ICMC Easter Tour: Fontainebleau Wales

24th March - 1st April 2013

The trip got off to a good start with everyone turning up on time at Beit. The car and bus were packed and we set off to Wales via a Sainsburys at around 2pm. We arrived at the hut hassle free, at about 11pm. The next day marked the first day of climbing. With the LLanberis pass being closed, going to Tramadog had to be cancelled and instead an attempt was made to climb some of the boulders at the roadside crag in the Cromlech. Here it was very cold and windy so the party quickly bailed into the bus stop quarry for a spot of easy sport climbing.

Day 2 saw successful passage to Tramadog and the first day of trad climbing. Novices were introduced to the world of multi pitch trad, climbing with more experienced members of the trip. A pleasant time was had by all, pootling up some HS’s. Meanwhile the boulderers were climbing around the Bustach boulders with Will climbing his first V7. Once everyone had reconvened at Tremadog, the bus took people back to the hut and the car took some boulderers off to Elephantitus for an evening session seeing a few more hard sends.

Day 4 was a rest day spent wandering about gear shops and staring at rocks from a distance.

Day 5 split the tour into sport climbers and boulderers. The sport climbers were dropped off at the Castle Inn and the boulderers found themselves the cave. Everyone had a good day enjoying yet another improbably dry day. The boulderers suffered defeats across the board and vowed to return to finish projects.

Day 6 was a return to the Cromlech where Jo eventually sent her first V but in general it was too cold for most people. That evening we retired to Ben’s house in southern Snowdonia as the hut became unavailable. Thefollowing day was sent resting, biking and slack lining here in secluded central wales.

Day 8 again split the tour, the sport climbers dropped at Penmaen Head where Milkins sent his first 6b outdoors. The boulderers returned to battle in the cave with partial success. Jack just missed out on his V9 project, Jordan sent Clever Beaver V7, Chris climbed something hard and Ben sent his first V9, Rock Atrocity. All in all a respectable tick list.

Day 9 was our last, making it back to Beit by 9:30pm.

Overall the trip was a success, especially as the destination had to be changed at such short notice due to the lack of drivers. The trip was very cheap and we made the most of very fortunate weather. All the novices were introduced to multi pitch trad climbing and the trip maintained a relaxed feeling. Honourable mention to Chris, without his solo bus driving effort, the trip would not have been possible.

Full list of Attendees

• Ben Coope
• Jordan Ford
• Jack Beanland
• Chirs Hunt
• Bernie Wilkins
• Jakov Marelic
• Jo Robbings
• Will Macleod
• Rosana Nicols
• Alex Card

Finances

The trip cost a total of £1031.79, travel cost a total of £686.08 which is less than was originally budgeted for so only £257.28 of the funding was calculated as 37.5% of the travel cost of the trip. The trip then cost members a total of £ each. These figures are before the Union’s retrospective moderation.

Difficulties & Objectives

Due to mass drop out of drivers in the closing stages of organising the tour, the trip was almost cancelled but instead was rapidly switched to Wales at the last minute. This lead to the tour being, initially, quite disorganised. However, given the circumstances, the trip went as well as can be expected; with Christopher Hunt offering to do all of the driving and Benjamin Coope donating the use of his car. We managed to climb every day that we weren’t resting, there were no injuries and everyone had a great time. All the novices gained experience in climbing outdoors and the trip was run to the slimmest of budgets.

Assorted photos