Je Suis un Cubist

Today was supposed to be just a shunting day, however, after considering a few pad placement options, I'd talked myself into dragging up both highball pads once more.

Conditions were mint (no sleet) and after sufficiently recovering from the uphill bog slog, I set about my 10 min pilates warm up (the joys of solitude). This was followed by the three easier lines on The Cube, which I filmed as only one had been documented before:

Manly Groove F6A+/B

So called as, even now with the patio, its still a bit of a chute of pads. That and I may be about as butch as Jack Whitehall..

Aerial Assault F5+

 Previously known as the warm up slab. Play the vid nice and loud to enjoy with me the experience of RAF pilots "showing off".

Backside Arete F5.

A Companion to Frontside Arete, and the easiest line. This was the FA, hence the frequent pauses to grind away the lichen. The names refer to board riding styles.

All this prevarication gave way to a bit of faffing with mats. I found that if I ignored the first section of climbing, I could protect the rest by turning the mats sideways. More discoveries followed as I abbed in to clean and chalk. Basically, there was an easier sequence, provided I was willing to trust friction and body tension. That and the mats needed to move across another 20cm.

I flicked the rope out the way, moved the camera, had a word with myself, and did the deed:

The Bertlemann Slide F6C!

I had considered other names (Callibarial for instance) but this trick was sufficiently old school for my taste.

Half way through the crux. First you have to hop your foot up using the arete and this crimp:

Then suck it in and stretch over to guppy the arete. simples.

Following this I tried to get up the Frontside Arete again. However, either I was too bushed, or its a bit harder than I thought(or graded). Basically it needs some traffic. Here's a topo:

Red: Frontside Arete F6C+/7A!

Orange: Gleaming The Cube (still a project)

Yellow: The Bertlemann Slide F6C!

Purple: Manly Groove 6A+/B!

Blue: Backside Arete F5

Green: Aerial Attack F5+

I'm not sure if Mymbyr will make it into the forthcoming bouldering guide, but I've been coming here for a decade now, and it continues to give me pleasure. I'm also surprised how few others have ventured up here. Please visit and correct my grading.

Enjoy!

#PatioGeek

So The Cube has been a source of psyche and frustration for a number of years now. Recently, with irritating shoulder problems forcing a bit of a lay off, I turned my energies to improving the landing...

Well it couldn't be much worse could it? Apart from crocodiles and punji sticks

Less a landing, more of a series of collisions

I've got quite into dry stone platforming; the patioing of  boulder landing sites can often result unsightly jumbles. However, if done right, they can blend into the landscape, and even be quite pretty (or rather, handsome). The Cube's patio took 6 sessions. I built up a retaining wall, backfilled, knitted in the next level of retaining wall, backfilled, levelled off with a spirit level app on my phone (strapped to a laser pen), and finally tarted it a bit..

The initial retaining wall

The next lot are the finished product..

And here's the patio geek himself.

My pilates sessions have been going well, and Eirian has encouraged me to return to climbing with lots and lots of warming up. Last time I climbed at The Cube the landing looked like this:

What a difference 6 cubic meters of stone makes.

Incidentally all the stone was taken from adjacent piles of stones on the hillside. Its rather like Crafnant, and not a place to drop your keys. I don't advocate patioing in natural areas which require more than just moving things around. Spadework might be okay in the quarries, but not out on the hill.

Needless to say, that once I'd dragged two pads, the abb and climbing gear up the hill, it started to snow. After sitting it out 10 minutes under the roof, I set up and dropped in regardless.

I'm going to need more pads. Spotters would be nice too... and being warmer.... and less sleet.

I think the next game will be some cheeky shunting. I've had almost 2 months off, so I've a fair bit of form to recapture. The platform feels quite narrow from to top, but I think this has more to do with the slant of the top slab, and the very far away-ness of the pads. Anyway, any extensions will require a fair bit more stone, and might overwhelm the environment.  I had a good feel around on the rope (before my hands froze), and the sequence I was using on the snow day seem to be the way forward. However, I'll need some gains in hip flexion, core and fingers to latch the next 2 finger micro crimp.

Time for some new distractions..

Until next time..

I.N.S.P.R.E April 2016

So it was a sunny day, and I'd just finished shift and had to run an errand in Llanberis. This humble hotchpotch of a village was home to me for a number of years. When the twins were born and adventures were restricted, extremely local rock was valuable. Thus begun my search and eventual siege of Moose's Wall. Revisiting the wall today, finding the moss returning, spurred me to do a bit of scrubbing in the hope you folks may enjoy it too. 

First discovered by Mike "Moose" Thomas, Matt Anthoine, George Smith et al in the early nineties, this bouldering venue had the big five, appreciable difficulty, clear lines, good height without being deathly, good landing(important in the pre pad days), and short approach(15secs from the car).

However, its relative dificulty combined with height for the pre pad era, meant it dropped out of favour as new venues were discovered. It got forgotten, moss moved in, and it went myth-ing...

Scroll down to 2011, and developments amongst the Bends crags and Clegir boulders dredged Moose's wall back to the collective memory. Needless to say, we couldn't find it, and it was up to the G to show the way in this BOTM.

After G remembered how to get there, I popped down and got busy with a brush and secateurs. l found it to be a delightful, if unforgiving crag, being either cracks or crystals and pebbles to gain ascent.

The classic of the crag is The Biggun; a F6B! crack which unlocks via a series of sprags, fingerlocks, and sublime hand jams.

Myself on The Biggun, courtesy of northwalesbouldering.com

I went on to clean and climb the remaining established lines, and after a helpful chat with Moose, lay seige to, and eventually climb the last remaining line; Something, Something Darkside F7A!.

Back to 2016, and 5 years later, I don't think the wall has had a lot of traffic. This is a shame, as its a great venue, and The Biggun is proper class. I only had an hour or so, so I concentrated on the Biggun, although it really needs finishing off with a bit of chalk to abrade out the last of the moss. I couldn't resist another drop to unearth Darkside again. It was definitely a highpoint for me at the time as thin wall climbing is by no means my forte. Again, a proper chalk is required to bring into condition.

Nice rounded top out!

The Biggun

Sprags and locks!

The wall is waiting for you.

Enjoy!

Quick Patio Hit

So since the visit to Tosheroon, I have mainly been working, wrangling the boys, sitting up at 4am with the girl, and following the commands of the wife. So it was with much excitement that I escaped work early today for a play. As I'm still waiting for an action plan for the dicky shoulder, Mymbyr was todays choice, for a swift bit of chucking rocks. Suffice to say, The Cube's patio is beginning to take shape:

The retaining wall was still in place from last visit, so I was able to back fill to get it all level. In reality this meant pulling a rock out the adjacent pile, rolling / chucking it over, dodging the massive boulder I'd dislodged, stabilising the slope.... and repeat. Mymbyr is basically a pile of rubble with a turfy skin, hence it drains well, and occasionally swallows your leg.

The work left to do, I'm about half way there.

An artists impression of the finished article.

I love my gloves.

I.N.S.P.R.E March 2016

This months offering is a criminally neglected classic. First Climbed by Al Harris in the late 60's or so, Harris' Arete has everything you want; respectable difficulty at F6B, sunny aspect, flat landing, a proper line, and high without being highball.

What it lacks is ease of access. Positioned unhelpfully round the back of peoples houses on Fachwen, previous approaches crossed fences and skirted uncomfortably close to the natives. This meant it didn't get he prominence it deserves in guides, (for fear of upsetting access I guess) and generally dropped off the national radar.

However with the following approach, Harris' Arete and its sister boulders can be visited and enjoyed by the discerning off piste boulderer:

Park responsibly at the top of Gallt y Foel (that steep hill on the way to Bus Stop Quarry) and follow the cul de sac that leads off right. Follow this to its end and branch left (at this point the public foot path sign points right and the house sign points left, bet they're both public rights of way).

Anyways you get to this gate:

walk down the path 20m or so and the hill above looks like this:

Walk upto the arrowed notch (I hope you've brought wellies)

Once through the notch, contour round

Head for this arrow..

Which is here, the dip alongside the radio mast (sort of)

Looking downhill from here, pine trees and a notch in the bluff is your target.

And there you go, a pretty walk, 20 mins or so, past some potential boulders, and a nice area to visit at the end. Here is a couple of vids to whet the appetite:

Harris' Arete Stand

Harris' Arete Sit

A bit of a web trawl will also tip the nod that there are some unfinished projects round here too...

Enjoy

T is for Tosheroon

So Today is the first of the dates on the calendar with a T scribbled in. This means I have a tide window to look at Tosheroon.

So the kids were shuttled to school, and I shuffled off to Benllech. I had grand designs to video the route, so I can digest the beta at my leisure...

As you can see it didn't work out as useful as hoped, more of a Giger-esque nightmare really.

Pretty representative of the route I suppose.

Stupidly, as I had a bit of leeway on my timings, I thought I'd try pulling on.

Too early, too cold, not enough warm up, not good enough dicky shoulder.

Ouch.

I have learn't that goals should be tackled in order, with the short term goal of sustainably fixing myself being priority. However there are lots of adventures and antics to involve myself in while waiting for results with goal No. 1


Watch this space

Fatneck gets me Climbing!

A certain frequenter of UKBouldering celebrates the close of the 40th year of his life. The weather is kind AND I'm allowed out for the Whole weekend. It was emotional folks...

The keen of eye will identify our location as Porth Ysgo, not been here for a few years as it doesn't usually fit in with my quick mornings adventure while the kids are at school. Its been Two years or so that I ventured down with Mr Panton and crowd. Back then I climbed a few things and tried a few more that I was keen to complete.

This was one of them(being expertly modelled by TomTom). This time I did Foam Party; my first established 7A+. This has made me think I may have created a few sandbags amongst my harder FA's, as it was not the living end. Also at Porth Ysgo I managed Perrin Crack sit, and to fall on my head in front of the president of the BMC. I was trying to demonstrate my only ysgo FA "The Diminutive Fister", my heel-toes slipped, and I torpedoed into the boulders next to my carefully placed mat. Ho hum, Fatneck was wearing my offwidth helmet at the time too....

The next day was a distinctly crowded Talfarach. Although the location choice was mainly due to Fatneck wanting to go fishing (Did you get any lid?). For those not familiar with this site, its the headland east of ysgo with the big boulders with bad landings.

Many Spotters, Plenty Mats, Mike looks away and Shudders...

My plaything for the day, turned out to be "The Black Pearl" 7B, and distinctly feasible if I ever come back here fresh, and with a mat surplus.

Fun was had, skin used, and psyche regained. Hoever, I also got a bit homesick for the missus and sprogs, so didn't climb until totally trashed.

Roll on this years projects!