Crafting Contentment amidst Caca

 It's actually been a pretty ok year. On paper it looks utter dog shit of course.

Having to move house, stress at work, serious family illness and the day to day struggles of neurodiverse kids have meant the minor snatches of adventure have been gold dust. Both in value and scarcity. 

To top it all off a niggling wrist flared up and then POp another pulley injury. Quite possibly the cortisol contributed.

So how's it been ok? Well I've found treasure in the small things, prior to temporarily disabling myself it was easy days bouldering with friends, daft mini adventures with the kids. Post injury it's the planning...

Next year I turn 50. I'm a little fed up with the last two years of injury, and have decided to do something about it.

All my life I've saught adventure, when the going got hard I specifically excersised to overcome the chosen objective, but there wasn't a culture training as we know it. 

Consequently I'm ashamed to admit there's many gaps in my climbing game, and it's quite possible that as I'm no longer "just climbing lots" I'm cashing cheques I can't write ( flip I'm showing my age). 

First I asked a physio to hold me accountable with bi monthly check ups.

Secondly I goal set; to get back to 7B and hopefully beyond by my birthday.

This means infiltrating my life with a culture of training. Not sure what that looks like yet.

Thirdly, as I can't climb yet, I need to have alternative adventures!

Cue digging Binky the Wonder Boat out of storage..

The target was Craig y llam, the site of my first ill fated coasteering session, and source of a massive niggle of unfinished business. I'm sure there's some projects waiting for me.

First thing I learnt was I've forgotten how to row. It may not have helped that the electric pump didn't quite have the guts to get it totally rigid, so the oar holes were flapping a bit.

It took quite a lot of whirligig type buffoonery to get round the fishing rock and to the cliff proper.

Some signs of DWS potential 

Ahoy! An offwidth memory from 14 years ago 

All I have to do now is work out how to pull on. Water seems deep enough and walls are all at least vertical. The chimney extends to an unknown depth within the cliff.

I didn't want to risk popping Binky trying to row to the back. It just occurred to me that I could have swum in, but I had nothing to moor to in any case.

Basically I need to visit in the company of fellow adventurers. Unfortunately being a very birdy cliff, this probably means next autumn.

At least I'll be a 7B boulderer by then.

Keep Exploring 

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.

Broken Hallelujah

 So intention versus reality. Life and work have once again conspired against me, as well as an unhelpful dose of apathy. I'm still down on my offwidth training, hard to motivate myself to boot the kids out the way after a late shift.

Instead I've been focusing my attention on Porth Howel, sprucing it up for the forthcoming Coastal volume of North Wales Bouldering.

I am deeply smitten with this tucked away quarried cove. Despite the fact its at the bottom of a big hill, and the height of the pebble beach varies seasonally by over 2 metres! At least it is vaguely predictable.

First port of call was the Seaward wall, and having another go at a highball arete that scared me off last time, as I could not work out how to top out, and had to reverse to ground. Having scoped out the top and decided that discretion was the better part of valour, I scoped out a flying ramp of footholds leading into the top of paradise groove. This proved to be key, but still very scary, and The Dread Pirate Roberts was born (at about 6A+!) 

The pebble level had risen on the Seaward wall. One move less required on Seams Dynamic, and 2 Jugs was now a sitter. I had intended to try the lower seam traverse, but it had become too bumshuffly. However, the upper seam gave a lovely traverse I dubbed Bird is the Word as the tide was coming in, and couldn't risk a mat. 

I then started working the low level traverse of the wall of something dead early this May. I'd always been unable to work out how to cross the alcove below Blitzkrieg Bop, and a bit of a seige was taking place.

A eureka moment occurred when I stopped trying left to right and switched direction. A series of big dynamic throws between pebble smoothed side pulls deposited me at the starting jug of 53rd and 3rd - the game was afoot!

Starting jug of 53rd and 3rd 

However 2 weeks later when I could next visit the pebbles had begun their inevitable march towards summer height. The crux section was unchanged, but a berm of pebbles had swiped the footholds of the easy section. Even worse, I couldn't repeat the crux. Like the enthusiastic beta hound I am, I dove into unlocking the new challenges, and surprised myself by linking to the start of the crux. I was however now out of beans.

Key pinch #holdnerd

Next session I found all was as before, and I buckled up for the red point. Starting with a proper core and flexibility warm up I moved onto nailing the crux a couple of times. Then it was rest, rest, try, rest.

It was not to be, however I was made up that on my last go I made it as far as blowing the last hard move of the final crux. I was sure it would go next session.

Next session the pebbles has swallowed the footholds of the alcove. End of play until they recede in the autumn.

Having made the journey all the way here I was somewhat disappointed. I was determined to turn these lemons into lemonade. The higher pebbles meant the line over the alcove was less scary than usual. The natural higher line over the alcove would lead into The Rail (down to a nice 5C with this pebble height). After looking at right to left, I decided it would flow better as a natural extension to The Rail starting at the 53rd and 3rd jug. This still necessitated me to dig out a starting foothold, luckily not too deep.

 The moves into the launch crimps of Blitzkrieg Bop were quite strung out for me, but a cunning foot jam (and a bit more digging after a pebble dab) led to:

Overarched 6C 

Satisfied, I retired to return once the summer pebbles sucked away.

Next is Tosheroon. The imminent arrival of a guide is always a double edged sword; Excitement at a chance to be documented is tempered by the anxiety that your house is not in order. 

Despite my troubles in motivating the necessary training ethic, I intend to role the dice and hold things lightly.

Do or do not, there is no try. 

Purple Patch

 Things are going pretty well lately. Firstly finally surmounting George's Crack, then putting The Shard to rest. I've been using the progressive psyche like Spengler's proton pack, hosing down neglected projects.

First up was a trip to the hidden valley. There was this rather massive boulder there by the river. Landing wasn't great, but the rock was rather cool; a mass of grit like slopes with an undercut base:

There was a cool cave at the left end with some flat ground and a well defined start. I made this my goal for my first foray.. 

The result (after many many attempts) was Bumshuffler, a high F6/7A. So many attempts in deed, that my camera ran out of memory as I topped out (and I was slightly late for the school run). 

Spurred on by this my next adventure was up to Marchlyn, as I was well keen to push forward on some of the projects there.. 

On reaching the dam, I saw the water level unusually high... 

Oops, the landing for the Super boulder was under water! First time in seven years I've encountered this. After some research I had found that the moving away from nuclear power has meant that its not always the best economy for them to pump up at night, and sometimes (especially when green energy, solar and the like, is doing well), they keep it up top to get the best price... 

Some further sleuthing has shown that you can predict the up top Connie's by looking by fishskin wall (a drive rather than a long walk). It's a closed system, so if it's empty down here it's full up there and vica versa. 

As a rule of thumb, this boulder here is a good marker, if the level is so low that it is linked to the promentary behind, it probably not worth walking in. 

This screen shot shows the same boulder on Google earth. The level here is still good for the super boulder, so lower than this is bad... 

So back to a peed off Mark at the Dam.. I had remembered some unfinished business at a boulder on Elidir Fach, on the same contour as the dam. Some time in 2011 I had done this :

I had given away the full traverse as a project in 2012, then in 2013 Big G named it The Biscuit Tin of Marchlyn Bach and highlighted it as the Boulder of the Month. I'd assumed he'd climbed it and promptly let it fall behind the bookcase of my mind.. 

So a decade after doing the short version, I returned for the complete slopes. 

Turned out he hadn't climbed it, but I liked the name so.. 

Biscuit Tin of Marchlyn Bach (might be 7A)

So man made tidal systems are a little tricky, but good old lunar tides sometimes bless you with a perfect meeting of wind, time and tide..

I'd been intrigued by the seaward wall at Porth Howel, but on previous visits it was either in the sea, or wet and Teflon.. 

Not so today. Bone dry! 

The main wall was at its spring level and that made it high... Even Richie Crouch's 6C sitter on the far right; What a difference a wave makes, was exposed and climbable. 

Peering round the corner to the seaward wall. 

In all its glory! 

Bashed by waves an pebbles, it was as smooth as the Tubes; that Beddgelert Esoteric gem. As usual I was drawn to the highballs, and the groove looked awesome and Jammy. 

This became Paradise Groove 5+!

A mix of slippery slabbyness, Jams and udgeness. Oh and slopers! This wall has class/impossible slopers, flatties are the jugs here.. 

Next easiest thing to try was at the other end of the wall, thankfully the lower end. 

Here lay the two biggest flatties in the insipid lower seam that slashes across the wall. They weren't actually that big but to me they were.. 

 Two Jugs 6B

Now I had a style I turned my attention to the other end of the seam. The last holdable edges that I could reach from the ground. This dyno was a little bit bigger and the upper break was not disclosing where I could actually hold it. Finally spotted a less slopey bit.. 

This is Seams Dynamic, might be 6C. 

I also spent some time failing on other stuff, but that just made me more keen to return. All I need is my skin to grow back.. 

What this space.. 

Lockdown Diaries: SparkleHunt

 This has been a good week. While this lockdown has been generally rubbish, this week has provided gifts of happiness; those given (NWB Mountain blocs is out!) as well as those actively sought and captured.

I have come to the conclusion through all this that rather than waiting for good things in these dreak times, I need to be actively mining out positivity like an oletimer panning for specks of gold is the way.

For every base unit of fun (joie?) we can scrape together, our life has to be enriched. Every nanojoie generated contributes to our reserves, building towards gigajoie goals..

The week started with an visit to an old project, one I thought was at risk of discovery with the arrival of the new guide. This has unfortunately added to my distant circling pack of black hounds, so it was important for me to draw a line under it, as it were.

I'm sure I will report further at a later date, but suffice to say I succeeded by trying very hard, and was now happy, sore and creaky.

Tuesday marked the arrival of the new guide. It is truly a work of great love. For myself personally I was so proud of of how the author delved into the zeitgeist, as well as embracing the distant and wilderness venues, which while always out of fashion, are forever bursting with passion for me (a megajoie top up guaranteed). The guide is also dedicated to making bouldering accessible, with clear directions, GPS coordinates and really helpful lists and comparison charts to steer your choices. It's giving me loads of Psyche to visit even the classic areas with new eyes.

Wednesday I dragged myself out to hang out with an old friend. Mark and I met years ago in Llanberis and have both worked in the climbing world for almost two decades. We were both having a low energy day, and were keen for an easy day away from the socially distanced crowds. I elected to take us on a tour of the more obscure venues from Clegir's already Esoteric selection.

Judicious use of my new loppers cleared a path to the Crackhouse (coords in the new guide). This was a spot I tinkered in when the twins were little. A bit of a playhouse, it has few strong lines but loads of options to muck about with eliminates.

Today I was nowhere near matching the performance of my younger self, but enjoyed being schooled by these fun problems (and by Mark whose footwork was much better than mine that day).

I was particularly chastised by Barred to the Bone, a blue collar offwidth I could hardly start. Something to come back to for a rematch. 

Having tired ourselves in the crackhouse I thought I'd show Mark an easy slab I'd discovered about the same time as I was hiding from the kids in the crackhouse. 

Indeed, you can see it from the Crackhouse, just down hill. I hadn't even rock boots when I found it, and fooled by its easy angle, woke up near its top in my trainers. An inelegant lunge secured the day, and I reckoned our return visit in rockshoes should be a relaxing jaunt.

Still got scared..

But it's highly recommended

A Friction Romance 4+!

On our way back we stopped at the Bunker, another "shed" venue (coords in the guide). Rock is variable, but the right prow (huggy bear) is good value and a mid 6ish. For those slight enough, the through trip behind it is coolio (however I got temporarily stuck this time..)

All in all, much fun was had, and this week has certainly recharged me (although I feel a little battered) I'm looking forward to some more fun mining out some fun from these gems of obscurity. Enjoying the play, rather than trying to produce any product.

On that note I really enjoyed Jude Spancken's interview on Jam Crack. A proper breath of fresh air and a reminder as to why we all do this.

Finally, it has not escaped my notice that the blog has been getting a few more visitors than usual of late. Whether this is just robots, people searching for obscure places to play, or just relieving lockdown boredom, you're all very welcome. 

There's treasure everywhere! 

I.N.S.P.R.E. 2020

Back in 2016, I ran a series of blog posts called I.N.S.P.R.E. This stood for Its Not Shit, Please Repeat Everybody. It was a lot of fun at the time, however, as Seren was only just coming up to 1 year old, inevitably I had more choice gems than I could get round to visiting (or indeed, revisiting). 

One such under rated masterpiece was Pinnochio Crack. I first became aware of this obscure Paul Pritchard route when Rob Greenwood, who was working in Joe Brown's at the time, directed me to its entry In the Llanberis guide:

Rob knew my love of offwidths, and it was intriguing to see one listed thus. A 3m route, eng6b difficulty. This was around 2010, and the twins had just been born. Most of my adventures around this time were very constrained by time and it was very hard to align the stars enough to bag an offwidth partner for the 60 min window I may have been able to secure tomorrow morning (you get the idea). Spending probably too much time on Widefetish; an American offwidth site, I came across a pusher set up for soloing offwidth chimneys. Basically a big cam linked to your harness with some via ferrata type shock absorption In between. 

I got inventing... 

My safety assured, I set off to the meadow of Ithel. This, it turns out was above Ben's bunk house, halfway to Nant Peris. 

The middle crack is Pinocchio, with little foos being to the right. The lefthand crack is blind and bottomed and desperate. 

Full of enthusiasm and confidence, I climbed aboard the ravens nest, chucked in some cams and got swimming... 

My next adventure arose shortly, when I flumffed out the crack, and found myself suspended in space, swinging by a sadly out of reach monster cam.. 

The crack turned out to be 45° overhanging.

Obviously, this was one to come back to with an actual belayer, and some more information. Although Pinocchio crack wasn't listed in the fa history section, little foos was, and it was a George Smith, Paul Pritchard effort. I sought out George for more info. 

Apparently Pinocchio was an unkind nickname of Paul's, interesting that even he had his doubters. Pritch had found the crag and enlisted George for the jolly. Little foos was named after foos at shale City (this immediately put me off it), both led pinnochio. Might be E3 might be E5, definitely 7m not 3.

Food for thought. 

Fast forward to this year, and heaven forbid, North Wales has another offwidth addict. Eben has been ticking things off here, paid a pilgrimage to Vedawoo, and even survived my sandbagging on Striapach at fairhead. Perfect partner for Pinocchio.

The brave adventurers approach our target. 

Approaching our target also involved a steep grass scramble via boggy ledges. We wisely racked up at the gully floor.. 

Another view with Pinnochio standing proud. 

I was first up to mount the now prestigious raven's nest. The crack was narrower than I remembered but the cam #6 slotted nicely (with a bit of wiggling) to protect the overhanging bit. 

What didn't slot in nicely was me! 

Unfortunately a couple of months off with my ankle had diminished my offwidth powers somewhat, and my t-rex hang up led me to discount a key hold near the back of the crack (nearly all the jamming on Pinocchio is lower body). Back down to the gully for refreshments, then it was Ebens turn. He also had a plop onto the rope, but a bit of dangling and ferreting around gained him the hold at the back!

At this point the rabbit kicked in and he was driven to the top by basic life preservation. Or at least a love of intact legs. 

Great great route, which we are both keen for a second round of cleaner ascents. The belay at the top is a thread, so the kit list is;

A #5, #6, a rock 4 & #. 5 for securing the belayer. 

Our bodies have cleaned it. Enjoy! 

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! 

The Lockdown Diaries - Hide and Seek

So with all and sundry visiting my esoteric backwaters, I've started wandering in new places, local but perhaps overlooked on previous occasions. As always I have been blessed by the tip off's of friends, in this case the ever reliable G.

This is the Burger. Maybe a 90's creation of G and Tony. The game is traversing the break, the top being out of bounds. Being a 90's creation the landing is rubbish. However, a spotter would be all that is required to keep it friendly. It's somewhere in the 6B region and starts at the nose on the right, at a widening in the break.. 

Having located this hidden gem, my eyes were drawn to the arete just below it. 

Made from the same high quality grit as the Burger, it sinuously swerves through a variety of angles and curves. 

Dead sexy. 

As it was also fairly high with a substandard landing I chose to come back another day with two mats. You can see that there is work to be done in this picture. 

Patio built. 

Mats level. All that was required was a scamper up the back, and de-fluff the top holds. This also allowed me to see how small my mats looked 

Everything is on a slope, even the camera sorry. Amazing climbing, and not too hard. I named it Personal Space Rocket, it was about 6A. The name links into the last lockdown diary, the main effect all this is having on me is a thinning of my emotional shields. My requirement for alone time has shot up, and I'm struggling to share my obscurities with others. However, I'm super proud and impressed by their efforts, and who knows esoterica may go mainstream. My wife is also super supportive and I'm getting out for an adventure every 4 day's. We have 4 kids. She's an angel! 

I wanted to get a proper picture of myself on the bloc with the moon in the background, but my phone only has a 10s timer. This resulted in a series of sprint and dynos to get into position. 

Things we do.. 

There's still treasure everywhere, stay safe.