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?
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