A Quick Pyramid Gully Blast

Well, we hit the Ladders, and yes, we got on Pyramid gully IV,5.!!
At 4.30am the unwelcomed sound of my alarm awoke me to find a fresh dusting of snow on the roads outside. I had my doubts about even being able to get over to Snowdonia today, i thought the roads could well be a nightmare, fortunatley the gritters did a sterling job and we arrived in Gerlan in good time.

The walk in was as tedious as ever, even more so as the crag was covered with the low cloud base. It took as longer than expected to locate the route as the visibility was very poor and extreamley persistant.

We approached from the right of Pyramid Buttress, passing Central gully where the inital ice pitch i climbed a few weeks ago was a hell of a lot thinner, probably not even climbable in its current state.

So, I got underway with the first steep pitch of Pyramid Gully which I found to be the crux. 5 or 6 moves were tricky where the ice steepend to pretty much vertical. Straight from the off, we had to be very careful with the ice, it was of the hard, brittle, dinner plating sort, the sort which is difficult to get a good placement as it constantly breaks away, and the sort which could also knock out your belayer!!!!

After bringing Dan up, i got going on the second pitch as Dan fell a bit ill and feeling lethargic, didnt have the strength to take the lead. The second pitch again had a nice ice pitch at the start, which was easier than the ice section on the first pitch, and made for good climbing, although i did have to battle through the huge ammounts of spindrift avalanches pouring down! The top of the ice section brought me to a ledge, a right turn and up a neve gully with a couple of ice steps to a belay on the right hand side. Here we de-geared and soloed the last 100m of grade 1 ground, on fantastic neve which brought us up to the plateau.

We heared a few other teams out, but couldnt tell what was being climbed as the visibility didnt break above 700m all morning. We spoke to a team who made a quick ascent of Eastern Gully who reported good neve, and spoke to a team who opted for Central Gully, though that was pre climb.
All in all, still lots to go at on the Ladders, and things seem to be improving by the day. Still a good ammount of ice knocking about, although as above, what we found was very britle, and if the low temps remain things could fatten up. Neve was brilliant although was topped with a few inches of graupel and powder which has recently fell, so an eye should be kept on the day to day snowfall as avalanche conditions could well build.




A good short day, and a route thats been on the tick list finally got climbed.
If you fancy a low in the grade IV,5 then Pyramid Gully is for you!!

Lets hope it continues.................

The Ladders are ON....

Cant wait for tomorrow. Heading over to the Black Ladders, hopefully will get on Pyramid Gully which i have wanted to climb for a while now, fingers crossed it will be free!
The winter conditions in Snowdonia have got progressively better throughout the latter part of the week, and with last night and tonights colder temps, things should be looking pretty good.
I would think many of the higher crags, e.g the Trinity face will be busy tomorrow, thats where the best conditions will be found as they will be least effected by the recent thaw.

The ladders look a bit thinner than when we last were there climbing Gallipoli, but still plenty to go at, and Baggy  http://wwwbaggy.blogspot.com/  reports 14 teams were out today!

Weather wise, its not looking as good a day as today, but still, its not too bad!
Some snow showers are expected during the morning, a bit of wind and some brief spells of poor visibility, but nothing too harsh is due.

Ueli Steck - Speed solo of the Ginat on the Droites

There's not too much info on this at the moment, but it has happened!
Sometime in the last fortnight Ueli Steck took to the Ginat for another one of his ridiculous speed solo's and as ever, John Griffith was there to do the shoot.

Read more on his website here:
http://www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions/

Heres a unbelievable photo from John Griffith's website of Ueli soloing the Ginat. You may have to click the image to enlarge it, as he is dwarfed by the huge face!! Spot him if you can!!

Cant wait for his time on this one!!

Follow The Dog

At the weekend, we made a very last minute decision to head down to Cannock Chase mountain bike center for a quick blast and a breakfast!
We were going to go over to Llandegla but that could have been a struggle on the bikes as its still blanketed with deep snow.
Anyway, down at Cannock Chase myself, Mike Warhurst, Mr lawley, Malc and Craig rode the well known, 'Follow The Dog' trail, http://www.moredirt.co.uk/trail_info.php?id=25 which on a dry day would be a fairly easy trail for experienced riders, but, we didnt have a dry day!
The trail was pretty wet, and the mud was everywhere, quite a bit of skilled riding was needed to prevent the bikes wheels slipping away from under you.
The trail itself i thought was very good, and made the most of quite a flat landscape. The downhill sections were relitively short but good, and the trail as a whole flowed nicely from one sectoin to another.

Il definatley be heading back here to check out some of the other trails which Cannock has to offer!

The breakfast wasnt bad either, as can be seen above!

Iban Larrion - Psikoterapia (9a).

Heres a brilliantly published movie  featuring Iban Larrion on the route Psikoterapia (9a).

He made the second ascend (FA by Patxi Usobiaga), and this video really shows how small some of the holds are and how technical some of the moves are on a 9a route.


Una de Navarros,9a.**** from urko on Vimeo.

The Friday night video on UKC

Ukclimbing.com  http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/ has this week chose my recent video of our day enjoying the ice over in Cwm Idwal as their Friday night video of the week!
Its always the way aint it, my video in question was slapped together in 30 mins after the days climbing, and id be the first to say it isnt one of my better productions!
The video can be viewed on UKC's website here http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=51305 , on the video wall or below.

Dry tooling at Blackpool Towers

The rapid deteriroation in the winter conditions throught the uk these last few days, left Dan & I in limbo and  without a plan for what to get on this weekend. I didnt fancy getting avalanched or tackling dripping ice, and the recent rain put a stop to any action on the rock. It looked like an indoor session was inevitable, that was until i came up with a plan! Kepping the winter action alive with a spot of dry tooling!
http://drytoolinguk.com/what_is_drytooling.html

We headed over to to the Blackpool Towers, where they hold regular 2hr sessions for £10pp, not bad, especially as your kit is included if you need it!
http://www.attractionsblackpool.co.uk/Blackpool_Climbing_Towers.htm

Its the first time we have climbed at the Towers, and on arrival they appear massive!
Dan and I got on 4 routes each, starting easy we eventualy tackled a couple of tricky lines, including the overhanging inside of one of the towers which was massivley pumpy!
The final route we took to involved constant technical moves, often balancing the pick on the slightest of edges, lots of hand swaps, matching the same tool, and using the body position to keep the axes pulled the way you want them to be. These towers are a relentless 20m high and as the body tires the precarious moves just kept on coming, not forgetting the serious exposure that the Towers throw at you!