Travesty

Here's a pic from Rich Cross of me on the crux pitch of Travesty. Rich has written up a wee report on his blog here http://alpine-guides-blog.com/2009/12/26/welsh-winter-climbing/

Clogwyn Du 23rd Dec

Just got back from a fine trip to Clogwyn Du in North Wales with Rich, Jon and Eric. Heres a few pics:Welsh alpenglow

After an hour or two trying something new we ran away for the "slabby!!!!" one of Nick Bullock's two routes - Travesty (VIII,8). Meanwhile Andy Turner had just completed the second ascent of the steep Bullock route - Cracking Up, a 1 in 3 overhanging IX,9. I eventually on my third attempt made it across the crux of Travesty, words to describe that pitch include committing, scary, pumpy, marginal, outrageous.

This is Rich polishing off the rest of Travesty to lead us to the top in daylight, just. The crux was still ahead, only just managing to get home across a snow locked Peak District.

Jon and Erik also had a fine day with Jon making a smooth lead of El Mancho (VI,7).

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.

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

Welsh Winter

Now my wife Ali has gone back to work, I'm spending quite a bit more time looking after our little one Suzanna. This means that trips away are going to be a little rarer and my climbing for the time being will have to be snatched opportunities. This is exactly what Jon and I managed yesterday with a one day winter hit to North Wales. I'd been keeping an eye on the action that took place in early December at Clogwyn Du, a mixed crag high above the traditional ice venue of Devils Kitchen. (This is the venue where Nick Bullock established The Crack, one of the hardest winter routes in the UK.) Local activist Mark Baggy Richards had been regularly updating on his blog http://wwwbaggy.blogspot.com/ and the Welsh guidebook producer Ground Up included a report with some amazing pics http://www.groundupclimbing.com/newsitem.asp?nsid=224. Particularly enticing was talk of a grade VI called El Mancho being one of the best mixed climbs in the UK and speculation that a Paul Pritchard route called Blenderhead (freed by Nick Dixon in the 90s) might be VIII after some exciting attempted repeats which all resulted in lobs. I couldn't wait to see what all the fuss was about. After an early morning drive from Sheffield (a third of the usual to Scotland) we took the slipper iced up walk to the crag (again a third of the time to most Scottish venues). Upon arrival a team was already trying a direct start to Blenderhead. Conditions looked very lean and initially I wasn't convinced the harder routes would be justifiable. The pair Mark and Gaz? ended up opting for Blenderhead original and eventually made it up after a little exciting air time. Jon and I opted initially for the most wintery section of the cliff some turf and ice left of the central gully. However after a pitch of this it became obvious that on closer acquaintance things were in much better conditions than they looked from afar. So we headed across to climb the nouvelle classic El Mancho. 2 superb pitches of perfectly protected varied and exciting climbing - worth the drive alone. We still had a little time so I tried my hand on Blenderhead.This proved to be a little easier than I'd expected, with only one short section of truly difficult climbing. This crux however is likely to get harder as the turf gradually gets ripped up by struggling leaders. Another good route however and well protected.

I can see I'll be returning to Clogwyn Du again soon.