#tremadog

Following a pretty successful French road trip I was off to Wales for the next twelve days. First up was five days doing my Mountain Leader Award training with Paul Poole. We had an awesome week despite some mixed weather; I learnt a huge amount and met some great people. What made the trip even better was meeting up with Stu again who was staying up in Wales for a few months to get his ready for his MIA assessment. Pretty much every evening after training I managed to get out climbing, the highlight of which was probably soloing Gashed Crag on the east side of Tryfan with Stu in a mad evening dash. We managed to do the round trip to and from the camp site in two hours where a lot of people make a full day of it. 

Stu finding the way on a beautiful evening solo of Gashed Crag

After finishing up my ML training on Friday I packed up my camp and made my way west to Tremadog where I was meeting Pat and Ed that evening. Pat arrived about 9pm and we grabbed head torches for a quick night time solo of Oberon on Craig Bwlch y Moch. We arrived back in camp in time to meet Ed, grab a beer and think about a plan for the following day.

With high winds and rain forecast, we decided to head up to the slate mines above Llanberis and attempt a wet ascent of the now infamous Snakes, Ladders and Tunnels. Rather than a climb it would be best described as an adventure obstacle course roaming its way through the mines and eventually spitting you out at the far side, wetter, dirtier and happier than when you went in. An honourable mention goes to Pat for leading the horrendous chain pitch, rather him than me!

Pat getting some aid climbing action on the chain of doom

Rocking the explorer look

Abseiling into the lost world

Sunday brought a better forecast so we hopped over to Anglesey to have a go at possibly the most famous line in the UK, A Dream of White Horses, made famous by Leo Dickinson's photo of Ed Drummond on the first ascent. With a fairly high swell we opted for the "niche" start which gives three rising traverse pitches across the cliff. Pat took the first pitch and Ed the second which left me with the much photographed final pitch that winds its way over the impressive zawn. We topped out without any major issues but with massive grins. It was one of the most incredible pieces of climbing I've done and one that will stay in my memory for a long time. 

Pat cruising pitch one of Dream

Ed on pitch two

The final pitch

Ed had to head back to Yorkshire after Dream, but we had some daylight remaining, so Pat and I went back to have a go at Bitomartis, a gently overhanging, juggy route on the same area of Gogarth. As soon as we abseiled in, we realised we had a problem. The start of the route involved down-climbing, then traversing a short way to meet the line, before heading up the cliff. Unfortunately, the area where we had to traverse was just being caught by the top of the waves. Pat forged on nonetheless and managed to get established with only a minor spraying, but as he climbed I realised that the tide was coming in fairly rapidly and the traverse was now getting pounded by the odd larger wave. My brain was starting to work overtime...

"Shit"

"SHIT"

"SHIT SHIT SHIT!"

"Ooh look, a seal"

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"

Luckily Pat was in turbo mode and soon called me through, at which point I stood poised, waiting for a lull in the waves before sprinting across the sopping traverse and climbing out of harm's way. Giving the seal a quick wave goodbye, I finished up the soaring flakes to the belay, before getting on the sharp end to finish the route. Disaster averted, it was time to bail back to the camp site for hot food and a celebratory beer.

Still on a high from Gogarth, the next day we decided to stay at our base and climb on Craig Bwlch y Moch, the best known of the Tremadog crags. It was clear that we would struggle to top the previous day's adventure, but somehow we did. There were no epics, no incidents and no seals just a whole host of classic lines that I could never have dreamt of climbing a year previously. Pat lead the Plum, one of his life-long ticklist routes which, judging by his running, whooping commentary, was as good as he'd imagined, before I got to lead pitch 2 of the Fang. I had been looking at the Fang ever since my first Tremadog trip, when I was climbing One Step in the Clouds and saw a couple having a mega epic on the route. Finishing the route felt incredible, in that moment I really felt that I had progressed from being a punter to being a capable climber. We finished the day by getting onto Meshach, another classic Tremadog HVS before finishing on Grim Wall Direct where I managed to pick up my first Welsh E points by leading the first 5b pitch. Psyched was not the word, what an incredible day.

The infamous Mr B, crimptastic

For the final day of our Welsh extravaganza we decided to head into the Llanberis pass to the imposing Dinas Mot. First on the hit list was Diagonal, one of best know lines on the crag. I lead pitches 2 & 4, pitch two being best described as fucking terrifying. Poor gear, tiny footholds and long run outs meant I was pretty gripped by the time I finally made it to the belay. Pat dispatched pitch three and the last pitch was easy in comparison so we were soon following the path down to the foot of the crag ready to finish the trip with an ascent of Lorraine, a fairly easy VS on the left hand side of the buttress. After a bite to eat in Pete's Eats we said our farewells and hit the road back down south.

Pat, looking far happier than me on Diagonal. Check out the view down to Llanberis

Back in London, I took the opportunity to relax and prove to Kirsty that I still existed before heading up to the Peak District to meet up with Joe. I managed to get a day of SPA practise by taking some old Selwynites on a climbing taster day at Birchen Edge before Joe and I hit the road north in his (ahem) mean machine, towards our overnight stop just south of the Lake District. The next day we continued up to our first destination, the island of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. We were up early the following morning for the long walk in to Cir Mhor for our first route of the trip, the long, four star line of South Ridge Direct. This was another route I'd been wanting to do for a long time, but in this case I didn't feel it quite lived up to its reputation. The good pitches were superb and would be four star in their own right, however I did feel that there were a few too many "filler" pitches. I did enjoy the overall adventurous feel of such a long route but as is so often the case in Scotland, my overriding memory was the midges.

Joe on the South Ridge of Cir Mhor

At this point in the trip the weather gods finally gave up on us. Considering the luck I'd had during my time off I could hardly complain but after driving all the way to Skye we were met with nothing but rain and wind. After a couple of days being blown around we bailed and headed south to the Lake District in search of dry rock.

Back in the Lakes we had far better luck and got back to ticking the UK classics. First up was Troutdale Pinnacle Superdirect, the direct version of the climb I wrote about a long time ago in this blog post. After this, Joe got on the lead and climbed Donkey's Ears on Shepherd's Crag.

Joe on the crux of Donkey's Ears

The following day we took the steep walk in to Gimmer Crag in Langdale, one of my favourite Lake District spots. We started with another long term goal of mine and climbed Kipling Groove, probably the route I came closest to falling off during my trip. Joe lead Bracket and Slab, another of Gimmer's popular routes before we beat a hasty retreat back to Keswick for some much needed food (note to readers - if you want to go away with Joe make sure you keep him fed, you won't like him when he's hungry).

On day three in the lakes we decided to follow in the footsteps of climbing's pioneers and headed up to the Napes on the flanks of Great Gable. We started by climbing Napes Needle, to many the symbol of Lakeland climbing. We were clearly following in a hell of a lot of footsteps as any friction that may have existed on the rock was long gone, you could practically see your face in the footholds. After this we moved around the corner to Tophet Wall, another of the Lakes best know lines before a quick ascent of Innominate Crack on Kern Knots on the way back to the main path.

Beautiful views of Wasdale from Napes Needle

We finished our trip with a late start after spending three hours trying to find Joe's car keys (they were in the bin, obviously). We decided to head to one of the more esoteric classics found in the famous book Hard Rock, Praying Mantis on Goat Crags in Borrowdale. The difficulties of the route are concentrated in the first pitch which climbs a steep (and in our case, fairly damp) corner crack. It was here that I finally managed to outfox Joe and he angrily had to take a rest before meeting me at the belay. The rest of the route was plain sailing in comparison, if a little dirty, and after topping out we went on the hunt for a suitable abseil point to escape the crag top.

Joe abbing down from Innominate Crack