Saturday, January 30, 2010

Disaster!

Everything was going well this morning, I'd packed my bag the previous and we were on the road on time (very unusual for me).  We were making good progress down the A5 and even with the diversion around Bala because of the road slip we were making good time.  As we rejoined the A5 we could see the major mountains of northern Snowdonia, and they looked great!


You can make out Snowdon on the left, Moel Siabod centre left, Glyders in the middle, then the top of Tryfan and the Carneddau on the right.  This was to be as close as we got, as the back of my mates Land Rover Discovery slipped as we went around a corner and no amount of opposite lock was going to save it.  We hit a dry stone wall twice:


After we spun again (maybe twice) before coming to a stop with the horn stuck on and the Disco was looking very worse for wear.  My friend thinks its a write off:



Well nobody was hurt but my mates gutted and we missed out on what looked like a cracking day for climbing the Trinity Face.  I'm going out for a few pints tomorrow then (as long as I don't drink too much) I'll be driving myself tomorrow for a solo on Central Trinity.  Hopefully without event...



Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Where to next?

Well I've been patiently waiting for a colder period and hopefully it looks like one could be on the way for this weekend, there are already reports coming from other bloggers that Clogwyn y Garnedd, Cwm Cneifon and Cwm Glas Mawr are all in nick and hopefully by the weekend (if we believe the weather reports) they will be perfect.

My first choice is Central Trinity, its a classic and I've been meaning to do it for a while now.  I also had a designs on Gully I in Red Tarn Cove (Helvellyn) but it seems a waste to drive an extra two hours round trip when there is a classic waiting to be done closer.

While its been quiet I've started running again and getting some events in my diary.  I want to try and do around 1:50 on the Ironbridge Half Marathon.  I've entered this twice now and been ill both times :(  As a little pre-race aid to train (haha) I'm also going to do the Long Mynd Valleys Race which is in the beautiful Shropshire hills, the most significant local hills.  It's 11.5 miles with 4500ft of ascent so that should make the half feel like a breeze (here's to hoping!).  I've been getting into a training scheme and I'll be just over 50 miles worth of running in the last two weeks by Sunday if all goes to plan.


I also need to get my thumb out and sort a trip to Scotland in the next few weeks (unless the snow comes back to Wales with a vengeance, here is to hoping!)



Hopefully I'll have some more pics of snow plastered mountains Saturday evening or Sunday :)  And next week some of me in my Skins trousers looking like I'm going to pass out!


I almost forgot; I've just ordered the Cicerone Welsh Winter Climbs guidebook from the Cicerone website - after a little digging on Google I found if you enter CICERONE in the vouchers section you get 20% off.  I think it's valid until sometime in March, happy shopping!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

East Wall Gully (I/II), Cwm Idwal & Hidden Gully (I/II), Cwm Cneifon

Back to Ogwen!  This time with a colleague also called Chris, however this time for more of a day of mountaineering than climbing, two gullys which would lead us out to the summit of Glyder Fawr.  Having parked at the Ogwen Cottage and with a late start of 10:30ish we made our way around Llyn Idwal to the base of the first Gully.



East Wall Gully can be seen in the photo above by following the base of the main rock feature up to the small V.  We started up and it became apparent from how soft the snow was (due to powder and temperature) that it was going to be a hard old slog!



You can see Chris in the photo above nearing the top of the gully, up to his knees in soft powder snow!  This slog was made worth it by the an amazing view of Cwm Cneifon, Clogwyn Du was masked in clag but would be revealed quickly by the wind only to be taken back just as quickly.



The walk upto the start of Easy Route was tough.  The snow was deep in the cwm and it was a right old slog upto the start of Easy Route.  At this point we decided to take a break and get some grub at the foot of Clogwyn Du pictured below



Hidden gully tops out in the prominent V to the left of the main rock face.  We made (slogged) our way up Easy route to the base of the gully, however we started climbing up and across the face to get out of the sapping snow.  This led us out at the bottom of the gully (see photo bellow) nicely, it hadn't been touched and was in perfect condition!  I was a bit concerned with the earlier sludge!



We left the rope in the bag and Chris went up the first half first, below you can see me almost halfway up the gully:



From here, I went first and made my way over the first step, below you can see Chris making his way over the step:



After another step we'd both topped out safely in time to admire the views, below was the view to Anglesey with Pen Yr Ole Wen on the right:



The Snowdon Massif from the summit of Glyder Fawr with beautiful temperature inversion:




We descended down the the saddle between Y Garn and Glyder Fawr and then down the decent route for the Devil's Kitchen climb.  The routes were definitely melting however The Ramp appeared to be a lot fatter than when we did it where as the Devil's Pasture seemed a lot thinner with the difficult first step to the left now gone.  We traversed across the snow to see the South Gully which looked in great nick and on to the Idwal Stream (II/III), we had a little time before the light failed so we had a quick solo of the first pitch.  Me in the first pic and Chris topping out in the second.




Sunday, January 3, 2010

Devil's Pasture (III), Devil's Kitchen

After 'getting the bug' on The Ramp, we were back to Snowdonia to bag some more routes while the conditions are so superb.  On the way Chris remarked how the weather forecast was cold but clear and sunny.  I was dubious but I was wrong!  It was like an alpine summer!  Below is a photo of Tryfan bathing in the morning sun.


This time we started our journey at 6am, rather than chancing another rough nights kip in the car, by the time we made it to the car park at Ogwen Cottage there were plenty of cars.  Not a good sign but we started out to this time taking the easier route around the right of Llyn Idwal.  The snow was definitely a lot deeper but still not consolidated.




I had designs on doing Idwal Stream, another II/III (I felt comfortable at leading this) but Chris wanted to get Devil's Pasture (III) bagged.  I wasn't too sure because I'd read on UKC forums that The Ramp was a fairly easy ascent for a III, this was confirmed by the users who had logged it.  We decided to "give it the beans" and have a go on Devil's Pasture which looked spectacular but doable.


Since we weren't sure about the South Gully(III-V) and Idwal Stream seemed perhaps too easy we decided to queue.  What a mistake!  The first team seemed to take a long time, and then we had to wait for another two teams of two.  I think we waited for 3-4 hours but we'd settled on the route and felt it was within our reach so didn't mind too much but it was pretty cold!  I must invest in a belay jacket!   Chris lead again and when he did start worked his way up to the first belay point of this two pitch route.  The topo had the route marked as 2 pitches of 30m and 45m.  Chris had about 5m of a 60m rope left by the time he had set up the first belay (using slings).


The photo above is me gratefully making it off the steep section of the first pitch taken from the first belay.  You can see climbers walking the decent route below me to the right.  The first pitch was much harder than anything on The Ramp!  First difficult bit was a move around an ice bulge onto the main icefall.  The climb then became very steep before needing to climb over another bulge.  There were plenty of places people had bashed their feet and axes but I'm not sure if this was a help or hinderance all in all.



The second pitch apparently also a III was much easier and no harder than anything on The Ramp.  The photo above of me on the belay point was taken by Chris at the first ice screw placement before the first of a couple of mixed steps.  The next photo is of Pen Yr Ole Wen in the failing light and certainly the best view I've had from a belay yet, the snow covered Carneddau looked pink.  I really enjoyed being here, especially after the twitchy first pitch!


The next photo is the first mixed step of the second pitch, which was not particularly difficult.



We topped out just as the light started to fail.  Me in front of Pen Yr Ole Wen:



Chris:



This left us with a nice walk back with a beautifully clear sky with the brightest of stars.  We could see as we got down that it looked like another team had topped out in what appeared to be the South Gully in the dark (rather them than me!)

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Ramp (II/III), Devil's Kitchen

After a reasonable kip in the Ogwen Cottage car park on Friday night after trudging up Snowdon to the zig zags of the Pyg Track, we woke up knackered and didn't get going until 8am. By which time many other teams had arrived and started the march around Llyn Idwal to the Devil's Kitchen, the very thing we wanted to avoid by the uncomfortable night in the car. Through ignorance we took the more difficult route to the right of the lake up to the left of Devil's Kitchen were we saw The Ramp (II/III).


The Ramp was my first water ice climb so I was slightly anxious but also confident by recent gains in strength and technique through lots of bouldering and indoor climbing. I was also happy that Chris (my climbing partner) would be leading today.


The photo above was taken after the climb, although the weather wasn't great (with a few snow flurries throughout the day) it wasn't as claggy as the photo suggests, the lens had gotten condensation from being inside my pocket. The Ramp comprises of 3 pitches which are supposed to be grades II, III and I respectively and totals 100m. By the time we got to the start of the route the team on it had both reached the first belay, so we didn't have to wait long for the queuing team to get out of the way.  Chris led the first pitch fairly easily and got a belay set up using two ice screws. There is supposed to be a piton at the first pitch but we couldn't see it. The 2nd pitch is the crux and required climbing on to a bulge of ice for the first move. The photo below shows Chris after the first move on the 2nd pitch.

The next belay point is reached on the left quickly where there is a piton and somewhere that hadn't iced up that chris had a cam in.  We quickly got swapped over at the next belay and Chris motored up to top out.


The final photo is me edging out back onto the main icefall to start the final easy pitch which has a short low gradient bit of ice then into an easy snow gully before topping out. The decent is to the left past Devil's Pasture (III).

The topo is available here