The second proper Snowdonia meet of the year set off to an
unknown but swag looking hut. After a minor clusterfuck from Jack in giving me
directions to the supermarket en route, the drive passed pretty much without
incident. The return of CJ was greatly appreciated by James, who topped out
100mph on several occasions, although the lack of an AUX input was less appreciated
by the other members of the bus, who proceeded to complain hard about my
chillout CD (talking to you Amy…) Having arrived at the hut to find some
friendly walkers and fell runners from the Gwydyr Club, we turned in reasonably
early ready for an early start the next day, which promised to be dry.
The alarm at 7 was appreciated by almost no one but with
some minor persuasive tactics, such as dragging Katie off the mattress,
everyone was up and at it reasonably quick. A flying breakfast was eaten before
we piled into the van and headed off to Holyhead Mountain on Anglesey. I was
psyched having not been there since Christmas Meet in first year, and after a
long and windy drive we found the car park without incident, avoiding going the
wrong way up the one way system a la Chris Redding! However, my route finding
from the car park to the crag left a lot to be desired, necessitating the first
of a fair few apologies from me over the course of the weekend. After a 20
minute gorse and heather scramble we reached the well travelled path that Jack
had been walking towards when I called him back- it hurts me to say he was
right…
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| Look at the view! |
The crag looked mega, with big 30m routes and a few
multipitches dotted about. We set up camp under the butch HVS King Bee Crack and
people split off into groups to do battle with the howling wind and cold
fingers. I am writing this blog very late and as such have no recollection of
what people climbed apart from what follows! Jack and Josh headed off to do a
Severe arête/groove system called Teenage Kicks, while Peate led a Severe
entitled Stairs which had a tasty overhang. Katie and Sam seconded, with Katie
getting the rope stuck and necessitating an interesting little solo to free it
on massive holds. Over the way, James and Charlie were on Pigeon Hole Crack
Severe 4a, Callum bailed off his route due to the excessive wind and Emily led
the HS Candlestick with James T. Amy and Ellie also led a route I am unable to
remember. While all this was going on I had stupidly and somewhat arrogantly
decided to warm up on the low end E1 slab Breaking the Barrier with the two
Steves. This was a bad call as the conditions were dreadful and my technique
was shocking. After nearly blowing it several times on the unprotected start
and finally fiddling some reasonable gear in I started to feel better and
finished it up without too many problems- good route. Setting up the belay was
interesting with communication with the seconds downright impossible but we got
there in the end. Both Steve’s seconded well with a fall or two, good effort on
5b moves as a warmup- sorry guys! Steve Howie in particular can proudly say his
first outdoor climb was an E1!
The grump factor was rising on the crag as the wind picked
up, but at least the sun was coming out. James M in particular was feeling the
strain, to the extent that no photos exist of the day from him- a rarity!
Charlie was psyched, however and started up what she thought was an HS called
Birthday Passage- this was in fact a VS so cracking effort! Steve got on the
sending train too, dispatching his Severe with ease and then ticking off the VS
for a classic ego tick! Callum also led the Severe entitled New Boots and Panties
I think, before Bethan had a pop and bailed due to painful knee. James T was
also leading the VS Cursing- a well named route because the rope drag looked
horrendous. Next door, Josh was having one of those days and bailed out of his
HS, leaving Jack free to try the pumpy looking E2 Bran Flake. This didn’t go
entirely to plan; the start was assumed to be piss but was in fact quite hard,
and Jack couldn’t get his nut out after falling off so we left it in situ for a
later abseil. I also attempted a route above my station on Sai Dancing E3 6a, a
horribly bold start on finger jugs that definitely went into the deckout zone
giving way to a ledgey crack, a bomber peg and an absolutely hideous swing
right which despite big gurning I was unable to do- whippy whippy! One more
attempt and a stuck cam later, I lowered off the peg and Jack and I set off to
set up a windy and blind abseil.
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| Mid whip on Sai Dancing |
By this point the sun was out and Ellie and Amy were making
the most of it, with Ellie dispatching a cracking VS Tension and the pair of
them a 2 pitch VS I can’t remember the name of. Jack and I’s abseil took
forever but was eventually successful, before Jack geared up for Breaking the
Barrier and made it look like piss- finally back on the E train! I was now fucked
and the weather was closing in so we reassembled under the crack to pack up.
Despite the hideous wind everyone appeared to have a good day, with Steve H
getting a nice first lead in (I think) late in the day and everyone enjoying
being away from the grit!
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| Jack powering up Breaking the Barrier |
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| Ellie on either Tension or Andover |
After a bit of mincing we walked back to the car park
via the actual footpath where I test drove Jack’s awful car and eventually we
got back to the hut. Drinking disgracefulness failed to materialise with
perhaps the funniest part of the evening coming when one of the fell runners
called his ‘friend’ a ‘mongoloid fuck’ for misplacing his charger. After a few
bevvies and experiencing the awesome shower, everyone was in bed ready for a
day of either slate or Little Tryfan.
Sunday dawned far too soon but we packed up the hut
remarkably quickly and got going after a masterful piece of reversing from
James. First stop was the Ogwen Valley where the Little Tryan group was
deposited
. Peate takes over:
Myself, James and Amy led a small team of more adventurous (or lazier) climbers to do some relaxed multi-pitching on the slabs of Little Tryfan. With a number of people hoping to be on committee next year, and my personal desire to do some epic multi-pitching
in the summer, some practice with rope work was in order. After being dumped at the far end of the layby by the considerate bitch sec candidate driving the bus, we tramped through the field underneath Tryfan, to Little Tryfan. We quickly divided into 3 groups,
racked up and raced to be the first to the top. With an 'I'll make it up as I go along' mentality, Callum belayed me up the first pitch of a HVD and stood patiently as I attempted to devise an anchor. From this point I could look out to see the girls team
huddled on their first belay with a tidy coil of ropes, and behind them Josh leading off up the second pitch of the slab with James muttering profanities as he made a mess of his ropes. Taking time to appreciate the sun rising through the valley and the clouds
clearing, myself and Callum hurried down to get some food so that he could lead. Once he was set up at the half way point I tentatively made my way up to him as just the day before he had needed reminding of how to put together a top set up. I had laughed
too soon as I messed up in the same fashion as James, by initially dropping my belay plate down the crag, then proceeding to make a complete mess of the ropes, which caused certain issues for Callum. As I had borrowed Callum's belay plate, James soloed up
a tasty one star Diff to give Callum one.
After lunch Amy gave a thorough lesson in how to set up a belay so that Katie and Bethan could give it a go. Leading the line that Callum had just done Katie cruised up to the belay, with plenty of unhelpful comments from myself, James and Callum about where
to set it up. Between climbs I decided to quickly ascend the mod which was running next to the climb Steve was on. Once level with him it became apparent that he was in a spot of bother, as on the easy climbing he had climbed well above his last placement
and off route, at which point he had begun quietly jibbing out. I called for James' assistance, who asked to borrow someone's abseil rope before they dismantled it, all the while Steve's leg was cramping up. I made more unhelpful comments about a way to traverse
back on to the route which he eventually got so fed up with he just bunged in a bit of a psycho cam, and easily swung over back on route, albeit a tad shook up.
Finally it was my turn to give the HS eliminate a go to make up for my absence of climbing the previous day, which ended up with me stupidly taking the wrong (too easy) line, and then complacently moving well past the belay point some way above gear, at which
point I did not particularly want to reverse the line. During my time contemplating whether to down climb or traverse onto the diff next door, I had to listen to the smart comments of one chap at the bottom who informed me that the route was a bit run out,
and that I should continue climbing, clearly failing to understand the logistics of climbing a 55m route, using a 50m rope in one pitch. I made the traverse, quickly setting up a belay to allow Callum to swing past me to finish off the day. At the same time
James demonstrated some quite immense run outs whilst being belayed by Josh. We were greeted at the bottom by the girls and Steve cosying up on the boulder mat and Bethan helping herself to Callum's flapjack, with a mess of racks and doubles spread out around
them. With much moaning from myself and James, and an onslaught of sarcasm when Callum inquired as to where I got my IKEA bag from, we tidied up and hurried back down to the van. (We did actually do some climbing).
Having done this, the remainder of us hightailed it in the
drizzle over to Llanberis, where we parked up and started up the depressingly
long and steep zigzag approach path. Eventually flat ground was reached and we
started descending towards the Rainbow Slab. The directions were confusing and
navigation took a while- I fell in the stream and Charlie went full damsel in
distress and refused to cross it without help from several men :p Eventually I
found the right level and we started walking across the area, passing the
hulking Colossus Wall and the beautiful Rainbow Slab. I kept stopping and
loudly pointing out how nice the slate was to the amusement of others, but
eventually the Plateau Slab was reached and everyone got on it, apart from
James who admirably commenced working at the crag.
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| Plateau Slab- Charlie on the arete, Jack on Slate Ninja |
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| Now theres a good looking bit of rock |
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| Fair play to this man |
I took the first whipper of the day on the first route of
the day, Slate Ninja 6a, before topping that and the nearby 5b out.
Entertainment was mainly provided by calling Jack a mongoloid fuck, but the
routes were great and actually quite long for low grade slate, and everyone got
stuck in- Steve impressively led a 6a first up while Ellie and Emily set about
ticking the crag, starting with Carpe Diam 5b (this is the right spelling of
the route!). Sam and Charlie dispatched the 4c arête before Charlie and Steve
led the slightly loose corner and Sam started working Slate Ninja. Meanwhile,
Jack and I continued warming up for some trad by onsighting the 6b, which Ellie
also later did- good effort everyone.
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| Sam on Slate Ninja |
I was now officially psyched and Jack and
I headed off to Colossus area to do the classic E1 Bella Lugosi is Dead. The
massive pool of water around the wall made the first moves wet and hard, but
Jack going first got through them, dried his feet and dispatched the route
without too many problems, even placing an RP1! Charlie and James arrived to
take photos/mince as Jack was halfway up, before he abbed off and stripped the
route on the convenient bolt belay so I could have a pop. I too placed an RP1
and a small red peanut before clipping the in situ cam and topping out- lovely
route and very steady at E1. While I was racked up I got on the 6a+ arête of
Horse Latitudes, with the hardest move being a tricky step round the hanging arête
on quartz crimps, which Jack also dispatched. Ellie arrived and got psyched,
giving the route a cracking effort before falling on the last few moves and
abbing off the top. Everyone was in full mince mode now with the sun out, with
Sam and Steve having joined us from their ticking expedition over at Plateau,
and with Jack’s E point in the bag he wasn’t overly psyched for the uphill slog
to find the classic E2 corner German Schoolgirl. This just left me to get on another
classic E2, Pull My Daisy on the Rainbow, which I started racking up for as
James sprinted to the top of the crag to ab down for photos and everyone else
minced/observed on the other side of the hole.
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| Jack looking heroic on Bella Lugosi |
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| Ellie making the delicate step through on Horse Latitudes |
James failed to
reappear and I started getting twitchy with nerves before deciding just to get
on the route. The first half had bomber gear and steadyish climbing, with one
hard pull just below the infamous pipe. I chilled out at the halfheight ledge
for a while before taking a deep breath and setting off on the massive runout
to the top. I slipped out of the bubble only briefly while trying to place a
shit RP but kept it together on the easy climbing and topped out, thankfully
avoiding a monumental 30m whipper onto the pipe (it has held them apparently). The
sun was going down so Ellie seconded smartly, stopping only to bollock me for
not belaying properly, before we all packed up and found a much easier way out
of the area than the way the guidebook suggested. Cracking day basically, one
of the best I’ve had all year. Wales gave us good weather again- its not always
raining clearly! Massive thanks to James and Charlie for some mega photos :) Psyched to go back- see you in the Peak!
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| Nomnomnom |
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| The 'thank fuck for that' face upon reaching the jug |
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| Ellie seconding Pull My Daisy |
