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

Brief Moments Throttled

 So the last couple of months have been pretty dry in terms of adventure, mainly due to being wet in terms of weather.

However, enough brief windows of opportunity have occurred to slap together into a report.. 

So here it goes:

Ymyl Gwyn (not it's real name) 

I discovered this little cluster of gritstone during lockdown, and have been meaning to return. October afforded a morning so I got my stomp on. First highball mission since the Shard debacle and I picked this one.. 

Turns out it needed more than a single pad, and once committed, it was impossible to fall on the one I had. Beautiful arete though, called it "Arrietty" after the studio Ghibli version of the borrowers, as it initially felt small, then I felt very small.. About 6B!

This is Wellington Drudgery, about 6A+. I'm seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on long boggy walk ins. Fortunately it occasionally pays off. 

An attempt on the niche to the left, a decent side pull that just happened to be on the edge of a hollow pocket.. 

Crack ambition! 

I've decided to spend the next few months ticking off and mopping up the last of the major North Wales crack based boulder problems. I'd forgotten how much I loved crack climbing. This little puppy did a 

good job of reminding me. 

Crack Ahoy! Black Country Crack in Parc Dudley

I'd also been having some thoughts about taping up, and happened across a big sheet of 2mm foam rubber.. 

While it is too delicate to form a glove by itself, I was able to fashion templates to build a tape glove over.. 

Boom! 

Unfortunately, while the bottom 2 thirds of BCC were dry and lovely, the top third was not... 

However, it made a lovely excuse to revisit this three star fist crack at a drier date. 

I also foolishly attempted a through trip behind it... 

Foolishness continued as I forgot shears to get the gloves off. I ended up driving home in them (via the Spar to get milk). 

Came off lovely though.. Hand hair intact. 

Finally, revisiting Craig yr ecs (surprisingly also not its real name) 

So a year blighted by restricted travel has past, and yey! I've started revisiting some of these scattered play areas. First job was sorting the landing adjacent to Dutch Trance.  I was keen to play on another line on the same block, but it was blighted by a big spike and a jumble of smaller boulders. 

Firstly move and roll the small boulders and level the ground.. 

Then build up between the Spike and the boulder behind to platform it a bit and soften its pointy ness. 

It'll need two pads at least but safe enough now, just need to get somewhat stronger... 

First go. 

Sharp holds, soft skin. There's work to do. 

Finally tried a project from previous visits. The sit I tried before was still too hard, but I found it had a logical stand, with a tricky dyno.. 

First time I got it, my wife decided to call (that's my ringtone) and I kinda went to pieces. Happily I topped it 2 or 3 goes later. 

Slanted Enchanted, 6C or there abouts. The sit adds 2 moves, but probably bumps it to 7A+ ish. 

So there you go, a few snatched moments, I'm looking forward to a future meeting up with others, getting some pads down. However, for now I'm just loving getting out. 

There's treasure everywhere! 

Footwork, and Before the Fall

 Sooooo. Rehab is happening, and the foot is gaining in normality. Spannering myself mid July wasn't a cool move, especially with the kids at home. My wife was quite clear about that. However, lessons in patience and asking for help have been learnt. 

Loads of proprioception work as well as strengthening and massage going on. I'm happy to be top roping up to 7b without too much discomfort, just need to get impact proof before the rematch. 

This pause has given me an opportunity to bring you up to date with some of the other lockdown shenanigans that went un reported. 

Firstly I spent quite a lot of time here:

The Marchlyn super boulder is likely to make its proper debut in the new bouldering guide, and I was keen to mop up any lines that I could sensibly do. I turned my attention to the satellite blocks, especially the Atlantis block, that spends its mornings Submerged, to emerge into the summer sun in the afternoon. First job was a massive patio.. 

Then I got these two done. Proper class slopes. 

 The dark side didnt need the same landscaping, but was more overhanging. One scary highball arete, and a heart felt tribute to an old mate who passed over that month. 

I even stashed a spare pad up there, couldn't seem to keep it dry though.. 

Fairly well hidden though.. 

A couple of things escaped me. This toothy techy crack

And this slopey flailing top out:

A cool place that I hope will not fade back away into obscurity.

A slightly spooky trick of the light on the way down. 

Another thing I was playing with was patioing here:

Another work in progress I'm looking forward to revisiting. 

However, for now, it's rehab rehab rehab. 

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! 

Mates Matter

Monday saw blue skies and cool temps. It was also a day I wasn't working,  I hadn't family ties, and a friend was available.

Get in!

Ben has been my partner in crime for many years now. He's been adventuring without me for the past year or so,  off in foreign climes. So it was ace to step out once more. Even though we had played in mymbyr before,  he'd never been to The Cube before.  Also with it making it into NWB2 I was keen to observe the crowds. 

The weeks previous rain, coupled with low winds meant today was going to be tough to get good connies.  However, the mymbyr boulders on this side have the altitude and the sunny aspect from early doors so I was pretty optimistic. 

Ben actually took some waterproof footwear this time so we could take a fairly direct approach.  I selected the groove for a warm up, and the 6A! Soon had me testing the least comfortable crash out, clipping my knee in the process. Clearly some more drastic crag dressing was required,  especially as Ben was raising an eyebrow by this point.  Out came my micro abb rope and the bloc was well brushed and chalked. 

This time the groove went smoothly and Ben soon followed wondering what all the fuss was about.  Next onto Bertlemans slide, and in the intervening years I'd forgotten the sequence.  Back on the rope, and I thought I I'd found all the holds, and also got distracted by the remaining project up the middle ("Gleaming the Cube "); slopers won't go in these connies,  that and I'm too weak to pull on the stacked mono. 

I decided to give Bertleman's a tickle. Hi on the lip the wheels came off as I seemed to lack the flexibility to hoik my foot up. I threw into lambasting the upper arete, and Ben uttered "Oh God..." 

It was one of those moments, as Ben later commented,  like when Ghandi realised he was shot.  I realised that I needed to climb less like a spanner and more like someone who intends to walk away afterwards. A bit of body tension and a better stab at being flexible, coupled with an iron will not to fall off saw me through. Ben however chose to forego his attempt as I'd provided enough adrenaline for both of us. Maybe I can see why Richie Crouch recommended the guide bumps it to 6C!.

Next was a go at Frontside arete, which Richie walked away from, and gave 6C+/7A! A quick brush,  and my initial tickle saw my hands on the slab with numpty footwork skating my hooves here and there.  A bit of self talk saw me pull together some better coordination and I made my way more respectably to the top.Ben saw my less shambolic ascent as a good sign that this was more for him. A few strong pulls and he was holding the jug on the slab. Unfortunately, at this point the fickle foothold he had chosen parted company and he span towards me from height.  Fortunately although he partially missed the mats, it wasn't a crucial part. 

Still regardless of our efforts,  we both had our adventure fix, and more importantly got to climb in company. I'm realising more and more nowadays that mates are more important than I give credit or time to. I'm certainly going to try to remedy this in the new year.  

Merry Christmas xxx

The key crimps chalked on Frontside Arete. 

Enjoy. 

New Toys, New Ploys

Wednesday I got out for a wander. No ordinary wander, this was a wander in wellies to ascertain how much of a ball ache it really is to slog up to the Super prow from Pen y Grwyd. I have nominally nominated the Super Prow to be the recipient of this years patioing efforts. The reasons for this is that now one will ever go beyond a top rope on this thing without the landing being sorted a bit. That, and its such a ridiculously monumental task, I'd really have to try hard to top it afterwards...

"Oh yes, I thought I'd spend my precious free time in 2017, moving 2 tonne of boulders around at 650m altitude, a mere 2km or so from sensible things like roads.."

after half an hour of bog slogging, our objective is sighted...

This trip was also the first outing for my new camera. For years now I've relied on my camera phone to record the monumental delights I've encountered. On the whole its been great, but avid followers may have noted the old phone is occasionally corrupting some of the masterpieces lately, and as I've just moved to a sim only contract, I ain't getting an upgrade anytime soon. Cue a trawl of ebay and 20 quid later I now own a Pentax Optio P80 ; 12.1 mega pixels in my pocket now, with a x4 optical zoom too. All in a tiny package easy to slip in my pocket.

All this is distracting from the fact I was now sweating buckets and had lost the cup off the end of my walking pole. Still the objective was now tangibly close.

Behold the Super Prow

I neither took this approach or used it to egress. However, I had a nightmare on both, so this might be a better Idea.

The start of a patio...

The Idea of slogging up here for a bit of neolithic engineering was seeming more and more daft. Especially as if your feet came off out of control you'd probably swing off down the valley without some form of leash on...

lying on the lip of the patio, looking at the sky..

It had taken me 70mins to reach the patio site. this left me 20mins to shuffle rocks before the sprint to work had to commence.

The prow and the car. I made it between these points in 45mins.

A couple of shots (using the zoom) of a potentially fruitful craglet cluster

(from higher up)

I'll leave you with a shot of the Troubles Braids area. Still lots to do even here...

Come and play (bring Wellies)

Taking a Bite

You know in the movies when the hero confronts the bully in the car, and the bully gets out of the car, well unfolds his giant frame out of the, frankly small, car. One of those bitten off a bit much moments...


I went in to abseil the Shard last Friday, on the dry day of the latter half of February.

My highball mat seemed very small, and the rope dangled far out from the bottom. 6m high, and about 50cm overhanging at its furthest point maybe. Good solid, rough rock. Not many holds..

By the time I'd found all the useful holds and got them chalked, I was certainly questioning how quickly I could get this done. My calculations soon indicated a need for many more mats and a spotter for proper injury prevention. I'll need at least 4 mats, with a bit of shuffling. I also need to get much more stronger. There's a mono pocket undercut for flip sake...

To console myself I checked out this other block I'd spotted on the last visit. Nothing like a quick send to boost the spirits..

This wonderfully faked footage shows the length of the initial dyno I'd need to make. From there  is another huge chuck to the top. Poor feet throughout. I went and repeated The Goodie to cheer myself up, and then ran of to work (literally, at least as far as the car..)

The View from the top of the Shard. The Right hand circle is the Super prow (this years Patio Project), and the left is a boulder field that I found a photo of from a previous visit recently, some steep rock there.

Enjoy