Off to wales (serious I should just move there) but to Angelsey instead of the mainland. Auntie Sally had sorted a campsite near Rhoscolyn (Outdoor Alternative, which is a wicked place to stay) close to the beach (walk) and a short drive to the sea cliffs of Gogarth and Holyhead Mountain.
On the Saturday I drove up with Rach from Birmingham meaning we could stop off in Llangollen. The significance of this that I could stop off here and do my shopping for the weekend. After stocking up on fresh fruit, potatoes, cheese and bread off we set. We climbed at holyheadmountain for the day. Starting on Ramp C Rach seconded a couple of routes while I scrambled round taking photos. Then I jumped on the sharp end and lead P.C.H. (E1 5b). I don't know what it means either. I nearly fluffed it too and backed off the crux. It wasn't the purest ascent either. Either way I manned up after some shaking and whining a little and did the crux (from the slightly easier variant!). Just after the crux I managed to get in my biggest blue hex (well torque nut). Its a lovely feeling placing of gear, it just defines a bomber placement! Then we wondered round the Ramp B and I lead Romulus (VS 5a). It was a good route but a bitter of a one move wonder. The I lead Candlestick (HS 4b) which was an awesome route. Both Sal and Rach seconded me up this and we decided to call it a day.
The Sunday greeted us with poor weather (clouds) which eventually became driving rain. After almost suffering another defeat playing domino's I opted to go to Holyhead and drink tea sitting in a cafe. My plan was that we'd have good weather later on in the afternoon. I was right and we had great weather, well too good weather. Burning sunshine and a 40mph onshore wind which ruled out Gogarth main cliff (after a quick sortie with Mick we decided against it). So ended up at Holyhead again and I took another shot at The Arrow (E3 5c) on Quartz wall. Today was not to the the day and I ended up escaping off onto Tension (VS 4b) which as it happens is a wicked route.
Then we left Holyhead through shear lack of drive to climb and headed back to the campsite. I fancied a walk across the beach and then along the cliffs to explore Rhoscolyn, and possibly get a route in. The walk was pretty nice and easy especially as the sun was starting to set and we arrived at Llawder (the crag) with plenty of time for a route. An added bonus, well a couple really, was that we were not in the wind and the cliff was a walk-in. Me and Mick picked Icarus (HVS 5a) to do, I lead both pitches. P1 was pretty cool as it looked simple until you actually go on it. There was less gear than desired but the climbing was easy above the run-outs. The pitch almost had me off as I tried to place a wire and nearly over-balanced. Never fear as I didn't fall off but finished the pitch a little more gripped than I would have liked.
Pitch 2 was just even better! The climbing was harder but the rock was better and had more friction. It was good bridging and jamming in the crack all the way up, but it was strenuous. In the end I thought I was going to come off, but I hung on and topped out, smiling in the evening sun.
Monday came around and the sun was out. Instead of a day on the sea cliffs we took advantage of the good weather for a day in the mountains. We did Grooved Arete (HVD) on Tryfan's east face. I took p1 which had a thrutch groove to contend with, Rach took p2 and did a great lead, p3 was mine and I went completely off route but manage to get 2 stacked hex's as a piece of gear! Rach then took p4, but slipped off and decided to belay there so I finished it. Rach was a little shook up from slipping off so I took the last two pitches. The p5 was the chequered slab pitch and p6 was a thutchy groove where I places every hex I had (always the sign of a good pitch). We then hightailed it down the descent gully and manged to walk off in the setting evening sun. All in all it was a good weekend. I manged to get out onto a new crag (Llawder at Rhoscolyn), explored a new area of holyhead mountain and did a classic mountain route on a glorious day out.
Day 1: And into the Peak for a very hungover Saturday morning. Again it seemed the pharse "best cure for a hangover is a massive overhang" came about, with a spot of wet weather aid climbing in Dove Holes. Having been aid climbing before I knew what I was letting in for, and suffering from my current hangover decided a day spent sitting around drinking tea and eating bread & cheese was on the cards. We met Stewie, Rob, Soames, Becky, Paul, Darren and Mick in the first cave. Stewie was gearing up to do The Ball, a A2 aid route that runs across the roof. It actually quite a hard proposistion and with no knowledge of aid climbing, Stewie, armed with slings, 'biners and the ability to fudge it no matter what dove straight in. It was an awesome effort and he missed the last bolt by inches before bailing. Soames set about stripping the route out and I figured that as bad as my hangover was I'd have another crack at The Bat. I've tried The Bat (A2) before, as my first aid route, festooned with daisy chains, aiders and god knows what else. Now I found myself hanging in a borrowed harness, with borrowed gear and slings to stand in with only 1 daisy chain. I got up to my high point from my last attempt and reached for the next bolt which I couldn't reach last time. Now either I've grown a couple of inches (I doubt) or I actually had a better technique but I manged it and thus finally completed the entire route. Aid climbing is a good laugh if your ever stuck in the Peak on a wet with nothing else to do. I really did enjoy myself and I'm pretty psyched to go to thor's cave and do the A3 in there now. We made a tactical retreat to the campsite for an good meal cooked by Soames and then the pub. I ashamedly only manged 2 pints before bailing and getting some sleep.
Day 2 heralded some sunshine and better weather. We ended up at Lawrencfield Quarry where I fell off Billy Whizz (E2 5c) and couldn't complete it. I don't even know why I jumped on the route. I'm not a big fan of Lawrencefield quarry and totally wasn't psyched for the route, instead letting myself get goaded into it. Instead I ended up soloing the gearless slab route Eclaire (E1 5b). I did this sort of without thinking, intending only to boulder the start. I recievec alot of encouragement from Rob, Mick and Toaf and a billion other people at the crag watching. Was kind of nice to be congratulated on my solo by a load of random people when I topped out.
From here, tired of Lawrencefield I headed over to Millstone across the road to play in another quarry. I ended up on leading a very dirty Gimcrack (VS 4c). Sadly this was a good route, but I was covered in mud and dust so I didn't really enjoy it. Mick and Paul who seconded me did which made me feel a little better, probably because I cleaned alot of it (joke!). Then I fell asleep curled up in a ball in the quarry and everyone piled the bags on me. For some reason I was dog tired, probably something to do with the hangover that I was still suffering.
Finally I was roused from my slumber and coaxed into doing a route. I chose Great Portland Street (HVS 5b) and what a route! For me who was on a complete downer about climbing that day this route really picked me up. It was quite a technical climb following a hangin groove that you mantled into. The moves were great and odd, requiring you to think and oppose forces of each wall to keep the weight off your hands. It's a great route so go and do it if you can.
Having done a good route at the end of the day, and feeling much better after sleeping most of the afternoon I made it to the pub for some a few beers and a pint of lurcher (8.6%). This beer probably gets E1 just for managing a glass of it!
Day 3: Pack up, dive into the "younderman cafe" breakfast, suffer from a Lurcher hangover and find a crag. The one place I didn't want to head was Froggatt, so where did we head off... Froggatt of course. Thankfully its a bit of a slab haven so after I got rescued trying to onsight solo The Great Slab (E3 5b) the spitting my dummy out and telling everyone I was going home I actually manned up and lead Alpha (HVS 5b). It's a bit of a contrived line, but provides a good outing above some crap gear (host of RP's and micronuts). Then we sort of went slab routing with me leading Three Pebble Slab (HVS 5a), then Four Pebble Slab (E3 5c). Three. was as good as it always is (having done it before) but I found Four. a little weak. I couldn't find what I'd class as a 5c move on it, but it definatly warrented the E3. The hard move was protected by a crud tri-cam and the runout was big enough to deckout from.
Then we did CMD (HVS 5a) with no side runner, making it a solo proposistion, but "I lead it without gear". I'd have regraded it E1 without gear, because the crux move is ook, you just have to cope with it. Then we did Motorcade (E1 5a) which I've done before and aced that (the crux gear is a host of RP's & a Peenut). We then packed up to head off and find Stewie and Soames. We found them as Stewie had just lead Sundowner (E2 5a) with side runners, bringing the grade to HVS. It's still an awesome lead with a technical little crux.
I finished my day, in my rockboots and chalkbag soloing What's Up Doc (E2 5b). It was maybe a little reckless or stupid, but it was how I wanted to climb it and I managed it fine. The 5b move is almost the last one and Stewie was hanging around at the top just incase I did need a hand. We headed to Grindleford cafe for a brew before the drive home. If you can find this cafe, go there as it's awesome!
I came away from the weekend feeling like I could have done a load more climbing, but just didn't have the drive or passion for it. I guess I've been hitting the peak district a little bit to much recently, I don't know though. I did realise something though. I fell off Billy Whizz because I could. I knew I shouldn't but the gear was completely bomber and the fall nice and safe and small. There was no danger and I could afford to fall off. I figured our that I perform much much better if the gear isn't very good, and I can't afford to fall off. It's a very saddening thing to realise.
A relaxing weekend in the Lake District. It was supposed to be at the Toc-H hut, but through some very dodgy dealing apparently its been sold, and the club had to fight to get any money back! Instead we were based at the national trust campsite, somewhere I've never stayed before. At £7.50 a night I expected it to be quite good. My expectations were fulfilled with excellent toliets, washing/showering facilities and great pitches. It was also only 5 minutes from the pub (clearly a major selling point). Sadly I only made it up for the saturday morning and missed what sounded like a good night down the pub on the friday.
A day on Pavey...I'd planned to climb with Sally on Pavey Ark on the Saturday. This had all been arranged over a few text messages and a good weather report. I arrived at 0845 and found some of the club seemed a little worse for wear from the for mentioned Friday night. There were groups heading out walking for the day another heading out for a 7 pitch VD on Bowfell Buttress. Me and Sally stuck with our plan and packed up the car shamelessly driving 5 minutes down the road to the New Dungeon Ghyll car park to start our day. I really need to start walking more as my climbing generated carbon footprint must be massive. We set off up the motorway of a path up to Pavey Ark.
Its a stiff little climb, but I think I'm a little out of shape (too many kit-kats at work). Still I think me and Sal managed it in under the hour. Annoyingly neither of us had a bothered to look at what time we sert off we'd left so don't accurately know how long it took. I've never been to Pavey before, always writing it off due to the walk in, which is odd because it really isn't that bad. I'd chosen to do 2 climbs, one below the Jack's Rake and the second above it. Instead of carrying all our stuff to the base of the climb, we cached it at the end of the rake as this was our descent route.
The nicely named Crescent Slabs (S) was our first climb. I have not climbing with Sally in ages or on Pavey either so I thought this would get us used to each other climbing and get me used to the rock. I was block leading the whole day, with Sally happy to second so we'd brought my rack. I'd ditched the 1,2 & 3 cam in favour of a 1.5, 2.5 & 3.5. In retrospect this was a bad decision. I would have been better just taking either all of them or a 1 to 2.5 (including the half sizes). You live and learn I guess. This would be a good time to mention Sal's only piece of gear she'd brought with her. Its an CCH Alien she'd had for about 8 years. Its just smaller than a size 1.5 but she made me carry it and said I had to place it on route. This little cam turned out the be a crucial runner on several of the pitches that day, good little alien.
Crescent slabs wasn't really hard climbing, but there's not much to say about it. Pitches 1 & 3 had good climbing on them, but 2 & 4 were either jungle bashing or just plain scrambling. Still it was an enjoyable route and a good introduction to Pavey. On the rake we wondered round for a while trying to find the start of the next route (Golden Slipper HVS 5a), hampered by the less than ideal topo and description. Obviously we found it and I started off up a ramp which soon ended up with me on an overhanging crack line doing some sort of bridging with my feet and laybacking with my hands. I stuffed in a cam and moved up, slung a spike and topped out on the next ledge. I wasn't expecting something so big to be honest. A good 1.5 cam and a tree provided a more than adequate belay. I yelled Sal up and she climbed it well considering she doesn't have much arm strenght.
Now this next pitch was to be our crux for the day. At 5a it shouldn't have been a problem (and it wasn't) but the guide book said "protection is available for the deligent". Now I must not be the only person who reads that as "no gear" or "rediculiously hard to place gear"? I set off with all this in mind and started putting in runners as soon as I could, expecting to run out further up. The route took a sweeping buttress with slab start but a steeper wall to finish. In the middle was a slight corner to follow before breaking out across the wall. Like I said I'd been taking advantage of gear where I found it, but I'd only taken 8 runners with me in a effort to save weight. I started running it out a little as the rock was so good you could almost get a handhold anywhere and as for footholds, I think it had more friction that grit!. After running it out a little, I spotted a great crack for a piece of gear and guess what fitted? Sal's little alien sat perfectly in it. The climbing was still about hard 4c on little edges at this point, so happy with my cam placement I carried on up, finding more little slots here and there. By deligent I can only assume that that placements where just not obvious and took some thinking, whilst hanging to "2 finger wide" ledges. The 5a section came as you crossed the wall, and all I could place was a really bad little wired hex. Not to worry as a better piece soon presented itself and I topped out on to a easy slab to the belay. I belayed so I could see Sal climb this and keep and eye on her. She had no problems at all (less than the 4c first pitch). We agreed that it was simply such a good pitch of great climbing, no doubt I'll be going back to do that again.
We'd left our belay jackets or fleeces at the base of the route as it was so warm, but the sun had been behind a cloud for a while and a bitter breeze filled the air. We quickly set off up the last 4a pitch, just a glorified scramble than anything else and we ended up just scrambling off roped together. After a quick chewey bar we headed to the top of Jack's rake. I've never done this scramble before, but its not hard even in descent. I had to wait at couple of points when people coming up barred the way but all in all we made it down pretty quickly. We gathered all our gear from around the base of the crag and got to the bags to decided what we'd do next. As it happened all the other VS climbs where occupied with people climbing slowly or waiting. The sun had also dissappeared behind Harrison Sickle at this point and it was getting cold, so we went for a wander to walk out. This took us away from the crowds and out into the quiet where we could discuss at lenght important ethical issues, namely bolts and bolted abseil stations on Gogarth.
Our wander brought us finally back to the path and to the New Dungeon Ghyll pub where it would have been rude to not stop for a pint. I can't remember what mine was called but it was a hearty dark ale, with lots of body, strong in taste. Just right to finish the day on. We headed back to the campsite to cook up some food, then headed to the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub for an evening beer and the costumary game of Domino's. Domino's is a serious thing within the Wrekin and something I've been forced to learn. Oddly the Domino's quickly becomes more important than the climbing. I was so tired I kept making little mistakes and not adding up properly. We planned for Raven Crag in Walthwaite on Sunday.
I slept in my tent without putting the inner up, just bunged my thermarest on the ground and snuggled into my 2 sleeping bags (I'm still testing this double bagging sleeping bag idea). With no inner I had more room than usual so I settled in with some hot chocolate and a good book till I fell asleep.
Bacon sandwiches for breakfast, cooked in sesame seed oil (from stir fry the night before) so it had abit of a twist. The weather had come in overnight so I woke up to a warmer but damper morning. It seemed like the bad weather that was suposed to come in for the afternoon was a little premature. Me and Sal risked it anyway and we to Raven Crag above Walthwaite, but were rained off after the first pitch. Instead we walked back to the crag and went to Chesters coffee shop to relax the afternoon way drinking tea, eating soup and scones.
Me and Toaf went down to the AGM last night. I wanted to show my face at the club and get more involved. About 25 - 30 people actually turned up in the end. Many items were discussed at the meeting. The lack of turn out to some of the club meets (which I know I didn't go to and felt bad about) has made a shift in how the club does things. Before they would book a campsite, but because people didn't turn up we've lost money from this so instead now people will have to book themselves on a campsite. I don't really see this as a bad thing as the club seems to operate pretty well as small independantly units. More club trips to foreign countries are going ahead this year, with a trip to Spain at easter. We organised that tide timetables need to be checked before Sea-cliff climbing weekends.
A new committee was elected and for this I managed to aquire the title "Master of Ceremonies" (for the evening at least). I didn't really want this job, but sort of got pushed into it by Uncle Rob. The criteria for the job seemed to be being able to stand in front of a group and having a big gob. I'll be honest and say I was really scared. It meant that I had to record all the voting in of committe memebers. Stewie is back on the committee, lets see if he does anything this year.
Another thing that came up was allowing younger members into the club. By "younger members" this meant between 16 - 18 years old. Richy Ball took the lead on this seeing as he's got most experiecnce (MIA trained and has been to the BMC meetings and workshops for all this). In the end it was voted that younger members would be allowed to come on some tuesday meets. After seeing how this goes they would be considered to come on sunday meets. No overnight trips obviously. This would mean a change in the informal way everything seems to be organised but I guess its for the best.
Overall I think it was a good meeting and I'm glad I went and got involved. The club needs more younger members as well, something I'm going to try a promote when I can.
It started with a phone call on Monday night. I’d decided that Cornwall was a long way to drive, especially for only three days. So we (Me, Claire and Toaf) were going to head to Pembrokeshire instead. Stewie rang and started with “so you're coming to Cornwall this weekend?” I retorted “it’s a long way to drive…” and was swiftly cut off. “You missunderstand mate, that wasn’t question, it was a statement. You’re coming to Cornwall. Anyway the granite is brilliant, you’ll love it”. That was it. We were going to Cornwall.
We headed down on the Friday night, late to avoid traffic. Later than we hoped as it turned out as Claire got caught up. Anyway off for 2015 ish with one stop (at which some nice dude gave us another 4 beers in the service station car park) and arrived at about 0100 ish. Just under 5 hours isn’t bad at all, but the drive down was tiring with idiot drivers a some creepy fog to contend with, and Claire's sarcasm. "Its called gravity dumbass!" was the response I got when I complained that the car was slowing whilst going up hill. We were in bed by 2am.
Bed for 2am only to woken by a bout of tent shaking at 0630 by Uncle Rob. I got up much to Claires annoyance to wake up everyone else and to get a brew on. Eventually everyone surfaced and we had a big communal breakfast and a plan for the day. Carn Barra was chosen as it was a little out of the way.
Well Carn Barra was a no go, we got there abseiled in and then the ocean decided not to play. Massive waves crashed all around Stewie and Toaf who hurriedly climbed out. I think we where all surprised to see that they'd escaped a soaking! After blowing our early start we headed for Senne Cove. Choice crag for every uni m.c. in the area.
Sennen Cove was actually quiet, well the good climbing area was anyway. We managed to avoid the mountaineering clubs quite well. Me, Claire and Sal bombed up a slab on the broken ground. Toaf & Mick headed up Dolphin cracks (HVS 5a) whilst Rob & Stewie did Hayloft (VS 4c). At the bags, Toaf and Stewie dissappeared off to do another route. Me & Rob nipped up Slim (VS 5a). For my first granite route I enjoyed it. It was different climbing to other rock types, but not in a bad way. Claire had taken Robs rack and done either Juniors or Senious route (VD) with Sal. I think Robs rack was abit of a shock to her, she's wasn't impressed. Stewie and Toaf had still not returned at this point, but not to worry. Me and Sal did Monday Face (VS 4c). Guide said it was lacking in gear. This wasn't the case and I sewed it up, hooking chicken head the finish. The climbing was also awesome, probably the best route of the weekend. Stewie and Toaf finally returned, with Rob in tow after doing Dolphin Cracks again and Slanting Cracks (HVS 5a). As the final route of the day, me and Claire snuck off to do The Quaker (E1 5c). I decked before the first peice of gear, but claire physically caught me (thank god) and then went on to lead it. Its a great route.
A good meal and a night of drinking followed in the local pub. Doom bar, Honey and Tipple where the drinks of choice. Stewie also javalined a plastic tube at me after me and rob used 4 12ft poles to fence with (obviously a bad idea!). The two gay barmen provided much amusement!. Eventualy it whilttled away to me, Rob and Stewie. Toaf walked the wrong way home drunk!. And there was some clapping sounds in the night (for those who know). Another early start and we'd decided on Bosigran today. May as well tick off both the popular locations in one trip right?. I for one was very hungover.
Me, Toaf and Mick did Trapeze (HVS 5a), Claire and Sal went up Inbetween (VD) and Stewie and Rob did Anvil Chorus (VS 4c). When we got down, me and Mick roped togethet and tied off some coils and followed Toaf as he soloed up Inbetween (VD) and Big Top (VD). We just moved together. Coming down I chewed down some painkillers and rested in the sun. Me, Toaf and Mick then did Anvil chorus (with ledge climb as a start). We climbed as fast as we could to get ahead of the slow uni groups, then had some interesting ropework. I've never seen so many people on a cliff. Stewie and Rob did Trapeze whilst Claire and Sal did . Once down I geared up for Visions of Johanna (E1 5b). What a great route! Toaf and Claire came up this and we finished up Little Brown Jug (VS 5a). The first pitch was great slabby climbing on untrustworthy gear.
Me and Stewie then looked for another hard climb, but after backing of Thin Wall special (E1 5b) (Bad juju) and heading up Bow wall (E2 5c) (anf backing off again) thinking it was doorpost (HS) I was done for the day. So was everyone else so we headed back for some much needed food.
Everyone headed to the pub bar me, Toaf and Claire who wanted to cook. But me and Toaf headed down later for some late night drinking. There were no clapping sounds this night. The morning rolled around and everyone seemed a little subdued. The weather had become overcast so Stewie and Rob headed home. Me, Claire, Mick, Toaf and Sal wen back to Sennon Cove. Seemed like a good idea. Toaf did The Quaker with mick seconding, while me and Sal did Corner Crack (HS 4c). After a big guide book consult Me, Claire and Sal picked Slippery Slab to do, we ab'd in and made our way to the bottom. Tradition of sea cliff climbing with me and Claire is that we always get wet by the sea. Tradtion followed and all three of us ended up with wet legs. Quick climbing prevailed and we did Slippery Chute (VS 4c) instead. This seemed fitting end to our Cornwall trip.
We headed back to the cars then went questing for pasties and ice cream before hitting to long drive home. 5 and a half hours later we where back in b'ham (after cooking up noodles in the service station car park, much to Toaf dismay) (Photos by Claire, Me and Toaf)
Off to wales (serious I should just move there) but to Angelsey instead of the mainland. Auntie Sally had sorted a campsite near Rhoscolyn (Outdoor Alternative, which is a wicked place to stay) close to the beach (walk) and a short drive to the sea cliffs of Gogarth and Holyhead Mountain.
On the Saturday I drove up with Rach from Birmingham meaning we could stop off in Llangollen. The significance of this that I could stop off here and do my shopping for the weekend. After stocking up on fresh fruit, potatoes, cheese and bread off we set. We climbed at holyhead mountain for the day. Starting on Ramp C Rach seconded a couple of routes while I scrambled round taking photos. Then I jumped on the sharp end and lead P.C.H. (E1 5b). I don't know what it means either. I nearly fluffed it too and backed off the crux. It wasn't the purest ascent either. Either way I manned up after some shaking and whining a little and did the crux (from the slightly easier variant!). Just after the crux I managed to get in my biggest blue hex (well torque nut). Its a lovely feeling placing of gear, it just defines a bomber placement! Then we wondered round the Ramp B and I lead Romulus (VS 5a). It was a good route but a bitter of a one move wonder. The I lead Candlestick (HS 4b) which was an awesome route. Both Sal and Rach seconded me up this and we decided to call it a day.
The Sunday greeted us with poor weather (clouds) which eventually became driving rain. After almost suffering another defeat playing domino's I opted to go to Holyhead and drink tea sitting in a cafe. My plan was that we'd have good weather later on in the afternoon. I was right and we had great weather, well too good weather. Burning sunshine and a 40mph onshore wind which ruled out Gogarth main cliff (after a quick sortie with Mick we decided against it). So ended up at Holyhead again and I took another shot at The Arrow (E3 5c) on Quartz wall. Today was not to the the day and I ended up escaping off onto Tension (VS 4b) which as it happens is a wicked route.
Monday came around and the sun was out. Instead of a day on the sea cliffs we took advantage of the good weather for a day in the mountains. We did Grooved Arete (HVD) on Tryfan's east face. I took p1 which had a thrutch groove to contend with, Rach took p2 and did a great lead, p3 was mine and I went completely off route but manage to get 2 stacked hex's as a piece of gear! Rach then took p4, but slipped off and decided to belay there so I finished it. Rach was a little shook up from slipping off so I took the last two pitches. The p5 was the chequered slab pitch and p6 was a thutchy groove where I places every hex I had (always the sign of a good pitch). We then hightailed it down the descent gully and manged to walk off in the setting evening sun.
