The summer is disappearing fast and the outdoor climbing season will soon be coming to an end. So I rang Fruit from Crew to find out if he would be up for a bit of trad climbing! O’ yes was his answer; it will have to be this week as the weather might change. So it was decided to meet up on Friday at the campsite on the A5. It so happened that Tim and Nesha had the same idea,(That was a bit of a bonus!) Tim and Nesha arrived earlier than me and went climbing on the Idwal Slabs; the Fruits arrived later that night.
Saturday morning we were all up bright and early with a mild frost on the ground, (we are not used to that coming from the barmy southeast!) It was decided to climb at Tremadog, so we made our way over to find this fantastic cliff on the side of the road and a café. (What more could you ask for!) My first climb was One step into the clouds VS, Fantastic!! Our second climb was Shadrach VS, also very good. We then did a bit of an obscure one then finished off on Merlin Direct VS, also excellent.
Tim and Nesha had a good day doing Christmas Curry among others.
Day two and we were off to the Idwal slabs. We started on Quirts aliminut, then on to Charity and then Piton rout (fantastic exposure!) and finished on The Arête. Then it was all back to the pub for dinner.
Day three and I had Cenotaph Corner in the Llanberis Pass in my sights, a very intimidating looking climb. We got to the bottom of it and while I was sorting the ropes out Fruit announced “I don’t want you hanging about on it”. No pressure then!! It was 120 ft of E1 5C and it didn’t let up! I got to within 6ft of the top and there were three really nasty moves before the top, I was totally shattered and scared! I couldn’t get any gear in so it was a massive heave how and there I was at the top of Cenotaph Corner!!
WOW!!
That was me totally climbed out. n the last day we visited the DMM factory which was very interesting; they had lots of very nice shinny climbing gear, (A climber’s paradise). We then went and did a few climbs in an old slate mine opposite Llanberis, (Worth another visit). Then we all said our good byes and headed off on the long drive home.
I once heard a rumour that there was nothing worth climbing in North Whales!! That is definitely not the case.
Kevin