By James Lawson (Kip)
The Journey
Departure was swift, getting away from the union by 6:30pm. However due to lack of tarps we had to load all our bags/food/ropes/mats/people into the body of the bus resulting in very cramped conditions for the 7hrs journey. Food was forgotten but fortunately this had been planned for so chocolate and porridge were not significantly impacted. Again we departed quicker than outdoor (S&G). Our heads were full of lofty ambitions for long mountain routes; however the weather of Wales is a fickle thing…
Day 1
The conditions were terrible with rain and hail so the decision was made for a lie in (till 10am). We then headed to Llanberis to play with gear and enquire about the possibility of dry rock. The conclusion of our meandering conversations was that only the cave would be dry. We then split into 3 groups; the first went to Parisella’s cave with the two bouldering mats, the second decided to spend the day in V12 and Joe Browns playing with shiny things and trying on B3’s and the third most awesome group decided to go for a bracing walk back to the hut. Walking over the pass was surprisingly pleasant in the hail and rain due to the awesomeness of modern technical clothing. After completing our walk I (kip) and Johan went for a pleasant swim in the frigid water of the local lake. Upon getting out of the water the previously cold air felt pleasantly warm, surprisingly no one else felt inclined to enjoy the ‘refreshing’ water. At the cave David and Fails did Rock Bottom (V6), Lisa did Pillar Finnish (V4) and Chris did Burning Sphincter (V5). People seem to be improving quite fast.
Day 2
Holyhead Mountain was selected as our destination due to its fast drying properties. The climbs in the middle were approximately 30M on quite good friction quartz with shorter climbs on the edges, although the cracks were still wet despite it not raining the night before. I (kip) and Johan climbed Stairs a severe slab which was pleasant although friction was poor. Much to my delight it finished with a thrutch crack. About to walk off the top we heard a plaintive plea for help from Fresher who had decided to solo up an overhanging chimney in walking boots next to our slab, claiming that it “looked like a mod” from the ground. Even more amusingly he actually had climbing shoes clipped to the back of his harness. Fortunately he managed to hang around on the rock until the rescue rope reached him and avoided all injury apart from to his pride. After lunch I led an interesting looking corner crack which turned out to be Puffin Shuffle, a very fun route that was quite near my limit. Chris led Breaking the Barrier (E1). Managing another 3 routes with Kunal; good going for the limited amount of daylight. Alistair tried an E3 only to be defeated by the wetness of the cracks, although he got most of the way up. To paraphrase “I had to crimp the edges of the layback it was that wet”. In the esoteric corner Calum found some choss to play with and David found the blocks at the bottom of the mountain to be excellent bouldering. Fails and Danny did some trad leading together, climbing stairs in a single pitch and using the awesome number 7 Tricam (on loan from Johan) as belay gear.
Dak seconded Lizzie and got lured into Freshers offwidth cave. To round the day off we lost the guide book in the dark and then people who had head torches had to spend an hour looking for it, missing out on some awesome Jurassic 5 in the mini bus. The Journey Back: Quite uneventful, just long hot and uncomfortable. We stopped for tasty but greasy pizza in Bangor and observed a 4x4 with a tree stuck in it. Big thanks to Fresher and Kunal for driving for so long under such bad conditions. Overall I think we all had fun despite the conditions and long journey.