The last month seems to have zoomed by. Following my time in Patagonia and then Scotland my climbing fitness had deteriorated considerably and when I got back home to Wales I was falling off routes I’d generally warm up on. My last five months have been very broken up with alpine trips and work and as a result the last month has been spent trying to get as much mileage in my arms as possible to get fit for some climbing trips I’ve got planned later in the year.

At the beginning of March an old friend returned to North Wales called Wiz Fineron. We’d been at secondary school together in North Wales six years earlier and he’d moved to New Zealand with his family. Wiz is a couple of years younger than me and I remembered him being an awesome climber back then despite the fact he was so small. After catching up over a Pete’s Eats breakfast we headed to the Great Orme where Wiz on-sighted everything he tried in damp conditions, following on with a bouldering session then a trip to the climbing wall. It was awesome to see how well he was climbing and really motivating.

We followed this with a couple of trips to the Peak District where I gently re-introduced Wiz to trad climbing by trying ‘Kaluza Klein’ ground up together. ‘Kaluza Klein’ is a short and sweet Johnny Dawes classic found at Robin Hoods Stride. We both took some fairly exciting falls before I stuck what I expected to be the finishing jug only to sketch around a little longer before topping out (see video below!). This was followed by a trip to Black Rocks where we climbed on the Velvet Silence block. We both managed to climb ‘Velvet Silence’ and ‘Jumping on a Beetle’, two of the best highball slabs I’ve ever climbed, and had a quick go at the desperately thin ‘Angels Share’ before deciding to leave it for another time (I woke up the following morning with sore glutes having fallen off so much!). Wiz and I are planning a European road trip in June which should be a great laugh!

I’ve also spent a bit of time on Llŷn Peninsula with visiting German climber Benno Wagner. Benno is very unusual for a European climber in that he revels in climbing on the loosest, scariest and most challenging rock in Britain. Combined with this is the fact that Benno is very strong and isn’t afraid of long run outs or massive falls. On our first visit of the year Benno went for the ground up repeat of an E7 of mine called ‘Discord’. After a few falls on the tricky crux section Benno continued through to the bold section above. Looking pumped he began to power scream between holds before reaching the sanctuary of the break.

Our next visit to Craig Dorys was on a horrendously windy day. We had a go at ‘Melody’, a bold Stevie Haston E8 which climbs up some appalling quality rock. Although the route felt pretty straightforward on a top rope I was happy to take the good excuse that it was raining and a force nine gale was coming into the crag. Obviously in Bavaria, this sort of weather is common place and Benno stepped up to the task and went for it anyway! On our next trip to Dorys, Benno dragged me to the foot of ‘Nightstalker’, an intimidating E8 roof, cruised it, and then took me to the ominously named Shale City to try ‘Ugly’ – the man needs therapy!

I also made a quick trip up to Scotland for some work on the three nicest days of the year. I went for a couple of evening skis and afterwards met up with Dave Macleod for a climb in the beautiful Glen Nevis. I can’t wait to get back up here in some warmer and dryer weather to go rock climbing. Right now though, I’m in France’s Gorge du Tarn enjoying the amazing climbing, warm weather and tasty food.

The chugging of the train beats a regular rhythm as I march up the Llanberis path for the third day in a row. Unencumbered from the usual burden of a heavy rucsac my pace is swift; or perhaps it just feels that way as my mind races ahead of myself to the lofty heights of Cloggy. As I approach the base of the cliff I notice that conditions are good, great in-fact and that today there can be no excuses, other than my own will power, as to whether or not I climb ‘The Indian Face’.

It had started two days earlier. I’d walked up to Cloggy in the late afternoon coming into view of the crag just as Caff reached the finishing holds. It was great to witness somebody leading the line, especially after Caff had only practised the route on abseil that morning. I was keen to take advantage of the chalked holds and attempt ‘Masters Wall’ on-sight. Caff, however, soon dissuaded me from that idea, telling me that ‘Masters…’ was a poor eliminate and not worth the while. Instead, just out of interest, I gave ‘The Indian Face’ a go, along with George Ullrich. We both on-sighted the route on top-rope and suddenly knew that the lead was on.

The climbing on ‘The Indian Face’ is fantastic. The handholds are surprisingly positive, though they are mainly side pulls, whilst the footholds are just poor enough to make the climbing feel that touch insecure, even after rehearsing the moves on a top-rope. The protection revolves around a cluster of poor small RPs which offer some psychological support but little else.

I returned the following morning, feeling well prepared mentally to go for the lead. The moves felt reasonable on a gri gri but I was really concerned about how humid everything felt. I felt like I could scrape through the moves on lead but this wasn’t a route to shake and slap my way up! Ray Wood, having checked his constant stream of twitter updates (!), confirmed that it was indeed humid but that Derek the weatherman was forecasting low dew points for the following day.

Perturbed but as motivated as ever I had one final day to attempt the line before three 12 hour shifts of work, a week of assessment and a six week trip to the Alps. I knew that the likelihood of returning for the line in the Autumn was very low which added a little more pressure.

Up on the cliff I was back on my abseil rope. The moves went well on a gri gri and I felt ready for the lead. But I had no belayer! I’d expected to lead the route the previous day on which I’d had the offer of a belay but I’d had no luck finding a belayer at last minute for this day. I was anxious to get on the lead whilst I was still prepared mentally but it seemed to be slipping away. Fortunately for me, Dan Parkes, who I’d met on the walk up for the first time, had just come down after climbing ‘Great Wall’ with his dad. I asked him if he’d be willing to give me a belay on ‘The Indian Face’. He very graciously accepted but after a moment’s thought nervously asked if I was after a lead belay. I left the choice open to Dan and thankfully he decided he was happy to belay me.

The lead itself went fairly smoothly. My plan was to lead the route quickly, before any fear or doubt could enter my head. I’d left the cluster of RPs in place; not feeling well enough prepared to place them on lead and with no time left practice there placements. There was one moment on lead, a couple of moves after the crux, where my fingers began to creep off a crimp and I was forced into making a hasty slap for the next positive side-pull; a moment that retrospectively sends shivers down my spine! It took me around seven minutes to reach the finishing jug, where you can finally fully appreciate the quality of the route and enjoy the easy climbing that leads up to the belay.

Later that same day George made a very smooth ascent of the route and we all headed back down for a pizza and a pint in Llanberis where we met up with Caff and enjoyed the evening sunshine.

Thanks to Caff and George for the motivation to try the route and Dan for the impromptu belay!

They may not be the biggest or the most impressive hills around, but the mountains of Snowdonia have their own charms and history making up for their modest size. I’ve always thought that climbing in the mountains is something really special. Spectacular views and fantastic climbing is normally guaranteed in Snowdonia when you know which cliffs to get to.

Over the last couple of weeks though the perfect combination of sunshine and breeze (to keep the midges at bay!) have been fairly standard on my days off and I’ve had the opportunity to get out climbing at Ogwen, my most local climbing venue being only a 15 minute drive up the road. It was often really wet up there last year which meant I only got the chance to climb there a couple of times. The first route on the list was a route called ‘Kaya’ on Glyder Fach. It was first climbed by two friends of mine; Noel Craine made the first ascent of the original route and then Johnny Dawes straightened it out with a direct finish. They and others have all raved about the quality of the climbing and they weren’t wrong, it was a top quality route! Dave Rudkin and I both climbed it on our second go, both happy to have climbed it but a little gutted to have failed to on-sight it due to very silly errors on our parts and greasy conditions- although we would say that wouldn’t we! I also noticed a cool looking unclimbed wall to the right that day- but more on that later!

The following day Dave and I were joined by John Orr as we headed up to Gallt Yr Ogof to attempt ‘Heart of Stone’, another top quality E7. It was Dave’s turn to go first and he put in a sterling effort up the steep wall, getting all the gear in before finally falling off with what he described as “bone marrow pump” a few moves from the top. I was up next and also got ejected a couple of moves from the top with elbows pointing skywards and feet pedalling downwards! It’s got a pretty healthy run out on the final section! The climbing on it is fantastic though with consistently steep climbing on perfect crimps, pockets and side pulls. We all had another go getting even closer to the top before Dave on his third go managed to cruise through to the finish after a brief abseil inspection. Unfortunately the midges had come out in full force by this point and we had to make a fairly swift evacuation of the crag!

The following day was a long one work wise but very rewarding. At 4am I was out with Run Snowdonia helping out on the first leg of the 14 peaks with a keen group of walkers from Exeter. It was a misty and murky morning which hadn’t raised my hopes for a pleasant walk but, 30 minutes later, we broke out of the clouds as we approached the lower slopes of Crib Goch and walked up into a stunning sunrise combined with an amazing cloud inversion. It was the first cloud inversion I’d seen this year and the fact that it was coinciding with the sunrise made it even more special. By 8am we’d finished the leg and I had to dash off for a twelve hour shift elsewhere feeling fairly lethargic!

I also managed to return to the unclimbed wall I’d noticed on Glyder Fach. First I headed up with Ant Douglas for a quick blast to see if it was possible and managed the route first go, despite feeling like I was falling off half the time. The rain was moving in though which meant we had to make a fairly hasty exit. I headed back up with Emma Twyford though for my second go at it, hoping for a go on the lead whilst Emma was keen for a shot at ‘Kaya’. After a quick top rope I realised that the only way I’d be able to protect the crux moves of the route would be with a short sling attached to the first peg of ‘Kaya’, taped to the wall at a 45° angle to bring it just about within reach. I was hoping to clip the peg on lead, which would be possible, but would require some very delicate and dangerous moves that I wasn’t too psyched for on the day. The line is pretty good too, ascending the clean wall between ‘Kaya’ and ‘Lot’s Wife’. Unfortunately the first section does naturally trend rightwards into the crack line, in which you get a low side runner, but you soon make a committing step left and commence on a very thin sequence up the wall, having clipped the peg which slowly eases in difficulty before you finish up the ‘Watchtower’, an E3 that breaks onto the upper section of the wall. The lead went just about as smoothly as it could have and we both reckoned the climbing to be about E8 6c or F7c+ R/X.

Having climbed my route Emma now got psyched for ‘Kaya’. She made very short work of the lower crux section before cruising up to the upper crux. She spent a while working out the next few moves and waiting for the sun to go behind the clouds before making the tricky move up to a big positive side pull. Emma relaxed for just a moment having reached this good hold and both her feet popped off robbing her of her first E7 flash. After a very brief rest she cruised to the top and I’m sure she’ll be on-sighting many hard trad routes soon with her awesome sport climbing fitness.

The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of work and play (although mainly work!). After returning from the Alps I enjoyed some good skiing, ice climbing and rock climbing all in the same week in North Wales. In fact, on one day, I skied down Glyder Fawr first thing in the morning, climbed an E6 at Gogarth, went for a boulder, instructed for a couple of hours and finished the day off with an ice climb!

The weather in Wales has been, in general, really good this year, albeit a bit chilly. At the beginning of May I travelled to Pembroke with Dan Mcmanus for an awesome bank holiday weekend. We climbed stacks of great routes and caught up with loads of friends. It was the kind of trip that reminded you how great climbing can be: three star routes, sunshine, getting pumped and having cream tea in the brilliant Ye Olde Worlde Cafe. Some of the standout routes were Crimes of Passion, Fortune Cookie, The Pulsebeat and Ghost Train. Ghost Train in particular was a route I’d been hoping to do for quite a while, however, up until this trip it had always been a bit too wet to climb. There’s a very big run out on the route to reach a thread at about 25m from where I remember thinking I really wouldn’t want to fall, as it would leave you taking a massive, ground sweeping fall. A good friend of mine, Will Oates, fell at exactly this point last week and through the quick reactions of his belayer didn’t hit the ground but took an absolutely humongous fall…respect Will!

Since that trip to Pembroke I’ve been working 70 hour plus weeks, losing the fitness I’d gained and feeling utterly exhausted on my occasional days off. So it was with relief that I found my two and a half days off last week coincided with the warmest weather of the year; and that meant only one thing- Cloggy!

Cloggy has got to be one of my favourite cliffs to climb on in the world; probably because my memories of climbing there are always of the warm and dry weather that are pre-requisites to go climbing there. My first visit there was on an after school raid with Francis Blunt when I was 14 years old. I’d just been given a copy of the classic and rare British climbing book ‘Extreme Rock’ and was inspired to try ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ having read the account of Ed Drummond’s early ascent. I met up with Francis outside the old Safeway’s store in Bangor at 3.30 in the afternoon and we raced up to Cloggy to arrive at a sun baked Great Wall with a pleasant gentle breeze. I remember setting off in the wrong place for ‘A Midsummer…’ and making quite a long and technical traverse to gain the route, but after that all I can remember are the intricate sequences of moves and the long run out with climbing that is never too hard and never too easy to reach the Great Wall belay feeling utterly satisfied.

So it was with happiness that I returned to Cloggy for the first time in nearly two years with on-form Cumbrian James ‘Caff’ Mchaffie and Ed Booth. Caff has been ripping things up lately in his typically understated way. He’d just returned from a trip to Scotland with an ascent of the Longhope route under his belt and the previous day he’d made the fourth ascent of ‘Rare Lichen’, an E9 at Ogwen. Keen not to show any signs of weakness to Caff, I stick to my word and “warm up” on the utterly brilliant arête of ‘Authentic Desire’, a route that I’d waited a long time to climb.
With the warm up out of the way, Caff was ready for the main event: an on-sight attempt of ‘Margins of the Mind’, an E7/8 6c with a BIG reputation. Caff took a while to find his way through the initial roof before placing plenty of poor gear behind rattley flakes as well as sky hooks kept in place with blue tac. He spent a long time on the crux going back and forth on small, lichenous crimps before finally committing to a sequence and reaching a good rest as well as a poor wire and skyhook placement. From here, Caff faced one final difficult move; a long reach up to a jug protected by the skyhook and poor wire beneath his feet. Caff spent ages going up and down, trying to work a sequence to get through the move, at one point nearly succeeding before he pulled off a thin side-pull. After ten “last goes” he was looking very frustrated and tired. After ten more “absolute last goes” he just looked deflated that he couldn’t figure out a good enough sequence to get him to the finishing jug. He’d been holding on for four hours before I eventually dropped him a rope and it’s certainly the most impressive on-sight effort I’ve ever seen. Caff returned three days later and finished the route off after a brief abseil inspection.

The following day I headed back up to Cloggy and climbed ‘It Will be Alright on the Night’, an excellent E7 that climbs the wall to the right of ‘Margins…’. The pegs seemed to be in pretty poor condition but there was just enough gear to back them up with which meant the route wasn’t too terrifying! I’m looking forward to the next opportunity I get to head back up to Cloggy, having noticed some new lines to do as well as some other classics to repeat.