Bloody Roaches

I had half a day off work today for my first visit to Roaches for my first taste of Gritstone.  I got there about 4ish I think and found Daz, Allister and Emma on the route next to Valkyrie which looks even more impressive in reality than in any photos I've seen.

I after they finished I paired up with Daz and I led Yong (HVD 4a **) which felt ok for the grade once I was used to trusting the friction.  I took Daz's and Chris's cams up so and placed about 5 I think.

Not sure what the guy is on but Yong (HVD 4a **) runs up the twin cracks from the bottom left corner of the picture

After this Daz and Allister went over to climb on Hen Cloud and whilst there are a few routes there I want to try (namely The Arete) I thought I'd stay with Emma and try something a bit more taxing and see what all this Gritstone business is all about.  We headed over to do Ackit (HVS 5b **), struth what a route!  It's a layback crack that goes around a buldge and then another tough crack to layback and get over.  Emma got up to the bulge but didn't have enough smaller cams and after a few good goes and a fall she had enough.  We set up a top rope and I tried it.  I finished it but what an absolute strain, I didn't make it look elegant in the slightest but what a cracking route and a great introduction to Grit, drawing some blood!

Me belaying Emma just below the first crux on Ackit (HVS 5 **)

After this ordeal (haha) I was sweaty and out of breath, this is different climbing and I really like it.  I kept thinking about Dom Whillans photo on his DVD with his sunglasses, beanie and fag while I was doing it and imagining him saying man up lol!

Don Whillans!  Reputation for being a hard nut and famous for routes at Roaches

After we got off I wanted to lead something and suggested going to Hen Cloud but instead Emma suggested Sifta's Quid (HS 4b *).  I started off and thought the route was going to be easy!  I originally intended to climb inside the hole but couldn't quite get through with all my gear and helmet on!

Me disappearing into Sifta's Quid (HS 4b *)

I quickly decided that I would have to go over the top and which point I realised it wasn't going to be that easy!  I faff about stepping up and jamming and coming back down about 4 or 5 times before I got it right as I couldn't get friction for my slab on the outer wall whilst doing the crux.  The trick is to push down with your palm and sort of shimmy up it.  I ended up using the front of my left shoe too but as soon as you get your right foot up you're golden :)

Graham at the crux of Sifta's Quid

After this route I was feeling a bit beat up and knackered.  Emma suggested setting up a top rope on Chalkstorm (E4 5c **) and I thought I'd be able to do it on a slab as I've been feeling confident on them recently but I found even on a top rope with how knackered I was feeling a bit chicken so I came down. Emma then did it as did Graham.   All in all a cracking crag and I can't wait to get back to bash myself up some more!  Given I'd done the Welsh 3's on Sunday I was pleased to finish the harder routes, oh and I saw one of the lads we'd walked with on the last leg on my first route!  Small world eh?

Welsh 3000s

I'm going to (try and) keep this short and let the pictures do the talking!  We didn't get to Pen y Pass until late but blasted up to the summit in 1:30, arriving at 1:30am.  Chris had bought a full on airbed because he hasn't got a Thermarest yet and I haven't laughed so much in a long time as when we walked past about 20 people sleeping at the summit and pulled out his airbed and start blowing it up noisily, huffing and puffing for 10 minutes much to the dismay and grumbling of those trying to get some shut eye!  We got a few hours kip, it was a very windy night and awoke at 5am.  We took photos and got the jetboil on the go and by just after 7am I'd had a cup of tea, a cuppa soup and a packet of pasta and was packed and ready to go.  I was a bit gutted that I'd knocked on my mates Forerunner 310XT during the night and wasted a quarter of the battery!  We bounced down Snowdon, over Crib y Dsygl and over Crib Goch in no time at all.  It was good fun coming down the scree slope and before long we'd descended to the road and was at Nant Peris were my dad was waiting.  I changed into shorts and dropped the bivi gear off and carried on with just a hyrdation sack.  By this put the sun was getting higher in the sky and it was getting warm!  The pull to Elidir Fawr was a long one and Chris was feeling the pull but motored on to make the summit.  He doesn't know this but I made a bit of a mistake (he does now) and we didn't need to go up the next summit (Foel Goch) and could of instead took the less steep path to Y Garn!  Sorry mate!  We dropped down by Llyn y Cwn and stopped were I had run out of water.  Chris got half a bagette down his neck which gave him a second wind and we steadily climbed to the top of the Glyders.  We over took a bunch of bimblers coming down to the col to Tryfan were we met a couple of guys from the Wrekin Mountaineering Club who kindly offered to refuel us!  We made the summit of Tryfan which was much easier than I thought it would be but I guess its not all the way from the road at Ogwen!  We dropped down to Ogwen where my dad was waiting again.  I got a bit of pasta on the go and he did Chris some dirty spanking gorgeous Pot Noodles :)  I tended my feet as I had a blister on my toe.  I popped it and got a Compeed on it.  I thought this was a bad idea when we set off but it soon settled down.  We headed up the path to the cottage and started up Pen yr Ole Wen.  My dad said at least it will be getting cooler as we left and those words were ringing in my ears on the trudge up where it seemed the hottest part of the day.  We stopped a couple of times in the shade to have a drink and as we reached the shoulder a couple of lads who were also doing it caught us. We had over taken each other a few times since the Glyderau so we decided to walk together for the rest of the route.  Once we'd gained the height we made good progress over the last 7 miles.  The pull up to Carnedd Llewelyn and the trip out to Yr Elen being the hardest bits.  The last three are very simple and I was on the summit of Foel Gras just before 9pm.  It took us just under 14 hours, I wanted to do it in under 10 hours which I think I could manage but given the heat of the day and the fact this was Chris's first endurance type event I was happy.  It was certainly something of a baptism of fire to the whole endurance thing for Chris and he did awesome to romp through the pain.  We dropped down into the col between Foel Fras and Drum to Llyn Anafon and down the track for a couple of miles where I was finally pleased to see the car.  When I got to the bottom my old man was nowhere to be seen and after calling for a while he hadn't appeared and I was worried.  I then heard him shout back from over a ridge where he'd gone to get a signal for the phone and take some pics of the sunset.  Chris was off to sleep not long after we set off, I remembered my dad had a bottle of ale in the car so at Bethesda I got him to stop and I cracked it open.  15 min after finishing the bottle and I was out like a light and didn't wake until Llangollen.  We got home at 2am and my dad was had to be up at 4am for work.  What a legend, a massive thanks to him as without all the water we'd of been up the creek!  Big well done to Chris for his first, very successful long distance event!  I've been thinking about a double crossing as well as another attempt for sub 10 hours.  Maybe not this weekend though :)

Keep it short eh? ;)

Looking down Llanberis Pass on the ascent of Snowdon on Saturday

Me, comfortable on at the bivi with the Jetboil on the go

Chris tucked up in his bivi bag on his massive airbed haha!

Chris at Crib y Dsygl with Snowdon in the background

Me overlooking Crib Goch

Looking back at the Snowdon Massif on the way up Elidir Fawr

Elidir Fawr from Foel Goch

Chris taking 5 on Y Garn, Tryfan in the background on the left and Glyders to the left

Looking out to sea from the summit of Pen yr Ole Wen

Chris feeling it on top of Yr Elen

Me on the trig point of Foel Fras after a long day!

Welsh 3000's

I've not been running since Wednesday and I've been feeling a little rough today so I'm going to hit the steam room on the way home from work, I think because of dehydration from the weekend so I've backed off the running for today. Part of my plan for Alps preparation is to try and trot the Welsh 3000ft peaks (all 14, 15 or 16 of them depending on what you believe). I've sketched this GPX route up using Where's the path? and hosted it at GPSies, two free excellent resources which I use a lot. It follows the route as laid out by http://www.welsh3000s.co.uk/ which is probably the best resource on the internet that I've found. I know the route fairly well but the Forerunner will help keep me on track if the clag comes in.

I'll be climbing tomorrow, but given the club are at Llanymynech I'll probably have to go indoors unless I can talk someone into going outdoors locally as the drive from Coventry isn't worth if for a single climb! I'll be back to running tomorrow and then a short one perhaps on Thursday. I'm looking at starting on Saturday night with a Bivi on the summit of Snowdon and should have my dad in tow for support in Llanberis, Ogwen and then at the end.  I should be doing the route with Chris whom I'll be tearing it up with in the alps in 31 days :) My boss at work said he'll get me a pint and a packet of dry roasted nuts if I do it in under 10 hours, I think they will be mine!

WMC Bala Weekend

Three sessions of climbing this week and I ran Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to 11.84 miles on the Wednesday.  I was supposed to be doing the Telford Athletics Club's Shropshire 4 but because I'd ran each day my legs were feeling tired so I only did 10 min/miles and ended up walking after 10 miles.  I also climbed on Tuesday with Graham and Chris at Newport and had a good session lasting about 3 hours.  I ended up going to meet Graham again at Wolf Mountain on Thursday who was with Lawson and another friend whose name I can't remember.  I teamed up with Lawson and did 1 or 2 6a routes before jumping on a 6c!  I did the first hard move and got onto a balancing move above ready to start the next move but was pumped out after having to try the first move so many times.  When I came down my elbow was killing as I hadn't warmed up properly even after thinking over and over that I need to warm up more but enthusiasm got the better of me!  It took about another 45 minutes and Snickers before I could effectively climb again failing a 5+.  After this I got on a 6b on the slab and climbed it clean, I think that was definitely a step up in grade.  The others left and I went to do some bouldering to finish off.

I had the car packed reasonably well on Friday morning and set off to work with a plan to drive straight through from Coventry to Bala after work.  I didn't plan any routes, in fact I wasn't even sure if there would be anyone to climb with but knew that Lawson was making an appearance so I was hopeful!  I'd also asked Richie Ball to bring the Meirionnydd guide.  When I arrived there where a quite a few people there and I had a chat with Paul and Rebecca about there plans for Saturday and agreed we'd tag along to Clogwyn yr Oen in the Moelwyns.  That night as the Bala weekends are famous for we headed to the shore of the lake and sat around a fire drinking and chatting.

Classic WMC Bala weekend fire on the shore

I hadn't really had chance to get any food on the way, but I called in and picked up 4 bottles of ale.  By the end of the night I was feeling a bit p***ed to be honest and felt a bit gruff in the morning.  After refusing Lawson's muesli for breakfast I decide to wait until I hit the cafe I'd been told about in Blaenau Festiniog (or just up the road).  I had a large breakfast which after I wasn't sure was a good idea but it didn't come back to haunt me!

After a short walk up a road we were at the bottom of the Clogwyn yr Oen.  Paul and Rebecca had picked Kirkus's Climb Direct (S 4a) so me and Lawson faffed around looking in the book before deciding to take on the next climb called Block (S 4a).  The first pitch is in the book at 37m although I think it was longer as I belayed from the end of the first pitch of Kirkus's Climb rather than at the bottom of the next pitch.  The hardest bit of the first pitch was stepping off a flake onto the upper slab.  I struggled with protection on this pitch and didn't really have a great deal of confidence in about 70% of it!  I met Paul and Rebecca at the belay and then bought up Lawson.

Lawson on the upper slab of pitch 1 of Block (S 4a)

Lawson then went on to lead the second pitch and found much better gear, which losing the skin off my knuckles bashing away with a nutkey can testify to!  This pitch was fairly simple but Lawson tried to make it as interesting as possible.  I followed up trying to stay as close to the arete as possible which I think made it harder. 

Lawson placing some gear on pitch 2 under a perfect blue sky

This was only a short pitch and the next one was short too according to the book so Lawson lead the next pitch too which was much harder, starting with a short layback and then going onto to a steep wall working a crack.  It was a great start and we returned to the start to find that Paul and Rebecca had gone down to the next crag down by the old quarry train.  First thing I wanted to do was get as much water down me as possible!  It was so hot and after the beer last night I was absolutely hanging after half way up the first pitch!  After taking on some water we decided to try Bent (S 4a), Lawson linked the first two pitches together which were basically a slab to set up a nice exposed belay on a ledge with a tree.  Before I set off I slapped a bit of suncream on my neck.

Lawson on the first pitch of Bent (S 4a), you can see the belay at the tree at the top.

Me at the belay, hanging off the tree

There was a Landrover 110 full of people from Plas y Brenin on the crag and one of the guides was teaching a couple of people, he'd asked if he could abseil off the tree, it seemed they were in a rush to be back for 5pm.  I climbed around the tree and over the flake so the guide could ab off, I got some really good gear into pockets above and moved up a short slab to move over on the main slab.  The next photo is taken from the belay point and shows Lawson on the traverse of the slab. which was quite exposed by fairly easy and quite easy to protect.

Taken from the belay, looking back at the slab traverse of pitch 3 (we did 1 & 2 together)

After the traverse of this slab you work up the edge of the wall which isn't quite straight forward but doable until you reach a crack which runs straight up and is quite deep but fairly narrow (you could fit two arms in it).  The problem was it was tricky to get started on it as there was a little lip you had to get on by bridging from the slab.  I got a hex in and then moved up but I was scared!  I got cam in above it and committed to the move which seemed very awkward and definitely not 4a ground.  I was pumping out but farting around trying to put in another cam because of the massive exposure.  I realised I was going to fall off if I hung around anymore and I couldn't just step off as I was fully committed so I rocked on.  I think I'm slowly getting more confidence in gear placements and knew the hex was bomber but it was very high and exposed!  I've drawn a line parallel with the crack on the photo below.  I was very, very relieved to make the belay and pumped and hyped up!  The photo also shows the pinnacle, and Lawson worked up the chimney behind it.

PyB guide in the foreground, the red line shows the crack of pitch 3 and the dark crack above it being pitch 4 which Lawson led.

Lawson went on to lead the final pitch which was mostly just the chimney, which was poorly protected but fairly easy but exposed.  By this point I'd noticed my arms had caught the sun and I was feeling pretty thirsty again having drunk all the water before starting out.  We got down again using the same scree decent route and made a sharp exit as we were under siege from the midges!  It had to happen at some point in Wales on a hot day!  It was a cracking day and I felt pushed but not too much (nearly though! ;)

We picked up some beers and got back to the campsite to sit and listen to the poor show from England against USA in the world cup with a chilli sausage bap and Pot Noodle swilled down with some Magners Pear Cider.  Someone in the other field had a TV set up so I managed to catch the second half for what it was worth.  I then headed back for round 2 at the shoreline of the lake with a huge fire and more booze!

Bigger fire, but not the best photography unfortunately - it's hard with a long exposure!

The fire got ran and jumped a couple of times but I wasn't having any of that!  The trunk you can see sticking out the end was fully burnt through by morning.  After 5 large bottles I decided I'd try and stay in bed as long as possible but by 9:30 it was time to get up.  The fire was still going so I cooked some more sausages and then jumped in one of the kayaks.  I love having a go as I used to do it a lot when I was a kid.  My stroke technique has gone quite a lot but I managed to do a load of rolls with no drama.  This wasn't the case when I tried a hand roll, I nearly ended up swallowing half the lake!

Dehydration & Ropey Top Ropes

Well it's been another week of no real running to be honest.  I've been feeling tired and crappy and thought that a rest would do me good.  I generally don't put up all my running on here as it would be rather boring to read about, more just when I go somewhere interesting or if I do a race but I generally have been running 3-4 times a week.  I figured that enough was enough and that I should just man up and get out on Friday night.  I didn't end up going until about 10pm and ran around Ironbridge, I did 6.5 miles ish averaging a shocking 10 minute/mile pace.  It was still very, very hot and after about 3 miles my kidneys were aching, I figure that this is because of the tiredness I've been mostly drinking coffee - not good!  I noticed that my pee wasn't a good colour and I've been drinking lots more since.  I've not been feeling that good mentally about running recently and as a result my diet hasn't been good either so I'm keen to kick all this back into touch running and lunchtime tomorrow.  I've got a 4 mile race planned for Wednesday so hopefully that will see me in good stead for that.

I had planned to go out climbing with the club today, but at 6am when the alarm went off I couldn't be bothered frankly so I thought I'd go somewhere local instead.  I've been eyeing up a crag on the UKC database called Harmer Hill just above Shrewsbury but closer than Grinshill so I gave my brother in law a call and we headed down before Sunday dinner.  After a bit of walking around we found the crag and decided to have a go at Pugwash Handwash (5a), an attractive line of a crack running up the left hand side of a buttress.

Pugwash Handwash (5a)

You can't tell from this photo but there is nowhere above this route to set up a tope rope.  I didn't fancy leading something like this on sandstone so I somewhat stupidly set up a rope about 3 or 4 metres to the left.  Me and Lee both thought that as long as we got past half way we'd be ok if we had an off.  I couldn't get around the buldge, or more appropriately didn't feel comfortable doing it with the top rope situation but Lee had more balls and got over it to just before the top.  At this point he said he was pumping out/losing grip and that he was going to come off.  He swung down and with stretch nearly hit the deck :(  He spun around and hit his head (sans helmet of course because the top rope was so safe :( ), which although there was a bit of blood, didn't really cut.  I felt like a bit of a numpty as I should of known better.  A lesson learned!

Lee's head after smacking it!

It started thundering and then chucking it down shortly after so we returned for some roast beef :)  Harmer Hill was quite a dirty crag and missing some crucial places for anchors but it could be an awesome crag with a bit of care.