Learning to Ski

So Monday morning. In Chamonix with the gang, all of who were working at various hours of the day. As the weather was so poor, and Ollie wasn't going to hang around, and the fact that I left my snowboard with Ollie at his place because it would cost me an extra £50 to get insurance to use it (I could have quite a rant about that.... I have a yearly Alpine BMC insurance policy, and they want an extra £50 to add snowboarding to that for the year. So I phoned them before leaving and asked to get 6 days of snowboard cover, they cant apparently do this though, so its either £50 for a whole year, or I asked for a separate policy, and its £104!!! But I can ski all I want... Though I can snowboard well and not nail myself, I cant ski to save my life, but apparently thats ok... I was so annoyed. In the end I left it as I could add the yearly cover at any notice, so considering so little snow is around I would try to climb more and not go snowboarding at all, rant over). Anyway, all that left me with little to do, other then learn to ski. So I grabbed Rhys' skis, which have been left in Cham, and hired some boots and got cracking. I figured it must be easy, as so many people can do it, and you have more ways to keep in balance then on a board. Really, how hard can it be?

On the chair lift

Sophie Lucy and I went to the Grandes Montets, the perfect place to learn to ski... I immediately stacked it getting off the first chair lift. Not a good start. My skis had minds of their own, one went one way when the other went the other, and I often found myself dragging my hands along the floor doing some crazy reverse snowplow whilst making some whining sounds. This was definitely going to be harder then I thought.

The easiest run on the mountain there was totally desperate the first time down. Trying to snowplow turn just wasn't working for me, until at the bottom there was a flatter bit, and here it just clicked, I made a few 'nearly parallel' turns, and it all started coming together. Soph and Lucy left me to go and do some proper skiing and for the rest of the day I made it my mission to get this thing dialled. I repeated this run probably 30 times. Every time I got better, until by the end I was much faster down then the lift was getting me up. Of course I stacked it every now and then, getting less frequent as the day went on. I was pretty pleased though. It definitely was easier then learning to snowboard. But sadly not as easy as I had hoped.

Rhys' skis he unconsciously lent me

I can sort of ski now though. I made quite a mistake at the end of the day, I wanted maximum value for money for my pass, so once my lift for MY run stopped, I descended right down to the valley on the red run, which on my board is one of my favorite runs. On the skis it was a horror-fest. Lumpy, steep, uneven, slushy, you name it. It took absolutely ages, and I fell more then i did all day. I felt like such a punter. I guess everyone starts somewhere. All in all a top day though. Now I'm ready to ski into some routes...

Sunday morning, 6:30am, dry mouth, boiling hot, a strong smell of cheese in the air and a phone alarm going off. This is how the day started. Ollie and I were staying in quite a nice, (and very hot) little hotel just down the road from Cogne, 24 euros a night, cant go wrong. 

We checked out and drove up to Lillaz where we planed to climb Lillaz Gully. You can straight away see the route from the village. We parked in some car park that had confusing signs, a clearway sign, and a parking sign... So we just parked there. The route looked so close, but the guide suggested just over an hours approach. It was a total slog up the hill. It just kept on coming, relentless uphill. By the top, in our car park, there were loads of cars arriving on mass, and orange tables getting set up everywhere. We guessed it must be a market square, and we were parked right in the middle.... But there was no way we were going to walk down after that epic climb.

Ollie on the first pitch, with newly bad eye

So we reached the first ice pitch. I led up, the ice was prety fragile, and I smashed a chunk off into my eye almost immediately. It got better though and was a great pitch. As Ollie seconded, I asked him to smile as he came round the corner, he didnt. He was not a happy bunny. He had somehow managed to smash off a shard of ice into his eye in about the same place as I did. Only it had cut his eyeball ever so slightly, right over his iris. So he was seeing things slightly blurred, and he was convinced he had something in his eye, driving him mad. Despite this he continued up for 2 pitches of easy ground. 

Next there was the best pitch of the day, really nice ice, every placement a sinker. When Ollie reached me he was actually enjoying it! Car related stresses were in our minds still, with the car park completely full, and definately something going on down there. 

Ollie finishing the really good pitch

A couple of pitches later, including quite a nice little mixed move, and then some horrible climbing of mud right at the top and we were done. We walked down following a friends advice, it was a long way down, but better then absailing the route. When we got back to the car there was some sort of ceremony going on, a kids cross country skiing race or something, but they were all inthe same clothing and there was a podium. Thinking we were hated for being there, we kept a low profile, and then once all the celebrations finished we made a move. Ollie really showed off his amazing awareness of his cars dimensions in getting us out of the tightest parking spot ever. Funnily though the italians there were cheering him on and getting him within milimeters of the other cars to get out! Really friendly folk. Rather a different experience to firdays run in with the locals. 

Can you get through all those trees? Ollie wonders

We tried to find a doctor for Ollie to see about his eye, but the hospital was closed on sunday... And stuck for a plan we chilled out in Cogne for a bit, ate a massice ice cream that was like eating pure nuttella, and hot chocolate, all really cheap too. Italy is an awesome place, and I will definately go back to Cogne again. We decided in the end to go visit the guys in Chamonix whcih was really nice. 

Patri

I should actually have written this on Saturday night. But I was too busy eating vast ammounts of pizza and feeling totally exhausted, and there was no internet so I didnt. So I'm writing it now. Anyway, I am currently in the Alps, visiting my my younger (and little) brother Ollie, and the Chamonix massive, Simon, John, Lucy and Sophie.

Monster Pizzas

Following a half 3 start on Friday morning, I was picked up by Ollie, Helena and Twid in Aigle at about midday, expecting to go over to Ollies briefly and dump some stuff off. But no, without a second to spare we all loaded into Twids car, and sped off as if we were in a rally race up some extensive Swiss switchbacks to some middle of nowhere village that I have forgotten the name of. Here we were greeted by waht I hear is a typical Swiss man. He wouldnt move his truck out the middle of the road so we could get by because he was 'working'. All we saw was him drinking a beer in the middle of the day. So we had to go the long way around instead despite the near war we had with this miserable git. Ah well.

Eventually we found the crag we were looking for. Again I forget the name. It was about 30m high, limestone, in the woods, so I guess that narrows it down to about 3000 in that area. It was a nice cliff though. Most routes were pretty hard. Ollie and Twid did pretty well, some hard 7b's and 7a's. I didnt lead a thing, or even succesfully second a thing. Though I did get up them eventually. It was a nice afternoon, and was great to be straight into it. Later that night we made a plan. Then went to meet a load of Ollies friends whcih was nice.

The upper pitches of Patri

 Our plan lead us to Cogne, at 5am on Saturday. After missing an un-signposted junction we got there for about 8. And began our walk in to a route. We had a route called 'Patri' in mind. 250 meters long, given the water ice grade II 4. I didnt really know what to expect from this but figured we could probably do it. It was spot on. Fat ice, great interesting pitches. It was fairly brittle (bulbous axes didnt help here, file next time!), but it took screws well and with bolted belays it really boosts your confidence.

Ollie leading the first pitch of Patri

 As Ollie lead up the first pitch, a beautiful Alpine red fox started to rummage through our bags. I got rid of it by scaring it with snowballs, then had to go down to the bags and hang them off a cliff to pretect them from being shredded, little bugger. Great to see though.

Cunning fox

 For the top half of the route, another team had over taken us and got on the right hand finish of Patri, so we opted for the slightly easyer left finish whcih looked like the ice was amazing. We got on it, and it wasnt. So it was a fairly scary lead to the firt belay, after this it was ok, though you did hear a real deep thud with every kick, telling you it was fairly hollow. Infact when I reached the next bolted belay, there was a fairly large crack across the thinnest part of the ice, and it was creaking as ollie climbed. I wasnt a fan of this, and was very relieved when ollie removed the last screw. It could all fall down then and it wouldent do any harm. Would be very funny to see Ollies face if that had happened!

Ollie nearing the scary crack

Now this all sounds very well this day, but there were a few things that we did, that we will never do again. It was very much a day of learning.

Firstly, we forgot to buy food on the journey, so we had a Mars bar, and a Bounty that were already in my bag.
Secondly, the route didnt look too long from the bottom, so we left our bags, with everything in them.
Thirdly, we assumed on starting that the route would be in the shade all day, so we wouldnt need shades and would need to stay dressed warm as the day goes on.

These three things meant that we were starving hungry all day, (a bowl of cornflakes at 5am didnt go far), we were in the baking sun, with no water, and eyes screaming most of the day, and we were roasting alive too. So it was a pretty miserable experience in a lot of ways. It wont be like that again though thats for sure.

A thirsty, starving roasting hot Ollie

 After what felt like a never ending walk out, we went into Cogne, and got some food. Pizza of course, 'maxi' ones too. Whcih to our amazement were about a tenner, for a pizza that must have been 25 inches in diameter! I ate a whole one that night which I thought was pretty good going. Ollie was weak, and ate a third. A good day in the end, with some serious learning points.

2 Mammoth bike days

After Sunday mornings bike ride, I am super psyched to go riding loads now. Proper mountain rides too. So today I dragged James out for a biking mission we planned on doing around this time last year, stumped by my back wheel totally locking pushing it from the house to the car... I was not a happy bunny. This time round though, the wheel was fixed and everything looked good to go.

Our ride took us from the bottom of the road to Ffynon Llugwy, up to the leat system, along this, down past Llyn Cowlyd, then up over the shoulder on the right, down to the end of Llyn Crafnant, and back up over the hills at the back of the Cwm to Capel Curig, and along the old A5 back to the car. It totalled about 24km, with a fair amount of climbing in it. Some good sections to ride, others that were un-ridable nearly (super rough ascents). unfortunately it did feel like we rode 90% of the day uphill. But some of the trails were good, but I think the joy of the ride comes mainly from the incredible remote setting. I was surprised at how many people must ride this as there are loads of tyre prints in the soft mud.

We were totally boxed by the time we got back to the car. I feared James would never go out riding with me again.

James pushing up Allt Noah

He did come out whit me again luckily. The next day in fact. We went up Snowdon, up the Llanberis Path, and then descended down the Ranger path, up again to Telegraph Col and down Telegraph Valley. The push up wasn't as bad as we thought it would have been. Certainly the easiest i have ever found it. It's still a long way though, took just over 2 hours.

Nearing the top

It was freezing at the top. Hoar frost was forming all over the rocks and cafe on the summit. And we were freezing. So very quickly, we donned the pads and full face helmets in preparation for a rapid descent. And got going.

On the summit

We flew down to the top of the Zig Zags on the ranger path, my little computer tells me I hit 46km/h down there. Hitting the rocks and flying off clearing the others. Brilliant fun.

Flying down, nearing the top of the Zig Zags

The zig zags next, not so fast here. With some drops that are boarder line ridable. Super tight lines need to be chosen, and stuck to perfectly to get down some of it. It's fantastic rough technical riding. Not for the faint hearted mountain biker. I dabbed a rock once which annoyed me. In exactly the same place as I did last time I rode this. I do love that bit of trail.

Now it gets rocky

Then we pushed up to Telegraph Col, and totally flew down it. Fastest I have ever done it. I hit my all time high speed on the bike too at 56km/h. I nearly lost my balance on bunny hopping over the lethal drainage ditches. Very annoyingly near the bottom, I ploughed through a section of rocks without slowing down, and managed to pinch puncture both wheels. So annoying. I only had one spare tube on me, and a single patch, so I didn't have the means to fix them both. So pushed home. I cant believe that happened! Well I can, I did hit the rocks fast, but my tyres are massive and super tough.

The route in the background

Anyway, all in all it was a fantastic ride. I think it might end up being a training circuit for after the bike curfew over the summer months. 

Millpond lake Canoeing

I had agreed on Monday to do a bit of Canoe coaching with Simon in preparation for his 2*. We went down to the lake, and it was stunning. It would have been a perfect day to go out cragging but I had agreed to do it and it was good experience for me to do a bit of skills coaching. We had to break ice to get on the lake amazingly. I wish I had taken my camera along as its a beautiful image, someone canoeing peacefully with the Llanberis pass in the background on a completely still lake. Awesome. Simon, who had never solo paddled a canoe before picked it up super fast, and by the end of the day was well up to 2* standard.

Sleeping on the Beach

I was woken at 9 on Sunday morning by an intruder in the house. It was DMM Ben, and his super psyche. He came to tell us he was going out bouldering to Porth Ysgo. He was heading down there for about 10 or so. I didn't want to go that early though as I had a few things to do around the house. Then I looked out the window. 

My plans changed. I wanted to get out right away into the amazing sun! I decided I was going to ride over Moel Eilio, over the ridge and then descend down Telegraph Valley. A tried phoning a few people but no one was free and I wasn't going to hang about (I still wanted to go to Porth Ysgo at 11). So kitted up in shorts and t-shirt, threw the bike in the car and drove up to Cefn Ddu. It was quite a slog at time but the views were stunning (its one of the best mountains for views), and the descents were super fast. I got back home at ten past 11. Out for an hour and a quarter. 

Ben on some highball V1

I then met Jen and Jim and we headed down to Porth Ysgo. Where it wasn't as warm as we expected. I had never been there before either. I must admit the approach down that grassy death slope was pretty scary. Once down there though we met Ben, Haf, Martin and his kids. Started off on some easyish problems. Its very rough down there. 

Jim on the difficult problem

We did a number of problems. I don't know any of the names as we had no guide book. But the other guys knew good ones to point me at. At one point when Jim and Ben were working this hard problem, I actually fell asleep in the sun, for quite a while too I think. It was just one of those types of days, super chilled out. 

This one called popcorn....I couldn't do it. next time

We had to call it a day as everyone's fingers were screaming by the end of it. Was really nice though, although I'm not a fan of bouldering at all, I can see myself going there again sometime. 

Paddling the sea of plastic

I'm rubbish at keeping this blog thing up to date. And when I forget my camera it doesn't really help. So in short: I was at the Tryweryn on Saturday with Dave, and it must have been the busiest I have ever seen it. A river of plastic boats pretty much. Still, it was the only place with any water around, and it was a fairly miserable day, so still worth it. The aim of the day was to challenge ourselves and make some of the more difficult eddies and stuff.

IT was a good day after the early frustration of constantly failing to get this one damned eddy. What else was interesting was to swim in the weir of the top site, to see what it was like. And then to side surf across it all and try to get out. To my surprise it wasn't too bad at all, if you were swimming in it it wouldn't drown you, but in it in a boat, it was fairly difficult to get washed out of it, some fairly desperate draw strokes were needed in the right place. Dave and I were in hysterics after his first attempt at exiting it.... He got spun round and sucked back across bracing off the weir more then he would have liked to! I guess you had to be there but it cracked us both us.

I was chuffed I managed to get the eddy half way down the ski slope which I have always been too scared to go for. And then a nice run down to the bottom. Rescued a couple of boats from numerous people thrown out in the 'fingers wave', one with a snapped paddle who was most annoyed. Still for Dave and I, a really good day.

It's been good to be back in a kayak

I've been back in a kayak for the first time since November this weekend! Since it got nice and cold and winter climbing really got going, I couldn't think of anything worse to do then to get in a boat, but with these warmer conditions and a fair bit of water about, one would become very depressed just waiting for good summer or winter climbing conditions without any backup plan. That's not to say kayaking is any lesser a thing to do mind you.

I've had a very busy week in terms of work, it was nice to have a chilled out day on Friday. In the afternoon though, I really wanted to do something, and I've had a little local mission in mind that I've really wanted to do for some time. So I managed to rope Rory into it, amazingly, because it involves going in a canoe. And Rory would like to claim he wouldn't be seen dead in a canoe or kayak. So here he is:

He loves it really

It was quite an interesting mission, underground exploration in a canoe, with lots of darkness, tunnel, and eels. Nice. Enjoyable though, even for Rory!

Yesterday, I went out paddling with friends Gerwyn and Paul, and a few other friends of his, John, Harry and Rommie. After epic driving epic miles all over north Wales, we met the other lot at the 'Twrch', at the end of Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake). Although it has some gnarly bits in it that I would not have run it did look good, but the water was dropping so fast by the time we had inspected it from the banks it was getting a bit on the low side. So a bit more driving later and we were ready to paddle the 'Wynion' instead. I was the only one in the group to have never done it, but have wanted to for a while.

Harry on the Wynion

It was a great stretch of river. Continuously interesting, loads of waves, drops and great rock features. Not an easy paddle, and very committing once in the gorge, also difficult to lead, as in some places there is no line of sight between the eddies. I really enjoyed it. I did portage one section that I didn't want to take any chances with, as getting it wrong could result in a very serious pinning, not my cup of tea. I did get some photos of Harry, Rommie and Paul who ran it though.

Paul smashing it in on the Wynion

Today, following a really early start I met up with John and Rommie again to head over to the Dee, where John was being signed off to run 4* assessments and Rommie and I were being guinea pigs for it (in preparation for our upcoming 4* assessments). We didn't do the Dee though thankfully, and went over to the Vyrnwy and ran that instead.

Although its boring as sin being led the whole time, and my hands were totally freezing after being tricked by the sun that it was going to be warm, it was a good run, and I have picked up on a few things to do with leading groups on that sort of water. So it will certainly be beneficial. I fancy trying it in an open boat next, it's just a mega drive to get there.

All work no play

I'm not posting because I have anything interesting to say, just that I'm alive. This last month has been very busy for me work wise and I have done little outside of work really, partly because I have had a stubborn cold that wont clear, and partly because the weather has been miserable a lot of the time. 

Chris on the new steed 

I did manage a good open canoe trip down the Elwy with Dave the other week, and a good mornings mountain biking with Chris and Gareth on the Marin trail the other day. And now I have quite serious bike jealousy for seeing Chris' new shiny Kona! It is very nice indeed and I want one. Still, some of the sections on the Marin I don't know if I have ever ridden so quickly, so pretty happy about that considering I so rarely ride at the moment. And I have just rode home from work through the woods in Parc Padarn, on the more technical route I know, in the dark with just a head torch and not a foot down! So I'm now really keen to get out biking more, especially if the weather is going to remain so grim. 

Gareth firing on down

Scottish Weekender - Sunday

After an epic beasting yesterday, we decided it would be really nice to not have to walk too far today. So Aonach Mor sounded lovely, wit ha lift to take you most of the way up. So we got on the 8am lift, and then the chair lift up as high as climbers can go. The followed the parade of people up to the top. Neither Jon or I had been there before, and both of us were amazed by how busy it was! Loads of people. We just followed the crowds which was handy, as you couldn't see much, and lots of people there were obviously working with clients.

The pilgrimage to the summit

Kitting up with every man and his dog

So we geared up with everyone else too, and headed to the top of the crag. We were not at all psyched when we got there. Snow bollards. There were about 30 people cutting them out, a few decent ones already made, but most were being excavated. We didn't bargain for this sort of faff, it was really cold too. With not an adze between us, we had to wait for another party to finish with their bollard, and we moved in fast and got down over the cornice quickly.

Jon on 1st pitch of 'Typhoon' (IV 4)

We wanted a short-ish route, one we could do quite quickly too, with the shortest walk in possible. We narrowed it down to 2 routes, I don't remember one of the names, but the one we ended up on (as the other one was already taken) was called 'Typhoon' (IV 4).

Jon on the second pitch

I took the first pitch, I guess grade 3 climbing, but the ice wasn't great, dinner platey, and there was no gear for about 30m, so it felt very serious. I was fairly gripped on the tricky step, with a 100foot fall potential! I brought Jon up, who was still pretty worn out from the day before, plus being cold, and he didn't fancy the lead on the next pitch, which did look pretty desperate. So I did that too, and it was fairly desperate. A tight chimney, and then a steep pull through an ice bulge. Very well protected though, and a bomber belay at the top. Jon got up it much easier then I did, thankfully he found a second lease of life, and proceeded to fly up the third pitch to the top.

Jon leading the third pitch of 'Typhoon'

It was a really good route, hard for the grade, definitely the hardest route of the weekend, and I would go as far as saying my favourite route in terms of the climbing of the weekend. I am a big fan of the sort of mixed stuff, I find it more involving and interesting. Though Zero Gully and Point Five definitely win in terms of size and general amazingness. But Aonach Mor is definitely somewhere I will re-visit sometime, there is loads there. What I found very weird is that for a pretty large crag, with loads of good starred grade 3 routes on it, a route called 'Left Twin' (III 3 I think), had about 20 people in it, 4 groups at least queueing! I'm guessing there is something I don't know about that route, either that or people have no imagination or sense!!!!

Scottish Weekender - Saturday

Following my very disappointing day at Tremadog on Thursday, Saturday has made me feel good about myself once again! Phew!

Happy faces after a long day

Jon and I had plans to go to Scotland for the weekend, it never happened last weekend as the weather became rubbish last minute. This week though, it was good. So off we went on Friday evening at about 5. Jon drove the whole way fair play, and we got to the North Face car park of Ben Nevis at just before midnight. Nice clear roads! Jon's van is amazing, and we slept like logs on the comfy bed.

Jon on the 'Chute' pitch of Zero Gully

We woke up, switched the heater on, and after 5 minutes got out of bed to a nice warm van. Stuffed some food in us and left the car park for the epic walk in at about 7. The walk in was nice in some ways, the views, and being somewhere new for me, but horrible in other ways, like how it goes on forever. By 8:20 we were at the CIC hut, and we kitted up just beyond this where the snow slopes started. We decided to head over to 'Zero Gully' (V 4), hoping we might be the first there (as we were the first from the car park to this point). We got to the base of the route at 9:50, just before 2 others, to find there were people on the route above us. Apparently moving very slowly too. As the ice was not cracky, dinner plating water ice though, there was little in the way of badness coming down, so we proceeded. Soloing the first pitch to the base of the Chute, where Jon lead up, with little good gear, bar one well frozen in stuck cam by the hard move, very handy. The Chute pitch was probably the crux of the route, with one difficult move stepping right on the steepening. Jon's belay wasn't much cop, axes and bulldog, with a screw in snow ice. We had no choice though.

Climbing the summit shelter

My next pitch was also pretty good, with a little cheeky step, to a good solid belay. We were just under the party ahead by now, who were a little higher as their 60m ropes gave them a 10m advantage over us. Jon lead past them though, on easy ground, and then we moved together, full on Ueli Steck style to the top. With our lungs hanging out our backsides we summited in the fog, under 2 hours after starting. Which we were quite pleased with.

A short stroll lead us to the very summit, and the shelter there was so fatly hoared up I climbed up it for a photo. It was only mid day now, and we had loads of time for another route, so we wanted to head back down. We knew number 4 gully was the best place, but wondered if there was anywhere nearer. In the clearing fog, we knew which way to go but didn't know how far, and it was at this point we realised that we had left the map somewhere (under the Croissants it turned out in the van!). Lessons learnt about not trying to weight save too much by taking only 1 small laminated map piece!!! Visibility wasn't too bad though, so we followed the right sort of general direction, until we found the post conveniently marking number 4 gully, and we descended that. All the way down to the CIC hut.

Jon walking down from 'Number 4 Gully'

On this descent we decided to do 'Point Five' (V 5) as our second route of the day, as by now anyone on it should be near the top, the weather was improving, and of course its such a classic we didn't want to miss an opportunity. Slogging up to the base of it was one of the hardest things ever though. And we both wanted to die. It took ages too.

The horror slog up to Point Five

We started climbing at just gone half 2. I did the first pitch, which surprisingly was the crux of it, the step being a lot steeper then it looked, to a peg belay. Jon then lead the second 'Narrows' pitch. He was unusually exhausted by this point, like I have never seen him, a result of a weeks teaching, a massive drive, 6 hours sleep and a long walk in at a good pace I think. He got cramp half way up, about 7m from the belay with no gear which was scary I must admit. Even for me. But he got rid of it and finished easily. The next pitch, the 'Rogue pitch' was my lead, and wasn't half as steep as it looked from the base of the route! After that again we moved together to the top, topping out two and half hours after starting at 5.

Jon on 'The Narrows'

Me on the 'Rogue Pitch'

The top out was stunning. Absolutely amazing. All south of the Ben there was a cloud inversion, as far as you could see, and over the top of this a perfect orange sunset. I have never seen anything like it. I wanted to film Jon's expression as he topped out behind me, but my camera died. It was priceless though! A quick pack up, walk back to number 4 gully to descend, and then an epic trudge out got us back to the van for 8. 

Sunset on the top of Ben Nevis

What a day, I have never climbed in Scotland before, and to have done those 2 classic routes, in perfect conditions, and catching that sunset all in my first day was just something else. Really special. We were totally knackered though, an Indian meal down in Fort William, a quick celebratory pint and bed is all we managed that evening. 

Being weak at Tremadog

I meant to write this on Thursday evening but never got round to it. I had no plans for Thursday, weather looked alight though, clear and cold, so fancied going rock climbing somewhere. I was going to Join Rhys and Ifan in the slate quarry when an old friend of mine Jason gave me a bell and asked if I fancied going climbing. So we set off down to Tremadog, where it looked really nice, cold too.

We climbed 'One Step in the Clouds' (VS 4c) first, as I have always wanted to do it but never have. It was a great route.

Jason on the first pitch of 'One Step in the Clouds'

After that I cant say I climbed it, but I had a go at 'G String' (HVS 5b). What a complete piss take that was!! Never before have I failed on getting up a trad route on lead, never fallen off on lead, and only once before have I had to pull on gear, and that was on Valkerie at the Roaches where I took the E1 5b line by accident years ago. But on this 'G String', I made the difficult move left, thinking it was hard, but seeming as it was a HVS I expected a wonder hold after passing it. There wasn't one. And it just freaked me out a bit, like never before I don't know what was going on. So I placed a cam and grabbed it in desperation. Then made a move up and couldn't see where to go next. So I came back down and had to rest on the bomber cam. I was so angry with myself, so frustrated. I then moved up again, got some higher gear on and had to rest again! In the end I just couldn't for the life of me come to committing to these moves and I couldn't feel any good holds or even see any good ones coming up. So I had to lower off. Jason had a go too thinking I was being pathetic and couldn't do it either, which made me feel a little better about myself. So we re-climbed One Step from the left side and abbed down G String to strip the gear.

Jason on the second pitch of 'One Step' 

I have never been so hacked off with myself climbing before. I just had a total breakdown, I don't recall ever being so scared even on considerably harder graded routes with run outs. I was shaking like a leaf and got pumped really quickly. I don't know what was going on, but I didn't like it. I like to think that my cold hands didn't help, and there definitely was moisture running down the groove, but still I have done other HVS's in these conditions without issue.

I guess everyone has their bad days. I'm hoping when I next get on this route I will walk it. But at the moment I feel totally sandbagged. I cant see how its HVS. On abbing it I couldn't see many holds either. I'm baffled.

Torn nostrils

Jim was not happy after his axe blew out mid figure 9....

A not happy Jim

If you look closely you can see he has ripped his left nostril right through. A wound that resulted in 3 layers of stitches to close it up and a few hours in hospital. Bad times.

Jim leading Ibex

Before this happened though we were having a pretty good day. Jim and I went up to Ibex and Bambi, the 2 dry tooling routes listed in the Quarry in the new winter guide book, and probably the only 2 climbable routes in it at the moment! Jim led up Ibex (D8), and I had a very disappointing go at top roping it after. I didn't even get to the top despite resting twice. Rubbish. It was only my second go though and prior knowledge of where the placements are makes a huge difference. 

Torquil on Ibex

Torquil then came along and joined us. Getting Ibex clean on top rope. Jim then led it again, with Torquil getting some good photos suspended next to Jim. The best of these photos are all on my Picasa album. I then had another go on top rope and got it clean, knowing where the drilled holes are makes such a difference.

We then set up a top rope on the more difficult 'Bambi' (D9) and we all had a play. It's pretty difficult just making the first couple of moves, with all sorts of techniques being used. I managed to get past this 'stopper' move but then couldn't do the next, so lowered off. I had used a figure of 9 to get just enough height to make this long reach. Jim then got on and tried a figure of 9, he got his foot over, and was bouncing around a bit setting himself up when the axe popped out the shot hole (which is a very slight downward sloper) into his face, and he fell off and dangled only a foot off the ground. With Torquil and I laughing at the comedy figure of 9 fail thinking he had done no harm.

'They wont be laughing in a second' Jim thought once he realised he wasn't actually fine, and turned round to face us, and true, we then, were not laughing, as blood was pouring out of his face. Torquil thankfully had a little wound dressing which Jim used to stop the bleeding and I drove him down to hospital and we left poor Torquil behind to de-rig the ropes and remove all the quick draws on abseil, in the newly arrived rain. He got soaked. Jim is fine now, with a gnarly stitched up nostril luckily. The joys of dry tooling. I'm seriously considering getting one of those face shield things to bolt onto my helmet for that sort of thing. 

Jim on the difficult first moves of Bambi

Me on Ibex

Keeping Busy

The last few days have been mainly a mixture of poor and bad weather. Winter climbing has certainly been off the menu for some time now, which is totally rubbish, and its not been dry enough for rock climbing either. So I've been keeping myself busy doing other stuff. Well, apart from Sunday, where I did still manage to go rock climbing to the quarries. Chris and I climbed all the routes at the sidings in Australia in a couple of hours which was pretty good considering the rest of the day I had done nothing but clean, so it was great to get out.

Gareth and Dave in Minllyn mine

On Monday, Dave Gareth and myself set off on a rather epic journey to explore some slate mines down in the Dolgellau area. We first went into Minllyn (above Dinas Mawddwy), which was a lot more interesting then expected. The largest mine caverns I have ever seen, absolutely massive! And a number of strange features that I have not seen in other slate mines. All the caverns are pretty much clear of debris and have flat floors, in one there is a 100ft chain hanging from the roof which would be mad to climb up if you were a bit crazy. And the walls of some of these caverns could actually be made into pretty amazing sport climbing crags! Very all weather too. Well worth checking out on a miserable day. We also checked out out Bwlch Glas mine near Corris and Henddol near Fairbourne, which sadly was locked after some thieving scum have apparently stolen a load of gear out of it.

Dave and Gareth on the Dee

Yesterday was a wet and horrible day, but made for good canoeing. Me Dave and Gareth went to the Dee, and paddled down from Glyn Dyfrdwy to the mill, avoiding the Serpents tail. It was a very nice trip. They went tandem, I went solo. And I annoyingly was the only one to swim! Dammit. To my credit though I did preform a pretty efficient self rescue, then waited with the camera hoping to get those two swimming on film, which they didn't. Shame.

Smug gits for not swimming