First welsh rock of the year

And it's off to Wales for a cold weekend with non-other than Stuart Sherwood. Meeting at Llangollen after an early start we then had to drive around looking for somewhere to leave my car and it got me thinking that it might just be easier for me to leave my car at Stewie in Bridgnoth anyway. I think we left it somewhere between Llangollen and some other little welsh town. Then off to Llanberis. I'd packed an absiel rope as I had a sneaking suspicion that we'd be doing some sea-cliff climbing but alas this was not the case. It was cold and for our first route's of the year we decided that rather than risk a freezing cold sea-cliff escapade, instead we head for a big cold hole in the ground instead... thats right we went slate climbing.

There were many reason's to go slate climbing, but the main one I guess was that we could brew up after each climb and Stewie had been going on about doing Looning the Tube (HVS 5b) since last summer. I found myself in Australia, on what seemed like the only non sun baked level while we geared up for route. I've done Looning the Tube before and wasn't too happy with it (something to do with too many bolts). Stu's been in the gym all winter and down the wall training and training so he can really hit it hard this coming summer season (is there a "summer climbing season"?).

I'd like to tell you about Stu's epic ascent as he shooked his way up the wall and jittered to the top, instead cool (enough) calm and collected he jumped on the wall, clipped the first bolt to protect the traverse and off he set proper. Climbing well and complaining of freezing fingers he slung the pipe and headed off up the nasty off balance crack line. Here he did come a little unstuck as he failed to fit either his size 3 or 2 cam into the slot. I sensed a momentary flash of panic on his face, then I yelled up and told him about the size 2.5 friends I'd sneakily stuck to the back of his harness (oops!) and off he set in good style. 

Stuart would never have climbed it that well last year, and I got a chance to get on a climb I'd disliked so much when I lead it to find out I enjoyed it seconding it. I then got on Goose Creature (E3 6a) a route I'd done last year but yo-yo'd up (to use the technical term) instead of doing it in better style. I wanted to just do the route ground up this time and flash the hard move. On my first attempt I failed to reach the bolt's before backing off and sitting down in a sulk. Stu then goaded me into actually trying again and I thank him for it. This time I clipped the first 2 bolts, made the first hard move, clipped the third (and final bolt) and then set about doing the crux. It's actually quite a safe route as the crux is well protected, it's just the easy climbing that isn't. The actual crux move was a gnarly high rockover onto your left foot followed by a nasty pull on bad finger holds. I managed it to my astonishment and finished the route. Stu than flahsed it on top-rope after me. 

So 2 hard routes so far and we just kept at it. We both then lead Just for fun (E1 6a) in out old guidebook before jumping on The burning. The Burning (E3 5c) is a nice route, nice in the way that once it's over your happy to have got to the top. The climb itself is aptly named as it just leaves your arms burning. I made ti past the third bolt before I burned out as I missed the hold. I actually slapped up for a what I thought was a good ledge, but alas it wasn't there, instead a sloping hold found me wanting... I fell off. I don't think I'm ever going to get use to falling off on slate. It's either smooth and gearless or sharp bolted and pointy, neither of which sounds good. I tried again and found the crimp but lowered off to rest my arms. Stewie jumped on as my arms calmed down and decided that it wasn't going to go either.

Second attempt I pulled the ropes (much to Stu's amazement) and went for it ground up. I'm clearly way too ethical about this but what the hell, it makes me happy. I made it second time round, with a clean ascent and decided that this is the type of route thats fun once you've done it, because you never have to do it again! I decided after that I would do this route again and again, because it really is that good.

The Burning over Stewie decided after some deliberating to do Gadaffi Duck (E2 6a or F6b+). I think the best way to describe his ascent was that it lacked style, but was full of character! Getting to the first bolt is the crux and requires a tough little mantleshelf onto a triangular sharp edge. Stu made it, via puffing and screaming and then sent the rest of the route without much fuss at all. 


Then final route of the day, and I'm not even sure of what it's called! It was either 1066 (F6b) or N.E.Spur (E3 5c). I think it was probably somewhere inbetween and would have been graded about E2 5c overall. I ended going up the arete and then breaking up the line of bolts. It was a pretty nice route, but it had a runout that was a little longer than I would have liked to finish. By the time I was set up and belaying Stu the sun was setting in the sky, but the mist and fog had filled up the slate quarry.. It was a pretty cool finish to a nice day out.


Needless to sat we celebrated in the vaynol all night long and then had to sleep in the back of the van... comfy (not)


Sunday roled around and I definatly had a grade 3 hangover. This meant that pete's eats would be the starting plan and a good place to meet Ian. We decided that we'd go scrambling for the day and headed up to Carnedd Y Fililast to tackle the ridge. In the guidebook it gets grade 3 for a scramble, so I guess this makes it less than a VD in climbing terms. We still packed a a rack (small enough to make an alpinist proud!), light sacks and as much enthusiasm as someone with a bad hangover could muster.

I paid for my 8 pints on the walk in. It's not a bad walk in but it is just steep. I suppose that it's all my own fault. Eventually we actually arrived at the start of the scramble and had a good long rest before commiting to it. Then off we set. For a grade 3 scramble it wasn't up to much, but it was a hell of a lot more fun that just plain walking. We quickly topped out onto Carnedd Y Fililast and enjoyed a quiet summit and a brand new view. For the first time I got to look down on the feeder reservior that is part of the electric mountain scheme in Dinorwig (a happy, but none-the-less sad moment for me). Then we took a wandering walk back across the tops before dropping into the next cwm along and descending to the floor.

And what did I realise when I got back to the van... I need to get out and do more scrambling and walking.

Sport climbing, slate & bolts that unclip?

We'd picked a new spot under the boulders this time due to the wind direction and Tim thinking he might get cold. I assured him he wouldn't and that we'd also stay dry. I did actually rain in the night as I couldn't sleep at all. I always enjoy listening to the rain while I'm snuggled up in my sleeping bag. We didn't make our early start because it was a bitterly cold morning, but we went to Pete's Eats as none of us had the forsight to bring any breakfast (I think we just used it as an excuse to go to Pete's).

I've recently found it so hard to get psyched to go slate climbing. It's because I spent last summer hitting the slate really hard and haven't really paced myself. I feel like I've run out of the routes at my grade. We found ourselves at bus stop quarry as Toaf fancied leading Gnat Attack (E1 5b). As we where there I jumped on Massambula (E2 5b) a route that Uncle Rob had said I should lead. I'll tell you that last time I was on this slab I failed miserably seconding Gnat Attack, vowing to myself that I'd never return. Instead I found myself avoiding my old nemesis and attempting the next route on my tick list.

There was apparently no gear, at least from my view on the ground just 2 bolts and lower off. The thing is is that Mass. is 25 metres long and the first bolt is 11 metres up. Not to worry as it's only about 4c+ at the start, until you get below the bolt, but out of reach to clip it. What you can't see from the ground is a bomber couple of piece of gear... which I'd leaft behind because you can't see them from the ground. A quick throw later and I was off. The climb was awesome and runout enough that I was scared to climb to the lower off.

Then Toaf did Gnat Attack with no problems what so ever. He only used the 2 bolts on the route and flew up it in good style. I wish I had more to say but it was just good climbing. He stripped out the route on the lower off and suggested I lead it too. This oddly had not occured to me as I was just going to second it by I racked up with my 2 'draws and set off. After clipping the first bolt I moved left and past it only to hear Toaf yelling at me to get the next bolt clipped! I could hear a good deal of fear in his voice and I looked down and saw that the flippin quickdraw had unclipped itself. Being 12 metre up on a 5b crux was not wear I wanted to be. Adrenaline fueled I nipped up to the next bolt clipped it and yelled a thanks to Toaf for pointing it out. I hammered up the route as quick as I could so I could get off it.

Tim needed to head off so we all walked out. As we left Toaf jumped on a F6c sport route we found and I couldnt not have a go after he fell off the final move. It just so happened that we got talking to a couple of local old boys who informed us of a load of really awesome sport climbs within our grade. Im actually pretty psyched to go check them out actually so it looks like the single rope and the rack of draws will have to be dug out so a days slatey-sport routing!

The thing about trad climbing...

"You have to be strong in your body, but also strong in your mind"

The quote is by Didier Berthod, sponsered by BD. A swiss guy who comes from the land of bolts (Europe) but is very ethical about trad climbing.

Anyway I went to Llangollen the other day. I went climbing with James. Many a drive through or past Llangollen I looked up at the limestone escarpement running up along the valley. Eventually I've finally made it to the base of them. We went to Trevor rocks. Now being pretty aposed to bolts myself we went to Quarry wall as there was a bunch of trad lines. Recently I've been pitching off routes left right and centre and I'm getting quite sick of it. Maybe I'm just not as good as I think I am, or I'm just getting tired and not listening to my body when I should stop.

Anyway like I said, pitching off things which I sort of getting me down. I told myself not to climb anything at my limit and therefore shouldn't fall off. Me and James started on a HVS 4c (I must apologise that I don't rememeber the names of any of the routes as James still has the guide book), This went fine, there was less gear than I would have liked and more loose rock than I would have liked. It went well, so on James lead he took a 40m VS 4b traverse. He split it into 2 pitches and climbed it well, although he did wander all over the face ("james your a little too high!").

The one face of quarry wall (if you havn't been there) is almost slabby. The other is vertical and unforgiving on the forearms, as I was about to find out. For god only knows what reason I jumped on E2 5b, described as pumpy in the guidebook. I didn't feel like climbing it, and if the gear was anything like the rest of the cliff, there wouldn't be enough to feel happy.

So half an hour later I find myself completly gripped, my forearms burning and screaming. I was so pumped I couldn't even squeeze a cam trigger, god knows how I even opened the carabiner to get it off my harness. Panic welled up inside me. I wasn't high above gear, but the rock wasb't great and I didn't trust my last piece too much. I started bricking it, talking quickly and trying to stuff in a good piece of gear. I crammed the cam in, almost screaming as it hurt so much. Not that I would have done anygood because I fell off. My arms just failed and popped off.

I only fell about 4m any my gear held. I lowered off and felt sick. "The best climber is the one having the most fun" (Alex Lowe). For a while now, I've been climbing hard and falling off. I'm not having fun.

James lead another VS 4b, then I did a HVS 4c and then we went sport climbing (and ticked off 2 6a's) for the last hour further down the climb. All in all it was a good day out with James, but not with myself. I'm away in the lakes with Claire this week, then going to Wales with the lads. I'm not going to fall off, I'm not going to push it.

(obviously thats a lie and I will, but its nice to think I'll try not to)

A week in France?

Day 1: Sushi in an Airport

Well Claire came down on the Fridday night, and stay over so we could pack. Instead we watch I, Robot and then hurriedly crammed everything into the bag (borrowing some scale off our next door neighbours). We promply jumped into the car and headed to the airport.

We arrived (after a little worry about the traffic) to find the car parking guys worried about us and that we’d miss our flight. Needless to say, we didn’t and we lugged out 24.5kg bag around the airport for a while till we decided to sit down and eat something, sushi! I’ll admit I was scared. I’m not a great fan of flying. Claire found this all very assuming!

Well the flight went alright and we met Sassa, Fabrice, Melissa and Mystique (le chat) that night. I think this was the start of the salad.

Day 2: Ou est la trad climbing?

We met Idhir and Simmin (Claire Brother and his partner) at En Masse. We did sleep in too late so there was not market for Claire. At En Masse, we jumped cars and Idhir took us to Chamonix to get set up at the camp site. Then he took us out for a meal (and also got us drunk).

We also went for a nice walk, ploughing through the French undergrowth involving snakes and giant ants nests!

After a cobbled conversation with Fabrice the night before, I’d enquired about some trad climbing. I explained that in England, we call placing your own protection, trad climbing. He said, maybe one or people, may possibly do that. He also said that “trad climbing” in France meant clipping bolts. He also called me a “kamikaze British climber” for placing my own gear on route.

We found a Guide book in Cham (in English) and planned our climbing for the next few days! We’d noticed some massive slabs on the way up above Agentire, which we planned to find.

Day 3: Bloody Ibex

We got up, early-ish. The camp site we stayed at (Mer de Glace) gave us uber-cool-free-travel-anywhere-in-Chamonix-valley cards, so we headed for the bus stop. After a slight miscalculation with the bus time table, meaning we didn’t need our early start, we were finally on our way.

We got dropped in Montroc, which was a little further, but it only meant an hours walk to the crag (Les chesery). This wouldn’t have been a problem, apart from the 31 degree weather which was trying to fry us. Either way we persevered and struggled to the crag. We actually managed to enjoy lunch under the glorious shade of some trees. Oddly there was still snow at the base of the crag.

We headed up Voie Bleue D+ (hardest pitch was F5c). At 150m metres long in the mid day sun, it was quite a climb (with my tiny stripped down trad rack, few nuts and cams). Long slabs, then grooves and a corner crack! We abseiled off only to find the industrious Ibex had eaten all our spare food!

We had to run for the bus (which we did in 40 minutes) and then went into Cham for some more food and a meal.

Day 4: “You guys are defiantly from the UK!”

Well today we did get up early (or at least tried too). Bad thunderstorm have been predicted for the afternoon so we thought we'd get the climbing in before it rained. We headed up to Vallorcine, apparently the best granite crag in the area. Obviously our early start was busted when we had to wait an hour for the train, but it was alright. The crag is like 15 minutes from the railway so when we got there we ran in and... it rained (but of course). So we sheltered a boulder whilst he listened to some english speaking chaps yelling as they abseil off. They caught up with us under our rock. It had stopped raining by this point. We got talking and ask them if they where leaving, they said they were. As the rain had stopped we said we'd probably go climbing anyway only for they to retort "your definatly from the UK, its coming in hard" (they were Aussies or Kiwis, couldn't tell which). Anyway we went climbing and had a great time on Le Plantigrade magnesophage (F5c). Someone had stripped the insitu gear from the third pitch so i took my rack along (finally some trad climbing!). It did however rain again, hard like the guys said it would, whilst I was finishing the third pitch (took awhile but I got a little lost, it involved some abseiling) and claire climbed in the rain. There was not point bailing off, we had nowhere dry to run to so. We finished

that, then Claire lead a 4c single picth which was great, but again meant we had to run for the train...which was late! We went back to chamonix and had fondue (sooooo much cheese, I almost died). The trains from cham wern't running so we had to get a taxi. We asked the waiter if he could call us one. We the guy charged us throught the nose for one, we said we'd wait and the waiter called a mate instead. He turned up a few minutes later and took us back in his car! how awesome!

Day 5: “Is good recreation, no?”

Our final day in chamonix area came around. We hiked up to Les Chepeau (didn't get up early enough to climb) then got the bus back to chamonix. Fabrice came to pick us up and we head home... or so we thought. Instead he said we were going to do some via ferrata. We headed up to [insert name] and he got us sorted with his spare lanyards and off we went. Claire said it took to it like a duck to water as I ran nimbly across little ladders and wire bridges.

Day 6: A French market, and some sausage

We took a day off and went round a market with Sassa. The market was awesome with so much fresh food. We had loads of dried sausage (free samples!). We spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading I think (pretty much read Lord of the Flys in one day).

Day 7: A day of sport.

Fabrice came home from work early and me and claire sorted lunch. We headed off to Haut Chablaise for a day of sport climbing (there was not trad gear in site). Fabrice Told us that this cliff was used for Frances first climbing competition. Since it has fallen out of favour and isn't a poular crag now. Its hard to undersatnd why as the cliff is excellent limestone, the bolts are all looked after and it has areally nice 10 minute walking through a forest. Well we went anyway, and pretty much had the crag to ourselves. Fabrice started up Biberon (F4a,5b+,6a) and took pitch one and lowered off, both me and Claire sec

oned this and then I headed up pitches 2 and 3 with Fabrice. Claire then lead Carmel (F4/5) then pitches 1 and 2 of Daffy (F4a, 5b, 6a). I took the last pitch and ran out of quickdraws so used up everything on my harness. This we read after was the crag classic! The Fabrice took pitch 1 of Pampers (F5b, 5c, 5b) and took pitches 2/3. This rounded off our day nicely, and we headed home.

Day 8: Going home

Well the end of outr trip came around. Some mad packing enable us to cram everything in our case (only weight 29 kilos) and we made it to the airport with plenty of time. Back in Britian, the weather was unusually nice.

This was an awesome trip, even though it envolved loads of sport climbing! Climbing with Fabrice was awesome. He attitude towards climbing was completly different to mine, yet at the same time we were doing the same thing. Actually the whole "french" attitude towards climbing was different but still awesome. I really enojyed myself (and hopefully so did Claire) and I'm taking away from this trip, not to mind if there a few bolts on the climb, just clip them and move on. At the end of the day, we're all doing the same thing, enjoying ourselves.

Anyway, Fabrice is coming over in the summer. I'm going to the take the poor guy real trad climbing (insert very evil laugh).