Drytooling - White Goods

With a serious lack of winter going on in the UK at the moment, myself and Martin decided to try and cure our cravings of swinging tools by heading down to White Goods just outside of Ruthin for some drytooling. We used the excellent topo that can be found on Ramon's website here, although I believe that it's also covered to a degree in the 1988 Welsh Winter Climbs guidebook by Cicerone. The forecast was poor and it rained all the way from Tarleton to the crag but we knew that despite the possibility of us not actually managing to send many lines we'd be able to suss out the place for a future visit. The description in Ramon's guide is excellent and we found the different sectors without problem.

Martin on Adams.

I've only ever climbed drytooling M-grade climbs once before when I was climbing in Canada, and Martin's only got Scottish winter experience so only having a rough idea of what they equate to or what we were capable of we were quite conservative with our route choice and decided to start on Adams M5 which after a a fairly steep pull off the ground to a ledge follows a crack to a lower off at the top. I led the pitch and really enjoyed it, despite the terrible weather. There was a mixture of hooking and torquing up the crack and some of it required some careful foot work. It felt good to be on some steep technical mixed ground again. Martin then followed me up but by the time he was back down we were both, despite our three figure Gore-Tex jackets soaked to the skin in the torrential rain so we decided to bail.

Martin loving the hooks.

On the way home we had browse in the Snow & Rock on the Wirral before a nice long session at Awesome Walls Liverpool, continuing the theme of the day by using there new drytooling wall as well as some standard climbing. It was quite a way to drive for one route, but it was a lot of fun and had it not of been for the weather I think we would of quite a bit more done. We'll definitely be back, with a better forecast and I'd be keen to have a crack at some of the harder lines.

Trinity Face Solo

Sunday morning I headed back up to Pen Y Pass and then in on Pyg Track up towards Snowdon. A lot of wet  snow was falling as I left the car park and by the time I got a to the notch below Crib Goch there a few inches of fresh snow lying on the ground. Once I passed the notch there was a noticeable increase in the amount of snow with drifts being several feet deep in places. The wind was not quite as strong as the previous day but the visibility was reduced.

Good ice forming on sections of the face.

Eventually I reached the ruins in the cwm above the Glaslyn where I took a minute to eat, drink, gear up and build a small snowman. I then headed up towards the face on the approach slopes. The snow, while still powdery in places seemed to have consolidated from the previous day to some extent and there was less evidence of the windslab we'd seen the day before also.

The iced slabs on skier's right of the gully.

Overnight a lot more ice had developed which was promising as well as some patches of snow which had turned to neve. I headed up towards Central Trinity II again, passing the chockstone where we had reached the previous day. Above the chockstone the gully narrowed, from photos I've seen this banks out usually, but being early in the season it hasn't yet and consisted of a neve runnel bounded by the rock wall on the right and the iced slabs on the left. This made for some excellent fun climbing, if a little out there for grade II.

Nearing the top of the gully and exit slopes.

The vast majority of the turf was well frozen, which was particularly evident once I topped out of the gully and climbed the exit slopes to the summit ridge. The cornices are present in places but from the ones that I observed are small and shouldn't pose an issue.

The route marked in red.

Once I topped out I visited the summit and then headed down. I was contemplating descending Crib Goch but due to the high winds on the top I decided to save it for another day. I managed to do the route car park to car park in just over 4 hours which I was quite happy with considering I wouldn't say that I'm that fit at the moment.

Snowdonia Winter Mountaineering

This weekend I've been in North Wales staying in Nant Peris just at the bottom of the Llanberis pass. With the snowfall across many parts of northern England on Friday morning we decided to pack our winter gear in case anything was in condition.

Lewis on the walk in.

We hitched up to Pen Y Pass on Saturday morning, kindly picked up by some member of RAF Leeming who were heading round to Ogwen. We walked in on the Pyg Track to Clogwyn y Garnedd to have a look at the Trinity Face. The visibility was low, by the time we got to the Glaslyn it was dropping from around 100m to less than 25m. We headed over and geared up not far from the ruins at the top of the Glasyn headwall. We then made our way up to the Spider snowfield at the base of the Trinity routes. While the turf where exposed was well frozen, the rock was well rimed and there was ice forming there was still quite a depth of unconsolidated powder, which is a lot of places has a substantial layer of windslab sitting on top of it.

Myself climbing a variation to the left of Left Hand Trinity.

The weather was bad with strong winds blowing snow around and causing continuous spindrift avalanches to flow down the gulleys. We started up Central Trinity II 2 and after a short distance reached the large chockstone which is not yet banked out so we passed it on the left via an ice smear. Shortly after this the weather intensified and the spindrift avalanches got bigger, this coupled with the fact that the wind loading the exit slopes above was worrying me a little so we decided it was prudent to bail. A short abseil overt the chockstone and we were able to downclimb/walk down the rest of the route back down into the Cwm.

We traversed round the Cwn before picking a interesting but easy and safe line to top out onto the ridge on, I manged to spot a few interesting mixed lines to play on as well to keep things interesting. The wind was pretty strong on top so we got our heads down and headed down the tourist path to Llanberis.

The North Face Verto Jacket - Review

I've been using the Verto windshirt for the last few months after picking it up during the summer. Here's North Face's blurb on the item:


'The North Face Verto jacket for men is specifically designed for climbing expeditions there space is a precious commodity. The Verto is wind and water resistant and compactable down to the size of an energy bar. '


I've been after a hooded windproof for quite some time now. Something to pack up small and clip to my harness for long multi-pitch routes or to use as a lightweight shell when moving fast in the mountains in poor weather, when a full shell jacket or a softshell would probably be too warm. From the start I'd had my mind set on the Patagonia Houdini jacket having read good reviews from the likes of Steve House and Colin Haley. I managed to get a very good deal on my Verto though so couldn't really refuse it at the time. Incidently I've gotten a Houdini in the last few weeks so hopefully after a few more days on the hill I'll be able to offer some good comparisons between the two jackets, anyhow, back to the Verto for now...

Sea cliff climbing at Gogarth keeping the spray and wind off with the Verto.

The first thing that strikes you about this jacket is how light it is, perhaps even stupidly light. My medium weighs in at 93g and packs down to less than the size of a small apple, stuffing into is own small chest pocket. The fabric is very thin and almost transparent, it's Pertex Quantum 7D, 100% Nylon micro ripstop, which comes in at 24g per square meter making it one of their lightest fabrics. It's windproof and fairly water resistant thanks to its DWR coating. The weight is kept down further as they have not used any drawcords in the hem or hood, instead they just use simple elastic closures. While on the hood I think these work well, fitting reasonably well over a normal head but also just pulling it off when worn over a helmet. For me personally the elastic isn't a tight enough fit round the cuffs or the waist. I wouldn't want to use it in winter as I think it would just get filled with snow. Another gripe is that while the fabric is lovely and soft and shiny, unfortunately this means that it quite readily slides out from under a harness which I found quite annoying.

Walking off Raven Crag in Langdale with the Verto

layered over a micro fleece on a cold day.

So the good points about this jacket. Firstly despite appearances it is rather hard-wearing. Its been out on quite a few routes with me now and has only got one or two small patches of abrasion on it which I'm happy with, and no holes at all. Because the fabric is so thin I quite often snag it in the zip but this hasn't damaged the fabric either. It is as stated windproof and it does shrug off a shower which is what its designed to do. I sat in the rain at the top of Carreg Wastad in the pass for 20 miuntes waiting for Stubbs to fight his way up a very wet Ribstone Crack and stayed dry underneath it.

It is an expensive jacket though, at £110 pounds, thats more than £1 a gram! That does seem to be the kind of money people are paying for a high end hooded windproof these days as the obvious competitors of the Houdini or Arc'teryx's Squamish hoody all all around that mark. Montane's lite speed is a slightly more cheaper option that is out there. If you want another opinon its also been reviewed recently in Climber.

Blade Runner - Helvellyn

Martin Freeman, Carl Stubbs and myself headed up to Red Tarn Cove on Helvellyn on Saturday morning with high hopes of getting our first route of the winter season in after a promising report for Steve Ashworth at the Epicentre on the Friday evening.

Blade Runner take the line up the centre of the buttress, bounded by No.2 gully to the left and No.1 gully to the right.

We opted for the northern approach on the road, heading up to Penrith first which proved to be a wise move as Kirkstone Pass was closed. We were at the YHA car park at Glenridding for soon after first light. Temperatures were around freezing and snow was down to a low level which was promising, unfortunately due to being the first party there (which we were surprised at) we had to break trail all the way into the cove, which at times was drifts of 30cm deep unconsolidated powder, as such the walk in took us considerably longer than the standard 45 minutes.

Myself leading on Blade Runner.

As there was quite a bit of unconsolidated snow around and we were unsure on how frozen turf would be we opted for Blade Runner IV which is a mixed line following a rocky rib which divides no.2 and no.1 gully. It is also one of the remaining routes of the face that I have left to climb. The climb was good, following a series of grooves and ledge systems and a bit of ridge and arete climbing on the second pitch. In places where it was exposed the turf was well frozen however where it has been covered by snow and insulated it is still not solid, it needs a hard freeze to bring it properly into condition. There was a bit of ice forming here and there, and across the gully V-Corner looked to have it's share as well.

Stubbs coming up to the second belay.

I spoke to a party who did No.1 Gully and they said that while a large proportion of it was unconsolidated the crux step and several other areas did have neve on them. It was worth noting that we observed a lot of avalanche debris below the above area which looked to have originated in no.2 gully, from its age I guess this slid sometime on Friday or that night. The scarp slopes below the summit above the main buttresses were in places fairly heavily loaded with a 10-15cm layer on windslab readily detaching on the top. There are cornices in place across the top however they are small and easily passable. We un-roped at the top of the Blade Runner Buttress and soloed to the top.

Martin heading towards the cornice.

After topping out we summited Helvellyn, took a few minutes in the shelter before descending Striding Edge taking a  sueprdirect line which was good fun.

Pinnacle Ridge & Helvellyn

This weekend I was in the Lakes helping to run a training course for some members of WLSMG who are heading to the Canadian Rockies in the summer. Saturday I took a mixed ability group up the ever classic Pinnacle Ridge on St. Sunday crag and then continued on a circuit round, dropping down to Grisedale Tarn and then up over Dollywagon, Nethermost Pike and finally Helvellyn. We had intended to descend Striding edge but decided to the winds and icing on the ridge that it would safer to head north and instead drop off the main ridgeline into Glenridding. I've put together a small video of the day below:

It was pretty cold out during the day and we consistently experienced hail and snow showers so winter is certainly on its way. The turf on the summit of Helvellyn was looking frozen although nothing on the Red Tarn face was anywhere near in condition yet but it looks like hat might have changed over the last 24 hours as Paddy Cave has been out on Bowfell Buttress today.