It's all gone Welsh! - Snowdonia Challenge

What's this? Mountains? On a blog about mountaineering!?

Believe it folks, because I have just returned from a well-needed trip to Snowdonia National Park in North Wales to climb some rather pretty mountains in support of a very deserving charity. I spent four days in Llanberis, North Wales going up and down those lovely rocky land-pimples - this post is long and wordy, but it's my first time on mountains in well over a year and a half, so be prepared for some gushing!

The week was intended as preperation for the University of Westminster International Development Society's annual fundraiser events. Last year they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, this year it's the Great Wall of China and Machu Picchu, for which this was the warm up. Some of the guys I was climbing with were total outdoors virgins - others were veterans of the Kili expedition, so there was an interesting mix of experience. But for once it was nice to be the one with the knowledge!

After getting picked up from East Croydon, suffering a 6 hour minibus journey to Snowdonia, settling into our (opulent) house and having to struggle my way through a delicious Carbonara at The Heights pub (always worth a visit when you're in the area) it was time to hit the mountains.

Note: I apologise for the odd variety in photo quality, they are sourced from different people who were there!

Day One - Mel Creghern and Snowdon

Taking full advantage of a very brief break in the clouds

The first day of our trip was the meat of our excursion - getting Snowdon done and dusted before people got too tired or bored. Being the second-most experienced mountaineer (behind James, the ex-Army leader of the expedition) and the one with the best knees I was nominated as pathfinder and armed with my trusty OS map (of which our route, of course, was across sheets) and Silva compass, we set off from Llanbris at approximately 10.45am, heading accross the valley side to the YHA Snowdonia Ranger hostel. Progress was slow, mainly due to the fact that the majority of the group was inexperienced, but by midday we had made the junction with the ridgeway path over Moel Creghern where we made our first 'peak' of the day. In the lee of the wind we enjoyed lunch before donning windproofs and heading out for the second (and meatiest) part of our day.

The plan was to descend from Moel Creghern and meet up with the Snowdon Ranger Path, take that up and then return on the Llanberis path. However, after getting into the meat of the Ranger path going slowed to an almost crawl, with some of the weaker members of the group struggling over the slightly more technical route that now involved short scrambles and lots of demoralising switchbacks - progress was limited to a few hundred feet at a time before having to stop to avoid the group straggling out too much. It was at this point that the decision was made that when we met with the Llanberis path some of the struggling members would be led down by James whilst I would take the rest on to take the summit - to say I was proud to be given the responsibility to get these guys to the summit would be an understatement, I was positively jumping!

Looking down over the ridge...only a 400m fall  

Even so, by 1500 we were at the top of the scramble section and onto Snowdon's secondary slope, a much easier walk and the struggling members were catching up. However, we now faced a new challenge: cloud.

It had always been hanging around the peak, but as we were behind schedule the cool early-evening air was drawing the cloud lower and had covered the last 400m of slope. I got the group together, briefed everyone on the importance of staying together, appointed two trusted back markers (Jason and Meg, both Killimanjaro veterans) and set on.

Eventually we reached the ridgeline that leads to Snowdon's summit and the pace at the front picked up - now there was pretty much no risk of anyone getting lost (seriously, you've got to actually try to get lost on that summit path) I struck out to try and make it to the top first. Also those who had said they may return down had decided to strike out for the summit - Dig Deep hoodies littered the Summit path. However, within a couple of hundred meters of the summit I heard an emergency whistle and a yell of 'Man Down'. As the de-facto leader of the expedition my heart stopped and I raced back down, only to find my back markers happily smiling. Turns out they had been yelling 'Mandem' to try and get my attention. Crisis averted - well, no crisis in the first place.

Soon we were at the summit, trying in vain to enjoy the views of nothingness and cloud, but the achievement was still something special. Wind blasted us (even leaving me with some vicious wind burn) and everything we had was covered in milldew from the cloud we were in, but we'd made it, and all of us were there together.

The route down wasn't such fun - the descent phase of a climb is always the hardest and the most energy-sapping, with a never-ending west-facing slope that eventually leads to flat valley roads, so you're never quite off your knees. Even so we were extremely pleased to find a small cafe just outside Llanberis village that provided hearty Welsh cider and confectionary to rejuvenate sapped strength, and even offered us a mascot for our charity. When James arrived half an hour after the lead group he greeted the proprietor as an old friend. The place is really something special - he supports many of the good causes that come around and even has rooms that he lets out, sometimes for free if you're running away from trouble. It's a proper refuge, if you're a climber or not.

Anyway, that was the end of our first day's climbing in Wales - the next promised to be much more fun. Just how much of a challenge was left to be seen...

Day Two - Y Garn and Elidir Fawr

Y Garn

The second day was set to be a much harder affair - having lost most of the people who just wanted to come to 'claim' Snowdon, we were left with a much smaller group, mainly made up of Killimajaro veterans and people keen to learn - and learn we all did! Despite being held up (again, there was a trend here) by Muaz, we all eventually made it to the debus point for the two-mile walk-in to the bottom of our first ascent, to the equally beautiful and tough Y Garn, part of the Glyderau range that dominates the northern end of Snowdonia national park.

Enjoying a light spot of G1 scrambling before lunch is extremely
good for you. View was nice too.

The initial ascent was extremely steep - some of the steepest non-technical walking I've done, and was slow and taxing on thighs that still smarted a little from Snowdon but the scramble after it was more than worth it. Almost 300m ascent of nice, flowing easy-grade scramble was a perfect way to kick off the day, and what was even better was off the 'beaten track' down the centre were more challenging holds and climbs - climbs which I lapped up. What was even nicer was that the little Californian Killi vet Jason had also climbed and scrambled before, so we were able to bounce some interesting ideas off one another. Pushing myself that little bit harder I really enjoyed the route and was almost sad when we reached the 'flat' section that marked the end of the scrambling. However, there were still two peaks to claim that day, so progress had to be made!

At the top of the scramble we stopped for lunch, at which point the cloud started to descend upon us and reduced visibility once more. Our ascent took us up to the edge of the Devil's Appendix, turning North West as we hit Llyn y Cwn. The weather cleared briefly for a moment and we got some fantastic team photos, as well as a couple of stops to fill water bottles with sweet-tasting mountain water. The weather had been especially cold in Snowdonia until very recently and there was still large amounts of snow left in places, including a fascinating cave-like structure that bridged the stream we were following up.

Anyway, after what seemed like hours of walking, several false peaks and ridges and two bars of Kendal Mint Cake (got to love that minty stuff) we made the top of Y Garn, and with a short scramble over some loose rock I maintained my 100% record for hitting the actual summit of every mountain I've ever attempted.

After this came the walk towards the horseshoe and the northern edge of the Glyderau range, where the group faced a moment of crisis - to carry on, into worsening weather and visibility towards Elidir Fawr or to turn back and head home. As the only truly keen mountaineer in the group I wanted to continue, but it was only until Barbora (who I row and study with) came forward to partner me that I was able to strike on.

Elidir Fawr
Having split with the main group on the Eastern ridge me and Barbora headed out towards Elidir Fawr, the second-highest of the four peaks we would climb on this trip. As we got closer the weather closed in further and the cloud got thicker and thicker and visibility dropped to around 10 meters, so communication got difficult and progress slowed as we lost the paths ahead and navigation landmarks. It became a matter of just plugging on with a little bit of faith and a little bit of hope that we could actually make the mountain top.

Barbora disappearing into the mist on Glyderau
ridge

Much of the route was simple-grade scrambles but the weather conditions and lack of visibility made them far more challenging than they would have been on a better day. As such, there isn't a huge amount I can tell you - visibility was so bad that I kept second-guessing my own navigation, despite it eventually putting us spot on the summit almost leading me at two points to give up and turn back - I didn't even know if I was on the correct ridge line without any reference points. I kept trying to get the GPS on my phone to kick in but signal was low, so it was a matter of just keeping on heading upwards, trying to avoid falling over the ridge edge and slipping down into the Horseshoe.

Eventually though, after a not insignificant amount of trial-and-error, we found ourselves on the top of Elidir Fawr, facing sheeting wind and driving rain but having successfully made the fourth peak of our trip.

Me and Barbora, relatively damp atop Elidir Fawr

Next came the down part - and this wasn't simple. The original plan had been to turn back on ourselves and descend the way we came up, but in mind of the weather conditions and the nature of the approach route we'd taken and the difficulty navigating in the cloud, we came to the decision to just follow the western path that should have led down into Nant Peris and home.
However, all was not that simple. Approximately halfway down the path simply disappeared at an unmarked fence line and we were forced to call upon basic navigation techniques to find a stream, follow it down the mountain (on an extremely steep descent that left me with a pair of extremely painful knees) to where we thought it would meet with a larger river that would eventually flow into the Lake. The logic was sound but what we eventually found ourselves faced with was a complex array of fences and dry-stone walls and extremely marshy terrain that soaked through waterproof boots and involved some not-quite-so legal acts of minor trespass, and also some falling.

Eventually though we made it to Nant Peris where me and Barbora, both sufficiently tired to almost not make it into the minibus were collected and bundled off to showers and hot food provided by my ever-helpful housemates.


All in all, this trip couldn't have come at a better time - it's shown me where my technique is weak, has allowed me to blow out some of the cobwebs and try out some of my new kit that hasn't been used in anger as yet - the one thing that this experience has confirmed for me is that it's worth spending money on kit, because save for when I fell into a bog I stayed warm and dry the entire time.

So thanks for reading, come back soon for more, and don't forget to Dig Deep for Dig Deep and support such a fantastic cause!

It's all gone quiet...

Hey gang, sorry things have been quite quiet on here but things have been quiet in life for me too.

This whole univeristy thing is starting to load up as I come to the end of my 2nd year - lots of coursework deadlines and exams coming up so a lot of time is spent buried in books or writing on some of the world's pressing political issues. It's not all that thrilling and definitely not what I'd like to be doing, but I'm paying for it so I might as well do it whilst I'm here.

I've also been trying to spend more quality time with the girlfriend, which I hate to say I have been lacking in of late, so I've been making attempts to catch up in regards to that.

Unfortunately it's all been rather quiet on the climbing front.

However! I do have news of upcoming events that will feature on this site! On the 22nd April I, along with about 20 others am off to North Wales to take part in a 5-peak challenge in Snowdonia as a fundraiser for the Dig Deep charity. They're off to Peru in the summer and the Snowdonia trip is also a training expedition for that to test kit and stamina etc. I'll do a full runup of it closer to the event, and I'll also be using the trip to test a few items of kit, so there may be one or two reviews that rise up as a result of it.

In any case; sorry it's been so quiet, but hopefully after exams everything mountain-related should pick back up a bit so there will finally be something exciting to put up here!

Success, of sorts!

Short post today, but news: Today I beat Nemesis!

Okay, okay I didn't quite beat it properly - I'm still not quite strong enough in holds to manage clipping-in on the overhang, but after Charlie completed it as his warm up (totally not emasculating at all) I did it as a top-roper. Not in any way technically impressive or at all elegantly, but I beat it. Now just to build my strength, keep shedding the pounds until I can do it properly!

(We got some video of me doing the climb on Charlie's GoPro, I'll see if I can get my hands on it and upload it to here)

Also got some half-decent leading in which was positive, and completed a fair few walls. Today wasn't actually a hugely serious session and none of us left exhausted how we normally are, but we could also be getting stronger. Did help that we had a 3rd climber today in the shape of Bailey, which meant we weren't constantly up and down walls or belaying - we actually got some rest, which was nice. Also had a photographer, so pictures galore today!

Clipping in with a massive straight-arm hold

The ever-attentive Charlie Bangham, everyone

Trying some dynamism. Not all that dynamic...

Being lowered off, again with Charlie paying full
attention

As I mentioned, we also had Bailey with us today, and because she hasn't climbed in the past few weeks we were pushing her a little too hard in the beginning; we got her onto easier routes but she still lacked confidence and faith in the rope. In an effort to give her confidence I decided to do a demo of a proper fall and show her actually how good the kit is; if it can handle me, it can handle little old her no problem:

She didn't get the confidence boost I wanted to give her, but it was something, and it made for a cool video. At least she got climbing!

The smile is genuine; so is the fear in the eyes

P.S. Bailey has a fantastic blog all about her time in the UK - find it over at Tea 'n The Tower: Graduate Edition check it out!

Upwards...but mainly downwards

I got some climbing in today. It wasn't the best climbing I've ever done, in fact it was one of my worse days - I didn't actually finish any walls. Not even the relatively easy wall we used to kick the day off. I don't know quite why, but lets just chalk it up to an off day.

However, I'm not that put down because I didn't do a single route rated under 5+, and spent most of the day doing leads. After coming off our warm-up wall about 3/4 of the way up, we decided to have a go at 'Nemesis', the wall with a large overhang that we had both failed to top the previous week.
I had first shot at it and climbed well for the first section, and onto the first clip of the overhang. I made it up to the second clip, had the rope in hand, halfway through clipping in my grip slipped off the hold I had and I fell, and fell hard. I tried again, using the existing clips as a top-roper but my hand forearms were absolutely shot.

This sort of set the tone for the rest of the day's climbing.

Me attempting a 5+ lead climb. Small holds and jutting features
ensured I didn't get far

We tried a variety of routes, and ironically my best climb was on a 6 top-roper where I nailed my use of features as balance points when moving on the wall, but slowly my arm strength and ability to use crimpy holds really started to drag.

Bailey turned up a couple of hours into things and had a try on a couple of routes, which was good as it offered me and Charlie a chance to rest and coach her (she hasn't climbed for a few weeks). I'm still hoping she catches the bug and is able to do it more frequently but I'm letting her do it in her own time.

Charlie showing me how it's done. He only got 2
clips higher than me, though...

So all in all, not the best of days climbing, but we all have our off time. At least I got photos though.

Leading the way

NB: I haven't got any photos of today, but I should do next time I lead so I'll upload some then.

All has been pretty quiet on the vertical side of things recently, hence the lack of posts. Due to constraints with rowing and uni and work, I haven't really had time to do anything, so until today I hadn't done anything for almost two weeks! However, today training was cancelled and uni finished early so I gave Charlie a bell and we decided to climb, and make a day of it. So with my harness and my new rope (which is one of the most awkward things to carry on the Tube ever...) I made my way down to Westway.

Unfortunately I was somewhat held up by an annoying american tennis-playing couple who were trying to book 3 different courts on about 12 different days (lots of 'ooh, not the 24th, we have a thing that day...maybe the 26th?) but we got in, got harnessed up and tried a couple of top-roped routes to get my eye in and refresh un-used skills. One positive note of the time off: I've been doing a lot of weights, and climbing has gotten a lot easier in terms of the effort involved - I can now almost pull myself up one-handed, which makes life a little more fun and a little less painful, especially helpful when lead climbing when all my weight can be on a single hand hold.

After warming up, we decided to tackle my first ever lead wall. First thing we did was Charlie gave me a brief on the intricacies of belaying in lead climbing. It's quite a lot different to normal - the rope isn't kept taut constantly and it requires a whole load more attention and forward thinking to plan when the climber will need more slack, more space, where they may slip or fall and need arresting and how much rope they'll need to clip in. He had a quick shoot up to show me how its done - I didn't belay perfectly, causing him a little trouble a couple of times but he didn't die so I'll take that as a positive step. After he touched back down and we got me tied into the rope (which is my new 10.5mm, 60m behemoth, which Charlie says suits 'suits its owner as it's thick and unwieldy'. Always a charmer...) it was my turn to lead up the wall.

The route itself was a relatively simple 4+, but with the added challenge of thinking about constantly having to clip in made it a much more interesting climb. You don't just have to think about where you're going to put your hands and feet, but also where you're going to set yourself up to clip in, which hand you'll need free etc. The first few quickdraws I clipped in I did twisted, but once I had it cracked the rest went in clean, no problems. I did have one interesting section where I had to clip into a right-handed quickdraw whilst hanging off my right hand. Apparently I made some really odd shapes and Charlie panicked that I was going to fall, but all was well.

First climb went well, the second not quite so hot. It was a slightly more technical route involving two overhangs (one small, one larger) with some really awkward, crimpy holds. There were some nice big ones afterwards, almost like a reward for making it, but the last hold, the one I had to hang on to clip into the top pair of karabiners was an odd shape and my hand was sweating. I couldin't get my hand to my chalk bag as there was no left-hand hold, and as I hefted the rope to clip in I could feel myself slipping. Desperately I clung to the last hold, clipping in to one, then the second (reversed) karabiner. The instant I clipped into number two I lost my hold and fell, but thankfully not too far or too drastic and was brought down safe but a little shaken - if I'd missed the holds there would have been an extra two or three meters of fall to arrest!

The rest of the day was spent practising on easy-grade lead climbs, before eventually calling it off after two and a half hours of constant climbing, with aching forearms and painful fingertips but a sense of achievement from me at least.

I'll say this - it feels great having broken my duck of leading, I finally feel like I've actually accomplished something in my climbing, something tangible that I can measure my progress by  The challenge is a new one and it keeps everything fresh, both belaying on the ground and up on the wall. Leading is what I'll be having to do when I eventually get up onto a mountain, so learning the basics here is a really good stepping stone on to the technical stuff, when we start to introduce pitons, hammers and clipping in my own quickdraws.

All in all a good day!

A spot of refurbishment

It's project time here, folks. Not a huge one, but a project nonetheless.

Over the Christmas period my cousin - who is now getting married - was clearing out all of the stuff he'd left at his mothers for the last decade or so. Uncovered were a treasure trove of his (and, interestingly a lot of my father's) childhood toys, books and boxes. One unexpected discovery was a barely-used C.A.M.P Zephyr 25.5" (65cm for those of a metric disposition) walking ice axe that a friend of my cousin's had left at his house forever ago. This was just as I was beginning my current obsession with mountaineering so not knowing a huge amount (and not one to look a gift horse in the mouth) I took it for myself.

When I got it back to my flat having left it at home, I got a better look at it and discovered it was a little bit worse for wear for its decade-long stay in a cold garage. There were several problems:

1. The (overly large) grip was pitted and the rubber perished - if I tried to use it to hack into ice it would probably come away in my hand. It had to go and a replacement sourced.

2. The pick itself whilst mainly in decent shape had patches of rust on them. Whilst not a major issue, it's ugly and some rust leads to more rust so this had to go.

3. The metal shaft isn't the grippiest. Despite the fact I doubt I'll often have to use it holding it by the shaft, if I did I'd want something more comfortable and grippier than plain metal.

So, on a quiet Friday afternoon after university I sourced the bits I needed and set to work. First things first was to strip off the perished rubber grip, which was achieved scarily easily - I was instantly vindicated in my ideas. There was some glue still on there so I washed the entire thing, dried it off and grabbed the electrical tape and started wrapping.

Before, with perished rubber grip, plain shaft and rusty pick

After, re-wrapped in fetching yellow tape with no rust!

After about 3 layers and one and a half rolls of yellow electrical tape I had a decent thick covering on the shaft of the pick, as well as a wrap of green to make sure no one nicks it (not that it looks all that expensive, but hey, it's mine, so...). I also wrapped the pick protector in tape otherwise it's rather difficult to see if the cover is on when you're anything more than an arm's length away.

Next job was to remove the rust spots from the pick and axe head - this required a little more finesse. Or, to put it more accurately, taking a flat-head screwdriver and scraping away the rust spots 'till the thing looked a little less brown and a little more shiny.

It still needs a little bit of work, and possibly a new grip (I'm undecided as to whether I need it yet) but for a relatively old axe, the little bit of love has done it some good and will see it used for a little longer!

Harness and Hands

Excellent news reader(s): today I got my very own climbing harness, and she's a thing of beauty!

I'll add a better photo when I get one of me actually using it...hands were too ruined today 

Isn't she pretty? Although my birthday isn't for a couple of weeks my parents gave me the money to go and get a harness and the assorted bits and bobs, so it's a nice little early birthday present for me. To be specific its a Petzl Corax, and it's a wonderfully clever fusion of an alpine/mountaineering and indoor wall climbing harness. The mountaineering elements are thinner padding, soft rear gear loops (to avoid fouling a pack) and fully detachable leg loops. As such it's not perfect in either environment but it makes a damn fine harness that'll do pretty much everything rather competently. It came with a free chalk bag which was nice, too.

I had the opportunity today to also try out this new harness for the first time; because he'd been trapped in Scotland on Monday having completed a winter skills course over the weekend, Charlie had to work on Tuesday (and therefore we hadn't climbed) so after rowing on Wednesday I popped off to Westway to see him, meet his normal climbing partner Tom and get some decent climbing in myself. This turned out to not be the best idea, as rowing can tire out your hands and forearms - parts of the body essential for climbing. By the time we were finished I could only form a claw and couldn't even begin to contemplate untying my knots.

My poor, claw-like, ruined hands. They still hurt now, hours afterwards.

All in all to be honest it wasn't my greatest day's climbing for me but I learned some valuable lessons and got some really good insight; whilst Charlie is experienced, Tom is the far better climber and a teacher to boot, and so is really good at imparting his accumulated wisdom. As I climbed he identified that I was getting tired far too quickly on the walls because I was essentially doing a series of chin ups up the wall. He took me to a slightly lower grade wall and taught me how to concentrate on technique of avoiding using my arms. It was somewhat confusing to begin with having to re-learn my way of climbing but it worked; I was able to do 3 consecutive walls without untying or pause.

I also got to have a close look at some lead climbing for the first time too - whilst it's not overly complicated as a way of ascending a wall, Charlie doesn't reckon I'm quite ready yet (an assessment I'd fully agree with after attempting the same wall but as a top-roper and falling off halfway up) so I've got a little bit of time to wait before I can lead myself. Although I'll confess I'm quite looking forward to it, because it looks like stupid amounts of fun. The only downside is the fact that generally the lead climbing walls are rated at 5+ and higher - at the moment the best wall I've climbed is a 5+ and that was with the security of a top rope. It could be interesting to push it harder...

As a small aside, whilst we were at the center we saw an ad for someone selling £350 worth of climbing gear for around £95. Charlie and Tom are attempting to build a full climbing rack between them so they want all the quickdraws, karabiners and loops, but have offered me a very lovely Mammut 60m rope for £30. That's around 15% of the price of a brand new rope. Yes please.