Welsh Magic

For a climber, North Wales is a special place. The quality and variety of vertical challenges on offer is hard to match anywhere in the country and the atmospheric settings amongst the beautiful mountains of Snowdonia, the menacing slate quarries in Dinorwig and the wild, wave washed sea cliffs of Gogarth are just icing on the cake.

View of Snowdon and north side of Llanberis pass from the Dinorwig slate quarries

However, in recent years I've spent a lot more days led in a tent listening to giant rain drops fall on the Welsh cliffs than I have actually spent climbing on them. I was keen therefore to take advantage of the amazing dry weather we've been enjoying recently and the magical conditions inspired me to finally lead some classic hard (for me anyway) routes!

Me leading 'Karwendel Wall' HVS 5b on Clogwyn y Grochan

Pete and I climbed at lots of different venues in the area and my leads included; The Plum E1 5b at Tremadog, Superdirect E1 5b on Dinas Mot, Fools Gold E1 5c at Bus Stop Quarry and Sterling Silver E2 5c also at Bus Stop. These were all fantastic routes but the most memorable were The Plum for the number and variety of obstacles that had to be overcome all in about 20m and Superdirect for the sheer terror of a sketchy traverse on poor holds with only the vague rumour of a micro-wire somewhere beneath my feet. (For non-climbers this means: if I fell off all my weight would have been taken by a tiny piece of wire which would have most likely snapped and I would have kept falling, kept falling a long way).

Me leading 'Sterling Silver' E2 5c


Me leading 'Fools Gold' E1 5c

Pete was on good form too and led me up 'Quartz Icicle' E2 5b which is a 'proper' adventurous E2 on Wen Slab at Gogarth (same cliff as 'A Dream of White Horses') and was another highlight of the trip. The final novelty was the joy of fresh coffee, soft beds, comfy sofas and good company courtesy of the Climbers Club hut, Ynys Ettws, in Llanberis Pass - a lot better than camping and cheaper to boot!

Sunset outside Ynys Ettws

All photos courtesy of 'Kafoozalem' :)