[this is a manual cross-post of the corresponding LJ entry]
Given everything that happened since, it's perhaps not entirely surprising that I've not yet written about last weekend's climbing trip, but I want to scribble something about it down before it receeds to far into the past.
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naath and I went to Betws-Y-Coed, which is my usual base for multi-pitch climbing. Sadly, as the weekend approached, the forecast was looking increasingly grim. The inauspicious omens continued, as despite leaving mid-afternoon (having taken a 1/2 day off) we sat in a lot of traffic on the A14. Things did eventually improve, though, and we got to the slightly odd B&B with time to check in and go for dinner. The chinese restaurant in town had a new specials menu available, and the Szechuan belly pork I had was really good (and very spicy!).
Saturday's forecast was sufficiently bad that we decided the best thing to do was to go to the crag just outside Betws, and see how many short routes we could get in before the rain became too much (it was forecast to set in around midday). As it was, we managed 5 climbs (2 at VDiff, 3 at Severe) which were quite pleasant (excepting one thrutchy horror, which I think was a bit much even fornaath who likes that sort of thing); as I was seconding the last of these, the wall had pretty much become a waterfall, which we took as our cue to give up for the day. Once fortified with lunch, we headed out for a bit of light gear shopping and a coffee at the Pinnacle Cafe (where atreic and I had met our instructor on our first outdoor climbing trip). The Bistro in Betws did us a lovely dinner.
The forecast for Sunday was much better, so we picked a quick-drying route somewhere near the road - the Pulpit Route on Milestone Buttress. We perhaps underestimated how cold it was (the rock was really cold, and in the shade), which meant seconding pitches could be a bit more challenging, as I could hardly feel my fingertips! The climbing was mostly straightforward, with the exception of the 4th pitch. The chimney was a bit tricky with a heavy seconding bag (it had 2 sets of fairly heavy shoes, a large thermos, and so on), but I got to the top of the chimney where you have to make an "airey" move through a hole and realised that there was no way that myself + bag were going to make it round. This did not result in immediate joy! Butnaath was able to dangle a sling down that I could attach to the bag, and then leave it behind as I completed the pitch (which wasn't too bad to second once unencumbered). I could then swing the bag out from where I'd wedged it, and haul it up on the sling. The final pitch was straightforward.
Then we found the descent gully. The guidebook notes that it is steep and that some parties elect to abseil it. We looked at its steep, wet, slimy sides, and decided that you'd have to be mad to try and climb down it. So we used a solid-looking anchor left by a previous party (quite possibly the nearby Plas Y Brenin) and abseiled 1/2 the length of my rope. This was still in the steep waterfall, so we rigged another anchor of our own, and abseiled down to a point where the descent path became more sensible. I have subsequently washed and dried my rope! Anyhow, there was then time for lunch and a coffee at the Idwal Cottage, and then the drive home. We were fortunate enought to have a really good run (4h5 from Betws).ewx was kind enough to feed me dinner when I dropped naath off, and then I went home to atreic who was recovering from their super-fast marathon running exploits.
An excellent weekend :)
Given everything that happened since, it's perhaps not entirely surprising that I've not yet written about last weekend's climbing trip, but I want to scribble something about it down before it receeds to far into the past.
naath and I went to Betws-Y-Coed, which is my usual base for multi-pitch climbing. Sadly, as the weekend approached, the forecast was looking increasingly grim. The inauspicious omens continued, as despite leaving mid-afternoon (having taken a 1/2 day off) we sat in a lot of traffic on the A14. Things did eventually improve, though, and we got to the slightly odd B&B with time to check in and go for dinner. The chinese restaurant in town had a new specials menu available, and the Szechuan belly pork I had was really good (and very spicy!).Saturday's forecast was sufficiently bad that we decided the best thing to do was to go to the crag just outside Betws, and see how many short routes we could get in before the rain became too much (it was forecast to set in around midday). As it was, we managed 5 climbs (2 at VDiff, 3 at Severe) which were quite pleasant (excepting one thrutchy horror, which I think was a bit much even for
naath who likes that sort of thing); as I was seconding the last of these, the wall had pretty much become a waterfall, which we took as our cue to give up for the day. Once fortified with lunch, we headed out for a bit of light gear shopping and a coffee at the Pinnacle Cafe (where atreic and I had met our instructor on our first outdoor climbing trip). The Bistro in Betws did us a lovely dinner.The forecast for Sunday was much better, so we picked a quick-drying route somewhere near the road - the Pulpit Route on Milestone Buttress. We perhaps underestimated how cold it was (the rock was really cold, and in the shade), which meant seconding pitches could be a bit more challenging, as I could hardly feel my fingertips! The climbing was mostly straightforward, with the exception of the 4th pitch. The chimney was a bit tricky with a heavy seconding bag (it had 2 sets of fairly heavy shoes, a large thermos, and so on), but I got to the top of the chimney where you have to make an "airey" move through a hole and realised that there was no way that myself + bag were going to make it round. This did not result in immediate joy! But
naath was able to dangle a sling down that I could attach to the bag, and then leave it behind as I completed the pitch (which wasn't too bad to second once unencumbered). I could then swing the bag out from where I'd wedged it, and haul it up on the sling. The final pitch was straightforward.Then we found the descent gully. The guidebook notes that it is steep and that some parties elect to abseil it. We looked at its steep, wet, slimy sides, and decided that you'd have to be mad to try and climb down it. So we used a solid-looking anchor left by a previous party (quite possibly the nearby Plas Y Brenin) and abseiled 1/2 the length of my rope. This was still in the steep waterfall, so we rigged another anchor of our own, and abseiled down to a point where the descent path became more sensible. I have subsequently washed and dried my rope! Anyhow, there was then time for lunch and a coffee at the Idwal Cottage, and then the drive home. We were fortunate enought to have a really good run (4h5 from Betws).
ewx was kind enough to feed me dinner when I dropped naath off, and then I went home to atreic who was recovering from their super-fast marathon running exploits.An excellent weekend :)