Route 3... and 4! (Cwm Idwal 22nd Dec 2010)

I'm been snowing since friday in B'ham. I've heard alot of people complaining about it too, I expecially liked the use of the phrase "snowmageddon". As if the end if nigh for the lowly people of B'ham... last I check it was about a foot of snow. But of course low and behold the city has come to a stand still and I keep seeing poor politicians on the news explaining that they are doing everything they can to keep the city moving and snow free, while arrogant and obtuse critics try to turn some snow and other misfortune into their own personal gain... enough politics, lets get back to whats important.

I got a very nice and polite e-mail from Paul in the Wrekin M.C the other day. I don't mention the Wrekin often enough on here as I'm not as active a member are I should be, given the amount of time I'm out climbing. The e-mail was simply "do I fancy getting out winter climbing sometime?". Well of course the answer was hell yes but I don't think Paul realised how soon I'd be calling. In light of the heavy snow affecting Wales and some advice from Mark "Baggy" Richards (to Paul) we set plans in motion to head off early in the week.

As for the "snowmageddon" in B'ham I managed to drive all the way out of the city with no problems onn the monday night and seeing as whoever maintains the A5 has been busy out with snowplows and gritters I think I actually made it to Paul's house quicker than I planned normally would have got. Once there we got a vague plan of heading to Idwal and seeing what was in condition.


Right then, up at 0600, porridge and then into the car. Paul was driving so I shamelessly drifted in and out of sleep until we arrived. As I said we'd planned to head to Idwal and arriving at the late time of about 0800 it seemed like there was already a good few people heading out. I feared for a second that we'd left it too late and we'd spend all day cueing. As it turns out this was not the case. There'd been a slight dumping of snow over the last week, but the tempertaure had been nice a low so the ice was in.


We headed in and aimed for the classic idwal route South Gully (grade IV,4). There was a part of three gearing up for it in front of us (I did wonder where the nice foot prints had come from?) so we decided instead of getting bombarded with ice as they climbed, we'd knock of something else instead. We settled on a snowplod called Central Gully (grade III). It was actually quite a nice route but it was a shame that there was just so much snow wading on it. There was short sections of ice and turf to climb up and enjoy, interspersed with snow. There wasn't much gear on the route, but I managed a bomber belay on each pitch.


When we topped out we met the party who'd done South Gully. The throughly reccommended it and we told them of our snow plod of a route, which wasn't the greatest. A very quick descent lead us back to our bags (and flasks or hot vimto!) passing the queues of the screen and the ramp, which although thin had people on them. After enjoying a nice break we flaked out our ropes and I set off up the first pitch of South Gully.


It was a pretty scary pitch to be honest. There wasn't any gear worth a damn on it until you got to the belay and the ice was all rotten, but it was climbable at least. The belay was bomber (thank god) and the next pitch did look a bit fantastic which made up for the last one. I brought up Paul and we managed to get a photo from a soloer who flashed past us. The poor party infront of us was havign a few technical difficulities. The leader had now run out of screws so had to stop and get a couple of spares out of his bag! then the poor guy ran out of rope as that only had 50metre lines. They moved together for a little and sorted out thier problems. The second kept apologising for taking so long, but it really didn't matter as we were no rush.


Bearing all we'd just seen in mind, thought happily of the 60 metre ropes I was tied to and decided to use my screws sparingly as to conserve them for the whole pitch. Then off I went, plodding up the snow first before I could get to the ice and then I was off. Screw in, clip the quickdraw and move as efficiently as possibly. I tried to read the ice to find the easiest line with the best ice at the same time. All the time concious of how far I was running it out from a screw. When the needle went too far into the red* time for another screw then move on up. I came to the crux of the route, a slightly overhanging section. It was overhanging by a few degrees, but if you've climbed ice you'll know that it seem like loads. I was a buldge in the ice I have to climb half around a surmount. I place a screw, clipped my screamer and then made the move. As it happened the crux wasn't that bad and I managed it just fine. 

The rest of the pitch went well. I didn't have any significant problemsand the angle soon eased. I reached the belay as the group infront were leaving and snagged a pretty sound belay and gave Paul a yell and a tug. I'd almost got a 60 metre pitch out of it too! Paul seconded it really quickly and lead through to the easy group and we moved together to finish off till we reached our footprints from before. All that was left was to descend and grab the bag before heading home. Not bad for a day trip to wales!