Back to Llugwy

This morning I woke up with a cricked neck. However, it was Friday, and that means adventure day, regardless of owies, the sun was up and I was going out...

King Arthur's film set in full swing.. I decided to go up the Llugwy reservoir again, to give an appraisal of the "not worth it" boulders, hopefully find some worthwhile boulders (I'd brought my pad), and finally -Thrash the worn back wheel of the scooter to see if it'll last in its present state. Just inside the gate was a poor film guy in his landrover. He'd just installed this:

So the film guys can communicate with the mothership, and someone had in the meantime switched the locks on the gate! paranoia grips the waterboard... Maybe, anyhoo he was waiting patiently for the key holder...

Target no. one. I surveyed the mighty field of boulders below the reservoir, and Low as was foretold.. They were a bit rubbish.

Next I ventured across to Booze buster buttress, as the crag just uphill from Mianog is apparently called

Bit more promise here with one steep face and a highball wall for those willing to venture

With damp feet I trudged uphill in search of Tarmac and was instead greeted with this:

Somewhat hidden in a re-entrant, a selection of not-that-rubbish boulders. by this point my neck was getting rather agitated with the straps of the pad and I wasn't sure I could even weight my shoulder, let alone climb. However, after all this bog trotting, there was no way I was going to walk away empty handed.

This is the Mop top boulder. Its very big, has a heather hair do, and is fairly overhanging on all sides, at least at its base.

I chose to kick off here with a couple of easy lines, this arete I climbed on both sides the one in the video is "Potato" and is about F6B, the right side has a lower start and is a bit easier. The name refers to the first big hold on the slab, a big potato.

Wandering out further up I came across this overhanging arete...

 At first I couldn't hang the starting holds without a series of minor explosions from my neck. A fair bit of stretching later, I set about working it. It was diminutive, but the move required a lot of grip and aggression. I ended up getting the first 2 moves, then flailed a lot starting in the middle before getting two overlapping halves. a good rest and time spent propping up my mobile phone meant it went down next go.

"Bog Trotter's Lament" is somewhere in the F6C to 7A region

Here are the main holds:

Took 20mins to get from the reservoir to the car, mainly because the wheel melted on the steepest bit, which led to some interesting fishtailing and a running stop. A more durable wheel is now in the post...