12-05-12, Gorge Walking and Rock Climbing - Snowdonia Outdoor Adventure

Today I have been out with Lindsay and Dave. Glorious weather, and very busy in the park this weekend. A day out with Snowdonia Outdoor Adventure was a birthday present for Dave, so he requested a gorge walk and rock climbing. This morning we climbed a couple of multi pitch rock routes on Tryfan Bach, then to the Afon Ddu gorge to cool off. The gorge was a at a great level today, plenty of powerful waterfalls and slides.

Tryfan Bach, very user friendly, Ogwen Valley

Afon Ddu Gorge, roped section.

Afon Ddu gorge slides

Big waterfall power.

Belly flop power!

03-06-11, North Wales Rock - Trad Climbing

 Llyn Idwal and Pen yr Ole Wen.

This week I have been working for a local Ogwen centre called Dolawen (Dorothy Stringer High School) on a multi activity course - kayaking, rock climbing and hill walking for year 9 students. The weather has been fine, some drizzle but generally dry with light winds. On Wednesday myself and Will went to Gogarth and climbed on the Upper Tier, back to Gogarth with Steve on Thursday to Main Cliff with a calm sea. Today I have been out in Ogwen with Tom and Steve, initial plan was to climb in Llanberis Pass but parking was an issue. Cwm Idwal turned out to be a great plan, sun and shade, climbing in a t-shirt! Very hot today, but still some wet seepage lines about.

 Tom on his was to dispatching Demetreus E3 6a.

03-08-10, Ogwen - Scrambling

A wet day in Snowdonia today. James, Liam and myself headed into Ogwen to do some scrambling. They both have an MIA assessment coming up and we thought we make use of a soggy day by ascending, Tryfan Fach, and then South Gully on Tryfan's east face, and finished up on Bristly Ridge on Glyder Fach. It was good practice for short roping and decision making. We met up with a few teams of hill walkers on the summit of Tryfan but had the scrambles to ourselves.

06-06-10, Ogwen - Scrambling and Rock Climbing

This weekend I have been working for Kathryn Bromfield Mountain Instruction with Julian and Eddy. They are regular hill walkers that have started to get into scrambling. On Saturday we did some roped scrambling by ascended the right hand side of the Idwal slabs and then climbed up the classic grade 3 scramble Cnefion Arete which lies high in the Nameless Cwm. We climbed quite fast so managed to do a quick route on Clogwyn y Tawr on the way back down as well. Today we went rock climbing and climbed Idwal slabs via the classic VDiff Hope. Along the way the guys learnt various ways to tie into belays, what makes good runners and anchors, managed to build some belays of their own and learnt techniques to abseil safely and efficiently.

The weather has changed over the weekend. Very hot and muggy on Saturday and today was overcast and showery. It looks like the weather is set to be mixed over the next week, so it will take some time for the mountain crags to dry out again.

Photos - Above, Cnefion Arete (grade 3) scramble or Moderate rock climb. Right, Hope VD on Idwal Slabs.

28-05-10, Snowdonia - Rock Climbing

Clogwyn Dur Arddu

I have been working on Adventure Courses for Children aged 10-12 years old from the Wirral over the last couple of weeks, doing various activities including Rock Climbing, Kayaking, Gorge Walking, Mountain Walking, Sea Level Traverseing and Coasteering.

The weather in Snowdonia has been hot, hot, hot which has led to many evenings of climbing. I have been out most evenings climbing in Llanberis Pass (Cwm Glas Bach, Clogwyn Llo, Cromlech Boulders), Ogwen Valley (Clogwyn y Tawr, Scimitar Buttress, Cyrau and Clogwyn Dur Arddu on Saturday. Cloggy wasn't as dry as you might expect, probably due to the snowy winter. The drain pipe on the right hand side of the east buttress was very wet and the top corner pitch of Piggott's Climb was very wet and slimy (effort required! in photo below). Photo - right, Kath climbing the second pitch of Beta, VS 4c on Clogwyn Llo, which is located on the shady south side of the pass, a welcome relief from the suns heat!

08-05-10, Tremadog and Ogwen - Rock Climbing

Fionn and Mark, 'perched' on the exposed second stance of Valerie's Rib.

Today I have been working on a Rock Developer course for Plas y Brenin. Fionn, Mark and myself went to Tremadog, for their first experience of multi-pitch rock climbing. We climbed Oberon in 3 pitches (photo - right, Mark) and Valerie's Rib also 3 pitches (photo - above). We looked at belaying, tying into anchors, runners, building anchors and abseiling with a prussik. We enjoyed dry and warmish weather. The crag was busy but not too bad.

This evening after work, myself, Kath and Gaz, walked up to Carreg Mianog, 20minutes from the road on the Carneddau side of the Ogwen Valley. This is a quality, rough and well featured crag, with plenty of VSs climbs and well worth a visit. We climbed the multi pitch Biceps Wall VS 4c,4c , Zip Groove VS 4b and Zip Wall HS 4b. All of which were very enjoyable.

Kath leading second pitch of Biceps Wall, with Gaz belaying.

02-05-10, Ogwen, Snowdonia - Scrambling

Today myself and Oliver returned to Ogwen to do some more summer mountaineering and roped scrambling. All day it has been fresh and dry. We found an interesting and quiet route to ascend the mighty Tryfan. We started with the Milestone Gully Approach, then the Milestone Continuation (picture - right and below). We headed around the NE ridge onto the East Face and ascended Bastow Buttress until we hit the top of the NE ridge again. The ridge was very busy, and we met/passed lots of folk enjoying a beautiful day in the park. We descended the South ridge then into Cwm Tryfan back to the road. Oliver's boots are getting broken in for his attempt to climb Mont Blanc next month so good luck! Today I was working for Sea2Summit.

If you are interested in doing some scrambling be it Introductory (basic and roped scrambles) or Advanced (learning rope techniques to stay safe and lead harder scrambles) Scrambling Courses. Then PJ Mountains can offer them. Courses can be tailored to suit your needs. http://www.pjmountains.co.uk/summer.html.

01-05-10, Ogwen, Snowdonia - Scrambling

Today I was out scrambling in the Ogwen Valley. I was working with Oliver for Sea2Summit. Oliver has aspirations to climb Mont Blanc later this summer, so wanted to get out into the mountains, have a journey over scrambly terrain and get used to his super stiff boots. We headed into the Glyders, to the base of Idwal Slabs and did some roped scrambling on the far right hand side. A quick lunch stop in the base of the Nameless Cwm and then we decided to ascend the Cneifion Arete. The arete was busy but was still as good as ever. Today the weather was much better than forecast, there were a couple of minutes of drizzle but in general was dry and fresh. There are a few snow patches left but there is definitely a spring feel about Snowdonia.

Oliver seconding pitches at the start of 'Direct Approach to Seniors Ridge'.

The classic and brilliant Cneifion Arete (grade III scramble or Moderate rock climb).

The top of Cneifion Arete.