Gogarth,The Pass and Bolted Abseil Stations

On bank holiday Monday myself and Stubbs headed down to Anglesey for some sea cliff action. The forecast was mediocre, predicting dry weather but windy at times. We arrived being first car at the car park and it was indeed very windy so we decided to forgo our original objective of Dream of White Horses on Wen Zawn the coveted Hard Rock tick.

Abbing in at Castell Helen.

Instead we headed over to the south stack and the Castell Helen abseil point and headed down to do Lighthouse Arete VS 4c*. A long abseil down to the small alcove just above the sea got us to the first stance, from here I ran the first two together before Stubbs took the third and then myself the final fourth pitch. The climbing is superb wonderful, exposed but with good gear and big holds if perhaps quite easy for the grade - I don't know if it really warranted the 4c.

Leading Lighthouse Arete.

While I'm on the subject of Castell Helen I thought it might be prudent to bring up the extremely conciousness issue of bolted belays or abseil stations in the UK. The abseil station at the top consists of half a dozen old, rusted pegs (not to mention the remnants of a few snapped ones) some clipped with glued up screwgates all equalised with various bits of tat and in truth is looks like a god awful mess and perhaps an accident waiting to happen. We backed it up with some of our own gear for piece of mind and I'd advise that to anybody using it.

Current state of the Castell Helen abseil station. Photo credit UKC.

Having spent a lot of time climbing in both North America and Europe where bolted belays and abseil stations are common place I can't help but ask myself shouldn't this be replaced by a simple set up of two bolts and a chain? In my eyes it would be cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than the above abomination and also safer. Its been done else where such as the chain on Gimmer Crag in Langdale so why not here. Perhaps the biggest counter argument would be  that it could encourage less experienced people to use it and end being out of there depth of a serious sea cliff. Another issue would be where would the line be drawn, I am by no means at advocate of bolting routes entirely or even there belays but places like Castell Helen (the belay at the top of Mirror Direct in Coire an t'Scneachda would be another example) could perhaps benefit from a few bolts. Thoughts?

Back at the car after Ribstone Crack.

After finishing up headed home via the Llanberris pass and did Ribstone Crack VS 4c on Carreg Wasted which was great and bit of a contrast to our previous route as it felt pretty stiff at the grade. I managed to lead it all in one long pitch on 60m ropes with little rope drag as its a fairly straight line. Good climbing.