Gogarth, Slate and Llanberis Pass!

My hands are still sore with blood blisters forming on the end of my fingers. My arms ache, my shin hurts from rope burn and I've got sunburn on my neck. I fell of Dervish this weekend, but oddly I'm still smiling.

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In order to save Uncle Rob from his mother-in-law, we went to Wales. Being honest It didn't matter where we went, Rob just needed out. Dan having worked 26 days on the trot also needed out. I'd had the week from Hell, with abusive kids and fighting in my lessons, I wanted out. So we went to Wales. I drove up to stoke in bad weather. The Wolverhampton road had flood to about a 1.5 ft deep in places, so it took me a while. I thought we'd be in for a wet weekend. Picking Dan up in Stoke the weather was better, but not by much. We arrived quite late at the Vaynol to meet Rob and decided we'd see what the weather was like in the morning before we made any plans.

Well the weather was crap, so we had breakfast at Pete's before a short shopping trip in Llanberis. Joe Brown's called the coastguard on Holyhead and said the weather was lifting so we headed over to Gogarth. We rocked up and stared through (or was it into?) the cloud. Good weather? At least it was dry, almost bone dry in fact. Having only 2 cups of tea so far today, we had another in the South Stack cafe. this happened to be a good call as the weather brightened up to sunshine in this time and we headed to Castell Helen. We'd chosen to do Rap (VS 4c) as our first route of the weekend. At VS it was still one of the easiest route on the cliff, but it would be a good introduction to Gogarth. We borrowed an abseil of another parties rope, and found ourselves dangling above the ocean trying to find our the line of the first pitch.

I took pitch 1 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good steep climbing, with plenty of gear and even some sea birds to contend with (flapping around, waving a sling and swearing got rid of them). At the stance I looked around for something to belay off. There was a couple of old pegs, one good nut slot and a bad cam. So I tied off an everything and brought Dan and Rob up. After an awkward bit of moving the belay around and finding the next pitch, Dan set off. He climbed well, seeming to be enjoying himself loads. Me and Rob chatted away, and just enjoyed being out and sitting on a ledge, listening to the ocean. "Safe" was called and he brought us back up. it was back to the cafe for another brew and to collect sunglasses from the car.

Another team had been raving on about how great North West Passage (E1 5a, 5b) was so we decided on this next. Rob decided to sit it out, preferring to enjoy the sunshine in safety. I abseiled in first and set a hanging belay above the ocean. There was some waves at the base so I chose to belay a little higher (remembering my last time here when I nearly got washed out to sea). Dangling there above the ocean I felt so alone, it seemed like an eternity before I saw Dan coming down the rope. before we ab'd Dan was unsure of whether he'd take the first pitch. He went for it when he was down there though. I watched nervously, hoping my ropes would pay out all right.

He climbed well, steadily moved up. Near the top I watched him careful place some gear, extend it with crazy disco leg and then run it out out of sight. I guess he was pretty gripped at the time. Eventually I heard "safe" called and he poked over his head smiling. Seconding I noted that it was a size 1 superlight rock (purple) and would no way have held the fall, especially since the next section was the crux of that pitch. Glad for the top rope I removed it and headed up. We shifted our belay around and I lead off on the final pitch.

I started well, running it out a little to the traverse. The traverse gave me some problems ( climbing head first into a horizontal grove only to exclaim "I think I might have done this wrong"). I kept sticking in as much gear as I could, regardless of quality. I didn't want to some off and take a big pendulum, but the gear wasn't great. I left my blue rope trailing to protect Dan. The route actually traverses right out to a peg, then head up and back left, meaning ropework is interesting. I kicked the peg, decided it was good then clipped it and headed up. I eventually gained the correct groove, moved up and then stepped out onto the face in a beautiful move. The finish was easy. I enjoyed the pitch immensely, and arrived at Rob, who gave me some much needed water. When Dan arrived we said what a great climb it was and Dan decided that he needed new boots and his were too small.

Seeing as Rob was done with sea cliffs, we headed back in land to climb on a bit og slate. We parked up by Vivian quarry and headed for Comes the Dervish (E3 5c). Some would have thought that finishing the day on a climb this hard is rather silly (I did after words). I love Vivan quarry and the walk into Dervish Slab, but this time I did it feeling apprehensive and unsure of myself. I looked up at the line of Dervish, a line I've wanted over and over. I didn't feel ready for it. Rob greased me up with midge repellant as we didn't want me to have greasey hands.

I armed myself with my skyhook and more micro nuts and set off. The start was my crux. I couldn't get my feet feeling secure on any of the holds, not my hands either for that matter. I placed one micro and then my RP2. It didn't look good, but I needed to get moving. I was right about it not looking good, when at about 6 metres I fell off. My feet popped, I got tangled in the rope on the way down, the RP rippped out and I landed partly on Rob and the floor. I was alright; shaken, bruised and a little rope burnt. What followed was a deathly silence from Rob and Dan. Afterwards they told me they didn't know what to say. should they encourage me or suggest leaving it. It started climbing back up.

Rob was fantastic, yelling which rope to clip as I was so gripped. Sinking the 1.5 cam at 8 metres did little to quell my fear of falling, but still I moved up, seeing another good piece of gear ahead, or a slightly better rest. I slipped off again, but my gear held this time and I carried on. Reaching the overlap I gunned straight up and over it. It wasn't a hard move at all, but maybe adrenaline was keeping me a little more on my toes. I looked for more gear, and found some RP0 slots. Not what I was looking for, but better than nothing so I carried on up. I made it, smiling glad to still be in one piece. I've never been so scared in my life.

I stripped the route myself after Rob said he couldn't do it. Dan said he wasn't feeling it either. Probably good decisions on their parts. As we walked out, Dan said "mate, you've got big kahunas". This meant a lot made me smile. We headed back to camp, got ravaged my midges, got some food and hit the pub for a night of drinking and discussing the many varied and ethical topics in climbing. It rained on the walk back to the tents.

We arose nice and early, and a little worse for wear. After some crap porridge (seriously, never again having porridge) we headed into Llanberis Pass hoping we'd get a parking space. Our aim was something on Dinas Mot. Last time I climbed there I managed to drop my belay device off, whilst we were Bailing off the Direct Route. This time, we headed up the Superdirect (E1 5b). Rob took the first pitch and brought up me and Dan. Arriving at Rob's first piece of gear Dan happily shouted "ooo in-situ gear!" only to then realise it was actually part of Robs rack!. Dan took the second pitch and was on the lead for what seemed like hours. When me and Rob came up we would both agree that its was a stiff lead. The route wasn't too clear and the gear not great so well done to Dan, great lead. I took the Final pitch and guess what? I lobbed off again, and again. Eventually I admitted I couldn't do it and as neither Dan or Rob wanted to take it, I headed off up the Direct route VS 5b (now theres an interesting grade). This cheered me up no end (I was moody from falling off). I brought the others up, rescued my gear, then we abseiled down the descent gully and decided to call it a day.

This was a good call, as it started to rain.

On the whole this weekend I threw myself at things that were probably beyond me in the heat and how tired I was. It still had an awesome weekend, but I think I'll take it easier, preferring to finish a easier route, rather than falling off an hard one. No body wants to fall off

(Dan attentively belaying, asleep)