VIII-9 ? - To much temptation , So many new routes, So excited and a Twist to the Storry

I knew it would happen, once back into the mix, doing the rounds on the phone the excitement is just to much. I promised myself I would not be back so soon, but how can I resist. With so many opportunities available to me and no time at all to climb, the easiest option was to turn the phone off. However, once I decided to leave the dam thing on,  it was just a matter of time before the texts came winging my way.

Firstly,  its been a good bumper week here in North Wales for new routes. Mr Panton, I am sure will fill you in on more of the details  ( on the V12  news site this coming week ) However, seems Pete Harrison has great vision as he follows in my footsteps again and manages to finish off another of my attempted routes. Thing is this time, neither of us knew of each others plans/previous visits. 

Big news are 2 new routes by my good friend Rich Stone up on Craig Dayffed. Having to turn down his offers of teaming up I managed to avoid the full on fight of Bladerunner. Having discussed this with Rich over the last 12 months and looked at the line I knew it would be a battle. A quick look through the new winter guide and one will see that Rich has been an active climber on and around the Black Ladders for some years and he is no stranger to adding his mark on the Welsh Winter Scene. I know Rich will be pleased with these routes and will be quite interested to see what the grades pan out to be.

Bladerunner VIII 9 ***110m ( As Rich has stated - Grade will need verifying )

The pencil thin crack in the shallow V groove right of Samuel goes the full height of the huge block that forms an awesome wall. Ridiculously tenuous torques and layaways make this well fall-offable (7 falls over two seasons ) but strenuous to place good gear (small wires and blade pegs) render it a safe-ish, bullet hard test piece. Grade will need verifying.

Rich first tried this route back in Dec 2010 and took 4 falls, 2 from the lower part of the crack then 2 from the desperate last bit. Finally he got back on it this weekend after a period of indifferent climbing over the winter due to prolonged chronic fatigue syndrome. Through, logging, and stone-walling he got  fit enough over the last month and just in time. The route felt desperate and still took a further fall from the lower section followed by 2 from the upper before success. Its the hardest thing either Rich or Andy have done by quite a fair margin and thus Rich states is at the limit of my experience for grading, so it would be good to see what subsequent assentionist make of it.

P1. 50m 5 As for Samuel up steep turf steps to the ledge just left of the tooth / pillar.

P2. 35m 9 Above is the soaring crackline in the shallow groove. Initially scary pulls on thin turf lead to the crack. What follows is a relentless series of powerful but tenuous torques and layaways, passing a small overlap on its left then fighting on up the crack to a piss poor rest at a turf blob below a blackened slit. Pull past this to the obscenely thin continuation of the crack. A mighty heave and deft footwork (monopoints a must) followed by a landed fish flop and soiled trousers get you - sometimes - onto the decent turf ledge. Belay at the back.

P3. 25m 6 A brief but feisty struggle up the corner followed by a couple more big rock / turf steps which lead to The Trident shelf.

FA Richard Stone & Andy Humpheries 30-3-2013

After a bit of a session on the ale celebrating our days achievement Andy was dead to the world Sunday morning so I headed off alone up towards the ladders hoping to make the most of a beautiful day. Half way up the valley got a text saying 'wait for me,' from Andy- the Easter Resurrection. After catching up we headed up the cwm, solid 2 all the way up it was so banked out with neve and ice steps looking for the cracked arete that we vaguely remembered spotting back in 2010 and hence the resurrection was made manifest, a truly first rate climb and a clean ground up on sight flash. Mind you the last 2 days have took there toll a lingering sore wrist has developed into nasty ligament strain and tendonitis.

Easter Resurrection VII 7 ***110m

The arete to the left of the start of The Capstone Heelhook gives an awesome and quality outing with decent protection. Steep turf grooves followed by the mother of torquing cracks on the apex of the arete lead to a difficult V groove. Note : Capstone Heelhook V-7 by G Davies and Baggy 2011 has since changed due to a large rockfall in summer of 2012.

P1. 40m 5 Start 10m left of the bottom of capstone heelhook, below a turfy buttress that leads to an obvious arete with a crack in it. Go up the surprisingly fierce turf V grooves until there is a large spike belay on the arete where the turf ends.

P2. 40m 7 Directly above the stance a pristine torquing crack leads up the arete to a V groove above. Enter this with difficulty and fight on up using the crack at the back of the grove and a thin crack on the right wall to reach turf ledges on the blocky arete.

P3. 30m 4 A couple of steep pulls between ledges lead to easier ground and the finish of The Capstone Heelhook.

FA Richard Stone & Andy Humpheries 31-3-2013.

Not ending here, back to this Pete Harrison story. I get a text this evening off Pete, saying that he had just done a cracking new winter route, one of the best he has done this season. Its Adam Rib ( HS 4A ) and reckons VI-7 maybe VII-7. Pete's enthusiasm oozes out on this text and I had to call him back.

Pete, I really feel mean saying this but did you come across the tat about 10m from the top of the route. yes was the reply, we wondered about that. Well the thing is Pete, I climbed that route with Stu Stanley back on Jan 19th of this year, cracking route and we thought a classic. Well I say route, I backed off 10m from the top, due to very loose rock on the original finish and an alternative finish which looked loose and needed large gear, which we had failed to bring.
We had a good laugh about this and Pete was like no way, that is so weird we both thought about this climb.  Asking me why I had never mentioned this, I replied well the plan was to go and finish it off.

So 3 major new routes in two days, a variety of major new routes last week, Caff  ( James ) doing the Pass Challenge. What is that you ask ? Ah just 3 routes in the pass in one day ?  Easy you might say, well when Neil Dwyer tried it, climbing Right Wall brushing the snow of the ledges was a tad hard even for Neil. I will let you find out more.  Then Mr Emmett making a guest appearance and doing a torchlight Trio.

Phew what a week, I am so glad I have not been blogging all week, to much to keep up with, where will it end, no sign as yet. 

Keep on cranking boys and girls and remember no day out in the Welsh Hills is complete without that lovely Welsh Winter Climbs guide by Ground UP in your pack.

Briefly Back and West Face Tryfan News

It does seem slight strange writing this post, as conditions have been very good at times over the last 2 months and there has been a steady flow of new routes and I have been offline.  It was good to see Pete Harrison bagging Grey Ghost VI-6. When Toby Keep and I had first tried this line the slab had no ice and corner stopped us as it was to hard. I had mentioned to Pete some years ago, if he was ever up in that area to get the top corner climbed.  Well he and Rob Pitt managed to do one better they climbed the slab out left, very nice tick.

With recent conditions looking promising, after the last few seasons this winter is certainly living up to being one to remember with this late spell of climbing. Again, this shows that North Wales still has a lot to offer and there are plenty of keen bunnies out there.  Si Panton has been doing a good job on the V12 blog keeping us upto date with a variety of new lines being added to the Welsh Scene.

Hearing all the reports, looking at so many photos of quality climbing and speaking to so many climbers over the last few months it was hard to resist updating the blog nearly every day.  Regular users of the blog will be aware I went off line back in January. This was for a variety of reasons and I thank all the people who have let me know it has been missed.  I am afraid to say, this post is not a re-start of the blog on a daily basis.

My own climbing has been a real mixed bag, getting in new routes, failing on new routes, ticking some classics, failing on winter ascents of rock routes and even failing on the odd classic.  

This last week once the snow and winds had died down, I reckon there would have been quite a few climbers trying to decide what to do?  Avoid the crowds, take into account all this snow (none of which has not gone through a good freeze thaw cycle) not wishing for a wade fest and the ice not all being in great nick.  One things for sure, the ground was well frozen before all this snow fell. 

With these thoughts in mind I ventured out onto the  West Face of Tryfan. I had last been up there in Feb 2011 with Glyn Callund, where we did the first winter ascent of  Flat Iron Ridge ( VD ) . This gave a nice steady route at IV-4.  I was keen to go back up and explore some of the other routes up there and try some first winter ascents.  This area is never going to give stellar routes but it has a lot going for it. Short approach, away from the crowds, easier grades and a mixture and climbing/mountaineering pitches.

I hooked up with one of my new route partners, Gaz Davies, who I had not climbed with for over year. He was not feeling that well and I was dealing with an injury so another good reason for our chosen venue.

First off we looked at Columbyne (VD) Approaching this direct (this is not shown in the new Ogwen guide) via mixed heather, grass and rock gave a mixture of short steps and a few spicy moments, as we still had the ropes on our back III.   We took a new line on the top pitch climbing between the top pitch of Columbyne and Pierrot. IV-5.  From here we traversed over and above the Wrinkled Slab Buttress and then dropped down the gully to the right of this.

We then choose  Jamie’s Route (S)   Taking a new line approx just to the left of pitch one as described in the guide, gave what winter mixed climbing is all about. Great hooks, great kit, cracking moves, steep but not overhanging techy climbing. 3 stars,  but only 10ms long.  Grade ?  found on a more sustained route it would be at least hard V, but it is a short a pitch, so IV-6 is more appropriate.  This was followed by 100ms of varied grade III climbing over rocky steps, slabs and chimneys. By this time the sun was out on the ridge and it felt like we were in the Alps.

Like all of us, I hope this snow has chance to change to neve and hangs around for some time. This will give some cracking climbing conditions. My thoughts are we have new routes on the way. With so much snow, there just has to be lots of thoughts out there by potential explorers.  

Cwm Lloer has seen many repeats of established routes. The classic snow routes of N Wales I believe are going to give hard work, unless some kind person has put all the steps in.  The ice seems a mixture of good, poor and thin. There is ice where there is often just blank rock and many classic ice routes are not in nick/in poor nick. 

I hope all of you got some winter action in over Easter if you were in North Wales.  With such fine weather just being out in hills walking or climbing should give a few days to remember.

Finally take care, there is a lot of difference snow conditions around, it’s so easy to slip, slide or fall into a hole, take it easy and stay switched on.

Photos - before the battery ran out !!!!!!

Gaz – Powering up grade 2 ground  on West Face Tryfan

The boys at Liverpool

Simon and I looking a lot more relaxed than at the beginning of our lecture 

Just look at all that ice !!

Hi All

We are in the mix again here in North Wales and have been since early last week. Conditions have been very good in a variety of places and look like to improve. Its the best period for a few years.

There have been new ascents, major 2nd ascents and ascents of some timely classics within the last week.

I have had many pictures and updates over the last week and my thanks goes to all those who have taken the time to send that info over to me.  I do apologise for not making really good use of this, but I must mention Dave Gary's repeat of Pete Harrisons new grade 10. Wow !! good effort. full details on Daves Blog

I will do an end of season update, so please do keep sending info etc on new routes and second ascents

Last Thursday,  Simon Panton and I delivered a lecture in Liverpool talking about the development of North Wales Winter climbing in recent years and highlighted a lot of the key players. Apparently,  Simon and I did an excellent job, well thats what we got told, maybe they were just being nice !!! so our thanks goes to all of your who made the effort to attended and support the lecture.

I am sorry to say that this post is the last blog post  for this winter.

I Hope the conditions stay and that you all manage to  get some great climbing in.

As I mentioned before, I will do an end of season update, so please do keep sending info etc on new routes and second ascents. Thanks again for all of you that support and use the blog. Sorry the blog will not going whilst we actually have a decent winter this year.

Best Wishes and keep cranking on those axes

Baggy

Biggest News for years -Lateo X-10

I am able to give you further info on the new route that got done on Tuesday.

It came form Pete Harrison,  who many of you will know has added some quality and hard routes to the Welsh winter scene over recent years, including Wale's first grade X-10 some time back.  Well now he delivers another X-10

Thanks for Pete for sharing the info, as he had to be pushed, as he very modest with his achievements.  I just felt it was such an outstanding route and contribution then it would be a real shame not to share it.  With this in mind, this post is factual without any glam attached.

Pete is also keen to ensure the style of ascent is recorded.

Text below from Pete

The route took seven days spread over 3 winters. One of the main issues with the route was getting it into proper condition .i.e being properly rimed up.


On the first attempt yesterday I fell above the lip of the roof and, not being in the fittest condition, thought I'd blown any chance of doing it that day. Tom had a go and fell from the lip. After an hours rest I went again powered up with Rhubarb and Custards and this time hung on and kept it together. We climbed ground-up with no pre-inspection. On the second pitch Tom slipped barely 2 metres out from the belay, lowered down and went again only to slip at the same spot. He climbed the second pitch clean from there. He could have lowered the fully 2m to the belay to start again, but it doesn't make any difference to the difficulty. He still did all the difficult climbing on that pitch clean.

Couple of other things - in terms of difficulty I think it's solid at the grade. However, I can only compare to other routes I've climbed or attempted. 

Lateo   X 10   ***  85m

An independent winter-only line tackling the compelling 'come-and-climb' me crack leading directly to and out of the sentry box belay of Stratosphere (E3), before joining Travesty at that route's mid-height steepening. The first pitch blasts directly up through the steepest part of the cliff giving a brilliant strength-draining pitch. The second pitch is more technical and no pushover. A route of the highest quality, solid at the grade.

22m  10  Climb turfy ledges and a corner until below the roof. Arrange gear and move across rightwards to a ledge at the top of the rock fin. A stein-pull gains the lip of the bulge/roof where things quickly turn difficult. Make hard moves leftwards along the lip to reach a vertical crack which is followed to a belay in the sentry box. Sustained.

43m  7  The diagonal crack which leads out leftwards from the top of the sentry box isn't as easy as it looks. Join Travesty just below the mid-height chimney and climb this and the gully above to a belay below the final steep wall.

20m  5  The steep final wall of Travesty.
Pete Harrison, Tom Livingstone 15.1.13


Photo by T Livingston

Photo by Rob Pitt

Topo showing the line. ( Topo by Pete Harrison )

MINT

Have been out on the hill today and conditions for rocky mixed climbing are mint, actually perfect. In addition to this, there will be plenty of turfy/rocky mixed routes in perfect nick also.

Today

Good covering of dry rime, which is easy to brush off.
Dry cracks
Solid turf
Nothing covered in vast amounts of snow
No snow ploughs to get to routes
Nice and cold
Freezing level at 200-300 ms
Top that with no wind today

Will get some pics and more info on later, just got  back off hill. See how kind I am !!!

Also, if your in the Liverpool area this Thursday evening then you might decide to come and have a listen to Simon and I talking about Welsh Winter Climbing

Check out for details

Arch Gully on Glyder Fach was done in great nick and people reported great winter sport on Bristley Ridge , see Dodie Palmer in photo below.

Few pics for today

Craig Daffyd and Black Ladders

Oh its big news

More details to follow, but today a major new route was put up and its a beauty and its hard. A fantastic effort

On top of that, its been a cracking day and now that we have some good weather we can see that conditions for mixed are very good higher up.

For a summary of  conditions you might as well go to here, let the fun begin, hip hip hooray. 

Its come back for the mixed action and building for the rest.

This morning it was warmer than they had forecasted. It was one of those damp, cloudy days and the snow level had risen to about 700m. Even then it did not look like there was a good covering. The crags at around 700-800m in Ogwen were black, to cloudy to see higher up. But for example,  Tryfan was bare.

I took a few snaps of Ogwen this afternoon, but an hour later it started to rain and hail at sea level. So those pics are out of date. We will have to wait and see what the morning brings. But it is a good sign and the warmer temps this morning will have helped soften Sunday's snow up, ready for it to freeze.

Snow is falling

This afternoon the snow decided to show its face. We had flurries down at 100m but that did not stick. However, what I can see of the hills from my house, the lower 200-600m  is they look a lot more white than this morning.

I would think higher up, the ground will have more snow cover. This will hopefully mean that the mixed routes should hopefully be worth looking at.

Shaping up nicely

With cold temps for the last few days , a clear sky this evening and cold weather forecast for Sunday, this has given the ground time to freeze before any snow comes are way. Hopefully this will happen Sunday eve/Monday.

No snow on the hills today, all very green.