Showing posts with label Scott Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Report. Show all posts
Saturday, February 14, 2009
More Land of Psyche
So it looks like the Welsh winter is (hopefully) temporarily over. Just before everything got too soggy Ive heard of a couple of further impressive visits to the Black Ladders. First Andy Benson and Rich Cross repeated Flanders, the route of Chris Parkin's that seemed to have developed the biggest reputation. They found it to be excellent with two tricky starting pitches, a reasonable middle section and a tough finale, VII,7 all in all. A day later local legend returned to his old haunt with Steve Long making the first winter ascent of Canon Ball at VI,8 (what that is in modern money we'll have to see). So until it gets cold again here's a few more pics of Scott Report courtesy of Mark Baggy Richards.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Land of Psyche
One of the main reasons I managed to rekindle my motivation and head over to North Wales yesterday was the sheer communal buzz emanating from the locals there recently. There are some seriously keen puppies heading out seemingly daily to make the most of conditions that have been proclaimed as the best since '97. 
After a 3.30am start I hooked up with Dave Evans and Mark "Baggy" Richards. Mark has been keeping a very good conditions blog http://wwwbaggy.blogspot.com/ which has been a real gem of information for visiting climbers. Together we headed into the Black Ladders hoping to try one of Chris Parkin's legendary routes.
Western Gully in fine nick, which received a couple of ascents yesterday.
With the cliff in top nick we were spoilt for choice but eventually plummed for Scott Report. Given VI,7+ by Chris Parkin it seemed to be a contender for the hardest route in the Cwm but also more importantly wasn't reliant on ice, which seemed pretty thin on the steeper bits of The Ladders. The topo above shows the line we climbed in yellow, with the red arrow indicating where the first ascensionist might have gone on the confusingly described second pitch. The blue line is a not really formed The Somme. The route turned out to be excellent, with one very hard pitch involving committing climbing with decent but hard won protection on the hardest bits. Probably VII,7/8. Take a good selection of thin pegs and as much turf pro as you can muster.
Captain Keen himself Mark in a sea of turf at the top of pitch one
After a 3.30am start I hooked up with Dave Evans and Mark "Baggy" Richards. Mark has been keeping a very good conditions blog http://wwwbaggy.blogspot.com/ which has been a real gem of information for visiting climbers. Together we headed into the Black Ladders hoping to try one of Chris Parkin's legendary routes.Western Gully in fine nick, which received a couple of ascents yesterday.With the cliff in top nick we were spoilt for choice but eventually plummed for Scott Report. Given VI,7+ by Chris Parkin it seemed to be a contender for the hardest route in the Cwm but also more importantly wasn't reliant on ice, which seemed pretty thin on the steeper bits of The Ladders. The topo above shows the line we climbed in yellow, with the red arrow indicating where the first ascensionist might have gone on the confusingly described second pitch. The blue line is a not really formed The Somme. The route turned out to be excellent, with one very hard pitch involving committing climbing with decent but hard won protection on the hardest bits. Probably VII,7/8. Take a good selection of thin pegs and as much turf pro as you can muster. Captain Keen himself Mark in a sea of turf at the top of pitch one
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