One summer - Tryfan Bach

Tryfan Bach is a great little cliff just off the main A5. It's a 180' slab with plenty of holds and most of the routes having loads of gear as well - although a couple are a little blank. I did a lot of early leading   there in the mid 90's and have taken others (including Liz) there to do some leading as well. Getting back into climbing - and moving to Oldham which is a lot closer to N. Wales than Cumbria ever was!! - it seemed like a good idea for a revisit.

We 've actually been about 3 times and done most of the main routes on the slab. As it is purely for wussies (with nothing harder than VS there) the atmosphere is usually pretty relaxed. Claire, being Claire, ran up the harder lines and then had a bit of a wobble on the Moderate Arete which I did as the last climb of that day!! - oh well.  We tend to try and get there reasonably early and leave about mid-afternoon, as the crag starts to get mega busy at that point. Most of the routes have a little polish, but there is nothing too bad and it's a great place to go.

Looking to the hills of the mainland from Anglessey

One summer...

start of a series where I'll blog about what the two of us have got up to over the summer of 2013.


Bouldering at Wimberry

Claire has climbed before - however that was a fair few years ago - and I have barely climbed in 5 years  - so we are both rusty. Having done a few climbs at Windgather Rocks ( a lovely grit outcrop in the W peaks which specialises in easy routes) we thought a session getting us both used to the vagaries of smearing and using pebbles would be good - it was.

We found a lovely slab by a stream and had a prolonged play on it - even at my peak of climbing ability, I was far worse on grit than any other type of rock. Part of this is due to my aversion to jamming whilst I am also used to the positive holds and long pitches of the Lakes and the Dolomites - so the session was very good for me as well...

Lots of updates...

sorry for the lack of posts - things are busy here with teaching and running around as well....

However.....

we left Suilvan in Anglessey; where we had a lovely weekend of climbing and walking by the sea - followed by some routes on Tryfan Bach (Little Tryfan); a great place for people getting back into climbing/newish to climbing as Claire and I are. I found the place to be good and it was good to be able to lead some easyish and safe routes. It was a glorious day, just lovely to be out and about again in N. Wales - as can be seen from the photo's

Looking across to the mainland from Anglessey

Suilvan returns...

Yes I know it's been a long time - I've been left out in the cold and wet so much the humans had to 'jump me' last weekend...and I can tell you it wasn't pleasant!

So, I seem to have got somewhere else to stand as well - the humans have moved to somewhere near Oldham, and the move was very stressful. I was crammed full of boxes and was driven up a horrendously potholed hill (the female human had got lost it appeared!!). Once there, I was left alone, with lots of cars to talk to but no other vans. Apparently, there are lots of vans around as the humans talk about 'Friends of Suilvan' they see on their travels the whole time...but I was left at home.

Last weekend was different though -they took me out and changed my tyres for summer tyres and tonight I am sat in N.Wales. I've never been to North Wales before - I must say it does rain a lot!! It's nice now however and I'm parked up for the evening - it is nice to be back out again and to be useful. The weather is not good for tomorrow - so am not sure what the humans will do as yet - they were muttering about going climbing; however I suspect they'll go for a walk by the sea, as they did today. The female human loves the sea, whilst the male human muttered something about nice cake at the cafe when they got back!!

Will report back further later on...it's nice with the sea breeze here...

Northern Corries walk..

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739 has all the pictures of this lovely day...

Although it was unbelievably warm in Aviemore, (warm enough to leave the crampons in the car) it was still hard snow on the plateau of Cairngorm (which made it a bad decision that I made...). We had got to the summit via the Ptarmigan restuarant and a bacon buttie stop!!

Once on the plateau we were confronted by an icy wind and some lovely views. The wind was manageable with the correct clothing and was not as strong as on Driesh nor as gusty..the views as you can see from the photo's were lovely indeed.

The real excitement of the day came on the final descent from the summit of Coire an Lochain. I should have made us use ice-axes and put the ski poles away....I don't know if Claire slipped or was bored of walking and thought she'd slide 100' down the hill!! No damage was done - and I actually enjoyed a lovely sitting glissade down the rest of the snow patch. Being serious for a minute - it was good to practice our ice-axe braking - the paramount skill for use in winter, especially in Scotland.

The weather and views were amazing throughout the day - and we actually moved pretty quickly as were back at Suilvan just gone 3pm with a lovely walk under our belts. I have been to the Northern Corries many times, largely to climb, and this was the best weather day I have ever had. It is also good to see how things 'fit together' in the Cairngorms - especially for Claire who had approached the hills she's done in the range from several different directions...

Mayar and (nearly) Driesh..

New Year 2013 dawned with a lovely morning  - cold and crisp - although with a little bit of wind. Claire and I decided to 'first-foot' Driesh and Mayar, the two local hills to Glen Doll which neither of us had ever done before. The fact we were parked at the foot of the hills meant we could have a leisurely start to the New Year, and the fact we were following one of the trails in the forest to the edge of Corrie Fee made the navigation easier.

Corrie Fee was a revelation - I had heard of it as a good place for winter climbs and it certainly is - it also has lots of things for walkers, botanists etc..the pictures are on photobox:

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739 along with the photos of the other days I'll be blogging about.

The stalkers path up Corrie Fee was actually quite arkward to follow - with patches of ice here and there which meant wearing crampons was not really practical, yet some parts were tricky. I should probably have suggested we got the ice axes out earlier - Claire was perched on a nice steep slope when I unslung her axe!!, however once they were out we could amble onto the plateau and make the last ascent onto Mayar.

From Mayar the way is obvious, over a couple of miles of rolling plateau before the final ascent to Driesh. As we passed the col, we blessed the good weather which meant that the way down was easy to find. However the wind was picking up with some quite strong gusts where staying on one's feet was not altogether easy. I should also have suggested we put on crampons at the bottom of the final climb to Driesh which had some rock hard snow on it. My experience means that, with an axe, I am pretty happy on this terrain, however Claire found it quite unnerving. Stopping to put the crampons on, a debut for my new pair, was quite tricky with the wind picking up and gusting around...I was finding it  quite arkward to stand up (memo to self: more mince pies next year!!) and Claire was finding the whole thing quite unnerving. Claire has a veto on all our winter expeditions - probably 80% of my Munro's have been done in winter so my experience is much greater than hers in this environment) - she used it and we went down.

Stomping down was good practice for Claire in crampon usage - a field she hasn't had to use much given the weather in the last two years. She descended the tricky descent path in excellent style - there was quite a nasty run off if you got it wrong. A last section through the forest and a tough (for me) on the knees wander along the forest road and we were back at Suilvan. After a drink or two and some cake it was time to hit the road again - the forecast suggesting that Aviemore was the obvious location, if there is one place to beat a thaw it would be there...we both left Glen Doll quite sadly; its a lovely place and there is so much to do there...

New Year trip to Scotland..

Claire and I had left Suilvan for xmas, which we spent in the NY Moors in the lovely village of Rosedale, after a trip to Newcastle. However, we picked him up after xmas and all 3 of us headed North for a week over New Year.

Our first base was Linn of Dee near Braemar - which for poor Suilvan involved a horrendous journey up the very steep and narrow road from Pitlochry. We'd gone that way in the hope of scrounging a free cuppa from my Mum and Peter - however they were up on Ben Vrackie so no deal!!

We awoke the next morning to snow on the ground and a lot more falling out of the sky! With the cloud down and us not being especially fit it didn't seem terribly sensible to hare off onto the Cairngorm Plateau, so we ambled along to the rebuilt Bob Scott's bothy which is near Derry Lodge. This bothy has a great history which is recorded in the superb Mountain Days and Bothy Nights by Dave Brown and Ian Mitchell - highly recommended. It has been re-built, although not by the MBA, and we met two of the builders when we arrived for our drink and cake stop. They are also 2 of the people who help look after the recently re-furbished Hutchinson Memorial Hut further up Glen Derry,  a place I've never been to but would love to go.

Our two Scottish companions did seem a little miffed that people were using the bothy as a brew stop, so they would have been even less pleased to see the party of students that we met on the way back who were going to do just that!! To be honest - going onto the plateau probably would not have been the best idea given the weather so they were probably quite sensible to do so. As for us, we drove into Braemar and had a cup of tea at the Fife Arms whilst we pondered our options for the next day.

There was a 'warmth' to the air next day that pre-cursored the thaw that we did get later in the week - although there was a strong and biting wind. Our plan was to relocate to Glen Doll for New Years Eve (nice and quiet) and so we went up Carn Aosda, one of the hills to the W of the Cairnwell Pass. With a biting wind, we were glad of the nice starting height, and the smallness of the hills, as I was certainly feeling far from 100%. Claire could add another tick to her book and it was nice to get some views occasionally, as the two previous times I've been on the hill I've seen exactly zip....

Then it was a long drive to Glen Doll and a  lovely meal in the Clova hotel before tootling down the big car-park at the end of the valley - the youth hostel has closed - and a convenient ignoring of the 'no overnight parking' signs...easier for one of the party than the other!!