I’ve never been very good at completing climbing projects. The most time I’ve spent on any route I’ve tried is about four sessions and even then it’s probably been a case of the weather being against me, not the difficulty of the climb. But at the moment I’ve got a project and I’m in it for the long run! I first checked it out two years ago with Johnny Dawes. We were both keen for it but neither of us got our acts together to complete it. I tried it again late last year but it was a little too late in the year to return.

This year however I’ve decided to get my teeth into it and I’m going to keep trying it until I complete it. I’ve been getting really close too. I’ve fallen off the last hard move on lead, only two moves from the top but it’s been wearing me down. You’ve got to wait for good weather to try it, find a keen belayer and be fit and fresh to try it. I’ve been finding it surprisingly difficult to combine these requisites! I’ve also been missing out on the nice weather to climb elsewhere which has been frustrating me more than anything else.

Over the bank holiday weekend however I got a quick break and a fantastic trip to Pembroke which surely has the highest quantity of superb single pitch trad climbing in the UK. A good team was assembled in the campground in Bosherston which made for a fun and sociable few days as well as a lot of climbing getting done. Although feeling a distinct lack of stamina I scraped my way up a few classic routes such as the brilliant ‘Orange Robe Burning’, ‘White Heat’ and perhaps the best route of the bunch was ‘Rock Idol’ (the best E1 in the UK?).

I now feel reinvigorated to keep up a sustained assault on my project. I feel like I am as likely to do it now as I am likely to fall off it- maybe I just need a bit of luck….

2012 started in a wet and windy fashion for me when I spent a week up in Scotland over New Year. A big group of us had booked some chalets in Roy Bridge for a week of winter climbing- unfortunately the weather had different ideas! The winds were gusting up to 120mph and the temperature limited us to only a few crags. I was climbing with Chamonix based climber and superb photographer Jon Griffith. You would expect a Chamonix based climber to hate bad weather because you can pick and choose good weather days when you live out there. Jon, however, was mad for it! He was dragging me out every day in either hurricane force winds or generally wet and miserable weather. On our first day, the winds were gusting up to 120mph, we still climbed a route though, holding onto our axes for dear life! We only had one day of reasonable weather and we climbed the teetering test-piece that is ‘War and Peace’ on Coire an’ Lochain in the Cairngorms, with Jon pulling out a good lead on the first pitch. Despite the weather allowing us to climb only two routes in five days of trying we still had a good trip.

After that I made a quick trip up to Northumberland with James McHaffie to Bowden and Back Bowden Doors. I was really impressed with both crags and the quality of the sandstone was superb. James managed an impressive on-sight of ‘On the Rocks’, a technical E7 6c and we climbed a bunch of other classic routes such as ‘The Tube’, ‘Poseidon Adventure’ and ‘The Bends’.

Back in North Wales I’ve enjoyed a few days on the slate making perhaps the second ascent of Johnny Dawes’ extremely bold route ‘The Dyke’E6 6a in Twll Mawr. I also climbed a Rainbow Slab classic, ‘Stiff Syd’s Cap’ E6 6b which had fantastic moves on perfect slate. Mark Reeves came along to take some pictures and took some great shots.

I also managed to deck out on a slate route, fortunately from not very high up, and snapped a sky-hook in the process- they say 2kn breaking strain for a reason! After that I decided that perhaps bold trad wasn’t ideal for a cold day so changed themes and went sport climbing where I red-pointed another Johnny Dawes classic called ‘The Medium’ F8a. I first tried to on-sight this route very optimistically when I was fourteen. Suffice to say I didn’t manage it then and after a quick attempt on top rope forgot about it for four years. It was really nice to finally climb ‘The Medium’ as I remember when I first started climbing here I couldn’t understand how anybody could climb these routes!

Winter weather has finally arrived in Wales (well, kind of!). I’ve just enjoyed a couple of days winter climbing up on Clogwyn Du above Ogwen. The freezing level, rather unusually, hasn’t come down to sea level yet this winter and the snow line is still very high (around 500m). So I was rather sceptical walking up through the mud and rain to Clogwyn Du with the irrepressibly enthusiastic winter climbing guru Andy Turner. To our surprise however the final one hundred metres of ascent to the crag showed promising signs of winteriness and through a sudden break in the cloud we saw a totally white crag which even had a pair of in-situ climbers on it!

Our objective was a modern classic test-piece called ‘Travesty’ to kick-start our winter seasons. Having attempted the line the previous winter and gone the wrong way I was keen to get things straight. The crux pitch is a relatively short and wild traverse around the nose of the crag. It went smoothly enough (apart from getting hot-aches halfway through the pitch!) and I was soon in sinker hooks racing up the easy ground to the belay. Andy cruised along to the belay in a matter of minutes whilst carrying a bag (git!) and smoothly led through up the easier but still very enjoyable climbing to a very windy ridge.

The following day I was back up to a considerably busier Clogwyn Du to do a pleasant(?) squeeze chimney called ‘Pillar Chimney’ before work. I also wore my new ‘Stretch Neo Jacket and Pants’ properly for the first time. Both items have a really nice cut and fit and Polartec’s NeoShell fabric is undoubtedly the best fully waterproof fabric I’ve ever used. Very breathable, very waterproof and very comfy when you’re being battered by spindrift! That could well be the end of our first spell of winter weather as temperatures are rising and rain is falling but it was a pleasant change to trying to rock climb in freezing weather.

Other than that I’ve been climbing on slate a fair bit trying some projects and climbing a couple of routes that I hadn’t done before on the awesome Rainbow slab: highlights include the rarely climbed ‘Chewing the Cwd’ E5 6a and getting close to flashing ‘Naked Before the Beast’ E6 6c which James McHaffie casually on-sighted before me.

Anyway, time to enjoy more important things like mince pies and Christmas cake now. Have a good Christmas!

It’s a funny thing getting back into climbing after doing very little. Following my return from the Alps I’ve been so keen to go climbing but fairly hopeless at completing various projects. If anything I think this has helped my motivation and I feel like I’m on the verge of actually getting up some routes!

I’ve spent a bit of time in the slate quarries recently which has been really fun. I climbed on the slate so often when I started climbing that I climbed many of the routes I wanted to do so subsequently haven’t been a regular visitor, but with the bad weather we’ve had, it’s been one of the few places to climb due to its remarkably fast drying qualities. There are lots of potential new routes to climb in the quarries and I’ve been particularly keen to try some projects in Twll Mawr recently. Twll Mawr is a big, eerie place to climb with the hardest multi pitch climbs in Wales and the longest sport route in Britain. The line that I spotted recently was a route climbing directly above the famous Quarryman groove. I rapped the line, gave it a quick clean and tried the moves and was amazed at how straight forward the route was considering that entry level to this section of wall is normally about F7c. I was so keen to climb the route that I persuaded evergreen Rob Greenwood to join me after finishing work.

We rapped in to the belay ledge and I tried the route quickly on top rope, somewhat concerned about the run-out nature of climbing but I felt solid on it and lead the route without too much trouble- Rob had even untied himself from the belay at one point ready to jump off the stance to prevent me from hitting ledges if I fell, a brave thing to do considering the position (see Stone Monkey!). It climbs a nice groove feature in the headwall and it was great to climb it all on traditional gear. The route next to this one carries the extremely odd name of Phil’s Harmonica, so we continued with the theme and christened this one Mike’s Trombone! The following day I succeeded on another new line at the bottom of the same wall, a technical pitch with a flamboyant finishing lunge for the last hold. Probably a more difficult lead than Mike’s Trombone, but perhaps not quite as good.

Last week Ian Lloyd-Jones made the first ascent of Rock Bottom Line, a spectacular 5 pitch sport route on the right hand side of the Quarryman wall. I returned with him and his climbing partner Sion McGuinness the following day to repeat the route. The fourth pitch in particular is fantastic, climbing a technical and slippery groove, the rest of the pitches are also good fun- it’s a route sure to become a modern classic.

The Quarryman wall is an amazing place to climb with atmospheric, ‘airy’ and powerful climbing. Nine out of the thirteen routes on the wall remain unrepeated; several have remained unrepeated for 25 years! Having tried a couple of the harder unrepeated routes I can certainly vouch for their quality and I look forward to having an opportunity to repeat them once the weather relents.

I’ve also spent a bit of time climbing over on the Little Orme recently at the brilliant Diamond. The approach involves a long and exciting hand-line which leads you to the best limestone crag in North Wales- unfortunately prone to greasy conditions. In some ways this crag seems to have brought about a real ‘vibe’ to the local climbing scene and loads of quality new routes are being climbed both here and elsewhere on the local limestone with grades ranging from F5+ to F8c+.

Twll Mawr’s West Wall is best known for the Dawes classic ‘The Quarryman’ and boasts a good number of desperate and unrepeated slate masterpieces. ‘The Wonderful World of Walt Disney’ is one of these. It very rarely gets climbed perhaps being overshadowed by its more famous neighbour and has four fantastic and varied pitches. A slippery layback groove, a technical arête, an outrageous jump across a groove and a delightful finishing slab. It’s graded at E6 6b or a spicy F7b. Get on it!

Grades to climbers are like times to runners and there are times and grades that are mythical. Roger Bannister was the first to run the mythical 4 minute mile and Johnny Dawes the first to climb E9 with his ascent of the Indian Face.
When I started climbing, grades were a way of measuring my progression and being a trad climber books like Hard Rock and Extreme Rock were my bibles and where I sought inspiration to follow in my hero’s footsteps. I would focus on climbing classic routes at a level which would push me as close to my limit as possible. E9 was the level I wanted to reach someday but at that point it seemed like a distant dream.

Ogwen is where I started climbing. I remember being taken up the Idwal slabs when I was little and I also learnt to ice climb here a couple of years ago. Being only ten minutes drive from home I’ve spent a lot of time climbing here repeating routes and establishing a few of my own. Ogwen has always felt like the natural place to push myself and is probably my favourite climbing area in Britain.

Rare Lichen takes the obvious clean cut arête on Clogwyn Y Tarw. An awesome line first climbed by Leo Houlding. I first tried it last year with Johnny Dawes although my attempt was short lived as we were being eaten by midges. The route sprang to mind again recently. I’d just recovered from a badly sprained wrist and despite having 6 weeks off I still felt like I was climbing well. We’ve had a few days of stunning weather and I persuaded my dad to give me a quick belay after he finished work so we ran up to Clogwyn Y Tarw before supper time. I abseiled down the line and gave it a quick clean before top roping the route cleanly on my second attempt. It felt pretty tough but I knew the extra incentive to pull hard on lead would make it a more reasonable proposition.

I’m not sure what my initial intentions were after top roping the route but after having some food I decided to go for the lead the following day after school. I didn’t get much sleep that night due to a mixture of excitement and nerves and I had sweaty palms all day at school. I caught the bus home and at half five my dad picked me up after finishing work. We walked up to the crag pretty quickly and I abseiled down the route with a file and an RP 3 to make sure the RP went into the small slot on the upper arête.

I top roped the route first time and pulled the rope: decision time. I felt tired and not entirely confident but after sitting down and relaxing for a few minutes I knew that this was as good an opportunity as any and if I could top rope the route I could lead it. The first section of climbing is bold and only protected by an RP 2 in a reasonable but shallow placement; I climbed this bit like I was soloing, making steady progress past the psychological crux move around the arête to a reasonable rest. I made a tricky move up to place the good filed down RP and stepped back down for a rest. My wrist was throbbing in the same way it did when I’d sprained it the previous month but my fingers were still working fine and I slapped my way up the fantastic upper arête to finally reach the top feeling pretty exhilarated. Within two minutes of topping out I couldn’t move my right wrist: I’ve re-torn a ligament and the adrenalin had numbed the pain on lead but I’m not too bothered about some time off after that and it’ll be nice to get back into running for a while.