Wales, trip 2...

The Friday was my birthday and I've attained the grand old age of 23, but it wasn't a day of rest and relaxing as Rachel had work and I needed to get home to see my family. However I was suposed to back in wales that night for another couple of days away climbing with a load of friends so leaving my tent up at the campsite and storing my food, sleeping stuff and clothes there we set off. Traffic was terrible but I managed a BBQ with my family and picking up a few presents (some new rock boots & guidebooks!) then it was off to Stoke for a pick up.

Me, Sidney, Andy and Laura piled into my car in stoke and then headed up to Wales late on the Friday night. Andy was anxious to make last order, and to be honest so was I. We made it to the pub for and 1045, thinking last orders would be 11. Apparently we where wrong so 4 pints later we stumbled back to the campsite and put up the tents in the dark, before snuggling down.

Everyone else arrived around 9ish at Pete's eats on the Saturday morning. Loads of people turned up and picking a crag to go to and getting moving proved a bit of a hassle. We settled on The Glyder Facet because theres loads of routes and loads of different grades. We had a rather mixed group with us from boulderers, climbers who'll lead, new guys who have just got into climbing and a few who just couldn't climb but came for the hell of it! I managed Llynn (HS) and Flake Wall (VS 4c) with Sidney and Matt before we switched crag. Llynn was my first route in my new boots, which took a little getting used too but it was a good introduction to the cliff. Then Flake Wall, which Matt thought I was mad for climbing. You climb a crag, then a slight off width into a chimeny made by a pinnical of rock but get this... the pinnical is loose! You end up back and footing but this chinmeny and it rocking behind you, then you have to stand off it! It's a cool route which I really enjoyed! Matt looked like he was going to kill me when I brought him up, but said he was really glad he forced himself to do it. Sidney just sort of walked up it, struggling with the last move but he didn't seem too bothered by the massive loose flake.

We then moved round to Clogwyn Bustach, which I told them was about 5 minutes just around the corner, just a long 5 minutes. We moves because the route were a little shorter and single pitch, which should have meant more climbing for less time? Well it also meant I could jump on a couple of harder routes and really feild test my new shoes. I got a Waltz in Black (E1 5b) because it took and nice line up the "slab" and had a wicked name. Tim belayed me, which was cool as I like Tim's belaying when I'm on something hard, there's no worry in the back of my mind. I had a good look at the route before I set off, noting there was no larger gear needed at all, so I left it behind. I nipped up the first bit with ease (as it was easy!) and placed a few bits of gear before I blundered striaght into the crux! I didn't expect it to be so low down. I backed up my gear and fumbled around for a bit trying to work out how to do it. I could see a jug to aim for but it was out of my reach. After puzzeling for a bit I found a great sequnece of holds to pull away on thwn a heel hook to keep my balance meaning I could reach the jug. I moved up on this and placed another few pieces enjoying the now slab climbing above the crux. I then hit a second crux which required a delicate traverse to gain a quartizite ledge. Now the gear was starting to get a little thin and the climb a little unclean. I cleaned a crack with my nutkey for RP placement and carried on up, finding less gear, but easy climbing. Having now run out of quickdraws I ran it out to the top.

What a great route. I couldn't believe I got a sneaky heel hook on a slab of all things. So what was next? Well thumbing through the guide book didn't pull up anymore nice looking E1 5b climbs, but it did pull up The Wrack (E2 5c). New boots and not exactly in top condition didn't stop me, and once again Tim stood up to belay me as I set off. This wasn'd going to be a nice slabby route, but a hanging groove with an arete to move round on the left. Again the heel hook proved useful on the arete from balance but the climbing was had and technical from the start. There was pretty good gear all the way up, but I messed up placing one of my piece and it gave me aweful ropedrag. However I couldn't down climb and sort it out so I just carried on anyway. Soon the climbing eased up and the angle of the climb relented, which was good as again I was running out of quickdraws. Tim seconded me up the route, and James walked round to join me on the top.

I had not realised but it was like 2100 by now and everyone was getting hungry so the majority of us went back to camp. I feasted on a massive spread of cheeses, saucisson, salad and some boiled potatos before turning in due to tiredness and the infernal midges.

It looked like Pete's again from breakfast, well for everyone else. We ended up in Llanberis pass for the day and at Clogwyn Gochan on Keiserberge Wall. The weather didn't look too hot so I dived on a single pitch route called Wind (HVS 5b). This rocked! This was sustained and pumpy especially having to hang around and put gear in for the first 15 metres, but then again it soon relented as you crossed the halfway mark. The climbing again was really technical, with loads of little foot movements and sidepulls as apose to just jugging up on crappy small holds. Claire and Toaf seconded me and claimed it was super sustained, but then again I think thats because Toaf spends too much time bouldering and can't handle a route with more than 10 moves (joke!). Either way we rappelled off before the rain hit us, but waited around from Matt Snell and Andy who where on pitch 3 of Nea (VS 4c) when the weather hit.

We just waited around to make sure they got off ok, hiding from the weather. It's also the last time I leave my waterproof jacket in the car thinking "if it rains I'll just run back down to the car", I didn't exactly factor in standing in the rain waiting around! Andy and Matt were fine, with Matt bailing off his first route and havign to abseil off. Needless to say we got no more climbig done today and instead went to Pete's for a brew, then the Padarn Castle to play chilsih games like Tag and Stuck in the Mud.

Considering the not great weather report and the amount of people who turned up I have a great weekend. Having a few new guide books has got me super-psyched to get into Llanberis Pass and Ogwen and explore loads of new routes and crags and push my grade more on the fantastic rhyolite. Just need to get back out there now!