Sunshine in Wales... never!

After a late call in the week from Soames asking if I wanted to join him and Stuart on a little foray into Llanberis pass over the weekend I struggled to find a partner. In the end it was left up to some bright spark called up Mick early on the saturday morning and we had a foursome for a weekends climbing. Hell we even had a good weather forcast. 

Stuart is planning a weekend at Clogwyn Du'r Arddu (known as "cloggy") later in the year and with this in mind Soames thought that Stuart needed a weekedn of climbing VS's in Llanberis Pass to prepared him for it. Me and Mick just wanted to get out and get on some rock. I wasn't feeling well (my nose leaked snot all weekend) and Mick hasn't been out climbing on real rock since last summer but like that was going to stop either of us. It was agreed that I lead an hard pitches and we'd sort of stick to around VS/HVS, cue our first route on the Wasted, Lion (VS 4c). 

We could ask for much more in our first route. It took a diagonal line up some pretty cool terrain. I think the pitches to mention are the 2nd and last. My lead 2nd pitch took an intricate slab which them lead to an overhanging chinmey! What more could I want. The chimeny was turned on the which lead me to belay in a groove. A great pitch! The last pitch was this route Mick lead. It's actually the final pitch of Crackstone Rib and is a classical pitch in a great position. Mick lead it really well and we topped out to walk down. 

After talking to a guy on my P3 belay of Lion and commented on the route he'd just lead, Ribstone Crack (VS 4c) and said that it was a great route. This was our second route of the day with a long 38 metre 4c pitch up one of the most obvious cracks on the Wasted. The pitch starts off as a scramble but then suddenly it's full on. I climbing it happily, placing so many runners in the route that I was close to running out. The second pitch swung you out onto the face again and Mick took this while I layback belaying in the sunshine.

Stuart, leading Brant Direct (VS 5a)

Our third route was again on the Wasted called Shadow Wall (VS 4c). This had been Stuart and Soames's first route of the day. Mick took the 4a pitch that followed a groove into the corner and then after a little faff whereby we dropped the neat coiles of rope down the route, which proceeded to get tangled and stuck (I had to down climb) I set off up the short but harder 4c pitch, and what a great pitch it was. Taking some rising "steps" out from under the overhang suddenly I looked down and too my horror I was now hanging out over the cliff. I'm normally ok with exposure, but this caught me completly off guard! This is a must do route, and there's an abseil off from the belay above. 


This was probably my most productive day in the year so far, but there was more to come. Me and Mick headed down valley to Clogwyn Grochan for a final harder single pitch, Kerwendal Wall (HVS 5b). Previously on this cliff I've only done Wind (HVS 5b) so I've been eager to get back there. Kerwendal wall was a good route, there was more then enough gear on it, but it often seemed difficult or awkward to place. Like a few routes on this section of the cliff it sort of runs out near the top onto more broken terrain. Not bad for our last route.


We now swifty descended and Mick nipped back up the pass to fetch his car while we waited at the roadside below Grochan. Infact a nice chap came up and offered to trade a beer for a cigarette. Soames gave him two and told him to keep the beer, but he's wasn't to be diswaded and insisted we have it. What a shame we had share a bottle of cobra in the evening sun after a great days climbing.

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I woke up at 2am, freezing cold because like an idiot I'd fallen asleep while I was looking at the night sky, leaving my tent wide open. I also realise that I should just start bringing a pillow for car camping weekends. I drifted off only to wake up to a red sky (tent flysheet) and a sneeze from another tea, it was brew time. 


Seeing as the pass was filled with low level cloud, we opted for a pete's based breakfast then back to camp to depitch all the tents hoping the cloud would all burn off. It had also by the time we'd got everything done so it was back to the Grochan for a few routes. Me and Mick went for the classic Spectre (HVS 5a) which is a really engaging route. It's got an awkward 4c pitch, then a great 5a pitch avoiding an overhang by climbing round an arete and then I great 5a crack pitch which is of a totally different character to the last one. This one in a jamming-laybacking-thrutching-festival of burliness. I guess it might be a nightmare for some but I just thought it rocked. The route was supposed join another route called Nea for a final 4b pitch, but there was so much traffic from people abseiling off and other people on route that we opted for a quick abseil from the top of spectre. 


I'd just like to rant about abseiling. I kow abseiling should be a last option and that you can generally walk round most route but I tend to abseil alot. All weekend I saw some pretty "interesting" abseil practise. I saw people throw ropes onto other, let thier ropes pull of loose rock and bring that down, throw ropes wildly all over the place and get carried by the wind etc. At best it's just rude at worst it's down right dangerous. It doesn't take much to abseil considerately, without dropping rope over everyone. Rant over.


We made it to the floor and waited for Stu and Soames to get down, whilst waiting for Sickle (HVS 5b) to become free. In the end Mick decided to sit it out and Soames was suffering with a knee injury so Stuart and I teamed up. Stuart took the first pitch and climbed it really well. It was a proper hard start (jamming) followed by a rather delicate traverse out onto the face before you reached the good holds by the belay. I then took the second pitch. It kick starts with hard step out, which I almost retreated off. I couldn't see how to do it, so I fell back on the "just hang around a place more gear" before I actually committed to it. In the end the move wasn't that bad and I set off up the rest of the pitch enjoying every move and trying to place as much gear as I could (it was a traverse afterall and I had Soames watchful eye on me, reminding me to protect my second). The pitch was simply awesome, all the moves were there, and you where in a great position on the rock under the overlap before breaking out up some slabby terrain. There was even a size 4 cam placement!. It was a pretty cool pitch. Stu handled it with no problems (not that I was expecting him to have any) and poked his head round the overlap, smiling. We abseiled off, carefully to avoid climbers beneath us and that was our last route of the weekend.

For a while I've been pretty bummed out with my climbing. I've spent too much time getting caught up in grade b/s and egotistically climbing, instead of enjoying the pleasure of moving over rock, finding yourself in awesome positions, pushing your mental barriers and sharing cool journey's in the vertical with your climbing partner, and yourself.