We're going on a Bloc Hunt..

Wednesday was a window of free time, slightly problematic due to a child off school, and a non ideal weather forecast.  Undeterred,  Ethan and I headed off into the wilderness looking for treasure.

Ethan identifying our first piece of booty ; hazelnuts! 

This was to be a serious mission.  The geology was sounds,  it was a foray to confirm correct topography. 

First signs were good.. 

However,  the going underfoot was less so..

For Ethan at least, first strike gave some fun bloc's. I was looking for something a little bigger and cohesive to get a circuit together. 

One boulder so far,  may not have found the pot of gold this trip. However,  I saw a few outliers that warrant attention when not restricted by little legs.

Lunch with a view. 

Ethan found an erratic fork and proceeded to do Martin Crook impressions. 

Ethan declared the day seized, and broke trail back to civilisation and Sponge Bob Squarepants.

I'm currently waiting for nicer weather to allow some outside climbing in my little freedom windows.  Hopefully the scrabbling around I'm doing indoors will stand me in good stead.

Keep exploring. 

Back in the blood

Training is going slow and frequently derailed, not quite enough obsession kicking round to drive me on. Sometimes its too much fun just being Dad, and bouldering requires me to actually be good, at least for the things on my radar.

Luckily I may have stumbled on a solution, with mizzle and other complications I've been stuck for mini adventure Ideas, for when I only have a short window of quixote time. I've therefore set myself a challenge to compile notes for all the changes and additions that have birthed since the Slate guide got published.

This, started as an act of whimsy, has now reached 20 pages and has resulted in some fine stomps. A bizarre side effect has been that I'm actually getting some psyche back for playing in the quarries. After all things Twll Mawr, I kind of felt I'd drawn that chapter to a close, but the jaunts have reinfected me somewhat. Some examples:

Harlod Walmsey's Routes high up in Heavens Cutting. These will be a good adventure for the low grade sport aficionado, providing they don't shed too many holds. However on the opposite side of the cutting are a load of clean highball aretes and slabs with flat landings. Food for thought 

Who bolted this buttress, curious and curiouser

The buttress in question is  in the centre of the pic, above the sadly collapse Alice Springs, a route put up by my dearly departed mate Dave. If I ever bolted again, I'd like to follow that hanging slab left over the void.

Some more of Harold's work. Some really strong looking lines in the middle of Upper Dinorwic in an area he's named Ayer's Rock. The right hand line Kata Tjuta Rib follows an old Giveaway Project of the Month.

The left hand wall of the bay looked familiar. Turns out I soloed through here 15 years ago, what became If you Kill People They Die. Nice to see its still standing.

Looking down into Australia from the adventurous mess that is Upper Diniorwic

Another new development is the Plateau slab. Ian Lloyd Jones secured access to this  area, which was previously banned under the Access agreement negotiated in the late 80's.

2 routes in this area previously left out of the guide were mentioned in the old black book, I was intrigued by Stay Big..

And here it is! This whole section looks ripe for some highballing, but the one pad I'd bought with me wasn't enough to persuade me to engage quite yet.

And so on to the main event! I had been invited to come and play for the morning, by my work mate Alex. What me? going to climb popular classics? I had great fun, leading Pull My Daisy (which I'd last led 20 years previously) and cleanly seconding Splitstream. I was particularly pleased with this as I feel pretty much fresh from the couch, and it also marks my first Redhead route!

So Slates back in the blood. Lets see what adventure awaits!

An Ill Wind

So last Monday I had an opportunity to have an adventure. On my own and with the chance of Rain I had decided to venture out for the maiden voyage of Binky the Wonder boat (an impulse Ebay purchase). However, on arrival Trefor (home of the mighty Shale City, and my prospective Deep Water Soloing venue) Something wasn't Right. 

For starters there was a bit of Drizzle, but that wasn't really an issue and was clearing. It was the wind, a bit blowy at home, was blowing along the coast, rather than over the top as I thought. I scrambled down to the sea level platform (on the left in the picture below) and the waves were all forming up and heading for me. If I even managed to get the boat in, I doubted I could punter my way around the corner..

I considered walking further along and putting in, riding with waves, but as they were also leading away from shore, I thought that a little too exciting.

Looking down the orange corner, fairly easy to rig a escape / inspection line here. Maybe for the next visit.

As the sun was coming out, and I did have some climbing / swimming kit, I chose to bail to my other prospective DWS venue, at Nant Gwrtheyrn. It a firm favourite venue with my kids now, and this would be my first high tide visit..

Plenty of sand now at the far end, a sign of our stormy summer?

So I had a slightly breezy slog along the beach, and started the Diff solo onto the top of the Slot zawn. Then it got proper windy. Sort of crawl along windy....

The Zawn at a breezy high tide, note the Spraybow and soaked walls...

Here's a vid of what I found:

Having therefore abandoned thoughts of DWS, I went exploring the grounds..

The top quarries sort of have potential for one or two lines...

I, on the other hand, retired for coffee, ham, egg and chips (and a scone)

Adventure awaits! (a less windy day)

This years fall: Lost World

While Upper Dinorwic continues to shuffle its pennies down into Tasmania, its been the big collapse in Lost World that has been the slate quarries big noise this year. I got a chance to pop up and get some photo's this week.

The topo shot used in the guide, what was...

Things started with the big buttress right of the Coolidge Effect, here's a pic from the mine explorer site:

This has effectively remover A Small Rusty Nail.... but the rest seems intact on a macro level, rather than the small stuff, stone fall and ricochet. What I mean is that the buttresses are still there.

What happened next is rather more impressive..

This massive collapse means two things; the old Sunday walk across from the coat hut through heavens cutting is no more (although project climbs either side are still accessible and intact), and a new and impressive,  and dare I say it, solid looking wall has been exposed. Its like the fruit machine in angry birds, giving new toys....

There has also been some minor changes to the start of Prometheus Unbound:

topo view

view this week

There was nothing noticeable from my side of the quarry, but it was enough to turn back Keen Calum and Big Tim. Given the activity next door, it may be best to give it a winter.

Enjoy

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.

So last week, arms a bit niggly from a few snappy pops of Porth Howel, my car wouldn't start. an afternoon of pushing the beast round Deiniolen left my shoulders further ravaged. The day after I was back behind the drill at work and I was sure it was time for a rest. Too late. Opening a door was all it took to send me swiftly through the pain portal.

Ooops.

Fortunately, the Beacon has an in house Oesteopath Belinda Rae. I was able to shuffle in in agony, and walk out in relative mobility and comfort. This isn't the end of the matter, I still have a lot of physio to do, and my shoulder alignment needs serious sorting to give me a frame to build myself up again.



We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better...stronger...faster



The important thing is to maintain motivation, I may not be able to go out and crush, but I can keep exploring, and I may take some keen wads out to some of my select venues. Two more Open projects to launch, Then next year will be the year I actually send some of them (all of them Dammit! lets be ambitious).

So Back to this week, and I went in search of the mythical roof of Carnedd y Filiast. I though I spotted this 4 years ago, when out on a fruitless search on Fronllwydd. Having no camera, I filed it to my memory and left it there to fester. This seemed like an ideal opportunity to tie up this loose end.

Sunny Filiast on the approach, good forecast for this day...

Enery sink needs an overflow, the Marchlyn Mawr Reservoir has a big one, keen followers will have noticed the Open Project for May is non tidal, Good News. Clouds? odd...

Ahh. I must ignore all Forecasts for North Wales....

Fortunately, I managed to squeeze under this rather diminutive boulder, and amused myself imagining I was and inch tall and climbing it (rather reminiscent of the Bone People buttress)

On the top of Carnedd y Filiast. Veiw like this might persuade me to walk  a bit more...

I think this is the Macguffin that drew me up here. It does overhang, the landing isn't terrible, but does it make you want to drag a mat up here?

A slightly cloudier, less sunkissed recreation of the view that triggered this jaunt. Another example of Craine's 1st Law.

So one less hillside to wander, only a couple of thousand left.

Shoulders back..

Lunchtime Bogtrot

Had a couple of hours between school drop offs to check out the more direct route to Craig yr Haul. Within four steps I had entered a pond (note best to use the 3rd layby after the chicane for direct approach rather than the 2nd...).
Once I'd wrung myself out and re-calibrated next to the major riverlet, and surprise surprise a fence (no wonders I got my wires crossed conversing with messr Peck), it was easy navigation up to the now obvious Sun-y-Haul boulder.

Its a nice find, with many also-rans in the vicinity, though nothing to waste too much effort or patio time over. I was able to make sense of the righthand start (the only large hold) and sussed some of the swing in.

Really good effort by Tim for interpreting the line, the patio work, and just projecting up on this hill side.

I ferreted around a bit before the fell run back to the car for the School pick up. I'm not totally sold on the Direct route. The hillside is a mine field of crisscrossing streams and unhelpful vegetation. It also is fairly lumpy with hillocks and craglets to negotiate. I personally would recommend sticking to the Mymbyr approach to the wall, and using the path inside the wall to traverse to where the riverlet breaches the wall:

From here a scramble down gains Sun-y-haul

And a wander up gains the Craig y Haul boulders


Think I'm still on the hunt for that F7A+ project tho'

Enjoy

A lotta wellie work

Not quite got round to deciding on this months open project. As I intimated last month, I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed at the task ahead, and I can see a few giveaway's being inserted amongst the opens. Basically I wont get round to working them all. However it is a worthy aim. This month I have climbed my first trad route since August, and it should not have surprised me, therefore, that it was inordinately wiggy for the grade. I have also climbed 2 boulder problems, which although real (ie. outside) were not "established" (ie. at least more than 2 ascents I guess..) I also ended up trying something too hard which flared up some tendonitis.

This gave me an excellent opportunity to work through the list on my phone and establish the potential of those in the "rumours, optimism and myths" category. Hence, in a long winded way, why I'm still umming over this months choice. I've walked a lot of bog, I've found some proper rock, some real potential. So I'm still stuck deciding what to work. Some good stuff to come in the months ahead I think.

I'm supposed to be getting less obsessed, and getting out more on guaranteed fun fests. However, I guess I'm just as happy climbing vertical forest, questing for the lost boulder of Afon Berthin.

Here it is.
Not planning on working it myself so feel free. The chase is often more exciting than the catch, so the fishermen say..

enjoy

A Classic Welsh Tease - Clogwyn Y Garreg

Where? I hear you cry, nestling in the mouth of the Nantlle Valley, found in a 10 year old guide which states 8 single pitch routes up to a solitary E1, a brace of new routes added on the CC website all solo upto VS, and Questionable access.

Thus starts a classic welsh tease, familiar to all driven to the unheathly life of the new router. You see its 200m from the road, and looks pretty. Further more its strewn with a myriad of, admittedly small, boulders. To clinch the deal, a bit of digging divulged its now on open access land, and an anglers deal means easy parking and a maintained path.

The Game is Afoot.

2 mins from the car

The View down the valley

All starts as usual. Time is limited to 2 hours between home and Osteopath appt (hence why I'm not patioing  Neverfall..) so thats about 1hr to wander. First impressions are that the rock could be nice and is certainly quick drying (all dry here), its rhyolite with some quartzy metamorphing. Think wavelength meets  holyhead mountain.
Given the time I elected to circumnavigate the mound, not having time to scour the two tiers..

First lot into view

start of next tier

And so it goes on round the mound, new exciting rock round each corner to inspect at a closer range...

What we want is:

1)a line

2)a landing

3)respectable difficulty

4)more than 3 moves..

And thus the tease ensues. It means that we get 1 or 2 out of 4. maybe 3, but the golden chalice of 4/4 always slips like snot through our fingers. 3 out of 4 isn't bad I hear you say, but its always the most awkward un-useful combination.

And so the next corner beckons..

the end?

around the corner

up the gully

another corner. Okay this ones looking good....

A case study in tease. 3 lines each 3/4 in the most unhelpful combinations..

However

This crag has a lot to offer and is not really known about, so come for a wander, bring a pad especially if you're operating in the Font 3-6 range, and a rack if you like short interesting lines. Just no minibuses.

And there's still a few corners to explore around next time....