whatsoever how I managed to move up that corner, nor even get into the damned thing in the first place. I suspect there may have been a little more tension on the rope than may have been normal. We all learned exactly why the ‘jugs’ were called ‘Thank God Holds’, though: that bit I remember extremely well. Last to try was Lexie, who seemed to float into the corner before looking down at the rest of us, gathered a little away from the cliff for safety.

“I’m going to try that jamming thing!”

Enfys was grinning at that one.

“OK, girl. Don’t try climbing just yet: try your hand in the crack, feel how it settles into the hold. With your feet, turn them on edge, ah? Sort of twist them into the crack. There’s a chockstone partway up you can get a toe onto. Climb when ready?”

Bitch that Lexie was, her way looked so much easier than ours, and it wasn’t till she got down from the top that I spotted the grazes and the little drops of blood. Ricky handed her an antiseptic wipe.

“Call that gritrash where I used to climb. Nothing to worry about. See?”

He showed us the backs of his hands, and there was a very clear difference between the colour of the skin over his knuckles and that of the rest of their backs.

“Those bits don’t tan any more. Too much abrasion over the years. Mark of a real climber! I tell you, there’ll be people in the Centre bar will spot that, so make the most of it, Lexie”

So, naturally, the rest of the idiots with her, including me, had to try it that way as well. Yes it hurt, but not that much, and I will admit it gave me a curious sense of satisfaction to get the technique right. It felt precarious at first, but once I saw and felt how well it worked, how secure it was, I wanted to do more of it. We were disappointed, though, as both our guides explained how different the rock was to the Peak District stuff Ricky loved, and how few opportunities there were to try it. Apparently, the cliff was a different sort of rock to those around it, or something. I lost track as my body started to tell me how tired it was.

Back to the Centre in the minibus, and a solid meal there, with a few beers, after a long, hot shower. I really wanted an even longer soak in the bath, but there were others waiting, and, well, it would have been selfish, and as Lexie had demonstrated, we were a team. Just a rather sweaty and smelly one.

More days went past us: two wet ones where we went hillwalking, which is perversely satisfying in such weather, and two more of playing with ropes, including that day when we discovered what a lying bastard Geoff Woodruff was.

Idwal Slabs, yeah? “Easy way off”? It was another sodding rock climb for about three hundred feet before we even got to the start of the way down! An easy climb, to be fair, but it was still almost as long as the bloody climb itself had been, something called ‘Hope’. The nutters in our group, meanwhile, had gone off to some place called ‘The Bus Stop’, where they were apparently going to climb on slate. Yes. That sort of slate.

As for us, Woodruff, and ‘Hope’: he could have warned us about THAT one as well, the bastard. In the end, though, we were laughing at the situation, and that was what we were there for. Banter, mickey-taking, teasing, call it what you will: we were beginning to heal. On Friday we went out as a team, Hywel included, on the Horseshoe as far as the summit café, our guides calling it quits as they could see some nastier weather heading our way, and they were absolutely right to do so. By the time we made it back down the Miners’ Path to the Pen y Pass car park, the rain was horizontal and the cloud almost as low as we were. Respect to the two of them for their judgement.

Back to Capel Curig, and Sammy disappeared in a hurry, re-emerging from the other cottage in a couple of minutes with his suitcase.

“See you all in the bar in an hour, mates!”

Another long shower, my man to wash my back this time, clean clothes, and over to the Centre ready for a quiet night in. That was when I realised how ell Sammy had prepared things, for as we emerged from our cottage with Jon and Rhys, Rob and Ellen joined us, along with a smiling Barry and Candice. Office Blonde looked slightly embarrassed, which was not exactly typical of her.

“He’s really switched on, isn’t he? Sammy, I mean? ‘Privilege of rank’, he says, takes the double, and all he’s doing is keeping it, you know, from someone else snapping it up. What do we do to say thanks, Di?”

Barry hugged her to him.

“My opinion? Just keep doing what you do. Lexie’s friend is settled into her hotel, and she’ll be walking up as we speak. Now, what’s planned for tomorrow? Evening, that is?”

Blake shrugged.

“Something some friends of Elaine Powell and Annie Price have cooked up. Music, they say. In a pub”

My old Traffic colleague chuckled at that one, making the expected remarks about almost anything being bearable as long as it involved a decent pint, and we crossed the road to the Centre to continue our healing.