Tierdrop E5 6b

Or it' original title: Climbing with new people, part 2: Ramshaw

Due mainly to life getting in the way of getting out climbing, I ended up driving to the train station on a wednesday morning to pick up someone I'd never climbed with before, and only really spoken to once or twice. We'd both ended up being cancelled on by the people we were supposed to be climbing with and numbers had been passed on. I'm going to be honest and tell you I was worried I was going to hold this guy back. His names Dan, he's built like a tank and climbs with Dave Macloed when he's studying in Scotland. To me thats a pretty big thing.

With a climbing partner like this for the day we headed to Ramshaw to have a go at Tierdrop, sans ropes. Ropes wouldn't have made any difference anyway because there is bugger all gear on Tierdrop. Instead we had one pad that wasn't even supposed to be in the car (I was taking it from one house to another for a friend) and didn't belong to either of us. Little did I know what I was letting myself in for climbing with Dan.

I've had 2 "sessions" (for want of a better word) at Tierdrop with Dan. Neither of us have managed it either. The first session we spent working out all the moves, some of which seemed impossible at first go. Needless to say, we persevered and managed to each link the short but powerful sequence to the chipped rain, and thus 2ft below the final hold. Like I said, on our first trip neither of us got it.


And we didn't get it on the second trip either! This time we went armed with a better pad, and a Bekki for support (which turned out to be quite a good thing in the end). Immediatly Dan jumped on it and made every move to the rail first go! It was nice to see him climbing so well and amazing that the body just remembers all the moves. I think he was pretty suprised to actually reach the rail and he came off from there. Then It was my turn. 


I too was pretty surprised to reach the rail but all the moves had seemed pretty simple. Even the sharp holds weren't too bad on my sore finger tips and I soon found myself hanging on the same rail. Would I try the next move? Would I have to stones. Alas no, I came down also but happy in the knowledge that I'd made it there first move. We both had a few more goes, each getting to the rail but only me trying to make the next move. I missed it by a cm first time! Pretty frustrating so on my next attempt I tried to shuffle my hands up the rail to it's highest point giving me a little more reach. Sadly the rail wasn't that great higher up and I end up pitching off backwards. We figured that I would have hit my neck if Dan hadn't spotted my top half but, and due to nothing but shear dumb luck, I cracked the back of my head off his knee. 


Fuck it hurt. 


I rolled around on the floor for a spell till I tried to stand up. My vision was pretty blurry and I started feeling sick but instead of doing the sensible thing and jetting off to hospital I just went and sat on a rock and drank some water. I perked up after a big and had another 2 attempts on the problem. I made it to the rail (vision bending) but couldn't bring myself to make another attempt first time. Second was easier but I still missed the final hold, and came clattering back to the floor defeated. It's a shame I didn't managed it but at the same time I'm enjoying having a project, something at the back of my mind that I can work on. 


We left after that last attempt as the midges descended and the rain started. My fingers were ragged anyway, bloody ramshaw grit. As we left Dan, who seems to be normally quite quiet just started rocking out to "Rainwizard" by Black Stone Cherry. Now Everytime it rains I just have this image of him rocking out at Ramshaw. It was a good day.

Oh, and I ended up with consussion and Bekki had to drive us home. Good thing she came really!

Climbing with new people, part 3

(The wall with Electric Blue on it)

I know it says part 3 above, but this is actually the first one I'm writing, only because it's the clearest in my memory. I spent the weekend climbing with Becki Hughes on the sea cliffs along the Anglesey coastline. In terms of mileage or quantity we didn't get much done, but that didn't really matter and the routes that were done have been long standing ambitions of mine and the situations were amazing. 

The weekend started with a skin full of beer and good music on the Friday night, which isn't exactly the right way to prepare for an early start. As you can imagine Saturday morning was awash with tea, painkillers, a late start and slow drive. Due to one reason (alcohol) stomachs were not up to much more than dry hurling so we spent the afternoon just sat on the rocks at Porth Da frach, just above muscle beach trying to get some sea air. 


It wasn't until the evening that we really got moving. We some food in our stomach and more tea we decided to take a walk along the cliff top of Rhoscolyn. I wanted to show Bec The line of Electric blue as she has a poster of it on her wall. We took the gear as well, just in case like. Normally I'd have been chomping at the big to get some climbing done as we'd had excellent weather all day long but after spending the week climbing indoors and at Ramshaw the day before my fingers were in a sorry state. The rest was quite welcome.


It was near 2000 by the time we got to the top of Electric Blue, which was bathed in such a beautiful golden glow. I wished so much that I had the stones to lead it as it just looks like such an amazing route. I know people do it as a deep water solo but I know I've not got the head for that and either way I'm not really a fan of getting wet. Knowing me I'd fluff the last move and end up with a 30 metre plus fall into cold water. Not really my idea of fun. Instead, and as it had been pretty dry all day we scrambled in to climb Truant (VS 4b) another route that I've been wanting to do for ages. It's always had some seepage (it always does) but I've used this as an excuse to justify not doing it on so many occasions. Like always it was damp, but this time I didn't really matter.

And then the fun began. Becki climbs well. I've been bouldering indoors and out with her for ages, but I've never shared a rope with her outdoors. She's also not belayed much on double ropes or ever been sea cliff climbing. Adding all this together could have made for a minor epic, but it didn't. What it did do was make me realise how much I've learnt over the years, probably from climbing with Soames and other more experienced people, and how much I do without realising.


We scrambled in and I put Bec on a rope for the final section, not that she needed it but it made sense just to be safe. We both stood on the little ledge while I faffed around building a belay and getting the ropes sorted before I could set off. Before long there wasn't much else to do other than start climbing, so I had to go, leaving Bec stood on the ledge on her own. I know when I stood belaying I spend a lot of time worrying about the climber above me, but when I'm down by the sea get to add worrying about getting wet to that list. I'd explained why you build a belay at the base (rogue waves, large sweeps etc) and I was hopeing none of this would befoul her. Leading I was just engrossed in the climbing. Being as it was slightly damp it became a game to avoid using the wet holds at all cost. This made the climbing much more throught provoking and interesting. The climb itself was awesome. There was some offwidthy chimneying, slab climbing and just some odd moves. Because the corner overhangs slightly, whilst being slabby at the same time it's gives a real feel of the 3D climbing you find on main cliff. 

I topped out to the sun sitting about an inch above the horizon, blasting out an orange glow from beneath the band of cloud that had formed above it. It was pretty amazing and it's been something I've been wanting to do for a while now.  My belay was built quickly and efficiently though I ended up using four anchors just because they where all less than perfect. I yelled "on belay" and Bec could start climbing, and I could start my worrying again. What if she didn't get up the route? What if she freaked out? What if? What if? What if? The the ropes managed to slip into a crack on the face and threatened to get stuck. 


As it turned out she had no problems what so ever, apart from avoiding the damp sections of rock and getting her chalk bag caught. She'd disappeared from view behind a bulge of rock only to reappear, with a broad smile across her face. I told her to hurry up so she could enjoy the sunset.

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Sunday morning had all the makings of an early start, my alarm went off at 0600am or something stupid and we'd drunk nothing but tea the night before. However this didn't stop us taking a lie in and spending most of the morning drinking more tea before we got moving. The plan for today was to try a route on Gogarth's Main Cliff and I already had a route in mind, Scavenger (HVS 5a. Sadly we managed to forget the camera so there is no photos from the climbing.

We geared up where everyone for main cliff gears up. We neglected to take our shoes for the walk out, just because I couldn't be bothered with the extra weight and after taking on more water than I should off we scrambled. Drinking that extra water turned out to be a good decision! Again climbing with someone new had started to pray on my mind a little. The route itself requires you to traverse along the bottom of main cliff, just a few feet above the ocean, something which I'd not done this before and I wasn't too sure where the route actually started. As it happened finding the route wasn't too bad and drinking all that water paid off. 


I basically needed to pee, thus involved taking off my rock boots and down climbing closer to the ocean. No only did I get a lower leg soaking, but when I carried on traversing across I got soaked again, the whole time with my shoes clipped safely to my harness, nice and dry. 

Pitch 1 was pretty simple, only 10 metres of 4b climbing to a good ledge.I led it and then brought Beck up and we arranged the rope so I could lead the next pitch. This was the big one supposedly. The crux was just above the belay but it didn't provide me with and real problems. I think the rope management was more of a issue with me down climbing to put longer runners on. I still ended up with a little drag but it didn't really matter. The next section was great, just nice simple climbing up a shallow corner crack. I filled it with gear arriving at the belay with only a single runner left and set about making myself safe.


After puzzling with gear and pulling off a medium sized rock I finally yelled I was safe. This was one of those climbs that I love me guide plate on. I had no doubt that Bekki would get up the pitch (there wasn't much choice as I wasn't abseiling back down) so I could just chill out with some stress free belaying and enjoy the scenery. I was also gifted 2 wires from this belay which must have been left behind by some poor soul who wasn't as driven as me to rescue stuck gear. Bekki had little problem following that pitch (unsurprisingly) and we took it easy as we swapped the gear. The next couple of pitches were reasonably easy but with a little loose rock on them and we managed to get topped out pretty quickly. 


It was at this point I regretted not bringing my shoes. The barefoot walk out wasn't bad until we both ended up with stabby little pieces of gorse in our feet. In all reality I guess I could have carried them up with me, but you live and learn... I'll probably neglect to carry them next time anyway.

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Well as weekends go I had a pretty awesome time. I've been wanting to get down to the base of main cliff for a long time, just haven't had someone to go with. I've also wanted to so a climb on one of the Welsh sea-cliffs and top out at sunset. It's also been pretty cool to climb with someone new. 

I basically can't wait to get back there. 

(Shadows on the fin in fallen block zawn)

The 4 qualities...

Back from another weekend in wales with Soames and although I feel battered and tired, I'm buzzing. It's been a good weekend. I think there some people who'd be disappointed with the amount of climbing we got done, but I wasn't because sometimes going away climbing, isn't actually about the climb, is it?

Like all trips this started with an early start and a long uneventful drive. We did stop off at V12 for Soames to purchase a rack of DMM Brass offsets. I have a few of these and I love them to bits but I just can't justify purchasing a full set (sadly). Breakfast was had at the Treardur bay Cost Cutter, because it's simply the best £2.50 you'll spend on breakfast. We parked at the same spot and walked in along the same path we always seem up, this time weighed down with a little more extra gear... namely 3 angle iron belay stakes, pegs and a 1kg lump hammer each. 

The weather report for the weekend was pretty good, considering the rest of the UK. We expected some showers in the early afternoon and thus planned to climb, run back to the car to wait out the rain and then climb some more in the evening. This is basically how our day went too. We got to "Black Crag" (still haven't settled on a name for it) and set about protecting the top of the routes with our stakes. These were originally intended to be lightweight stakes that we could remove and replace as we moved along different sections on coastline (and along the Range) but it soon became apparently that they were going no where. It's cool though, just means I'll need to source some more. With the stakes in place I volunteered to test them and rappel in first. 

They held (evident by the fact I'm still here) and Soames said there was virtually no movement in them we I abseiled in. The weather wasn't exactly perfectly sunny to begin with but down in the small zawn the spray was getting whipped around and covered all the walls in a greasy film. Once Soames joined me I had a crack at the most obvious line on the crag, which was super greasy and I backed off, tail firmly between my legs. Instead I tried a line to the right which broke through the overlap and followed a shallow seam before a short traverse left (to avoid large loose blocks) gained access to the top. I named it "the approaching curve" and we gave it E1 5a. 

Back down Soames had been eyeing up a line which took a short corner crack before breaking right onto a rib (and then up and out). Needless to say this was actually damp, rather than just greasy. It had water running down small sections of it! During our gearing up Soames came out with the 4 qualities that a route must possess to be a good route (as far as he's concerned). These 4 "qualities" are:

- Loose
- Greasy
- Damp
- and Unprotected

I think these 4 qualities say a lot more about what Soames likes climbing, rather than what makes a good route. Needless to say "The Rib Tickler" (as it became) was a little loose, unprotected in it upper section, damp in the big groove to begin with and all the rock was greasy... and yes, it was a great route. 

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The weather put play to any climbing in the afternoon but it was predicted and instead of sitting it out in the car we did something productive and went to put the tents up. This turned into an excellent plan as the weather lasted a little longer than we anticipated but it meant an afternoon of sitting under the tarp drinking tea (and scotch) and the eating of various different cheeses. It also gives me an opportunity to introduce the height of climbing-bum civilisation... the camping table! What may look like a piece of wood that we found at the side of the road to the untrained eye is actually the communal focus of our tents and somewhere flat to put things down on. I know it might seem a bit over the top but we spend a lot of time in our tents. We don't wander down the pub in the evening and it just makes life a little easier. 

Which isn't bad for a piece of wood we found at the side of the road really.

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Slightly later, but as predicted the weather did clear up in the evening. Our first port of call turned out to be a wander along the coast line from Porth da Dafrach so Soames could show me "muscle beach" (a 50 degree overhanging climb with some short routes on it). Such a walk didn't just stop there and we continued to wander southwards checking out all the little bays and zawns, most of which contained some seriously overhanging or loose quartzite. 
Carrying no climbing gear we headed back to the car and after much decision ended up at Holyhead Mountain. I don't know why but this just put me in a bad mood.  We'd toyed with the idea of going to Main Cliff and getting a route done, but it was getting late and we'd already watched the coast get hammered by rain and there was more coming in. Holyhead Mountain always just feels like a consolation prize to me. I never aim to go climbing there, but it's always a back-up option when the weather crap out at Gogarth or Rhoscolyn. I guess part of the reason is that I've never really bothered to get myself psyched to actually anything but a load of the trad routes there. 
This time I mumbled and grumbled, somehow allowing myself to sink in a really bad mood. There was people on the route's I want to do or we simply couldn't be arsed to walk up to the base of the crag. Instead we sat and watched a team climbing a classic VS (black and tans, which I've not done) whilst enjoying just being there. When the guy topped out, Soames suggested we go and do one route. This route was "the Elephant's Arse" and it's managed to change my opinion about a whole crag.

The elephants arse only gets severe but having now climbed it I wouldn't be surprised if it causes more than a few problems for some people. The route involves climbing though a crack/hole in the cliff before belaying inside. The there's chimneying and awkward thrutchy goodness to gain the top. I ended up covered in mud all down one arm, dripped on and generally feeling completely battered, all with a huge smile on my face. We even ticked off a 5c crack line to finish and top out. I think the pictures will do it more justice:

I was gutted I didn't have my camera with me when I topped out. The sun was setting over the Irish sea and rays of light were breaking through the an offshore rain storm as it moved northwards. It was a pretty magical moment.

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Because I forgot to set my alarm I woke up at 0545 in the morning on Sunday. As I lay there struggling out of my down jacket that I'd passed out in after a few beers the night before my brain suddenly registered the sound on rain on the fly of my tent. I snuggled back down into my sleeping bag for another hours kip. This pattern continued for a while till I emerged and made some tea. It appeared Soames had had similar ideas to me and we took our time that morning slowly waking up and drinking shed loads of tea. When the rain did stop and we'd had a good look at the weather we made a move.

Breakfast was at the treardur bay Cost Cutter and this beat even yesterdays bap. I ended up with 2 eggs, 3 sausages, hash browns, mushrooms and sauce all for £2.50. This set us up for the day as walked along the coast to climb a route at Llawder, the main climbing area of Rhoscolyn. It was walking along the top of the cliff that I encountered an incredibly obnoxious woman. She actually started talking to me and politely asked whether there was abird ban at the cliff, to which I replied there wasn't. This is where is all started. She went to tell me that there infact was a bird ban (again I explained there wasn't), and that I should have checked the guidebook before I came out. She got a little annoyed when I pointed out that the current guide was about 30 years out of date, but this didn't stop her. She then told me to check the new guidebook (I told her there wasn't one) or the supplement that had been released (again I told her that there wasn't any). After this she left, leaving me thoroughly pissed off. I don't mind people enquiring what I'm up to when I'm out, and I'd have hated to climb on the cliff if there was a bird ban but this woman seemed adamant that she was going to win.

Either way Soames arrived a little behind me, saw I was angry and asked what had happened. He then went off to catch up with her and have a little chat. He came back about 10 minutes later was a broad grin on his face. Apparently she ended up phoning the local estate to check about bird bans only to be told that there wasn't one, and there never has been one. I call that a win.

Climbing wise we had a pretty chilled day. I've been staring at the little slab of rock that had Big Queenie and The Wild Rover on it at Llawder for a years actually, but never got round to climbing on it. Today was different and we descended to the bottom of the cliff (out of the 30mph wind) to bask in the sun trap that was the base of the wall. The route itself (The Wild Rover, E1 5b) was excellent and just how I thought it would be. I didn't have any scary moments but just enjoyed the climbing happily. The rock is excellent and the gear is spaced but bomber. I sat all snug and warm belaying in my new down jacket on the top. It's been a wild since I've pushed myself at a sea cliff (or anywhere for that matter) and it was cool just to climb something that I'd thought about not doing and have enjoyed it so much. 

Unable to decide what to do we headed back to see if the black slab was dry, with a few to put a couple more lines up on it. It wasn't perfect but it was certainly better than the day before and as Soames had put up the last line he gave me the lead. I headed straight for the direct line up the centre that I'd back off doing the day before. It's the clear and obvious line up following a thin crackline up the middle of the slab. After much effort, down climbing, working out moves and placing on gear I finally worked out all the moves I needed to make to get my hands on the good holds and make the final rock over. It was a really hard sequence of moves to make but I got there in the end and found myself standing on the slab.

It's defiantly a route of two halves! The was strenuous and pumpy and the top was delicate and slabby. There was a load of small friable and snappy holds that needed to be pulled on or pushed off to make upward progress and I regretted not following Soames's advice to abseil the line and give it a bit of a clean. It didn't matter though as I soon topped out to give "The good left undone, E2 5c".

It was only after Soames had topped out that we realised that we'd left the camera at the base of the cliff...