A winter we can be Excited about at last

Well its certainly winter here in N Wales. At last some conditions we can get excited about. Its been nearly two years since conditions like this could be found on Welsh Mountains. Its been a long wait and lets hope its going to keep lasting even if its on and off for the next few months. If so, we will have another bumper batch of new routes.

As expected people have been busy and new routes keeping falling. Visit V12 climbing blog for some recent new routes in N Wales , Simon has more time than me these days to keep you updated.

Tuesday and Wednesday this week were stunning days, really cold and blue skies, loads of climbers getting out and missing work by the looks of it.  Seems Glogwyn Ddu has been a busy place,  from the texts and e mails i have received off climbers This is expected being high up and often in condition. A possible new variation on the classic left hand branch may have been climbed.

The ladders is reported to have a lot of rime , but looks grand form Bethesda.

I took a variety of pictures yesterday, on my travels driving around the park,but I am afraid they got deleted by accident .


Hi Baggy,

Went out a couple of days back and got some proper Scottish conditions and did Right Hand Clogwyn Du with Rob Jones. We did a variation at the top  which was not in the guide (i.e. not the diagonal variation described). It heads left at the top of the gully and goes straight up a left facing corner initially, its steep but good pro, to pull onto a ledge and into a cave (signs of ab tat at this point). From here, make a bridge too far and gain a precarious standing position on a fin. Make committing moves through the large roof to arrive onto another ledge. Exciting stuff. Just when you think its in the bag, you're faced with a desperate undercut corner with a useless wide crack at its join. Turn your attention rightwards and scale the second fin and stand precariously on it (good sling runners) then,  lean left and hook your axes over the wall and commit to a swing and smear into the wide crack. Walk your axes along and yarn upwards swinging a leg, an elbow (or anything) over the top of the wall. A physical, well protected pitch.

Cant see it recorded anywhere and it looks a harder and better variation to the one described so were claiming it, unless someone else has been and climbed it.

Four Tool Direct V5 *** Stu Stanley/Rob Jones 2/2/15  35m 

Pictures of Rob

Also for those of you that are not aware, there is a temperature probe in Cwm Idwal which is giving us some really useful information in regards to air and turf temperature. It is an excellent addition to the Welsh Winter scene. This link will take you to all the info.

Feel free to send any pics/info over of any grade, the lower the better, as the I/IV grades are what most climbers climb . And remember UKC log books and the UKC Snowdonia thread ( of which JOSS is doing a great job ) are all great sources of conditions in NW.

Get out there, swing them tools,  get into the action and Enjoy.