Gogarth and Magpies

I'm not a particularly superstitious person usually, though I do have a habit of saluting or saying 'hello' to a magpie, to avoid the associated bad luck. It failed me today, stupid birds.

I went to Gogarth for the first time in ages with Gareth. We were hoping for a day similar to Wednesday, with glorious sunshine, no wind, getting a load of routes done in t-shirts. We started off at Castell Helen, where we figured the sun would first hit, if the clouds cleared. It was chilly, and we set up the abseil and got down to the bottom hoping to do 'The North East Passage'. From half way down it was clear this route was pretty wet, so we scrapped that and went and did 'Rap' (VS 4c) instead. Not a bad route. And the sun came out and it was warm and nice, not quite t-shirt weather but quite pleasant.

Gareth on the belay ledge at the bottom of 'Rap'

We then did 'Lighthouse Arête/Blanco' (HVS 5a) which had a good pitch on it which Gareth led.

Gareth on Blanco

We had planned to go on to another area later on, and neither of us have ever done 'Dream of White Horses' (HVS 5a), so with it being a classic of classics we thought that would be a good idea. Then on the drive we saw a few lone Magpies, saluting them and saying hello, as lets face it, bad luck is not something you want when climbing is it?

Then we got lost in Holyhead, following some rubbish road through a Stena Line yard. We eventually found the car park, got walking. Missed the second junction, walked back up, then descended again, in the wrong place again. Finally we found the promintary and got to it, then realised we dont want to be there. However it did give us a good look at Wen Slab, which appeared totally featureless, very difficult to identify with the book topo. And more worryingly there appears to be no gear on it! But its only HVS, and gets done loads so it cant be a total sandbagging route. We went round to the ab point. And abbed in to the big ledge shown in the book. It was getting chilly by now, and late in the day, well about half 2, we had torches on us just in case.

Absailing down to 'Dream'

Gareth went first and set up a belay, I followed and led off. The wrong way thinking we were at the belay described in the book. Of course we weren't, we were half way up pitch 1. So I backtracked and went up again, this time the right way. By the hard bit my hands were so cold I could not feel anything. It was desperate. My fingers were soaked in a crack and I didn't even know it until I looked at them. So numbly hooking edges with wooden hands I got across and took a belay in the amazing looking crack of 'Wen'. Gareth came over and joined me clearly suffering from frozen hands too. So what to do? Continue on a few more pitches, probably in the dark, with frozen hands? Back track to the ab rope and prussic out? Jump to our deaths on the rocks below? We decided to finish up 'Wen', to get out as fast as possible. Gareth led it, with little gear just to go fast and we escaped. I was boarder line getting hot aches at the top. Misery.

Wen Slab

So we were defeated by 'Dream of White Horses'. I'll have to go back and do it another time, when its warmer. A friend of mine got the coldest he has ever been on that slab last year in a similar situation. Must just be a cold spot. One for summer methinks.

I blame the Magpies