Winter is here!

Don't want to get too excited about a bit of snow and ice above 700m, but I can't bloody help it! Did my first route of the season: Banana Gully.
I'd just finished a night shift at the hospital and usually I'd be falling asleep on my feet by 8am, but today I was as psyched as a psyched thing and wide awake as I got a lift with three friends who were winter virgins to the Ogwen Valley. We weren't entirely sure what conditions to expect and it wasn't looking good as we saw that Carnedd y Filiast was completely void of its winter attire. As Y Garn and Cwm Cneifion came in to view, we were treated to white with not much black or green showing.
We pushed on up the slush that was the Idwal path to the cwm of whose name I forget (it begins with C, probably). From there we walked up to the edge of the snow band, and found that conditions on the gully were excellent! Instead of slush and powder was a nice hard crust of ice and snow. Crampons on, a quick bite of food and a hasty gulp of water, we were away!
I blasted on ahead, finally the money I'd splurged on proper kit felt worth it. My friends on the other hand were wearing 50's walking crampons with blunt spikes, and the duct tape around them wasn't for decoration! I had to cut steps for them in the hard ice, fearing they'd slip out of their 'pons and also down the gully! As the ice was hard, I was utterly knackered halfway up. Stopped to take photos of the awesome view around me then went onto the top.
After we reunited at the top, I was glad to see that the inferior kit and endless slipping due to crampons falling off hadn't made for a bad experience. All happy we went down via Devil's Kitchen. On the descent to Llyn Y Cwn the whole mountainside was frozen solid and flat, so obviously we had to slide down! I ripped my trousers and bruised my arse going over a protruding rock and a friend twisted his ankle trying to stop. We all hobbled back to the car and home for cake and posh tea. I finally fell asleep after being awake for a good 35 hours. Actually come to think about it, did I really do any winter climbing or was I just hallucinating from lack of sleep on the drive home from work?

Dyserth and an upcoming trip

Made the long drive to Dyserth today to check out the main crag. I was quite impressed with it. Only tried a few 6's due to not climbing much recently, that's hard enough for me right now! Can't remember the names but they were enjoyable routes with a cool oberhanging top wall and lots of blind climbing. I'd recomend it and the rock is pretty good in a nice gladed setting with loads of wild garlic around. It was all going well until Mills was on a 6c (that was poorly bolted) and pulled off a hold, fell back and hit his back hard on a ledge, his head narrowly missing another ledge below! He was a bit shaken, with a few cuts and will have some homdingar bruises tomorrow but I think he'll be fine. I'll still be coming back to try some of the harder routes though! In other news, I'll be going to Font for a week at the start of April. Never been but really looking forward. No idea what type of climbing or grading to expect! If anyone reading this needs a lift downat this time, I still have space for one more and plenty of kit.

Shock Horror! I like Gritstone!

Joined the LUUMC on a trip to the Roaches this last weekend and had an awesome time ! I actually enjoyed climbing on grit. Shock! Didn't do many routes (as is my general lazy approach to climbing) but the ones I did were excellent. Did Valkyrie on the first day; almost got blown off by the wind and pulled off by the rope drag only added to the experience. Then Wings of Unreason on the Sunday went down on my second attempt at the jump. I'd fallen off a few times right at the start but I'm not counting them because it was just like bouldering and bouldering doesn't count as climbing...
So it looks like my mind has been changed over Satan's rock. I actually can't wait to go back and try some more of the routes there!
Some pictures of me on Wings, thanks to Dafydd Llywelyn for taking them and letting me put them on this blog without his knowing:

Gurning away happily

Will I make it? Yes, I did!

Ogwen oddities and another new toy

Went to Ogwen with Ian today despite the wet and cold conditions. Wasn't too keen when I stepped out of the house, but cheered up somewhat when I was greeted by the beautiful views that greeted me in the valley. Yes the snow has almost disappeared as quickly as it dropped but there's always a majesty to the peaks when they are dusted with the white stuff.
Anyway, had a quick blast on the Gallt-yr-ogof boulder and managed to retro flash a V4 and do the tricky slab to the left. Had a go on my old nemesis The Ramp which was a bit too greasy and wet to bother with. We then moved on to caseg fraith upper to have a look at a slabby outcrop near the top of the hill. It was a bit green and minging and hadn't been visited for quite some time. Nevertheless we soldiered on and i managed an OS of a V3 which I was quite happy with as it was covered in moss, soaking wet and had icicles dropping over the edge. Ian was trying hard on the adjecant V5 but was let down by the grime and his sub-par shoes. I pulled on but wasn't overly excited. It was nice to reccy the less visited parts of the valley and would like to go back there to do a few trad lines that I spotted.
I also invested a cool grand in a new road bike the other day to get me around while the van lies in state in a garage in Caernarfon. Anyone who knows me knows I hate public transport so this was the only other option bar walking. I've only gone a couple of miles on it and already I'm in agony in the bum bone region so looks like I'll have to invest in a pair of skimpy lycra short with those padded period pads in them or whatever they are. Oooh.

The all-familiar burn

Excited at the prospect of competing in either a 100 or a 205 mile ultra- the grand raid pyrenees and the tour des geants respectively- I decided to do what I didn't do last year or the year before and train.
A friend of mine had just rented out a house in Tregarth, and being only 6 or so miles away, i thought it would be a good idea to run up there and check the place out. Problem is where I live, I need to run up very steep hills less than 10m from where I start so any chances of a warm up run before the steep bits are lost. Regardless, I started well, for the first five minutes. I underestimated how unfit I was! My lungs were burning as if I'd inhaled strong acid and my thundering heart was reducing my sternum to dust. These same nuisances I've experienced every time I've run in the UK and the same pain that puts me off running, leaving me in a catch-22 situation. My legs were already tiring. I'd only gone 1 and a bit miles! Gurning through the discomfort, I plodded my way to Tregarth just as the weather began to worsen. What as worse than the weather though, was a sharp pain emanating from the outside of my left knee. Perfect. I'd taken an active step to try and make the ultras a bit easier for myself and I bloody get caught in the rain and injure my knee ligaments! It's slightly better now but I'm still wincing as I walk around. Damn, if I knew training for an Ultra would be this much hassle, I wouldn't have bothered!

Back to work

Haven't been updating my blog as much as I should ( last update was in september!) so the new year heralds a new lease if life for my poor neglected blog.

Ok, so. Been back on the slate recently after my week long jaunt over new years to Berlin. My plan of action is to aim for french 8a by Easter.
I've been on Tambourine Man and The Medium, both of which are very technical and fall offable but completely my style i.e. not for the strong! At the end of last year, I was trying to redpoint Concord Dawn on rainbow walls and one thing or another got in the way and I ended up not putting my all into it. I've started again and it's all coming back to me. I've got the crux nailed as well as the bottom half of the route but it's all wet at the moment thanks to this miserable weather around North Wales. So today was supposed to be a quick trip to work some parts of the route, but lo! Seepage in abundance and I was miserable because I've lost my new Anasazi Verdes and someone's taken them from Twll Mawr where I'm sure I left them. I went for a look for them as all the other routes I wanted to do were wet, and as I was near the slag heap tunnel (one of the few I hadn't been through) I thought I'd be able to get into Twll Mawr. Wrong! The tunnel is blocked. I squirmed around and tried to squeeze through but there's no chance. Cool tunnel though.

Creepy! The tunnel at the bottom of twll mawr

Also the hut in twll mawr that was once standing, has now collapsed. Quite sad to see a bit of preserved history biting the dust like that but it was close to crumbling last time I was there.

Also, something worthwhile I did but didn't write about was going to Craig Doris with Mills and doing Cripple Creek - a three star E3. Awesome route, but get there before it all collapses! I only seconded but I can't wait to get back there and lead it, as well as path to rome, the other E3 round the corner and the Fascinating Witches traverse.

Mills on Cripple Creek E3 5b

'm also pretty stuck at the moment as the van is in the garage having failed its MoT. A vehicle around here is pretty much essential, considering that the public transport is dire. Plus one cannot walk everywhere when it's cold and pissing it down.

Grand Raid Pyrenees 160km Ultramarathon

Just got back from my much anticipated trip down to the South of France for the Grand Raid des Pyrenees ultramarathon. I'd been looking forward to this race since i took part in the shorter version last year and enjoyed every minute of it. The weather was fantastic, the views were stunning and everyone involved was incredibly helpful. It also helped that i finished the race with the minimum amount of training under my belt (maybe 100km total in the year leading up to it).
So this year it came around quite quickly, too quickly to do any training it seemed. I had great intentions to do some and actually be prepared for once, but I never got round to doing any! So when the time came and the enormity of the task was realised, i wasn't paticularly confident of finishing. But I have a strong will and great stubborness in these situations, so I had something going for me.
I flew down to Toulouse with a friend of mine on the Wednesday hoping that an extra rest day would be of some benefit to us (turned out it was time well spent!) and we picked up a famous Japanese runner on the way.
There were storms predicted on the morning of the race so the organisers decided to delay the start for two hours and cut the Pic du Midi climb out of the race entirely. Most of the competitors were quite uPset at the news but i was secretly celebrating, as last year it was one of my least favourite bits of the route. But this was the 160km ultra! And cutting a small bit like this wasn't going to make much difference.
I started quite strongly for the first few km's, keeping a steady pace with my friend. After the first big col i kept at my pace and he understandably bombed on ahead. A few moments later and all hell broke loose. It got cold. It got wet. It got very miserable. Going up the Col de Sencours, i lost all feeling in my hands and face and got soaked to the bone. When i got to the top, it looked like a medical tent in a war zone! There were runners with wool blankets and thousand yard stares, blue hands and a couple of poor guys with hbad hypothermia hooked up to drips.
For the rest of the way I felt very strong. I was amazed at how well I was going, considering I was so unfit! I got a bad pain in my knee around halfway round and had to put up with excrutiating pain for the rest of the run. But it was worth it. When i got to the finish line, all the pain, lack of sleep for 48 hours, dehydration and malnourishment didn't matter at all. I was so happy!

Look how tired and happy I am!

If it wasn't for the knee, I definitely would have finished under 40 hours. My time of 44h55m is  not to be sniffed at though, considering my complete lack of training. So one of my goals for this year can't be ticked off. I don't care! Just finishing was good enough for me. There is always next year of course. I don't see myself onsighting 7b or E6 anytime soon either, especially as I've missed a good few weeks of much needed climbing time. Now the bad weather has arrived, it doesn't even look like I'll be doing any cragging for a while. Maybe I'll just be weird and hang out in the cave of justice.