Bouldering at Idwal Cottage and Caseg Fraith

On Monday, we set out with the intention of bouldering in the legendary Llanberis Pass, but as we drove up the A4086 in increasingly thick pea-souper fog, visibility was fast approaching zero. By the time we got to Pen-y-Pas, there was no denying it. A quick glance at the stern warning at the start of the Pyg track - AVALANCHE RISK CONSIDERABLE ON SNOWDON, all points - put paid to any residual hopes of ascending above it.

We're not going to be able to get anything done at all, are we? moped Lise, despondency creeping in - she'd hauled herself out of bed for THIS?

..we're going to have to go to a cheese museum or something!

Now I must confess, the idea of a cheese museum is not entirely without appeal - a vision conjured itself up in my head, of a huge prop-forward of a Welsh museum guide explaining -

now THIS close-combat Caerphilly was used as a bludgeoning weapon in the Battle of Bryn Glas, 600 year old, it is...look, it's still got the original hair on it!

- but it was definitely second best.

Well look, I said, while we're here, lets just try going back round to the Ogwen valley, it might not be so foggy round there. Admittedly it was more in hope than anything else, but I figured it had to be worth a try.

Luckily enough, as we passed Joe Brown's at Capel Curig, the fog became less dense, and as we rounded the long bend to get a clear view of Tryfan with its winter coat on, we perked up considerably.

Parking at Ogwen Cottage, we walked a hundred yards or so through the trees to find a beautifully picturesque little crag, with some stunning views of the surrounding peaks:

We had a lot of fun here. The rock was dry, with good friction, and the landings were all flat and level. The lower-grade problems were as good as any at Burbage South, and our particular favourite was "Problem 5", described in the guidebook as eminently pleasurable - and I'd have to agree. It feels a lot taller than it looks in the photos, believe me!

Problem 5 - the eminently pleasurable crack line

One thing to watch out for though, is the low-flying jet planes. The RAF use this valley as a low-flying training run, and on my third and final attempt at this problem, just a few seconds after I'd finally made the nervy committing move to gain the ledge in a numb-fingered, pumped-out whimpering panic, a jet came screaming overhead, a deafening crescendo that got louder and louder and louder as an involuntary convulsing scream escaped me and I felt I was going to have to either let go and fall to stick my fingers in my ears, or suffer burst eardrums and fall anyway. It passed after a couple of seconds, but by god it was loud. I dread to think what would have happened if it had flown over a few seconds earlier, while I was in the middle of tackling the crux.

As the sun began to dip below the peaks, we figured we had about an hour of daylight left, and headed back down the valley to Gwern Gof Isaf farm, to grab a quick look at the Caseg Fraith boulders behind the bunkhouse. The farm owner was very friendly, as was her Jack Russell, who followed us up to the boulders in a typical puppies' frenzy of excitement - Oh boy oh boy oh BOY, there's a ROCK!!! - and even proved a dab hand at scampering up the lower slabs itself, and licking Lise's nose as she was trying to top out.

Again, the rock here was perfect. Rounded yet juggy aretes and laybacks aplenty, but with plenty of friction to make even the tiniest of footholds viable. The best problem we found was straight up a slabby face (pictured) on tiny crimps and pebbles, before thankfully gaining a blocky flake near the top and launching a committing move over the top of it.

We could quite happily have spent several hours here, but our hands were tired and numb, and the light was fading. Definitely worth at least one repeat visit, both crags are highly recommended.