Well I have got to be honest, I haven't been keeping up to date with my blog. I'm sorry. I know you all need my updates to while away those long hours at work. Lets be honest, most of you just look at the pictures, because the words are usually describing things you don't care about or have time to read about. So this blog is going to be picture heavy.

So where have I been and what have I been up to?

Well its been an interesting week since I last wrote about scrabbling with Jess. So ill start with Saturday last. 

I woke up to another stunning day in North Wales. This particular Saturday morning I was due to meet Sue and Sam (from my winter posts) in the Siabod Cafe (also of previous blog fame) for a day of technical scrambling. Sam was to give Sue and I refreshers about the rope work required. Scrambling is one of those grey areas of mountaineering, the area between walking and climbing. At its lowest grade (1 low 3 high) its little more than needing your hands on occasion, but at the top end its basically easy climbing. Time for a photo.

After coffee and a brief chat we decided to go and give Bastow Buttress on the East Face of Tryfan a go. Its a grade 2 with a grade 3 variant. We roped up and Off I went up the first pitch. First I had to get involved with a chimney then there was an interesting and slightly scarily blank face of rock that I needed to tiptoe up (photo above) after which I found a large block of rock to tie the rope to and belay Sue up on. 

Anyway we moved quickly up the rocky ridge mixing up pitching (climbing properly placing protection while being belayed from below) scary bits and moving together (the first person places protection like slings and clips the rope, the second person follows up when the rope goes tight) on less scary sections. 

Having Sam with us means that there are lots of photos of me for a change. 
Anyway we topped out on the North Ridge of Tryfan just before the start of the proper ridge scramble. We opted to scoot round the top and followed a climbers path to descend a gully back to the valley. We did some other stuff relating to safeguarding each other (short roping) which I'm sure your not interested in. Back at the vans it was time to get cleaned up and get dinner. A really cracking day out. 

Which brings me to Sunday. 

Sunday dawned and so did the Apocalypse. Well ok not the end of all days with dead being spat out from the gates of hell but more a day a really bad weather. 

The Doom was forecast for the afternoon, torrential rain, strong winds. The kind of weather that makes you decide to drink hot chocolate in quaint tea shops. Not the kind of weather to tie yourself to another human being and then attach yourself to an exposed ridge and try and struggle up towards a distant summit. 

So Sue and I being sensible individuals we decided to do the latter. We were determined to make an attempt on Clogwyn y Persons Arete, a remote (ish) grade 3 scramble. Its supposed to be totally rad dude! (Yes I just pretended to be cool). 

Well we ignored Sam's suggestions and convinced her to let us give it a try. Word of advice, when the guide looks at the weather and makes a suggestion its usually a good idea to listen and do what she says. 

Anyway so we slogged up towards the Arete. 90min later we were gearing up at the foot of the climb. A dark brooking gully. Well we had arrived but from our lofty vantage point we could see the Doom arriving. Time to waterproof up. 

Well up I went, into the depths of the gully then climbing up the right hand wall. I got up to a belay and started to bring Sue up. At this point the Doom hit us. Sheets of water lashed across us. They swept up the valley and turned the rock climb to a river. As Sue put her hands up to climb water ran down her sleeves. Sam stance had turned into a small waterfall. Fortunately I could put my back to the worst of the rain and focus on keeping Sue's rope tight. 

We made the decision to run away. I lowered Sue back to the foot of the gully before Sam and I rigged an abseil to escape on. The greyness in the photo of the abseil is the rain.

We legged it off the mountain and retreated to a caffe in Llanberis for hot chocolate and cake. It really was a better idea. We had a chat about future possible adventures (watch this space) before heading our separate ways. 

So thats the weekend over. Monday was spent doing an ML rope work and nav refresher with a Leanne from uni. not very exciting and no photos so I'll move on.

Well it turned out that Leanne had little scrambling experience. Which led to my offering to teach her something. So once again I found myself at the foot of Bastow Butress. This time the idea was to do the grade 3 variant. 

I led up the first pitch then brought Leanne up. We pitched a few more sections then we got on to moving together. I took the first part so that I could show Leanne how it was done. Simples. When I ran out of gear I built a belay and Leanne joined me. She then took the lead. 

We topped out just below the North Ridge and hand some lunch. By this point we were undecided as what to do. We looked at the rain sweeping across either end of valley and felt the wind buffeting us. We opted to bypass the North ridge and headed round the East side of Tryfan to pop out on the summit. We then legged it off the mountain as I had to collect a friend from the station. 

Wednesday morning dawned dull and drizzly. Well I had collected Cait from the station the night before and it was her first time in the mountains. We decided that she really ought to go up the highest mountain in Wales. Off to Snowdon we went. 

We headed up the South Ridge from Rhy-DDu. Its and interesting walk with just enough rock to make it interesting to the novice walker. There is also far less slogging up well made paths chocker with tourists. 

Not having seen a soul on the way up it was disappointing to reach the summit. It was chocker with wet looking tourists, who had either come up on the train or walked up one of the bigger more advertised paths. The stench of the toilets hit you a dozen metres below the summit. The building on the summit was rammed. You couldn't move without brushing up against a wet waterproof. There was the usual mix of prepared looking people and people who really were shockingly clad for a very wet mountain summit. It was the guy with a long business style coat on, collar turned up at the rain, black glossy slip on shoes and an umbrella! The kind of chap you might expect to bump into in central London on on the summit of the highest mountain in Wales! 

Anyway after warming up and eating lunch we legged it off the summit. Down the Rhy-Ddu path. This is a speedy decent that returns you to the car with out having to retrace many of your steps. 

Cait was happy but fairly shattered after her trek to the summit. 

We headed to the pub for dinner. Pizza and a pint time. To my shock and joy as we walked in I saw two of my friends sitting there. We went and joined them. An evening of merriment followed. We finished dinner and went for a swim in Llyn Padarn. Ruddy freezing!

Thursday dawned and Cait and I decided to go for a scramble up Moel Siabod (the mountain not the caffe). Unfortunately Cait was suffering from the exertions of the previous day. We made it part way up the track before deciding not to continue. We decided to call it a day for North Wales and headed home.

Not a bad week all told. This is also possibly my longest and most rambling Blog ever!

Well last night after a day of sport climbing in South Wales I drove back to Snowdonia to meet up with Jess Bradshaw. As any of you avid readers will know Jess and I have been known to climb together in the past. Over dinner in her new house we hatched plans for a days scrambling in the Ogwen Valley. 

We headed over to the Ogwen valley and up into The Nameless Cwm. It was scorching! Last time we were here it was murky and wet, a generally miserable day. This was worlds apart. 

We got to the bottom of Cneifion Arete (Grade 3) and geared up. I took the first pitch and headed up, got to the stance and then Jess came up and took the second lead. Once on the ridge proper it was time to move together. I started climbing along the ridge placing gear as it was needed, once the rope went tight on Jess she started climbing up behind me. When I finally ran out of gear I belayed Jess up to me and she headed off up the ridge.  

We carried on up the ridge like this till we topped out on the Y Gribin Ridge. Then we followed this up its the crest of the ridge (Grade 2) until we made it up to Glyder Fawr. This was the first time for me. Woooo! From here we dropped down then up towards Y Garn. Before we got there though we cut down the East Ridge of Y Garn (Grade 2). 

We finally found ourself back at Llyn Idwal after a simply cracking day out! We wandered along the beach and picked up the path back to Idwal Cottage and stopped off for ice-cream and cold drinks at the cafe. the perfect end to the day! 

Another day another National Park. Today I'm in Snowdonia to meet Will and hit up some big rock. After a leisurely breakfast at the Pinnacle Cafe in Capel Curig. Another place worth a visit if your in North Wales. 

Will who's working towards his MIA had a list of climbs he wanted to tick off. This suits me down to the ground as all I have to do is tag along and crack up them. Turns out today we were off to Glyder Fach to do so high mountain routes. By which I mean routes high up in the mountains, long walk ins to the climbs. Non of this 5min walk in business, to get to Glyder Fach took us the best part of 80min. Which was worth it to get the crag to ourselves. 

We ticked off Alpha (VS 4b) on Alphabet Slabs, then carried on up Lot's Wife (VS 4c). We then abseiled back down to the bottom and headed along up to Hawk's Nest Arete (VS 4c). I think that might just be my favourite climb ever. The holds appeared just when you want them. The rock grippy enough that you can trust your feet on the smallest things. I definitely need to work on trusting my feet. 

The only slight problem with getting on the hill after lunch, is that after three routes we were walking off in the dark. Well it was getting gloomy as we headed down from the climbs, and definitely pitch black by the time we got back to the cars.

Shattering, but brilliant. 

A lot of Firsts on this trip! Llanberis and now Gogarth! We woke up to beautiful weather. The blues were incredibly blue, deep and light all at the same time. 

We had decided to have a leisurely breakfast at 9 in the RSPB cafe. imagine our surprise when we wandered over at 9 to find it didn't open till 10! Sarah uttered some fateful words "Shall we do a route before breakfast?". 

We decided to do a route.

With no experience of climbing at Gogarth I let Sarah choose the route. She suggested Rap VS 4c as it finished at the abeseil point. The VS grade scared me a little but I was determined to give it a go. 

Sarah racked up her gear while I rigged the abseil. Then it was time to take off our shoes and Sarah disappeared over the edge. 

She was soon down and I clipped onto the rope and followed her down. By the time I had reached her (it is a long abseil) she had rigged the belay so I clipped in and we started sorting the ropes.

Ropes done Sarah led off. She made the climbing look effortless and I was ever to get on it. After a slight struggle in the middle of the pitch she reached the belay and brought me up. It was impressively good holds. I finally understood why climbing walls are the way they are! 

I decided to have a go at the second pitch. It was fun climbing. Great holds, brilliant gear and just enough exposure. I really can't do it justice. 

I finished up the second pitch and brought Sarah back up to the abseil point. It was about 1pm and the tide was on its way back in. If we wanted another route on Gogath it would have to be before breakfast, again!

We abseiled back down and this time Sarah led off up the first pitch of Lighthouse Arete (VS 4c), intact she ran pitches one and two together to speed up the climbing. 

I quickly followed her up and met her at the belay. I realised that I now had to do the crux of the route. A powerful overhung move. This worried me but it had bomber gear so up I went. After the initial moves it was a pleasant pitch. I ran pitch three and four together and found myself back at the abseil point. Superb climbing. 

It was now 3pm so we decided that it was probably time for breakfast. Unfortunately for us the Caffe disagreed. In fact by the time we got there eat 3:15pm it had finished serving any form of food, other than coffee and cake. So it was a van lunch. Over lunch I was talked into one final climb in the Pass on my way to Purbeck for work the next day. I was easily persuaded, 

We were led up a gloriously positive climb in the Pass (Wind HVS 5b), I was very glad I didn't have to lead it. I finally reached the van at 6pm, after a glorious day, ready for a long nights drive to Dorset (I finally arrived at 3am)

Totally Worth It! 

Cheers Sarah for a great couple of days.

Last Thursday (19th) I woke up in Telford. I had arrived late the night before and only stopped there as I was on route to Capel Curig and too tired to continue. After coffee I got back in the van and drove off. 

I arrived in Capel and stopped in the Moel Siabod caffe and awaited the arrival of Sarah B, my climbing partner for the next few days. The food here is really rather good! Sarah turned up and we discussed a plan. I, shame fadedly, admitted that I had never climbed in Penny Pass (a Mecca of North Welsh Climbing). So it was decided that we should head there. 

So off we headed. It was mid afternoon by this point and we elected to climb in the sun on the East side of the Pass. Carrefour Wastad proved the ideal spot. A short walk from the road and gloriously lit up by the afternoon sun.

Sarah suggested that we have a go at Crackstone Rib (S 4a) and off we went. It was simply glorious climbing. I was convinced to take the first pitch. I was glad I did, the Sever proved to be a good introduction to climbing in the Pass. 

I was simply staggered at how positive the holds were. a complete revolution compared the the brutal finger cracks of Peak gristone. 

Sarah led the second pitch and we finished up on the top and headed back down for a second route.

I was psyked and easily convinced to push my grade. Skylon (HS) was our next route. This time I let Sarah have the first lead which she did magnificently. I followed up wishing that I had been selfish and asked to lead. The second pitch was a scrambley indistinct pitch, but fun non the less. 

The wind had changed direction and a cold breeze was now blowing across the crag. We called it an evening. it was now nearly 7pm. After a brief linger enjoying the view we headed off to the Gally y Glynt for the famous Pizza and Pint deal. Another worth while hang out in the evening. They also have cool table cloths. 

Unfortunately the England game kicked off while we were enjoying dinner. So we ran away to Holyhead. The sun was just sinking and setting as we arrived on Holyhead and boy was it spectacular. Just stunning. A good Omen for the day ahead we thought. We were right, but more of that in the next post. Watch this space.