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 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 topo is available here
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