The Cold Hotel

A winter climb up Pen y Fan's Central Gully 

On Wednesday evening, after seeing Gethin to bed, I drove off to the Brecon Beacons for a night in the van - The Cold Hotel. 

I was supposed to be climbing with Dave Linnett, but Dave ended up busy at home, so I was able to get Choire Horobin on board. As I settled into the back of my van around 9:30pm, it didn't take long until the thermometer was reading -4. Wrapping up well, I got some sleep. The following morning temperatures had dropped to -7 and I quickly got a brew on. Choire eventually arrived and we set off up over Corn Du and over to Pen y Fan's North Face. It was a stunning day, the ground was frozen like a rock. After a cool descending traverse of the N Face, we found ourselves at the bottom of Central Gully. The ice that was covering parts of the crux steps was thin but climbable and the turf made for excellent placements, with no damage inflicted. Six pitches to the top and some interesting sections to have fun on. Great adventure for the day in a beautiful setting... Cheers for coming Choire.  

Winter arrives - for me anyway!

Winter Climbing and CPD in Snowdonia 

On Wednesday evening I packed up the van and headed up to Snowdonia to meet up with Choire and Nick to poke about some high Cwms around Ogwen. We stomped up to the base of Glyder Fawr Crag at around 800m hoping to find decent conditions. After climbing a route there, we dropped down into Cwm Cneifion to get a closer view of Clogwyn Du and Tower Rib - which were both looking well rimed and cold. Our second day's objective was chosen and we slogged back up to Cwm Cneifion and got onto Tower Rib and took a cool direct line up that via it's gully on the right. On Saturday it was the start of the AMI AGM, held at Plas y Brenin and it was good to get into the warm after a sub zero night in the van. It was also good to catch up with other mates I've not seen for some time over a couple of cups of tea. AGM involved CPD workshops covering various topics, and I had chosen Winter Short Roping for Saturday. This was being run by Steve Long and we headed off and up to Cwm Glas to practise for the day and share experiences, techniques and issues. Then it was back to the Brenin for the AGM and then a further catch up with those attending. The workshop I was on on Sunday was a Pre-MIC assessment talk in the morning and a practical session in the afternoon involving slick transitioning between short roping, into leading in series, into leading in parallel, and back into any of the above. This was run by MIC trainer/assessor Keith Ball and was excellently delivered. That evening it was back in the van and I got home in time to see Gethin before he went to bed. Great stuff. 

2015 - A Year on the Sea Cliffs of Pembroke

Sea Cliff Climbing in Pembroke

Well it's a little late but either way, here's the last year's sea cliff climbing adventures summed up in the obligatory photo slide show to music! It's been a great year of work and play and a big thank you goes out to all the clients and friends I made it out with in 2015. Really looking forward to another great season to come, but before thoughts really forces on sunny climbing here in Pembs, a six week winter adventure in Scotland awaits.... 

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnuVg1HSchE&w=854&h=480]

Green Bridge of Wales - The Movie!

Rock Climbing Adventures in Pembrokeshire

Thanks to the handy work of Dave Linnett of Bald Eagle Productions, we have a great little movie of climbing Isambard's Kingdom, an anti-classic HVS on one of the most iconic of Pembrokeshire landmarks. Thanks Dave for the invite to tag along and the resulting film! You can check out other Bald Eagle Productions films here. 

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw5ElsMeoGg&w=854&h=480]

Sometime The Weather Wins

A Wet Three Days Filming in the Peak District

As said in the title, sometimes the weather wins. You can keep an eye on the weather during the lead up to a job with a temporal obsession. The time then comes when you have to make a decision. Luckily the decision to drive up to the Peak District was pretty easy as the weather looked fairly settled. I drove to Phil's in Hereford and repacked my kit into his van and on we drove, through thick fog. We met up with Jerry at a deserted YHA (whose name I've already forgotten) behind a farm, north of Ashbourne. The fog was even thicker here and by the morning there had been no change. We carted all of the climbing and filming equipment into the beautiful Dovedale, along the river and onto Dovedale Church, our crag for the morning. Our target route was Snakes Alive, a corner pitch but surprisingly varied and a Peak limestone classic, going at the very reasonable grade of Very Severe, 4c ***.   Due to the conditions, the route felt desperate, like climbing a giant bar of soap. I had to climb it twice to get all of the angles Jerry needed! We went on to Ilam Rock to have a look at Easter Island (an E1 5b first put up by Ed Drummond in the 70's) but it was too wet and greasy to even begin. The following day we headed to High Tor in vein hope that it would be dry there. It wasn't and the fog was even thicker. We had our eyes on Skylight, a Joe Brown VS 4b, 4c ***. After a horridly wet and slimy first pitch, both Jerry and myself decided that this was just rubbish! After a bit of a beery night and a weather forecast that looked pretty much the same, we used the third day as a recce for a further project. Not the most productive three days, but not totally fruitless...