Back in the Saddle

 So six months (ish) have passed. Lots of baby steps in physio, lots of little exercises. Walks and wanders, dreaming and scheming.

However, today I have returned to my love. Our of the asylum and back to the wilderness; boot and pad in hand.

Mr Fidler ( soon to be Dr no doubt) joined me in returning to a tentative loose end, found while on Deep Recon on the A487. The dolerite dominoes of Llyn Cymystradlyn may well be sandstone (I'm sure a geologist will tell us), but semantics aside, I can assure you of there provision of quality entertainment.

The approach for starters, takes in an inordinate array of bracken and bog. It wasn't until our retreat that the local fishermen imparted the arcane knowledge that boulder hopping the shoreline was a lot drier and ultimately swifter then balancing hummock to hummock across the sprawling bogs.

Once there, Dave got stuck into the big prize while I tentatively pulled on my comfy boots and looked for a lowball to toy with:

I was amazed how much I had to fight on the lowball, so low it probably deserved a ¡ After its lowly 6A¡.

Dave fought hard to make links on the giant roof, but settled on its soaring arete, which jutted proudly over a jumble of distant death blocks, definitely a !!

We had only taken a pad each, as we both had aspects of crippled on. These we placed under the bits where they could actually make a difference, leaving the void to take care of itself. Fortunately the finish was fairly straightforward. So he tells me. I didn't even attempt to pull on.

This became Brithyll Saithliw 6C!!

All the while I kept flailing on my slopey ground hugging traverse, eventually it relented to give the Inconsequential Traverse 6A¡

Amazed at the heady heights I had achieved after only 6 months of semi-recumbant woodlice husbandry, Dave had a go:

Both flushed with this success, we retired to the lower tier, where I quickly scored another prize.

This time it was Slopey Topscrittle; a lurchy F5

I then spent some time trying to be a wad, by brushing the holds to its right. This was mainly in vain. Although it did help to spur Dave onto furthering his efforts to cross the horizontal steepness:

Long video, but Well worth it for the banter.

In between banter, I jolly well got another first ascent- This ones called Moby Dick (there's a whale..) another 5 probably.

 

Laughter. That's what characterized this trip, that and joy, and bog. Plus a bit of choss.

At this point Dave pulled himself together and climbed this:

He called it Throwing Sheeps, due to my mistaking a herd of sheep for seagulls, and claimed it was 7B. I suspect he was being modest.

We finished up a delightful afternoon by hunting for signs of the mysterious G Mawr, and stumbled on this rather pretty boulder that shows signs of cleaning:

 If it hasn't been done before, you can call it Eog and it's about 6Bish ( the jumble of dominoes is in the background). It was too high for me to risk, and has a bum puncher block at its base. Shame really, if it was dug out it would be 3 stars good.

A great first return, I still have to be careful, lower my expectations, as well as the risk and the height. However, I'm reassured that by keeping a steady pace I can be back to being a loon by next spring.

A happy place.

Here be Really Tiny Dragons

 Well I'm now free of the boot and hobbling free. It's still early days, I'm certainly miles away from actually climbing again. However, I have discovered it's all in pretty good shape considering. 

I took it for a test drive.

Turns out with appropriate footwear I can get around a bit.

Yep I also used a walking pole, and had to sit down occasionally, but with care and caution..

I even coped with a little wilderness terrain.

So early days, but the joy of going somewhere I haven't been before, (especially as it felt like somewhere people didn't go often ) Well. It made me feel myself again.

The same time I was filling in the blanks on my personal map, a good friend and wind up merchant James Caff McHaffie was polishing off the original Giveaway Project of the Month from 2009.

I was incredibly made up, as I'd been banging on about the Superprow for, well, 13years. I'd even tried it myself ( too scary) and was building a patio for future highballers. Caff of course added a couple of token stones and cracked on regardless.

Since lockdown Caff has polished off four of my "Too much for Hosey" projects.

It's been really gratifying passing them on and seeing other people catch the vision I had.

This got me thinking about how much I've explored versus either finding anything, or if I do, actually getting round to climbing these lumps.

From the new perspective of temporary crippledom I'm realising that the hunt is as valuable (sometimes more so?) Than the capture.

A bit of a Google search found I was not alone. Micro exploration has been coined to describe these events. In the past adventurers were drawn to the blank bits of the map. In the modern world, the blank bits are still there. You just have to zoom in a bit, basic chaos theory innit?

All this is weighing on my mind, as climbing seems a long way off ( my gimpy toes only can take about 30% bodyweight). I'm coping with this by concentrating on being an explorer.

My project book is all full of ticks ( mine and other people's) and some unclimbed rock has to be discovered to refill it.

Today I went here:

Random woods on the edges of the map. Not so much a blank bit, as a bit that's been doodled on, had some tea spilt on it and then dropped down the back of the bookcase.

It's these forgotten places that occasionally turn up treasure.

So the gimpy foot generally behaved, apart from when a hidden stick snapping under my heel and shocking the system a tad.  I can keep exploring and finding new happy places.

There's treasure everywhere

The Awkward Shuffle

 So when you're a self confessed North Wales based offwidth climber, you do tend to get asked a lot about one climb..

I first tried George's Crack probably about the first time I owned a bouldering mat (bought 2nd hand off Ray Kay of all people). Actually if memory serves me I had also acquired a stunt mat from the 'set' of Clash of the Titans by that time. So that puts it as around 2009/2010. I remember lugging them both up with the stunt pad (spot pad thickness, but size of a single mattress) protecting the along, and my little battered Holdz pad protecting the up.

First session I think I got about 2 feet.

Second session was a year or so later with a pair of wide boyz who were touring the UK cracks on their road to free the chocolate starfish. They had repeated Liquid Armbar which made me happy, and proceeded to lap George's in a weight vest. I'd tweaked my ankle trying to repeat ToeBar, and was unable to emulate their fabled fix-all "the wide pony". Still made a foot of progress. 

Session three was 2015, and is documented here. I'd sacked off wide pony in favour of leading heals first and following with the stack; known as Trench foot. However I was convinced that I needed to emulate other www ascents; hang lower and be more flexible to reach into the crack.. 

I've really struggled with my flexibility over the years, and blamed my inability to fix it for my perceived general crapness. Some of it is left over niggles from my groundfall accident in 2004, some of it is age and motivation.

However, as babies and life got in the way, I sort of believed it was just beyond me. I moved onto fixating about the Tosheroon project instead.

First significant kick off the bench was getting the first ascent of Randy Roof. It's totally my style, flared with fun invert footwork, and while tricky I didn't think existentially at the time, but fast forward to 2020 and getting involved with the NWB3 feedback team. Kick off the bench number two was that Randy roof was supposed to be harder than George's Crack, and lots of arguing about my desire to see GC in the guide as 7A (it is, yipee!). I also was being asked opinion on other bouldering cracks I hadn't done yet..

Basically I had to stop the moping and get crack climbing!

Black County Crack went first (pics on my Instagram) and I knew I had to get my finger out and put George's to bed.

Trip number one (session four) was last Thursday, I was on my own and struggled up with three mats. I was going to stay trench foot and keep as close to the crack as possible.

Here's the fail vid..

I was psyched, as I had battered all the tech into submission. I knew where not to Jam and what to try at various points to Wedge my mitts in..

Enter the bouncing ball of Welsh Crack Psyche ; Eben! (you may remember him from Pinnochio Crack). So he sacked off a family day to be my wingman and pad assistant.

And Fifth session, second go, I dry heaved over the top..

Definitely indebted to Eben (topping up his account with session 2) on this frabulous day. 

So this milestone marks the start of a new road, gaining in confidence, bagging some more cracks, and ultimately leading to the Tosheroon.

Watch this space 

 

The Lockdown Diaries - Once More Awaiting Vizzini

Slowly finding my feet and gaining ground once again. Trips to Marchlyn have increased my drive, and I'm genuinely excited by all the born again esoterrorists charging off into the wilds of clegir and facwen. There has been a reported 80+new problems on clegir alone, and that has drawn me to reflect on my past dalliance there.
The twins had just been born, and I had 3 kids under 2 years old. I was running to stay still basically, and my mindset was on the microadventure; short trips with maximum adventure, and looking back I was also very selective of what projects I took on.
I only had 1.5 mats so many things were rushed past as for another time or person.
With the bonanza on clegir I decided to dredge the muddy memory banks and see if any of my discoveries were worth a punt before others swooped in.
Also I had temporarily ground to a halt at Marchlyn as I reached my grade ceiling, and a lack of progress triggers an automated response in me:

"Go back to the beginning and wait for Vizzini. "

In this case that meant revisiting Craig Ddaear Drwg. No one else had bothered in the last 9 years, and looking at the landings you can see why:

However, the past 9 years had taught me a lot about patios and mat placement, so I chose a few choice lines that could be calmed by a single construct and set to work:

2 hours in.. 

End of second session - complete! 

Sooo, the lines we high, but I now had 2 DMM highball pads, and more importantly generous friends. The day before fathers day was lovely and breezy, and my beautiful wife kicked me out to play. After a fair bit cleaning 4 ascents were made:

Encroachment 6A+! 

This dolerite pillar took a bit of cleaning as it was at the back of a sort of bay. Despite being a little daunted, the rock was ace and gave me confidence to commit to the moves and get it first go. 

Waiting for Vizzini 6C! 

Due to the stepped patio this gave me a little concern, but a sea of mats soon solved that. It took very little cleaning but I was unnerved enough to have a try on a grigri before committing. The bottom took a bit of figuring out

Shawshank 5.8 (r) 

The squeezes I cleaned by abseiling down with a towel and giving a good rubbing. This was the narrower and dirtier of the squeezes, hence the name. 

McClane 5.8 (r) 

The left hand squeeze was quite tricky to start. Both squeezes gave flutter moments at the top, but the offwidth grades look weird with a ! So I went with the traditional r rating. You could protect them by someone shoving a mat in sideways once you were high enough. However I was on my own. Both flash ascents. 

There's still a few gifts at Craig Ddaear Drwg, notably the overhanging fin left of McClane. All landings will unfortunately require any would be ascentionist to put the time in. (please refrain from disassembling existing patios). 

Stay safe and good hunting! 

Those Wile E Coyote moments...

There a definitely some openings for new words in the dictionary. The emotion uprising when  the mud has sucked off one  wellie, and the other starts to sink (soulsquelch?), or the feeling that you have fallen for more time then you had accounted for..
This was my experience during my last window of opportunity in Cwmffynnon (falling, not the wellies, I have the approach dialled).
It was an excellent morning with wintery sun, and inversions in the valleys.

I chose to warm up on Troubles Braids, I'd forgotten what good value it was at a highball 6a. No snappy holds, but certainly wakes you up and set me up for a highball day. 

Frank's Wild Years was next. Softer in grade at 5c, but a few fragile holds and unusual moves requires a steady highball head. 

After that it was off to the days objective. A highball crack I'd spied on the walk last month. 

Unfortunately the crack was still wet from last nights rain. However, I was drawn to the wall to the left. Vertical with a slight scoop around halfway, the top edge was looming at around 5 and a bit meters. There were a couple of edges, but the majority of the climbing was on harder mineral slivers jutting out of the volcanic tuff. Ace when they're bomber, but the odd one occasionally goes bang. Certainly exciting for a highball. With trepidation I sussed out the first few moves, and spied out some form of line. The climbing was tensiony and surprisingly powerful, and this urgency of movement delivered me 3/4 up the wall to a good pinch an no real recollection of how I got there. 

My sequence to this point came in from the left and I realised I had no knowledge of the various nubbins being offered as footholds for the last moves to the top. Slowly getting horribly pumped I poked each nubbin in turn with my boot. Hey ho. I had to commit.. 

Unlike Mr Coyote, I didn't hover in the air as the pebble ejected from the wall. It was a moment mid flight that my moment came, as I sort of assumed I would have landed by now.. Although I did soon enough. 

Slightly giggley and no worse for wear I contemplated my situation. I could call it a day. However, I was so close and if I left it there was an infinitesimal chance some other nutter may do it first..

I'm pleased I persevered, as the moment I blindly slapped for the top sloper is now burned into my psyche, fond memories. 

I named it after a blog post I made on a similar topic; "The Cutthroat World of Esoteric Bouldering" and I guess it's between F6c+ and 7a. I certainly had to dig deep. 

Hope you enjoy the video (I included the fall) and I'm sure there's more to come. 

I'm getting rather overtly keen actually. 

Grinding to the Finish line

So at the beginning of last month a window of opportunity opened on the Tosheroon, following my visit with Ethan. I had not only a spotter, but a very talented photographer (Charlotte Milner) keen to document my lunacy. I'll say straight up that I didn't do it this time, however like Turbo the snail I'm achingly close and I'm not giving up. First burn was fairly short, as expected, but spun me into a whirl of technicalities and beta choices..

Previously at this point I'd switched about face on kneebars to tackle the next section facing left. However, the play with Ethan had shown me that removing this tiring and so far fruitless switch didn't stop me getting any further. (both ways still ended with me flumping a meter further in. So with this in mind I tried the easier of the styles to adopt from this position:

Feet First.

Unfortunately, the leg work was not giving me any forward propulsion. Hands stuttered, and once again I Flumped. Ben, my Man-at-Arms, somewhat darkhorse, and fellow lunatic then bravely stepped forward for his go...

Ben did some impressive hip jams and faught bravely to match my flump spot.

Convinced that staying facing right was the way, I moved to a head first approach. This meant an awkward squeeze as the crack narrowed above me head (well chest actually) and flared widely below my kneebars. Once switched from feet first to head, I had to commit to a series of high kneebars for my left leg. This meant I felt like I could fall on my head, but allowed me to establish some tenuous fist jams to drag myself forward. The first on these is the picture above, opposing mounds in the crack wall gave a couple of sweet pots for me to establish, share and move off to the next. This resulted in a new highpoint, and the end of the constrictions. The flare below gave little to work with, but the fist we good enough for a pivot. I cut loose and stabbed a kneebar above my head....

Missing the crucial pocket to drive my heel into, I couldn't stick this. If I had, I may have thrown to what appears to be the handjam at the end of the fierceness...

There now remains three and a half feet of unclimbed Tosheroon, as I've down climbed into the maw in 2015. The psyche is high, but the windows are few, and the summer holidays of fun and family have sucked away my fitness. There is another window early September, but I may not feel fit for the fight. The last weekend in September may give the last warm window this year, Therefore I must get prepared!

Watch this Space.

Approaching Official Operating Speed

June was a good month, so good in fact, its had to wait until July to Blog about it. Not only that, but I considered delaying further to include shenanigans scheduled for the end of the week.. However, that will have to wait.

Following May's deep recon, and the investigation of Craig y Ecs, I was left a bit frustrated. This was due to events left out of the annals of last month, at the fore mentioned Ecs. Following our great successes on the highball blocs, we went down to a steep boulder near the bottom of the slope. Here I stitched together something rather hard. We were against the clock as we had to punch in at work, and as the last grains of sand were trickling down, I did it! If you could ignore the mighty dab that is...

Crestfallen and with work calling, I had to leave my prize undefended, until the next window of opportunity. What if SteMac caught wind of it?

Fortunately, two weeks later I was able to stomp up and find it still pristine. Following a short pilates warm up and some crimp wrestling I dove in:

The result was "Dutch Trance" named after a Ballboy track that was earworming me at the time. The above vid is split as I tacked on a repeat of the top section for you to see as it isn't all over after the crux.

Particularly memorable was the point mid crux that all pinkies bar one popped off the gaston and I had to dig deep and power through the crux off a mono. Even without this poor beta, its probably F7A.

Good fight that.

Craig yr Ecs continues to provide sport, hence its cheesy nom-de-plume, Here's a highball F5 called Billy crack (another Ballboy Track)

Not content with this honeypot of hits, more recon ensued

Here's Y Fedw, Tremadog's answer to the Lleyn:

Heres a steep highballish lump of it..

Proper dolerite on the hills behind, but a bit small and grubby

More ventures around the borders of Craig y Ecs

Following a lot of extreme walking, Fathers day occurred and Ethan took me to visit an old nemesis, namely the Tosheroon. I hadn't been here for a couple of years due to fear and flaccidity. I couldn't quite remember what made this project so special. However, it had been the wallpaper for my phone for at least five years, and Ethan (who has caught the climbing bug despite my poor parenting) had decided as it was the one that has evaded me the longest that A) it must be hard, and therefore he should beat me to it, and B) as it was Fathers day and everybody else was on their tablets we should go. I should state at this point it had nothing to do with the tides being perfect and my climbing partner having to let me down due to latent zombie-ism.

Ethan Almost giving the secret location away...

The pebble level felt about a foot higher than my 2015 visit, This made it feel almost welcoming. We ventured further in , and fount the pebbles didn't ramp up too much, in fact the starting point (a Chckstone 40ft into the depths) still had the same small boulder below.

The crux section I've yet to breach

The jams through the crux are always wet and therefore dependant on what little constrictions you can find amongst the flareness.

I remembered why It ensnared me so, the technicality and novel nature of the climbing. If offwidth climbing involves Scarpelli's "Intelligent Brutality" Then imagine a wet one covered in crumbly barnacles!

I asked Ethan he minded loitering while I had a quick go , and he offered to be cameraman (good lad).

Heres a little video which may explain why this project is ace:

I left without the tick, but I reached my previous highpoint. I was impressed that I reached this point without entering the Heart of Darkness like last time. I'm certainly not fitter, so I can only put it down to the last 3 years of pilates giving me a more efficient core and lower body for extended knee barring

The sum total of my owies.

This month has definitely seen a return to form for myself in terms of simply being me. I'm getting out, climbing random stuff with some respectable difficulty, and also this month I've seen some of my giveaways bearing fruit. I'd nagged Dan McManus about Nant Gwrtheyrn's DWS potential and Finally he must have got fed up because he dragged Pete Robins along and they bagged it all.

7a ish

another 7a ish

This ones apparently 7b+. However, the last DWS Dan put up at this grade (well he originally said 7b) was White Lightning at Rhoscolyn, and I remember seeing Caff fall off that. The Picture is of Pete in his underpants. He fell off snapping a foothold shortly afterward.

Part of this return to form is having a surplus of projects. So here's one at Clogwyn Melyn, 10 minutes above the Watkin Path, 15 minutes from Caffi Gwynant's fine cakes.

There's a couple of scrappy bluffs which the Crook may have beaten you to, but there's one or two boulders too.

Tuck in. 

As I looked out towards Moel Meirch I am content Knowing...

There is Treasure Everywhere

Return to Rockaway Beach

Every two years or so, I get a yearning to walk down a steep hill,  and scare the excrement out of myself at Porth Howel.

In 2014 you could do the Rail without a mat.

In 2016 sit starts were now the thing.

 The beach in 2016

 However, the beach this year looks a little different..

In 2016...

Well in 2018, Richie Crouch and myself discovered sand, an extra metre of climbing, and even some roofs. We'd planned the trip well in advance due to the favourable tides. All we needed was the weather, which was looking dodgy. Day by day the forecast improved, until the day came, and despite overnight rains, dryness prevailed.

Well my first thoughts were did I pack enough underwear, could I reach the starting holds, and would Richie think I was sandbagging him. We warmed up on th eramp, and Up the Junction (bit crimpy with the new start), and then turned our attention with the next line along Rockaway Beach. All was going well (after another intense start) until we swerved left to the fierce crimp. What breeze there was was blowing over the top of the cove, and the wall was holding onto the residual dampness. Thus the crimp was well 'orrible. Rich Lanked, and I Backed off. 

The slight damp, and the added height sent us off on alternative missions..

Richie eyeing up the new roof at the end of the Wall. This became the sit start "What a Difference a Wave Makes" at 6Cish. back wall not in of course...

The Flail Rail gained some height also, and Richie pushed through the wet patch for a valiant ascent.

A little later on the wind there was had done its work. and the holds moved from light brown to a whiteish grey. The Wall of  Something Dead was dispatched with a little up and down and girding of loins (now pushing over 7m!). Blitzkrieg Bop gave the most fight;

Here Rich gains  the original start, which was still hard back then. I  got through to the crimps above a couple of times, but couldn't set up for the eponymous "Bop". Rich made this, but bottled the highness.

Tucking our Tails, we made for the shelter roof at the back of the bay. Even here the storms scouring had provided more playthings

The wall to the left of Rich is "Bat Country" 6A this homage refers to the FA were I foolishly topped it out, skating up the scree and mud above. It now offers a chance to down climb closer to the pads after hitting the jug rail on the other problems. The Niche to the right finally got a sit start off an undercut near the right wall at the back (hint - the dry one). "The Idiot Kings" 6C is so named for the battle I had with the wet undercuts above ( I also couldn't find the kneebar again). Worth mentioning is the wall to the right with the crack, think I climbed this last time, but didn't top out, a little looseness and lots of Fire Brats!

The Arete was claimed by Richie via a low start. "O-Dogging" starts off a lefthand pinch and a righthand sharp undercut, and weighs in at 7A+. 

Rich trying the obvious sit start challenge to O-Dogging, as long as the pebbles don't rise once more...

Porth Howel is a Top venue and worthy of more attention. who knows, maybe next time I attend (2020?) we'll take a team!

There's Treasure Everywhere!