Day in the lakes video

Another winter route...

Get in! Another winter route! but in the Lakes this time! I was supposed to be meeting Andy on the sunday and as Tim was suddenly free I invited him along. Tim owns a pair of crampons and some B2 (ish) boots but no axes. Well no axes no problem as we borrowed a pair of a friend and set off for a long day in the lakes from B'ham.

0540, wake up, roll out of bed and wake up Tim. Twenty minutes later he's defrosting the ice off the inside of my windscreen while I'm scraping it off the outside of the car thinking that if it's cold enough down here in Brum for an ice covered car, how cold will it be in the lakes! About 40 minutes later we arrived at Tims to pack some of his kit, and for me to re-adjust my headlight bulb which had fallen out of the holder. Finally we set off on the long haul to Glenridding to meet Andy. 

The journey was relatively uneventful, even Kirkstone Pass had no ice on it (thankfully) and we made our rendevous for 10am at the car park. Here we hashed out a load of different idea's about what to do for the day. We didn't really know what the conditions were going to be like for climbing. From what we'd see there wasn't as much snow as expected. I knew for a report I'd found from the epiccentre that we'd have to go as high as we could to find anything worth climbing on. Also I was worried about Tim's boots for hard ice. In the end we figured that we'd pack a light rack and a single rope and head for striding edge as an objective, but take a single axe each and crampons in case we found a gully that was in. It seems like a "cover all bases" sort of plan.

Armed with a plan and loads of enthuiasm off we set. I'd completly forgotten how long that walk in to striding edge is (not the only thing I'd forgotten). I was knackered and sweating like nobodies buisness with thoughts running round in my head laong the lines of "your not fit enough for scotland" " you need to get out and do more exercise" etc. Added to this I had my thermal trousers on thinking it was going to be really cold... they were soon removed. I found my pace soon enough. 

As we walked in we gleaned conditions reports from more eager peaple (and whose who clearly hadn't had a three hour drive) who were on thier way down. Apparently things on Red Tarn Cove were not looking that bad. We soon rounded a corner and had the whole of the Helvelyn area in view (Striding edge, Red Tarn Cove and Swirral Edge) and could see what was in. We identified a long snowed up gully that ran from base to summit with what looked like a little area of difficulity around 3/4 height. This the guidebook told us was the inspiringly named Gully 2 a grade I gully. Finally we had an aim for the day. 

The walk into the cove was simply beautiful. It wasn't too cold and it's nice and flat, something that you can really enjoy. Mostly you can't see a town or road at all and the silence is very calming. We we stopped for a spot to eat at the nearside of the tarn I realised that I'd forgotten my harness. It was one of those moments when you can completly visualise all the events that lead up to me leaving my harness in my other bag, in the boot of the car. Well we just added it to the list of forgotten kit for the day (2 belay devices and a helmet as well). It was just as well that we were doing a grade 1 gully because hopefully we'd need no extra kit. 

We walked to a little snowfeild at the base of the route to crampon up and practise some basic technique like different ways of walking up slope and some ice axes arrests. Then we had at the route making swift progress up the neve and taking adventage of the steps left by parties before us. As we moved up we had to dodge some large lumps of ice from a couple of guys climbing on a ice route next to us. Then we avoided a couple descending our route. We made good progress up the route stopping off at little steps of ice to show Tim some more or different techniques until we got to the ice step. 

Here I nipped up it first, and Andy second. I then gave Tim my axe and posistioned myself to shoot some film and pictures while Tim delt with the difficulities. He managed them just fine and soon we were flying up the final slope to top out. Again I went a little off route to shoot a few more nice photos. We summited and enjoyed the orange glow of the afternoon sun as it broke through the clouds. It was one of those truly beautifel moments when the world was bathed in an orange light. After congratulations and a quick brew we set off towards our descent... Striding edge! It seemed like the most obvious option to make a real long day out of it.  

We went for it and it was awesome. The hardest part was actaully descending off the Helveyln plateau because of the small amount of hard snow present. The edge was a clear of snow and ice so was pretty easy. I was horrified at all the crampons scratches we could see on the rocks as we made our way across. I can't believe that someone would feel the need to wear crampons across an edge not covered in snow. Striding edge petered out and we rejoined the path we'd walked in on to take us back to the cars, with a pit stop in the pub on the way. 

I learnt loads on this day out. From simple things like double checking that my bag is packed up properly so I don't forget my harness to how much climbing is possible in crampons and just a simple walking axe.

Snow, People and Red lights...

So we've had about a 9 inches of snow here in Birmingham and you can guess whats happened... mad panic! Maybe Britian sufferers from some sort of super snow as apposed to the rest of world? or maybe it's because we're British and we like to make a fuss of everything. I'm currently sitting in my room, with a nice big mug of coffee, checking every weather report I can and trying to decided whether to go wales tonight or tomorrow for some climbing. A little bit of snow isn't going to put me off, infact it's precisely the reason I'm going. 

However I just thought I'd enlighten any readers to the plight of the poor poor people of Birmingham and the west midlands and add some words of advice. The snow isn't actually that bad here. Yes, I'm sure there are roads that are impassable but all the mainroads seem to be fine, as long as you take it easy. I've seen so many people just avoiding redlights ar junctions in the snow, or plain not stopping for things. The other thing is people are not helping other people. I don't know when this culture of "ladders up jack, I'm alright" came about, or whether its a commen thing in winter but seriously! why not just help that guy push his car out of that snow. It's amazing how easy it can be to move a stuck car with a few people. 

When I'm out in the mountains it seems there is a never ending supply of people willing to push someone out, or jump someones car or even tow them to the nearest pub! However there is a different mentalilty in cities. 

I'm still going to stop and help that guy out next time I see him, even if he is driving a BMW....

And so to finish, please don't drive if your not prepared to help someone else on the road, able to cope with some snow and have some spare gear in the car. I leave you with a tree...

First ice of the season (for me at least)

The picture above should be a regular view for any weekend warrior*. It's the sunday night view of a untidy car boot full of gear. It's a view I'm used to as well, as well as the sunday night sorting and drying of gear from a weekend away. Sunday night is never an easy night.

This weekend was my first ice of the season. I know it's not the first ice of the year and routes have been done on the Ben and in Wales for the last few weeks but it was my first ice of the year. The problem with being a weekend warrior is that there are so many other weekend warriors who'll be out at the weekend. Normally this isn't a problem but with a week of winter climbing and good reports coming in about North Wales and Idwal in particular being in condition it already looked like I'd need to book and ticket to get on some ice.

However I did have one idea...

I floated the idea of walking in to Idwal on the friday night with Holloway, my climbing partner for the weekend. I contacted him last week after a walking around Idwal and seeing that everything would be in condition soon. I didn't expect him to actaully agree with my plan, let alone think it was a good idea! He did though and I spent all week packing and repacking trying to make my bag lighter whilst taking the maximum amount of stuff with me. Personally I packed a little on the heavier side taking a little more food and kit with me on the understanding it would be better to get a warm night and leave things cached in our bivi for the night while we climbed.

Things started off interestingly. I managed to pick him up from Stoke (making it there in record time during the rushhour!) only to them side the car off the road and into some snow abotu 500 metres from his house. After pushing it out we managed to get to Idwal with no other problems arriving at the grand time of 10pm... it was warm.

Ok well it wasn't warm, but it wasn't exactly the coldest temperatures I was hoping for. As we walked in I actually thought it was going to rain at one point! It didn't but we had a load of snow and mizzle** before we reached our spot for the night. We actually bivied somewhere I'd scoped out the week before in the boulderfield that flows out from beneath devils kitchen. It's a simple overhanging rock with a little bit of a wall built around it. There was another spot we could have bivied, but it was literally a small cave that I'd not looked into properly. When I arrived I noticed that we already had "guests" sheltering under our rock but never fear for I snowballed the goats till they ran out. They came back later but more snowballs seemed to sort that problem out.

As I said I wasn't as cold as I was hoping for, not that I was looking forward to a night my sleeping bags as it was, but it was actually star to get a little damp rather than frozen and icey. I still put the kettle on and melted a load of icicles for my evening brew before settling down in my 2 decathlon sleeping bags and trying to find somewhere to lie without a rock sticking in part of me. The actual night itself wasn't so bad and I only woke up about 4 times, once however to find I'd tossed and turned so much I was out of my sleeping bag wondering why I was cold. At 6am my alarm went off and I added more icicles to my jetboil to make a brew. It was at that moment that Holloway reported a few head torches already making thier way along the side of idwal. Christ! It almost seemed like spending the night out might not get us to the ice first after all.

After speed packing I was off through the snow to get to the bottom of our route. As it was Holloways first time out climbing with me in a few years and seeing as he was so psyched for it we were heading for Idwal Stream (grade II/III ***). As it's a classic route and on Baggy's blog he reported it in the best conditions he'd seen it in for years I knew that there would be masses of people heading for it. I know it's not all about getting there first, but I wanted to be there so we had some time to do the route without the pressure of the another team behind us.

As it happened as we geared up another team joined us at the base, 2 lads called Pete and Tim. We ended up climbing in parallel for most of the route and got chatting to them. They'd both packed in thier jobs to climb ice all winter, which was pretty cool but they seemed to already be uncertain about the future. They'd not got as much winter experience as our team, but they were swapping leads as aposed to block leading so they moved a bit quicker, but it  was nice to have another party to climb with.

Crag congestion... and this is at 0730

As I said I took most of the technical pitches of climbing, but Idwal Stream is a broken route. It's escapable (if you need to) but also not a series of technical pitches one after the other. There was some easy ground and a good stance after each pitch which suited us fine. I took the inital groove and climbed parallel to Tim which was probably the hardest pitch on the route (certainly the steepest) and started off with some thin ice so it was a while before I got a good ice screw in. I climbed leashless with my modified DMM fly's which worked fine as normal, but I didn't use the lanyard and just relied on not dropping a tool.

Pitch one was fine. I took me the whole pitch to get used to climbing ice again and making usre than everything was placed in the ice properly and securely. We walked the next slope and rebelayed at the base of the next cascade. This was long but less steep and had been drfrosting a little more. Instead of front pointing my way up I was able to take adventage of various ledges and step al left behind from previous parties, whislt avoiding the water spraying out. Infact the most technical part was the top out as I tried to keep my feet on ice and not scraping on rock. At this stance I used the one and only piece of rock gear on the whole route despite the fact that I've brought what was a sizeable mixed rack up with me. I guess it's better to have it and not need it etc.

Sadly out of focus

Holloway was climbing pretty well and as a team we seemed to be moving pretty quickly. The next pitch was the longest pitch I lead, almost 60 metres but in all fairness the difficulities were short lived. The first 20 metres of the route was another iced up groove before a difficult step up and right to easier ground thenit was a semi-snow/ice gully till I found something good to belay off (a load of good ice). Moving quickly over such ground was a absolute joy. Then came the final pitch of real ice. This was a 10 metre cascade with really only a little bit of difficulity on it after topping out and bringing up Holloway we dropped the ropes and coiled them got rid of any other gear for the final gully. This was easy ground which we covered leisurely enjoying being out. The weather wasn't exactly like the met office and MWIS had predicted. It was more overcast and now snowing rather than clear skies.

Eventually we could leave the gully and head off right to fine the descend down the track that would lead us back to our bags. We had planned to do some more climbing but walking down we saw that the cues had formed and it seem a long wait before we could get on the screen or the ramp. Instead we consoled ourself with a brew back at the bivi and then the joy of repacking the bags, before a gentle walk out. It actually even stopped snowing for us on the walk out too.

All in all I don't think thats bad for my first ice route of the season and coupled with walking in the night before and sleeping out it turned it into a proper adventure. I was considering new axes (nomics or quarks) but after this weekend I decided that there's nothing wrong with my flys at the grade I'm climbing. I'd still say go leashless thought. Holloway decided that he hates his leashes with a passion. It seems like he'll be replacing them with some clipper leashes instead. And I was impressed with my sleeping bag system (a lightwieght down bag and a lightweight synthetic over the top) whic kept me warm, however I could do with some tabs so that they hold thier shape whislt I'm in them (I invariably wiggle out of one bag when sleeping).

As for sunday, well we'd bailed by Saturday night. We didn't have anywhere to stay saturday and alot of kit was wet. After checking all the weather reports we could find and Holloway contacting a friend at RAF Vally to ask what the weather was going to do it didn't look promising. As it turns out it looks like the temperature dropped again. I guess thats the winter game though, because you know if we'd stayed it would have just rained all day.



Devil's Kitchen, in all it's winter glory



*weekend warrior; a climber with a monday to friday job, only getting out at the weekend.

**mizzle; somewhere between mist and drizzle. A form of precipitation.

Thought for the day and snow...

It's not normal that I write a post that isn't related to climbing but today I'm writing something different. Each morning when I wake up I do general morning stuff (wash, clothed etc) then I come downstairs to have breakfast and listen to Radio 4. Now I don't care that radio 4 is seen as an "old persons" radios station, it's much better than everything else in the morning. Each day they do a piece called "thought for the day" (this is those people who don't know). A guest speaker, usually from a prominant Faith groups will regail the listeners with thier "thought for the day". I'm not against religion but mostly the Christian and Islam religious leaders bang on about thier religion and how it's related to something in the media, normally by a tenious link. This for me is something sad because I don't want to hear that.

However at least once every two weeks a guy comes on to speak. He is the Chief Rabbi Baron Sacks. Thats a prett grand title. I figured that I should google him to give people some information on him. Born on the 8th of March, 1948 his full title is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commenwealth. A few minutes browsing what comes up will lead you to realise that Baron Sacks stands up and is not afraid the defend his religion fairly but strongly.

So why am I writing about him. Well he is clearly very proud of his faith but whenever he's on thought for the day, I don't get the feeling he's trying to force his religion onto me, or use it to influence my life. He's anocdotes and stories that are used generally can be applied to other situations and are not religion specific. When he does use a specific religious festival to make a point, the point isn't specific to religion but it's board and open. He's makes his thought simple but effective and something that everyone can read into and take something from.

Today's speach was about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, but it wasn't at the same time. It was a roundabout story of how religions the world over should work in harmony with each other. He finished telling how all religions seem to light candles at different festivals, and finished with this quote:

"For my flame does not threaten yours nor does yours diminish mine, and each time someone lights one, whatever his or her faith, the world becomes a little brighter for all of us. That's why religious freedom matters and why religious diversity enlarges us all."



Anyway, snow. Seriously!? the rest of the world must be having a right laugh about now watching Britian cope with temperatures a few degrees below zero and a bit of snow blowing around. All I keep dreaming about is ice ice ice and when I can get out and start playing in it. Bloody school!

So why haven't I been out trad climbing?

Simple answer, I don't know.

Two weeks on the trot I've done no more climbing than a couple of trips to churnet. Actually being able to rest for a considerable period has been great, but I'd still rather be out trad climbing somewhere if I'm perfectly honest.

The two trips to churnet haven't been a complete loss at all... for from it infact. I've enjoyed myself immensely each time I've been there and it's normally just been nice to get out of the house or Birmingham. On my first Churnet trip I ended up at Cottage Rocks. If you've not been there its wicked. The buttress is relativly small, but sports an overhanging crimp and pockety wall and a steep slab/wall with everything from cracks to pebbles to slopes for pull on. We arrived in the late afternoon, so we had the sun filtering through the trees (gutted I forgot my camera). I enjoyed the day climbing until we had to get the head torches out and then bailing with sore fingers. All day I was persistantly hitting about 6a/6b which is pretty good for me.

The second trip was to Wright's, which is definatly more of a burly mans route. I had another good day in less than ideal conditions (a little drizzel now and again to spice things up). I did remeber my camera this time and cought some pictures of us playing on a few problems and climbing around V3/V4. I did miss a V5 by inches, which has given me some incentive to get back and do it!

SUMC trip to wales!

Another trip to wales with my old uni. I met them at Ben's Bunkhouse located between Llanberis and Nant Peris. If I've not sang the praises of Ben's Bunkhouse before then I should have. All it was lacking last time was a drying room, but that's not been finished off. The bunkhouse itself is well situated, with three rooms for people to sleep in and a lounge for a sort of overflow. The kitchen forms a bit of a focal point, was a little small for our needs. As I said though, it's a pretty good place to stay.

On the way down I'd had the fun of changing a headlight on my car, which really didn't want to happen and I resorted to the good old favourite... duct tape. I had to pick Andy up at Junction 38 on the M6 which wasn't so bad seeing as I was driving from the Lake District after spending the day on a Geography Field Course with work. Having said that I was pretty tired as I'd been on the road for something silly like 7/8 hours. For some reason I volunteered to be part of the breakfast crew in the morning.

So I wok up with a headache and stumbled into the kitchen to start the fun task of cooking breakfast for 30 people. I wasn't alone though and we had a right laugh getting it all done. Then off for some climbing! I'd managed to get a group of people wanting to climb for the day through no fault of my own and headed down to Tremadog with a cliff in mind (Craig Pant Ifan, Upper Tier). As we pulled up at the classic single pitch location to my dismay there where 4 minibuses parked up. I'm not going to lie but I panicked. I'd just dragged 20 people on a 40 minute drive for no good reason. I scrambled for the guidebook and thumbed through it looking for a suitable crag. I hit on Moel y Gest. This isn't the quarry you can see on the hill that over looks Porthmadog, but the other side that faces the ocean. Back in the car and off we went.

We managed to fit all the cars in a tiny little lay by and confidently set off in the wrong direction before I realised where I was going. I also messed up the scale completely of the walk in diagram and it took a good 40 minutes uphill before we arrived, but we'd arrived at least. Then it started raining and I'd found out I'd forgotten my waterproof. What a n00b! I had to spend the rest of my day in my softshell but thankfully the rain wasn't so bad. It came over 2 or 3 times during the day and was gone as quickly as it came, overall we had a dry day.

So what did we get up so. I took a sketchy scramble to place a top-rope on a line that was somewhere between 5b route and 4c route. Immediately 3 freshers jumped on it and after some brief instruction how it all worked and a reassurance that it was all safe off they went. Tim and Andy set off leading some routes to bring groups of freshers up and Alex and Scott got people kitted out. A couple of the second/third years also grabbed the guidebook and head off up some routes. I know Ronnie spent along time on what looked like an awful VS 4c.

As the day moved on we eventually pulled the top-rope and moved it over to a rather more interesting VS 4c line on the other buttress and I managed to sneak in a couple of lead of the choice lines on the crag. The first was Oh capitan, My captain (E1 5b) which took a shallow groove to a little over lap on almost bad gear. It was a little run out but the rock was good. I was in my older, larger climbing shoes because I thought I wouldn't get any climbing don't so I didn't feel so secure  on my feet. Scott seconded me and flash it. Later in the afternoon I jumped on Shiver me timbers (E1 5b) which literally had no gear worth a damn on it till you got about 20 metres up. This wasn't so bad because I got a lot of RP's and other shoddy "confidence" gear in but none of it would have held. Instead I just didn't fall off and James and Nat seconded me up it.

I even got to teach some leading. Nat (a second year) fancied leading a VD line that was well within her climbing capability so I had to a play around on a quick ascending system (gri-gri/jumar rig) to climb up the rope with her to help her out as she climbed. She actually really appreciated it and said that it was much easier leading with someone to ask questions with as apposed to someone shouting from the ground.

The only mess up with had with the day was on the walk back in the dark we all broke up into several parties and Ronnie's party manged to miss the track back and got a little lost in the forest. We did find them. James then lost his car keys so after tearing the hut apart for them, I drove him to SPAR and they'd been handed in there. Silly James. Evening games prevailed back at the hut with Ronnie knocking up a great lemon chicken dish, a good quiz and some rough and tumble silliness late into the night.

The Sunday morning is always a mad panic to get everything cleaned, emptied and packed into the cars that we all managed without the normal fuss. Seeing as everyone wanted to climb we went back to Tremadog to attempt Craig Pant Ifan upper tier... again. We arrived with the whole club this time to the dismay of 2 minibuses and a host of cars. I wasn't impressed again but Tim said we should just go up anyway. When we did arrived there was about 30 OTC there and 15 BUMS (Bangor Uni) all with ropes set up. I genuinely was at a loss of what to do then I remembered that there was some bouldering around the back of the crag. Ronnie, Alex and Stuart took pretty much everyone off bouldering leaving the rest of us to decided on something to do.

When some of us went to see if there was any space free for a couple of top-ropes at the top of the crag I met the OTC leader who was stripping out all the routes, giving us over half the crag. What random and good luck. We quickly set up 2 tp's on the VS lines and a few of the 2nd/3rd and ex members started leading the other routes. I managed to get another couple of leads in one of Madog (VS 5a) and at the end of the day I snuck in a quick lead on Myomancy (HVS 5b). I've done both routes before and had no problems on Madog, but Myomancy was a different matter. I had a right mare the first time I did it (didn't fall off though) and though the route was really hard for the grade. After going back and having a tiny yellow cam which fits just under the roof I can see that the grades fair and it's really a wicked route. It's a little short lived, but is a strong contender for my favourite route on the upper tier.

Then came the time to repack everything, and start the grade walk back and drive home. Considering the weather report we managed to get a load of climbing in over the weekend. The committee and new members all pulled their weight and I think everyone had a great weekend. Personally even though I said to myself I wasn't going to do the whole "instructor" thing, I did. I went straight into it without realising and before I could stop I was rigging top-ropes and running around worrying about every bodies safety. I actually loved it as well because everyone there was psyched to climb. There was no moaning, whining or bitching about the climbing and people just got on with it and helped each other out. I look forward to climbing with this bunch of guys again and taking them on some multipitch adventures.

A mountaineering day out... Lliwedd.

I've wanted to climb on Lliwedd for ages and god knows why I haven't. For some reason there's always been something going against it be it inclement weather, the crag not being dry, the long walk in or a unpsyched partner. When Andy suggest it you'd have thought I would have jumped at the chance? Well I didn't and I can't remember why, but I soon found myself parking up just down the road from the Pen-y-Gwyrd. Throwing a single rack, ropes and some food into a bag donning my boot and walking off up the road with Andy for a crack at a route on Lliwedd. I should have mentions that I was threatening to rain...

Don't ever be put off by a long walk in. By Lake District standards Lliwedd probably close and by Scottish standards it's probably a roadside crag. The walk in, which looks long, uphill and tiring isn't actually that bad. In fact it pretty much a gentle stroll, with a heavy bag on. We'd packed light either way and kept muttering to each other that it would be good training for winter etc. I made a real effort to drink loads of water on the walk-in and continually fill up my water bottle. I hate that dehydrated feeling you get near the end of the day after a long climb.

Our route of choice was supposed to be Paradise/Black Arete (HS 4a) but when we geared up the route was actually soaked and we hit a few other snaggs. The first being the weather that started to rain, then stopped forcing us to decided whether it was worth pushing on and the other was Andy's misinterpretation of me when I said pack "light". When I said pack light I meant tack out all the stuff that end up in the sack from cragging (tape, superglue, beertowel, extra gloves etc) and only take what you need. This is why we had 1 large rack with us. Andy had manged to no bring his waterproof! All the way I had noted his bag looked rather small and light. Well waterproof or not waterproof we decided to push on. Instead of our original route we went for the mountaineering classic of Horned Crag Route (VD).

Gradually we made our way up the crag, pitching it as it was a little damp until Andy hit what proved to be a crux pitch. It was an overhang which Andy couldn't surmount and instead of us turning round I had a go. I managed it, barely. It was simply one of the hardest moves I think I've pulled off. I was still in my big boots and wearing a rucksack but I don't think it was more than 4c. With rock boots on I'd have struggled. I was smiling from ear to ear when I topped out. I belayed close enough to see Andy on the crux so I could give him should he have needed it, as it turned out he didn't.

The weather was properly threatening us now. It had been looking like rain all day, but we figured we got some luck on our side, but things seemed to be stacking up against us. It was rapidly getting dark and we still had at least 100 metres of scramble diff terrain to cover before summitting, without even thinking about getting down and Andy had not waterproof. If this where a film, the music would be starting to build ready for an epic. That epic never came, not in the really sense. I took the lead and we decided to move together or I'd choose where we needed belays for and keep enough runners between us. At one point I pulled in 2 untied strands of rope due to miscommunication in the strong wind and a massive tangle Andy had untied from. I know I slowly down a lot after that and made sure we did everything simply and safely.

The last 100 metre (it was about nearer 200 from the crux) was proper nice scrambling terrain, which I moved through with no trouble. However it was dark but we both already how our head torches on our helmets. I topped out into a howling gail and was blown around a bit before I hunkered down and started waist belaying Andy for the final section. He arrived slowly, a dim beam off in the distance before we were together, smiling and congratulating ourselves on our first route on Lliwedd! We'd done it, but as the old mountaineering adage goes, getting to the top is only half way there. After a quick throwing of all the gear into bags, zipping up of waterproofs and the addition of gloves, off we went.

The wind properly hit us. Whatever luck was watching over us while we were climbing making sure that the weather didn't break soon ran out. And run out it did in great welsh autumn fashion. We got pelted with hail and rain in 60mph winds and he headed down the side of Lliwedd to the little col, before going back up looking for the path. Andy by this point was just letting me get on with finding the way down, but I was getting worried. I couldn't find the path at all and I'd never been here before.

With no few landmarks through the hail, and eventually the far far off lights of the Pen-y-Gywrd I located a path, which turned into THE PATH I was aiming for. By this time we where both tired, soaked through (well not my top half) but home was insight! We scrambled, slipped, fell, walked, jogged and tumbled down the path that had turned into a waterfall landscape. Eventually we reached a point I recognised and thank god the rain stopped. In fact it didn't rain again till we got to Pen-y-Pass which saw us running for some shelter. As the rain showed not sign of abating Andy opted we run to the Pen-y-Gywrd. We'd earned a pint and we were having one it seemed so off we ran, I actually stopped at one point but when I realised how slow I was going that was it, it was double time to catch up with Andy and then faster to the pub.

We must have done that run in about 10 minutes.

I was sweaty, hot, tired but it didn't matter because the pub was all we wanted. Cool purple moose brewery ale, a large fire to dry our kit and a new pub. Our only problem now was where to stay for the night?

Carnedd Y Filliast

An interesting start to what was almost a bad day. The weather looked a little bone to say the least. After throwing around a million and one different ideas we braved the bad weather to go climb Sub Cneifon Rib and then maybe Cneifon Arete to boot! This plan was going great until I got a screw through my tire. Instead of going climbing me and Andy set off to Bangor to find me a new tire and Rob, Soames and Tom went off into the mountains.

I wasn't exactly best pleased and having to shell out for 2 new tires, but they would have have to have been replaced eventually and seeing as it was only about 12 o'clock Me and Andy decided to have a crack at a couple of routes on Carnedd Y Filliast (Crag of the greyhound bitch). These slabs are at the first or last cwm in the Ogwen valley and a high up. It's a deceptively long walk to them as it's a good 40 minute up hill jaunt. A friend of ours had called up to warn us of apparent 90mph winds that day so we bore this in mind as we plodded in.



posing with a new beer towel in the wind



The crag, if you've not stood beneath it, is actually quite big. I couldn't ever really get the scale of the thing from the guidebook, not properly. We'd planned to do a HS 4a called Savannah on the Red Slab then do Left Edge (VD) on the White slab above. I had a right laugh when the guidebook noted that you would need smears from hands and feet on the climb, no sh*t Sherlock, it was a slab climb. I really didn't know what I was in for, but with a full rack and a brave look on my face I stepped on the face.



To say it was windy is an understatement, to say it was simply the strongest wind I've climbed in much better. I've never been almost blown off a slab before but this time I almost was. There was also about 5 runners all the way up to a crap belay, however the climbing was fantastic. I swear if chalkstorm had this much friction it would be E2 5b!. The belay was a little lacking, 2 small cams that were hardly in and nothing to really brace off because well... it was on a slab. I figured they'd hold and took in before yelling "ooooooon beeeelaaay" into the wind.

Andy climbed it pretty quick, but he, just like me almost got blown across the slab he arrived at the belay and I yelled to him that I'd lead us out. The next (and final) pitch looked ok, but it was seriously threatening to rain. We where shouting to each other the wind was so strong. Quickly reflaking the ropes and swapping the gear off I set, battling into the wind.

This was an awesome pitch mainly because the wind was so strong and I could lean back into it and walk with my feet flat on the slab. This went well till I topped out and the wind threw me over and I tumbled into the rocks. I couldn't help but laugh. I belayed off a braced stance and a back up nut, yelling again that I was safe and Andy could start climbing. There was snot getting dragged out of my nose by the wind. Andy topped out and went to get out of the wind behind a boulder, and thus ended the climb but not our day out.



I stumbled behind his boulder to see that it provided as much wind protection as a crisp packet. I ran off yelling something about finding somewhere better and dropped over the ridge. It was marginally better, good enough for us to sit down and de-kit. "Don't fancy the VD then?" I asked. All I got was laughter in return. I knew the day was over and we'd start descending. We'd snatched a great day out despite a flat tyre, threatening rain and seriously strong wind and we ended up going car to car in under 4 hours. It doesn't get much better than that.

Rudy Tuesday (E2 5b)

So I went to the Roaches... again! I only managed one route because I spent some of the day boudlering on Joe's Arete and Cooper's Traverse (I managed the Arete, one handed! I didn't manage the traverse) The route I did was Ruby Tuesday, something that I've looked at before but never really considered I'd be able to do. For some reason I thought today was that day and I enlisted Ronnie to belay me up what was to be a great journey in the vertical. It's actually a 3 pitch route, but only because it wanders around the cliff a little taking an interesting line.

So pitch one fell to me as it was the first 5b pitch. The initial section is slightly undercut making the first few moves annoyingly hard. Annoying because I was risking falling off until the floor and the grass was wet and slippery and slightly sloping. I would rather have had the pad underneath me, but it was occupied keeping my kit dry at the time and I was already tied in. The first few moves like I said were a little bold, till I got a good cam in. Then I was under the roof. I immediatly saw why this was E2. The good handhold was a loose block which I manged to wedge into position then fix in place with some nuts. In the end I had 6 pieces of gear under the roof before I built up the courage to make the lip move.

What a move. When Ronnie did it he called it the best move he'd ever done on grit. I'd don't know whether I agree but it was pretty awesome. You made a long reach for the lip then smeared your feet across to match both hands. Then a pull up over the lip, garb the crimp and get a heel hook on the lip. The rock over! There was underpull on the back wall to grab and that was it. It was such a smooth sequence once I'd committed to it. The next move had even worse gear to protect it (4 microwires) but was just and gnarly lock off to slap up for the final hold, and pitch one was done.

Apart from the reachy start, Ronnie flashed it. I was well impressed because the move under the roof was almost full stretch for me at 6'5 and Ronnie is only about 5'. Instead of making a big move he did it on a series on tiny crimps.

Ronnie declined the lead of the next pitch, which was ok as it turned out to be a particularly nasty traverse across some green rock and wet footholds. I think the crux was probably trying to keep your feet dry. Then the final pitch, also 5b, that took a crack then a traverse then a slightly overhanging arete. Well the guidebook never said it would be easy! The crack was alright to start, just cold and a little damp but I got some high gear in and set off across the traverse. This gradually got harder and harder as my arms got more and more pumped. I reached the arete thinking that I didn't want to fall off. It would have been a pretty long swing. Instead I just pulled on my arms and pushed through the final holds. These it turns out were all pretty good. I still clambered over the top panting. Ronnie just flew up the crack with easy.

So one route all day? Was I annoyed that I didn't get more done... hell no. It was an awesome route. It was also great to do a different route on a crag I've felt like I've exhausted, I'm pretty psyched for some more new routes to come!

Half Term...

When I started back at work after the summer holiday, I couldn't wait till half term. Since it arrived I've been struggling to find time to actually take a proper day off during it. Thankfully it rained halting climbing for at least one day. I've done no blogging, zero video editing and generally nothing up run away from the weather, drink tea and lug my rack & ropes around the country. Still I supposed thats not such a bad thing is it?

It's also been ages since I've been able to sit down and write up anything on here. My personal laptop has gone fubar and needs flattening which means I'll loose a load of video footage (very annoying) but hopefully not to many photos. I'm trying to get everything I've done over the past week, but it's taking some time!

A proper grit weekend (9th - 10th October) Part 2

I'd like to say we had a big night in the pub, but in reality that didn't happen at all. We had a big meal! and for me a single beer but we all pretty much fell asleep at the table. We stayed up at North Lees campsite. I've not stayed there in about 6 years (amazingly) so it's changed a bit since my last visit (nicer toilets, better washing up facilities and a place to log in a pay). We depitched after a few cups of tea and headed back to Outside as the general vote was for a cafe breakfast. Over breakfast we threw around idea's about where to go climbing for the day. Many ideas were thrown around but in the end we settled on Gardom's Edge, based for me at least on the chance to do Moyer's Buttress.

Gardom's Edge! a new crag. I'd spotted it in the guidebook the weekend before as I wandered into Birchen and it looked pretty cool. Infact we picked it because there was a lot of routes are a variety of grades and it was sheltered from the bitter wind blowing around (it's got trees). After a winding journey with a crap map we parked up and walked in. The amount of junk I'll carry to the crag is ridiculus when it's somewhere like the peak. I had my normal gear, and Matt Snells harness, shoes helmet and misc gear and if that wasn't enough my bouldering mat. I'd never dream of all this is the mountains but yeah well, you know, it's like the peak district.

We headed straight for Moyer's Buttress (E1 5b) which was a route of "historical significance" as discribed in the guidebook. In reality it had a nice name, a nice story and was the crag classic so Andy suggested that I should get on it. After a nice walk in across a bit of moorland then a little forest (foraging for mushrooms) we had a nasty little damp descent before arriving at the base of Moyer's Buttress. The line looked clean and awesome so I pretty much jumped straight on it with Andy Rainer belaying. The initial slab wasn't a problem, then came the move round the arete past the loose block. It's loose but unable to fall out of the wall. I climbed it too quick and very nearly blew the crux as I'd stopped thinking about it. I quick retreat and the finding of a proper solid knee bar allowed a hands off rest and some good gear before my second attempt the the crux. This time I sent it (shakily) and headed on off up the final slab, which was hard. The moves felt pretty sketchy but I was just not used the grit or Gardoms (each edge has it's own character). I ended placing loads of gear on this final section but in all reality it wasn't that bad. I topped out smiling and brought up Andy.


Ronnie then had a crack at this on lead. He did pretty well but couldn't get the knee bar in so had to just go for the crux. Sadly he pumped out and missed it falling off. It was a pretty safe fall at the go and we got it on camera so await another video. 


Where next? Well Andy wasn't too psyched for anything so after his recommendation I set off up Nowanda (HVS 5a). It's a proper crack climb that'll just spit you out if you can't jam. Which very nearly happened to me. I fought and fought with the blood rushing to my arms (and out of the end of them too) and manged to pull it off arrving panting and smiling on the top. Andy seconded it and agreed it was just as hard as last time. 


With barely a moment to stop I was back on the lead of Landsick (E1 5b). This was a fun lead which I managed to mess up. I pumped out and just went for the crux instead of retreating and placing a good piece of gear. I narrowly avoided a nasty injury as I crashing into a boulder when I fell off. Back on the lead I placed a piece higher this time round and sent it, pumped. I normally hate falling off and failing on something, but this didn't bother me. I was having way too much fun climbing to care that much. 


Andy found a route and he set off up a VS 5a slab climb. It was a little polished but it actually went pretty well. Andy flew up it making the moves look pretty easy and I seconded him trying for a direct line of nasty little crimps. In between all this I got loads of photoage of Ronnie leading and topping out for another little video. 


Climbing was almost over for the day. I'd sent a crag classic, fallen off, got pumped, slipped on wet grass and just enjoyed myself. I managed to sneak seconding Nat up a Vs 5a to finish off the day nicely before the walk out and drive home. Couldn't really ask for more.

A proper grit weekend (9th - 10th October) Part 1

Cold weather? dryish? strong wind? sounds like grit season to me! Infact the original plan was to go to wales with Sid, Claire and Matt, but that all fell through at the last minute. Instead I ended up in the Peak with Ronnie, Andy, Nat & Jake the dog and what a bloody good weekend of grit climbing it was.

Like all good climbing weekends for me it started with a beer in the pub the night before and then finding a couch to surf the night away on. This time I actually got a bed... shared with none other than my not-so-famous-trad-climbing-french-friend Sid (don't worry I was safely tucked away in my sleeping bag). I picked Andy Rainer up in the morning (affectionatly known as "old Andy" due to him being a little older than us when I was at uni) and off we set to the Peak, Nat, Ronnie and Jake following. The plan was for a day at Stanage Edge with a possible crack at the unconquerables however a much more important tasked needed doing first, breakfast. Climbing at Stanage to the cafe in Outside, Hathersage. This also meant we could all pick up vital supplies for the day (cheese) at the Spar.

Claire and Matt were already up at Stanage by the time we'd finished breakfast and got up there. They'd meet some other friends and were working thier way across from Plantation to meet near unconquerables area. We'd parked at the top and walked in eyeing up routes all across the base of the crag until we spotted line up what looked like a blank slab. The line was Morrision's Reboute (E1 5b) and apparently soft for the grade, which is good because you'll deck should you fail the first proper move. I jumped on the lead with Andy belaying me. This was the first route in the about 4 years of knowing each other that we'd shared a rope on. The block you started on threw me until Andy pointed out I'd missed a crucial hold, then a crimpy sidepull to gain the break that turned out to be unpositive and slopey! I crammed a cam in, clipped and off I set. The route remained interesting throughout with a couple more hard 5a moves till I could belay on top. Andy came up to join me with no problems, then Ronnie flashed it. I would have liked to have seen Ronnie climb it as he's much shorter to he's a lot more technical than me. 

Andy's lead now and he'd been eyeing up the line of Mississippi Buttress Varient (HVS 5a). I deracked all my kit and Andy racked all his and set off up the slightly overhanging groove line. Seeing Andy climb was a real pleasure. He actually apologised for climbing slowly. He wasn't at all though. Andy seemed to consider every move before he made it, not setting off before he was sure of what he do and where he'd get to next. I thought this was a goof approach to climbing, and very safe. The Varient climbs its parent route to about half height then makes a tricky set right and then traverses diagonally upwards with a 5a move in the middle. I felt like I really struggled seconding it. 

My lead and I jumped on Link (HVS 5b). I took a direct line up the overhanging arete next to Dark Continent. The Roof is split by a nice crack and good holds but it was just brutal. From the start it was hard, then a brief respite before tackling the overhang. Here I ran out of chalk and a random guuy named Wes threw me up a chalk ball. I then cursed, pulled and pumped my up over the overhang only to get stumped by the mantleshelf move. I was just so pumped! I managed it and arrived on top with screaming arms, out of breath with a smile from ear to ear. Andy came up with ease and then Wes tied on an came up. He was really grateful to be able to have a crack at this route and I thanked him for the chalkball.


Andy now lead Centre Stage (HVS 5a), another 2 star route. He gave it a little variation start which was pretty hard and the slab and roof seperatly where quite nice. However there was a big ledge below the roof you could have bivied on which took away from the route somewhat. It was still a good lead though. I then wondered around before deciding on the next route. Dark Continent (E1 5c) had been a bit of a white elephanthanging around for me all day. We'd seen a couple of teams attempt it (and bail) and we climbed routes around it all day. It also caught me eye as one of Andy Kirkpatrick's top 5 routes. Apparently it needed a large cam, so carrying both size 4's as they were the largest we had I set off. 

The start was intesting moving along under a roof to make a big move round the lip. Forget a heel hook, I had a full leg hook going on. Me and Andy both thought that this would have been the crux, at the back of my mind my brain thought "that wasn't so hard, so where is the crux?". Onward and upward through sustained 5a ground to gain a break in the middle of the face. Here I needed the "big cam" a size 4. In all reality I could have gotten away with a size 3.5 but I guess the not everyone is carrying such big gear all the time. Then came the wild move in the middle of the face. Gaining the break with a left hand and getting my right foot in the break I smeared my left foot up the wall and reached my my right hand up and up and up! I took me a few goes ot work out exactly where I had to put everything but I snagged a really positive pocket with my finger tips and rocked onto my right foot. The route was sustained 5b climbing from then on but I was fly so I placed a cam and gunned it to the top. 

By the time Andy got up there it was getting properly dark (not to say Andy climbed slow, it was pretty dark when I topped out). We had to nip down quick, pack up and walk out by torch light. This would have been simple if Jake hadn't ran off. We were staying at North Lee's Campsite, just below Stanage Edge, but decided that we'd all earned a beer and some decent grub, so going on Andy's suggestion we all met at the Jon's Pub.

Andy Kirkpatrick & Tim Emmett

It's been a busy week. I've lost my work keys which is almost annoying to the point of amusement (I'm in a lot of different rooms around school, all of which are now locked to me). I had a really good session at Redpoint on Tuesday that has left the tips of my fingers weeping for days. I missed the opening of the new bouldering wall at Redpoint because I was at lectures. In fact I think it's actually a good reason I missed it, last time I went to a wall opening I woke up the night after with incredibly sore hand (stupid new abrasive holds). 

The majority of my week has been actually going to some lectures. Wednesday night was Andy Kirkpatrick at the Severn Theatre in Shrewbury and Tim Emmett was small and personal at the Old Edwardian Sports club, Solihull. Both night were a success and they are really the only climbing lectures I've ever been too. Having said that I did get to see Katherine Sherrmacher at Plas-y-Brenin one cold Saturday night, for free.

Andy Kirkpatrick has sort of been a hero of mine for along time. In fact I think he's probably a lot of peoples hero's. I used to read up everything he'd written when I discovered his site psychovertical many years ago. I didn't actually know much about him at the time. I knew he'd climbed in Patagonia, the Lafaille Route on the Dru and loads on El Cap, but I didn't really know what any of this meant. At the end of the day he was just another climber to me, but someone who had done the stuff I wanted to be doing.

Andy Kirkpatrick's talk was well structured. He opened with a talk of him growing up, the fact he was going through a divorce (which he seemed happy about) and that he had a new "girlfriend, partner, thing" called Karen, who was disabled. He then went on to explain his motivation for climbing based around Captain Kirk, how he's turned away from alpinism as it's all about suffering and hard work and why El Capitain is the best place to climb. He talked about scaling Zodiac (A2, 5.8) with his Karen Darke (girlfriend) and how he "cornered the market in getting disabled people up big walls) which lead to him climbing it with Phil Packer (injured service man, raising money for charity). He rounded the talk off with a discussion about his own attempts to solo Zodiac in one single day, and the people he climbed it with and how his own ascent went (he failed, but in a good way). The talk was all in good humour, and very frank and open. He took the mick out of himself much more than he took it out of anyone else (apart from Bear Ghyrills). Sadly I didn't think he finished the talk too well, leaving me questioning the point of it all. I think that's how he intended to leave it though. All in all the lecture was very slick, his material very honest and the talk funny. If you get the chance to see him, I'd take it even if it's only once.

Thursday night was Tim Emmett. Rachel has spotted and sorted tickets for this and it was held in a Rugby club house in Solihull. There must only have been about 50 people there, packed into this little room most seemed to be cradling a beer (they had hobgoblin on tap!) and waiting from Tim to start. Tim was walking round, talking to people, fiddling around with his computer and projector, downloading something off the net to stream from us at the end (something we were not supposed to see) and generally being real. I'll get to the last bit later on. Then after about an hour of fiddling he started. This blonde haired, ripped but unassuming guy started off on a talk about his climbing, BASE jumping and wing suiting career.  

He was so enthusiastic about his climbing and life that the fact that he'd not quite prepared (or had prepared too much material) didn't matter. He talked us through his rock climbing, then

his ice climbing, a mountaineering trip to the Himalaya with Ian Parnell and then base jumping and wing suiting. He went on about told us about amazing adventures he'd had around the world, how he's tried to combine things into para-alpinism. He was pretty open about how he makes his money from sponsor ship deals with various different companies. He finished his talk off with a little about "the big climb" with Dave McLeod and Muy Caliente (E10 hard letter, hard number). He actually had loads of really nice things to say about Dave McLeod especially about focused he is about his climbing. The little section on Muy Caliente was sort of old news for me as it's been all over UKC for a week or so, but he did show us a film from Bamboo Chicken Productions about the climb. It was pretty cool to see a guy like Tim Emmett struggling at the height of his grade, just the same as anyone else pushing themselves to do something hard. 


He finished off with a short film about climbing and BASE jumping off the Old Man of Hoy with too friends. It's worth a watch here. I've seen it before but this time I saw it through Tim's eyes as he described the journey of climbing to the too and jumping off with too close friends, both of which have never really climbed outdoors. His enjoyment seemed to come from seeing his friends achieve what for them was the impossible and enjoying it along the way. 


Going back to "Tim being real". What did I mean by that? Well Andy Kirkpatrick came across and real the when I saw him. I could see him on stage, listen to what he had to say and enjoy his honesty and humour. I came away from the lecture, sort of wishing I had not gone and just left him as this hero in my mind. Tim's lecture was same, in a bar. I could see every expression and every smile. The passion he had for life, not just for climbing came across with every breath. He seemed much more real to me than just another hard climber who puts up E10's.

Goretex or Event? Whats the deal?

I've managed to get away with only owning 2 lightweight outershell jackets over the years. Both have been the cheapest deal I could get away with so I've not paid over £160 for either. My first was a RAB latok Alpine. You could almost say that Outside gave it to me to test as they put it through the till wrong and sold it me for £1.60 instead. I didn't notice at the time, only after when they sent me a polite note asking for the grand sum of £158.00 for thier mistake. I didn't pay.

RAB Latok Alpine

When I first got the Rab jacket I was very impressed. It was cut well for use as a climbing jacket (I prefere it a little larger) had nice big pockets and was dry. Having a dry jacket was new to me. Because I didn't really know any better I didn't see many faults with it. It did all I asked of it. 

Then it stopped being dry, so I cleaning it and retreated it. That didn't seem to do much, so instead I cleaned it off and tumble dried it (as per instructions given to me by a RAB seller). This also didn't work. The jacket soon became worn less and less and subsequent rainy adventures stopped being undertaken. It was quite sad, but I also completly lost my fair in Event. The same thing happened to my friend Latok alpine. Maybe I was asking too much of the jacket? Maye it just wasn't up to the use I was giving it? either way it sucked.

Outdoor Research Yellow Thing

Then I snagged a Outdoor Research jacket from V12 at Half price. I've only got a few items of OR kit but they've been really werll designed and simple. The Vert Work Glaves are excellent in winter. Turns out I'd managed to get thier flagship do all winter, alpine, superalpine etc jacket. It was made of Gore-Tex Proshell and a nice yellow colour (a bright colour is of most importance). It was made of stronger fabric than my old Latok. The seams sealed better, pockets slightly better designed and a hood that really does work with my helmet. I've plowed it through crap wet britsh storms, days of scottish winter, digging snowholes and occasionally wearing around school when I have to do a duty in the rain (this kids already think I'm an odd teacher)

The big difference for me is that the jacket is still water proof. So what if the sleeve leak a little, thats acceptable, I get heavy wear there. The Goretex Fabric is pretty good to say the least. It's breathable, waterproof and yellow.

So Goretex or Event? Goretex everytime I think for me... or maybe I should try paramo?