Author Archive
Cwm Glas in winter garb
Looking up to Cwm Glas in the Llanberis Pass this morning; ice is forming on Craig y Rhaeadr and Face Route on Cyrn Las is building nicely. Jim McCormack reported lots of fluffy snow up in Cwm Glas yesterday and frozen turf where it is exposed, but only partially where there is an insulating snow cover. More snow is due on Saturday followed by a partial thaw - hopefully the cold will kick back in again and conditions should be excellent. Photo: Si Panton
One Hundred Words for No Snow M8+/9
Pete Harrison has climbed a cracking new drytooling route in the Ibex area of the Dinorwig slate quarries.
One Hundred Words for No Snow M8+ – M9 takes an attractive curving line up the left hand side of the tall wall on the left side of the bay as you walk in, and features mostly natural placements (only 4 pockets were drilled for axe placements).
“It’s one of the most enjoyable drytooling routes I’ve climbed – lots of variety, lots of good moves and a good length. The style of climbing makes it super training for mixed climbing.”
Enthused Pete, before adding:
“The initial diagonal seam manages to be both a bit tenuous and a bit strenuous with excellent climbing up to a breather in the niche. A drilled pocket above the niche gives access, via hard-to-spot footholds and a reach, to the upper wall where torques, steinpulls, a dyno and some footless matching lead to a couple of very thin moves rightwards. A cruxy move up with tricky feet gains a pocket and the upper crack, which is followed with interest to the lower-off.”
Pete suggests the following grade changes for the Ibex wall routes:
Ibex M7 – “I overgraded this in the first instance: it was never M8 but probably was M7+, and it’s now got a little easier with traffic.”
Ibex Direct M7+
The Deerhunter M6+
Monkey-Bar Kid M6
Ironically, given the title of Pete’s new route, it seems that winter season is back with vengeance. With snow cover down below Cloggy and sustained cold weather forecast for the coming fortnight.
Winter is back…
The view up to Cloggy, Snowdon and the Llanberis Pass from Pen Llyn, Brynrefail first thing this morning. Sustained cold is forecast for the next week or two - finally it looks like the Welsh winter season has arrived. Photo: Si Panton
RAC Boulders
There might not be any snow in the mountains, but there have been plenty of crystal clear days of late in Snowdonia. The RAC Boulders in Dyffryn Mymbyr soak up plenty of sunshine throughout the year. The outcrop style routes on the crag are superb and the bouldering is a delight. Photo: Si Panton
Ibex Direct M8, Never Never Land
Rob Greenwood on the first ascent of Ibex Direct M8 Photo: Torquil Bennett
Yesterday Rob Greenwood made the first ascent of Ibex Direct M8 on the dry tooling wall in the Never Never Land section of the Dinorwig Quarries.
Torquil Bennett had previously top roped the line, traversing across the lip of the tunnel at the start. Rob climbed the line second go, missing out the tunnel traverse at the start.
Rob also onsighted Rastamouse M7+ in the same session.
To see a topo of the face go to either the Monkey-Bar Kid news item or the Rastamouse news item.
Rastamouse M7+, Never Never Land
Over the Christmas period Torquil Bennett returned to the Ibex dry tooling wall in Dinorwig slate quarry and completed the left hand project line.
Rastamouse M7+ climbs the left hand corner on a selection of tiny hooks, wide crack stein-pulls and micro-torques. Needless to say precise footwork is essential on this excellent technical line.
The second ascent of the route fell to Nick Bullock who managed a stylish onsight.
The absence of sustained winter conditions in Snowdonia has seen the dry tooling routes on this wall mobbed with frustrated winter climbers. At least everyone will be good and fit when it finally arrives for good in the mountains…
Long term forecasts do seem to indicate January going into February as the most promising time for winter conditions in the hills. Check out Exacta Weather for more on this.
Flag of Iron, Font 6C
Owen Davies on the superb Flag of Iron 6C at Craig Ty Mawr near Tremeirchion. This is one of the newly developed limestone crags situated close to the A55. The crag has a small but very high quality range of problems running up to the lofty heights of 8A. It will feature in the 2nd edition of the North Wales Bouldering guide, but for now approach details can be found on northwalesbouldering.com (just type the problem name into the search function). Work on the new guide is well under way and it will hit the shops later this year. Photo: Si Panton.
North Wales White Guide – winter climbing and conservation
The growing popularity of winter climbing in recent years has prompted concerns about the potential impact upon rare alpine plants found on the Snowdonia winter cliffs.
The North Wales White Guide aims to address these issues and raise awareness amongst climbers of the presence of rare plants and how to minimise any potential impact on them.
This guide is the product of a collaboration between the Countryside Council for Wales, the BMC, Snowdonia-Active, the Snowdonia National Park Authority and Ground Up, the producers of the recently published North Wales Winter Climbing guide.
To read more about it check out the following news items on the BMC website and the Snowdonia-Active website.
The guide is available for free as an A6 English/Welsh bilingual booklet which is being distributed to key climbing shops (such as V12) and climbing walls. It is also available at the SNPA warden offices at Pen y Pass and Ogwen Cottage.
Downloadable A4 pdf versions are also available on the Ground Up website in English or Welsh.
Siberian Kitten VI 7, Craig Dafydd
The first snatch of good winter conditions has triggered new route activity on the high crags. Some, such as Mark ‘Baggy’ Richards and Gaz Davies, are keeping schtum about their activities until all the main lines are mopped up, but others have come clean.
Matt Stygall and Adam Hughes trekked up above Llech Ddu to the right hand side of Craig Dafydd. Here the lads picked off an obvious mixed line just left of Mr P’s Last Great Problem.
Siberian Kitten went at VI 4, 7, 5. For pitch descriptions and some action shots check out Andy Turner’s blog.
Clogwyn Du has seen plenty of activity with repeats of Traversty VIII 8 coming from Calum Muskett and Matt Stygall.
Walking up to Craig Dafydd
Tim Badcock walking up past Craig y Cwmglas Bach to Craig Dafydd in the Carneddau. Winter conditions came good over the weekend but only on high level cliffs such as this. Recent years have seen a surge of excellent mixed routes on this previously neglected crag. Andy Scott and Dave Noddings repeated Mr P's Last Great Problem VI 6 on Sunday and a few days earlier Matt Stygall and Adam Hughes climbed a new route, Siberian Kitten VI 7, just to the left. Photo: Si Panton.
