Each Easter I go away to Wales. I have done ever since my first Easter trip years ago with Toaf. As times have progressed I've been away for whole weekends in good weather with loads of people to a single day trip. There's has only been one Easter trip that's actually winter conditions and I remember Toaf and I heading out (sans crampons, though avec a walking axe each) and doing the north and south ridges of Tryfan, Bristly Ridge and then having the navigate off the Glyder plateaux in a full white out. It was one to remember.
This
year there was the best winter conditions I've experienced in Wales
and I got to spend three days ice climbing at Idwal. Not only that
but I went away with some great people. I couple we're old friends,
one a recent additon to my climbing life and one was someone I've
been wanting to get out with, but never really through our paths
would cross. To make things even better I got to take out two of my
friends, who won't mind me telling you that they only had a little or
zero ice climbing experience before hand.
In the end Tim, Laura, Finney, Simon and Me base camped at Eric's barn. The barn itself feels like a second home to me and it has everything I could require for a base camp of sorts. We'd had a nice set up in there with a mock kitchen on the one side and all of us sleeping at the same end of the bunks. There was even a nice bean to hang all the winter kit off to dry. Our days were all actually pretty similar. We'd aim to get up around 6am, which meant that I did and everyone else stayed in bed for an extra few minutes (or half an hour). The planned leaving time was 0700 but we always mssed it. Then we'd drive to Idwal and walk in for our chosen route. By 1600 each day (normally sooner) we were back at Eric's lazing around outside in the sunshine waxing lyrical about the days' climbing while the gear hung from beams, rafter and washing lines drying. For some reason the boots always ended up on the top of my car.
The evenings were spent getting a bit drunk and cooking a variety of different foods as each climbing team seemed to be cooking for themselves. The evening activities would follow and this ranged from bouldering around the inside of the barn, dry-tooling the outside of he barn (including the beams, much to the horror of Laura), chin-up competitions and general tomfoolery. At some point Me and Simon would usually sit down and look through the guidebook for an objective for the next day, before the bags were packed and the kit made ready for the morning. The evenings last activity always ended up being a shiver in the sleeping bags... the hut has no heating.
Our first day saw us heading for Idwal Stream (II/III). It's a route I've climbed before in winter but doing it again would be fun. Routes never form in exactly the same way and the ice has a different character each year depending on what has led up to it forming. Idwal was a good option because it also offered lots of escape routes, should that me necessary. Up until this point ice climbing was something Finney had only dreamed of, whilst Laura had had one day of winter climbing on the Ben under her belt (which very nearly put her off completely). Simon and Tim would climb together as one team, leaving Laura, Finney and myself to follow.
I block lead every pitch on Idwal, which left Finney and Laura alone on the belays and they then climbed together. The idea of this was to keep the speed up, something that has become an obsession in winter. Moving quickly just makes more sense to me. If I have confidence in myself and the conditions then I'll try and move as quick as possible, something that Laura apparently cursed me for as she struggled to pay the ropes out quick enough. I don't think I've told her but her belaying was pretty spot on all weekend.
As for the route itself it couldn't have been more perfect, especially for Laura and Finney's first day out. The pitches of ice seamlessly flowed into easy snow slopes with reasonbly good belays throughout the route. I don't think I enjoy climbing anything as much as I enjoy climbing ice. There is just something about it, the movement, the medium, the texture, the punishment. For me it is a very simple joy. It's strange to think that a bit of frozen water can cause so much emotion but it does. We climbed about five distinct pitches of ice, connected by short snow gullies before we go to the final snow slope. Here I moved together with Finney and Laura soloed for a bit, until she decided that she didn't like moving over snow and became part of Simon and Tim's team. As winter days go, it was pretty perfect.
In the end Tim, Laura, Finney, Simon and Me base camped at Eric's barn. The barn itself feels like a second home to me and it has everything I could require for a base camp of sorts. We'd had a nice set up in there with a mock kitchen on the one side and all of us sleeping at the same end of the bunks. There was even a nice bean to hang all the winter kit off to dry. Our days were all actually pretty similar. We'd aim to get up around 6am, which meant that I did and everyone else stayed in bed for an extra few minutes (or half an hour). The planned leaving time was 0700 but we always mssed it. Then we'd drive to Idwal and walk in for our chosen route. By 1600 each day (normally sooner) we were back at Eric's lazing around outside in the sunshine waxing lyrical about the days' climbing while the gear hung from beams, rafter and washing lines drying. For some reason the boots always ended up on the top of my car.
The evenings were spent getting a bit drunk and cooking a variety of different foods as each climbing team seemed to be cooking for themselves. The evening activities would follow and this ranged from bouldering around the inside of the barn, dry-tooling the outside of he barn (including the beams, much to the horror of Laura), chin-up competitions and general tomfoolery. At some point Me and Simon would usually sit down and look through the guidebook for an objective for the next day, before the bags were packed and the kit made ready for the morning. The evenings last activity always ended up being a shiver in the sleeping bags... the hut has no heating.
Our first day saw us heading for Idwal Stream (II/III). It's a route I've climbed before in winter but doing it again would be fun. Routes never form in exactly the same way and the ice has a different character each year depending on what has led up to it forming. Idwal was a good option because it also offered lots of escape routes, should that me necessary. Up until this point ice climbing was something Finney had only dreamed of, whilst Laura had had one day of winter climbing on the Ben under her belt (which very nearly put her off completely). Simon and Tim would climb together as one team, leaving Laura, Finney and myself to follow.
I block lead every pitch on Idwal, which left Finney and Laura alone on the belays and they then climbed together. The idea of this was to keep the speed up, something that has become an obsession in winter. Moving quickly just makes more sense to me. If I have confidence in myself and the conditions then I'll try and move as quick as possible, something that Laura apparently cursed me for as she struggled to pay the ropes out quick enough. I don't think I've told her but her belaying was pretty spot on all weekend.
As for the route itself it couldn't have been more perfect, especially for Laura and Finney's first day out. The pitches of ice seamlessly flowed into easy snow slopes with reasonbly good belays throughout the route. I don't think I enjoy climbing anything as much as I enjoy climbing ice. There is just something about it, the movement, the medium, the texture, the punishment. For me it is a very simple joy. It's strange to think that a bit of frozen water can cause so much emotion but it does. We climbed about five distinct pitches of ice, connected by short snow gullies before we go to the final snow slope. Here I moved together with Finney and Laura soloed for a bit, until she decided that she didn't like moving over snow and became part of Simon and Tim's team. As winter days go, it was pretty perfect.
The second day both of ours teams headed for The Ramp (III/IV 3) as it was slightly harder and we knew it was in condition. Both Laura and Finney had expressed a wish to try some harder ice and this coincided well with my own personal desire to climb another classic ice route in Idwal.
This time Laura, Finney and I were the first team in the route. The first pitch was more of a snowy ramp than anything else until the final 15ft where it steeped and became the base of the main icefall. I joined the team before me in shared the cramped belay and made polite conversation as I belayed up Laura and Finney. With the three of us sharing belays it did make things quite cramped but I found a few ways round it. One was pre-cutting ledges for Finney and Laura if necessary and the second was to get Laura involved with the belaying. She climbed faster than Andy (as he had to remove the last belay) and once she'd arrived, she took over belaying up Finney. This gave me chase to re-flake the ropes ready for the next pitch. Over the course of the weekend we seemed to have this particular technique down to a tee.
The next pitch of ice was the big one, at least for this route. It was only short but the ice was fat. It was very enjoyable to climb, made more so by the overhanging roof of rock which made movement so much harder. I ended up kneeling on an icey step at one point (a bit of a touch and go moment!) while I moved my axes up. It did end with a much more spacious belay though. Laura and Finney both seemed thoroughly engaged in the pitch as I belayed them up. I think Finney might have even had a moment when his crampons ripped out, which can't have been a fun experience on his second ice route.
The final pitch was like a lot of final pitches, long and snowy. I actually like these pitches because on the odd occasion that they're full of neve then you can literally just run up them. This pitch wasn't filled with neve, but never the less it was fun to try and climb it as fast as I could. Laura must have loathed belaying me on this type of terrain. I stopped before I ran out of rope, finding an excellent block to belay off and they both joined me while we sat and waited for Simon. Simon didn't show up for a while and eventually Tim appeared climbing up the snowy gully on the lead, grim faced and muttering “why the f*ck do I do this”. He smiled when he saw us and belayed off the same rock bring up a soaked Simon, as the icefall has sprung a leak and he had nowhere to go. I guess that's just one of the perils of winter climbing!
On our final day we headed straight for Central Route (III, 3/4) but this time Tim didn't join us. He did walk in with us and even took some food and drink to meet us at the top after he'd bagged Y-Garn. Laura and I were first on route with Finney and Simon following on behind us. The first pitch was everything I wanted in a ice route, even with the lack of gear. We didn't even have a belay to start from, though we could have dug and axe belay. I'd set off with the intention of getting something in early but unless I pegged some rather chossy rock I wasn't going to happen. Instead I just enjoyed moving quickly over some excellent ice. I did find something eventually below the first serious bit of steeper ice. It was here that having 60 metre ropes really paid off.
Me
and Laura were the first team on the route that day, something that I
love. I hate being stuck behind another team for quite a few reasons.
There is always the risk of ice, rock, gear or even a person coming
down on you but my big concern is that I'm forced to belay behind the
other team. It just wastes time and with this approach it saw me
jetting off up the steepest bit of ice till I ran out of rope just
after I'd passed it (much to my relief!). Laura climbed so well that
day and she really enjoyed it.
The next pitch was a snowy gully with short sections of ice, before it broadened out again. Here I could just pick and choose whichever line I wanted, so of course I went for the hardest piece sure that Laura would be able to follow. Again she did and on arriving we decided it was time for Laura to learn how to take coils and move together. We didn't really need to as it was easy enough to solo but with such a nice day we could afford to. The final snow slope up the gully actually steepened but was full of perfect neve. I almost regretted the moving together as I just wanted to run up as fast as I could! We made short work of it either way.
Our speed on this route turned into our slight downfall as we now had to wait for our partners in crime climbing beneath us. It turned out they'd had to do it in three pitches in the end but we took the time to go through various snow anchors before settling down to huddle together out of the wind. It was almost a shame to look down on what was a perfect snow slope to see it covered in my crampon marks and a tonne of different ice axes belays and snow bollards. As we sat and waited who should turn up but Tim. This welcome surprise was made all the better by the flask of hot tea he provided. It wasn't long before Finney and Simon joined us, soloing up the final slope, Finney with a look of complete happiness on his face.
And that was it for our winter climbing over the Easter weekend. Considering I'd written off this winter season completely due to the state of my ankles I was overjoyed to get these routes in. It also reminded me how much I love climbing ice and just being out in winter in general. I couldn't have asked for better partners to climb with, or better people to spend time with over the 4 days. It was so nice to be away with a group so solely psyched to just get out climbing.
This winter trip has also led me onto planning another Alps trip, with Finney who's just psyched to get out there that I literally can't wait. Simon'll be out there this summer as well so the possibility of teaming up with him for a route is always on the cards.
The next pitch was a snowy gully with short sections of ice, before it broadened out again. Here I could just pick and choose whichever line I wanted, so of course I went for the hardest piece sure that Laura would be able to follow. Again she did and on arriving we decided it was time for Laura to learn how to take coils and move together. We didn't really need to as it was easy enough to solo but with such a nice day we could afford to. The final snow slope up the gully actually steepened but was full of perfect neve. I almost regretted the moving together as I just wanted to run up as fast as I could! We made short work of it either way.
Our speed on this route turned into our slight downfall as we now had to wait for our partners in crime climbing beneath us. It turned out they'd had to do it in three pitches in the end but we took the time to go through various snow anchors before settling down to huddle together out of the wind. It was almost a shame to look down on what was a perfect snow slope to see it covered in my crampon marks and a tonne of different ice axes belays and snow bollards. As we sat and waited who should turn up but Tim. This welcome surprise was made all the better by the flask of hot tea he provided. It wasn't long before Finney and Simon joined us, soloing up the final slope, Finney with a look of complete happiness on his face.
And that was it for our winter climbing over the Easter weekend. Considering I'd written off this winter season completely due to the state of my ankles I was overjoyed to get these routes in. It also reminded me how much I love climbing ice and just being out in winter in general. I couldn't have asked for better partners to climb with, or better people to spend time with over the 4 days. It was so nice to be away with a group so solely psyched to just get out climbing.
This winter trip has also led me onto planning another Alps trip, with Finney who's just psyched to get out there that I literally can't wait. Simon'll be out there this summer as well so the possibility of teaming up with him for a route is always on the cards.
Life
is good.
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