Snowdonia

Friday, myself and Julie headed down to the Ogwen valley, Snowdonia to get in a day in for ourselves before the event we were helping on over the weekend. As the forecast was fairly grim we decided up a itinerary I've done a few times before, a link up of the Ordinary Route D on the slabs and then Cneifion Arete D/3s. Cneifion Arete is a superb route in its own right, and can be approached in several ways; Sub-Cneifion Arete, the direct approach approach to Senior's Ridge or, and what I think is the most aesthetic is to do a route on the Idwal slabs.

Base of the Idwal Slabs, in the rain.

We managed to do the Ordinary Route in two full 60m pitches and then a bit, the guidebook reckons it should take 4 - but its a straight line so if you've got long ropes just run them together. In the past I've moved up the route route together, climbing alpine style however with the wet weather today wasn't a day for that. From the top we stayed roped together and moved up the lower ledges of seniors ridge before dropping out into the Nameless Cwm.

Cneifion Arete is for my money, perhaps the best scramble in Wales, and its pretty full on as a scramble with the first pitch certainly warranting Diff. After this it eases off considerably as you follow the exposed razor edge to the top, which always come too early. We short pitched the first section and then moved together for the rest, the wind did pick up as we reached the crest though and we took quite a buffeting. The top of the Arete puts you somewhere along the Gribbin Ridge, as we were quite wet and it was late in the day, we bailed from here heading down the Gribbin and back into Cwm Idwal. In the past though I've continued up the Gribbin to the summit of Glyder Fach, or more interestingly dropped down to the main face of Glyder Fach and done the Dolmen Ridge which is another awesome scramble, right at that boundary between climbing and scrambling. I think these sorts of days are great training for alpine climbing, staying roped up all day and trying move nice and efficiently.

Dave J & Tracey on the Arete, a few years ago.

Saturday we had a group from Ormskirk Explorers and Network with us, as the weather was again bad we went walking. The Explorers and Network all walked independently which was great as they all had to pitch in and do their share of navigation in some fairly bad conditions. the started up the PYG track from Pen Y Pass, summited Snowdon before heading off down the Ranger path to the col before heading up Moel Cynghorion and dropping down to our hut where we were staying. One group missed the Ranger path, but realized their mistake and corrected themselves but not before I'd blitzed it down the Llanberis path looking for them, then having to climb back up to Bwlch Cwm Brwynog from the half way station. Anyhow, they all did really well and despite the conditions seemed to have fun.

Explorers & Network coming off Snowdon.

Sunday's forecast was much better, so we packed up and headed round to Ogwen for a mass trespass on Tryfan. We split into three groups, with Julie and Andy taking one each and myself the third. My team headed up Millstone Gully Aproach which is given grade 2 before doing Millstone Continuation Grade 3 which we short pitched. We then followed an interesting line up the North Ridge with the group taking the lead through some challenging sections. We all ended up on the summit at the same time which was great, before heading down to the Tryfan-Glyder Fach col and back to the car.

The ONMAS group on the summit of Tryfan.

I think the weekend was a great success, even if we did make a financial loss, we certainly be running it again, and we've gotten good feedback from all the participants so far. Particular thanks to Ken for doing the catering and sorting the buses out and Julie an Andy for coming along as tickets.

Stanage & Hen Cloud

Friday I met up with Stubbs in Leeds and drove south for a day on the Gritstone. The forecast wasn't looking too promising but we still managed to get a reasonable amount done, jumping from 3 star route to 3 star route.

Hargreaves' Original Route.

To warm up, as it had been a while since wither of us had climbed on grit I lead off up Hollybush Crack VD*** which has some lovely bridging up a corner with massive jugs, just what we needed to get the muscles working. Stubbs then did the classic Christmas day number of Christmas Crack HS 4b*** which again was another good route, if a little worn in places. Next up I did Central Trinity VS 4c*** which starts off up a steep crack before a delicate traverse left leads you to another crack which you can jam, or layback your way up. There is a unprotected direct start whcih goes straight up the wall to the second crack at 5a. The climbing on this again was great, with some lovely hand jam crack climbing on the second crack, to offset the delicate traverse before it. We then moved left and Stubbs lead off up Hargreaves' Original Route VS 4c*** a definite gritstone classic, which contrasted our previous route well consisting of delicate slab climbing up a low angle wall following sloping horizontal breaks, well protected throughout with cams. This one is also in Ken Wilson's Classic Rock. After this I was about to start up inverted-v but the weather broke so we bailed to car.

We spent lunch eating a English breakfasts in the Outside Cafe in Hathersage and perusing expensive gear while we waited for the rain to stop. I picked a guide to iceclimbing in Washington state cheap in their clearance section and a copy of Supertopo's Alaska Climbing book by Puryear which has so far been a good read and proven to be quite inspiring! Theres definitely a trip in the making there...

Hen Cloud, K2 takes a line on the far right of the buttress.

The damp weather didn't really show much sign of giving up, so we took the chance that it may be better further to the south and headed over to Hen Cloud which was on our way home. Unfortunately when we got there it was still pretty wet, and Hen Cloud looked very green from the road so we sacked off the original plan to do the 3 pitch classic VS Central Climb and lowered our sights to do K2 S 4a,4b**, another classic rock number. Stubbs took the first 4a pitch which neither of us were too enamered with, the only good climbing being the moves at the top of the pitch to reach the belay. I then did the second pitch which start off up a steep crack section (4b) which took a bit thinking being wet, the pitch then eases off, disappointingly so to follow the VD ridge to the top of the crag. In all honesty probably not a route I'll be going back to do soon, but a good day nether the less.

Photos taken from UKC Gallery.

Pillar Rock - Dave Ridout's Last Day On The Hill

As many of you may know about 2 months ago Dave Ridout, a very established figure is West Lancashire Scouting and the Mountaineering Group while also being a good friend and mentor to me personally passed away. He taught me a lot in the way of hillcraft and other skills and also encouraged me to take on more leadership roles and pass my skills on to those then me, as he'd been doing for so many years. I will always remember him assessing me on my scout mountain leader assessment, having me wonder around above Longseldale trying to find tiny ring contours in the fog!

Pillar Rock.

Dave was most certainly a peak bagger, having done all the 2,000ft summits in England and Wales (he was also a good way through his Munros) bar one, Pillar Rock. This naturally seemed a fitting place for us to scatter his Ashes.

A large group of friends assembled at Wasdale Head Inn the evening before for a few drinks in rememberance and more joined us in the morning, in total we were nearly 50 strong. We reached the grassy hillside by Pillar Rock around 2:30pm and held a short service where friends said a few words about Dave before members of the Mountaineering group took him to the summit.

Scattering Dave's Ashes on Pillar Rock, his last 2,000ft'er.

We did Slab an Notch, graded Mod it sits somewhere in between scrambling and climbing. I've done the route in descent from climbs on the face utilizing the abseil into the gap between High Man and Pisagh but never done the ascent in its entirety. I'd read somewhere that the Slab section at the beginning was the crux but I though this was fairly ameanable, as was the Notch section which large incut holds. The trickiest bit I thought was the wet gully that you finish up which is fairly polished, bot none of it is desperate. We soloed it, rigging a fixed line as we went for those following us but it could easily be protected conventionally with just a few slings and a short rope. After a short ceremony and scattering of Dave's ashes on the summit we abbed off, with myself and Stu reclaiming the fixed lines before heading over the summit of Pillar and back down to Wasdale. An excellent day, and one that I hope Dave would of been proud of.