Tan Y Garth Hut, Snowdonia

Just want to take this opportunity to say, the A5 road works are the worst.  With cold, blustery weather in Leicester, and snow in Llanberis we had been expecting the worst weather and a weekend walking and sipping tea in Pete’s Eats. Although the bright side of this was that Joel could FINALLY buy himself some shoes from V12. After a lengthy diversion around Shropshire we finally arrived at the Tan Y Garth hut which was already warm and toasty, and people drifted off to sleep after one beer.

Myomancy, HVS 5b

We woke up at 7:30 to be out by 9 expecting miserable weather.  Once on the road it became apparent that we might be in store for a cracking day, as the sun was shining in the pass. In the van people split themselves into two groups, with one going multi-pitching and the other slogging up to the upper tier of Tremadog. Jim kindly dropped us (single-pitchers) off at the beginning of the walk in before taking the multi-pitchers off. Upon arrival at someone’s house after a 5 minute walk it became apparent that Jim had blown it, so we rang him to come and pick us up again. After a sweaty slog we arrived to see the sun glaring off Pant Ifan upper tier. Everyone was straight on it with Steve and I getting on a HS each, and Katie and Charlie getting on a Severe. After which Connor got on his first lead which he dispatched with ease and even placed some reasonably sound gear. At the same time Katie was on her first HS climb, whilst I got on nice balancy VS, which Charlie also led later on. Mid climb I heard a grunt coupled by the sound of someone taking a big whipper, which turned out to be Steve’s first attempt on the HVS 5B Myomancy. Another impressive lead was Marie getting on a Severe, despite some doubts in the middle section, she finally committed and made the moves with ease. There was an impressive lack of mincing, as people were psyched to be climbing in t-shirts! After Steve made a successful clean lead, I decided I would hop on the route, but  got pumped and ended up with a dogged ascent. By the time I had finished it was 5…the time we were supposed to be meeting. However Katie was padding her way up her second HS. We hurried everyone along to get ready, but by the time we were down it was dark and 45 minutes after the allotted meeting time.

Katie on  her first HS

Marie getting a bit scared!

Callum’s excerpt from the Saturday:

“By the time Jack Knight and I had got to the base of our first climb of the day, tops were already off, ringing in sweat we couldn’t believe our luck with the weather. What was more unbelievable, so I hear, was the sight of Jim in his boxers at the crag. While Jack begun the first pitch of One step in the clouds, Remy was in the distance making his off-width section with Ellie look far too easy. My attention was quickly brought back to Jack ‘the jamming king’ Knight who, due to his mangled ribs, was desperately struggling to pull through a 4b hand crack. However, after much deliberation he managed to torque his way to the end of the pitch. This next bit shall be brief – concerning pitch 2, I fucked it, and was very grumpy about it. The next climb we planned on doing was Merlin Direct – which Jim and Sam had just finished. Some climbers were on it so while we were waiting, this guy of which Saturday was his 50^th anniversary climbing in North Wales, told us about these two 5c and 6a routes on Oberon slab to our right (one of them around E5…or so he reckoned). After soloing up a severe to the right with a rope we set up a top rope and let these routes amuse us for a while. Unfortunately the punter factor was high, as one of the climbers on the route had jibbed out – thinking it a good idea to make a belay half way up the first pitch. Thus we moved on, heading to Meshach (HVS 5a) while passing Jim as he heroically topped out of the awesome single pitch 50m E1 arête ‘The Plum’. Our last route of the day, Meshach, was easily the best (and technically only) climb. We did finish a little late though and so came back to a ‘slightly’ agitated bus under the cover of dark!”

Ellie’s excerpt from Saturday:

“Saturday morning’s clear skies enticingly promised a bright day ahead as we jumped out of the van at Tremadog to begin the day. The multipitch group had a very productive day, each groups picked a classic VS to climb. This was quickly followed by a mass getting naked session to delayer ourselves of the multiple thermals we’d brought in anticipation of a snow-covered Wales! At this juncture it must sadly be noted that one of our number decided it was an excellent idea to totally misread what is arguably THE best multi-pitch VS in wales, ‘One Step in the Clouds’, and instead climb the VDiff next to it!! He was suitably chastised later.

The day was spent ticking the array of excellent VS’s and HVS’s that Tremadog Bwlch Y Moch boasts, my favourite being ‘Meshach’, HVS 5a which Remy and I and later Callum and Jack climbed. Remy led some great pitches including a VS 4c offwidth which I saw fit to throw at him as a warm up, meanwhile Jim climbed ‘The Plum’ E1 5b which he was quoted as saying ‘nearly ate me’. His utter horror and aversion of offwidths lead to him doing the hard way which actually equates to E2! Poor Sam looked at little shell-shocked at the top-out, after some nice VS and an HVS leads, seconding a desperate E1 was just the adventure he wanted! Nah he loved it. Type 2 fun and all that! I must say though that this was one of my favourite multipitching days ever, warm and sunny and all the routes were just excellent!”

Jack’s excerpt from Sunday:

Whilst half the team stayed at Bus Stop Quarry, with the plan of heading to the Serengeti afterwards, the other half, led by Amy, Callum and I, hiked up to the sidings. Callum and I joined forces as a crack team of punters and hiked up to do the Clash of the Titans and Plastic Soldiers, which were epic routes. Afterwards we rushed back down to eat some lunch, with the plan to get in the queue to climb Loonin’. However mid-mouthful Callum exclaimed that he had left his jumper at the bottom of Clash. I laughed for a second at his complete idiocy….before realising that I two had left my jacket up there. Remy and Connor spent the day ticking many routes on the sidings, with Remy taking a little whipper on a 6a (+?) after some comedic Bambi on ice style foot slipping on the slate. After Callum and I had resolved our problem we recruited Connor and Remy to second us on Loonin’, and after a coin toss I got to lead first.  With poor Toby (and any other willing volunteer) in toe, Jack spent the day whizzing up and down every route on the sidings in order to complete his 22 routes on his 22^nd birthday challenge. Despite widespread doubts regarding his abilities to complete this challenge, what with him pretending to be a table the night before, Jack finished his challenge as one of the last climbs in the evening as we marched out of the quarries in the dark.

The weather wasn't so bad I guess

Ellie’s excerpt from Sunday:

“Sunday was just as beautiful with clear skies all day. We were really having a ‘golden’ weekend! We’d come half-resigned to no climbing at all! Even Sam was at a loss for moaning material, and was forced to get all meta and moan about how there was nothing to moan about. It’s a hard life isn’t it. Dinorwig quarries was as beautiful as ever : ) A group of us started the day at Bus Stop Quarry (no walk in yay!) sampling the sport routes there which turned out to be pretty good. I turned my attention to the trad and after ‘Solstice’ (an awesome VS which everyone should lead!) I got psyched for ‘Fools Gold’ E1 5c, it looked utterly beautiful. Also utterly scary! Watching someone second it and make it look ok helped give me the nerve to get on it. After a good while figuring out the moves on the footless crux, I topped out euphorically! Thanks Charlie and Marie for some beautiful photos!

Fools Gold

Fools Gold

Two stoked climbers!

After Jim had his dose of run out slab on ‘Gnat Attack’ E1 5b which Katie followed I think with no falls, we all headed up to Serengeti area. Here Charlie climbed ‘Seamstress’ VS 4c a route she’d been wanting to do for a while now. She walked up it! (time to do more VS’s!) ...albeit with copious amounts of moaning!  And I do mean copious. At the same time I climbed ‘Seams the Same’ an E1 next door, muttering obscenities to myself as I emerged to join Charlie, scared witless by the unexpected entire top third run-out!!  We also encountered two 13 year old wads working an E7 on the same slab. Mouths may have dropped open when we heard that one of them had just lead his first trad route round the corner: an E2. Katie then got on the VS to. Having lead HS for the first time yesterday (2 of them) was considered ample grounds for bullying her into pushing it further! Watching her push herself to complete it was amazing, I was more gripped that when climbing myself! We all stopped what we were doing (Jim was none too pleased as I may possibly have been in the middle of belaying him on a 7a+) and basically willed her through the tough bits by force of ‘come onnn Katie!!’ This she responded to at one point by telling the kids next to us to ‘shut up!’ much to our collective amusement! Apparently she thought it was Jim she was shouting it, and felt bad about the misdirection of it later!

Jim continued working ‘Heading the Shot’ 7a+, before we headed up to meet the others. The was day finished off with Jack, Callum and Sam leading the classic ‘Looning the Tube’ HVS 5c (UKC says E1) in style. Marie followed Sam with no falls either, finishing a good weekend for her too, seconding 2 VS’s clean after the success of her first 2 Severe leads yesterday. In fact there was hard sending and significant pushing of grades all round, as I'm sure Jack and Callum’s sections will likewise testify to. I was really impressed and I don't think I’ve been on a meet quite like it before!”

 

Sam N-E cruising the final section of Looning the Tube.

Back to Jack:

With dissertation stress and such, the prospect of a wet miserable weekend didn’t at first appeal, but the sunshine we were blessed with all weekend was exactly what the doctor ordered! The long weekend of ‘hard’ sending left me absolutely drained on the bus, and I woke up just as I heard Jim ask if anyone had a carrot; you won’t catch me out that easily!