Two weeks in and finally a good forecast. We raz across to Switzerland; Citroen C1 buzzing along the motorway and struggling up the hills until we finally reach Grindelwald and the car park at the Kleine Scheidegg train station. We have a comedy moment trying to work out where the Eiger is (the clouds were fairly low…) and swiftly pack our bags in time to hop on the train. Kleine Scheidegg’s a rush of excitable Japanese tourists and drunk German’s so after a quick bite to eat we swiftly leave in search of a good bivi spot somewhere beneath the North Face.
As expected, the powder on the approach was pretty deep and putting in tracks was hard work despite the short distance. The face looked to be in good condition though: its angle steep enough for snow to quickly avalanche off. We finally found a reasonably good, sheltered bivi spot and quickly dug out a nice ledge in the snow to sleep on. The wind picked up a little as the night-time drew in carrying with it spindrift snow which forced us to fully envelope ourselves inside our bivi bags promising for a claustrophobic night’s sleep.
A bivi in the snow. Photo- Andy Woolston
The North Face of the Eiger. Those words have a different effect on each mountaineer you speak to. I remember first setting eyes on the North Face when I was around twelve years old whilst on a walking holiday across Switzerland. Even then I’d heard the stories and epics that climbers had had on that face despite never having done more than a scramble in the hills. At that point, I thought that if you wanted to climb the North Face of the Eiger you must have a death wish! So it’s funny, seven years later, returning to the face expecting to make short work of the route and, in all honesty, not feeling too worried about the difficulties or dangers involved in getting up it. It actually feels as if it’s an obligation for me, as a climber, to get up such an impressive and historic wall.
I don’t know whether it was due to being slightly hypoxic, cocooned in my bivi bag that night, but I had a host of vivid dreams- one of which featured me being buried alive under snow. It was no great surprise then that I woke up at 4.30am struggling to move out of a trench of snow. Because it was dark, I couldn’t really tell how much snow had fallen, so I shouted across to Andy to wait for first light so that we could assess whether to head up or not.
Wading out through deep snow. Photo- Andy Woolston The Swiss sense of humour! Photo- Calum Muskett
Things didn’t look much better when it got light: around a metre of un-forecasted snow had fallen over night. For a minute I was still keen to head on up. Too many recent failures were fresh on my mind and I was letting frustration affect making a sensible and obvious decision. I guess you’ve got to take the good with the bad because, at the end of the day, failure’s just a part of climbing and, without trying to sound too clichéd, it’s the failures that make the successes all the more special. Maybe I was in for a bit of bad luck following a series of successful trips last year? Hopefully the odds are stacked in my favour for the rest of the year now and as Edward Whymper once said: Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.
Nuit Blanche: one of the few climbing successes of the trip! Photo- Joey Durkin
Sun, rock, guidebook and climbing boots. What more do you need?
The good weather seems to arrive earlier and earlier in North Wales every year. The best weather we had last year was in March and the rest of the year was a washout. It hasn’t rained in North Wales for two weeks now (!) and although the air temperature’s been pretty chilly, the sun’s been out to make it warm enough to climb.
Having not trad climbed in a couple of months I was keen to see how I was going. I’m feeling fairly unfit at the moment but I tend to climb quite well at the start of the season because I’m so psyched to be rock climbing again! Gogarth has been the place to be recently. It’s had the best weather and has loads of South facing walls, perfect for early season climbing.
Ed Booth heading up to the main pitch on Me. Photo- Calum Muskett
The Yellow Walls have some of the most 3 dimensional climbing at Gogarth. All the lines go diagonally upwards following grooves and despite looking sedate, they overhang an awful lot which makes the climbing very strenuous. Add to this a large amount of loose and generally friable rock as well as some questionable gear and you’ve got a good adventure planned for the day. My first routes of the season were ‘Ludwig’ and ‘Me’; both strenuous E6 6b’s on total choss! Although the climbing on both routes was steady the “experience” was pretty memorable with talcum like flakes of rock falling into your eyes and hair non-stop whilst the holds you’re gripping are creaking.
Getting VERY pumped on Isis is Angry. Photo- Adam Booth
With those routes under my belt I stepped up to the challenge of ‘Isis is Angry’, an E7 6b cutting its way up the steepest section of Yellow Wall. I teamed up with Adam Booth and we abseiled in, starting to realise quite how steep that section of wall really is! The guidebook description for this route ominously starts by saying:
“Looking for trouble? This route takes no prisoners!”
Ed Booth climbing Weird Fish in Tin Can Alley. Photo- Calum Muskett Tin Can Alley topo
The climbing was really burly. None of the hand holds faced the right way and most of the footholds were crumbling under my weight. After a long battle up the steep groove I made it to the final difficult moves. I procrastinated a little bit too long here and was ejected onto some good gear! After a long rest I pulled back on and made it to the top of the cliff with burning forearms. I was so pumped that I struggled to pull the ropes up to belay Adam!
As well as climbing on the Yellow Walls I got a few other great routes done at Gogarth. ‘Free Stone Henge’, graded a very generous E7 6c climbs up some awesome and well protected roofs underneath the bird watching tower at South Stack and Eraserhead, a great multi pitch outing on Main Cliff were just a couple of the best.
As well as doing some on-sighting I head-pointed a spicy slab climb in Tin Can Alley, an old hone stone quarry at Ogwen. Tin Can Alley’s a bit of an old haunt of mine from my school days where I made the first ascent of a technical E8 slab. After belaying a friend on the E8, I top roped a line to the left which was a little easier and finished slightly lower than the original line. I returned a few days later after borrowing a bunch of pads from Ogwen Cottage outdoor centre and soloed the new line which I called ‘Honed’ and graded E7 6b. Although the slab isn’t much to look at it’s got some great climbing and the routes have a fairly unique style for North Wales as well as being very convenient with only a one minute walk in.
I’m off to the Alps for a month tonight; fingers crossed I get good weather!
End of a great day’s climbing at Ogwen. Photo- Calum Muskett
Over New Year I travelled out to the little known ice climbing destination of Setesdal in southern Norway. Brian Davidson gave Andy Turner, Dave Rudkin and I a guided tour of the valley which he’d helped develop and we were impressed with the number and quality of climbed (and un-climbed) multi pitch ice falls, some of which must surely rank amongst the finest in Europe.
The Turnermator romping up some roadside ice. Photo- Calum Muskett
Unfortunately for us our trip coincided with mild temperatures and the beginning of a thaw which meant that many of our most sought after objectives were in the process of collapsing! It wasn’t all doom and gloom though; there had been so much ice that there was still a lot to go at albeit at a more moderate standard.
After a gentle introduction to Norwegian ice climbing on some roadside icefalls we all headed up to an obvious un-climbed line above the village of Valle near the head of the valley. This turned out to be an awesome multi pitch route of grade IV with amazing views back down the valley.
Climbing a new ice fall above Valle. Photo- Dave Rudkin
The following day Andy and Brian headed up the valley to attempt an amazing looking un-climbed ice fall appropriately named ‘the Big Drip’ which left Dave and I with the prospect of the most obvious un-climbed ice fall in Setesdal- an impressive large sweeping slab above Valle. Once again this provided much fun and was another classic multi pitch grade IV.
The Turnermator training for the world cup comps. Photo- Calum Muskett
The weather warmed up from there on in and after one last new ice fall there was nothing left to climb but trees and take part in brutal pull up sessions with Andy whose biceps are abnormally large! Despite having had poor luck with the weather we still had a fun trip and Setesdal is an amazing area which should definitely be considered by those looking for a little bit more adventure than the more popular Norwegian ice climbing destination of Rjukan.
Evening light on a frozen lake. Photo- Calum Muskett
The little cliff-top village of Siurana in Spain is surrounded by some of the most famous sport climbs in the world. When Ed Booth got in touch with me to see if I was interested in a last minute trip I jumped at the opportunity, excited about the prospect of some winter sun.
In the week leading up to our trip snow finally arrived in North Wales and I had a few good day’s winter climbing on the high crags as well as a rare snowboard in the mountains above Bethesda. I was really starting to enjoy using my axes again. I didn’t succeed on much but I tried a couple of fun unclimbed lines before the weather warmed up a couple of degrees leaving me with a cold and a low level of climbing fitness for the trip to Spain!
The Turnermator trying a new line up on Clogwyn Du. Verdict: tricky! Photo- Calum Muskett
I travelled to the airport with James ‘Caff’ Mchaffie, still nursing a heavy hangover incurred from partying two days earlier and we met up with the Booth brothers, Ed and Adam, surely two of the most enthusiastic climbers around. After a short flight and a surprisingly quick car journey we found ourselves in Siurana with a few hours of sunlight left for a bit of climbing. The quality of climbing on the first few routes massively surpassed my expectations, interesting moves on perfect rock and despite my coughing and spluttering I was really enjoying myself, happy to be away from the horrendous welsh winter weather.
Adam climbing Delicatessen. Photo Calum Muskett Ed lowering off at the end of another great day’s climbing. Photo- Calum Muskett
I was keen to try and red-point something I’d find hard in Siurana. I’ve never put much effort into red-pointing preferring the simpler and shorter effort of on-sighting and it’s an aspect of my climbing that I’m keen to improve. I picked my project and managed to climb all the moves on it really quickly. I thought I had a really good chance of climbing it the following day but found my arms were a bit too tired to give it a good go. With only a week in Spain and one rest day I didn’t have a chance to recover enough to climb my project so changed my aim to climbing some of the classic easier routes around the El Pati sector as well as making a day trip to the impressive conglomerate overhangs of Montsant where Caff made an impressive on-sight of the classic Hidrofobia making it look more 7a than the 8a it is.
The final day of the trip was spent climbing in the sun on Can Piqui Pugui. After only a few routes my arms were utterly knackered and the rest of the day was spent lazing around in the sun. The highlight of the day however was filling Caff’s bag with rocks as he was climbing the final route of the trip. He didn’t notice until we reached the airport the following day!
Mina making quick work of ‘La Cara que no Miente’, 8a+. Photo- Calum Muskett
Yosemite is perhaps the most famous area in the world for climbing. The picture perfect Half Dome stands majestically at the head of the valley whilst the huge and imposing walls of El Capitan rise above the meadows in the centre of the valley like a giant viewing its domain. I’m sure that most people who’ve been can remember the first time they entered the valley; for me memories of little lights like stars scattered across the face of El Capitan remain strongly imprinted upon my mind as the bus I was in rolled along the ring road to its final stop near Camp 4.
One of the many brilliant multi pitch routes in Yosemite: Dan climbing Hotline. Photo- Calum Muskett
My first trip to the valley was a bit of a washout with seven out of my twelve days in the valley being totally un-climbable due to torrential rain. Fortunately I was on an international climbers meet and the locals had the knowledge on where to go when the weather was bad. I got some great Yosemite classics in when the weather cleared up though such as The Rostrum and The West Face of El Cap which gave me a good first taste of what Yosemite had to offer.
Since then I’ve been dreaming of returning to attempt a free ascent of El Cap having been inspired by Lynn Hill’s and Alex Huber’s free ascents and the stunning photo’s that have been published in magazines and books of them. Free climbing El Cap is one of those things that I felt like I had to attempt, to follow in the footsteps of some of my climbing hero’s and climb some of the best and most famous routes in the world.
Having finished school last year and decided to take a gap year before considering further education I’d made a plan: to devote my energies into climbing some world famous routes that up to that point I hadn’t had enough time to attempt whilst earning just enough money to fund my trips and gain some instructional qualifications. I’d written up a long tick list of routes to try on my gap year and El Cap was one of the must do’s.
James ‘Caff’ Mchaffie had just returned from a trip to Yosemite marred by misfortune last October. Every attempt he’d made to climb seemed to result in some kind of hospital appointment for his climbing partners and he was fairly depressed about the whole affair. Last winter I proposed a return trip to Yosemite to Caff but the scars of his previous trip were a bit too fresh in his memory at that point and it took a few months before he came round to the idea that he couldn’t have a much worse trip than the last one! In the meantime Sheffield’s dark horse Dan Mcmanus decided that he’d also be keen to try and free El Cap and so the plan was hatched.
Several months later we were on our way to Yosemite, all fully psyched and ready to do some climbing. The highlight of the journey had undoubtedly been stopping off at a Mexican fast food restaurant where I attempted to eat the biggest burrito I had ever laid my eyes upon, suitably known as a ‘Monster’. Perhaps that was why I didn’t fit through the tight squeeze chimney on the amazing Yosemite classic Astroman the following day!
After climbing Astroman with Dan and Caff, albeit in poor style, Dan and I were keen to get on our objective, Golden Gate leaving Caff to arrange his attempt of Pre Muir Wall with Neil Dyer and Hazel Findlay. We’d chosen to try Golden Gate because it looked like an amazing route with some fantastic face climbing as well as some tricky crack pitches. It’s one of the easier free routes on El Cap and with more face climbing than some of the other routes we knew it would play to our strengths being used to climbing in that style in Wales.
Dan climbing the first pitch of Golden Gate/Freeblast. Photo- Calum Muskett
The first obstacle for us to overcome however was not the climbing but hauling our bags up the fixed lines several hundred metres above the base of El Cap. Now we planned to climb the route over 5 or 6 days leaving an extra day as a buffer in case of bad weather which meant packing a lot of water. As the temperature when we first arrived in the valley was over 90°F we decided on taking 4 litres of water per day each which added up to an appallingly heavy 56 litres combined with loads of dehydrated food, a jetboil, sleeping bags and portaledge making the haul bags feel really heavy.
Now Dan and I aren’t the most experienced big wallers and having woken up at 2:00am to avoid the hauling when the sun was out attempted to haul the bags on a mini traction. After an hour of hard work we’d managed to haul the bags a grand total of 4 metres. Now, optimists that we are, we knew that this wasn’t good progress, in fact, simple maths showed us that at this rate it would take 250 hours of hauling just to get the bags to the top, so we stashed the bags at the base for another attempt the following morning with new equipment and fresh psyche.
Dan getting stuck into the Monster Offwidth. Photo- Calum Muskett
The following morning having borrowed Caff’s hauling device we made much better progress and got the bags nice and high ready for us to depart the following morning. As the temperatures were still high we departed early in the morning up the fantastic slabs of Freeblast, which form the first part of Salathe Wall and Golden Gate as well as being a great ten pitch outing in its own right. After a strange little down climb pitch we were heading back upwards to the hollow flake with haul bags in tow. The Hollow flake pitch is a ridiculous pitch for a free-climber. After a short traverse left you make some tricky moves down to a corner which you then down-climb for about 30m before traversing left 10m with no protection and then continue upwards on the easy but terrifying and unprotected Hollow Flake for about 60m. Fortunately I displayed my inability to lead off-widths and chimney’s the previous day on this pitch which meant Dan took over the lead and I had the pleasure of a top rope!
A few pitches later and we set up our first portaledge using some innovative techniques that definitely aren’t included in the instruction manual. Having struggled to put the portaledge up we were looking forward to tucking into our dehydrated meals and making our haul-bags a little lighter. Dan got the jetboil out and asked: “Calum, have you got the lighter?” To which I replied, “oh dear!” Of all the things to forget a lighter was the most ridiculous when we were carrying almost exclusively dehydrated meals, that night we had some minging cold burrito mix which we thought would be the most appetizing of our dehydrated meals to have with cold water. To make things even worse we had to add cold water to our porridge for breakfast
Now forgetting the lighter was bad, especially considering it was the second time I’d forgotten one this year, but I woke up unable to find my belay plate. Things didn’t get better either; having been worrying about the notorious ‘Monster’ off-width for over a month and hoping to climb it in the early morning shade we got our timing wrong and ended up climbing it at the hottest part of the day. Dan made a really awesome lead of this pitch pulling out all the stops in really hot weather. I seconded, barely, fighting for every inch of height gain. We both came out of this pitch battered and bleeding, Dan in particular had some impressive scars from his arm barring and chicken winging. Fortunately we’d both climbed this pitch on-sight as a red-point just wouldn’t be sensible considering the effort required to climb it. On the following pitch I had a nose bleed that lasted for about an hour and when we finally got to El Cap Spire we looked like we’d just been in the ring with Mike Tyson!
Climbing the central section of Golden Gate Dan hanging out on the Portaledge. Photo- Calum Muskett
Things had been going abysmally and we hadn’t even made it to the crux pitches yet. Fortunately we were in for a change of luck. This started with finding a belay plate under a rock on the bivi ledge and then a couple of local climbers had a spare lighter that they gave us which provided us with a good opportunity to continue. After a warm meal we were starting to find our drive again and had a quick go at the tricky down-climb pitch ready for the cool conditions of the following morning.
We made good progress the following morning doing the down-climb quickly and made it to the ‘one move’ pitch which is probably the crux of the route. It felt desperate in the sun, I spent a while getting up to the crux and finally slumped onto the bolt feeling drained of energy. I couldn’t touch the crux move that day and had a restless night’s sleep thinking through the different ways I could try it. Dan led the pitch smoothly on his first attempt the following morning and I gave it my all on second scraping my way through the reachy sequence until I finally reached the finishing holds. The pitch is amazing; there are points on it where little flakes protrude from an otherwise blank granite wall making the pitch possible but at some points if they weren’t there the pitch would become un-climbable- just because of a single hold.
Why oh why didn’t we get the portaledge out? Photo- Dan Mcmanus
After a few pitches we reached the Tower to the People where we were to spend two nights. The ledge is quite long but thin and sloping and for some bizarre reason we decided to sleep on it rather than the much more comfortable portaledge. Dan set up a bag as a stopper to prevent him sliding off the ledge as he was on the wider but more sloping end, I on the other hand had the thin but reasonably flat side. I tightened some slings around myself to prevent me rolling off the ledge and got very little sleep due to the mice that I could hear deep down in the crack on my right and the 800m drop I was continuously sliding towards on my left!
Dan climbing the Golden Desert pitch. Photo- Tom Evans
The following pitch is known as the Golden Desert and felt very reasonable for its grade but I managed to stuff it up three times before finally clipping the belay and was then too tired for the A5 traverse which Dan managed in fine style that day. The A5 traverse pitch is truly awesome; a sloping hand traverse along a break-line with few footholds in a position of extreme exposure. When I finally got through it the following morning we both knew we had the route in the bag and enjoyed the exposed and sustained finale. As we were just finishing the final pitch a head popped over the top and a guy calls down: “There’s a path round the side you know!” It was none other than Neil Dyer who made the long walk purely to see how we were doing and help us carry some gear down. Neil’s a real North Wales legend, he’s an immensely talented climber having made the first ascent of an 8c+ with very little training and is also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.
The final pitch! Photo- Neil Dyer Topping out. Photo- Neil Dyer
Having completed our primary objective we were fully contented and our motivation for more climbing slumped. We hung out around Camp 4 making pancakes and eating large amounts of food keeping regular check on how the team were getting on up on the Pre Muir. In a few days time ‘team Muir’ were back in the valley having had a successful time on the wall with Caff and Hazel freeing the whole route and Neil managing to flash the crux pitch.
We’d all had a great trip and spent the final day around the sea front at San Francisco watching the lazy Sea Lions and eating until we felt sick. Rather than satisfying my itch to climb on El Cap I may have just got even more enthusiastic about returning to try some of the other awesome lines but time and money will dictate when.
Thanks to Caff, Dan and Neil for a brilliant trip and to Rab, DMM and Podsacs for providing the great kit!
Awesome climbing on the South face of the Marmolada. Photo- Calum Muskett
Three weeks ago I made some last minute plans to climb with Jerry Gore out in the Alps. Jerry has set himself the challenge of climbing three of the most difficult routes in the Alps to raise money for and increase awareness about people with type 1 diabetes in third world countries where insulin and testing kit are difficult to come by and often very expensive- or at least relatively so. Jerry has type 1 diabetes himself but it certainly doesn’t seem to slow him down as he’s already had an impressive year of climbing with an ascent of Divine Providence as well as some difficult routes in the Ecrins Massif near his home. We planned to climb a difficult route on the North Face of the Eiger called ‘La Vida es Sibar’ which is predominantly a rock climb but the weather had different ideas and a dump of snow put payed to our plans making the wall we hoped to climb very wet with no hope of drying this late in the year.
Plan B however was a trip to climb Tempi Moderni on the South Face of the Marmolada in the Dolomites. I’d climbed on the South face before and knew how fantastic and adventurous the climbing was in a truly sensational setting.
After a day of multi pitch sport climbing in the Ecrins we crept our way across to the Dolomites getting caught in all manner of traffic jams to finally reach the car park below the approach to the South Face where we camped and had a nice lie in after our long journey. We headed up to the Fallier hut late in the morning and then went up and fixed a rope on the first pitch of the route, a technical pitch of 7a.
The brilliant runnel pitch. Photo- Calum Muskett
A nice evening meal of tuna pasta preceded a short sleep and an early start to get onto the route for first light. We made reasonable progress up the wall which had some really enjoyable and at times quite run out climbing up slabs and walls and we reached the halfway ledge at soon after midday. This spot is where most climbers will bivi for the night to allow themselves plenty of time to tackle the rest of the route and in a little cave was a small bin bag full of various random items including porn magazines and a glow in the dark dildo! Not what you really expect to find on a kilometre high rock wall in the Dolomites!
The Sella group in a spectacular cloud inversion. Photo- Calum Muskett
After a very short break we were back climbing again but some navigational errors with a slightly confusing diagram of where the route went wasted valuable time and left us very worried of getting benighted if we tackled the final four pitches which included some climbing that would have been very difficult at night time in sub zero temperatures. We decided to cut our losses and finish up a nearby route which was somewhat easier that Tempi Moderni but we only just mad the summit before darkness fell and were glad of our decision. The glacier descent was quite exciting in the dark wearing trainers but other than a small slip above a crevasse we made it down quite safely to the road and the long walk back to the car.
This quick trip certainly highlighted the fact that the Dolomites are an amazing area and I can’t recommend the area enough for outdoor people as the walking, skiing, paragliding, climbing and via feratta’s are amongst the best in the world. I’ll certainly be heading back next year for a longer trip.
Jerry enjoying some of the superb climbing in the Ecrins. Photo- Caum Muskett
Miles on Col Moore approaching Divine Providence. Photo- Calum Muskett
I first heard about Divine Providence when I was 14. That same year I started climbing with a runner I met at some local fell races. I didn’t even realise he was a climber when I first met him, just an extremely fit fell runner with some exceedingly dodgy ankles that left him limping after every race. His name is Paul Jenkinson and I soon came to understand that his ankles were full of metalwork following a monster fall he had taken in the Llanberis Pass whilst attempting a new route in the early 90’s. Being an enthusiastic and persistent youth I was soon able to persuade Paul to take me climbing and I remember the first time we went out climbing together was at Ogwen on a bitterly cold day early in the year when most people would have chosen to stay indoors. Paul always amazed me because although he rarely climbs nowadays he would always come out and lead up to at least E4 with apparent ease. Despite theories about Paul secretly training hard behind my back I soon discovered that he had been a very good climber in his day and whenever I asked him about a route I wanted to do he’d in most cases done it ‘before I was born’!
That year I planned my first alpine trip and scoured through the pages of guidebooks looking for suitable challenges- predominantly rock routes. When you look at alpine rock climbing in the Chamonix area undoubtedly the best routes are found on the Grand Capucin, South face of the Midi and the rest of the Chamonix Aiguilles. One route stood out beside the classic rock routes and that was Divine Providence, taking the central line up the Grand Pilier d’Angle on the little frequented South East face of Mont Blanc. Famous for being called the most difficult Alpine route in the early 90s it still has a big reputation and probably remains to be the most difficult route up Mont Blanc. Divine Providence encapsulated all that I looked for in a route: A phenomenal line up an impressive wall- long, committing and difficult representing as much of a psychological challenge as a physical one. As soon as I saw it I set my heart on climbing it. I asked Paul if he knew anything about the route and yet again he’d climbed it ‘before I was born’ with none other than Andy Cave. The achievements of these two guys in the early 90s went largely unnoticed. They climbed what were at the time the hardest routes in the Alps and Dolomites in the same summer and they were both regularly climbing E6’s on-sight back in Britain. I remember being staggered at the number of hard on-sights Paul had made in the late 80s and early 90s, all under the radar during the sport climbing revolution of the period. To illustrate this point I remember Paul told me that Andy Cave was about to be interviewed by Dave Jones for his seminal book of interviews ‘The Power of Climbing’ until Dave realised that Andy hadn’t climbed 8a and therefore didn’t meet his criteria for a top climber!
Divine Providence topo 1 Divine Providence topo 2
I didn’t get round to attempting Divine Providence that year and it wasn’t until a couple of months ago when I asked Miles Perkin if he wanted to go to the Alps that I found a willing partner for the route. Fast forward to August and we had ten days in the Alps in which to try the route, eight if you exclude flying there and back. We arrived to bad weather but a promising forecast of five days of sun which left us feeling optimistic. We spent the first couple of days acclimatizing on the Grand Capucin and South face of the Aiguille du Midi before spending a morning re-packing in the valley and heading back up the cable car to walk in to The Grand Pilier. We took our time walking across to the Fourche bivouac hut on Frontier Ridge knowing full well that we hadn’t spent long acclimatizing and we would need energy in reserve the following day. From the hut we decided to abseil down that evening to the glacier below and cross it to the next col where a series of abseils down jenga like rock bring you to a reasonable bivi spot in full view of Divine Providence.
Miles looking up at the headwall. Photo- Calum Muskett Carrying the haul bag up the easy lower pitches. Photo Miles Perkin
We set off at first light the following morning crossing swiftly beneath the Brenva Seracs over the detritus of multiple avalanches to the base of the route. The first 400m or so go fairly quickly with climbing up to about E1. From here the difficulty steps up a few notches and we soon reached the first hard pitch which Miles dispatched easily. The next pitch had a wet crux section but the climbing was reasonable enough to allow passage to the crux pitch. When we looked at the next pitch it was clear that our free and on-sight ambitions were over as the first half of the pitch was running with water. It was going to be my pitch but Miles volunteered to lead as he’d done more aid climbing than I. I attempted to free the pitch on second but quickly the combination of difficult climbing and icy cold water shut me down leaving me with a painful dose of hot aches. One more pitch landed us at a disappointingly snow covered bivi ledge which took a while to clear and provided us with a cold and sleepless night. The sun hits the wall at first light in the morning and after spending a while thawing we got back into the rhythm of climbing quite slowly, spending a while to work out which line to take. The final hurdle was the roof pitch graded at 7a+ at around 4000m. Miles looked solid leading up to the roof and dispatched the pitch easily with a woop once he reached the belay. I seconded and was happy to find the pitch quite amenable.
Miles seconding an awesome groove on the headwall. Photo- Calum Muskett Warming up after the cold bivi. Photo- Miles Perkin Seconding the final difficult pitch. Photo- Miles Perkin
With all the hard climbing behind us we thought we’d motor to the top but the mixed climbing leading to the Peutrey ridge took us longer than expected and we finally reached the ridge late in the day. We un-roped and slogged our way up towards the summit of Mont Blanc for sunset. The long walk back to the midi left us feeling exhausted, myself in particular but we were both chuffed to have climbed such a brilliant and legendary route that we had both dreamed of doing for so long.
Miles finishing up the Peutrey Ridge. Photo- Calum Muskett
One of the best things about North Wales is that when the weather’s bad there are plenty of areas to go which might be in the rain shadow of the mountains, all within a 40 minute drive of Llanberis. With this summer being one of the wettest on record that’s meant a lot of journey’s to North Wales’ fine and varied collection of sea cliffs. Seeing as North Wales has roughly 400 miles of coastline it makes sense that there are many sea cliffs; in fact, enough to fill four climbing guidebooks! The climbing varies from single pitch sport climbing on excellent quality limestone to great big adventurous routes on shale cliffs equally as good but perhaps a little less to everybody’s liking.
My favourite sea cliff is undoubtedly Gogarth on the north-western tip of Anglesey. It is a true climber’s playground with a lifetime’s worth of climbing on mainly solid quartzite rock. It’s sunny aspect and often plentiful gear placements make it a good choice for a long day out whether you’re in search of a committing adventure or an easy day’s cragging. Perhaps the two most classic and sought after routes are the famous A Dream of White Horses and Conan the Librarian. A Dream of White Horses is famous for the wild position of its main pitch tackling ground normally associated with much more difficult routes and should be on every ambitious VS climbers tick list. Conan the Librarian on the other hand tackles probably the ultimate line of Gogarth up the big sea arch of Wen Zawn. Having climbed A Dream… years ago when I started climbing Conan had always cried out at me to be climbed and I finally found a climbing partner and picked a date to try it last month. We couldn’t really have picked a much worse day in terms of the greasy conditions that often plague this part of Gogarth but I decided that I might as well go for it then as I didn’t know when I’d be back to try it next.
Steve Long seconding the awesome first pitch of Conan the Librarian. Photo- Calum Muskett Steve after his enormous fall off the second pitch of Conan the Librarian. Photo- Calum Muskett
The climbing is excellent, a lot more intricate than your typical Gogarth route with tenuous and well protected bridging up the first groove to an exposed and uncomfortable hanging belay in the break below the second pitch. Unfortunately I fell off the first pitch- and then pulled a big useful hold off higher up the pitch but it was still great fun. Steve seconded and racked up ready for the next pitch, a much easier but bold corner. I placed his first piece of gear a metre right of the belay to get him going and Steve made steady progress above placing quite a few wires, none of which he seemed happy with. He began to tackle the last difficult sequence of the pitch but ended up calling down to me to take in as his holds were so greasy he could barely hang on. He fell off stripping every piece of gear as he went apart from the first cam I placed in the break. A sure fire 60 footer leaving him stranded in the centre of the arch beneath me and directly above the sea. After a lot of faffing we retreated with our tails tucked between our legs having had a good adventure and keen to return at a future date.
A Craig Dorys Rack! Photo- Miles Perkin Tonight at Noon. Photo- Will Oates On-sighting the Gross Clinic in a single pitch. Photo- Miles Perkin Accidentally making the first ascent of a new E7 6c at Craig Dorys after abseil inspection. Video Still courtesy of Al Hughes
Gogarth isn’t the only good adventurous sea cliff though, in fact for real adventure you need to go to the Lleyn Peninsula, an esoteric area which is always sunny and often scary! The rock quality in places is often poor requiring a connoisseur’s appreciation but some of the climbing and positions are excellent. I haven’t seen another climber there on one of my visits yet. Craig Dorys is the best developed crag on the Lleyn with many challenging routes and all are single pitches (not to be mistaken with Stanage though!). I’ve had a successful few visits there climbing most of the classics and repeating some of the harder routes; Cripple Creek (E3), Byzantium (E4), Trebizond (E5) and Tonight at Noon (E6 6b) are all fantastic routes and should be on the tick lists of those climbing at the respective grades. Dorys also requires a big rack of climbing gear. I placed around 40 pieces in a single pitch on both Rust Never Sleeps and The Gross Clinic E6 and E6/7 respectively. I also had a go at making the 2nd ascent of a Stevie Haston E7 called Harmony recently. I attempted the line on-sight originally getting up to the crux but simply couldn’t see what to do or where to go so down climbed. I ran to the top and abseiled down quickly in my trainers finding some hidden holds which I chalked up to help me out. I led the line next go and there’s an outrageous long reach on it but fortunately a well protected one. I later found out that this was in fact a new route as I’d started in the wrong place and headed out left from the crux of Harmony which might suggest why the climbing felt so dynamic. Anyway, it’s now called ‘Discord’ and graded E7 6c.
I’ve had other adventures on the Lleyn as well recently on even more impressive sea cliffs and I managed to make the first ascent of a really fun new route in Twll Mawr on the slate which I called ‘The Hunted’ and it weighs in at around E6 or 7 6c. Off to the Alps next- let’s hope the weather gods are kind!
Abseiling in to Patish on the Lleyn Peninsula. Photo- Dan Mcmanus Dan Mcmanus going for it on his impressive flash of the direct start to Other Realms. Photo- Calum Muskett
The Verdon has been a place I’ve wanted to visit ever since seeing pictures of the climbing legend Ron Fawcett grappling with the flawless smooth limestone above a massive drop. Add to this the fact that it’s in the South of France where the weather’s always great and the seeds of a trip begin to get sown.
I travelled there with a friend of mine called Andy Woolston who had visited the gorge once before and had clearly enjoyed it enough to warrant a return trip. We travelled over in Andy’s van leaving some beautiful weather in North Wales. Blue skies remained overhead until we were within half an hour of the Verdon when we drove into the worst thunderstorm that Andy or I had ever experienced. We thought the windscreen was going to get smashed by oversized hailstones and small landslides had started to encroach upon the road as the lightening reached a crescendo of almost non-stop light: it was like we’d just entered Mordor! We decided to turn around with our tails between our legs and took the longer road around to the Verdon.
Andy leading the most difficult 5+ pitch in the world on Pichenibule. Photo- Calum Muskett
We awoke to blue skies and hot weather although evening thunderstorms were to remain the theme for the following few days. After a late start we abseiled in to climb the classic multi pitch test-piece ‘Pichenibule’ which tackles an immaculate smooth limestone wall in its upper reaches. Although we were underwhelmed by the first few pitches the quality of climbing soon stepped up a notch as we reached the band of high quality limestone some four pitches up. The crux 7c pitch was, as I expected it to be, totally desperate to on-sight although a sequence quickly came together after a couple of brief attempts. Thunder heralded the coming of bad weather though and I packed in about four red-point attempts of the pitch in ten minutes dropping the last move twice before big fat drops of rain began to fall which meant it was time for a hasty exit! I returned a few days later and managed the pitch free on my first go, but not without a lot of effort!
Andy on Marches du Temps. Photo- Calum Muskett Andy high and exposed on La Fete de Nerfs. Photo- Calum Muskett Andy leading the tricky Ctuluh. Photo- Calum Muskett
The following day we climbed the classic multi-pitch route ‘Les Marches du Temps’ which had some superb climbing with a more isolated feeling. Due to a slightly confusing topo we made the error of starting up neighbouring route ‘El Topo’ which is perhaps the hardest multi-pitch offering in the Verdon. This left us well warmed up by the time we were able to get back on route!
On our third day we climbed perhaps our favourite route of the trip called ‘Les Rideaux de Gwendal’ which had sustained climbing with really good quality limestone all the way. When we were about two pitches up the route we could hear thunder nearby and sure enough it started to drizzle. The danger of being caught out by a thunderstorm in the Verdon is that you will be totally unable to get back to your car at the top of the gorge. Faced with this scenario your best option would be to abseil down the route you’re on, walk several miles in your rock boots to reach the nearest road and then hitch a lift for over ten miles back to the top of the gorge. We were pretty keen not to be caught out by the weather so frantically linked pitches together giving ourselves ludicrous amounts of rope drag and reached the top in double quick time, just in time to see the sun come out!
We spent another three days in the Verdon climbing some other amazing routes such as the long and strenuous ‘La Fête des Nerfs’ and the superb ‘l’Ange en Decomposition’. The Verdon certainly has some of the best multi-pitch climbing that I’ve ever done and it seems to have fallen out of favour with both visiting and local climbers nowadays which was great for us but a real surprise for such a world famous climbing area. So if you’re in search of some exciting sport climbing in an amazing area then this is the place for you!
After our time in the Verdon we made a quick visit to the world famous limestone cliffs of Ceuse. The climbing was of course great but undoubtedly the most memorable moment was watching Adam Ondra climb there. A couple of days after making the first ascent of a long standing project called ‘Jungle Boogie’ he attempted to flash ‘Realization’, Chris Sharma’s legendary 9a+. The crag came to a standstill as he donned rock boots and tied in and what followed was an extremely impressive attempt. He failed at the crux high up on the route but in the process had climbed past the chains of ‘Biographie’, an 8c+! I’ve watched a lot of very strong and talented climbers over the last few years but he is in a different league to them all and left people at the crag awestruck with his effort and ability. Inspirational!
Adam Ondra coming close to flashing Realization. Photo- Calum Muskett
Making the first ascent of Unlocked. Photo- Chas Muskett
Since returning from Kalymnos I’ve been really keen to get out trad climbing in Wales. The weather’s been totally crap but between showers I’ve been heading out everywhere and anywhere that might be dry. Last week I got out climbing with Ed Booth who came over on a brief visit from Shropshire. We went climbing at Caseg Fraith, a small climbing venue near Ogwen where we went to attempt an E7 arête called Nemesis. Ed gave it a quick top rope and it quickly became apparent that it was a dangerous and un-protectable proposition but with some very good climbing. I was feeling good though and decided to go for it only to slip off the very first move! I was so annoyed with myself for falling off I got straight back on and got up it quite easily on my second go. Ed then nipped up it easily and like me found the very top a bit scary as the footholds were lichenous! Nearby I’d been told that there was an unclimbed highball slab that Nick Dixon had tried briefly. I thought it was worth a look and I quickly worked out a sequence that seemed to work.
Unfortunately the constant light drizzle that had been pestering us all day increased in intensity finally making the slab too wet to climb. I returned a couple of days later and finished the line off on my third attempt. I hadn’t put much thought into the finish of the route which joins an E4 and it was quite scary without a rope or spotter!
Steve Long gearing up on the Upper Tier at Gogarth. Photo- Calum Muskett Climbing Barbarossa. Photo- Steve Long
I’ve also made a few trips to Gogarth in the last week climbing some classic routes like Barbarossa, the Cruise and Citadel. I was also pleased to on-sight a classic E6 on Main Cliff called Alien which has a bit of a reputation for spitting off any would be ascentionists. I was surprised to find it quite steady and I think the main reason for its reputation is that people have tried the route in greasy conditions that are synonymous with that section of the Main Cliff making the route a considerably more difficult proposition.
Another fun day was had climbing Mister Softy with Steve Long on the daunting back wall of Wen Zawn at Gogarth. I’d heard rumours of really strenuous climbing on very loose rock but was again happy to find the climbing straightforward and well protected although the rock certainly wasn’t above suspicion! On the belay I placed nine pieces of gear before I was happy that I was safe!
Steve Long seconding the crux pitch of Mister Softy. Photo- Calum Muskett An airy belay. Photo- Calum Muskett
The main route I tried recently though was the (in)famous Quarryman. I attempted it with Dan McManus with whom I’ve planned to go to Yosemite this Autumn. Now I don’t think either of us were expecting the route to be a pushover but something worth realising is that it’s not a one pitch route! We were keen to try the route in good style so I went for the on-sight of the first pitch and it took quite a bit of time to work out the sequences amongst all the promising holds. There are some sizeable run-outs too, some of which are quite dangerous and thought provoking! I fought my way up through the crux and then up above the last bolt to the final hard move only for some optimistic smears to ping off and send me flying at least 50 feet down the wall! Far enough for the bolt to pull out half a centimetre! I pulled back up the rope and lead to the top but it felt a little disappointing after all that effort. Dan impressively managed to flash the first pitch climbing it very smoothly and didn’t seem to struggle too much on any move. Then you’re onto the second pitch which has an unusual but very basic pull off a crimp and then you’re landed beneath the groove. The groove for me felt like a big struggle low down, chimneying up frictionless slate before a well earned rest and an easier but extremely cool bit of bridging up the top of the groove. This pitch defeated us both and our feet were aching too much to properly attempt the final pitch and actual crux move.
We returned two weekends later feeling a bit more optimistic about succeeding on the route. The first pitch felt more intimidating the second time around and the run-outs hadn’t got any shorter. Dan’s foot unfortunately popped off at the crux and he wasn’t keen for more. I climbed the pitch as quickly as possible to trying to forget about the fall and found myself hastily pulling up to the belay ledge! We both did the second pitch quickly and we were beneath the groove. I gave it a brief go and decided it wasn’t to be that day but Dan rose to the occasion and led the pitch after a couple of attempts.
The top pitch was also (not surprisingly!) difficult with a thin crux just high enough above the bolt to make it a little bit intimidating. We both gave it a go and both failed. I decided I’d give it one last go and despite struggling up the easy bit the crux felt reasonable and I made it to the top. Dan was unfortunate enough to split his tips on the crux move and couldn’t really try it after that. Between us we managed the Quarryman that day but we both need to return to it soon to finish off a pitch each. We just hope that climbing El Cap will feel easier when we try it this autumn!
Climbing the first pitch of The Quarryman. Photo- Ulla Pearson
Last but not least I climbed a new route on the worryingly named Suicide Wall at Ogwen. It came as a bit of a surprise really as I was feeling knackered having worked a morning shift and was thinking about going along mainly to give Ed a belay. When I reached the crag however I felt a bit more energized so thought I’d check out a line that I’d previously noticed which gave a pleasant and run-out E7 6b on the perfect side pulls and pockets that make Suicide Wall fairly unique in North Wales. It’s my fourth and most likely final new route on this wall and I’ve had a lot of fun searching out the new lines and repeating routes up there and only have a couple more routes to repeat on the crag which I’ll hopefully finish off sometime soon. I’m off to the Verdon Gorge next week so hopefully all this trad climbing will have put me in good stead for the long run-outs and scary drops found there!
Making the first ascent of Juvenile Delinquent E7 6b. Photo- Ed Booth
