East Gully (IV 3,4)

Easter Weekend 2013: a cold adventure.

[I'm not going to lie, I've been really struggling to write this post for a few weeks. It happens sometimes that I just don't know how to get everything down that I want to say about a weekend. Sometimes it just that no matter what I write it comes across as a disjointed and cobbled mess jumping from point to point. I've got to get this one down though, because it really was an excellent weekend]

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.

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.

Life is good. 

A rather mad weekend... but with a sense of purpose

If last weekend (easter weekend) did anything, what it did was psyche me up for more climbing in a way that I've not felt in a while and like mot good climbing adventures it starts with a rather mad idea. The conditions were still in in North Wales but they wouldn't last forever. With this is mind but some time constraints I called up Finney with a simple plan... sleep out in the mountains and got climbing nice and early to guarantee that the route would still be frozen. I supposed you could view this as a mock alpine approach to winter climbing but did mean that I'd be able to get a night out in the mountains wild camping. How did it all go then?

I had time constraints in the form of an induction at Peak Pursuits on their mobile climbing wall (on the Friday morning) and then work (on said mobile climbing wall) at Trentham Gardens on the Sunday. This gave us from whatever time I finished my induction to technically Sunday morning, but instead of cutting it fine we opted to come back on the evening before. As soon as my induction was over I headed to Finney's house and we began the process of deciding on everything we'd need, then trying to fit it into two sacks for the walk in. We could have packed everything up much lighter than we did, but that would probably have made for a cold night. Instead we stuck a few luxury items in like a second sleeping bag (for me), Petrol MSR stove because it's more efficient for the amount of fuel and therefore we could brew up more and a tent instead of bivi bags. Normally I'd have plumed for bivi bags, but Andy kind of made the final decision on this and I'm grateful for it.

In my head I saw us packing up the sacks in like twenty minutes and heading off to wales, but in reality it took us a couple of hours. We ended up discussing each piece of gear and whether we should take it. I began to think Andy was a little nervous about going and worried about how warm he'd be over night. I long ago accepted that my sleeping bags have one advantage, they're lightweight but not warm so I knew I was in for a restless night. Then we got onto the food we'd be eating. Andy didn't quite fancy my idea of Smash powder and thus we ended up with pasta, thick vegetable soup and a piece of fresh salmon to boil up with the pasta. I'm not going to lie, I was skeptical.

By the time we did come to leave I knew we'd be walking in in the evening light and not the afternoon sunshine. This was even better as far as I was concerned as the light at that time of day puts a beautiful glow on almost everything it touches. We'd get to watch the sunset as it dipped behind the mountains. This is exactly what happened on our walk in. With heavier packs than the weekend before we were somewhat slowed down but it didn't matter. When I pointed out that I'd planned to camp actually up in Nameless Cwm in preparation for an ice route in the morning I got the distinct impression that Finney did not want to camp on the snow. We settled on a camping spot (after much searching around for a flat piece of ground that overlooked most to the back wall of devils kitchen. By now it was actually getting dark and there was a distinct change in the temperature as the sun dipped out of view. It was time for cups of tea and food to be sorted, by headtorch light.

Cooking was a fun game. I'd set up a kitchen area slightly away from the tent because it was out of the wind. With hindsight I'll just cook in the awning of the tent in future as I ended up doing that anyway. I'll get to lay in my sleeping then as well. As I've mentioned Finney had carried up a piece of fresh salmon, something I was sceptical of. His plan was to just throw it in with the pasta and allow it to cook through and break down, before adding the soup. This was probably the nicest wild camping food I've ever eaten and the smell of boiling salmon must have carried for miles over the Idwal area. It really did smell amazing.

Our evenings entertainment was in the form of a team of three climbing up Idwal stream, by headtorch light. We noticed them as we started eating and couldn't work out if they were stuck, involved in the rescue of just slow. I think they were probably having difficulty with a pitch because they soon speeded up their progress as the evening progress. They didn't start down the walk off until 1115 and by this time we'd retreated to the sleeping bags and were sipping hot chocolate (brewed in the awning!). Finney was going for the full “alpine” experience as he'd forgotten his roll mat and not realised until we started sorting out the kit in the car park. My car usually has a few odds and ends in it and we found two pieces of foam (normally sitting mats) that'd do the job. When Finney realized he'd forgotten his roll mat, his first thought was that he'd just sleep on his bag not wanting to miss out on a nights camping. I think this is testament to his sturdiness. Sleep came eventually and I'd closed my eyes and accepted that I'd have a cold, restless night.

To my amazement I didn't wake up during the night shivering, not did I wake up in the morning cold. I'd actually had a warm night in the sleeping bag... as poor as they are. I put it down to a few things like wearing my belay jacket to sleep in and sharing the tent which must have pushed the temperature up. We did oversleep but this was probably because we stayed up discussing our planned route for the day before. Originally I'd suggested Clogwen Left hand high up in Nameless Cwm. It was a route I'd attempted early on in the season last year when the second pitch of ice wasn't fully formed, but I'd already clocked that the top pitch had a fat load of ice on it. Finney wanted to climb a grade IV as well, but the only problem with this plan was that it was grade V. I was pretty psyched to try it but it was quite a grade jump for Finney, especially as it was his 4^th ice route. We also only had four ice screws with us. Idea's were thrown back and forward till Finney suggested East gully IV (3,4) which was supposed to be quick to come into condition and was a mixed route. Somehow this became our objective for the day.

I managed to make a brew from my sleeping bag in the morning. This might not seem like a big achievement but when you factor in I've borrowed a rather temperamental MSR XGR petrol stove it is, especially as I did it without melting the tent. I've been using this stove for a few weekends just because of the cold weather and it really impresses me. It is definitely the most economical stove I've used with regards to fuel and because of this I don't feel bad about leaving it running and brewing up loads of water. The other benefit is that I don't have to sleep with cold gas canisters in my sleeping bag.

We weren't the first people up that morning. As I left the tent and started packing up for the day a couple of teams passed us on the walk in to Nameless Cwm, eager to get in routes before the thaw that day. We left the tent at about 0800 and after much plodding through powder snow got to the base of the route at about 0900. I'm sure if the snow conditions were better then we'd have gotten there much quicker. Sadly the snow was a nice thin crust of neve, not enough to support my or Finney's weight and then up to a couple of foot of powder snow beneath. Needless to say progress was slow. We had tried to go for a lighter approach by bringing only the one sack. One of the reasons behind this was that Finney's sack was already falling to bits and defiantly not suitable for climbing in.

The first pitch of East Gully was horrendous. It was by far the hardest pitch I'd led all season and I was bricking it all the way up. I think that I might have not climbed the correct line and instead climbed a groove which relied on too much tenious hooking for my liking. The correct line I think followed a rather thin stream of ice to the left, but I really didn't fancy that. I reached a piece of rock that resembled a belay and brought Finney up to me, who wasn't happy about this pitch either. Still we carried on and got our first and last section of ice in.

The next pitch started with a short 15 metre section of ice which I happily climbed up until I hit the powder snow above. This powder really slowed us down as I was forced o pretty much clean a few inches of the stuff off for each decently placement. The Snow carried on till another belay could be reached. The belays on this route were few and far between and all a little bit hard to organise. It is just part of winter climbing, but finding a good belay for each pitch was a priority for me. I just didn't want to hold Finney if he fell off. 

The rest of the route was simply a joy to climb. I'd now climbed enough that I wasn't bothered about the lack of pure ice on the route and my brain seemed to have engaged into using the frozen turf. I love the noise it makes when you sink a pick deep into a big plug of turf and it just sounds like it's never going to come out. Mixed climbing in this way always seems so much more akin to rock climbing as you're constantly looking for the next placement and trying to keep balance on your crampons so much more. I've always found pure ice much simpler to climb as I make my own holds and move up without really thinking about how I'm moving, instead just letting it happen and enjoying it. 

I did have a few moments as I was leading though. At one point I had everything I was standing on and axes buried into rip out, causing me to fall about 5 ft before my right axe (which had been wildly swung at the wall) caught on a small edge. I hung there for a minute, with about a centimeter of my pick hooked on this small ledge and glanced down at Finney. I can still remember the ashen look on his face as I made some stupid comment to try and relieve the stress of the situation. I moved a little slower and tested placements a lot more after that.

The last pitch was again a little bit exciting. I tried to take the hardest line out of the top of the gully, but I couldn't make the step over to it so I carried on the up the next hardest. At the back of my mind some little mental ticker was flashing up a warning along the lines of “You'll run out of rope soon” and all I could think was that there was no way of me safely reversing the moves I'd just done. I was committed to finishing this short section and hopefully finding a belay above. I did make it onto the snow slope at the top, which was terrible. The type of crumbly snow which seems to delight in shifting away under your feet and giving you a horrible feeling of insecurity. I spotted a good crack about 10ft away and took two steps before the rope came tight. I was now up the creek without a paddle. I yelled to Finney that he'd need to start climbing. From his point of view he had just watching this mass of snow coming down the route. For all the powder that I'd had to clear off on the way up, Finney had to wade through it as he seconded. He wasn't happy about simuli-climbing the last 10ft. 

Needless to say my brain kicked in eventually and I started digging through the snow till I found something. This something was in the form of a sling round a bedrock spike. In the summer when I'm trad climbing I never build a belay off one anchor, it just doesn't seem acceptable but for some reason the rules are different in winter. I yelled I was safe and started taking in. Finney arrived shortly after and took the last pitch, a short pitch of good snow and he brought me up the the final belay where we sat in the sun.

I'd checked my watch and it was now 1200 which meant we'd climbed pretty well. The afternoon was supposed to be 9 degrees and I wanted to be off the snow by this till. We could have moved a little quicker to start down but I don't think we felt we needed too. Instead we sat eating through the small amount of food we brought, re-racked most of the gear (apart from the dropped or left behind items) and discussed the route. Finney told me there was a few moments where he was just not happy and wanted to be elsewhere. I told him I'd had the same but for both of us it was never when were actually climbing, just when we were hanging around belaying. I guess we had time to let our minds just wander.

I could bore you with our long journey back down but there isn't that much I can say about walking down hill through snow. I can tell you that it was a bad choice putting the asymmetric bars on my G14 crampons. They made it awkward to walk in and bad to climb in and top of that by the time I'd finished the left crampon had disconnected itself from my boot and was hanging round my ankle. My first thought was to sell them and I probably will. I can't really justify owning a heavy weight pair of really aggressive crampons when my general use crampons are close to breaking. I should just replace them with some G12's. 

Back at base camp (for want of better phrase) it quickly became apparent that Andy and I were tired, and with an afternoon of sunshine you can just imagine what happened. We got as far as making a single cup of tea (each) before we lay in the sun and fell asleep. When we did move it as late afternoon but there was no rush to get back. I only had work in the morning.

The weekend before I climbed my first ice routes of the season and now this weekend just gone has probably been my last. I really do feel pretty lucky to even have got this small amount of winter climbing in. Although I'm supposed to be coming to the end of my physio (which has been excellent) and my ankles do feel stronger they still hurt a lot. It's like a constant worry at the back of my mind that I'll twist an ankle. Even a small twist seems to put me out of action for a week or so at the moment. I'm pretty happy to have even got out.

Finally, and this feels a little like an obituary, but my trusty tent has finally given up. I've had her for many many years and she's stood up to some truly horrible conditions and never been found wanting. The fabric is seems is now just too weak to even sew back together and a pole broke when I set it up to repair it. It's a sad moment for me and rather stupidly something I'm having a lot of trouble coming to terms with. I've got a lot of memories of that tent and it's taken me to many places. I guess it's last wild camping as our base camp whilst winter climbing was a fitting end.

Route 3... and 4! (Cwm Idwal 22nd Dec 2010)

I'm been snowing since friday in B'ham. I've heard alot of people complaining about it too, I expecially liked the use of the phrase "snowmageddon". As if the end if nigh for the lowly people of B'ham... last I check it was about a foot of snow. But of course low and behold the city has come to a stand still and I keep seeing poor politicians on the news explaining that they are doing everything they can to keep the city moving and snow free, while arrogant and obtuse critics try to turn some snow and other misfortune into their own personal gain... enough politics, lets get back to whats important.

I got a very nice and polite e-mail from Paul in the Wrekin M.C the other day. I don't mention the Wrekin often enough on here as I'm not as active a member are I should be, given the amount of time I'm out climbing. The e-mail was simply "do I fancy getting out winter climbing sometime?". Well of course the answer was hell yes but I don't think Paul realised how soon I'd be calling. In light of the heavy snow affecting Wales and some advice from Mark "Baggy" Richards (to Paul) we set plans in motion to head off early in the week.

As for the "snowmageddon" in B'ham I managed to drive all the way out of the city with no problems onn the monday night and seeing as whoever maintains the A5 has been busy out with snowplows and gritters I think I actually made it to Paul's house quicker than I planned normally would have got. Once there we got a vague plan of heading to Idwal and seeing what was in condition.


Right then, up at 0600, porridge and then into the car. Paul was driving so I shamelessly drifted in and out of sleep until we arrived. As I said we'd planned to head to Idwal and arriving at the late time of about 0800 it seemed like there was already a good few people heading out. I feared for a second that we'd left it too late and we'd spend all day cueing. As it turns out this was not the case. There'd been a slight dumping of snow over the last week, but the tempertaure had been nice a low so the ice was in.


We headed in and aimed for the classic idwal route South Gully (grade IV,4). There was a part of three gearing up for it in front of us (I did wonder where the nice foot prints had come from?) so we decided instead of getting bombarded with ice as they climbed, we'd knock of something else instead. We settled on a snowplod called Central Gully (grade III). It was actually quite a nice route but it was a shame that there was just so much snow wading on it. There was short sections of ice and turf to climb up and enjoy, interspersed with snow. There wasn't much gear on the route, but I managed a bomber belay on each pitch.


When we topped out we met the party who'd done South Gully. The throughly reccommended it and we told them of our snow plod of a route, which wasn't the greatest. A very quick descent lead us back to our bags (and flasks or hot vimto!) passing the queues of the screen and the ramp, which although thin had people on them. After enjoying a nice break we flaked out our ropes and I set off up the first pitch of South Gully.


It was a pretty scary pitch to be honest. There wasn't any gear worth a damn on it until you got to the belay and the ice was all rotten, but it was climbable at least. The belay was bomber (thank god) and the next pitch did look a bit fantastic which made up for the last one. I brought up Paul and we managed to get a photo from a soloer who flashed past us. The poor party infront of us was havign a few technical difficulities. The leader had now run out of screws so had to stop and get a couple of spares out of his bag! then the poor guy ran out of rope as that only had 50metre lines. They moved together for a little and sorted out thier problems. The second kept apologising for taking so long, but it really didn't matter as we were no rush.


Bearing all we'd just seen in mind, thought happily of the 60 metre ropes I was tied to and decided to use my screws sparingly as to conserve them for the whole pitch. Then off I went, plodding up the snow first before I could get to the ice and then I was off. Screw in, clip the quickdraw and move as efficiently as possibly. I tried to read the ice to find the easiest line with the best ice at the same time. All the time concious of how far I was running it out from a screw. When the needle went too far into the red* time for another screw then move on up. I came to the crux of the route, a slightly overhanging section. It was overhanging by a few degrees, but if you've climbed ice you'll know that it seem like loads. I was a buldge in the ice I have to climb half around a surmount. I place a screw, clipped my screamer and then made the move. As it happened the crux wasn't that bad and I managed it just fine. 

The rest of the pitch went well. I didn't have any significant problemsand the angle soon eased. I reached the belay as the group infront were leaving and snagged a pretty sound belay and gave Paul a yell and a tug. I'd almost got a 60 metre pitch out of it too! Paul seconded it really quickly and lead through to the easy group and we moved together to finish off till we reached our footprints from before. All that was left was to descend and grab the bag before heading home. Not bad for a day trip to wales!

First ice of the season (for me at least)

The picture above should be a regular view for any weekend warrior*. It's the sunday night view of a untidy car boot full of gear. It's a view I'm used to as well, as well as the sunday night sorting and drying of gear from a weekend away. Sunday night is never an easy night.

This weekend was my first ice of the season. I know it's not the first ice of the year and routes have been done on the Ben and in Wales for the last few weeks but it was my first ice of the year. The problem with being a weekend warrior is that there are so many other weekend warriors who'll be out at the weekend. Normally this isn't a problem but with a week of winter climbing and good reports coming in about North Wales and Idwal in particular being in condition it already looked like I'd need to book and ticket to get on some ice.

However I did have one idea...

I floated the idea of walking in to Idwal on the friday night with Holloway, my climbing partner for the weekend. I contacted him last week after a walking around Idwal and seeing that everything would be in condition soon. I didn't expect him to actaully agree with my plan, let alone think it was a good idea! He did though and I spent all week packing and repacking trying to make my bag lighter whilst taking the maximum amount of stuff with me. Personally I packed a little on the heavier side taking a little more food and kit with me on the understanding it would be better to get a warm night and leave things cached in our bivi for the night while we climbed.

Things started off interestingly. I managed to pick him up from Stoke (making it there in record time during the rushhour!) only to them side the car off the road and into some snow abotu 500 metres from his house. After pushing it out we managed to get to Idwal with no other problems arriving at the grand time of 10pm... it was warm.

Ok well it wasn't warm, but it wasn't exactly the coldest temperatures I was hoping for. As we walked in I actually thought it was going to rain at one point! It didn't but we had a load of snow and mizzle** before we reached our spot for the night. We actually bivied somewhere I'd scoped out the week before in the boulderfield that flows out from beneath devils kitchen. It's a simple overhanging rock with a little bit of a wall built around it. There was another spot we could have bivied, but it was literally a small cave that I'd not looked into properly. When I arrived I noticed that we already had "guests" sheltering under our rock but never fear for I snowballed the goats till they ran out. They came back later but more snowballs seemed to sort that problem out.

As I said I wasn't as cold as I was hoping for, not that I was looking forward to a night my sleeping bags as it was, but it was actually star to get a little damp rather than frozen and icey. I still put the kettle on and melted a load of icicles for my evening brew before settling down in my 2 decathlon sleeping bags and trying to find somewhere to lie without a rock sticking in part of me. The actual night itself wasn't so bad and I only woke up about 4 times, once however to find I'd tossed and turned so much I was out of my sleeping bag wondering why I was cold. At 6am my alarm went off and I added more icicles to my jetboil to make a brew. It was at that moment that Holloway reported a few head torches already making thier way along the side of idwal. Christ! It almost seemed like spending the night out might not get us to the ice first after all.

After speed packing I was off through the snow to get to the bottom of our route. As it was Holloways first time out climbing with me in a few years and seeing as he was so psyched for it we were heading for Idwal Stream (grade II/III ***). As it's a classic route and on Baggy's blog he reported it in the best conditions he'd seen it in for years I knew that there would be masses of people heading for it. I know it's not all about getting there first, but I wanted to be there so we had some time to do the route without the pressure of the another team behind us.

As it happened as we geared up another team joined us at the base, 2 lads called Pete and Tim. We ended up climbing in parallel for most of the route and got chatting to them. They'd both packed in thier jobs to climb ice all winter, which was pretty cool but they seemed to already be uncertain about the future. They'd not got as much winter experience as our team, but they were swapping leads as aposed to block leading so they moved a bit quicker, but it  was nice to have another party to climb with.

Crag congestion... and this is at 0730

As I said I took most of the technical pitches of climbing, but Idwal Stream is a broken route. It's escapable (if you need to) but also not a series of technical pitches one after the other. There was some easy ground and a good stance after each pitch which suited us fine. I took the inital groove and climbed parallel to Tim which was probably the hardest pitch on the route (certainly the steepest) and started off with some thin ice so it was a while before I got a good ice screw in. I climbed leashless with my modified DMM fly's which worked fine as normal, but I didn't use the lanyard and just relied on not dropping a tool.

Pitch one was fine. I took me the whole pitch to get used to climbing ice again and making usre than everything was placed in the ice properly and securely. We walked the next slope and rebelayed at the base of the next cascade. This was long but less steep and had been drfrosting a little more. Instead of front pointing my way up I was able to take adventage of various ledges and step al left behind from previous parties, whislt avoiding the water spraying out. Infact the most technical part was the top out as I tried to keep my feet on ice and not scraping on rock. At this stance I used the one and only piece of rock gear on the whole route despite the fact that I've brought what was a sizeable mixed rack up with me. I guess it's better to have it and not need it etc.

Sadly out of focus

Holloway was climbing pretty well and as a team we seemed to be moving pretty quickly. The next pitch was the longest pitch I lead, almost 60 metres but in all fairness the difficulities were short lived. The first 20 metres of the route was another iced up groove before a difficult step up and right to easier ground thenit was a semi-snow/ice gully till I found something good to belay off (a load of good ice). Moving quickly over such ground was a absolute joy. Then came the final pitch of real ice. This was a 10 metre cascade with really only a little bit of difficulity on it after topping out and bringing up Holloway we dropped the ropes and coiled them got rid of any other gear for the final gully. This was easy ground which we covered leisurely enjoying being out. The weather wasn't exactly like the met office and MWIS had predicted. It was more overcast and now snowing rather than clear skies.

Eventually we could leave the gully and head off right to fine the descend down the track that would lead us back to our bags. We had planned to do some more climbing but walking down we saw that the cues had formed and it seem a long wait before we could get on the screen or the ramp. Instead we consoled ourself with a brew back at the bivi and then the joy of repacking the bags, before a gentle walk out. It actually even stopped snowing for us on the walk out too.

All in all I don't think thats bad for my first ice route of the season and coupled with walking in the night before and sleeping out it turned it into a proper adventure. I was considering new axes (nomics or quarks) but after this weekend I decided that there's nothing wrong with my flys at the grade I'm climbing. I'd still say go leashless thought. Holloway decided that he hates his leashes with a passion. It seems like he'll be replacing them with some clipper leashes instead. And I was impressed with my sleeping bag system (a lightwieght down bag and a lightweight synthetic over the top) whic kept me warm, however I could do with some tabs so that they hold thier shape whislt I'm in them (I invariably wiggle out of one bag when sleeping).

As for sunday, well we'd bailed by Saturday night. We didn't have anywhere to stay saturday and alot of kit was wet. After checking all the weather reports we could find and Holloway contacting a friend at RAF Vally to ask what the weather was going to do it didn't look promising. As it turns out it looks like the temperature dropped again. I guess thats the winter game though, because you know if we'd stayed it would have just rained all day.



Devil's Kitchen, in all it's winter glory



*weekend warrior; a climber with a monday to friday job, only getting out at the weekend.

**mizzle; somewhere between mist and drizzle. A form of precipitation.