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.

Bouldering on the beach in.... North Wales???

It's true - on Tuesday, with the snow still on the summits, and a mid-January Welsh pea-souper in the Llanberis Pass, we discovered the boulders on the beach at Cae Du.

The rock here - Greywacke - was very picturesque and kept making me think I was surrounded by IKEA prints. On the other hand, it was rather less amenable than at Llyn Ogwen, with a distinct lack of friction for our gritstone-accustomed taste. It's probably due to the beach location, more than anything else, but even on the few climbs we could find that were actually dry enough to tackle, I found it quite difficult to trust my feet. There were plenty of large shelvey edges for the hands, it's true, but unless they were actually 90 degrees or less, even they were slippery. Anything remotely sloper-ish, just forget it.

Still, there was some fun to be had. We stuck to areas 1 and 2, as areas 3 and 4 were full of what looked like (eep!) a school club, and managed to induce a minor hamstring pull on the overhung heel hook of Problem 1, Area 2 (V2**), and what might best be described as a brick on Problem 10, Area 2 (V1/V2 ***). The latter was an unnervingly high slab on teeny tiny holds, that felt to my scaredy-cat mind like I would need more than just our one mat to tackle the top half without bricking it. Definitely a good problem to try if you're in the area and comfortable on that kind of thing though.

On the plus side, the fingerboard training is definitely paying off, with my crimps feeling solid and reliable despite having trained exclusively open-handed.

You 6a Mother

It's been a frustrating last few weeks, with some niggling muscle strains in my back and thigh for the last few weeks that just haven't seemed to heal properly and have stopped me climbing at anything like full strength, but yesterday I finally caught up with Lisa and Ant and became the newest member of the 6a club, by completing my first ever 6a boulder problem! Woo- as I believe they say in the States - Hoo!

If anyone is reading this from the States, by the way, it's a UK Technical 6a grade. According to this grade comparison chart, that could be anywhere from 5.11a to 5.12c (US), or 6b+ to 7b+ (French), or "a real sod" to "a right bugger" (Yorkshire)

It was no. 41 in the "Cave" section at The Castle, behind the two free-standing boulders "Lust" and "Envy" on the Mezzanine level. It had a sitting start, then went straight backwards over the ceiling, around the left-hand wall, and then straight backwards over the ceiling (crux) under the fingerboard to finish. Admittedly, it was probably one of the easier 6a's I've attempted - the holds were comparatively juggy for a 6a, but it was quite reachy, to the point where it was beyond Lise, at 5'6".

It took me four or five attempts to figure out the crux (hint: it's all about the toes of your right foot), by which time my elbow tendons were twanging white-hot and my abs were starting to cramp up - there were two separate "hang on to the ceiling with your finger tips and swing your legs from that side all the way over to this side, and just hope you've done it hard enough to reach the toe hold on the opposite wall" moves. I'm sure that kind of move must have a proper name, like a "dyno" or an "Egyptian", but I'm buggered if I know what it is - maybe I should just arbitrarily invent a name, like.... a "monkey-lunge" - yeah, that'll do for now.

Anyway, on the sixth attempt, I did the whole problem cleanly, start-to-finish, and collapsed onto my back, grinning like a village idiot and slowly getting my breath back. The trick is, as ever, to not hang around too long! With the crux being right by the lockers where everyone warms up, you get a small audience of other climbers going through their introductory contortions and watching you - raising eyebrows, nodding sagely, grimacing in sympathy at your failure to glue yourself to the ceiling by the sweat on your fingertips and suppressing a smirk when you land in a graceless, cursing heap. The trouble is you can never tell whether they're smiling because they're admiring your technique and trying to learn by watching your mad uber-l33t cl1mbz0r sk1llz (d00d!), or because they're quizzically bemused at the thought that anyone could actually be struggling with such a "punter" problem. (I mean, 6a??? Come on, that's practically a ladder! What's this guy's next "achievement" going to be - climbing the stairs to bed?) They could even be the setter of the route, inwardly shaking their head and thinking "no, you fool, not that way.... your FEET man! Sort yor FEET out! Muppet..."

After getting my breath back, and a couple of congratulatory hugs from Lise, I felt so flushed with pride that I proceeded to make a complete pigs arse of a "mere" 5b top-rope route, but I'd done my major achievement for the day and I wasn't going to let my abject failure to achieve anything else for the day stop me smiling about it :-)

So whoever set boulder problem number 41 on the Mezzanine - I think the ticket said it was some whipper-snapper who goes by the name of "Doors Off", whoever that might be - thanks for a great route, it's challenging but it never felt intimidatingly out-of-reach, and it's a really enjoyable climb. You've made a frustrated punter very happy!