It is one of those things that instructed groups often get a hard time of climbers, as they can be seen to monopolise routes with bottom ropes. I think we managed very well today, and only held a couple of climbers up by a less than a couple of minutes as our guys were mainly at the top of the crag rigging top ropes, and then belaying each other up to the top. As such we had a low impact on the cliff, but it is certainly a growing concern for this crag, as centres have often not clashed with climbers like they do in the peak, as most single pitch crags in North wales aren’t particularly good for climbers.

The main thing was it didn’t rain until we started heading down to the vehicle for an ice cream in Eric’s. It then stayed dry for the drive back to the centre.

My mission for this even was to try and climb in Bus Stop Quarry, as I sat in the car waiting I ran into a couple of friends who had just climbed “Wonderful World of Walt Disney”, I was and still am very jealous, as it a route I have wanted to do for ages, but never got the bottle to get on it! After they left it started raining so Bus Stop was off, and a quick text had me drive to the damn climbing wall.

I have to say it wasn’t a happy place this evening, as it was mainly full of people who had been wanting to climb outside but were repelled indoors. Looks like the ming is starting to hit, and just in time for when I finish work!

Walking down from Moel Elio

Just got back from a glorious two days walking around Snowdon. The weather was supreb, although it was hard to make any form of diifficult navigation as the visibility was measurable in miles, despite the heat haze. So we head up Moel Elio and across the ridge before contouring round Moel Cyngorian, and then up to the Lake Below Cloggy. I was surprised to see the crag devoid of climbers, as it was a nice day, with little to no wind and the rock was bone dry. Perhaps I should blame the climbers, as faced with a long walk into the shade, or a short walk into sun-drench rock on the ‘sunny side’ of the pass. I’d know where I would be.

We then went for a night time stroll, taking in a nice circuit just below the Llanberis Path, as we were finishing we caught sight of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team hwo had been searching Snowdon for a couple lost in possibly the only bit of mist on the mountain, as the west side was totally clear.

With the clocks going back we got an hour less in bed, and headed out along the Llechog Ridge down to Pete’s Eats and for me the compulsory fry up. Where we met up with Andy Newton, who was running the course, I have started to advertise Andy courses on my SMG website site, so if your thinking of doing an SPA or ML training check out the course dates.

Amazing colurs in the Cloggy Lake, looked lovely for swimming, but I bet it was baltic!

My Room with a view!

Llion prepares to do battle with the Barbarian! E1 Pant ifan Tremadog

Well today went according to plan. A plan so cunning that it was hatched on thursday, when Llion had to decide a day to climb, so we skip saturday and the ming fest, and decided on Sunday. When a small team of us headed to Pant Ifan at tremadog. The sun was out and all look amazing at the crag.

Furst route was Barbarian, I forgot how tough the top groove is coming out of teh main roof, fortunately I had Llion on teh sharp end there, and he got a little pumped trying to work it out. I did manage to drop a quickdraw with a wire on it and forgot to look for it on the abseil down. If you find it, then please keep it, if for nothing else as to punish me for my stupidity.

We then nipped up Itch, via the variation straight over the roof on teh seocnd pitch, and by follow Scratch to get to the second pitch. Mainly because I hate that first pitch, it always seems a bit goey. After that we ran up Scratch Arete. The sun was starting to fizzle out, and the cold wind that had been bothering us all day seem to be winning. So Llion and I managed to leave our ropes for Katie and Sarah to coil, and get down to the Eric’s Cafe before it shut, for a nice frothy coffee.

Awesome day, hopefully warmer tomorrow?!

Be warned that the infamous Tremadog Slippy feet is out in force at the moment.

The Notorious Tremadog Slippy Feet - Turns sticky rubber into teflon

To start the ball rollign I nipped up the slab start to Reinnetta on the Merlin Buttress, before head over to Rio. I did nearly make a joke about how many instructors it takes to balls up a retrievable abseil off Yogi, the answer is two by the way. So I lead Rio with one rope, and then Rocio fired up Yogi.

To the side of us was Tim and Jez, I hadn’t seen Jez fro what seemed like years and it reminded me of those days working at the Beacon Climbing Centre. They did inspire me to have a go at the rotue they were on. Although I tried the route to the left, only to remember that I am about 6 inches too short to make the crux reach for a good pinch, although I did reach the pinch, at this point is was raining hard, and my foot slipped off the hold it was on, so I quickly engage reverse gear, and down climbed to the junction with the HVS they were climbing.

I tussled up this, making it look harder than ot was, mainly because my eye for gear was a littel rusty, so took me an age to find a poor runner, where I should have got a bomber wire. We abseiled off this and headed home, ironically just as the sun was taken over the day!

Was good to get out though, so cheers Rocio for making me go out today. Although it wasn’t a hard sell, “Mark do you want to go out climbing”, “yes!”

If you are interested in going on any of these awards then you can contact Andy via his homepage.

Single Pitch Award Training Courses are two days in length, based in Northern Snowdonia and are non-residential. Candidates should be registered with the SPA scheme and have gained the required experience. The fee is £125.

Single Pitch Award Assessment Courses are two days in length, based in Northern Snowdonia and are non-residential. Candidates should have completed the requirements to attend the course. The fee is £125.

Mountain Leader Award Training Courses are six days in length (two three-day modules), based in Northern Snowdonia and are non-residential. Candidates should have registered with the ML scheme and have gained the required experience. The fee is £325.

Mountain Leader Award Assessment Courses are five days in length, based in Northern Snowdonia and are non-residential. One trial course is split over two weekends; the rest are of a continuous block. Candidates should have completed the requirements to attend the course. The fee is £325.

Climbing Wall Award Training Courses are two days in duration, based at both an indoor climbing wall and an outdoor climbing wall, and are non-residential. Candidates should have registered the CWA scheme and have gained the required experience. The fee is £125.

Climbing Wall Award Assessment Courses are one day in duration, based at an indoor climbing wall and is non-residential. Candidates should have completed the requirements to attend the course. The fee for the standard assessment is £85 (£95 including the abseil & top access module).

Single Pitch Award Training 2011

29^th and 30^th March                                                T1

28^th and 29^th April                                                T2

24^th and 25^th May                                                T3

28^th and 29^th June                                                T4

26^th and 27^th July                                                T5

23^rd and 24^th August                                                T6

27^th and 28^th September                                    T7

1^st and 2^nd November                                                T8

29^th and 30^th November                                    T9

Single Pitch Award Assessment 2011

4^th & 5^th May                                                            A2

26^th and 27^th May                                                A3

30^th June & 1^st July                                                A4

28^th and 29^th July                                                A5

25^th and 26^th August                                                A7

29^th and 30^th September                                    A8

3^rd and 4^th November                                                A9

1^st and 2^nd December                                                A10

Mountain Leader Award Training 2011

4^th to 6^th and 25^th to 27^th March            ML.T1

15^th to 17^th April & 6^th to 8^th May            ML.T2

8^th to 10^th & 22^nd to 24^th July                        ML.T3

2^nd to 4^th & 23^rd to 25^th September            ML.T4

11^th to 13^th & 25^th to 27^th November            ML.T5

Mountain Leader Award Assessment 2011

14^th to 18^th March                                    ML.A1

9^th to 13^th April                                    ML.A5

14^th & 15^th May and 3^rd to 5^th June            ML.A2

17^th to 21^st October                                    ML.A3

14^th to 18^th November                                    ML.A4

Climbing Wall Award Assessment 2011

7^th April                                                 CWA1.11

Where was I, well I was working alongside Andy Newton on the ropework day of a Summer Mountain Leader. We had the sun for about an hour this morning before we were plunged into the shade and the temperature dropped by around 5 degrees. Another good day out, however I was really feeling that it was the fifth day of a a quite demanding work schedule by the end of the day.

I must remember not to set my alarm clock tonight, and enjoy lazing around in bed, and a day chumming, although I feel I should try and get out climbing in the afternoon, if anyone is keen!

It is a testiment to the wild characters that wander the streets of Llanberis, the sort of people that operate under the radar, and can still walk dowen the street in the height of the summer without anyone realising that they are perhaps in the world elite of there given sub-sport, be it climbing, aplinism, big walling, paragliding or kayaking. To a certain extent LLAMFF can give these guys an oppotunity to allow us mortals the chance to get an idea of just what floats their boat. Often far lessed polished than the ‘Keynote’ speakers of our times like The Emmett, Kirkpatrick or The Caveman, but its a unique look into what motivates them to live in the heart of the adventure community of North Wales.

To book tickets visit there website

So the Key seakers are:

Keith Partridge – Extreme Cameraman

Andy Turner – Pro Cyclist turned Pro Winter Climber. First Ground Up Ascent of The Hurting, and a regular face in the staff room of Plas Y Brenin

Ian Parnell – Adventure climber, and extreme winter sufferer, and now the editor of CLIMB magazine.

Paul Diffley – Climbing film maker and man behind “Hot Aches Productions” talks abotu the challenges and tales of filming the climbing elite.

Olly Sanders – A total legend, this man has be there and done a lot more than most people would expect. From remote and unsupported sea kayaking/Mountaineering expeditions to the wilds of the greenland coast. To even being nominate for teh Pioloet D’or. This is a talk you should go and see if you really want to know what it is to be totally understated and totally hardcore. RECOMMENDED

Alan Hinkes – Famous for failing on the 14 peaks after a chapati incident.

Al Hughes – Local and possible one of the UK’s first modern filmmaker, he goes back to when beta-max was cool. Responsible for iconic films like stone monkey, gogarth and erm…..?

James Bingham – Is an ex-local who currently drives a desk in London, he recounts being pulled up Everest and other peaks, before heading into The ‘Stan for a first British Ascent. Probably a few AK 47 in this talk?!

Marmot Sponsored Event – the Slackers guide to climbing, by two of the least slack people in the climbing world Steve McClure and Lucy Creamer. Lots of logos and big grades!

Anni Hogan and Cathy O’Dowd – Sounds like the arty piece of the festival, with live soundscape set to a film of everest. Potentially unique!

The Twid and Stu Show – An Epic Big Wall in Baffin. In has been said that anyone planning a new route on remote big wall/apine face, describe there proposed line in grant meetings as being to the left or teh right of one of Twid’s Routes. I have also heard the Welsh Sports Council grant been called Twid’s Holiday fund. The fact is these guys went out there and destroyed the wall, unless Twid learns to write this will be totally unique, as I haven’t heard of a book deal on the horizon. RECOMMENDED

Tarka and Katie – Walk the Great Wall of China. Katie used to be a model, so I expected some men will be present!

Calum Muskett – Keen Youth from Llanberis who is rather handy, and has had a few story to tell. Probably about sandbagging people twice his age!

Snowdonia 2050 – a doomsday speech about the environment, where it could all go down the pan. Potentially alarming.

Climber Clubs Guidebooks – Past, Present and Future – Bound to be a laugh a minute, don’t forget the pins to stick in your eyes. One for the annoracks amongt us, and I know there are a few!

Zac Laraman – Moutnaineering and Climbing Injury – treatment and avoidance – I am sure there will be a queue out the door to get free advice from the local shamen.

Martin Chester – Director of Training at Plas Y Brenin, UIAGM and avid ski mountaineer. Expect fresh tracks and talk of powder, and not to mention some out there adventures in remote parts of the world.

Mike Raine – The Nature of Snowdonia – Mike talks about his book and the great nature of snowdonia. If you don’t catch him buy the book.

Lukas wacha(sic) – An extreme photographer whose name is too hard to spell without cutting and pasting, but he has worked with some of the best, including Andy Turner. He talks about the challenge and rewards of profressional photography.

Arwel Philip – A local who paddled round Wales.

George Smith – Local funny man, takes a side view of climbing and the idiosyncratic behaviour we all are guilty of!

Jocky Sanderson – A paraglider of serious note. One to watch if you are bored of all the talk of snow, ice, rock and near death falls. Although I suspect there are some rather exciting times, as he has made some how to… HD videos for paragliders. Where are the out takes?

Mark Reeves – Some total chump will bore the audience to death on rock climbing across the americas. Although he has a tendency not to focus on the climbing. The phrase, “watch you toes” will never seem the same again.

Despite seeming artifical, these boards are extremely difficult to walk on in crampons, in fact i’d go as far to say that if you can walk on thiese boards then snow, ice or neve will be a walk in the park. I also took some bivi bags and got the group to run through the basics of ice axe arrest. As a whole group of 24 we also looked at the difference between summer and winter navigation. Before heading up some local hills for a practice of doing some head down compass work and pacing.

On the Saturday evening I did an Avalanche lecture to the group at 5.30, before giving them the edited highlights of the last six months of my life running just a few days ago. Which mean they got to see a sneaky peak at part of my LLAMFF lecture, which seemed to go down very well.

Today I head up and over Cnicht with my group, concentrating on navigation, and giving the group an idea of what they would have to be able to do n terms of interpreting contours, relocating, using bearing and pacing to find there way up, over and off a mountain. We made it down in time for a latte in the Gwynant Cafe, before heading back to the centre.

This evening I headed up the wall with the usual suspects. All I can say is that things are starting to look up, and I am not as pathetically weak as I was, although I am still weak. Hopefully now I am back and settle I can get some secret training in.

So i lead a small group round Cwm Idwal, trying to throw as many environmental tip bits in. The day was extremely easy after weeks of Scottish Winter Walking for me. But it raised an inportant point for me, in that people who book onto course are also on holiday, so might not want or need beasting over mountains.

Anyway a quiet few days for me, although I do move into my new home in Cwm Y Glo tomorrow. Which is att massive relief after 6 months of living out of a bag!

Until then I have a evening climbing wall session with the two usual suspect. So I might have to open my can of man up if i want to keep up! I think i might need two cans on tuesday if the weather is good and caff comes back over!

Caff follow the Ochre Slab on Vector

I ran into James McHaffie when I got back from Scotland a few days ago. He is also on the Winter ML bus at the moment, although he has his assessment the week after me. When I ran into him he had the Friday off, so wanted to go climbing, being at a loose end I said yes. I knew even as that word of agreement left my mouth, that it was going to be a hard day, even before we decided on a venue.

So Friday arrived and the weather looked good for half a day, so we decided on a quick Tremadog hit. Vector into Void was what Caff suggested. Now Void is hard even on a dry day, and Vector is relatively straight forward on a Dry day. So I opted to take the first big link up pitch to the Void belay. Caff had packed the rack and I had robbed Llions ropes.

So when I go to rack up, I see that caff has 8 quickdraws and about 8 cams, and plenty of wires. Looking up at the very long and winding pitch I am about to do in damp to wet conditions, I immediately feel under equipped. I can get 8 runner in teh first we 40ft ptich! So I headed up being as economical with teh runners as I could, I got to the start of the Orche Slab, and had a moment trying to get onto the slab on damp holds, a move or two up the slab and the crack was running wet, so I had to pull on the sorry excuse for a peg, before making it rather shakerly to the top of the groove. Where I had no more quickdraws ot get the next 40ft to teh Void Belay.

My answer was to make a belay where I was and bring caff up, and get him to lead through and bring me up to the Void Cave. At the Cave he quickly shot up the pod and the crack above, as caff would. I then here the words safe, and no sooner had caff said on belay climb when ready, did the rain start! Now be under no illusion, I am not anywhere near climbing fit at the moment, and Void would be be on a very good day, and now the route is getting wet!

Caff had to endure a lot of me shout “TAKE!!!!” at the top of my voice every few seconds. As I struggled my way up. It was such hard work even pulling on the limited gear he place! I will now ache for days! Anyway thanks for the day out, although it was a baptism of fire for my Trad climbing.

Caff on the top of the Ochre Slab on Vector - Tremadog

Caff disappears up Void - tremadog