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.

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.

Lockwood's Chimney - 'An Adventure'

Last weekend I was away with university climbing club (LUMC) in Snowdonia. Unfortunately as the week progressed the forecast progressively got worse and worse. The MWIS one issued on the Friday afternoon as we left bounced about triple digit wind speed figures and phrases like 'mobility will be all but impossible on all levels'. Not to mention significant levels of precipitation.

Usually its quite easy to find something to do in poor weather in wales, there's lots of ridges, easy climbs and scrambling. With the forecast most of my usual choices seemed a bit ambitious though so I did some thinking and remember being told about Lockwood's Chimney, a so called adventure route on Clogwyn y Bustach, just below Pen y Pas. I think 'adventure route' is a good phrase as to call this a 'climb' would be an injustice - whether this would be to the route itself or to all other climbs I'll let you decide once you've done it!

Naomi entering the chimney, below the chockstone crux.

To approach the route you park at the farm on the NE edge of Llyn Gwynant and walk down through the campsite crossing the river, and heading north along the river bank until you eventually wind your way up through some lightely forested boulder fields to the base of the crag. Its about 1.5km and takes 20-30 minutes. The start of the route is located to the right of 'the marble arch' a large natural arch of rock that has formed and provides some shelter in wet weather.

We climbed a long first pitch, combining the two written in the guidebook into one. This involves a steep wet crack first followed by another steep wall. This was pretty dire in the wet as a waterfall was running down it, and right down my sleaves pooling at my elbows! You can avoid this a scrambling line up some ledges to the left. After this the real meat of the route begins with the chimney itself. It think its best to do this in two pitches, the first going into the chimney and passing the chockstone which is the crux. Some websites and guides moot that this is about 4a - have no idea really, all I know is that it was very wet and polished and my boots didn't seem to find many edges to stand on so I resorted to back-knee chimeny'ing maneuver to get over it (one of the leaders in the latter parties fell on this and took a slide back down to the bottom of the chimney!). From here you move deeper into the mountain on a horizontal section, barely wide enough for you to turn around in, before climbing the easier ground at the back on the cave which leads you abruptly back to the outside world near the top of the crag. There is another scrambling pitch above this which leads to the top of the crag but we chose to make use of the in-situ tat and make the wonderful 50m free-hanging abseil back to the marble arch, just to add to the adventure. I was climbing with Naomi and Jade and they were both excellent seconds.

Myself squirming deeper into the chimney.

In true university mountaineering club style, only two of the six parties that attempted the route got to the top, with people having issues abseiling, getting ropes stuck, having to have lines dropped to them etc. I think I've grown to accept this now though, and quite enjoy the shut-eye I catch while lay on the back seats on minibuses waiting for them. Several asked how hard I thought the route was as it was only Diff; I never really thought it was hard as such, just a struggle, a horrible moist struggle. But it was awesome, and it was an adventure, top choice for a really bad day in Wales.

Photos copyright of Jade Jauquet.

Tremadog & Ogwen

I was in North Wales this weekend for a friend's birthday, and had orginally intended to try and get some more winter routes done but due to thaw at the end of last week, and the temperatures on Friday evening being positively tropical (8C in Nant Peris at night) we decided to give it a miss. I heard stuff still got done on the Black Ladders, and there was still ice around in Idwal on the Sunday but whether or not any of the lines were complete I am skeptical about. A lot of the snow cover has also diminished as well.

Myself leading pitch 3 of Poor Man's Peutery.

Saturday, with it being overcast and damp in the Pass we headed south to Tremadog for some rock-climbing. We did Poor Man's Peutery S 75m which is one of the classic easier routes on Craig Pant Ifan. In the guidebook its given 4 pitches but I manged to run both 1+2 and 3+4 together without any issues. The route as a whole is generally good but the 3rd pitch is fantastic for the grade, with an excellent, exposed traverse out onto the nose, before following a steep crack line up the wall above for about 20m. Due to our intentions of winter routes both Stu and Stubbs were climbing in there big boots and I was rocking my trainers which made the whole thing a little more interesting!

Scrambling on Carnedd Dayfdd.

Sunday brought a delayed start, but eventually we got round to Ogwen by mid afternoon (2:30pm), we'd intended to go and do Ceniefion Arete which is one of my favourite routes in Wales but decided against it as we all wanted to be home a reasonable hour, and we still had a 2 hour drive ahead if us. Instead we struck straight out of Ogwen Cottage up towards Carnedd Dafydd, picking a line up the different rock buttress to give some quality scrambling in places. We also got some stunning views of Cwm Idwal as the sun set behind. I could just about make out the remnants of the Devil's Appendix, and I'm quite excited to go for a look at it when it's fully formed again.

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.