Grooved Arete

With yesterday's promising forecast and a seldom free day, I decided to get out and get on the classic 3 star Grooved Arete up on Tryfan's east face.
We have wanted to climb GA for some time now, but as you would expect, each and every time we have headed up, the route has been busy, and with Dans patience, well........... we have never had the pleasure.
I was joined by my usual sidekick in Dan, and also a good friend, Liam, who has recently tried his hand at some bouldering.
We all made the plod up to the Heather Terrace, but on arrival at GA it was obvious that again, the route was taken. This time though we stuck it out. We would be climbing as a 3 for a start, also, this is what we came here to do, and do it we would!!
With the team above finishing the second pitch, Dan took the sharp end and started up the 1st pitch.
He was soon bringing Liam and I up, and instantly the route was interesting. The thrutchy awkward moves up the unhelpfully sized crack weren't textbook to say the least, but in no time at all we joined Dan at the belay.
Pith 2 was my lead, some straight forward climbing really, I overshot the belay though, and made my belay a little further on. Again Dan and Liam were soon with me, and we were making good progress.
With me overshooting the second belay, Dan's third pitch was cut a little short. Only a few metres of climbing then a walk over to the next belay. By this point we had merged two pitches into one, so our next pitch, (our 4th) was the 5th in the guide.
The 4th pitch was my lead, and what a fantastic pitch it is. A rib is climbed on the right up to a groove. This is climbed using a rib on the right, brilliant climbing all the way, then a precarious move is needed to step to the adjacent rib on the left of the groove. This was the most difficult move so far and could well be the crux.
Dan had the famous Knights slab pitch which didn't take him long. The Knights slab is brilliant. Holds everywhere you need one, and the climbing flows beautifully. The move of the slab in the top right corner and around the arete is the other stand out difficult move on the climb. Dan brought us up,  and after a brief moment, Liam was round the arete and at the belay. I followed and by this point we were moving well.
The last 2 pitches I again led together, and again were excellent. The steep wall with tons of holds made a great end to the route.
From here we made our way to the summit as the sky was clear and the views were stunning, a few moments up on the top and it was time to make the long plod back.
I thought the grade to be HVD/S, and a VDiff leader I think may struggle with the two more difficult sections.
So, for me, the route is the best I have climbed on the east face so far. Good holds, apart from 1 or 2 loose flakes, good protection and enough of it, great exposure on the top pitches and the climbing is rarely broken. A seriously awesome route!

Back on the Ben

Yesterday, for the first time in 3 years, I got a climb in on the Ben.
The previous 2 winter seasons I have been sidelined with my ongoing foot injury, and the other year I didn't climb up there was due to the superb Welsh winter, no need for the 11hr round trip!

Anyway, I teamed up with Dan as usual, and we opted to climb, 'Good Friday Climb', dependant on the condition of Observatory gully.  On arrival at the base of OG a few teams were already heading up and a nice track was in place. The snow was fairly deep, but not so much slab. The only slab we encountered was on the traverse in to Indicator wall from OG where care needed to be taken.
With a good forecast it was obviously busy, and teams were also on, Indicator wall, Smiths route, Tower Scoop, Point 5, Tower ridge, Ledge route and the Castle gully's, with plenty heading up into the Cieste as we passed.

We got 4 pitches out of Good Friday, but protection was incredibly sparse. The gear placements were hard to find under powder, and also well chocked with ice, think 6 or 7 pieces went in on the whole route, with a couple of 25-30m run-out's!
The 1st pitch was deep powder for the 1st 20m or so, then fairly good neve, upto a good ice screw belay on the right just beneath the vertical wall.
The 2nd pitch was the crux, which had a couple of pieces of gear, but the ice was poor to pull over the crux ice step. This led to a belay on the left.
The 3rd pitch was very run out. 1 runner in a 45m pitch! And the final short pitch was straight forward over a small cornice.

    Dan enjoying seconding the 1st pitch

A good day out, and good to be swinging the axes once more!!

Amphitheatre Buttress.

Well, today we had plans of finally getting on the uber classic Amphitheatre Buttress on Craig Yr Ysfa.
This was very nearly scuppered by firstly taking the wrong turn in Tal-Y-Bont, costing us quite some time,  and then finding a bat in the middle of the road, (not the wooden piece of sports equipment bat!). Our furry friend unfortunately only had one wing for some reason, but we moved him of the road anyway, and took a couple of snaps!
Once we finally reached the parking spot, time was pressing on. We knew we had a big walk in, and the route itself is probably the longest route in Wales, (excluding girdles!) at 960ft, and then obviously we had to get back out.
On researching the route it became apparent that some parties have really struggled on AB before, and times of 8 and 9 hours to climb the route were popping up, even if it is only VDiff.
We reckoned we could still do it in a reasonable time, so we pressed on with the long slog towards the crag. On arrival and to my dismay, nobody was on the route! Even in the remote setting with the tedious approach, I would have bet my life someone would have beat us to it in today's sunshine.
Looking up at the first couple of pitches, Dan and I opted to simul-climb until we came to any difficulties where we may have wanted a belay.
I took the sharp end and set of up the initial slabs and continued for a couple of pitches. I found a couple of interesting moves in these pitches, so for any readers, don't let them put you off!
 Dan then led the pitches on the main pocketed slabs, which was brilliant climbing with fantastic exposure. I then switched and led the next couple of pitched which involved the un-noticeable crux. The moves lower down and the slabs Dan led all felt harder than this!
The route then becomes more of a easy scramble for the next couple of pitches until you hit the pinnacles on the knife edge ridge. We easily moved over these, and up to the final corner. This finishes the route of very well and again gives some interesting climbing.

Dan leading up the exposed slabs

The climb itself took us approx 1 1/2 hours, we obviously saved time by simul climbing and moving together. We were followed up by a team of 3 who seemed to be doing a lot of pitching, they hadnt moved too far by the time we had descended and got on with the walk out. This is where the times of 8 or 9 hours could happen if your all not moving quickly, don't forget, the guide book describes this as 9 pitches!
A quick sort out of the rack and rope and we were on our way back, looking for the path that drops back down to the way we walked in, at this point I wish we would have parked on the A5 and come up the tarmac road! We even chatted that you could easily cycle up there!
The slog out was hard, and from the top of the route back to the car park only took us another 1 1/2 hours, so we made up good time all in all.

                                         Dan doing a proper, 'aux cheval' on the pinnacle


To summarise, in my opinion, the route itself is very good, not excellent. The reason being, is that the climbing is far from sustained, and very broken at mid height. For me, this detracts from the quality of the route as a whole.
Saying that, the climbing itself is fantastic, very exposed pitches, which could feel serious to a VDiff leader, simply due to the setting and remoteness. Protection is pleantiful as expected and the holds are everywhere you would like one to be and the scenery is stunning, take a camera!
If you plan on pitching the whole route, do allow a FULL day, and although we didn't do the A5 approach, I would think its much better. The crag is much further than it initially looks when coming from the Tal-Y Bont approach.
                                         

First climb in 12 months...

Well, as the title suggests, today I donned the rock shoes and got back in the groove..... 12 months on after breaking my foot in Chamonix!
I met up with Dan early this morning, and we headed over to Ogwen. Obviously we chose a reasonable objective with which to try out my mending foot and also to get my head back in gear.
We decided on ambling up to Tryfan's East Face, and seeing what was what. On arriving a team was gearing up at the base of Grooved Arete, im not one for queue's so we walked further up. Pinnacle rib was next up, done that, so we opted for Gashed Crag. I knew it was a bit of a classic, but have never really payed much attention to this one, but the guide book description sounded pretty good so it was game on!

I got us underway on the 1st pitch, 10ft up and the rain starts, typical! Fortunately this passed and it was only the 1st pitch that was climbed in the rain. The rock in places was damp, but overall the whole route was in good condition.
The route get's going after the 1st pitch really, and it gives some really nice climbing. The chimney pitch after the 'Gash' is interesting, and going against what the guidebook says, Dan dispatched this in fine style, complete with rucksack too! This I thought was the crux of the route, and also unprotectable until after the difficulties.
A pitch or two later leads up onto the ridge, which gives 2 pitches of really pleasant, flowing climbing, with bags of scope for protection.
The ridge leads to the final chimney and groove, which is really the only other difficulty of the route. This again is really good climbing involving some nice thrutchy moves!
To summarise the route, it gives nice climbing and longish pitches in some exposed situations. The moves flow, protection on the whole is plentiful, apart from the 1st chimney and the route does have a fair bit of polish. The 2 chimneys are not that straightforward, and I would agree as other's seem to suggest, that the route is under graded at VD.



                                                    Heading up the final pitch of Gashed Crag

Dan bridging on Gashed Crag

Relaxing at the belay

Dan high up on Tryfan's East Face

Some more time on the MTB.

I popped over to Llandegla forest this morning with Dan for a quick blast around the black trail.
There are a few newish sections which have been added/altered since I was last there, and they defiantly are a good addition! In particular the new section of jumps called 'The Parallel Universe on the first major black section are pretty spicy!!
The ride went well, no incidents to report, and the trail isn't as wet as I thought it may have been, although as normal, it was pretty busy.
All made for another enjoyable ride, and hopefully more progress with the foot.
Hopefully it will be time shortly to get back on the rock with a few classic Vdiff's!

                                       
                                                     The new Parallel Universe section

The Video content is not mine.

Back With A Bang!

As you can see, the blog has not seen much activity over the recent months. Not for the want of trying though, more like the old broken foot is still causing me problems, 11 months on!
Anyway, this week I completely had enough of not being active and with so called, 'profesionals' telling me I should be doing this and that, and me saying, "I have been doing that for months, it wont help!".
So I decided to get back on the bike for some stimulation. As the pain I get in my foot is caused by a side to side motion I knew this would cause me minimal discomfort compared with trying to climb again!

That all lead me to rolling up at  the start of Penmachno trail at 8.30 this morning. Dan was obviously with me, after pretty much being stuck without a partner in crime for the last year.

I have ridden loop 1 of the trail a few years ago, and always fancied going back. This time we did loops 1 &2 as the foot was feeling good, this cant be said for me though, months of watching tv and doing little else certainly shown, but this is what I needed!

The trail itself was exciting to say the least. It was pretty wet after some rain last night, resulting in the rock on the trail being VERY slippery, and with it being a natural trail you encounter lots of it! The flat (ish) open sections high up were pleasant with the weather holding off and there being virtually no wind.
As expected, in those conditions and with us  making the most of being back out, we both took a trip over the handle bars on the duration of the course. Dan had a great one, as his front wheel seemed to suddenly slip from under him, leaving Dan whithering in the overgrown rough. Myself, I slid on some polished wet rock slabs, not getting the turn in, which sent my front wheel off the track and down a small drop, I then conveniently got propelled over the bars and into a waiting tree trunk!!
It was great to be back out,  even though I was blowing at times, and up to now, the foot feels ok.


                                          Dans tumble, ha  ha. I was quick with the camera!

If your looking for a rugged trail, with fast, twisting singletrack, boardwalks, beautiful views and a great remote feel, then give Penmachno a try!

Big News...

Having still not climbed due to my ankle ligaments still being weak and not in good shape, the blog has been quite of late.
Hopefuly things will improve this year.
Anyway, as the title says, big news today, as that, 'The Hurting', has been repeated today by none other than Andy Turner, http://andyturnerclimbing.blogspot.com/.
This is the first repeat of Dave Macleods route, which he graded XI 11!!!

Keep checking Andys blog for the update, should be interesting!