Breaking the Surface

Got out this week for a 2.5 hr amble. Utter Bliss.

Life is very tricksome at the mo'. My Birthday passed in a rain shower without much adventure, and I've sprained my wrist. I took solace in my birthday money and went Book shopping:

Climb to the Lost World

Kiss or Kill

A Century of Mountaineering: 1857-1957

Inspired by the latter purchase I circumnavigated the talus fields of Fronllwyd, looking for a boulder to consider. However I had forgotten Craine's 1st Law and each bloc observed was only suitable for gnomes.

This led to a summit push, a gentle stroll and a new fascination with Craig Marchlyn Bach. I may pursue this new interest with Mountaineering with some light scrambling. When, is however, a moot point.

Giveaway Project of the Month - August

Just about made it this month.. Life is some what full. Anyway this makes it easier to give stuff away as time is just getting a bit precious.

This Month we revisit the Crack House to offer the one that got away due to increased parental responsibilities. in the piccy of the crack house proper, we can see the jaws on the right of the entrance into the inner sanctum. The slabby side of this corridor is a nice enough V0- but its true potential is realised in an eliminate variation avoiding the aretes and starting rib. This gives a very techy thin slab probably about V4. I made inroads into the start and terraced the base, but time was against me and I've decided to let it pass on.

the clegir map again...

Please Enjoy!

How Cliff Clilmbs Rocks got its name...

...Plus Clegir is properly Public Knowledge

Quick sesh

Go a couple of hours in occasional light drizzle and bagged this roof problem Gimme Shelter V5

Starts nice and dry right under the boulder on some flakes in the roof, and ends up mantling out at the end after some heel hookery. This pretty much draws my clegir development to a close.



Time to try some classics and find out how off my grading is...

Me Day (well, morning anyway)

The boys are now 11 days old, and Nain took Logan so I could take off for the morning and forsake my familial duties - Bliss.

Once again the crack house was my destination (soon to be fully public) and I went with Pantontino for an ego sesh; basically show and tell and some piccies. Did the last line I was keen to sire. This was Receding Hairline V4/5; a sitter on the right wall of Barred to the bone. It starts off an undercut and a flatty on the right wall and follows the general vicinity of the hairline crack (pretty obvious in the piccy). Apart from ruling out the jug high and deep inside barred, and a big foot block, It felt very non eliminate and Quite powerfull!

Very happy, I packed up the kit I'd stashed there and moved on to a new shed...

Watch this space

Giveaway Project of the Month - July

I thought I'd get this in early this month as I have a spare twenty minutes and things are pretty busy since the twins arrived. I'm very happy and tired, but the adventures are going to be mainly parental.
So its going to be quality not quantity for a bit, and this is pure Quality!

The sunny seaside town of Benllech on Ynys Mon is home to a nice beach, some sport routes and this lovely cave....
South of hidden wall, this 40ft deep cave has a nicely flared horizontal chimney running through its entire roof at head height. The rear of the cave is fairly cramped and non descript, but a couple of yards towards the light a chockstone marks a sensible starting point. From here, jamming, back-and-footing, and general squirming will get you to the light and here...

For the highball topout. There is a couple of downsides to this amazing discovery (and why I didn't snap it up when I found it)

-Tidal; needs a fairly low tide.

-Holds damp; will require a good coastal breeze, and as the crack goes all the way, some dry days. a Towel might help too.

-Landing is bouldery; probably solved by 2 mats stacked on a leash and a spotter to drag it.

There we go. Please report back.

Time To Change Hats...

The twins are being encouraged to enter the world this week. With my family jumping in numbers to five, climbing is going to take a back seat for a bit. I popped out this evening for a preparatory play so that I wasn't jittering too much. I had such a good time that I thought I would share these areas with you. contact me if you want locations..

The Bunker

From left- 1st a through trip into the bunker itself, then the prow into the slab sds is The Wedge V3, slab into hanging crack, an arbitrary offwidth, next bloc is Huggy Bear V3 sds

The Crack House

A jumble of rather large boulders; the block in front is nice to lounge on and has a sds dyno on its right side The Rake V3 which launches off a phat side pull and a crimpy one for the top. Tucked behind this is the pit which holds:

Barred to the Bone V3

a sds offwidth that overhangs by about a foot. (the bottom of the pit is about 3ft by 5ft for scale)

This is inside the Crackhouse. an enclosure of boulders entered via the wide slot on the right of the main picture. It gives enumerable aretes, cracks, and slabs. These are mainly quite eliminate, although still follow strong lines (i.e. following a slab whilst ignoring its aretes etc). The best of these is the stand up Shed Party V4 which takes the central arete. this picture also gives a sense of scale to the boulders


Toebar V4 goes up the front of the prow from the chalked holds near the vertical pod to top out direct. its a sds which utilises toes cammed into the gap between the prow and the block below.


I finished happy at eleven when I could no longer see the holds ( I didn't pack a head torch to prevent me staying too long) I saw two glow worms on the way home!