Tuesday 4 May 2010

Dream Of White Horses

Wen Zawn is considered the jewel in Gogarths crown, and Wen Zawn is home to the uber classic and most saught after, 'Dream Of White Horses'.
For those that dont know, Gogarths striking sea cliffs are host to some of North Wales's finest climbs, which are set in an amazing situation.
Me and Dan decided yesterday morning that we would make the drive over to Holyhead and  see what, 'Dream Of White Horses', is all about, and yep, its pretty damn good!!

At HVS, 'Dream', obviously gets the grade due to its most serious nature,  and rightly so. Firstly your greeted by the absail to begin the route down into the atmospheric Wen Zawn, and with 'Dream' being one of the easier lines, if you cant climb that, you pretty much stuck, you cant climb out!

After absailing into the route, and setting up for me to lead first, something i read the other day on the web popped into my head. A chap who had gone to climb 'Dream', 8 times before without any luck, finally getting it done on his 9th go!! One of the times his partner refused to even make the absail down, thats how intimidating it can be!!

With the seals watching from the zawn, off we went......





The route was fantastic, as good as the hype, and with nice holds just where you want them,  minimal seepage & good weather we got it done in just over 2 hours.
After climbing the route, its easy to see why it is reccomended that both partners are compatent HVS climbers, any fall would be pretty serious, more often than not it would also result in a big pendulum!
A fall on the final pitch, where the rock dissapears beneath your feet, leaving 200ft of air between you and the bottom of the rocky zawn, doesnt bear thinking about!




There were a few teams climbing in Wen Zawn today, a team followed us on 'Dream', and there was also a team on 'Concrete Chimney'.