Rare and wonderful

Following my route on the Plan almost 2 months ago (?) I developed a nerve pain in my left hand - plunger's palm perhaps? from so much plodding through deep snow on the midi plan traverse. As a result I haven't been able to climb since then. That is until this Wednesday when Jon and I made the lengthy day trip to Lleyn Penninsula to climb the 9 pitch 'mountain by the sea' Avernus. It gets the grade HVS 4c but mild XS might be more appropriate as it's a 50/50 mix of rock and veg, with much of the veg being 80+ degrees. Luckily I like this kind of stuff and it was a fun day out. Although I would caution anyone who might be tempted that it's quite far from your normal HVS. The technically harder climbing has good pro and excellent sound rock but for me the cruxes were the first main pitch (i.e. pitch 2 in North Wales Rock) and the last - both have no technical grade but both it would be easy to have a nasty accident on. still if your heads in gear a fine adventurous outing.Jon approaching the mountain by the seaAvernus takes the skyline buttressPitch 3 4b, the sea campion pitchpitch 4 4c the bluebell pitchdescending down through the quarry in the drizzle to the metropolis of Trefor

The old quarry 'visitors centre'

Mountains by the sea

Had a fine day out yesterday with Jon and Alex on the beautiful Lleyn Peninsula. The North Coast near Trefor is like a mini-mountain range falling into the sea. We climbed the classic 7 pitch HVS Fantan B. Which I'd highly recommend to those with an adventurous streak. Having said that it's quite involved for an HVS; long, run out in places and with one or two spots where you have to make a move where falling shouldn't be fatal but would be unpleasant. However the rock on the whole is pretty good so it doesn't warrant MXS. Here's some pics
How everyone imagines the Lleyn - a coastline of fear!The reality? a seaside holiday venueJohn at the top of the "perched block" pitch the third on the routeJohn having reached the belay of pitch 4, great steep guano encrusted jugs.The wonders of an Indian summer Jon on the final technical pitch with sweeping panoramic views.The surprising finale along the crest of the quarry seals the alpine feel of the whole route.

Lleyn Adventures

When my job is good it's very good. Ive spent the last two days down on the Lleyn Peninsula photographing for an article in Climb Magazine. The first day was one of the most rewarding Ive had for a while. I woke up in some dodgy Travel Inn in Oswestry to torrential rain, this continued at Llangollen and I was on the verge of giving up and heading back to Sheffield. Luckily I couldn't get my partner for the day, Pat Littlejohn, on the phone so I kept driving and miracle of miracles the day turned into one of the best of recent months. Blue skies and sunshine meant that we ended up shooting 4 routes that day each on a different crag. Highlight of the day though was that I even went climbing, managing the rather fine 5 pitch MXS Hornblower at Paitsh. For more info Pat wrote a little piece on UK Climbing here http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=672Pat pointing out the line of Hornblower up the yellow spur.

Pat on pitch 2 (By the way if anyone is bored of doing laps on Rhapsody and Walk of Life there is an E13 to do up to wall to the left)
Pitch 4 in rather lovely late evening light.

End of the day, another tough one at the office.