North Wales Ice Climbing

This week has been a bout of disappointment. At first I missed out on a night climb of Torpantau falls in South Wales with Tim, which turned out to be a blessing any way as he didn't even reach the falls. And secondly, Chris had to work at the weekend and Tim was already in Wales, so no climbing partners were free. So, I posted on UKC for a partner, with the slim chance that someone would answer.

Seven Mile throb (E5 6b) Cont'

The route pretty much follows the line of the biggest tree sapling in the bottom left of the picture, through the overlaps/roofs and onto the top section of the slab at the obvious stepped corner.

Some readers of my blog may remember this Post a few weeks backs about an E5 project at Fairy Cave Quarry. Well, curiosity got the better of me, and so i abseiled down the route to inspect the route at close hand. And how very pleased I had!

Fairy Cave Quarry

I had mentioned this place in the past to Chris, and so I decided to take him there to introduce him to some technical, run-out, limestone slab climbing. Needless to say, I don't think he'll be returning...

North Wales Instructing

After a good weekend climbing down at Bwlch Y Moch and watching Skyfall, I drove to Capel Curig Training camp for another week of instructing on a Summer Mountain Foundation course with CCAT. As with last week at Halton, I arrived, unpacked, met the guys then went to bed.

Craig Bwlch Y Moch

After my long drive down to North Wales, I pulled into Betws Y Coed for a bite to eat and a drink while waiting for Chris to drive down from Scotland. At 22:30, I left the comfort and crowds of the pub, £20 lighter after buying a burger and a few drinks, and made my way to the car park behind Joe Brown's in Capel Curig. No soon than I arrived, Chris pulled up. We packed kit fro the following morning, discussed where to go and finally settled in for the night. Sleeping in my car was now a norm to me: Slide back the passenger seat, put it down, fold out duvet and sleep.

Lakes instructing

I drove down to Halton Training Camp and got there just after 1730. After a long day, weekend in fact, I met the guys on the courses and then went to bed.

White Ghyll Crag

I met up with Chris after had driven down from Scotland earlier that morning. We met in the New Dungeon Ghyll carpark, then set off up the hill towards White Ghyll crag. The morning was cold. A thin film of mist hugged the ground of Great Langdale. The scrammble to the crag took only half an hour. But the time took longer. Upon breaking through the mist, we gazed out across the glaciated Langdale valley The temperature invertion, glazed in the deep reds and oranges of an Autumn sunrise stopped us in our ascent to the crag. We took the time to take in the view, take off a layer, and then to continue on our way.